Sunday Bird Droppings: All Orioles pitchers have officially made it to spring training

One of the late arrivals, Tomoyuki Sugano, showed up and said let’s win a World Series.

Hello, friends.

There are now 39 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day. Position players are due to report to Sarasota by tomorrow at the latest, with the first full squad workout on Tuesday and the first Grapefruit League game coming on Saturday.

For now, the pitchers and catchers are the only ones doing formal activities. Bullpen sessions continue and there will be pitching fielding practice work and so on. As of yesterday, all of the pitchers have finally arrived in camp. Japanese pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano was briefly delayed by a visa issue. He’s there now. So is possible Opening Day starter Zach Eflin, who arrived a couple of days late due to his wife giving birth.

Want some video of guys throwing off of mounds? Of course you do. New Oriole Charlie Morton:

And here’s Eflin in action:

It’s not all perfectly good news through the early days of camp. There was one extra injury reported that didn’t come up in Mike Elias’s initial remarks to the media. Reporters were told that prospect Chayce McDermott is delayed by about two weeks due to a mild strain in the lat/teres area, which is in the back. McDermott wasn’t likely to be on the Opening Day roster, so this news probably doesn’t impact much as far as who is on the team on March 27.

No new injuries hitting the picture between now and the start of the season is the biggest goal for spring training. The next-most important goal is for no one important to the team’s fortune to descend into the realm of stink so that the season begins with everyone kind of wondering if that’s going to be how they will be all year.

Eyes will mostly be turned to Adley Rutschman about that next one, based on how his descent into the realm of stink took place over the entirety of the second half of last season. The sooner he can chase away any notions that he’s going to start the 2025 season looking like he finished the last one, the better that will be for everyone involved, so there aren’t constant questions to everyone in sight. It will be nice if no one moves himself in this direction over the course of the Grapefruit League games.

Around the blogO’sphere

Observations on Tomoyuki Sugano’s arrival (The Baltimore Sun)
I am the world’s biggest mark for any Orioles player arriving in town and talking about how they want to win the World Series. I even got excited for Brett Phillips when he did this three years ago.

O’Neill explains why he signed with the Orioles (School of Roch)
We all know the real reason was both money and the opportunity for him to opt out after one year for potentially even more money, but in a similar vein to the above, it’s nice to hear an “If you can’t beat them, join them” attitude for a free agent with regards to the Orioles.

New Orioles hitting coach Cody Asche heard the critiques from fans: ‘We’re all trying to hit line drives’ (The Baltimore Banner)
I don’t actually feel better about the Orioles hitting coach acknowledging fan criticism in any way, although I can hope that this is really just responding to a reporter’s question rather than him actually caring or basing his strategic thinking on that.

Could Samuel Basallo be the Orioles next 20-year-old star? (Orioles.com)
Objection: The headline question implies that the Orioles had a first 20-year-old star last year. That said, there’s always exciting things to read when the topic of Samuel Basallo comes up and this is no exception.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2015 pitcher Jorge Rondon, 2020 pitcher Tommy Milone, 2005 outfielder Eric Byrnes, and 1969-73/76-82 hitter and later coach Terry Crowley. Today is Crowley’s 78th birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him. He remains (I hope you’ll understand the reference) lucky to have been in baseball.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: musician Sonny Bono (1935), actor LeVar Burton (1957), rapper/actor Ice-T (1958), tennis legend John McEnroe (1959), actress Elizabeth Olsen (1989), and musician The Weeknd (1990).

On this day in history…

In 1804, great Marylander Stephen Decatur led a night-time raid during the First Barbary War in which he was able to burn down the captured frigate USS Philadelphia, preventing it from being turned against the American navy.

In 1923, the burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhuman (King Tut) was unsealed by British archaeologist Howard Carter.

In 1960, the U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton departed New London, Connecticut to begin Operation Sandblast, which was the first fully-submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on February 16. Have a safe Sunday.