BRADENTON, Fla. - Considering he had yielded 10 runs and 11 hits in 4 1/3 in his first two Grapefruit League starts, Orioles right-hander Dylan Bundy produced much better results this afternoon at LECOM Park against Pittsburgh.
Bundy became the first O's pitcher to throw five innings this spring and he allowed seven hits and one run with no walks and five strikeouts. He did not have a strikeout in those first two games. But this afternoon, he had a nice pitch mix working, throwing 84 pitches,...
SARASOTA, Fla. - Kevin Gausman's spring training has gotten considerably better since his first game on Feb. 26. That day he collided with the Tigers' Jeimer Candelario backing up at home plate. It left him with a cut above his left eyelid and some soreness in his back.
But since then he pitched three hitless and scoreless innings with five strikeouts March 3 versus the Phillies. He threw four innings and 65 pitches March 9 in a simulated game.
Last night he was a spectator and enjoyed...
SARASOTA, Fla. - It was in a spring training game that will soon be forgotten, but some of the Orioles promising young pitchers put up some zeros on Sunday in Fort Myers versus the Boston Red Sox.
And this is after two of their young guns - Hunter Harvey and Tanner Scott - combined to allow three runs (two earned) over the first four frames. It could have been worse for that duo, but they impressively pitched out of a couple jams.
In the last of the fifth, soon to be 23-year-old lefty Keegan...
FORT MYERS, Fla. - After facing the Rays and Twins earlier this spring, today right-hander Hunter Harvey got his toughest test of camp. He faced the two-time defending American League East champion Red Sox and most of their regulars were in the lineup.
"It was fun. Been watching this team for a couple of years and it was cool to face them," Harvey said outside the Orioles clubhouse.
He threw 49 pitches, 29 for strikes with a fastball that often touched 93 and 94 mph on the JetBlue Park radar...
FORT MYERS, Fla. - Orioles pitching prospect Hunter Harvey is making the start here this afternoon against the Boston Red Sox. It is a split-squad game for the Orioles with the other half of their roster taking on the Phillies at home tonight.
It will definitely not be his last this spring in the Grapefruit League. Harvey is expected to pitch in a simulated game, likely next Friday and then get his fourth Grapefruit League start on March 21 in Tampa versus the Yankees.
"He's staying. He's...
SARASOTA, Fla. - On Friday we took a shot at projecting the rotation for Single-A Delmarva. It seems the Orioles have discussed using seven pitchers as starters with the Shorebirds. They would pitch as part of a five- or six-man rotation.
The seven that we could see in Salisbury include include 2017 top draft pick left-hander DL Hall along with fellow 2017 picks Zac Lowther, Michael Baumann and Cameron Bishop. They would be joined by 2016 draft picks Matthias Dietz and Brenan Hanifee and 2015...
Even if the Orioles or any other team gets one of the big three remaining free agent pitchers, can any of them even be ready for opening day at this point? We are talking about Jake Arrieta, Alex Cobb and Lance Lynn and the answer is that they probably can't be ready by March 29.
Teams play nearly five weeks worth of spring training games and starting pitchers need that entire time to ramp up their innings and get their arms ready. Even at that point, some are only prepared to throw 90-100...
The Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds will very likely have more starting pitchers than rotation spots when the season begins next month. The Orioles have to be excited about a group of seven young and talented pitchers that project to pitch in either a five- or six-man Shorebirds rotation.
The Orioles could use one or more pitchers in piggyback situations, when they pitch as part of the rotation yet follow another starter into the game somewhere in the middle innings.
The group of seven currently...
Well, it is not a four-man rotation in the traditional sense that the club will use only four starters, but the Tampa Bay Rays will use four starters and then a bullpen game every fifth day this season.
This is the plan, according to their manager Kevin Cash. In this story in the Tampa Bay Times, Cash said his four main starters will be Chris Archer, Blake Snell, Nathan Eovaldi and Jake Faria. On the fifth day, the Rays will fill in with several multi-inning relievers, and they will not name...
For Orioles pitching prospect Hunter Harvey, when he has thrown so far in spring training, the postgame interviews have become more about how he threw rather than how he felt.
When the Orioles selected him with the 22nd overall pick in the 2013 draft, they dreamt of a day he was among their best starting pitchers. As manager Buck Showalter might say, for a while that dream was delayed but not denied.
For O's fans, they can again dream on a day that three homegrown first-round picks in Dylan...
