Kuzul

As of right now, the Baltimore Orioles are falling, and falling fast.

While they haven’t moved in the standings, they’ve been continuing to increase the distance between them and the first-place New York Yankees. And after last night’s horrible loss, the O’s lost their wild-card spot for the time being.

The rapid fall of the Birds can be attributed to, in part, the offense. Frankly, the offense has just been offensive over the last few weeks. Guys aren’t hitting, guys aren’t getting on base, guys aren’t showing the same pop they did earlier in the season. Basically, guys are striking out.

Still, the offense isn’t as much of a worry as the defense, the starting pitching or the overworking of the bullpen. But I digress…

Because of all the slumping, there are some players who are bound to break out in the second half of the season—and break out big.

Want to know who is a likely candidate to do that? Keep on reading.

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Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Jake Arrieta has thrown just one good game over the course of the last month and a week.

Considering that Arrieta was the Orioles’ Opening Day starter, and that the young man was supposed to step up and take on the role of being the club’s ace this year, that’s pretty pathetic.

It’s getting to the point where Arrieta goes out there and even the fans expect him to get shelled. Heck, he may even expect that of himself right now.

I like Arrieta. He’s got great stuff, and I honestly believe he can turn into a great pitcher. And because I like him so much, I want to see him go down to Triple-A.

Staying in the majors is doing him absolutely no good right now. Over the course of his last three outings, he’s thrown 13 innings and given up a whopping 19 earned runs. During that time, his ERA has jumped from 4.72 to 6.32. Wow, just plain wow.

But the strange thing is, he’s still showing the ability to get guys out and over power them, as evidenced by his June 3 start where he no-hit the Tampa Bay Rays through three before giving up four runs over the course of the next inning and two-thirds.

Or even yesterday’s start against the Phillies, where he went four innings and gave up an insane nine earned runs. Somehow, in between all of those 11 hits against him, Arrieta managed to strike out five batters. Five K’s over the course of four innings is nothing to scoff at.

Basically, Arrieta has the stuff and he has the skill. All he needs to do is harness that talent and become consistent with it. But we all know that that’s a lot easier said than done.

A return to Triple-A would benefit Arrieta greatly right now. After last night’s game, Arrieta was quoted as saying: “I’m just kind of lost right now,” and that this was easily the toughest stretch of his career. MASN blogger Roch Kubatko also stated how Arrieta “has exuded confidence from the first day that he stepped inside a major league clubhouse in spring training.”

Not anymore.

Clearly, Arrieta needs a confidence booster because the game of baseball is as much mental as it is physical. Being in a bad place mentally will almost certainly mean a poor showing on the field.

For that reason, Arrieta needs to return to Triple-A for at least a good four or five starts in order for him to regain his confidence and learn to better locate his fastball. Good pitching starts with good fastball command, and if Arrieta can figure that out and build up his confidence by dominating Triple-A competition, he can return to the bigs with a new air about himself.

Arrieta needs to return to the minors, for the good of the team, and for the good of himself.

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Former professional hitter Manny Ramirez is trying to make a comeback after abruptly retiring a few games into the 2011 season due to a second positive PED test and subsequent suspension.

Originally, it was thought that the Baltimore Orioles, Oakland A’s and Toronto Blue Jays were the final three in on Manny. O’s GM Dan Duquette would never commit one way or another when asked by reporters, saying things like “Manny is an interesting player,” or “we’re looking to at opportunities to add more bats” or other statements of the like.

However, yesterday Duquette finally quieted those rumors with these remarks to Baltimore reporters yesterday, courtesy of Roch Kubatko of MASN Sports:

“I don’t think there’s going to be a fit for Manny,” Duquette said. “We’ve looked at that all winter and I’m not sure there’s a fit there for the Orioles. I wish Manny a lot of luck, but I just don’t think he fits in our ballclub right now.”

To O’s fans, this is some of the best news, perhaps the best news, they have heard all season. An overwhelming majority of Birds fans were opposed to a one-year marriage of Manny and their beloved team, and for good reason. Manny’s a clubhouse cancer, and who knows if he can even swing the bat anymore.

The Orioles’ roster is full of young players. Having Manny around all those young players didn’t seem like the best idea, as his negative attitude could have poorly influenced the clubhouse. That’s the last thing the young minds need in Baltimore while they’re trying to improve their game and reach the lofty expectations thrust upon them.

