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Baltimore Orioles: The very beginning of the beginning

By Domenic A. Vadala

Courtesy of Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Courtesy of Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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Pitchers and catchers report for the Baltimore Orioles today.

Welcome to the 2016 season, Baltimore Orioles fans! Moving forward we’ll have plenty of time to preview the season, look at position competitions in Grapefruit League play, and to critique how manager Buck Showalter is managing the team. But that’s all but pointless right now…because pitchers and catchers are reporting today!

Courtesy of Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Courtesy of Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

All starting and relief pitchers, catchers, and injured players are to report to spring training today. The first workouts will be tomorrow, and the full team workouts will begin on February 24th. It’s probably fair to say that many players (probably not just those who are to report today) are already in Sarasota and have been there for awhile. But now it’s official!

Perhaps now I won’t have to dig so deep into my mind to search for topics to tie to the O’s as the off season progresses. Because little by little we’ll see real news about the team as we go forward. For what it’s worth, the Orioles open Grapefruit League play in about a week-and-a-half or so, when they head to Orlando to take on the Atlanta Braves on March 1st. The home opener at Ed Smith Stadium is the next day against those same Braves.

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    • Incidentally, we have a new plethora of writers here at Birds Watcher, some of whom you’ve already seen over the past couple of weeks. So we’ll be having fresh content daily aside from just my contributions as we go forward. Once the games start you’ll start to see my normal game recaps come back, which is why I’m in need of these spring training games also. Players aren’t the only ones who need to get back into the swing of things!

    We probably won’t recap every game during spring, but we’ll give fans a good view of what’s going on down in Sarasota. And I’m sure that with free agents still pending out on the market we’ll have quite an array of things to discuss outside of just the games as well. One way or the other, today’s the beginning of the beginning.

    Next: Baltimore Orioles: Don't go to extremes

    I always remind fans that since pitchers and catchers report so much earlier, they’re always ahead of the position players once the games start. But after a week or so when guys have a few at-bats under their belts and a few games, they catch up. Let us begin!

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