Sunday Bird Droppings: Everything sucks right now and there’s nothing we can do

Whatever the bad thing is that has been going on with the Orioles, it’s still going on.

Hello, friends.

The temptation is strong to say that we must now have reached the nadir of the 2024 Orioles season. It’s comforting to think that this is the dark period from which they will ascend, return to dominance, and roll on with the knowledge that they’ve been through this test and come out the other side stronger than they were before.

Maybe it will still turn out this way. That would be fun. Here in Birdland, we know better than to believe this. Things can always get worse with the Orioles. You can go 4-19 to finish off a season like in 2017. You can close out on a 4-32 stretch like in 2002. You can have a multi-month failure that sees you go from a half-game out of first place on July 18 and then drag a 24-46 record the remainder of the way in 2005. The fact that we would all prefer for the 2024 Orioles not to make their place on this list does not make them immune from it.

It’s not just the month-long struggle for the offense that’s making things feel so grim. That’s certainly a big part of it. But then there’s the fact that it seems like the team is attempting to re-enact failures of the 2018-21 Orioles almost on a daily basis. How else are we supposed to explain something like this, from yesterday’s game?

Struggling is one thing. Doing this is another. Reporters asked Gunnar Henderson about this after the game, and he said:

Thought I called it loud enough. But yeah, I guess he didn’t hear me. I’ve got to do a better job of calling it, I guess.

To me, that’s a player who’s trying really hard to be diplomatic about the fact that it was Ramón Urías who screwed this up. There was another frustrating play involving Urías yesterday. He’s a player it’s easy to be frustrated at right now since he’s had some high-profile failures at what’s supposed to be his main value (defense), and meantime Coby Mayo, who also plays Urías’s primary position, third base, is shredding Triple-A on an almost daily basis.

There are a lot of problems to be solved here, but it feels replacing Urías with Mayo could help with one of them. Although the truth is, there’s no guarantee that Mayo will immediately hit better than Urías, or that Mayo will field at least as well as even the apparently diminished Urías. If any of the problems were easy, the Orioles would have solved them already.

Two days remain for the Orioles to potentially attempt to address any of their problems that might have external solutions on the trade market. Their rivals did some dealing yesterday, with the Yankees acquiring recent O’s pest Jazz Chisholm from the Marlins, while the Red Sox got catcher Danny Jansen from the Blue Jays.

I have no idea what to expect. The trade of Austin Hays has really expanded the list of possibilities to consider. I didn’t think the O’s would do any trading of their veterans. Maybe another move of that nature is coming, or a prospect-for-reliever trade. Or prospects for a more exciting starter than Zach Eflin! Or a less exciting starter. Elias could do anything. Or nothing more.

Unlike a number of recent days where the Orioles played a bad game, they were not bailed out by the Yankees also playing a bad game last night. The Yankees did play a bad game but the Red Sox played a worse one and New York tied the game against Kenley Jansen in the ninth then racked up three runs in the tenth to win an 11-8 slugfest. The Orioles lead in the AL East is down to one game. They are on pace for a 95-win season.

The Orioles will try to not get their butts swept by the Padres starting at 1:35 today. Maybe their problem is they’ve been trying too hard. I don’t know. What I do know is that Albert Suárez is set to start for the O’s, with Randy Vásquez pitching for San Diego. Vásquez brings a 4.17 ERA into the game. As we are familiar with through this season, that has no bearing on how the Orioles offense will look against him.

Around the blogO’sphere

‘We’re getting in our own way’: O’s searching for way out of rut (Orioles.com)
Until they find their way out of the rut, I don’t blame anybody who wants to do something else with their time besides watching the Orioles do what they’ve been doing lately.

Craig Kimbrel has often been untouchable. But this isn’t the first time he’s struggled. (The Baltimore Banner)
Saturday’s game was a nice reminder that the Orioles have problems that go beyond Craig Kimbrel… but also, now we’re all going to be nervous about Kimbrel with a narrow lead until he demonstrates that he’s busted through this latest funk.

Updating Mateo injury and Orioles rotation (School of Roch)
Two unrelated pieces of news from yesterday: Jorge Mateo is confident he’ll play again this year, but there’s no formal timetable yet. The team is waiting until Zach Eflin arrives and pitches a side session before plugging him into the rotation. He’d be on regular turn for Monday’s doubleheader.

Zach Eflin gives Orioles much-needed rotation boost at minimal cost (The Athletic)
Keith Law is a bigger fan of the trade than I am.

Who needs sellers anyway? Orioles, Phillies swap Hays for Domínguez, Pache (FanGraphs)
Some more analysis about the first of the Orioles trades from Friday.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 1995, the Orioles acquired Bobby Bonilla from the Mets, sending outfielders Alex Ochoa and Damon Buford to New York. Through the rest of that season and the next, Bonilla played in 220 games for the O’s with a .300 average and .877 OPS.

In 2000, the O’s made another trade with the Mets of a different sort, sending Mike Bordick and receiving four players in return: Leslie Brea, Pat Gorman, Mike Kinkade, and Melvin Mora.

In 2017, the Orioles traded Hyun Soo Kim and Garrett Cleavinger to the Phillies for Jeremy Hellickson. It was dumb.

There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2019 three-gamer Drew Jackson, 2001 reliever Chad Paronto, and 1988-92 pitcher Bob Milacki. Today is Milacki’s 60th birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: children’s author/illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866), novelist Malcolm Lowry (1909), Garfield creator Jim Davis (1945), basketball Hall of Famer Manu Ginóbili (1977), and rapper Soulja Boy (1990).

On this day in history…

In 1794, early French Revolution leaders Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, who presided over a process that saw many people guillotined, were themselves executed by guillotine.

In 1854, the US Navy’s last all-sail-powered warship received its commission. USS Constellation floats today as a museum ship in the harbor in Baltimore.

In 1939, a helmet dating to the 7th century AD was discovered in an excavation at Sutton Hoo in modern day Suffolk, England. Believed to belong to the king of what was then East Anglia, the helmet was assembled, then they decided they’d put it together wrong and reassembled it starting in 1970.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on July 28. Have a safe Sunday. Go O’s!