As he gets ready to begin his 10th season as an Oriole, Brian Roberts says he's excited to see how some of the young O's players progress this year.
He's also excited to see the O's new spring training digs in Sarasota.
"To me it (the new facility) is re-energizing. We are looking forward to having the major and minor league guys in the same spot so we can get to know some of the minor league players. There are so many benefits to this move for us," Roberts said Wednesday during his segment on the Scott Garceau show, which airs on MASN and O's flagship station, 105.7 FM, the Fan.
Roberts is coming off a season where he hit .283-16-79 with 56 doubles and 110 runs. Does he have a specific focus heading into spring camp?
"Every year it's something different depending on your previous season. Going into two years ago I really wanted to increase my right-handed hitting and my average has dramatically increased.
"My (overall) average was a little lower than I would have liked last year but I hit for more power than I had the past couple years. There's a give and take. For me the biggest role is to get on base and score runs and create havoc at the top or the order."
Roberts, named the Most Valuable Oriole in 2009, was asked if he feels Dave Trembley's job security is an issue after Andy MacPhail's pronouncement that this year will be more about wins and losses.
"You don't want to go into the season looking at it like 'let's keep our manager's job or his job is on the line.' But we are at the point where we need to win (more) games. That's a major priority at this point. Our jobs as players will be graded on that and so will Dave's too. That's how we should be graded."
Roberts said he would fly to Florida on Saturday. When he gets there he'll get to see some of those young talents on the O's roster.
"For me there are a handful of guys I'm really looking forward to watching and seeing where there maturation process is. I'm looking forward to watching Bergesen to see if he can duplicate what he did last year for an entire season.
"I think Matusz is just going to be tremendous and can be one of the best left handers in the game. You can kind of see him get to that point, he was scared to death at first and then he really lit it up.
"I'm not sure what is going on between our outfield and DH but Nolan Reimold and Felix Pie are two tremendous young outfielders. When Nolan went down, Felix was tremendous. When Nolan was healthy, he was as good as it gets for a rookie.
"We have a lot of exciting aspects to our team and organization right now. I'm as excited as fans or anyone else to watch this take place."
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