Roster

SARASOTA, Fla. - Orioles manager Buck Showalter spent much of Friday afternoon telling players who will and won't be making the club's 25-man roster - leaving him with only one decision remaining. Steve Pearce and Conor Jackson are still battling to be the final first base-outfield reserve on the club's 2013 roster. Otherwise, things are set for Tuesday's season opener, with right-hander Jake Arrieta winning the final rotation spot, lefties Brian Matusz and T.J. McFarland added to an eight-man bullpen and infielder-outfielder Ryan Flaherty capturing a utility role.

Miguel Gonzalez had one of the best stories of 2012 - from the Mexican League to Major League Baseball's playoffs. Now he's got a postscript for 2013 - one that all of us took for granted, except maybe him. Gonzalez, who went 9-4 with a 3.25 in 18 games (15 starts) with the Orioles and was one of their most clutch members in the late pennant run, was told today by manager Buck Showalter that he made the team. That's not a shock. It would be shocking if he didn't. But you have to understand that the 28-year-old will finally be on a major league roster on Opening Day, for the first time in his star-crossed career.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter knows the numbers don't add up. The Orioles were successful in strengthening their depth this offseason, but the glut of outfielders will make it difficult to keep all of them in the organization. “You guys have done the math,” Showalter told reporters Tuesday. Before Tuesday's Grapefruit League game in Fort Myers, the team reassigned outfielder Lew Ford to minor league camp with the hope that he will be in the mix for Triple-A at-bats, but knowing that there are only so many outfield spots in Norfolk.

Five Gilman players, including Co-Defensive Players of the Year Henry Poggi and Micah Kiser, lead the Maryland team that will take on Pennsylvania's best in the 56th annual Big 33 Football Classic on July 15 at Hersheypark Stadium. Poggi, a defensive lineman headed for Michigan, and Kiser, a linebacker headed for Virginia, are joined by Greyhounds teammates Shane Cockerille, a Maryland-bound quarterback, Miles Norris, a Cornell-bound linebacker and defensive lineman Nick Fertitta, who is headed for American International College.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Standing on the mound at Ed Smith Stadium on Monday afternoon, with 30 mph winds swirling around him and ESPN cameras capturing his every move, Orioles left-hander T.J. McFarland was the perfect picture of calm. Sitting in an office chair in Bedford Park, Ill., huddled over an MLB.com video feed that wouldn't work, Tim McFarland wasn't exactly as collected as his 23-year-old son. "I'm the only one that didn't watch it live on ESPN. I had the MLB feed at the office and the damn thing went out two pitches into the first batter.

A 10-3 thrashing of Michigan on Saturday helped Loyola improve to 7-2 overall and 3-0 in the Eastern College Athletic Conference this season. But the No. 15 Greyhounds are in this position despite not having played with a full deck of cards. The reigning national champion played the first seven games of the season without senior short-stick defensive midfielder Josh Hawkins, who served a suspension for violating an unspecified team rule. Undisclosed injuries forced Loyola to play without senior attackman and 2012 Tewaaraton Award finalist Mike Sawyer for two contests, senior midfielder Davis Butts in Wednesday's 13-8 victory over Georgetown, and senior midfielder Chris Layne and senior defenseman Reid Acton on Saturday.

The Orioles made two outfield roster cuts before Monday's game, optioning Russ Canzler to Triple-A Norfolk and reassigning Jason Pridie to minor league camp. The moves trim the Orioles spring training roster to 38 players, including 10 non-roster invitees. Canzler, who played both outfield and first base competing for a reserve spot, recorded a .265/.324/.294 batting line this spring in 23 games. Pridie, a non-roster invitee, had a solid spring, hitting .310/.341/.548 with two homers and nine RBIs in 19 games.

The decision the Orioles face with Ryan Flaherty was already one of the most difficult ones of the of the spring before major league camp began, and as the team's days in Sarasota are whittled away, the 26-year-old utilityman has done nothing to make the organization's choice any easier. Last season, as the Orioles' Rule 5 draft pick, the choice was more definitive. If the Orioles didn't keep Flaherty on the roster for the entire season, they'd very likely lose him. This year, Flaherty can be optioned to the minor leagues.

Torrey Smith has heard it before. About three months after the wide receiver was drafted, the Ravens released three popular and productive offensive players, and Smith remembers the talk that the team was headed for some struggles. "They had cut [ Derrick] Mason , [ Todd] Heap and Willis McGahee [and] everybody was panicking and saying, 'Oh, you're going to be terrible,'” Smith said Saturday before hosting his charity basketball game at Stafford High School, his alma mater.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- The Orioles optioned third baseman Danny Valencia to Triple-A Norfolk during Thursday's Grapefruit League game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Valencia, who was acquired from the Boston Red Sox this offseason for cash considerations, was 10-for-31 this spring. He hit a game-winning solo home run in the Orioles' 8-7 win over the Red Sox on Tuesday in Fort Myers, his only one of the spring. The 28-year-old Valencia entered camp as a possible right-handed designated hitter because of his .316/.359/.472 career batting line against right-handed pitching.