Plus, due to his positive PED test in 2011, Manny would have to sit out the first 50 games of the season. With the loss of those 50 games in addition to the fact that Manny would probably need to ride the bench every so often to rest up, the team that signs him is looking at roughly 100 to 105 games of service from him during the 2012 season, if they’re lucky. Of course, that would be assuming he doesn’t get injured.

Looking at the situation, it certainly doesn’t seem like a good idea for the O’s. Manager Buck Showalter would love to leave the DH spot relatively open for him to rotate his players through in order to play the best defensive alignment each game and rest who needs to be rested (such as the ability to keep catcher Matt Wieters’ bat in the lineup while giving him a break from the catching gear), and with Manny on the team, he couldn’t do that if he wanted Manny in the lineup.

Any team that signs Manny is essentially signing him to be a full-time DH, since he was never effective in the field during his career to begin with and would only be worse now due to his age.

Essentially, this is a good move by the Orioles simply by not making a move. The O’s don’t need Manny, and I would almost bet that they’ll get better production out of the DH spot this season by rotating the likes of Wieters, utility man Wilson Betemit, left fielder Nolan Reimold, etc. through it than they would having Manny there full-time.

I’m just happy that I won’t be entertained by Ramirez’s “Manny being Manny” antics this season with him in the orange and black.

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Just as it was last year, the Baltimore Orioles have everything riding on the shoulders of one very fragile piece of the team:

The young pitching.

We all saw how that turned out last season. But again, we look towards a season with our team banking everything on the young arms in the system—Jake Arrieta, Zach Britton, Brian Matusz and Chis Tillman.

Arrieta and Britton pretty much have starting jobs to lose in spring training. Matusz will need to prove he’s healthy and in shape after an historically bad season in 2011. Tillman, well… The O’s would be lucky to get even a serviceable starter out of him at this point.

Even if Arrieta and Britton secure their big league rotation spots, they still need to take steps forward. And Matusz needs to return to the form he showed in late 2010, after Buck Showalter took over as manager of the team.

If those things can happen, the O’s will have an honest shot at topping .500 this season and, if they’re lucky, an outside chance at securing the Wild Card.

Looking at their lineup, it isn’t the greatest, but it isn’t terrible either. There’s plenty of teams who have had success with a lineup that isn’t nearly as productive as the Orioles’ is. The Tampa Bay Rays are one team that comes to mind. The San Francisco Giants that won the 2010 World Series is another.

Want to know why they had success?

Pitching. Young pitching. Lots of good, young pitching.

The Orioles’ defense isn’t terrible either. It could improve and it’d be nice to see it improve, but it’s okay right now, especially if we have another losing season approaching.

The offense could hold it’s own as a winning team and the defense would be acceptable. It’s the pitching, it’s always the pitching.

Everyone knows how the team performed in late 2010. That happened because the pitchers were pitching at a high level.

The O’s hovered around .500 for the first couple months of the 2011 season because the pitchers were pitching alright. They weren’t pitching wonderfully, but better than us fans had been used to seeing.

When a team’s pitching falls apart, the team falls apart. Everyone knows that.

But strong pitching can carry a team to a winning season, the playoffs and even a title.

If the young pitching decides to grow this season, the O’s could be in good shape.

If not, brace yourselves for another long season, Orioles fans.

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Apparently, the Baltimore Orioles front office is leaving next season all up to the young starters again.

Gee, that sure as heck fared well during the 2011 season.

But on a serious note, it appears as though the success of the Orioles will depend on how the group of young pitchers, particularly Jake Arrieta and Zach Britton, grow and blossom.

The two pitchers mentioned above definitely weren’t terrible last year. Britton put up a nice season for any rookie pitcher, but he isn’t content with it. Arrieta had his faults, but was astronomically better than either Chris Tillman or Brian Matusz were.

(Matusz put up the worst single-season earned run average of any starting pitcher in history with at least 10 starts during the season.)

Ideally, Britton will only improve, Arrieta will come back from bone spur surgery and continue to grow and Matusz will return to the form he showed in late 2010. If that happens—and that’s a huge if—then that puts the Orioles in a great position to make a run at a winning record, and maybe a Wild Card contender if they’re lucky.

