For Mychal Givens, elevating a pitch is not always a bad thing

SARASOTA, Fla. - While we often hear pitchers say they need to pitch down in the zone, Orioles reliever Mychal Givens is the latest pitcher to tell me he is working on pitching up the zone.

Maybe calling it an Orioles' philosophy is too strong, but clearly we've seen pitchers like Chris Tillman and Wei-Yin Chen have success in the past at times changing hitters' eye levels and pitching up. Other pitchers this spring have mentioned they are working on elevating some pitches.

Givens said he can take a cue here from one of the team's best relievers.

"I talked to Darren O'Day and he's good about doing that," he said. "I tried it out last year and it worked pretty well. I've wanted to get better at doing that and commanding that.

"It can disrupt timing and you get batters to chase pitches out of the zone with two strikes. You're just trying to change eye levels and not let the batter get too comfortable looking down and down in the zone. Just trying to change eye level and to get consistent doing that."

Givens had quite a 2015 season. He pitched in the minors long enough to earn co minor league Pitcher of the Year honors with Oliver Drake. He also had three stints in the majors, starting in June, and pitched to a 1.80 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 30 innings.

His stock is clearly on the rise - and so are some of his pitches.

* The Orioles' minor league teams began spring training games a few days ago and each of the four full-season clubs have played four games. I asked director of player development Brian Graham what he is looking to see in the early spring games.

"I think with the pitchers, you are looking for them to throw strikes," Graham said. "They are certainly not in mid-season form, but we want them to throw strikes. With the hitters, they are going to be a little behind at this point. You just want them to have good at-bats and get good pitches to hit. Defensively, you want to catch the ball. It doesn't matter if it is the first game or last game. Defensively you need to be fundamentally sound."

Graham said it can be a source of pride for the Orioles' player development operation to see players like Tyler Wilson and Christian Walker doing well in major league camp.

"We absolutely take pride in that. We have a really good group of players here. And they're kids that play the game the right way. They work hard and it's great when you see a minor league player produce at the major league level, whether it is spring or the regular season," he said.