Chris Davis ‏@ChrisDavis

Btw the “O” during the national anthem was Omazing! Countin down the days til the 2013 season kicks off!

Adam Jones ‏@SimplyAJ10

I’ll see my @Orioles family tomorrow. Hard work will begin ASAP. We have something to prove to OURSELVES, forget the others#StayHungry

L.J. Hoes ‏@MRLJHOES2U

Just boarded this plane next stop Tampa #backtowork

Steve Johnson ‏@SJohnson831

3 days.. #springtraining2013http://instagr.am/p/VhRUeiNMwN/ (it’s an O’s hat!)

Jake Arrieta ‏@JArrieta34

Met three huge O’s fans at Flemings.. Conversation was worth letting my food get cold

Branden Kline ‏@BrandenKline16

Back to Sarasota to get ready for my first spring training #OsNation

I was hoping for a few more fun quotes, but I’ll give the guys the benefit of the doubt, most of the star players have just been arriving over the past couple of days, so they’re still getting settled into their digs in FL. From the looks of it, star centerfielder (and Ravens lucky charm?) Jones has already had a warm (literally) welcome to Florida.

Adam Jones ‏@SimplyAJ10

Yep just felt this fla humidity

We’ve talked on the site before about what a cool camaraderie the O’s & Ravens have, they definitely have a mutual love for each others’ teams & the success of Baltimore sports. Even star WR Anquan Boldin got a tweet in last Friday, a bit of a passing of the sports season torch:

Anquan Boldin ‏@AnquanBoldin

Happy Championship #PurpleFriday Ravens fans. We’re done for now, but I know you guys are ready for some @Orioles Spring Training. #BUCKleUp

As the northeast digs out from snowstorm Nemo (sidenote: Nemo? really?), and those of us out west in California try to avoid sending annoying “look how sunny it is!” pictures to our grumpy east coast comrades, I know we’re all excited to welcome baseball back. 2013 is a new year, primed for new memories, new stars, and a clean slate for every team. Hello baseball, it’s good to see you again.

Starting Pitching Overall – This continues to be a pleasant surprise in the big picture of things. There are some lapses, but overall it has been quite encouraging – even with the loss of Zach Britton for the early portion of the season. A bit of the luster has come off Brian Matusz, but more than a few Orioles writers have identified his performance as the highlight of the Camp. Tillman has been excellent, and one has to wonder, if this keeps up, just how many guys will be working out next winter with Brady Anderson! Wei-Yin Chen seems very comfortable; Hunter appears ready to resume a full workload, and Arrieta is simply beastly. Duquette’s strategy of a large number of arms from which to choose seems to be bearing the desired fruit.

March 25, 2012; Clearwater, FL, USA; Baltimore Orioles left fielder Nolan Reimold (14) celebrates with teammate Wilson Betemit after hitting a solo home run during the top of the second inning of a spring training game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Bright House Networks Field. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Relief Pitching Overall – This has also been largely encouraging. Jim Johnson has had some struggles, but I’m not worried that he will be anything but ready to go when the time comes. More than enough others have performed sufficiently to make for some very difficult decisions about whom to keep on the 25-man roster. I continue to hope Kevin Gregg will be helping us by “helping” some other team … maybe we can even get some sort of trade deal over the well-travelled Texas route. Koji Uehara has had a very difficult spring training out west – some speculating that his “feel” pitches don’t have “bite” in the dry air. It just has not worked out for him in Texas, so maybe both teams could solve a problem and get more bang for their buck. (Get it? More bang for their buck? Buck?… sorry, I digress.)

Hitting Overall – The first couple of weeks were a bit scary, but the past week of games has put the panic monster back in his cage. Like seasonal allergies, the hitters being behind the pitching is a common ailment. After all, every couple innings a fresh arm is coming at you! That cannot be sustained with a 12-man staff during the regular season.

Injuries – This feels to Orioles fan like the same song, next verse! Certainly the “ounce of prevention to avoid a pound of cure” philosophy prevails abundantly. But even a cursory reading of the blog pages of a few other teams quickly reveals that the Orioles are not unique when it comes to a crowded trainers’ room. Chavez is the one I’m going to look to hear about in coming days – hoping the groin injury is indeed small, as we need this guy to play a lot of baseball.

Brian Roberts – It is almost as if he has completely dropped off all radar!  Little is written about him other than occasional comments about slow progress with this or that. It seems to me that anything that can possibly be written about him has been said already. He is pretty fully in the “bonus” category in terms of him ever playing with the Orioles again. Ugh! What a different feel the team would have were he to be fully healthy … there I go – writing some of that stuff that has been said hundreds of times!

Various Bullet Points about Various Players

-          Jai Miller – now an injury, along with the strikeouts … does not look good to be kept

-          Betemit – had a much better week

-          Nick Johnson – looking good, feeling good – maybe he can rub off on Roberts about getting healthy after long-term difficulties … am hoping we can keep him

-          Ryan Flaherty – I don’t think the Cubs are going to get him back. I enjoyed actually seeing him play – quick bat!

