BOWIE – With all the data, technology and analytics available to players today, something simple that anyone could use that might help O’s prospect Gunnar Henderson take his offense to a higher level this year.

It comes through the magic of a foam baseball.

Yep, a foam ball is helping the top 100 prospect both flatten his swing to produce less swing and miss and to better get to balls at the top of the zone this year.

Showing that he has the game smarts to match his immense talent, Henderson, 20, with help from the O’s coaches, went to hitting the foam balls this spring in Florida to help make a difference when he faces the real baseball.

“Some stuff I said to them that I wanted to work on is flattening out (my swing) just a touch to eliminate some of the miss and foul balls in a sense that I know I should be hitting,” Henderson said Thursday at Prince George’s Stadium. “One big thing for me was hitting foam balls off the machine that had good ride to them. Felt that was a really good help. It over-exaggerates, but it helps. The second thing was just being a little more adjustable and not so stiff, letting my body do the work, so I kind of loosened up. Just relax everything, not trying to be a robot in a sense.

The team that beat the Orioles more than any other last year beat them again today. But the two-time defending American League East champion Tampa Bay Rays had to dig deep to pull out the game with a late rally in the season opener at Tropicana Field.

Pinch-hitter Francisco Mejía’s sacrifice fly with one out and the bases loaded in the last of the eighth broke the 1-1 tie as the Rays won 2-1 behind strong pitching and two sac flies.

O’s batters were held to seven hits by six Tampa Bay pitchers. The O’s struck out 14 times today, went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base.

O’s lefty John Means gave his team a solid outing, just not a very long one.

The final numbers will say Means pitched much better on opening day last year when he threw seven scoreless innings on one hit at Boston. But today he navigated a couple of times through the Rays lineup, as they made him work very hard and elevated his pitch count, which got to 84 for four innings.

The Orioles open their 69th season this afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla., against the Tampa Bay Rays. As the year begins, the Orioles are looking for their first winning season and playoff berth since 2016. Their last three full seasons have resulted in at least 100 losses.
 
Birdland is wondering how much improvement the Orioles can make from a team that finished 52-110 last year. Also, how will the roster turn over throughout the year and when will some of the top prospects arrive?
 
Good questions and three of many reasons to watch the 2022 Orioles.
 
They open with a three-game series against their 2021 tormentors in the Rays, who beat the Orioles in 18 of 19 games last year. They outscored Baltimore 150-7. Just three times in the divisional era since 1969 has one team gone 18-1 versus another. Both previously were in 2019 when Cleveland was 18-1 against Detroit and Houston went 18-1 versus Seattle.
 
The Orioles began last season with a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox, winning by scores of 3-0, 4-2 and 11-3 at Fenway Park. The Orioles were 8-9 after 17 games, 12-14 at the end of April and 15-16 on May 5 before they lost a bunch of games through the rest of that month as the season turned south.
 
This is the O’s fourth straight season opening game against a divisional opponent. They lost to the Yankees 7-2 in 2019, to Boston 13-2 in 2020 and then beat the Red Sox last year.
 
The Orioles are 9-2 in their last 11 opening day games and 16-5 in openers since 2001. They're 44-24 all-time in the first game. And they are 12-11 when the opener is on the road.
 
The Rays are the two-time defending American League East champions and went 100-62 last year. Tampa Bay lost in the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020 and the Rays season ended last year with an AL Division Series loss to Boston.
 
Lefty John Means (6-9 with a 3.62 ERA in 2021) will start an opener for the second year in a row. The last O’s pitcher to do that was Chris Tillman, with three straight opening day starts from 2014-2016. Since then, Kevin Gausman was the 2017 Game 1 starter followed by Dylan Bundy in 2018, Andrew Cashner in 2019, Tommy Milone in 2020 and Means.
 
Means threw a gem last season in the opener with seven scoreless innings on just one hit against the Red Sox. It was the O’s first opening day shutout since 2005.
 
