SARASOTA, Fla. - The major league education of Adley Rutschman involves more than his at-bats and reps behind the plate.
One of baseball's top prospects, the first overall selection in the 2019 First-Year Player Draft, has to take some teasing when he isn't behind the dish.
(Dish it out, take it. That's where I was going.)
As a small cluster of media members waited this morning to speak with Rutschman at his locker, a veteran teammate asked whether he got a hit yesterday. Someone else...
SARASOTA, Fla. - Trying to detect patterns and search for clues in spring training lineups can be an exercise in futility. Roster crunches of a different sort. Calisthenics that still leave you clueless.
Working up a sweat for a bigger waste.
You get the picture, but maybe not the pitcher.
Manager Brandon Hyde keeps batting Austin Hays in the leadoff spot, but isn't necessarily showing his hand.
Hanser Alberto batted leadoff again yesterday in the other split-squad game. It's now happened...
SARASOTA, Fla. - Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said earlier today that he wanted two innings from John Means and for the left-hander to come out of the game "feeling good." Simple goals for the first start.
"That's it," he said.
He got one out of two. The most important component.
Means was removed after 1 1/3 innings with his pitch count at 39. Jay Flaa inherited two Tampa Bay runners and let one score on Michael Brosseau's RBI single for a 2-0 lead.
A wind-blown triple by Brandon Lowe...
SARASOTA, Fla. - With the blister on his right middle finger healed, Orioles pitcher Asher Wojciechowski will start Wednesday afternoon's game against the Braves in Sarasota rather than be confined to simulated action on a back field.
The live hitters will play for an actual opponent.
Wojciechowski arrived at the complex this morning expecting to have his debut start pushed back, but manager Brandon Hyde announced a change in plans.
"That was just in the last hour," said manager Brandon...
SARASOTA, Fla. - Asher Wojciechowski is being withheld from exhibition games due to a blister on his right middle finger. However, it isn't keeping him off the mound.
Wojciechowski will throw a simulated game Wednesday morning on one of the back fields. The Orioles want him to work two innings.
"It's all good. They're just being cautious," he said.
"They want me to pitch in a controlled environment with the blister that popped up last week, but it's healed completely. We're just making...
SARASOTA, Fla. - Hanser Alberto is leading off and playing second base again today for the Orioles' split-squad game against the Rays in Sarasota, and Austin Hays is leading off again and playing center field versus the Red Sox in Fort Myers.
Ryan Mountcastle remains in left field against the Red Sox. Chance Sisco is catching Tom Eshelman.
Non-roster catcher Bryan Holaday is behind the plate for John Means. Stevie Wilkerson is playing center field.
Renato Núñez gets another look at third...
SARASOTA, Fla. - Chris Davis is going to be in today's Orioles lineup for the home split-squad game, again wearing white uniform pants rather than the travel grays.
Along with a jersey that's gotten much tighter around his biceps.
The red T-shirt that Davis slipped on after yesterday's workout clung to him like a needy friend. His arms appeared to be plotting a jail break.
Davis put on 25 lbs. of "good weight," as he described it upon reporting to camp. But how? And why?
What's most...
SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles completed their workout Monday morning at the Ed Smith Stadium complex with rounds of batting practice against a pitching machine, the velocity dialed up but nowhere near the level of competitiveness that suggested there was more at stake than bragging rights.
One ball cleared the tall fence on the Camden Yards replica field and bounced off an awning above a door to the baseball operations building. An impressive distance past the foul pole in right.
Chris Davis...
SARASOTA, Fla. - Austin Hays is in center field and batting leadoff for the second time in three games, as the Orioles head to Clearwater to play the Phillies.
Renato Núñez is back at third base and Ryan Mountcastle returns to left field.
Austin Wynns is catching and Cedric Mullins is playing right field.
Alex Cobb makes his first spring start today.
For the Orioles Austin Hays CF Anthony Santander DH Renato Núñez 3B Ryan Mountcastle LF Pat Valaika 2B Dilson Herrera 1B Richie Martin...
SARASOTA, Fla. - Alex Cobb greeted a visitor to his locker yesterday morning with an elbow tap instead of a handshake to lessen the chance of spreading germs. He joked about pulling the hood of his sweatshirt so far over his head that it would cover his face.
Cobb has been checked for the flu because he's felt a bit under the weather and the clubhouse is beginning to resemble a carpeted Petri dish. But he expects to be on the mound this afternoon against the Phillies in Clearwater.
"As of...
SARASOTA, Fla. - One start won't move the needle much in the Orioles rotation competition.
Two innings aren't a sufficient amount to begin placing odds.
Three pitchers in the crowded field wanted to make an early impression this afternoon.
Left-hander Wade LeBlanc shut out the Red Sox for the first couple of frames, allowing a single to Kevin Plawecki and striking out Tommy Joseph and Marcus Wilson. Both of them looking.
(The Red Sox didn't bring their A team to Sarasota. I'm not sure the B...
SARASOTA, Fla. - Richard Ureña exited the utility competition in Orioles camp and has been dragged back into it.
Just when a player thinks he's out ...
The club announced that Ureña cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk. He gets an invitation to spring training that bloats the camp roster to 69 players.
It was inevitable.
The Orioles designated Ureña for assignment after claiming Anthony Velazquez off waivers from the Indians. Velazquez is waiting to appear in...
SARASOTA, Fla. - Orioles left-hander Wade LeBlanc will try to go two innings this afternoon, as Chandler Shepherd and Ty Blach did yesterday in North Port.
Manager Brandon Hyde has watched the left-hander in bullpen and live batting practice sessions, but today's game provides a truer evaluation.
"He's just a veteran guy that knows how to pitch, that can command pitches," Hyde said. "He's had a good changeup and a good cutter for years. His first outing in a game and I'm sure he's...
NORTH PORT, Fla. - Chandler Shepherd got in his work this afternoon and that's the main point of an exhibition start on Feb. 22.
Shepherd, vying for a spot in the backend of the Orioles rotation, completed two innings against the Braves before Ty Blach replaced him. He allowed three runs and two hits with two walks and no strikeouts.
The Braves filled their lineup with regulars, though they removed Freddie Freeman after one at-bat.
"Obviously, there's a lot of names in that lineup that I've...
NORTH PORT, Fla. - Left-hander John Means is going to start one of Tuesday's split-squad games, when the Orioles host the Rays and travel to Fort Myers to play the Red Sox. He won't be shielded from a division opponent in the first week of the exhibition schedule.
The Orioles are known to send pitchers to Twin Lakes Park or arrange simulated games as an alternative.
"It's definitely not ideal," manager Brandon Hyde said. "But our guys are only going to go a couple of innings, so I'm not...
SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles play their first exhibition game today against the Braves at the new North Port facility, and they've got Austin Hays leading off and playing center field and Ryan Mountcastle in left.
Mountcastle is the cleanup hitter, slotting between third baseman Renato Núñez and catcher Chance Sisco.
Richie Martin is the shortstop.
Chandler Shepherd gets the start and Ty Blach follows, with both pitchers slated to go two innings. Relievers include Branden Kline and Cody...
