Young Pitchers

When Aubrey Huff passed his physical yesterday, finalized a three-year, $20 million deal and was introduced as the newest Oriole, it likely represented the last major move for the club in a busy offseason. The Orioles signed nine free agents, including two of their own, and made two trades. The bullpen was overhauled, the starting rotation received a new member and the lineup was bolstered by two veterans with solid track records. "It's one of those things where we don't know how good we are at this point," said Orioles executive vice president Mike Flanagan, who called Huff the type of hitter the club has been seeking all offseason.

Major League Baseball isn't planning any dramatic action to stop the offensive avalanche that has descended on the sport. The mound isn't going to be raised anytime soon, and there has been no attempt to change the specifications of the supposedly juiced baseball.Instead, baseball commissioner Bud Selig said recently that the onus is on the individual clubs to improve the quality of their pitching staffs, which would be no small feat in this era of diluted talent.There is one other possible solution.

The Orioles are going to win the American League East, but not necessarily with the players on their Opening Day roster. They're going to win because general manager Pat Gillick will find the missing pieces, and manager Davey Johnson will make them fit.Their management team is the best in the game, and it's possible that by the end of the season, their baseball team will be, too. It's also possible that the Orioles will be a tremendous disappointment, because...

You could see the exasperation on the manager's face, and the dialogue was all too familiar."You have to be able to locate your fastball -- and your other pitches," he said. "There's a reason why some pitchers with good arms have success and some don't."The most important things are location and knowing how to pitch. If you can't do those things up here, you can't win. It's as simple as that. You can forget about good stuff and you can forget about radar guns."If you can't locate your pitches, you can't win. Period."

Always, repeat, always keep your young pitchers.White Sox general manager Ron Schueler did not follow that advice. Consequently, the White Sox have a very good pitching staff, not a great one.They have a good future in the pitching department, not a very, very good one.Schueler, whose wise acquisitions included outfielders Tim Raines, Darrin Jackson and since-departed Ellis Burks, and second baseman Joey Cora, looked at the organization he inherited from...

The Orioles know what can happen when expectations get out of control. The positive energy that flowed out of their "Why Not?" season of 1989 turned the following spring into an exercise in false optimism and set the organization up for a major disappointment.Could it happen again?The upbeat 1992 season bore some similarities to the tremendous turnaround of '89, but manager Johnny Oates would prefer to dwell on the differences as his club prepares to make another run at the American League East title.

When the Orioles chased the Toronto Blue Jays down to the final weekend of the 1989 season, they did it with basically two starting pitchers. The battle cry that year was "Why Not?" but it easily could have been "Ballard and Milacki, then things get wacky."A month ago, it appeared the Orioles had the makings of a solid four-man rotation. At the time, the only one struggling wasveteran right-hander Rick Sutcliffe. Rookie Arthur Rhodes was on a four-game winning streak. Ben McDonald had won three straight.

When the Orioles signed Rick Sutcliffe as a free agent last winter, there were more than a few skeptics around Baltimore wondering whether the 36-year-old pitcher with a recent history of shoulder problems would turn out to be another Dwight Evans.Good guy to have around but a player who long since has seen the top of the hill. Eight years removed from his Cy Young season with the Chicago Cubs, three years past his last injury-free season, Sutcliffe was brought to Baltimore more to be a role model for the team's young pitchers than to be the ace of the staff.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Brady Anderson's bid to win the job as Orioles leadoff hitter will be delayed for at least two exhibition games.Anderson, a left-handed hitting outfielder, is recovering from a slight sprain of his right ankle, suffered a month ago while working out.As a precautionary measure, manager John Oates will keep Anderson out of the first two preseason games, the second of which will be played on the artificial surface at the Kansas City Royals...

Baseball's expansion process will enter its final stage tomorrow, when the Orioles and the 25 other existing major-league teams submit their 15-man protected lists to the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies for a week of intense study.It will not be a particularly happy day for the youth-oriented Orioles, though they probably had an easier time than some clubs narrowing their roster for the Nov. 17 expansion draft."A good part of the list was pretty easy to put together," said club president Larry Lucchino, "but the last several spaces were very difficult and required a massive amount of effort.

