O’s close out first half of spring training against Yanks

The Orioles will get to play their version of Sunday Night Baseball this evening when the NY Yankees stop into Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota. The game can be seen locally on MASN in the greater Baltimore area; when the spring training schedule came out it struck me as odd that the Birds would play a game on a Sunday night, however presumably the NCAA Basketball tournament probably has something to do with that. That aside, I feel that tonight might well be the most important of the spring training games that the Orioles have played to date. (In essence, the most important of the irrelevant.) As I’ve said in the past, tomorrow is the lone off day for the Birds during spring training. Granted I don’t know this for a fact, however it would seem to me that Buck Showalter and company might use it as a day to make some personnel decisions.

Don’t misread me; none of this is to say that it’s put up or shut up time for anyone tonight. There will be many different goals for different guys in tonight’s game; the likes of Adam Jones, Mark Reynolds, Matt Wieters, Nick Markakis, etc. are well aware of the fact that they’re going to be on this team. So they’ll need to continue to work on things such as timing. However guys such as Alfredo Simon, Steve Tolleson, Ryan Flaherty, and Jai Miller, they’re going to be going all out trying to make a lasting impression before the coaches presumably meet and discuss tomorrow. (For a good read check out MASN’s Amber Theoharis’ article on Ryan Flaherty; he sounds like a hard-working kid who’s trying to break into the majors – as a Rule 5 draft guy – in any manner and at any position that he can.)

The above-mentioned Alfredo Simon will get the ball as the starter tonight, which is something that I find interesting. Simon has pitched most out of the bullpen (and fairly well I might add) this spring, however the fact that he’s getting a start tonight (in a televised game at that) makes me wonder if a trade involving Simon (and others) isn’t in the works. From what I understand the Orioles have been followed around by several scouts from other teams who are scouting players that are potential trade chips throughout the spring to this point. How long Simon goes remains to be seen, however Wei-Yi Chen was to throw 65 pitches in yesterday’s 3-3 tie against Boston (he ended up throwing 75). One might think it’s safe to assume that Simon might be slated to go somewhere in the same neighborhood.

For the record, Simon will be opposed by Ivan Nova of the Yankees tonight. On a side note, I find it interesting that the Yankees decided to re-sign Andy Pettite (who should be ready apparently in the beginning of May). Does that signal problems in NY’s rotation? Certainly if you’re an Oriole fan you can hope I suppose! Nevertheless, I suspect that we’ll start to see the beginnings of a 25-man roster and perhaps even a pitching rotation form coming out of tomorrow’s brief respite from games.

This is not to say that anything is going to be set in stone under any circumstances. However I will remind fans that Opening Day is Friday April 6th. The O’s have three exhibition games during the week leading up to that date (against colleges and minor league teams), but the Grapefruit League schedule ends two weeks from today with a game at Ed Smith Stadium against the Tampa Rays. Generally during the season a pitcher who starts on a Sunday will pitch again on Friday. So as Showalter and pitching coach Rick Adair start to work out a starting rotation I suspect that it’ll all culminate with the Orioles’ Opening Day starter pitching in that April 1st game against Tampa. Does that mean that whomever begins getting starts this coming week is a shoo-in for the rotation? Not in the least…however I’m just keeping my eye on that April 1st date. Nothing is for sure in this world, but that would make sense, wouldn’t it?

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