Thanks for patronizing the Tap Room today, and thanks for not complaining about the lack of holiday decorations in this joint.

It’s still November. I’m not falling for the whole “holiday commercialism thing” yet. At least not in here.

At my house, we already have the Christmas lights up ad the tree in the front window. It goes against my “not before December” tradition. But the only way my son, who was home from college this week, could participate in tree trimming with the family was to buy the tree this weekend.

So, one tradition outweighed the other.

I was thankful to have him home, and, really, I was thankful for the whole week. My father had heart surgery earlier this month, so the focus on family was even more important this year.

As my Thanksgiving present to you guys, we waited a day before we ran Dean Jones Jr.’s piece on the top internal candidates for the Orioles’ 2018 starting rotation. I wanted you to digest your turkey before digging into Dean’s offering. It was an excellent piece, but not exactly encouraging reading for O’s fans.

What it shows – as if you didn’t already realize – is that the Orioles need to bolster their rotation from outside the organization this year via trades or free agent signings because there doesn’t seem to be a lot of immediate help in the upper levels of the farm system. One or two solid fliers, but nothing to count on.

We put the options in order of preference, and we think Miguel Castro is the best bet to help the Orioles as a starter to begin 2018. He’s an unknown in that capacity, of course, but he’s young and talented, so he gets the edge.

Gabriel Ynoa showed some glimpses of being serviceable in 2017 and so did Alec Asher. And we can’t forget big-armed Mike Wright, who no longer has minor league options remaining, so it is sink or swim next spring. There are a couple of high-ceiling lefties that were mentioned: Chris Lee and Tanner Scott, but they don’t seem like they’ll be ready to step into a big league rotation in April (or even later in 2018, at least in Scott’s case).

The reality is one of these guys is probably going to be needed to make a chunk of starts for the Orioles next season (depend on more than one, and the team is likely in serious trouble) to join Kevin Gausman, Dylan Bundy and a couple yet-to-be acquired starters. So, my question is, of the pitchers detailed in our piece, who would you be most comfortable with being a part of the regular rotation in 2018? Give me just one name and your reasoning (and cross your fingers).

Tap-In Question: Which internal option – besides Gausman and Bundy – do you trust most for the 2018 rotation?