Monday Bird Droppings: Looking ahead to spring training and the WBC

Jan 23, 2023 - 12:00 PM

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Happy Monday, Camden Chatters!

The offseason stretches on, but spring training is inching closer and closer. We’re now just over three weeks from the report date for pitchers and catchers. Nothing will change for us on that date, but it’s another box we can check on the way to Opening Day on March 30th in Boston.

And there will be some excitement before then. Not only will we watch Sarasota carefully to see how the Orioles are shaping up, but this year marks the return of the World Baseball Classic. I don’t know about you, but I am a fan. It’s exciting to see the stars of MLB playing in the tournament but also fun to get a look at players we might not otherwise get the chance to see.

The official team rosters haven’t been announced for the WBC, but it’s been reported that the Orioles will be well represented with Cedric Mullins and Dillon Tate playing for Team USA, Dean Kremer for Team Israel, Nick Vespi for Team Italy, Félix Bautista for Team Dominican Republic, and Anthony Santander for Team Venezuela.

That’s a lot of Orioles to root for slash be scared they’ll get injured. I can’t wait.

Links

Kremer talks about his workouts, season and cooking skills - MASN Sports
Roch Kubatko caught up with Dean Kremer to talk about a number of topics, including the upcoming World Baseball Classic. and Kremer's offseason cooking. I've mentioned it before but offseason_bites is a good Instagram follow.

Infield coach Tony Mansolino thinks Orioles will benefit from shift ban - BaltimoreBaseball.com
Tony Mansolino is all in on the shift ban. I'm not 100% on board but I am interested in seeing how it changes things.

The 2022 Baltimore Orioles, As Told By StatCast - Birds Watcher
This post gets me pumped. I want the Orioles to be good at things! Particularly baseball.

Birthdays and History

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have four Orioles birthday buddies:

• Cord Phelps, who turns 36 today, played in three games for the 2014 Orioles.
• Charlie Greene (52) amassed 18 games with the O’s from 1997-98. His OPS+ was 2!
• Sherman Obando (53) played for the Orioles in 1993 and 1995, a total of 47 games.
• Finally, Chico Carrasquel (b. 1926, d. 2005) played in 114 games with the Orioles in 1959.

On this day in 2010, the Orioles signed Miguel Tejada for his second stint with the team. News of this signing broke during FanFest to mixed reception. Tejada appeared in 97 games with the O’s before being traded to the Padres for Wynn Pelzer. Tejada’s -0.5 bWAR didn’t really do much for the team.

In 2012, they signed Wilson Betemit. He played 102 games, mostly at third base. Watching him play third was...interesting. But then, surprise! The Orioles were good! So they called up Manny Machado to replace him at third in early August.

In 2014, Grant Balfour signed a two-year contract with the Rays. This happened after Balfour failed the physical exam given by the Orioles. We got to listen to the media and fans on the internet make fun of the Orioles again. Balfour did appear in 65 games with the Rays in 2014, but was not good. In 2015 he was DFA’d in April.