Also Tyler Anderson Jersey , the Orioles have selected a new pitching coach and Buck Showalter sold his house." ProspectsOrioles Game RecapsOrioles News and RumorsCamdencastBird DroppingsWednesday Bird Droppings: Where it’s Mark Trumbo’s birthday!New,817commentsAlso, the Orioles have selected a new pitching coach and Buck Showalter sold his house.ESTShareTweetShareShareWednesday Bird Droppings: Where it’s Mark Trumbo’s birthday!Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY SportsGood morning, Birdland! Much like his Orioles teammates, Mark Trumbo wasn’t at his best in 2018. However, he was not awful, at least not at the plate. His .261 batting average and .313 on-base percentage were both better than his career average. His .452 slugging percentage (perhaps his most important metric) lagged slightly, but it was a drastic improvement over the .397 mark he posted in 2017. Over 90 games, he had rediscovered a piece of what made him an exciting addition to the Birds back in 2016.How the “new Orioles” deploy Trumbo will be interesting to see. Power is the key to his game, but he tends to perform better at the plate during games in which he also plays in the field rather than DH’ing. The only problem there is that he’s a lousy fielder, at least in the outfield. He’s about average as a first baseman. The issue there is that the Orioles also have Chris Davis and Trey Mancini. Which one gets to play first? Who’s the DH? Who gets stuck in the outfield?If the decision were based on performance alone, Davis would likely be relegated to the bench while Trumbo manned first and Mancini DH’ed. But we know that isn’t how the world works.LinksSource: Orioles tab Brocail as pitching coach - Baltimore SunAccepting the job of Orioles pitching coach is a dubious honor. Many talented baseball people have held the role in recent years and few have emerged better off for doing so. However, it is a new era in Baltimore and perhaps Mike Elias, Brandon Hyde and others can allow the pitching staff to thrive in ways it was unable to previously.Buck Showalter sells home outside Baltimore - Los Angeles TimesWere you in the market for a $1.5 million, 5500 square foot house in Baltimore County? Well, I’m sorry to inform you that there is now one less available.Three years after Chris Davis’ record contract with Orioles, ramifications for club, baseball only grow - Baltimore SunDavis used to be really good. It could be argued that, at his peak http://www.rockiesfanproshop.com/authentic-chad-bettis-jersey , he was one of the top 50 players in all of baseball. Now, he’s one of the worst. The 2019 season will be make or break for him. The Orioles have to pay Davis every cent that they agreed to, but that doesn’t mean they must continue giving him a roster spot no matter how poorly he performs on the field.3 Remaining Needs: AL East - MLB Trade RumorsThe list for the O’s, according to this post, goes like this: trade Mychal Givens, sign a few cheap veterans on one-year deals and improve the club’s international operations. I would be quite surprised if any of these three things wasn’t already in process. Givens could be dealt anytime between now and the trade deadline without losing any value unless he completely falls apart. They will sign a free agent or two, but probably not until closer to Opening Day. And all signs point to the team being more serious internationally going forward. In Elias, we trust.Orioles birthdays and historyIs it your birthday? Happy Birthday! It’s the 33rd birthday of home run-hitting and post-game-pie-hating Mark Trumbo. The DH is entering his final season under contract with the Orioles and will be hoping to bounce back from an injury shortened 2018.Happy 36th birthday to infielder Eider Torres, who appeared in eight games for the 2008 Birds. And finally, Jack Cust maybe turns 40 today. Baseball Reference says that today is his birthday, but Wikipedia indicates he celebrated the big day earlier this month. Either way, it’s a great opportunity to remember this shining moment in Orioles history:2016- Chris Davis re-signs with the Orioles for seven years and $161 million. It is the largest contract given out in franchise history. He was just sent back to the minor leagues."In case you missed it, we evaluated Michael Chavis earlier in the month, and now we’re moving on to the number two OTM Red Sox Prospect, Darwinzon Hernandez.Hernandez capped off a magnificent spring at