All the Orioles news that's fit to print

[jcroemer]

Jeff Zrebiec makes his Opening Day roster picks. Meanwhile, Peter Schmuck publishes his Sunday column with a focus on the Orioles rotation and its many candidates.

[Frobby]

This is why I love Arrieta:

Arrieta said he was really excited about coming to major league spring training, but he wasn't surprised. He is not projected to be on the Opening Day roster this year, but he said he's going to enjoy the chance to open some more eyes during the next few weeks.

"Being a non-roster player doesn't matter to me,'' he said. "I'm going to go out there and try to outpitch everybody, but at the same time I'm not going to overdo it. I'm just going to compete. I've always been a competitor."

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/schmuck/2009/02/arrieta_no_regrets.html

[jcroemer]

Zrebiec publishes a piece on Matt Wieters and Koji Uehara. He makes the point that these two will be the most watched in camp this year.

Wieters:

"I think you come to every spring training trying to make the team, but more important than that, you're trying to work hard, and you're trying to get better yourself. That's my goal for spring training,"

An Examiner article, focuses on Koji Uehara. Meanwhile, MLB published a piece about Koji Uehara's communication abilities and the learning curve he has in front of him.

Of course, Schmuck posted a blog focused on Jake Arrieta, who defends his decision to pitch for Team USA last season,

"People don't think I pitched that much [for Team USA], but I got four or five starts,'' Arrieta said this afternoon. "I might have gotten two or three more starts in Bowie. I've heard people say they didn't think I should have gone to the Olympics, but that's something virtually nobody gets an opportunity to do.''

Josh Land of the Carroll County Times is in Florida, reporting on the Orioles.

If a pop-up ad does not interrupt your trek to the Indy Star, there is a pretty decent article previewing AL spring training.

The Houston Chronicle catches up with Troy Patton. Patton was once considered the pitching gem of the Astros' system. What's more, he was a hometown kid:

Patton was stunned. His dream of pitching for his hometown team was gone in an instant.

“It was shocking and disappointing,’’ he said. “It was harder for my dad than it was for me. He was really looking forward to me shining in the hometown spotlight. His imagination was already running wild from the little time I had in the big leagues.’’

After six months of tough rehab, Patton is playing baseball again. He’s going to spring training with the hopes of winning a spot in the Baltimore rotation.

“Things happen for a reason,’’ he said. “I really haven’t thought about the Astros since the trade. I’m excited about pitching for the Orioles.’’

I hope you enjoy your Sunday morning reading.

[terpsos]

I hate steriods in Baseball. If it was in some meaningless sport like Tennis or Bicycle Racing or Football or Track and Field I could let it go.

In Baseball? Hell no. Like someone said the other day. Baseball is held to a different standard. Nobody makes a movie like "A Field of Dreams" about football.

That said. I do feel some sadness for Bigbie. Roberts should NOT hate Bigbie. He did it himself. Someone was bound to be the one to get nailed once Bonds got the 73 homeruns. After that dork passed MacGwire something had to be done about it.

I believe steroids is more of a help in all of those "meaningless" sports that you mentioned.

Ever hear of the movie Rudy?

[scOtt]

I hate steriods in Baseball. If it was in some meaningless sport like Tennis or Bicycle Racing or Football or Track and Field I could let it go.

In Baseball? Hell no. Like someone said the other day. Baseball is held to a different standard. Nobody makes a movie like "A Field of Dreams" about football.

That said. I do feel some sadness for Bigbie. Roberts should NOT hate Bigbie. He did it himself. Someone was bound to be the one to get nailed once Bonds got the 73 homeruns. After that dork passed MacGwire something had to be done about it.

I don't disagree at all with your point, but have to mention one of my favorite movies.

The Best of Times

I feel sorry for Bigbie too. He did make his own bed, he did use. But the way Bogadan (sp?) used him is beyond low. What a tool!

[Peace21]

To all those folks that need to get their Baseball/Steroid fix here is a good article written by Mike Lupica(ESPN Sports Reporters, NY Daily News) http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2009/02/14/2009-02-14_gene_orza_and_donald_fehr_lead_baseballs.html?page=0

He talks about the 2002 collective bargaining meetings. And talks about Angelos and Gene Orza from the union getting into it about roids. Good stuff.

[jcroemer]

There was a heck of a lot published yesterday on the Orioles' opening steps out of the gate.

Let's start with The Sun's feature on the 237 pitchers we've invited to camp. Zrebiec asks are the pitchers healthy enough?

