FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -No one should be surprised, but when the Orioles dispatched their three top pitching prospects to the organization's minor league camp in Sarasota over the weekend, the whole optimism-of-spring thing sort of went along for the ride across Alligator Alley.
Brian Matusz could light up Fort Lauderdale Stadium with his curveball. Chris Tillman and Jake Arrieta could make the future appear as if it's just around the corner. The three of them created so much buzz during the early weeks of spring training that it was easy not to notice that the major league pitching staff they will someday lead was quietly coming unraveled.
If there seemed to be strength in numbers when 37 pitchers reported to training camp Feb. 14, that thought seems quaint now. The wheels - and the arms - started to come off during the first Grapefruit League game, and that supposed depth has been dissipating ever since.
Maybe we should have figured something was up when the first starting pitcher to take the mound (Brad Hennessey) had to be removed in the second inning with a sore elbow. Then came the continuing saga of Rich Hill, the latest travails of John Parrish, the shoulder impingement of Jim Johnson, the tight hamstring of Koji Uehara and the sore back of Mark Hendrickson.
The Orioles opened spring training with 14 candidates for the starting rotation, but even with the late addition of Adam Eaton, so many have fallen by the wayside - either because of injury or ineffectiveness - that the club is accelerating the development of Brad Bergesen and seriously considering Brian Bass for one of the three unfilled slots.
Pitching coach Rick Kranitz summed it up when he was talking about the way Bass had moved up the depth chart the past few weeks.
"Obviously, what he did last year put him in a position for us to look at him," Kranitz said. "But when we talked to him during the winter and he said he wanted to come in as a starter, we said, 'Wait a minute.' After the first week, we lost two starters, and all bets were off."
No disrespect to Bass, but he was probably No. 12 or 13 on that list three weeks ago. Now, he's on the bubble, though Kranitz insists Bass was not the "sleeper" he talked about when he said early on that he had put together a starting rotation in his mind.
"He was really sleeping then," Kranitz said.