Means posted an ERA+ of 131 in 2019 and 126 last year. He fell short of qualifying for league leaders by 15 1/3 innings last season. But if he had qualified, Means would have finished seventh in the AL and 23rd in the majors in ERA. He would have been first in the AL in WHIP (1.030) and seventh in the majors.
 
Lefty Shane McClanahan (10-6, 3.43 ERA in 2021) gets the start for the Rays. The 24-year-old McClanahan is a Baltimore native who lived in the area until he was 6. As a kid, he had a Cal Ripken Jr. poster in his bedroom.
 
In four starts versus the Orioles last year, he went 4-0 with an ERA of 2.74 and a WHIP of 1.087. Over 23 innings, he walked three and fanned 27.
 
His fastball, which he threw 41 percent last season, averaged 96.5 mph. He used his slider 35 percent, his curveball 16 percent and split-finger fastball 8 percent. He ranked in the 89th percentile (the top 11 percent) in the majors in fastball velocity and the 85th percentile in whiff rate. But when opponents did put bat to ball against him, his average exit velocity against was poor at 91.7 mph.
 
Some O’s batters against McClanahan:
 
* Cedric Mullins is 8-for-24 with two homers.
* Trey Mancini is 6-for-24 with six singles.
* Austin Hays is 6-for-22 with two homers and 10 strikeouts.
* Anthony Santander is 6-for-20 with two doubles.
* Ryan Mountcastle is 0-for-14 with eight strikeouts.
* Rougned Odor is 4-for-10.
* Jorge Mateo is 4-for-10 with two doubles.
 
 
O’s all-time opening day homer leaders:
 
6 – Brooks Robinson
4 – Cal Ripken Jr.
3 – Eddie Murray, Frank Robinson, Gus Triandos

BOWIE – The last two full minor league seasons have ended with the Double-A Bowie Baysox playing for a league championship. The Baysox came up short both times, but they went 76-64 in 2019 and 73-47 last year, with a fast start and sizzling finish, to wrap up a postseason berth.

Results like that and the highly ranked players that helped produce all of those wins have led the Orioles farm system to the No. 1 ranking in the majors from both ESPN and MLBPipeline.com. They are No. 4 via Baseball America.

On the eve of tonight’s Eastern League season opener for his club at Prince George’s Stadium versus Richmond, first-year Baysox skipper Kyle Moore said having a highly ranked farm won’t get his team or the O's organization anywhere unless they keep pushing and putting in the work to stay No. 1.

“I addressed that in the locker room in our opening team meeting,” Moore said during Baysox media day Thursday. “Because I’m really proud of that being a coach in this organization for a long time. I take extreme pride in us having the No. 1 farm system. But I don’t want the players to hear that or buy that at all. Because the truth is, no one in the AL East cares, and no one in the Eastern League cares either.

“You have to go out there and earn it. We can have the most talented team in baseball, but I want our guys to be the hungriest team in Minor league Baseball. If we go out there and do that, the talent will show. But if we come out here and buy into the hype that we’re the No. 1 farm system and we have all these best players and all this, that and the other, there are other clubs that have really good farm systems, too. And a lot of them are in our division. I try to keep the hype away from our guys as much as I can and make them understand you have to earn everything in this game.”

ABERDEEN - With a roster that includes three Orioles top 30 prospects in his infield and two that primarily play second base, new high Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds manager Roberto Mercado may need to do some shuffling of his young talent when the new season begins on Friday at Jersey Shore.

Last summer the Orioles selected Connor Norby in the second round out of East Carolina, No. 41 overall. Every start he made last season between the Rookie-level Florida Complex League and low Single-A Delmarva was at second base. He batted .264/.380/.405/.785.

In January, when the O’s announced their latest class of international signees, they added 22-year-old Cuban-born infielder César Prieto from the Cuban baseball pro ranks. He was signed to a $650,000 bonus and last year batted .403/.463/.579/1.042 and showed amazing bat control, drawing 31 walks with just 11 strikeouts. During the 2020 season, he had a 40-game hitting streak. He also has played a lot of second base.

