Daniel Cabrera

Team / / Orioles Position / / Right-handed starter Comment / / Orioles fans have been waiting for him to come into his own since the big right-hander shut down the Chicago White Sox in his 2004 major league debut. He has won 31 games in his three seasons, and everyone knows about his fastball in the high 90s and power curve. But he has been hampered by an inability to throw strikes. Cabrera turns 26 in May, and, with a full year under the tutelage of pitching coach Leo Mazzone, this could be his year of maturation.

After one inning of baseball at Comerica Park on Sunday afternoon, the Orioles were in a five-run hole against the Detroit Tigers. But for these Orioles, it was business as usual, not an insurmountable deficit. In the bullpen, the relievers were still talking about who was going to pitch the late innings with the game on the line. In the dugout, the hitters were calm, readying themselves to play a part in chipping away at the Detroit lead. “It [was], 'OK, here's what we've got in front of us,'” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said afterward.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.-- --Daniel Cabrera is understandably frustrated, though apparently not with his consistently inconsistent performance on the mound. He is frustrated with the media for constantly asking the same questions about his consistently inconsistent performance on the mound. Guilty, as charged. It's hard to ask new questions when it's always the same old story. Cabrera walked five guys in his most recent performance and further distanced himself from the impressive exhibition debut that fooled some of us into thinking he actually had figured something out since last year.

One thing lost in the Orioles' victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday night was a bit of club infamy made by first baseman Nick Johnson. Johnson, a career .270 hitter entering this season, went hitless in three at-bats Thursday. That put him 0-for-26 for the season and gave him the club's all-time hitless record for a position player to begin an Orioles career. The previous record was 0-for-25, set by infielder Ron Hansen from 1958 to 1960. The all-time Orioles record is pitcher Wes Stock, who never got a hit in his Orioles career, which spanned 36 at-bats from 1959 to 1964.

SEATTLE -- The question has been asked about Daniel Cabrera frequently the past couple of seasons, and it's being discussed again during one of the best three-start runs of his enigmatic career. Has Cabrera, the imposing 26-year-old pitcher who has dazzled the Orioles over the past four seasons with his talent and dismayed them with his lack of consistency and control, finally turned the corner? Cabrera prefers to focus on his next start, cautiously avoiding big-picture pronouncements.

Two batters into the game, Camden Yards was soaked in as much deja vu as sunshine. Uh-oh, went the buzz among the announced crowd of 31,000-plus. Cabrera doesn't have it today. Daniel Cabrera had retired the first Pittsburgh Pirates batter yesterday, but the second walked. The third rifled a shot to the left-field corner. The fourth sent a bullet to Brian Roberts at second for the second out. One batter later, the Orioles and Cabrera had escaped without giving up a run. On the plus side, they got out of that trouble, and part of the reason is that Cabrera lasted six innings and left trailing just 4-1, when in any previous season it would have been so much worse.

JUPITER, Fla. -- Daniel Cabrera has entered the Orioles' clubhouse on most mornings this spring and walked quietly to his locker, his face mostly expressionless, his eyes staring straight ahead. It's not as if a 6-foot-9, 270-pound pitcher needs to announce his presence when he walks into the room. But the old Daniel Cabrera would greet teammates and reporters with playful refrains of "Good morning" and "Hi, guys." The new Daniel Cabrera does none of that. The Orioles are just hopeful his all-business attitude extends to the mound.

We're still waiting, but what choice do we really have? Daniel Cabrera made his first regular season start of 2008 and wasted little time reminding everyone why he is known as one of the most enigmatic players in the major leagues. Of course, when I say everyone, I'm talking about the all-time-tiny Camden Yards crowd of 10,505 fans who braved the 55-degree chill to see the Orioles bounce back from their disheartening Opening Day loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. They were also hoping to see a new and improved Daniel Cabrera but had to settle for a slightly more determined version of the erratic guy who has been bedeviling the organization for the past four years.

Orioles pitching coach Ray Miller looks at his young rotation this spring and sees the 1978 team. Or it could be the Oakland A's of the early '70s. Upon closer inspection, it might actually be the 2003 Florida Marlins. First base coach Rick Dempsey is reminded of the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers, though he also finds similarities to some of the Orioles teams of the past. Are these guys in the same clubhouse? Are they in the same year? Both men recognize the formula. Stack a lineup with explosive bats, trust in your young pitching and keep your fingers crossed.

