Thus far in Grapefruit League play, the Orioles have gone through their presumed rotation once (albeit differently than expected come the regular season). Brad Bergesen got the ball in the first exhibition game, followed by Jeremy Guthrie, Chris Tillman, Brian Matusz, and Jake Arrieta. Each pitcher threw two innings in their first outings, and all seem to be adjusting to 2011 in grandiose fashion. As a staff, Oriole starters can claim the following line through the first week of exhibition games: 10 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 4 BB, 5 K. For those counting at home, that's a staff ERA of 1.8.
I'm the first one to say that you can't judge a team, player, etc. off of a couple exhibition games. Furthermore, as I said each pitcher got two innings. However I suppose my point is that if you're going to play these games, you might as well look good in doing so. Baseball isn't like the NFL whereby teams play exhibition/preseason games close to the vest so as not to show their hand in games that are meaningless. Granted the games might well give teams an idea of times and situations when a team might try to steal or what pitches a pitcher throws, but there's no quarterback or offensive coordinator out there calling plays that someone could use against you. Admittedly I haven't really seen any of the games so I have no way of knowing how each guy handled himself out on the mound. However statistics generally don't lie, and you have to like the moxie that those stats seem to indicate.
I suppose that if I were to make one small criticism, it might be of my paisan Jake Arrieta. (Us Italians always stick together, but we're also tougher on our own!) One of the knocks on Arrieta in the minors was that his walk total was generally a bit high. True to form, Arrieta walked two batters in his start. Certainly Arrieta has to work a bit on his pitch location, however when he's on his fastball can clock at 95 MPH. However it's also fair to point out that Arrieta was throwing to Craig Tatum as opposed to Matt Wieters. Buck Showalter has said that he'll probably use various different mixes of players during the spring; in fact, there'll probably only be a few games where we'll see the true lineup. (One would think that as we move into the final week-and-a-half of exhibition games we'll start seeing guys in their normal spots more consistently.)
The way I see the rotation, the Orioles have two flame-throwers in Matusz and Arrieta. Better yet, Matusz is a southpaw; a lefty that can hit the zone as hard and as consistently as Brian Matusz is a pretty hot commodity. (It is worth mentioning that Matusz left the team yesterday and is expected to miss his next start while he gets a wart removed from his throwing hand. This is not expected to impact him any moreso than missing an exhibition start.) In Jeremy Guthrie, the Orioles have a guy that can throw hard and find the zone, but more importantly they have a veteran leader. The same could be said of Justin Duchscherer, although he's had some injury problems and hasn't pitched as of yet. Brad Bergesen is a sinker-ball/slider pitcher, which is a nice wrinkle to throw into a staff. Bergesen has had problems locating his fastball over time, however from what I understand he worked on it over the off season. If his start this week was any indication, that work paid off.
For the first time in awhile, it appears that the Orioles are finally ready to approach a season with a decent pitching staff. In the past there were years where they would have a decent offense but no pitching. Now the team appears to be built in the right manner. I have no doubt that there's still some stormy weather ahead for some of these pitchers, as is the case for all starters in baseball. That's just how the game works, but the strong will always bounce back better than before.
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