A win or a loss for the Orioles?

The O’s won yesterday’s inter-squad scrimmage yesterday by the score of 2-1. Let me rephrase that; the “visiting” Orioles beat their “home standing” counterparts 2-1.

You can sit here all day and ask yourself “what this means,” and “whether or not this is a good or bad thing” and so forth. An inter-squad scrimmage is really just a way for the coaches to see the players on the field in a bit of a more formal manner than just practice and drills. In effect it’s a glorified practice with just a bit more moxie. Obviously one has to hope and believe that to some extent that moxie will translate into tough play come April 6th and beyond.

LJ Hoes, an outfielder for double-A Bowie, hit a triple off of Greg Burke in the top of the 8th to give the “visitors” the 2-1 lead. According to Roch Kubatko of www.masnsports.com, Mark Reynolds had a couple of key stops down at the hot corner. Reynolds came into camp this year after being “challenged” by Buck Showalter at the conclusion of the 2011 season to lose weight in the off season. If this scrimmage is any indication perhaps Reynolds is now a bit more nimble than he was last season when he led the league in errors. However again let’s not split hairs over this (good or bad), because if Grapefruit League games are meaningless to the season’s standings, this was really meaningless.

With that said, we’ll have a slightly better idea of where this team stands after Monday night’s Spring Training opener against the Pirates. However even then we need to take the results with a grain of salt given that the starters will only be in the game for a minimal amount of time. For what it’s worth, a couple of days ago I wrote about Nick Markakis’ injury and who would be playing right field in his stead before he can get into some games. Endy Chavez started in right for the “home team” yesterday, while Jai Miller started for the “visitors.” Again for what it’s worth, the  home team had most of the Orioles’ starters. Incidentally, you might notice that I categorized this column as “Games Threads,” which marks the first time in 2012 (and in my tenure as editor of this column for that matter) that I’ve used that category. That means it’s almost time for baseball!

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