15 Nov 2023

Orioles’ Brandon Hyde named AL Manager of the Year, joins elite company as 4th Baltimore skipper to win award

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Amid the Orioles’ poor start to the 2022 season, manager Brandon Hyde expressed confidence in not only the club’s future, but also his place in it.

“I’m in this for the long haul,” Hyde told The Baltimore Sun last April. “I’ll be here when we’re winning.”

At that point, early in his fourth season leading Baltimore’s baseball team, Hyde possessed one of the five worst winning percentages of any manager in major league history. Hired as a first-time manager before the 2019 season to guide the club through a rebuild, Hyde had overseen as many campaigns with more than 100 losses as every preceding Orioles manager had in the franchise’s first 65 years in Baltimore.

Tuesday night, little more than a year and a half after his declaration, Hyde was named the 2023 American League Manager of the Year. In his fifth season at the helm, the Orioles won 101 games, winning the AL East and possessing the circuit’s top record. Hyde, 50, joins Frank Robinson (1989), Davey Johnson (1997) and Buck Showalter (2014) as Baltimore managers who have won the honor since its introduction in 1983. Hyde joins Showalter and seven others as managers who won the award after never playing in the major leagues.

He received 27 of 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and came in second on the other three ballots. Texas’ Bruce Bochy received the other first-place votes and finished second ahead of Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash. Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker won the National League award.

With infielder Gunnar Henderson named the AL Rookie of the Year on Monday, 2023 marks the third season in Orioles history the team has had multiple winners of the BBWAA’s annual awards. Robinson’s 1989 honor came as reliever Gregg Olson was the AL Rookie of the Year, which outfielder Al Bumbry took home in 1973 as Jim Palmer was the AL Cy Young Award recipient.

The club’s performance this season put Hyde alongside Hall of Famer Earl Weaver as the only managers to lead the Orioles to a 100-win season. The campaign marked the second straight in which Baltimore massively exceeded external expectations. About a month after Hyde said he would manage Baltimore when it went from rebuilding to competing, the Orioles promoted top prospect Adley Rutschman, and the winning started soon after. Projected to be among the majors’ worst teams as they had been in Hyde’s first three seasons, the Orioles ended 2022 with an 83-79 record, the best of any AL team that missed the postseason. The finish made Hyde the runner-up in AL Manager of the Year voting, though he won Sporting News’ honor, which was voted on by fellow managers.

Despite the Orioles’ breakout success, sports books and projection systems expected regression in 2023. They instead won the best division in baseball, going the entire regular season without being swept. Under Hyde, Baltimore has set an AL record for most consecutive multigame series with at least one victory.

“We were disrespected, honestly, going into this year,” Hyde said hours before the Orioles clinched their first playoff berth since 2016. “Just from where we were from projections, smart people thinking they know what the records are gonna be at the end of the year, casinos, et cetera. I thought we were underappreciated. Everybody thought we were going to have a setback this year. I wanted our players to be offended by that a little bit, the guys that were here last year. I thought that wasn’t accurate.

“I thought we were going to be better than everybody thought.”

As he was in April 2022, Hyde was right. The Orioles entered the year with a core composed of players who weathered the rebuild alongside Hyde and young talent developed during it. With only a handful of relatively inexpensive veterans in the mix, the Orioles’ front office, as it has throughout Hyde’s tenure, handed him a roster built with one of the lowest payrolls in the majors.

He helped make it a division champion. Despite their frugality, the Orioles’ roster featured depth on both sides of the ball, with Hyde deftly deploying his bench and bullpen throughout the year. Almost half of the Orioles’ victories came in games decided by two or fewer runs, and Baltimore’s .662 winning percentage in such games was 100 points better than the next-best AL club. They tied for the major league lead in comeback wins.

Many players credited Hyde for his role in the clubhouse culture that fueled that success.

“I have a ton of respect for him,” said first baseman Ryan O’Hearn, one of a handful of players who embraced and thrived in part-time roles under Hyde. “I think that’s a common denominator around the locker room is you have guys who go out there and play their ass off for him.”

Players also vouched for him to be Manager of the Year in 2022, but the award went to Terry Francona after he led the Cleveland Guardians to the AL Central title. Hyde’s Orioles won their division in 2023, helping him fend off Bochy, Cash and others in BBWAA voting, which took place before the postseason.

In it, Bochy’s Rangers swept Hyde and the Orioles in the AL Division Series en route to win the World Series. Days after Baltimore’s elimination, the possibility of this award gave Hyde little solace.

“That’s nice,” Hyde said. “I’m still pissed, to be honest with you.

“I don’t like to lose, and I don’t like to lose like that,” he added later. “I wanted our players to jump around again. It’s a really cool group. You didn’t want to have to get on the plane after something like that. You wanted to see them continue to play. That’s the bottom line. We didn’t want the season to be over.”

In a few months, another will begin. Hyde will spend it as the reigning AL Manager of the Year.

