In case I've never mentioned it before, I'm a huge Johnny Cash fan. Right now I'm wearing black pants and my black Adam Jones jersey t-shirt in honor of today's game against the Red Sox (televised by MASN at 1 PM) and the man in black. In a few weeks when I go to Cleveland to see the Orioles, I'll probably visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I'll be wearing black for Johnny. That aside, we all know the song Orange Blossom Special, in which Cash sings about riding down the seaboard line. Reverse that for a moment; the Orioles are getting ready to ride up the seaboard line back to Baltimore as we get the season underway next weekend. Granted the O's will spend some extra time in Florida due to the fact that they're opening in Tampa, but you get the point!
The O's will play Boston today, Detroit tomorrow, and Toronto on Tuesday to close out Grapefruit League play (all three are home games in Sarasota). Chris Tillman will get the start this afternoon against the Red Sox. Today is also a split squad day for the O's, so the "B-Team" will play at Toronto this afternoon in Dunedin, FL. However, there is one A-List player that's going to Dunedin: Jeremy Guthrie. Guthrie will get the ball on Friday night (Opening Day) at Tampa. On a normal week without a day off, a pitcher that starts on a Sunday will have his turn come up in the rotation again on Friday. I suppose that the question is what will the Orioles' rotation be? The actual order of the rotation isn't as important as who's in it. At this point it appears that Guthrie, Matusz, and Arrieta are on the docket. Brad Bergesen is probably in as well, however for all we know he might have to miss some time after getting hit by a comebacker on Friday afternoon. So whether or not he's on the official Opening Day roster is anyone's guess. Then we have the case of Justin Duchscherer, who was signed to be part of the rotation. Duchscherer's been injured for most of spring training, so it's doubtful that he'll be in the rotation at the outset of the season. One would imagine that either Chris Tillman or Zach Britton would then be penciled in as the fifth starter. One thing that does work in the Orioles' favor is that they don't have to name a fifth starter until Sunday April 10th (at home against Texas) if they don't want to do so. Tuesday April 5th is a scheduled off day, so since they wouldn't need anyone to pitch that day they could use a four-man rotation until the end of the homestand.
These next two or three weeks is very important for this Oriole team. Last year as we remember, the O's started off 2-16. While I wouldn't have admitted it then, the season was pretty much a wash at that point. So the Orioles need to finish spring training strong, and then use a positive spring to set the tone for the season. One interesting thing of note; I mentioned the off day next week above. Last season the O's started off in Tampa just as they will this year, however they started on a Tuesday night. That series wrapped up on Thursday evening, and the O's then flew home for Opening Day in Baltimore on Friday afternoon. Due to the fact that Opening Day was on a weekend, the Orioles didn't get the day after as an off day (in case of rain). The O's played 16 games before finally getting a day off, whereas the Yankees literally had three days off in the 8-9 days of the season. (I suppose that the Orioles couldn't get an off day seeing that the Yankees took them all up!) Ultimately that's part of baseball, but hopefully this season the Orioles can take advantage of having next Tuesday off to rest up.
So that Orange Blossom Special is starting to get reved up as it prepares to roll out of Sarasota and towards Baltimore. It'll make a brief stop in Tampa before truly heading up the seaboard line, however once it arrives in Baltimore the Old Line State will be ready to roll with her Orioles in 2011.
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