Cooking with the Orioles

A few days ago in this space, Orioles director of player development Matt Blood explained how players and coaches on the O's farm are keeping active and trying to improve themselves in various ways during the shutdown of baseball.

Much of this is happening via video chats on Zoom.

"As a group, we've had Zoom calls on just about everything there is to have a call on. Hitting, pitching, defense, strength and conditioning, nutrition, mental skills, research," he said. "We have calls with the players on mental skills - they are doing that a few times a week. We've had hitting hot stove calls on different topics and aspects of hitting. We've had staff and players involved in a book club."

Blood told me that he's even had an exchange of and a sharing of ideas and practices between an NBA team and staff members in Baltimore's player development operation. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde even joined that call. Plans were in place to reach out to other teams to include an NFL club and a few college teams.

But a week ago Saturday, it was time to cook. Making a meal is an acquired skill - and not all minor league players have acquired it. The ability to cook with proper nutrition could benefit young players in many ways. So with O's nutritional interns leading the Zoom call, the players learned how to prepare the meal. The group on the call reached a high of 170 at one point.

First they prepared a meal of salmon or chicken with potatoes and vegetables, and then they exchanged thoughts and had time to ask questions as they took time to enjoy their work.

"Nutrition is huge part of an athlete's performance and longevity," said Blood. "That's important. So rather than just providing meals, this teaches them how to cook for themselves. It's more healthy and cost effective. The nutritionists were two of our interns. They put together the recipes and directions in a pretty neat visual. We sent it out ahead of time so everyone could get what they needed.

"We were all on there, chatting and asking questions to the nutrition folks. It went on for about an hour and a half. It gave the players - and maybe even the coaches - a chance to learn how to cook a meal for themselves. A pretty important skill. So we wanted to show the players this could be easy and fun to cook for themselves, rather than get fast food that is not nearly as healthy. Or to go out to eat, which is not as affordable."

Blood had to scroll his screen about seven times to see everyone on the call.

"It was pretty neat," he said. "We'll probably do it again, but in smaller groups. The conversation can be a little easier among each other. Maybe do them in 25 person groups twice a week, so that everyone is involved once a month or so."

The minor league coaches and managers have been reaching out to players just to check on them or sometimes for very specific reasons. The communication has been strong.

"The coaches have some of the players in their realm that they are reaching out to them, as is relevant. Hitting coaches are reaching out to position players, defensive coaches, too, our managers," Blood said. "Our mental skills coordinator is reaching out to players, so players are probably hearing from multiple people on a somewhat regular basis. There is a decent amount of communication.

"Our coaches care about the players. It's not a mandatory thing but they encourage that connection with the players. A lot of it is through the relationships they have and plans that are being created. We have player plans on the offensive side, the defensive, the performance side. Those are communicated and discussed."

Checking Orioles all-time lists: During this slow time for baseball, from time to time, I'll publish the leaders of an all-time list for the Orioles. Today, let's look at oWAR (offensive Wins Above Replacement) per Baseball-Reference.com. There are just 18 players in club history, which dates to 1954, that have compiled 20 or more oWAR. Here is the list.

78.1 - Cal Ripken Jr.
51.9 - Eddie Murray
47.7 - Brooks Robinson
38.3 - Boog Powell
37.7 - Brady Anderson
37.0 - Adam Jones, Ken Singleton
36.5 - Frank Robinson
28.1 - Bobby Grich
27.6 - Brian Roberts
27.4 - Melvin Mora
24.9 - Al Bumbry
24.8 - Nick Markakis
23.7 - Manny Machado
23.1 - Chris Hoiles
22.1 - Rafael Palmeiro
21.3 - Paul Blair
21.2 - Miguel Tejada