This story will be updated.

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15 Nov 2023

Review: The Hunger Games return in ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,’ with the odds in its favor

by | posted in: Society | 0

Two hours and 37 minutes is pretty long for a “ballad,” but you can’t call it “The Hunger Games: The Three-Cycle Opera of Songbirds and Snakes” now, can you?

Concision was never much in favor in the four “Hunger Games” films, which reached a seeming finale with 2015’s “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2.” The intervening years have done nothing to shrink the ambitions of this unapologetically gaudy dystopic series where the brutal deaths of kids are watched over by outrageously styled Capitol denizens with names like Effie Trinket.

That clash of YA allegory and color palette is just as pronounced, if not more so, in “The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” a prequel set 64 years before the original books, adapted from Suzanne Collins’ 2020 book of the same name.

“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” which opens in theaters Nov. 16, is an origin story of the Hunger Games, themselves, as well as numerous characters — primarily the devious President Coriolanus Snow, played by Donald Sutherland in the first four films. Here, Snow is an impoverished but opportunistic 18-year-old student played by Tom Blyth.

Just as in the “Hunger Games” films led by Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen, the new one proves how much you can sacrifice in story when you’ve got a thrilling young performer commanding the screen.

Francis Lawrence’s prequel often wobbles, especially in the early going. And yet, in the end, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” propelled by Blyth’s performance, manages to be the deepest expression yet of the series’ melodrama of adolescence. In Panem, the only thing more tragic than the suffering inflicted by adults on the young may be a bright kid warping wickedly into one of those elders, too.

That generational divide was always at the heart of the appeal of “The Hungers Games,” a fantasy where no adult or institution can be trusted, and the normal pressures of teendom are amplified in a modern, televised Roman Coliseum — an “American Idol” with murder — concocted by elders. It’s madness shrugged off as, “That’s just the way it is.”

In “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” we see how it got to be that way. The 10th annual Hunger Games are approaching but it feels more like pre-Super Bowl times when the NFL and the AFL played in separate leagues. The broadcast is low rent, the ratings are poor and the games themselves are staged in a dilapidated stadium.

With little food in the fridge, Coriolanus is living with his cousin Tigris (Hunter Schafer) and grandmother (Fionnula Flanagan). Their family has fallen on hard times, in part because of a family rivalry with Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage), the dean of the academy who harbors hatred for the Snows. (Dinklage, whose wry presence adds a kick to the film, has managed to appear once again in an outlandish fantasy with a man named Snow. )

As the students gather amid Third Reich architectures (the production design by Uli Hanisch is stellar) and the games’ founder Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis, majestic in blue, with a turquoise eye) gazes on, Coriolanus is assigned his tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, a bold young woman from District 12 (also the home of Katniss) who wears a rainbow skirt and sports a dubious Southern accent. During the reaping ceremony, she makes an immediate impression, putting a snake down the back of a rival and bursting into song for the cameras. See, now there’s concision, I thought. You get your songbird and snake, straight off.

Lawrence’s Katniss was a thrilling female warrior whose seizing of center stage had reverberations off screen, paving the way for blockbuster female protagonists. Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray is inevitably a disappointment by comparison. Lawrence’s film, scripted by Michael Arndt and Michael Lesslie, for a while has the stale feeling of an unneeded retread. The tonal fluctuations, always a tricky balance in Panem, can be ridiculous. The stadium is abruptly bombed by unseen rebels. Once the games begin, one tribute concocts rabies.

The main thing holding our attention at this point is Jason Schwartzman’s Lucretius Flickerman, a TV host with a Salvador Dali mustache who wants the games wrapped up just so he can make his dinner reservations. (It’s been a very good year for Schwartzman, who transformed himself in Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” and transmogrified in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” )

But “Songbirds and Snakes” sneakily begins making a case for itself. The relationship between Coriolanus and Lucy Gray is compellingly complex. He works desperately to help her survive the games because he believes in her, and maybe loves her, but also because her success benefits him, too. Whether Lucy Gray is as purehearted as her songs, too, is up for debate. Both, we sense, are cunningly playing the hands they’ve been delt, seeking an advantage where they can. When Coriolanus begins making suggestions for the games to Volumnia, he proves himself a natural-born marketer.

That there’s tension in Coriolanus’ character, considering we know how he ultimately ends up, is a tribute to just how good Blyth is. We’ve by now seen plenty of prequels that show us how some famous villain broke bad, but there’s nothing in Blyth’s performance that telegraphs his future. He’s a sincere striver — we root for him because of his poverty and his puck — who’s operating in the society he’s found himself. He’s a villain born entirely of circumstance.

“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” extends the saga for a third act that takes places in District 12, an addition that another franchise might have saved for the next installment. But it’s also where that tragedy of “The Hunger Games,” and Coriolanus’ fate, earns some of the Shakespearean touches that have liberally been sprinkled throughout. (Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus,” is likewise about an ambiguous warrior set amid times of famine and class struggle.)