Schmuck and Roch are in a hot, yet unspoken competition to see who can publish more blogs. Let's start with Schmuck, since he filed the first blog this year. Yesterday, Schmuck blogged on the subject of Matusz fitting in, pitching strength in numbers, Uehara's first workout, Rich Hill's debut, his predictions on the starting five, and a general Day One story.

Over at MASN, Roch started the day on pitcher's physicals, the start of the workouts, the visa status of Alfredo Simon, then Uehara's first day, followed by Patton and Albers, before wrapping up with a few observations. Wait, Roch went for one more at ten last night, a few words from Matt Wieters.

KFFL reports on the Alfredo Simon visa situation. Spencer Fordin at MLB files a nice report on Jeremy Guthrie's new role as mentor.

Larry Larue of the News Tribune talks with pain-free Eric Bedard as the M's open camp. Bedard's health is also the subject of an article in the Kitsap Sun. Of course, CBC sports wanted a piece of the Bedard story.

[jcroemer]

USA Today ran a piece on Koji Uehara's adjustment to American MLB baseball.

The Sun reports how excited Matusz is to be in major league camp. He better be, this writer would sell a kidney to be in his shoes!

Jay Trucker's latest discusses Dannys Baez and the possibility of striking it rich with Hill.

Peter Schmuck is offering reasons why we should not rush Matt Wieters to the big leagues:

1. He's not ready, which is something the Orioles have to care about even if you don't.

2. He needs more experience handling pitchers and it won't hurt him to get another hundred minor league at-bats.

3. He's got six years under club control and you don't want to waste a minute of that on a false start.

4. The O's can actually increase that to nearly seven years by holding him back for a couple of months.

Then Schmuck published a blog focused on Hayden Penn, in which Hayden says,

"I think everything happens for a reason,'' he said today. "I got called up early and got an opportunity, so I guess things even out. It's just part of baseball. Things happen. As weird as it seemed at the time, things happen to a lot of people. Not just me."

Meanwhile, Roch started the morning by looking at Hayden Penn, before discussing Koji Uehara's role as teacher and student, and most recently, blogged about Koji's first side session.

[Tx Oriole]

Larry Bigbie speaks to The Sun about steroid use in Major League Baseball. Some highlights:

I just don't believe that he would have ever amounted to very much as a player. If he took steoids, then he has only himself to blame.

[Hank Scorpio]

Here is Zaun on Uehara after his side session...

Good stuff in there.

[AVencill]

Here's a piece from Yahoo! Sports Tim Brown about Wieters and Zaun, and the differences between being a rookie and a grizzled vet

[RShack]

Meanwhile, Roch started the morning by looking at Hayden Penn...

I like Roch, and I think he's a hoot, but I don't really understand this part:

This could be his last chance to stick with the Orioles, who have given him plenty of opportunities.

Penn got a look-see or two, way back when he truly was just a kid and probably had no business being in a big league game. However, I don't see how he's had "plenty of opportunities" to stick with the big club. I'm sure the O's would have been happy to provide them, but Penn's very odd string of very weird events precluded that.

It's true that this looks like his best and last shot with the O's, but the idea that he's had "plenty of opportunities" doesn't add up to me. Nobody's fault, really, the kid has just been

.

[jcroemer]

Roch picked up right after noon with Kranitz on Uehara.

"For the first real look at him, I was very impressed," Kranitz said. "He looks like he has above-average command of his fastball and I was certainly impressed by what he was trying to do. I could see that he was working on things. I was a little surprised, in a good way, that he has a cut fastball. To me, that's going to be a tremendous help in this league. His command was as good as anybody I've had."

Then a half-hour later Roch followed up with a Day 2 wrap, only to make a few more observations before checking out a minor league game schedule.

On the other side of town, Peter Schmuck reported that Adam Jones arrived in camp before giving us a little more on Koji Uehara. He followed with a post about the minor league schedule.

USA Today writes about Matt Wieters and MLB writes about Koji Uehara.

[jcroemer]

FakeTeams attempts to predict the future values of David Price and Matt Wieters.

MLB lets us know that Jay Gibbons is geared up for a fresh start in Florida.

Tony Wisniewski's follow-up to a Jay Trucker piece I linked earlier. They would appreciate it if I mentioned their media organization - The Examiner.

[jdouble777]

Jeff Zrebiec makes his Opening Day roster picks. Meanwhile, Peter Schmuck publishes his Sunday column with a focus on the Orioles rotation and its many candidates.

Enough with Hayden Penn already, seriously, go to AAA and prove you are the 87 IP AAA you were when you were 21. Why would he make the rotation over the immense amount of others who are more proven and probably more upside?

This is what I'm talking about:

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/P/Hayden-Penn.shtml