Cruise Continues, Rotation Baffles
5-2 in the Grapefruit League. Early returns on Uehara glowing. Injury bug present (like it is for everyone) but largely kept in check. Matt Wieters is a baseball titan (I know, it’s early).
Lots of positive signs to take away so far. Let’s take a look at the competition for rotation spots 3-5, shall we?
Rich Hill has been hurt but I still like his chances.
Brad Hennessey likewise, and I don’t like his.
Chris Waters has struggled, giving up 5 hits in 4.2 innings and pitching to a 5.79 ERA, although he hasn’t walked anybody.
Radhames Liz looks no better — 5 hits in 4 innings, 4.50 ERA.
David Pauley has given up 8 hits in just 3.1 innings, but his last outing was better than his first.
Mark Hendrickson: 2 innings, 5 hits, 0 BB, 1 K. No.
Hayden Penn: 2 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs, 0 BB, 3 K. Yes.
Brad Bergesen: 3 innings, 4 hits, 0 runs, 0 BB, 3 K,
Add it all up and there’s basically no way, yet, to guess how this thing will shake out. The standout pitcher by far has been Brian Matusz, but he’s ticketed for Bowie (maybe Norfolk) and that’s that.
Still, all things considered, I like what I see.
And “Centerfield” by John Fogerty just came up in my Pandora stream.
Yeah seems to me the two spots are going to go to Hayden Penn and either Bergesen or Pauley.
But then damnit, I always forget about Albers. Because his shoulder won’t hold up in relief, the club wants him to start. And I think that’s a good idea, and he’s been effective. I’m saying Penn and Albers for 4 and 5. Bergesen to AAA. Pauley fights Bass for the right-handed long guy role to complement the Hendrickson left-handed long guy role.
So then your bullpen is:
Mark Hendrickson
Pauley/Bass
Sarfate
Walker
Johnson
Ray
Sherrill
Baez gets cut. Parrish goes to the minors or gets released. Adam Eaton signs with the Blue Jays. Heh..
Hill is really the issue, so many people have him automatically pencilled at #3 because of his experience and the fact that he’s left handed. However, he’s been injured and hasn’t shown that he has worked on his control and can pitch better than Daniel Cabrera. His contract status doesn’t help his case; he’s an inexpensive player to cut. I think this gives Waters some room to fit in the rotation in his stead because, well… you can’t have an entirely right handed rotation, and of the five or so left-handed pitchers in camp (aside from Sherrill), Waters might be the best.
Slots Four and five are looking, to me, to be Albers and Penn. We know they aren’t going to cut Penn, and at the very least will find room for him in relief if they don’t feel he’s a capable starter. Albers is actually a pretty decent pitcher as we all saw last year, and he seems to have recovered nicely from his rehab.
Hennessey is really in the same boat as Hill; injured and not impressing many people at this point in camp. I look at Hennesey as Brian Burres part II, and not even because they are both failed ex-Giants prospects.
I really like Bass’s chances of beating Baez out for the swing man/middle relief position, at least based on talent alone. I’m not sure if the Orioles have what it takes to cut Baez. Bass is not talked about nearly enough, but the FO has already said that Bass is not a candidate to start.
Trembley pretty much punched Liz’s ticket to Norfolk with his comments yesterday.
Keep in mind that Lance Cormier was awful in Spring Training last year but turned in a respectable (albeit forgettable) stint with the Orioles for his short stay here in 2008. I wouldn’t write pitchers like Pauley and Hennessey off just because of their Spring showing.
Ahh, Joe Angel…
Well, I had fun at Spring Training 2009. Here’s some highlights from my trip to watch the Orioles wax the Dominicans:
I saw Dave Trembley as I walked into the gate, standing around chatting and signing autographs. I yelled out “Hey Dave, who’s pitching?” because my internet access has been suspect at best down here. He gave me sort of a funny look and said “Koji.” Then he struggled to remember if Matusz was going to pitch (he wasn’t) and then said “You know, we post these things 4 days in advance.” I shrugged and said “Well, I just didn’t see it today”. He tapped is temple as if to say “Gotta use that brain, Andrew”. Yes, right away DT made fun of me. Doh.
I saw Mike Cueller standing about 10 feet away. I don’t have anything to say to Cueller, but I love the guy. It was mighty cool.
We went down and watched Uehara’s bullpen session with Zaun. One thing is certain: the guy absolutely looks great in bullpens. Not too much velocity, though, but he can hit a dime. Of course, he got lucky later on when the wind knocked down David Ortiz’s two run home run into a routine pop fly to end the first inning. Still, I was impressed with Uehara…but I still don’t know what we’ll get out of him for the year.
I know that Red Sox Nation loves these guys, but Pedro and Ortiz are living gods to the Dominicans. And there were tons of Dominican fans there. I was sitting right in front of a percussion jam session that went on from innings 5-9 non-stop. It was a ton of fun, lots of dancing and laughing. George Bell dropped by to say hi, too.
Tejada looked bad in the field at third. Blake Davis did, too, at short. I know you guys like him, but he really didn’t look good out there.
It was a lot of fun. It had a lot of minor league style to it but with the big stars. Lots of fun.
How does Trembley know who you are?
No, no, no. He never said my name. I was just saying, he gave me a look as if to say “Gotta use that brain of yours, buddy.”
You can’t rattle DT with mere heckle-like questioning. Gonna have to do better than that.
Awesome…
I completely misread the quote. Haha.