FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - It is a very long season and it would be folly to attach much significance to any single day during the first two weeks of spring training, but I'm going to anyway.
The Orioles beat the Italian national team in a pre-Grapefruit League exhibition game yesterday, which isn't saying a whole lot from a level-of-competition standpoint, but the entire day seemed to be a showcase for the new direction of this long-struggling franchise.
Let's review:
* New left fielder Felix Pie got his passport situation straightened out in the Dominican Republic and reported to camp yesterday morning. He looked in fine shape.
* Left-hander Rich Hill, the other potentially key player the Orioles got in a trade with the Chicago Cubs over the winter, delivered a very encouraging performance during his batting practice session. Reserve catcher Guillermo Quiroz called it "the best left-handed stuff I've ever seen."
* Matt Wieters, who was named Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America after the 2008 season, was No. 1 on the publication's list of baseball's 100 top prospects for 2009, which was released yesterday.
* The Orioles paraded the cream of their pitching future to the mound against Team Italia, starting with 2008 top draft pick Brian Matusz, and the eight pitchers combined to give up four hits, strike out nine and walk one.
"I think I am as convinced now as I've ever been that this team is going to win with pitching and defense," Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail said. "It's a pretty clear path for us, and we've added some pieces that contribute to that philosophy. If this had been a game where there were scouts here, they would have been able to see the direction. It was a good day."
OK, so you're saying it was just the Italian national team and how much can you draw from that? And you're missing the point.
Nobody is saying Matusz, Chris Tillman, Troy Patton and Jake Arrieta are going to form the nucleus of an elite starting rotation in the next year or two, but the fact that the Orioles can trot eight promising young pitchers to the mound in the same game without featuring anyone projected on the Opening Day roster speaks volumes about what MacPhail likes to refer to as "the inventory."
