Shorebird of the Week – April 4, 2013

Mychal Givens pitching against Salisbury University, April 2, 2013.

Mychal Givens pitching against Salisbury University, April 2, 2013.

Because I don’t have any statistics to see who the “hot” player is, or an all-around body of work to compare or contrast, I like to use my first Shorebird of the Week to highlight a player who is a compelling story. Mychal Givens is back with the Shorebirds for a fourth tour of duty, but this time he’s doing it from a new position. As you can see from the photos above, he’s trying to resurrect his career as a pitcher.

Givens was a second round pick by the Orioles in 2009, ironically picked by the team just behind another interesting Shorebird story to follow as Matt Hobgood tries to recover from shoulder surgery. But having a .225 career average with Delmarva isn’t good for advancing a career and once he completed a season where he hit just .243 in his third try with the Shorebirds the Orioles decided Mychal might have a better chance on the mound, where some scouts originally believed he could thrive out of high school.

So Mychal will be given a shot out of the Shorebirds’ bullpen for now. Having watched him on Tuesday night, it appears he has reasonable velocity and a somewhat deceptive sidearm-to-3/4 arm slot which could be difficult on hitters. Granting that a D-III group of college hitters is far different than the South Atlantic League, Mychal made quick work of Salisbury University in his one inning of work Tuesday night.

There’s no question Mychal may be a work in progress and there’s the chance he may actually begin the season back at extended spring training – as I write this, I do not have the “official” roster. But I believe the Orioles will give him at least an initial chance here, and who knows? Maybe someday Mychal will be the successor to Jim Johnson and make what looks like a dreadful 2009 draft class for the Orioles somewhat palatable.

The last impression

In what will be the final night before the convention festivities commence, the Dorchester County Republican Central Committee is making sure the voices of local GOP leaders are heard regarding the race for party chairman.

This is an announcement that the Dorchester County Republican Central Committee (DCRCC) is sponsoring a debate among the three candidates running for MDGOP Chair on Thursday, April 18th at 7:00 pm, at The Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Resort, in Cambridge Maryland.   As you know the election for the MDGOP Chair will be held at the 2013 Spring Convention on April 19th and 20th.

Many of the Eastern Shore Central Committees believe that it is important to have a debate among the three candidates running for MDGOP Chair prior to the election. This debate will give the Central Committee Members an opportunity to learn about the candidates, directly from the candidates themselves, prior to this election.  The DCRCC believes that it is important that the voting members of the Maryland Central Committees hear the candidates positions on the issues first hand.

Tonight there is a similar event in Montgomery County, but for those of us who live on this side of the bridge we get the last chance to make the good first impression. That’s not to say the aspirants haven’t taken their opportunities when presented to state their case locally; for example, all three came to our Lincoln Day Dinner, Diana Waterman has been to both our Central Committee and Wicomico County Republican Club since the first of the year (although her WCRC visit was prior to Alex Mooney’s resignation), Greg Kline was scheduled to speak at the March WCRC meeting (truncated due to the Harris/Lewis townhall meeting), and Collins Bailey sent two representatives to our Central Committee meeting on Monday night. Kline and Bailey will also be at our quad-county meeting next week.

And just because you may not be on a Central Committee (and not have a formal vote on the matter), that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get an opportunity to make your voice heard.

Since April 18th will be here before we know it, and space is limited, we would appreciate it if you would RSVP with the DCRCC Treasurer Bill Lee at politiclee (at) gmail.com or 410-739-7209. Thank you for your support, and we look forward to seeing our fellow Maryland Republicans at this MDGOP Chair debate. Doors open at 6:30 pm for networking purposes. Free Hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar will be available. The DCRCC proudly presents this event to you free of charge.

I plan on being there to cover the event and listen, and if you want to submit questions they can be sent to dcrccmail (at) gmail.com. Since the event will be at the Hyatt resort, it should be well-attended and hopefully very enlightening.

While the Eastern Shore isn’t large as a proportion of state population, the nine counties here carry about 1/4 of the voting strength of the convention. One might think Waterman is the prohibitive favorite among the group, but any inroads the other two can make into her presumed lead here would be vital in building their own advantages in other parts of the state. If you figured Bailey is strongest among the three counties of southern Maryland and Kline is strongest in Anne Arundel County, both are starting with around 10% of the vote.

To be quite honest, though, I can’t wait to get this leadership issue squared away because we have a hellish amount of work to do this spring in petitioning various bills to referendum. It’s worth noting that most of the Democrats who didn’t vote for the gun bill (like Norm Conway and Rudy Cane) come from regions of the state where the Second Amendment is deemed important – voting for the bill would be signing a political suicide note. Interesting how liberals get more conservative the closer they get to election time.