Episode 197: The Natural

Published by Bird's Eye View at April 17, 2017

Leading Off

The Orioles have played strictly AL East opponents in this, early portion of the season. Next, the team will leave the Eastern Time Zone and the American League to play the surprising Cincinnati Reds. Look forward to pitchers hitting, double switches, and a rare look at Great American Ballpark in the Queen City.

The Medical Wing

Chris Tillman – shoulder
Joey Rickard – middle finger strain
Zach Britton – left forearm strain

This Week on the Twitters

Erik Bedard went 15-14 in parts of 3 seasons w/Seattle. Adam Jones is now 5th all time in the 64 year history of the #Orioles in home runs.

— Brett Hollander (@BrettHollander) April 12, 2017

Tonight is a reminder for people to stop acting idiotic over a loss. There's always going to be tomorrow.

— Joe Papparotto (@JoePappa) April 13, 2017

@BirdsEyeViewBal can Jake English tell me the hr/k ratio for the past 3 yrs for the O's as a team. any relevance to it🤔

— DavidPiscorik (@davidpiscorik) April 15, 2017

@Bonzi777 Use a per game pythag instead of a per season and that problem goes away. I wrote something about that a few years ago.

— Matt Perez (@FanOfLaundry) April 16, 2017

So Buck says after Mancini's 2nd HR, Gentry grabbed his bat to hit with, went yard. Then Manny did same thing. It's Wonderboy come to life.

— Pete Gilbert (@WBALPete) April 16, 2017

Justin McGuire of ‘Baseball by the Book’ podcast

We visit with Justin McGuire, who in addition to being an Orioles fan, is a former writer/editor of Sporting News, and is the current host of the Baseball by the Book podcast. Justin’s podcast features interviews with authors of great baseball books, and tremendous baseball conversations.

Check out Justin’s great podcast @baseballbookpod and Justin on Twitter @JMcGuireMLB.

The Natural

What can we say about Trey Mancini that has not already been said? Well, maybe the question is this: what can we say about Trey Mancini that actually makes sense?

This is a young player who has forced his way onto a major league team, and whose bat has backed up the hype. Mancini will continue to get playing time for as long as he hits, and may he continue to silence critics like us. We discuss Trey Mancini’s chances of adjusting to the league, and what impact his development has on the Oiroles.

Deep Cuts

Scott has replaced our old Fantasy Boss segment with something he can hope to win. After having had his doors blown off in successive seasons, he unveiled Deep Cuts, a segment that pits Jake’s love of old, obscure music against Scott’s desire to talk stats.

The concept is simple. Scott presents a deep cut each week (usually something from the 60s to the 80s), and if Jake can’t name the artist and song, then Scott’s stat talk goes on as planned.

It’s a brutal game. C# Major vs. Barrels.

Who will own it?

Blowing the Save

Most podcasts try to end on a high note – the perfect coda to a quality program. That’s just not our style. Each week, we’ll end on a weak note, blowing the save with an item that didn’t quite fit into the episode, or something they simply need to get off their chests. It’s our version of taking the ball and pulling a Kevin Gregg.