-          Taylor Teagarden – Does not look at all possible to start the season with the team

The 25 Man Roster – I will make a Tuesday afternoon post on a revised guess as to who is making it.

Here are some observations as we look back on spring training so far and the completion of two weeks of games:

Pitching Overall – This has been largely a positive, apart from a couple of brief moments. It is reasonable to ratchet up our seasonal expectations a few notches on the hope-o-meter. Rumors abound of a trade for a starter (as if there are extras of those out there somewhere) and I’ll evaluate it when/if it happens, but I’m good to go to war with this crowd (so DD – you have my approval – just sayin’).

Hitting Overall – It is not time to panic – though I think that time is just over the next horizon. That the pitchers are rather clearly ahead of the hitters does take away some measure of the enthusiasm about our pitchers’ performances – at least potentially.

March 18, 2012; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter before a spring training game against the Atlanta Braves at Disney Wide World of Sports complex. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Defense Overall – It really looks like spring training.

Chavez, Miller, Betemit – Chavez has to be kept – welcome to the Baltimore Orioles! I’m falling off the Jai Miller bandwagon and am sad about that; he is THE athlete of athletes on this team, but any guy who will strike out so much as to make Mark Reynolds look like a contact hitter is not helpful. Betemit likely will be kept – whether he should or not…  I’m not close yet to “feeling it” for Betemit – and hope we are not locked-in on this guy. I’d rather see Nick Johnson, who is proving his worth and reputation in the OBP category.

Brian Matusz – This is certainly better than we could have hoped for, as the numbers are adding up against some decent players. From every appearance I am able to note from a distance, Brian seems like as fine a young man as can be found – so I am pleased for this revival. I’ll confess I did not expect it, not after seeing him return last year after the injury – whatever it was. I saw him pitch in Frederick in rehab; and though he shut down a Carolina League opponent, his fastball was not worthy of the name – though it could have been used to measure the straightness of laser beams.

Gregg, Strop– Mr. Short Arm is mysteriously not pitching many innings. Maybe the Orioles don’t want to display his ineffectiveness and lower his trade value. Speaking of trade value, I’ve had to, from time to time with investments, call one a loser and get rid of it before it hurt me more! OK, Gregg was a gamble, and the Orioles lost. Let’s move on. I’m gonna go postal (in blogging terms) if the Orioles keep Kevin Gregg but lose Pedro Strop – who is out of options!

March 18, 2012; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Tsuyoshi Wada (18) throws against the Atlanta Braves during the bottom of the seventh inning of a spring training game at Disney Wide World of Sports complex. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Britton – Ugh! The sore shoulder is back! Since the guys nearby can’t for certain evaluate the seriousness of it, surely a blogger from 1,000 miles away cannot. I don’t know, but having been a pitcher in college, there is some amount of inflammation going on all the time – which is what the icing is all about. I am sure the team is erring on the side of caution.

Arrieta, Tillman, Bergesen – The early returns are sufficiently good. With Arrieta, I believe it was just a matter of getting over the surgery, and I think this guy will be pitching every fifth game for the Birds for a long time. With Tillman, it appears the Brady Anderson experience has done wonders for him; and remember, he is still quite young. With Bergesen, going back to a motion from the successful season of 2009 – ah, yep, good idea!  With all of them (and several of the others), they have not been served well in recent years by coaching – such as with a change of horses in mid-stream last year! Young pitchers rushed to the bigs … surrounded by fluctuating and marginal coaches – it is no wonder disaster came calling! Hopefully this too is a new day.

Ryan Flaherty – He is sure looking like a keeper – like a Chesapeake Bay stripper in season and well over the minimum. Why lose $25K now by seeing the Cubs take him back in accord with Rule 5 dictates?  He can play all over the field. I’m sold (at least for today!).

Fading Out – Alfredo Simon has enough groin troubles to not be looking good for April. I’m OK with that, as I fear he is a career 4.50-5.00 ERA guy. Berken is also still struggling and likely too far behind to make the opening roster. Teagarden as well has a lot of ground to make up in a short time, though I’m not going to stress over the backup catcher situation in the early weeks of the season.

Buck Showalter – He sure does remark a great deal about non-tangibles such as, “I like the look in his eye,” or, “The look on his face is a good one,” or, “You gotta like the way he carries himself.”  I don’t mean to doubt Buck – the best baseball guy we’ve had in that dugout in a long time – but I’d like to go more on the look in the other guys’ eyes when the fastball flies past them or the change freezes them or the ball flies out of the park! Buck likely just runs out of new things to say to the press.

Starting Rotation – There are so many variables yet to be clarified, and one wonders how the situation can possibly “solve itself” – am not sure it will, and the ultimate decisions may be wrenchingly difficult. However, here is a unique observation: made by Steve Melewski of MASN this week, who picked the starting five at this moment to be Jake Arrieta, Wei-Yin Chen, Jason Hammel, Tommy Hunter, and Zach Britton. He finished the article by saying, “… if this is the starting five for the Orioles, those five would make a combined total of around $8.3 million this year. Sabathia alone will earn $23 million in 2012.”  Now that is an interesting perspective!!

 Twitter: @osayorioles