Talking about Britton and other stuff

SARASOTA, Fla. - No NIT invite for the Terps? There goes my bracket. I already had them winning the whole thing. Obviously, I should have waited. Loved the Fab Five documentary last night, though I watched it in two parts. Missed the first half of it on ESPN, but caught the replay in ESPN2 immediately afterward and pieced it together in my head. No wonder I'm tired. The clubhouse is closed to the media again this morning and won't open until batting practice ends. I'll pass along the lineup when it's given to me. The Orioles are playing the Pirates again, but we've avoided another trip to Bradenton...until Thursday. Jake Arrieta gets the start today. Jeremy Accardo and Jason Berken also will pitch. You can tune into MASN and check out how much weight Berken has lost. The Pirates are sending Kevin Correia, Evan Meek, Scott Olsen and Joe Beimel. Olsen and Beimel will be making their first spring appearances because of injury. Well, they each had an injury. They didn't share the same one. Hamstring for Olsen, forearm for Beimel. Beimel, as you'll recall, received a minor league offer from the Orioles over the winter. Correia signed with the Pirates after going 10-10 with a 5.40 ERA for the Padres last season. Meek shall inherit the earth. A reminder that Brian Roberts gets his MRI today, beating Justin Duchscherer to the door by a full day. Hopefully, he won't dive head-first into the waiting room. As long as I'm being so random in this entry, here's what Brady Anderson thinks of Zach Britton after watching him pitch twice last year at Triple-A Norfolk and again this spring against the Yankees: "As far as pure stuff, he's up there. You have to wait for players' careers to unfold to see what they're going to be, but he will be a quality starter for a long time. He has an idea what he's doing out there. I've seen him in Triple-A when things didn't go his way and he never got rattled, stayed poised, and obviously he's got the stuff to back it up. He can go after both sides of the plate. He's a real talent. "He just has a really live arm. Seems like there's an effortless way that he throws. Certain guys just have the look and stuff about them. You know they're a little different." I've been called the same thing, and yet, I never took "a little different" as a compliment.