Question: At this point, is there any way to fix the dreadful pitching situation? Or do we just prepare ourselves for the selloff? From: Sallye Perrin
Answer: Sallye, the starters could always improve. Cade Povich has shown some signs of improvement, and they’ll give Chayce McDermott a chance on Tuesday night.
If Grayson Rodriguez can pitch before the All-Star break, that might help, but that seems questionable.
The team is going to have to go on an extended run to get near .500 as the trade deadline nears or else you’ll have to prepare yourself for a selloff and a long final two months to the season.
Question: I am a longtime Orioles fan who, aside from the Covid years, has been to spring training nearly every year (going back to the Fort Lauderdale) for the past 35 years.
Realizing that established starters rarely go to away games in spring training, I felt the starting players nearly took off this past spring training. They often did not play or played an inning or two or an at-bat. I never saw less use of regulars, and I wonder if my observation was correct or it was just my imagination. Also, it seemed to me that the back-up and minor league players outhustled and outplayed the regulars in almost every way.
Do you have any stats of observations about this year’s spring training vs. previous years? From: Mike and Fran
Answer: Mike and Fran, I went to every spring training game, except for the away split-squad games, and while there was the usual liberal use of non-roster players, I didn’t find the use of regulars was any less than it was in other years. Nor did I see anything particularly alarming.
Most of the time there were a least a couple of regulars playing in away games.
There were some outstanding spring training performances by Vimael Machin and Luis Vázquez, but nothing I saw really surprised me. The Orioles were 13-14-2 in Grapefruit League games. I don’t pay much attention to spring training records. The Yankees were 14-14. Nothing in Sarasota prepared me for what I’ve seen so far.
Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. If you’d like to submit a question, send it to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com. Questions may be edited for clarity, length and style.