Baltimore Orioles: Eve of it all

Today is the eve of the unofficial start to the baseball season, as Orioles’ pitchers and catchers are set to report to spring training tomorrow. 2012 will be the third straight season that the O’s will work out at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, FL, and all of the reviews that we’ve heard from players, fans, opponents, etc. has been very positive about the facilities. Nevertheless, this will begin the six-week march towards opening day which will culminate with the best five pitchers in camp being named starters, and the rest either starting out in the bullpen or in triple-A Norfolk.

We can talk about camp and what should come out of it as we go along, but the main thing for right now is that the players will be reporting. Many (if not most) of the are already there, having trickled in this past week to get treatment or a head start on training. The story that broke out of Sarasota this week was that Zach Britton was still suffering some affects of his shoulder injury last summer. Britton worked out yesterday and said that his shoulder felt good and that he felt his velocity was strong. That will all remain to be seen once he gets into some games, however the good news is that unlike in years past the O’s have depth in the pitching department.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves however. This is only the beginning, and there’ll certainly be many important storylines as we progress through spring training. At Birds Watcher we’ll certainly cover all of them as they come along; we may not be Mother Goose, but we’ll do the best job we can! This is Birdland 2012!

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