After all, good young pitching is a big key to winning. Just ask the Tampa Bay Rays, or the 2010 World Series champion San Francisco Giants. The Orioles offense is better than either of those teams’ offenses, but their league-worst pitching is what kills them.

At least this coming season, there’s going to be a lot more pitching depth to take the pressure off the youngsters and staff veteran Jeremy Guthrie. Orioles general manager Dan Duquette has added to the major-league ready starting pitching depth with the additions of Dana Eveland and Japanese imports Tsuyoshi Wada and Wei-Yin Chen.

Of the three, Chen seems to be the only sure thing for next season’s rotation out of spring training, and the pitcher with the most upside.

However, all three present better options than what former GM Andy MacPhail brought in last season to provide depth: an oft-injured Justin Duchscherer who was a low-risk, high-reward option, but only ended up throwing two innings for the Orioles in spring training, and never donned the O’s uniform in another game.

And there’s also Alfredo Simon, who can step in and make some starts if another starter becomes injured or is ineffective.

The outlook for the pitching staff currently looks a bit better for this year than it was in 2011. However, the Orioles will not compete unless the pitching staff is improved and/or the young starters make huge strides during the season. The most realistic optimistic expectation is to hope for the pitchers to improve and the Orioles to have a 70- to 80-win season.

This team needs a lot of work, on every front of the game. But if the pitching improves greatly, then so would the team’s record. The offense and defense are good enough to help the pitching win, if the pitching can help the offense and defense.

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In the middle game of a three game set between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards earlier this week, a rubber match was taking place between Boston’s Josh Beckett and Baltimore‘s Jeremy Guthrie.

That is, until O’s outfielder Luke Scott smashed a 425-foot two-run homer onto Eutaw Street in the bottom of the fourth to break the scoreless tie.

Understandably, Scott admired his ball as it carried off into the night. Who wouldn’t? If you hit a ball that far, you’re going to want to see it go.

Unless your name is Josh Beckett.

The Red Sox‘ pitcher didn’t appreciate Scott watching his hit fly, and appeared to be yelling at Scott as he stared him down multiple times as he rounded the bases, and even after he reached the inside of the dugout. The game’s plate umpire, Fieldin Culbreth, had to calm Beckett down.

In Scott’s next at-bat in the game against Beckett, the pitcher didn’t retaliate, though that could be due to the teams being caught in a close ball game, as well as a sure-fire ejection had Beckett drilled Scott.

After the game, Beckett told reporters on the subject that “Those things have a way of working themselves out.”

So is Beckett planning on drilling Scott the next time the two teams meet? Or will he have a fellow pitcher do so?

On the flip side, this is what Scott had to offer to reporters when asked about it after the ballgame: “When I got into the dugout, the guys said he was yelling or something like that. I’ve got all the respect in the world for Josh Beckett. He’s one of the best pitchers in the game. I respect every pitcher who takes the mound against me. He is a tremendous competitor, and there are emotions. I’m an emotional person, so I can understand people getting emotional.”

What’s so bad about one admiring a lengthy home run they hit? Personally, I’m not exactly sure. If I were a pitcher and someone beat me in that fashion, I would understand them wanting to give it an extended look.

That’s baseball, as well as life. People naturally want to take a look at their accomplishments, and for Beckett to get upset over it further proves that he has the emotions of a pre-teen going through puberty.

Beckett is well known for being one of baseball’s most notorious cry-babies, and though there have been all too many examples proving as much, one sticks in my head.

I can’t remember what season it was, but my guess is between three to five years ago. It was, again, a game at Camden Yards between the Sox and the Birds with Beckett on the bump.

Melvin Mora, a longtime Oriole during the last decade, was on second, taking his lead, when all of a sudden, Beckett turned around and started walking towards Mora, shouting at him the whole time.

I don’t remember specifics, such as if the benches cleared or if Beckett was stopped by umpires/teammates before he reached Mora, but I do remember that no punches were thrown. It was a rather controlled incident, in terms of a baseball altercation.

I also remember why Beckett suddenly became incredibly pissed off.

He claimed that Mora was stealing his catcher’s signs, something that Mora denied post-game, was very obviously not doing, and that happens in baseball all the time by the players. It’s part of the game, just like how New York Yankees‘ captain Derek Jeter faked being hit by a pitch in a game late last year between his team and the Tampa Bay Rays. Teams find any way they can, within the rules of the game, to get a leg-up on the competition.