“The Hunger Games” kicked off a YA craze in film that had its ups and downs but petered out several years ago. Whether “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is enough to relight those embers remains to be seen, but it is a reminder how good a platform they offered young actors. It’s a ritual worth returning to.

“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” a Lionsgate release is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for strong violent content and disturbing material. Running time: 157 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

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15 Nov 2023

Chicago White Sox add pitching prospects Jake Eder and Cristian Mena to their 40-man roster

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Jake Eder joined the Chicago White Sox organization in a 2023 trade deadline deal that sent infielder Jake Burger to the Miami Marlins.

Cristian Mena ranked among the minor-league leaders in strikeouts.

The Sox added both pitching prospects to their 40-man roster Tuesday.

Tuesday was the deadline for teams to add to their 40-man rosters and protect eligible players from the Rule 5 draft on Dec. 6.

Eder, 24, went 0-3 with an 11.42 ERA in five starts at Double-A Birmingham after being acquired in the Aug. 1 trade. He had 22 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings.

Overall in 2023, the left-hander had a combined 2-6 record with a 6.35 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 14 starts between Class A Jupiter and Double-A Pensacola in the Marlins organization and with the Barons.

Eder also made six appearances (five starts) with the Glendale Desert Dogs of the Arizona Fall League, going 1-1 with a 6.11 ERA. He struck out 16 batters in 17 2/3 innings.

Eder was originally selected by the Marlins in the fourth round of the 2020 draft out of Vanderbilt and is 5-11 with a 3.80 ERA and 169 strikeouts in 29 starts during two minor-league seasons. He missed all of 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

He is the No. 5 prospect in the Sox organization, according to MLB.com.

Mena, 20, is ranked the No. 10 prospect in the Sox system by MLB.com. The right-hander went a combined 8-7 with a 4.85 ERA and 156 strikeouts in 27 starts between Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte in 2023.

He was 7-6 with a 4.66 ERA in 23 starts for the Barons and 1-1 with a 5.95 ERA in four starts for the Knights.

Mena finished 15th among all minor-league pitchers in strikeouts. He ranked first among the Sox organizational leaders in strikeouts and innings (133 2/3), tied for first in starts and tied for second in victories.

Originally signed as an international free agent from the Dominican Republic on July 2, 2019, Mena is 11-17 with a 4.97 ERA and 344 strikeouts in 64 career games (63 starts) during three minor-league seasons in the Sox organization.

With Tuesday’s moves, the Sox 40-man roster increases to 37.

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15 Nov 2023

Ravens CB Marlon Humphrey, LT Ronnie Stanley, WR Odell Beckham Jr. among 7 players absent from Tuesday practice

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Two days before the Ravens’ pivotal AFC North showdown with the Cincinnati Bengals, several key players were absent from practice.

Seven Ravens were missing from the portion of Tuesday’s practice open to the media, including cornerback Marlon Humphrey (calf), left tackle Ronnie Stanley (knee) and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. (knee). Humphrey and Stanley were both injured in Sunday’s loss to the Cleveland Browns and also missed practice Monday, while Beckham wasn’t listed on the injury report Monday but has missed one practice in each of the past three weeks.

Coach John Harbaugh said Monday that Humphrey and Stanley’s injuries wouldn’t keep them out “long term,” adding they have a “chance” to play Thursday.

Guard John Simpson, a full participant on the Ravens’ estimated practice report Monday, also wasn’t seen at practice. Simpson has started all 10 games at left guard this season and hasn’t missed a practice because of injury all season.

If Simpson and Stanley are unable to play, the Ravens would be without their starters on the left side of their offensive line against the Bengals. However, Morgan Moses, the Ravens’ starting right tackle, said Tuesday he’s prepared to play after missing the past two games with a shoulder injury. To add to its offensive line depth, Baltimore on Tuesday signed tackle Josh Wells to the practice squad and released tight end Eric Tomlinson.

Veteran outside linebackers Kyle Van Noy (groin) and Jadeveon Clowney were also absent from the portion of practice open to the media. Van Noy was a limited participant Monday, while Clowney wasn’t listed on the estimated injury report. Linebacker Trenton Simpson was missing for the second consecutive day after suffering a concussion Sunday.

Tuesday featured the only full practice of the shortened week ahead of “Thursday Night Football” against the Bengals. At 7-3, the Ravens own a half-game lead over the Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers atop the AFC North, while Cincinnati is in last at 5-4.

The Bengals had five players missing from Monday’s practice, including wide receiver Tee Higgins (hamstring) and top edge rushers Trey Hendrickson (knee) and Sam Hubbard (ankle). Their availability for Thursday’s game is unclear, as Cincinnati doesn’t practice Tuesday until 6:20 p.m.

Baltimore Sun reporter Childs Walker contributed to this article.

This story will be updated.

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