Weekend Bird Droppings: All aboard the Yusniel Diaz hype train

Good morning, Birdland!

It is a golden rule of spring training that the statistics accumulated during this time of the year do not matter unless those statistics are good. In that case, you can take them as gospel that the player in question will be amazing in the season ahead.

So even though it has only been seven games we can be confident in saying that Yusniel Diaz is ready for the bright lights of the big leagues. So far this spring he is 4-for-13 with two doubles, a home run, three walks, and two strikeouts. Sounds like the start to a Rookie of the Year season to me.

In seriousness, Diaz’s tenure as an Oriole has been...difficult. The outfielder arrived in 2018 as the centerpiece of the…