Again, that’s baseball. For Beckett to react the way he did was simply childish.

God only knows why Beckett feels that he needs to be the unwritten rule police on the diamond. If he decides to retaliate against Scott the next time the two meet, it’ll just be another example of the man’s immaturity.

The time to unnecessarily retaliate was in Scott’s next at-bat, which as I said, he failed to do. But a better alternative would be for him to grow up and play the game of baseball, not throw a fit over it. He should try to put a K next to Scott’s name the next time he faces him, instead of a HBP.

Apparently, Beckett can’t handle getting beaten in a game very well, and if I were a part of the Red Sox’ management, I would have looked into getting him help for that a long time ago.

And just for the record, did he ever have a problem with Manny Ramirez and/or David Ortiz for doing the exact same thing so many times over the past decade? Didn’t think so.

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Man, has it been sweet to be a Baltimore Orioles fan these past four days.

I grew out a goatee in honor of the O’s facial hair policy being changed for the start of the season, and now, I’m afraid to shave it off tomorrow like I originally planned on doing.

They’ve been on such a roll, I can’t recall a time when I had more fun rooting for this team, save the last two months of the 2010 season.

I love this. Tomorrow’s off day is going to kill me.

I just hope it doesn’t kill the O’s momentum.

But hey, if five months didn’t, then a day shouldn’t, either.

The team’s ERA is 1.00 over the last four games. 1.00! I mean, I know it won’t last all season, and maybe not past Wednesday, but it’s pretty awesome to say.

We, as Orioles fans, couldn’t have asked for a better start to this season, even with Brian Matusz hitting the DL (can’t wait for him to begin his year), Luke Scott as day-to-day with a right groin strain, and now Jeremy Guthrie missing his second start of the season, which was slated for Wednesday, with pneumonia.

Justin Duchscherer hitting the DL at the season’s start doesn’t count, because we all saw that coming. If he returns to be a solid starter or reliever, however, that would be a great addition to the team.

How about Zach Britton? One earned run over six innings in his major-league debut on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays, with six strikeouts. He didn’t appear to be nervous at all, even though he was called up to make an emergency start with Matusz going on the DL.

Even though he was facing the reigning AL East champs at home.

Even though he was trying to close out a sweep for his team, so that they could begin the year 3-0, the first time doing so since 1997.

Anybody remember the significance of the ’97 season? I’m sure every O’s fan does, and for those of you reading who aren’t O’s fans, that was the last season that the Birds turned in a winning record.

Gets you kind of excited, doesn’t it?

I know, I know, we’re only four games into the season. There’s still 158 left. 1,422 innings, if there are no extra inning games. That’s plenty of time to screw up. Believe me, I know. But momentum is a powerful thing, as well as team morale, especially in the marathon of a season that is the MLB.

Chris Tillman threw six no-hit innings on Saturday, despite not having his “A-game” and being pretty wild.

Things have just been going right for these birds. Like how even though the two biggest names that had been brought in over the offseason, Derrek Lee and Vladimir Guerrero, have been slumping some to start the season, the rest of the order has picked up the slack. Nick Markakis is hitting over .400 early on, J.J. Hardy has been a force in the nine hole, Mark Reynolds has done his part early on, and Brian Roberts is the team leader in RBI with eight, as well as being the only hitter on the team with a long ball, having hit two three-run shots in three days, both times to give his team the lead during a tie game.

God, please help keep Roberts healthy through this season and the rest of his career.

Jason Berken has struck out six batters in three innings of relief, tied for the team lead with Guthrie and Britton.

Hopefully, it doesn’t end. Hopefully, our beloved O’s make a legitimate run at a playoff spot. Hell, I think it’s safe to say that most, if not all of us, would be happy to see this team finish with at least a .500 record.

Granted, it’s a stretch, but it’s possible. Anything is possible in this game.

When was the last time we were alone atop the AL East? My best guess is back in the beginning of the 2009 season, when we got off to an 8-2 start, if my memory serves me.

It may not last, so enjoy it while it does. And get behind this team because I truly believe they can do some special things this season.

1.00.

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Veteran second baseman Brian Roberts was limited to 59 games last season due to a herniated disc in his back. During the time the that he was on the DL, the leadoff hitter role was a revolving door, with no one filling in adequately.

