It’s Thursday, and games are less than 48 hours from starting for the Grapefruit League.
As the Orioles enter the third full day of team workouts, let’s take a look at what is happening in sunny Sarasota.
To kick things off, manager Brandon Hyde has tabbed O’s No. 18 prospect, left-hander Drew Rom, as the starter for the Grapefruit League opener against the Minnesota Twins.
Rom will be followed by Eduardo Bazardo, Wandisson Charles, Cole Uvila, Chris Vallimont, Ofreidy Gómez and Morgan McSweeney. Hyde also revealed that more regular players would take the field in games starting Monday.
Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander are in the lineup Saturday and will play every other game leading up to the World Baseball Classic.
All of Saturday’s pitchers were throwing bullpens today, along with Mychal Givens and Dean Kremer, who is preparing to pitch for Team Israel in the WBC.
Hyde also spoke of Grayson Rodriguez after he pitched live batting practice yesterday. In response to how he looked, Hyde noted that Rodriguez’s “fastball velocity was there already.”
Kyle Gibson commented on being a veteran presence in camp.
“Part of being older and around a lot of young guys is making sure you just make yourself available and that they understand if they do have a question, they can come up and ask,” Gibson said.
Double play drills included Jordan Westburg and Ramón Urías at third, Jorge Mateo and Gunnar Henderson at short and Joey Ortiz and Adam Frazier at second.
Frazier is taking on a leadership role as well and had this to say about helping the younger players out.
“Help the guys around you, be a good teammate and teach them as much as you can because it’s what’s going to help the team win each and every night throughout the season,” Frazier said.
Speaking of infielders, Gunnar Henderson has been watching Jordan Westburg and Joey Ortiz very closely in camp thus far.
“They’re going to make their big league debut, hopefully early this year, if not from camp,” Henderson said.
Jackson Holliday is taking in his first big league camp as a professional player. He was at quite a few with his father, Matt Holliday, as he was growing up.
His dad’s advice then is the same now, as the elder Holliday told his son to “have fun with it.”
Looks like fundamentals are the name of the game today, as we step closer to game action. The Baltimore Battery will provide another update tomorrow, as we keep you informed on what is happening in Sarasota.
What are your thoughts on O’s camp thus far? Let us know in the comments below! And make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook and Twitter, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
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Interesting that Drew Rom will start the Grapefruit league opener. I’ve watched Rom pitch masterfully down here on the Eastern Shore Delmarva and he basically dominated. You could see his talent for pitching. Control and stuff were always there. I’ve seen several others like John Means pitch here and truthfully Rom looked the most Big League ready out of the two at the same point in their careers. I’d love for him to excel like John Means has…minus the injury.
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Rom definitely has potential, but I don’t think he is ready for big leagues quite yet. He might be a year away before he will have an impact on our team. It will be interesting to watch and also interesting to see how he performs throughout the next month.
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