But during an IronBirds practice last night at Ripken Stadium, Mercado said that Prieto showed him during spring training that he can move around the infield. The skipper said he plans to get both these players on the field a lot.

“Prieto will be moving around the infield,” said Mercado, who is beginning his first year in the O’s organization. “He’s a guy that is athletic, and we saw it over the last five weeks. He can play second, short and third. Which gives us some opportunities to give guys a day of rest. That is a big plus for us. We’re going to move some guys around as well throughout the year. But Norby is going to be primarily at second base and that is where his focus is going to be.”

Now that the minor league baseball season has begun, let’s take yet another look at the opening day/break-camp rosters and provide a few thoughts on the four Orioles full-season affiliates at Triple-A Norfolk, Double-A Bowie, high Single-A Aberdeen and low Single-A Delmarva.

NORFOLK

Pitchers: Diógenes Almengo, Kyle Brnovich, Marcos Diplán, Conner Greene, Ryan Hartman, Blaine Knight, David Lebron, Zac Lowther, Ofelky Peralta, Grayson Rodriguez, Cody Sedlock, Kevin Smith, Cole Uvila, Nick Vespi, Alexander Wells.

Catchers: Brett Cumberland, Chris Hudgins.

Infielders: Rylan Bannon, Patrick Dorrian, Cadyn Grenier, Jahmai Jones, Mason McCoy, Terrin Vavra.

It was a cloudy day at Camden Yards, but the ballpark was still looking beautiful today as workers were putting the final touches on the new configuration in left field.

It’s going to take quite a drive to hit the ball out in an area where once players hit what some would call “Camden Yards specials,” balls hit in the air that would be outs in most parks, but not in Baltimore.

The Orioles are intending for the park to play more fairly now. Since 1992, more homers have been hit in Baltimore than any other park, and nine of the other current major league venues have been around that entire time. More homers were hit at Camden Yards in the last 20 seasons, and 18 of the parks now in use have existed in that span.

As the final panels on the padded wall were going up today, the ballpark looked very ready for a game, and there will be one there on Monday for the home opener against Milwaukee.

“They are just putting the finishing touches on it and certainly it will be ready for our home opener against Milwaukee,” said Jennifer Grondahl, Baltimore Orioles senior vice president of communications and community development. “I think I’ve heard our players talking about it a little bit and they seem excited. The pitchers are certainly excited.

The Orioles will begin the season with 15 pitchers on their 28-man roster. The rosters must decrease to 26 players and 13 pitchers beginning on Monday, May 2. But here is a guess at how that group of 15 could look starting Friday at Tropicana Field.

My group of pitchers includes 15 of the 21 hurlers that are currently on the club’s 40-man roster, so no 40-man roster moves would be needed to start the year with this group.

This is just a guess and how I might set it up, and as we know, putting me in charge is not a good idea. But on a blog, I can run things!

Lefty John Means gets the opening day start Friday and we already knew that. Last year at Boston in the opener, he led the Orioles to their first opening day shutout since 2005. He gave up just one hit over seven innings, throwing 97 pitches in a 3-0 win.

That was the Orioles’ first shutout in an opener since they beat Oakland 4-0 as Rodrigo López threw six scoreless innings. It was the sixth opening day shutout in club history.

The Orioles may be headed for a transition year with their infield. The players that take the field on opening day on Friday in St. Petersburg will surely be pushed from behind by some of the club’s top prospects.

How soon those prospects arrive is an open-ended question, but surely the Orioles have them - both in quantity and quality - and the infield on opening day 2023 could look very different. Or maybe sooner than that.

Ramón Urías has cemented a starting infield spot this spring, a spring he began with a leg up on the competition after batting .279/.361/.412/.774 in 85 games last year. That produced an OPS+ of 111, and he is still youthful at 27. It’s just a matter of where he plays, with second, short and third all possible. Just not all at once.

