It has been a while since I have found the time to write and I am glad I get to do it today. As we all know the start of the season is fast approaching and as with every other season I am probably getting too excited for season that will more than likely end with disappointment. However today I will harness my excitement and try to focus on the positive because right now we are all tied for first and anything can happen. It is hard to know what you can take from spring training games in terms of how performances will translate to the regular season, but winning is always a positive, spring or not. Right now we aren't blowing the grapefruit league away, but with a record of 10-9 I think we are showing some progress. An 83-81 record at the end of the regular season would be very much a reason to celebrate in Baltimore. The focus of the spring has been on pitching, defense, and on-base percentage.
Starting with pitching, I think there have been more positives than negatives. The worst of the negatives has really been injuries rather than poor outings. The biggest injury is probably the news that Matt Hobgood is injured again and it looks like he will miss the entire season. You have to feel for this kid even though the decision to draft him wasn't exactly welcomed by all of Birdland. There have been other various and minor injuries, however too many to mention here. It looks to me like the heart of the rotation is still intact with big performances coming from Jake Arrieta, Brian Matusz, and Jason Hammel. I think some combination of those three will be the top 3 on our staff with Wei Yi Chen and Tommy Hunter looking like the best to round it out right now. Zach Britton will probably miss the early part of the season but I am sure he will start in the majors before the end of the season, as well as Aramando Gallaraga and Chris Tillman with outside shots at a starting spot. Overall the outings for the starters have gone well and I think you have to give some of that credit to Matt Weiters who looks like he has taken another step forward and should challenge for a golden glove and perhaps a silver slugger if he progresses at the plate. The bullpen still looks solid and hopefully some of the younger guys can continue to improve out there as well. Jason Berken and Tsuyoshi Wada look to be the long men, with Zach Philips and Troy Patton for the leftie specialist. Look for Jim Johnson, Kevin Gregg, and Pedro Strop in the late innings, and Alfredo Simon, Dontrelle Willis, and others looking for a place to fit in. There is a lot more competition this year with the pitchers and it looks to me like the added competition could be helping to improve what we have. If Brian Matusz can find his old form and perhaps Tillman and Arrieta taking a step forward you could be looking at a huge improvement in the runs per game department. As always, fingers are crossed, it seems like we are consistently putting our money on these young guys and eventually that will pay off, right?
Defensively the O's don't seem to be showing much improvement now and that is a harder stat to judge in the spring as many of the fielders playing and accruing errors may not make the team. So sometimes it is hard to tell what combination of fielders will perform the best. Right now the only improvement I see is on the bench as the starting lineup will be very similar to last year's and I just don't see that lineup playing defense at a much higher level. I think the guys we have have basically shown what they are capable of and that isn't that great. But playing in the AL East sometimes you have to keep some liabilities on defense in order to provide the offense needed. Mark Reynolds looks slightly better carrying less weight around and I do think Andino could be improved as he is going into this season knowing he will be the starter at second base. The same goes for Nolan Reimold in my opinion and personally he is the player I am pulling for the most. Since he came up the first time in 2009 and showed flashes of his talent I think many O's fans have wanted to see him play more. Unfortunately injuries have derailed that plan a bit, but this year he is healthy and expects to be the every day left fielder and hopefully that provides him with the confidence to carry some of the load offensively and defensively. Adam Jones and Nick Markakis should be steady as usual and hopefully JJ Hardy can maintain his defense from last year. Maybe Chris Davis knowing he will be the first baseman will help him as well but at this point I think he is who he is.
Lastly, on-base percentage was a big focus in terms of players that we picked up in the off season and this seems to have payed. The biggest production is coming from Endy Chavez and it is a welcome sign to see a bench player who looks to be able to produce just as well if not better than a starter. It is still strange to think of Wilson Betemit as a DH, at least to me, and especially strange to see a DH hitting in the 7-9 spots in the order. Betemit does seem to have a good eye and make good contact but I wonder if the lower power numbers from the DH spot will hurt our over all production. However you don't have to knock em in with home runs and hopefully he can at least provide more opportunities to score runs than Vlady did last year. I loved Vladimir Guerero as a player but it was painfull to watch him try to run last year. If nothing else I think Betemit can stretch a double into a triple a little easier. Also Ryan Flaherty and Nick Johnson are producing well in the spring and hopefully they can all help to inspire all the hitters to be patient and hopefully that will turn in to more early exits for opposing starters and more runs put up on the board.
So that is what I have seen this spring, hopefully the guys continue to improve and we can head into the regular season with some momentum. As we all know the pitching will be the biggest key and fingers crossed these good starts in spring translate to good starts in the regular season, also let's hope we can avoid the injury bug. On a side note if you want some new O's gear, check out protectthisyard.spreadshirt.com. I don't have any affiliation with them but they have some awesome t-shirts and I just made my first order today. Their designs are the best for any Baltimore fan. Let's Go O's!
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