A few notes on Xavier Avery, Garabez Rosa and winning ways (updated)

While many of us were focused on Hyun Soo Kim, Joey Rickard's nightly stellar play, Nolan Reimold's late-spring surge and Garabez Rosa's seemingly nightly late-inning hit, the X-man was laying in the weeds.

Has the Orioles' 2008 second-round draft pick Xavier Avery made this team? He has had one impressive spring which included a two-run homer to left by the lefty hitter last night in Philadelphia.

In 32 spring at-bats, Avery has hit .313/.476/.813 with four homers. He bounced around at Triple-A for three different organizations last year, batting .282/.343/.382 with six homers and 52 RBIs in 124 games.

The player that turned down the chance to be a college running back at the University of Georgia coming out of high school could be coming into his own at 26.

Do the O's have three outfielders for two spots and have to decide between Kim, Reimold and Avery? The X-man stated his case again last night.

Rosa raking: Garabez Rosa has been with the Orioles a few times this spring, coming over from minor league camp. Like last night, when he homered leading off the ninth to tie the Phillies 7-7. The O's added one run later for the 8-7 win.

Save for 10 at-bats at Triple-A Norfolk last year, Rosa has been with Double-A Bowie since 2013. He might soon be chasing some of Caleb Joseph's career records there.

Rosa is 12-for-21 with the Orioles this spring, batting .571 with a homer and 10 RBIs. At 26, he still might have the defensive versatility to one day chase a reserve spot in the majors. Think of a right-handed batting Ryan Flaherty-type player.

Rosa has played in 899 minor league games, all with the Orioles, without ever making the majors since 2007. Last September, he was a playoff hero as Bowie won the Eastern League championship. He homered twice in the decisive Game 5 win over Reading. Rosa had modest stats last year for the Baysox (.253 with four homers and 35 RBIs), but he hit .385 with three homers and 10 RBIs and was the MVP of the Eastern League playoffs.

Winning ways: Remember when the Orioles were 0-10-2 on March 11? They finished the spring training schedule going 12-5-3 over their last 20 games and going 7-1-1 their last nine. Just like there was no reason to panic March 11, these wins don't mean much either. But I'm sure the fans still liked to see a few victories.

Now the fake games are over and finally, finally, we get to see one that counts on Monday against the Twins.

Update: Here is a lengthy list of players recently released from the Orioles minor league camp:

Oswill Lartiguez OF
Elier Leyva OF
Yaisel Mederos 1B
Nigel Nootbaar RHP
Nik Nowottnick RHP
Hideki Okajima LHP
Greg Ross RHP
Tim Sexton RHP
Rubi Silva OF
Cody Wheeler LHP
Gene Escat RHP
Mike Carp OF
Alex Liddi INF
Dylan Rheault RHP
Patrick Palmeiro INF
Tanner Witt INF
Yariel Vargas OF