A look at the O's minor league teams and tonight's season openers

The Orioles' four full-season minor league affiliates open new seasons tonight. Triple-A Norfolk and Double-A Bowie open at home while Single-A Frederick and Single-A Delmarva begin with road openers. * The Norfolk Tides open against Charlotte at Harbor Park. The Tides will play their first eight games at home. Norfolk lost on the final day of the 2013 regular season to miss out on its first playoff berth since 2005. Tides manager Ron Johnson is the first skipper to lead Norfolk to back-to-back winning seasons since Steve Swisher skippered the Tidewater Tides to winning records in both 1990 and 1991. Johnson, who is in his 20th season as a minor league manager, ranks seventh among active minor league managers with 1,412 victories. Kevin Gausman is the Tides' opening night starter. He went 1-2 with a 4.04 ERA in eight games at Triple-A last season. In his last four outings at Norfolk last August, he gave up just two runs over 18 innings with 17 strikeouts. He'll be followed in the rotation by Steve Johnson, T.J. McFarland, Suk-min Yoon and Mike Wright. Norfolk has a veteran group of position players. It will be interesting to see how Henry Urrutia does as he continues to work on his outfield defense. He should certainly hit well for the Tides and catcher Caleb Joseph may be about to get his first extended shot at Triple-A ball. * The Bowie Baysox begin another season in the Eastern League hosting Harrisburg. The Baysox open with a seven-game homestand at Prince George's Stadium. Lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, the O's No. 3 prospect according to Baseball America, gets the start tonight. Bowie's starting rotation features three of the Orioles' top 11 prospects as Rodriguez will be followed by Tyler Wilson, Tim Berry (No. 6), Zach Davies (No. 11) and Jake Pettit. Three other O's top 30 prospects will be on the field tonight for Bowie, including catcher Michael Ohlman, first baseman Christian Walker and outfielder Dariel Alvarez. The Baysox have been a playoff contender the last few years and manager Gary Kendall wants to make a playoff run again. "I hope so. It's always fun in August when you have a chance. We have some good quality guys in there and some good makeup guys," he said. * The Frederick Keys open tonight in Lynchburg and play their home opener on April 8 at Harry Grove Stadium. Frederick native Branden Kline gets the opening night start for the Keys. He is a graduate of Frederick's Thomas Johnson High School and the O's drafted him in Round 2 in 2012 out of the University of Virginia. He'll be followed in the rotation by Parker Bridwell, Matt Taylor, Joe Van Meter and Brady Wager. Matt Hobgood will pitch out of the Keys bullpen, as will right-hander Mychal Givens. Givens made a strong transition from shortstop to the mound last year and it will be interesting to see if his strong finish to the 2013 season and his strong performance at instructional league carries into this year. Throwing from a very low three-quarters arm slot, Givens was hitting 94 mph last September with heavy sink. Adrian Marin, the O's third round pick in 2012, gets the start at shortstop, moving up from Delmarva where he hit .265 in 108 games. Luis Pujols, a cousin of Albert, is the Keys manager. He said Buck Showalter met with the minor league managers during spring training. What was Showalter's message? "Develop and teach and teach and teach. Be sure that we communicate and we stay alert and see every little thing and be sure that we fix it," Pujols said. * The Delmarva Shorebirds begin the season tonight at Asheville and open with a seven-game road trip before their April 10 home opener at Perdue Stadium. Steven Brault, the Orioles' 11th-round pick last June, pitches tonight. He went 1-2 with a 2.09 ERA in 12 starts in 2013 for short-season Single-A Aberdeen. Hunter Harvey, the club's 2013 top draft pick, will make his season debut tomorrow night. The Shorebirds begin the year with a six-man rotation with Brault and Harvey followed by Mitch Horacek, Sebastian Vader, Austin Urban and Luc Rennie. Delmarva has 20 players on its roster that played for the Aberdeen team that made its first playoff appearance last season. It will be interesting to see how players like Josh Hart, Trey Mancini, Chance Sisco, Conor Biefeldt and Mike Yastrzemski do in their first shot at full-season ball. Infielder Drew Dosch, the O's seventh-round pick last season, makes his O's pro debut after undergoing ACL surgery last May. The Orioles today released infielder Scott Savastano. He had been on the Bowie roster. Norfolk's roster: The Tides issued a press release with their full roster. The Norfolk Tides and their parent club, the Baltimore Orioles, have announced the Tides opening day roster for the 2014 season. The roster features 12 pitchers and 13 position players, and the team will once again be managed by Ron Johnson. Joining Johnson are pitching coach Mike Griffin, hitting coach Denny Walling, field coach Jose Hernandez, athletic trainer Mark Shires and strength and conditioning coach Trevor Howell. Norfolk's pitching staff will consist of starters Kevin Gausman (slated to take the mound in tonight's opener vs. Charlotte), Steve Johnson, T.J. McFarland, Mike Wright and Suk-min Yoon. Norfolk's relievers include Nick Additon, Tim Alderson, Brad Brach, Kelvin De La Cruz, Eddie Gamboa, Brock Huntzinger and Chris Jones. The Tides' opening day roster features seven infielders: David Adams, Alexi Casilla, Ivan De Jesus, Chris Marrero, Cord Phelps, Brett Wallace and Jemile Weeks. Manning the outfield for Norfolk will be Quintin Berry, Julio Borbon, Xavier Paul and Henry Urrutia. The Tides will open the season with two catchers: Caleb Joseph and Johnny Monell. Three players will open the season on the Tides disabled list: Pitchers Johan Santana and Luis Ayala and catcher Zach Booker. Santana and Ayala are not currently with the team. The Tides open their 2014 campaign tonight against the Charlotte Knights, with first pitch from Harbor Park slated for 7:05 pm. The first 10,000 fans will receive a 2014 schedule magnet, courtesy of John's Tax Service. Individual game tickets, season tickets and group tickets are currently available for the 2014 season. For pricing and additional information, stop by the Harbor Park Box Office, visit norfolktides.com or call (757) 622-2222. Bowie's roster: The Baysox release on their opening night roster: The Bowie Baysox announce today the 2014 Opening Day Roster. The roster features 14 players who spent time in Bowie last season and some of the top prospects in the Orioles organization. Eduardo Rodriguez, Tim Berry and Michael Ohlman are all rated among the Orioles top 10 prospects and all begin the year in Bowie. The starting rotation is expected to include LHP Eduardo Rodriguez, RHP Tyler Wilson, LHP Tim Berry, RHP Zach Davies and LHP Jake Pettit. Three of the five pitchers appeared with the Baysox in 2013. Returning position players include Buck Britton, Niuman Romero, Garabez Rosa, Christian Walker, Dariel Alvarez and Johnny Ruettiger. Bowie's bullpen also features a number of familiar faces, as RHP Matt Bischoff, RHP Oliver Drake, LHP Jason Gurka, LHP Chris Petrini and RHP Marcel Prado return to the Baysox. The roster includes seven players who were not in the Orioles organization last season and signed during the offseason as free agents or arrived through trades. Those players include RHP Fabio Castillo, RHP Juan Morillo, C David Freitas, INF Sharlon Schoop, OF Ronald Bermudez, OF Chih-Hsien Chiang and OF K.D. Kang.