This spring, Roberts has again been having back trouble, spasms that he says are unrelated to the herniated disc that troubled him so much last year, that have limited him to just five games.

Though he played on Sunday after missing some time, and is likely to play today, it still makes Orioles fans uneasy, as Roberts is the offensive spark plug of the team.

Without him on top of that lineup most of the year, it’ll be much more difficult for the O’s to have a successful season, even with the offensive upgrades they made over this past offseason.

So we, as Orioles fans, sit and wonder: If Roberts goes down, will anybody step in to provide a good leadoff option until he’s healthy again?

Enter Nick Markakis.

I know, you probably can’t believe you didn’t think of that before. I couldn’t believe it took me so long, and I’m praying that manager Buck Showalter has the same idea.

Last year, that same idea wouldn’t have worked. The Orioles had a pretty lame middle of the lineup, capitalized by Luke Scott. And as good of a hitter Scott is, he shouldn’t be any good lineup’s No. 4 guy.

It was necessary to keep a hitter like Markakis in the middle of the lineup. Even with his down year, he was still one of the most productive hitters in the lineup, as he always is.

Now that the Orioles added Mark Reynolds, Derrek Lee and Vladimir Guerrero, however, they can afford to move Markakis to the number one slot should it be necessary. He’s already projected to bat second in a pretty stacked lineup (at least on paper), so moving him up one slot works.

Markakis has gotten at least 182 hits in each of the past four seasons, remaining in the top-10 in the AL in hits each of those season, and hasn’t hit lower than .291 during his five-year career, an average that came in his rookie season back in 2006.

He draws the walk, and probably has the best knowledge of the strike zone of any player on the O’s roster, working the count in almost every plate appearance he makes.

The lowest single-season OBP he’s ever had during his career was .347, during his 2009 campaign, which is still a pretty okay number. His career batting average when leading off an inning is .313, and he’s hit lefty pitchers at a .294 clip, which is important due to his batting left-handed. He can hit the ball the other way, something he was forced to do all the time during the 2010 season.

One of the most important things for a leadoff hitter to do is to his the ball into the gap, and Markakis does that better and more consistently than anybody in the league, slapping at least 43 doubles in each of the past four years, becoming just the third player in major-league history to have at least four consecutive 40-plus double seasons. And he can even steal a base once in a while, amassing 43 of them during his career.

With much better lineup protection now, Markakis should be able to rediscover the power stroke he appeared to have lost last year. With more feared hitters in the lineup hitting behind him, he should be getting better pitches to hit, and 15-25 homers from your leadoff hitter is a nice luxury to have.

With moving Markakis up to the leadoff slot, Showalter could move either Adam Jones up to the two hole, where he has thrived throughout his career, albeit a small sample at that batting slot, or J.J. Hardy. It also would give Showalter more flexibility with the three-four-five slots, being able to bat Lee, Guerrero, and Scott in any of those slots without having to worry about back-to-back lefties.

To me, a replacement leadoff hitter couldn’t be more obvious than the one stated and argued for above. No more revolving door of Robert Andino, Jones, Cesar Izturis and anyone else who’s sitting on the bench that happens to be playing that day.

Markakis has been one of the most consistent hitters in the MLB the past five years. Take advantage of that, Buck.

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Jake Fox has been battling many others for a backup job with the Baltimore Orioles this spring.

His primary competition is incumbent backup catcher Craig Tatum, who was very solid for the Birds last year, both at the plate and behind it.

This spring, however, Fox is blowing Tatum (and the rest of the team) away with a .356 batting average and a spring training-leading seven home runs in 45 at-bats. Two of the seven were hit in yesterday’s contest against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Fox has hit four homers in his past three games. I think it’s pretty safe to say the guy is on fire.

This begs the question: Can a guy that hot at the plate not make the big league club out of spring training?

Answering that very query, Orioles manager Buck Showalter simply replied: “Yes.”

While competing primarily to be the backup catcher on the team, Fox can also play both of the corner infield and outfield positions, making him extremely versatile. While his defense at any of those positions won’t win him a Gold Glove, he can get the job done in a temporary backup or replacement role, should someone get injured.

That’s a player that any team would love to have—one who can play multiple positions and hold his own with the bat. Showalter, an old-school-type manager who preaches great defense, is considering Fox’s defense more than his offense when deciding his bench.

