Some notes and a quick take on the pitching

A few news and notes from around the baseball world: * If reports are accurate that pitcher Hiroki Kuroda is heading back to Japan to pitch at age 40 next year, the Orioles will not be sorry to see him go. Kuroda went 38-33 with an ERA of 3.44 the last three seasons for the Yankees. He went 11-9 with a 3.71 ERA last year with a 1.14 WHIP and just 1.6 walks per every nine innings. That is solid pitching at any age. Against the Orioles, while Kuroda was just 3-3 in 11 career starts, he posted a 2.81 lifetime ERA. In 73 2/3 innings, he had an amazing 50-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio against the Orioles with a WHIP of 0.84. * Here are a couple of recent gems from the Twitter account - Ace of MLB stats:

Seasons with 50+ XBH, 50+ SB, & 100+ BB #Reds Joe Morgan 4 The other 18,407 players in history 0

— Ace of MLB Stats (@AceballStats) December 26, 2014

In his 65th career plate appearance, Wade Boggs singled to center, raising his career average to .328; it would never fall below this mark.

— Ace of MLB Stats (@AceballStats) January 30, 2014

* The Nationals signed right-handed pitcher Scott McGregor to a minor league contract yesterday. As far as I know, this pitcher has no relation to and has no connection to the former Orioles pitcher of the same name that works in the club's minor league department. The O's Scott McGregor spent some time on the big league coaching staff during the 2014 season. While the younger McGregor has an ERA of 4.49 in 619 career minor league innings, the elder McGregor went 138-108 with an ERA of 3.99 from 1976-88 for the Birds. McGregor was the pitcher on the mound when the Orioles last won the World Series in 1983. McGregor provided a memorable quote from the 2014 season. In early August, he served as the Orioles interim pitching coach when Dave Wallace was away from the team for a few days. McGregor said he liked what he saw then, as he observed a real chemistry and togetherness on the O's pitching staff. "What I see now in the pitching staff is unbelievable, something we used to do," McGregor said. "(Wei-Yin) Chen had a bullpen and the whole starting staff comes out and watches every bullpen. They sit there and are vocal about it. They say, 'Hey, what are you doing?' "I leaned over to Tillman and I tapped him on the shoulder and said, 'You guys are finally a team.' That is what we used to do. We used to be out there all the time for each other. They have really bought into it together as a team and it's really nice to see." * Finally, while some of the readers here are convinced the Orioles have taken steps backward in losing Nelson Cruz, Nick Markakis and Andrew Miller, can their pitching staff be as strong in 2015 as last year when it ranked third in the league in ERA? I believe it can. No O's starting pitcher pitched well above his track record last season. Before you say Miguel Gonzalez, who went 10-9 with a 3.23 ERA that led all O's starters, consider that the right-hander's WHIP (1.30), hits per nine innings (8.8) and homers allowed per nine (1.4) in 2014 all were the worst marks of his three years with the team. Bud Norris possibly could regress. He topped his career averages in a few stat categories, including WHIP (1.21 to 1.38), hits per nine (8.1 to 8.9) and walks per nine (2.8 to 3.5). On the plus side, the O's should get more than 20 starts from Kevin Gausman, Ubaldo Jimenez could improve and young pitchers like Dylan Bundy could be waiting in the wings. Can the O's pitching staff repeat its 2014 performance in 2015?