Projecting the minor league rotations and a look at today's game

NORFOLK, Va. - The minor league seasons for the Orioles' four full-seaon affiliates at Triple-A Norfolk, Double-A Bowie, Single-A Frederick and Single-A Delmarva begin next Thursday, April 6. It should not be too long before the break-camp rosters are announced.

For now, we can speculate on what the rotations could look like starting next Thursday, so let's take some (hopefully) educated guesses:

Norfolk: With right-hander Tyler Wilson expected to start the year in the Orioles bullpen, news we learned here yesterday, I still count seven potential starting rotation candidates for Norfolk. In no particular order, they are Jayson Aquino, Gabriel Ynoa, Chris Lee, Mike Wright, Logan Verrett, Joe Gunkel and Alec Asher. It sounds like one or two could wind up, perhaps temporarily, in the Tides bullpen and that is more likely than one or two getting bumped down to the Bowie rotation. The Orioles will not go with a six-man rotation here as they want to keep the Triple-A starters on the same every fifth day routine they use in the majors. It is also possible that one of those potential Norfolk starters begins the year on the big league roster. The Orioles are expected to have an eight-man bullpen on opening day.

Logan Schafer will probably patrol center field for the Tides. Other position players here should include Chris Johnson, Sean Coyle, Paul Janish, Robert Andino, Johnny Giavotella, Pedro Álvarez and Chris Dickerson. The catchers look to be Chance Sisco and Francisco Peña.

Bowie: The Baysox right now look to have six starters, but that counts left-hander Tanner Scott, whose outings will be limited to three innings. He is pitching as a starter but is not being converted to a starter for the long-term. The Orioles still see his future in the bullpen. Click here for an earlier story I wrote with more about Scott the starter.

The other starter candidates at Double-A are David Hess, Matthew Grimes, John Means, Jason García and Brandon Barker. One of those five could piggy-back on Scott's outings to get his innings in.

It looks like Jay Gonzalez and DJ Stewart will move up to play in the Bowie outfield. Orioles vice president Dan Duquette said on MASN yesterday that Cedric Mullins is going to start the year at Bowie, thereby skipping Frederick. That is an interesting decision, despite Mullins' strong play in O's camp. He will get a real challenge in the Eastern League. Drew Dosch, Adrian Marin, Erick Salcedo and Aderlin Rodriguez could be other position players in Bowie, where the catchers could be Audry Perez and Austin Wynns.

Frederick: The Keys rotation is expected to be headed up by the Orioles' top two 2016 draft picks - right-hander Cody Sedlock and lefty Keegan Akin. They should be joined by Brian Gonzalez, Ofelky Peralta and Cristian Alvarado moving up from Single-A Delmarva. Austin Hays is expected to play center field for the Keys where Randolph Gassaway will join him in a corner outfield spot. We will see Jomar Reyes at third and Ryan Mountcastle at short for Frederick, with possibly Steve Wilkerson at second and Alex Murphy at first. Stuart Levy and Yermin Mercedes should be the catchers for Frederick.

Delmarva: Five starter candidates for Delmarva include Alexander Wells, Matthias Dietz, Travis Seabrooke, Lucas Humpal and Jhon Peluffo. Preston Palmeiro from the 2016 draft will move up to the Shorebirds along with outfielder Cole Billingsley. Irving Ortega, a 20-year shortstop from the Dominican Republic, is the likely shortstop starter for the Shorebirds and should be joined in the middle infield by 2016 draftee Chris Clare, with Palmeiro at first base and maybe playing some at second also.

The Orioles against the Tides: This afternoon at 3:05 p.m. the Orioles will end a very long spring training schedule with their last exhibition game. After wrapping up Grapefruit League play Thursday, today they will take on the Norfolk Tides at Harbor Park, the home of the Tides.

The questionable weather outlook of earlier this week may not turn as bad as feared. In fact, according to Weather.com as of late last night, the rain chance goes down to 40 percent with partly sunny skies forecast around the time of the first pitch.