You could once find scouts that felt there was a good possibility that Chance Sisco would never catch in the majors. But he's already done that. You could also find some that said he is the future catcher of the Orioles. He is still trying to become that.
Drafted by the Orioles with the 61st overall pick out of a California High School in 2013, he has seen all levels of the O's farm. It began with Sisco batting .371 that summer in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League and .340 the next year for...
When the 2018 season begins, the Orioles will be afforded no time to ease into the action. The early season schedule is tough and littered with 2017 playoff teams.
Of the 15 American League teams, just five finished over .500 last year and they were all playoff teams. Cleveland won 102 games, Houston won 101 on its way to the World Series title, Boston won 93, New York won 91 and Minnesota 85.
Of their first seven series of the 2018 season, the Orioles play each of those five teams once. They...
The last week of stories in this space featured a look back at a pretty great trade for the Orioles, a look at a prediction for the opening day 25-man roster and a look at improved outfield depth on the farm.
I really enjoyed writing this blog entry on Monday. In an interview with long-time Orioles scout Jim Howard, we got some insight into the 2008 trade of left-hander Erik Bedard to Seattle. It brought five players to Baltimore, including current O's outfielder Adam Jones and pitcher Chris...
The Orioles could still use a pitcher and three key free agent pitchers are still available in Jake Arrieta, Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb. Opening day in Baltimore is now less than four weeks away and that trio is still out there.
It has been a strange, bizarre and confusing free agent winter, one that could have long-range ramifications. But that is a story for a different day.
For now, the O's could still get Lynn or Cobb. Arrieta is in play for everyone, but has not been linked to the Orioles....
When it comes to team offense, the Orioles are about average in the American League. That is in the most important stat of them all - runs scored.
And it has been that way for several seasons. In 2015, the Orioles ranked seventh in the AL in runs scored for the season. In 2016, they ranked seventh and last year they ranked eighth with 743 runs while the AL team average was 763. So the Orioles scored 4.59 runs/game while the league average was 4.71.
There are a lot of ways to break down some of...
When Baseball America ranked outfielder Austin Hays at No. 21 on its latest top 100 prospects list, that was a nice, lofty ranking for the youngster who went from Single-A Frederick to the major leagues last year. He was the Orioles' 2017 minor league Player of the Year, winning the Brooks Robinson Award.
In fact, Hays is just the fourth Orioles outfielder since Baseball America's first top 100 ranking in 1990 to be ranked that high or higher. There have been 29 polls since the first...
While Orioles fans had a long wait this winter for the club to add any starting pitching, Red Sox fans had a long wait for their club to match the New York Yankees' big move.
Match or at least try to. The Yankees stunned the baseball world in adding Giancarlo Stanton, the 2017 National League MVP, on Dec. 11. Well over two months later, the Red Sox finally got J.D. Martinez. Each team adds a huge slugger.
Martinez agreed to a five-year deal worth $110 million that has three opt-outs. For as...
Since it is never too early to try and predict the opening day 25-man Orioles roster, let's take a shot today. Yes, it is likely that more players will get added and there could be other changes, injuries and/or trades. So we take a shot as of the morning of Feb. 27. Everything is subject to change.
Starting rotation (5): Dylan Bundy, Kevin Gausman, Andrew Cashner, Chris Tillman and an in-house candidate. I'll make Nestor Cortes Jr. my clubhouse leader for the last spot. As a Rule 5 pick, he...
The Orioles may be coming off a season where their poor pitching contributed heavily to a last-place finish, but over the course of the club's history, they've had plenty of quality pitchers.
This history includes a Hall of Famer in Jim Palmer and four pitchers that have won Cy Young Awards. Palmer won three (1973, '75, '76) and other winners included Mike Flanagan (1979) Steve Stone (1980) and Mike Cuellar, who shared the 1969 award with Denny McLain.
This history includes four 20-game...
If you want to make a wager on the Orioles to win the American League East, you'll get 12-1 odds right now through the online sportsbook Bovada. Here are the odds released earlier this week. Meanwhile, eight teams are listed ahead of the Orioles with odds in terms of winning this year's AL championship.
AL East - Odds to win New York Yankees - 1/1 Boston Red Sox - 7/4 Toronto Blue Jays - 17/4 Baltimore Orioles - 12/1 Tampa Bay Rays - 12/1
2018 AL Pennant - Odds to winHouston Astros - 11/4New...