The first thing that jumps out at you when you go to the videotape of Orioles first-round draft choice Matt Hobgood is that he bears some resemblance - in size and pitching mechanics - to a highly regarded Orioles pitching prospect of the past. Sidney Ponson. Of course, looks can be deceiving, and everything the club is saying about the high school right-hander from Norco, Calif., makes him sound more like a young Roger Clemens. Here's what we know for sure: Director of amateur scouting Joe Jordan seemed pretty comfortable with this choice, and the Orioles have done a nice job with the last two top picks.

I really didn't think of Dave Trembley as a particularly spiritual man until he waxed biblical after yesterday's game. "You reap what you sow," he said on the MASN post-game show about the outlook for some of the young pitchers. "The opportunities you get, you'll be evaluated accordingly." Now, I should have suspected Dave was a religious guy, since he says "Oh God!" whenever a ball is hit to Alex Cintron. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/schmuckblog)

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-- --Orioles catcher Ramon Hernandez has worked hard through two weeks of spring training to get to know the young pitchers in camp. He knows that's his job as a veteran and doesn't expect or want anything in return. That includes fastballs directed at his 31-year-old body. Hernandez pulled up his shirt in the Orioles' clubhouse yesterday to reveal a huge welt on his side and another blemish on the inside of his left knee. The first came courtesy of an errant pitch from one of the young pitchers - Hernandez forgot exactly which one - in live batting practice earlier this week.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- He started at one of the far corners of the Orioles' spring training complex. His hands behind his back and clutching a blue binder that detailed the day's itinerary, Rick Kranitz observed four of his new students throwing side by side, balls popping into catchers' mitts in unison. Satisfied with what he saw, Kranitz walked briskly to an adjacent field, settling behind a batting cage to get a view of Jamie Walker delivering the last of his practice pitches. When Walker was done, Kranitz met him outside the third base line and patted the pitcher on his left shoulder.

It will be months before the Orioles are mathematically eliminated from the American League East race, but you could make the case that they were medically eliminated yesterday. The announcement sent a justifiable shiver through the entire organization. Left-hander Adam Loewen, one of the cornerstones of the club's supposedly bright pitching future, became the fourth Orioles starting pitcher to go on the disabled list ... and not just for a couple of weeks. Turns out, Loewen's lingering forearm soreness is the result of a stress fracture in one of the franchise's most valuable left arms.

When Aubrey Huff passed his physical yesterday, finalized a three-year, $20 million deal and was introduced as the newest Oriole, it likely represented the last major move for the club in a busy offseason. The Orioles signed nine free agents, including two of their own, and made two trades. The bullpen was overhauled, the starting rotation received a new member and the lineup was bolstered by two veterans with solid track records. "It's one of those things where we don't know how good we are at this point," said Orioles executive vice president Mike Flanagan, who called Huff the type of hitter the club has been seeking all offseason.

DEAR CAL -- My son is a pretty good pitcher and throws fairly hard for a 9-year-old. Do you recommend any type of weight training for a young pitcher? Bill Delp, Baldwin DEAR BILL -- I get questions all the time about what type of strength training young baseball players should pursue and at what age young athletes should begin strength training. Since I'm not a fitness professional, I generally don't like to go into a lot of detail about these issues. So for more information please consult a certified strength and conditioning coach (CSCS)

You'd think the Phillies would have waited to let the hysteria die down over the Sal Fasano signing before announcing Tom Gordon's deal. He's a quality backup, and the equivalent of an extra coach, with surprising power and the ability to call a good game and work with young pitchers.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - At the end of the winter meetings, it was hard to tell who was hurting worse yesterday: the Boston Red Sox, who were reportedly close to losing Pedro Martinez to the New York Mets, or the Orioles, who seemed to spend the past five days spinning their wheels. The Orioles came in hoping to land an impact pitcher or first baseman, but they got blanked on both fronts. Then, yesterday morning, they lost the only notable player they've acquired this offseason, when the Philadelphia Phillies stole shortstop Chris Gomez in the Rule 5 draft.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Orioles could get stung twice today. Their efforts to trade for Oakland Athletics pitcher Tim Hudson could fall short, and he could wind up landing right in their division, with the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox. According to industry sources, the Yankees and Red Sox were each trying to pull off a three-team deal to land Hudson, involving Oakland and another team that could provide the prospects the A's were seeking in return....