The Orioles have played here four times previously:

2007: Orioles beat the Nationals 6-5 in front of 12,408
2009: Orioles beat the Nationals 6-3 in front of 11,833
2012: Tides beat the Orioles 6-4 in front of 8,749
2014: Orioles beat the Tides 4-3 in front of 10,156

The last two games here, where the Orioles played Norfolk, were impacted by poor weather. The 2012 game was played at times during a light rain. The 2014 game, which looked very much like it might be rained out ahead of time, was shortened to six innings by rain.

Just for fun, here is a look back at some lineups. First for the game here on April 4, 2012:

Orioles

LF - Endy Chavez
SS - J.J. Hardy
RF - Nick Markakis
CF - Adam Jones
DH - Nick Johnson
C - Matt Wieters
3B - Mark Reynolds
1B - Chris Davis
2B - Robert Andino

P - Brian Matusz

Tides

CF - Xavier Avery
SS - Steve Tolleson
2B - Ryan Adams
DH - Josh Bell
LF - Jamie Hoffman
1B - Joe Mahoney
RF - Scott Beerer
3B - Zelous Wheeler
C - John Hester

P - Zach Clark

Matusz pitched four scoreless for the Orioles. He found out after that game he would be in the season-opening rotation along with Jake Arrieta, Tommy Hunter, Jason Hammel and Wei-Yin Chen. Norfolk rallied with three runs in the fifth, one in the seventh and two in the eighth. The Tides' Steve Tolleson went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Josh Barfield added two RBIs. Manny Machado had a two-run double for the Orioles.

Mark Reynolds enjoyed a homecoming. He played high school ball at nearby First Colonial, just 17 miles from Harbor Park. Before this game, he purchased 150 barbeque sandwiches for his teammates from Doumar's in Norfolk.

The lineups for the game on March 29, 2014:

Orioles

LF - David Lough
SS - J.J. Hardy
1B - Chris Davis
CF - Adam Jones
RF - Nelson Cruz
C - Matt Wieters
DH - Delmon Young
3B - Ryan Flaherty
2B - Steve Lombardozzi

RHP - Suk-min Yoon

Norfolk

CF - Julio Borbon
2B - Cord Phelps
RF - Henry Urrutia
DH - Chris Marrero
1B - Brett Wallace
C - Caleb Joseph
3B - David Adams
SS - Alexi Casilla
LF - Quintin Berry

RHP - Zach Davies

The youngster Davies, headed at that time for the Double-A Bowie rotation, had a nice first inning against the Birds. He got David Lough to line out and then he struck out both J.J. Hardy and Chris Davis. But in the second inning, he allowed a three-run homer to Matt Wieters, following singles by Adam Jones and Nelson Cruz. Ryan Flaherty's RBI single scored the fourth Orioles run. The game was halted by rain after 5 1/2 innings. Yoon allowed two runs over 3 2/3 innings for the Orioles. Several half-innings were ended before three outs were recorded due to pitch counts.

MASN booth returns with Orioles promos for opening day: MASN is giving fans opportunities to win new, exclusive prizes at its booth on opening day, April 3.

Fans will be able to participate free in "Social Snapshots" photos ops, presented by Pixilated Photo Booth. Photos will be printed on-site for free, with a digital copy also sent via text for sharing on social media.

Those who stop by the MASN booth will also be able to participate in various games and giveaway opportunities. Fans can enter to win exclusive "Ain't Baseball Great!" T-shirts, autographed gear, Orioles souvenirs and more.

All fans will receive an exclusive, free Mark Trumbo poster with the Orioles TV schedule for the 2017 season, while supplies last.

Fans attending the opener should follow @masnOrioles on Twitter and RSVP to the MASN Orioles Facebook event for more prize previews and the Social Snapshots schedule release. The booth will be open when all gates open through the end of the second inning.

The Orioles have released 14 players from minors camp. They are: SS Guillermo Salas, RHP Cody Satterwhite, RHP Trey Haley, RHP Tomo Ohka, RHP Garrett Cortright, INF Anthony Caronia, INF Derek Peterson, INF Austin Anderson, RHP Andrew Elliott, LHP Daniel Ayers, LHP Xavier Borde, OF Conor Bierfeldt, 1B Michael Katz, LHP Robert Strader.