Good morning --Daniel Cabrera --Couldn't you just pretend you're still pitching in the World Baseball Classic?

— They grow up fast in the American League East. Either that or they go home early. Nowhere has that been more apparent than in the Orioles organization, where the previous pitching youth movement ran so hard aground that it's easy to forget that a lot of their top prospects were ever here. Sidney Ponson stands out, of course, and not in a good way. Matt Riley was supposedly bound for glory. Daniel Cabrera had can't-miss raw talent but missed anyway. Erik Bedard was the real deal, but contributed more to the Orioles' future by leaving then by anything he did in Baltimore.

Optimistic Orioles fans, a once-dying breed who have resurged since Buck Showalter took over as manager Aug. 2, believe this group of pitchers is different. They look at the performance and pedigrees of Jeremy Guthrie, Brian Matusz, Jake Arrieta, Brad Bergesen, Chris Tillman and minor leaguer Zach Britton and believe that the hope finally overrides the hype, that the talent isn't just on paper or on scouts' lips this time. The proof, the optimists will suggest, is in the final two months of the 2010 season, when the Orioles' starting rotation made 36 quality starts in 57 tries under Showalter, posting a 25-17 record and an impressive 3.16 ERA. The entire Orioles pitching staff combined to go 34-23 with a 3.54 ERA after having an American League-worst 5.18 ERA in the 105 contests before Showalter's hiring.

Nobody asked me, but ... That's a smart recommendation for the Senator Theatre - have the city foreclose, pay off the debt, then find new management to run it as both a first-run cinema and entertainment complex. The ownership of the Charles Theatre could rotate films through the place. A small theater could be added. They could have "college porn night" now and then. There are all kinds of possibilities. This will make a great pitch - a real convincer - for the University of Maryland admissions office as it sets out to recruit leading students from all over the world: Come to College Park, we show hard-core porn here!

Stop me if you've heard this before, but the Orioles will go as far as their starting pitching will take them. Which explains why they're at the bottom of their division's predicted order of finish below. For every other segment of the team, the best-case scenario is pretty good. The Orioles are better set at more positions than they've been in a long time. They'll have no problems scoring, and scoring when it matters. The gaping hole at shortstop appears to be filled, with Cesar Izturis.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -Not long after meeting Felix Pie and starting a working relationship the Orioles hope will turn the former can't-miss prospect into a quality major leaguer, Terry Crowley asked the former Chicago Cub to do him a favor. Crowley gave Pie the phone numbers of David Ortiz, Miguel Tejada and Daniel Cabrera, and suggested the 24-year-old outfielder call his fellow Dominican countrymen, who know the Orioles' longtime hitting coach well. "It wasn't so much, 'Ask about Crow as a hitting coach.

On Monday, we looked at whether the Orioles are better off now than they were in April. I'd say they are, but barely. There are more bright spots, but the starting pitching is so much worse than expected. Based on 2008 performances, only Jeremy Guthrie can be counted on for 2009. And it's possible Adam Loewen and Daniel Cabrera will never pitch for the Orioles again. Ouch. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/cornersportsbar)

Good morning --Daniel Cabrera --Hope you're a wild success in the minors and return soon.

TORONTO - Last-place teams often don't make major league history for something positive, but the Orioles are on the verge of doing just that. Aubrey Huff, Nick Markakis and Brian Roberts are on pace to hit at least 50 doubles this season, which would make them the first three teammates to accomplish that feat in the same season. "To go and possibly do something that has never been done in the history of the game, that's very cool," Roberts said. "It's been fun for all of us. We told Nick the other day, 'You need seven more, dude.

TORONTO - Daniel Cabrera returned to Baltimore last night and will have his right elbow examined today, a development that could make him the latest Orioles pitcher to be shut down before season's end. Cabrera, who was scratched from tomorrow night's scheduled start at Yankee Stadium, felt some tingling in his elbow during his bullpen session yesterday at Rogers Centre. Orioles manager Dave Trembley said it was not in the same area Cabrera complained of discomfort last month. That led the pitcher to get a magnetic resonance imaging, which didn't reveal any structural damage.