Will it get tough for some of the youngsters?

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

March 26, 2010, 6:23am

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There are many clichÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â©s in sports and certainly in baseball, too. "You win with pitching and defense." "It's a marathon, not a sprint." "You can never have enough pitching." "A walk's as good as a hit." OK that last one is from little league and not heard too often in the American League. Here's one that is just not true. "As a young player, he will only get better." Oh really. If that were a truism, every young talent on every team would put up better stats every year. You know, he might get worse, or he might get hurt or he might develop a poor work ethic. Maybe we should say "as a young player, still learning the ropes, he has a chance to get better." Which brings me to the reason for this post. Which young O's talents will be getting better this year and which ones might even regress? Will the league develop scouting reports on some of the young guys that will make it harder for them to have success this year? Here are last year's stats for some of the youthful O's: Adam Jones: .277-19-70 Felix Pie: .266-9-29 Nolan Reimold: .279-15-45 Matt Wieters: .288-9-43 Brad Bergesen: 7-5, 3.43 David Hernandez: 4-10, 5.42 Brian Matusz: 5-2, 4.63 Kam Mickolio: 0-2, 2.63 Chris Tillman: 2-5, 5.40 Which of this group, or any others you have in mind, may take a step back this year? Which do you feel most confident about based on last year's performance?