just the right time for the Red Sox organization. With the bullpen looking like a total disaster in the eyes of many fans going into the new season, there was some speculation that Hernandez would make for a sneaky surprise addition to the bullpen. The other day, however, he was sent back down to Portland to continue working on his command/control, his biggest weakness as we stand now.Colten Brewer made the OD roster over Hernandez (along with Hector Velazquez)Photo by Elsa/Getty Images Hernandez was signed by the Red Sox out of Venezuela in August of 2013 http://www.rockiesfanproshop.com/authentic-chad-bettis-jersey , but he didn’t break into the spotlight until 2016. He started his pro career in the Dominican Summer League, and spent two years pitching for the two different rosters. He would get his first earnest attempt at starting in 2015, and it was here where he began striking people out. It was here, at age 18, that Hernandez began establishing what would end up becoming a minor league career norm for him: striking a ton of batters out, walking the ones he didn’t strike out, and overall getting results at every level.It was following his 2016 season (in which he pitched at Lowell), that Hernandez attracted more mainstream attention, as he first ranked in MLB.com’s top 30 Red Sox prospects list. Back then, their blurb on him read as such:Hernandez continued through the system, following the same trend he’d established at age 18 in the Dominican Summer League, laying waste to Greenville in 2017, and most recently Salem last season, before earning a trip to Portland for his first taste of high minors action.Craig Kimbrel is still without a job. This is a huge hole in the Red Sox bullpen.Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty ImagesIt was during this time frame that I found myself watching Hernandez more. I’d liked him prior to the 2018 campaign, but I became increasingly enamored with his potential the more I followed his season. In Portland, he pitched as a reliever, only coming in for an inning or two at a time. Still, he showed an ability to hang with more advanced hitters, making his future — whether it be as a starter or as a reliever — more promising.The flaws in Hernandez’s game are obvious Wade Davis Jersey , and that’s the way it has been for his entire minor league career: he walks too many batters, and he doesn’t pitch efficiently enough to get through six innings reliably. Also, he hit 14 batters in 107 innings (a rate that has seemingly only gone up each year), which won’t fly at the major league level. Last season, only six MLB pitchers hit 14 batters - Lucas Giolito, Rick Porcello, Charlie Morton, Cole Hamels, Jakob Junis, and Chris Sale - and while nearly every pitcher here has had success (sorry Giolito), they also did it in significantly more than 107 innings.That’s not to over shadow what makes Hernandez appealing, particularly as a potential mid-season call-up for the bullpen. To put it simply, he has incredible stuff. FanGraphs has him as their number two prospect in the system behind only Triston Casas, with the following blurb about his talent:While many still hope Hernandez ends up a quality starting pitcher (Robbie Ray could be a good comparison here for Hernandez, as both strike out tons of guys and have command/control issues), his best road to Boston is probably in relief, where there’s a clear need following the losses of Joe Kelly and Craig Kimbrel. In the rotation, there will probably be exactly one spot up for grabs over the next three years, as Chris Sale http://www.rockiesfanproshop.com/authentic-chad-bettis-jersey , David Price, Nathan Eovaldi, and Eduardo Rodriguez all occupy slots in said rotation. Meanwhile, in the bullpen, his greatest obstacle will be convincing Alex Cora and Dave Dombrowski that he can be more effective than Hector Vel谩zquez or Brian Johnson. With Steven Wright’s suspension, his road probably gets even easier there.This man signed an extension. A big one. Woo!Photo by Elsa/Getty ImagesHernandez stands, in either case, to be the most likely prospect to benefit the Red Sox in the coming season, and as such, is probably one of the least likely to be traded in the system. We explained grades last time, but here’s the handy link again. When it comes to pitchers, the grading scale is similar, but instead of tracking hit tools, power, and such, they track fastballs, breaking balls, and general control.