Jake Arrieta, 2012 Topps Heritage High Numbers #H588

Jake Arrieta is a wealthier man than he was last week. After waiting out an unusually slow and austere free agent market, the 2015 NL Cy Young signed a three-year, $75 million contract with the Phillies. While the 32-year-old had an impressive four and a half year stay in Chicago (68-31, 2.73 ERA, 147 ERA+), there is still cause for concern. Firstly, he's a pitcher; they're designed to break. More to the point, in the last two seasons his walks and home runs allowed have risen while his cutter has been less effective. Obviously, he was so absurdly unhittable in 2015 that the backslide of 2016-2017 still saw him pitch better than, say, any Orioles starter. (Grumble grumble groan.) But the pessimist in me was sure that if hell froze over and the O's and Jake agreed to reunite, he would've immediately fallen apart. So I'm perversely relieved that he's staying in the National League. We'll see how I feel in June when the Birds are back to shuffling the likes of Mike Wright, Jr. and Gabriel Ynoa in and out of the rotation.

Brian Matusz, 2012 Topps Heritage High Numbers #H579

Today I have the pleasure of wishing my favorite (and only) sister a very happy birthday. I mention her often on this blog, as we own a pair of season tickets on the 29-game plan, and thereby share in dozens of highs and lows throughout baseball season. My sister is a tad more superstitious than I am when it comes to the O's, though. For instance, she put her autographed Brian Matusz jersey in mothballs for quite awhile after becoming convinced that she was personally responsible for his disastrous 2011 season. Now that he's rebuilt some confidence with a strong season-plus of relief pitching, the jersey is safe to wear again. But she's still a little snakebit after Jim Johnson and Nate McLouth - both of whom signed t-shirts for her at fan events last year - left the Birds this past offseason. For the time being, she's sworn off any further autograph collecting for the greater good. She's nothing if not unselfish.

Wei-Yin Chen, 2012 Topps Heritage High Numbers #H609

Wei-Yin Chen had his game face on tonight, avoiding the late-inning lapses that have dogged him recently, and the Orioles hung on to avoid a sweep at the hands of the wild card-leading Rays. The lefty won his seventh game with seven strong innings, allowing a pair of solo home runs for Tampa Bay's only scores of the night. The O's also played a bit of long ball, with Adam Jones swatting his 26th home run and Chris Davis absolutely pulverizing a ball onto Eutaw Street for his 46th. Crush is tied with Jim Gentile for third-most homers in a single season in team history. The Jones and Davis homers provided the winning margin, as Tommy Hunter pitched out of an inherited two-on, no-out jam in the ninth inning. He earned the save when Matt Wieters gunned a low throw to second base (and J. J. Hardy applied an expert tag) to catch Kelly Johnson trying to steal. Orioles 4, Rays 2. Four and a half back of the Rays, and three back of the A's. Oakland's coming to town this weekend. It's not over yet.

Chris Davis, 2012 Topps Heritage High Numbers #H621

I took a rare off-day from posting yesterday, for the best possible reason. I asked my girlfriend Janet to marry me, and she said yes...about a dozen times. I told her that I would take that as a "yes".

The past nine-plus months with Janet have been some of the happiest of my life. We've even been to a few great Orioles games together. Our first Oriole Park date was on Friday, August 24, 2012, when Chris Davis nearly singlehandedly carried the O's to a 6-4 victory over the Blue Jays. "Crush" Davis had three of Baltimore's eight hits that night, each of them home runs, and drove in four. He's pretty much been on a roll ever since, and today was named the American League Player of the Month for April. In the first month of the 2013 season, he batted .348/.442/.728 with a league-leading nine home runs as well as 28 RBI. But I still think that I'm having a better year.

Tsuyoshi Wada, 2012 Topps Heritage High Numbers #H577

Alright, here's the sheepish confession portion of my Amazon purchase review. I bought the 2012 Topps Heritage High Numbers team set for the Orioles, five cards in all, from a dealer at a fairly ridiculous markup of $20. Now I have Tsuyoshi Wada, who has yet to throw a pitch in a regular-season game more than a year into his O's contract, staring back at me with his dead, Photoshop-filtered eyes. Four dollars for THIS card? But I don't regret it at all.

$20 for the team set is still better in my mind than $100 for the entire 100-card high-number set, because Topps did not get my money. I still got the cards that I really would have wanted from their "online exclusive" set, and since I used gift money, I can tell myself that I didn't really spend that tender anyhow. Now I never have to waste another thought on the latest wretched cash grab from the monopoly-holders over at ToppsTown.

At least until they do the same damn thing with 2013 Heritage.