The rest of the group, to be nice, lacks much in the way of big league stats, but Jorge Mateo, no doubt, intrigues with his blazing speed, and he did produce a .748 OPS in 116 O’s plate appearances last year. Rougned Odor and Kelvin Gutiérrez are in the mix, and Odor could start at second with Gutiérrez at third. Chris Owings, Shed Long Jr. and Richie Martin remain on the camp roster, and Martin has certainly hit well under the Florida sun.

But it’s the infielders on the rise that probably most excite Birdland. There are a few top 10 prospects and a decent group that will be at Double-A or Triple-A, not to mention a few ranked players expected to begin at high Single-A Aberdeen as well.

The Orioles, in conjunction with their affiliates at low Single-A Delmarva, high Single-A Aberdeen and Double-A Bowie announced their break-camp rosters today. The rosters could still change between now and opening day on Friday for those three clubs, but the bulk of the rosters were set today with this announcement.

Earlier, in this entry, we detailed the Triple-A Norfolk break-camp roster. The Tides open their season tomorrow night at home versus Charlotte. Left-hander Kevin Smith is expected to start that game.

The Bowie roster can carry 28 players, while the A-ball teams in Aberdeen and Delmarva feature 30-man rosters.

DELMARVA

Pitchers: Carson Carter, Moisés Chace, Shane Davis, Juan De Los Santos, Daniel Federman, Thomas Girard, Conor Grady, Dan Hammer, Kelvin LaRoche, Yeankrlos Lleras, Daniel Lloyd, Ryan Long, Hector López, Alejandro Méndez, Eduard Monroy, Preston Price, Raul Rangel

They are No. 1. The Orioles have the top farm system in all of Major League Baseball. They do according to both ESPN, which listed them atop its rankings in mid-February, and according to MLBPipeline.com, which rated the O’s No. 1 when updating its rankings earlier this week.

When Baseball America released its latest organizational ratings in January, the Orioles were rated at No. 4. They are No. 10 in the latest rankings via The Athletic.

When it comes to MLBPipeline.com, they first ranked the Orioles No. 1 late last August and kept them there in the newest update this week. The club has been on a steady rise in the last couple of years. In the 2020 MLBPipeline.com preseason rankings, the O’s farm was No. 13 and moved to No. 8 by midseason. Before the 2021 season, they got the No. 5 ranking and then moved to the top spot, which they now continue to hold.

In response to several questions I have been getting if the Orioles were ever No. 1 previously in these rankings, they were not.

“The Orioles are obviously struggling at the big league level, but the farm system is headed in the right direction,” MLBPipeline.com analyst Jim Callis said last summer when the club first moved to No. 1. “They have the best prospect in baseball in Adley Rutschman, who is the best catching prospect I have seen in three decades of covering prospects. They also have the game’s best pitching prospect in Grayson Rodriguez. They have built nice depth, especially in terms of position players.”

When right-hander Jordan Lyles threw five innings for the Orioles in Friday’s win over Philadelphia, it was the first five-inning outing this spring by an O’s pitcher. Maybe someone did it on a back field or in a minor league game, but not during a spring training game.

It was a welcome sight, and the Orioles are hopeful he eats that many innings and more each game when the regular season begins next weekend.

Lyles was so efficient that he needed just 55 pitches to get through five innings, allowing four hits and two runs with no walks and two strikeouts. No O’s pitcher had exceeded three innings, and then Lyles got five.

O’s starters pitched the fewest innings in the American League last year. O’s starters averaged 17.50 pitches per inning, and that was also the worst mark in the American League. Five innings via that average would amount to 88 pitches, not 55.

“For a spring training outing, working on his pitches, his command, pitched five really good innings,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “I know he feels good about getting the work in that he got. I thought he actually got better as the game went on. Breaking ball got a little better. That’s a veteran major league start right there, and happy to have him.”