Sizing up spring: Some things have gone well, some not as well

The Orioles are now down to just five spring training games remaining. They have four in Florida and the last one in Philadelphia on Friday night. Opening day is April 4 at home against Minnesota.

So with the spring almost over here is a look at a few bright spots and a few concerns:

Hardy looks healthy: When J.J. Hardy homered in three straight games from Thursday to Saturday, that was a welcome sight for any Orioles fan. From 2011-13, Hardy led all major league shortstops in both homers (77) and RBIs (224). But he has hit just 17 homers combined the past two years.

Hardy injured his left shoulder late in spring training last year and it clearly impacted his ability to drive the ball. If some of his pop returns, that would be huge for this team. Hardy is signed through the 2017 season.

Britton is very ready: Remember when there was a theory going around that the Kansas City Royals laid off Zach Britton's sinker in the 2014 postseason and other teams would do the same? Yep, how did that work out? His sinker is great and teams are still beating it into the ground. A bigger concern may be defending 60-foot grounders. When they get a lead to work with, the back end of the O's bullpen should be outstanding again.

Homers are coming: As the regulars got more at-bats this spring, the O's started mashing more homers. They ranked fourth in the American League with 36 this spring through Saturday. Not sure what to make of this, but the other AL East teams have not hit many. New York ranks last among AL teams with 14, followed by Tampa Bay with 20 and Boston 22. Toronto ranks 10th with 26 home runs.

Starting pitching remains a concern: The O's starters didn't do too much this spring to ease concerns. They are going to have to silence their doubters starting next month. We've heard several pitchers indicate they threw the ball better than their pitching lines in Florida. They need to turn that into actual results starting in April.

Heading into Sunday's games, the Orioles ranked last in AL team pitching in ERA (6.49), WHIP (1.77) and batting average against (.319). Unless and until the Orioles start pitching better, the concern level will be high here throughout Birdland.

Wieters' elbow is still an issue: Everything seemed to be going well with Matt Wieters until he left a game on March 12. Wieters was limited to 75 games last year and has not carried a full load of games since 2013. The O's have a very solid backup in Caleb Joseph, but they'd sure love to have their top two catchers available to take on the AL East this year.

Gausman's shoulder is still an issue: The Orioles remain hopeful we could see Kevin Gausman starting as soon as the sixth game of the year. But there has to be some trepidation about Gausman dealing with shoulder tendinitis for the second year in a row. He was on the DL last season from May 8 to June 20. At a time when the Orioles could really use Gausman to take a big step forward, they are going to need him on the field to do that.

So with just a few days left in spring training, what the positives and negatives about the team?