For starters: O's rotation could add innings according to pitching coach Dave Wallace

The Orioles pitching staff finished with a 3.43 ERA in 2014 - which was the best by an O's staff over a full season since 1979. It also ranked as third best in the American League. The pitching was a big reason the Orioles won 96 games. It was a heckuva first year for new pitching coach Dave Wallace and bullpen coach Dom Chiti. So how do the Orioles stay at that level next year or get even better? In a recent interview with Wallace he mentioned that the club will strive to get more innings out of the starting pitchers next year as one area where they could improve. While O's starting pitchers ranked fifth in the American League last season with an ERA of 3.61, the Orioles were 10th in starter innings at 953 2/3. Detroit led the AL with 1,007 starter innings. "I think it is a responsibility of Dom and I from day one," Wallace said. "We've got to just issue a little bit of a challenge. Hey guys, here's our challenge. Let's try to improve upon the fact that we go X-amount of quality starts and get into the seventh or eighth inning rather than the sixth. "If we can just push the envelope for a few more outs. Instead of going 5 1/3 (innings), you are going 6 1/3 and you are into the seventh. Those outs, as you see during the course of the season, I would say between the fifth and the seventh, those six outs, three of them turn out to be real important. If we just get those important outs a little more from our starters and not go the bullpen quite as much, that would be great." A look at the average innings per start by O's pitchers in 2014: 6.10 - Chris Tillman 6.04 - Miguel Gonzalez 5.98 - Wei-Yin Chen 5.90 - Bud Norris 5.66 - Kevin Gausman 5.45 - Ubaldo Jimenez So how can Wallace help the O's starters cover more innings? "What you focus on is maybe having more efficient innings," Wallace said. "There were times this year when some of our starters had a 12 or 14-pitch inning, two or three in a row, then all the sudden a 32-pitch inning. "We need to talk about, 'Let's try to keep our pitches to a minimum early in the game to get deeper in the game.'" Wallace also feels having a year under his belt will help him with all the pitchers in 2015. "I also think we have a better understanding now of about during a game where certain guys you have to pat on the back a little bit and go after them gingerly during a game," Wallace said. "Then there are guys you have to kick in the butt a bit and they'll respond and they are not mad because you get in their face a little bit. I don't mean in their face, but get a little aggressive with, 'Hey dammit come on, let's go.' "Sometimes they might get mad at you but two days later they'll say we appreciated that. We didn't know that a year ago. Those are some of the intricacies that manifest itself during the season that we will take and use to our advantage this year." Winter Meetings coverage: Several members of the MASNSports.com staff, including Roch Kubatko and myself, are heading west today for the Winter Meetings. We'll be in San Diego with coverage through the Rule 5 draft and end of the event on Thursday. Check our blogs often and follow us on Twitter for updates. Each day we are expected to also get a video interview with O's executive vice president Dan Duquette. Plus I'll check in with others for video interviews.