Sure, a contender’s offense is a contributing factor, but Showalter would rather have a solid defensive player than one who can hit, but hardly catch a baseball.

Of course, there’s always the scenario that both Fox and Tatum make the club, with Tatum being the backup catcher and Fox being a corner’s backup and third catcher. It’s certainly not a long shot to happen.

The O’s have so many options for their bench this spring, and competition is always a good thing. A team can never have an overflow of reliable players.

Showalter hasn’t commented much on what he thinks of Fox behind the plate, but he did mention yesterday that he “looked better” than he had before, which can only help his cause.

Whether he makes the club as the primary backup catcher or a backup corner infielder, Fox has earned a spot on the major league club with his bat. Having a bat with that much pop off of the bench is always a good asset, especially to pinch-hit late in games when a light-hitting backup (such as Cesar Izturis) plays.

I understand that a great spring performance won’t necessarily translate to the regular season, but when you’re building your team off of spring performances, it counts for the time being.

Furthermore, Fox has always had that kind of power ability. He’s just never had the defensive ability to be a starter for an extended period of time, or lacked the opportunity when other players were already cemented into his positions.

Fox, keep hitting the way you are—and I’m sure that Showalter will find you a spot on the roster.

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About a week and a half ago, I wrote how touted Orioles lefty Zach Britton was making an early case to be the fifth starter for the team out of the gate, after completing two scoreless innings in his major league spring training debut.

Well, all he’s done since then is add to his case. A four-inning scoreless start this past Saturday brought his total scoreless innings this spring up to nine.

With injury-prone starter Justin Duchscherer experiencing hip problems again and most likely not prepared for the start of the season, a hole opens in the rotation that Britton, Chris Tillman and Ryan Drese are competing for.

And of those three pitchers, Britton has had the best spring.

Drese is also making a case for himself, allowing only one earned run over seven innings this spring. Another thing the pitcher—who is attempting a comeback after being ineffective for years—has going for him is that his best season was with the Texas Rangers, when current Orioles manager Buck Showalter was the Rangers’ manager.

Tillman, currently viewed as the favorite for taking that open starting rotation slot, has thrown 8.2 innings this spring and has an ERA of 5.19. But because of his dominance at the AAA level last season, which included a no-hitter, many believe he should remain with the big league team.

They also believe that management should stop yo-yo’ing him back and forth between the minors and majors. If he has nothing more to learn at the AAA level, then he shouldn’t remain there—it can only hurt his mentality.

It has been widely debated by Baltimore’s baseball writers and the team’s fans for the past week on whether Britton should be in the majors come Opening Day on April 1. At the beginning of spring, it was all but assumed that he’d be going back down to AAA to begin the year, having made just 12 starts there in his career.

Also, if he wasn’t with the big league club for the first 20 days of the season, his service clock wouldn’t count this year, thus putting off his possible free agency for another year. With a prospect as highly touted as he, it is easy to see why that’s an appealing option.

The Orioles wouldn’t need a fifth starter until April 10, when they play the Rangers at home. That means that they could break camp with a four-man rotation, eight relievers, and figure out who’s starting that April 10 game when the time comes, or they could slot Drese into the role, giving more development time to Tillman and Britton.

There’s also the option of giving the spot to Tillman out of the gate, making it his to lose.

I’d like to see Britton start off the year at AAA Norfolk and to be called up in May or June if he continues to show he’s ready for the bigs.

To me, it’s about both the developmental factor—giving the young pitcher more time to learn and build up his confidence winning at a lower level before being shown the big bats in the majors—and the business factor.

If he becomes everything he’s capable of being, what team wouldn’t want to hold onto him for an extra year?

As for giving the spot to either Tillman or Drese, I can’t decide. Drese has definitely made the better case, and if he continues to pitch this spring like he has been, then he’s earned it fair and square.

However, Tillman is part of the future, and really needs to be trotted out there every day at the major league level so that the Orioles’ executives can see what they really have in the young pitcher.

There’s also Rick VandenHurk, a young and talented pitcher who came over from the Florida Marlins at the trade deadline last year. He has given up four earned runs over six innings this spring and is out of options. Although, there’s always the possibility he makes the club as a long reliever/swingman type pitcher.

It’s certainly an interesting dilemma for Showalter to figure out over the rest of spring training.

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