The way things have been going, Koji and Alfredo may end up being our two best starters. I keep hoping that someone in this rotation will step up and surprise me. It's a good bet our rotation in September will bear very little resemblance to our rotation on opening day, hopefully by then, we'll finally have a core of dependable arms.

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Pete's reply: I would guess you're right.

The idea of carrying Simon over Penn makes little sense to me … regardless of how he has looked.

Even after missing time due to Visa issues, he still should have been ahead of most due to pitching Winter Ball.

While acknowledging that Penn has not had a good Spring… give me Penn over Simon everyday of the week.

Lets compare the two:

Penn – Turns 25, on October 13th
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/P/hayden-penn.shtml

2008 AAA Age 23 6-7 4.79 ERA 99.2 IP 110 hits 65 k’s 35 walks

2006 AAA Age 21 7-4 2.26 ERA 87.2 IP 71 hits 85 k's 27 walks 5 homers

2005 AA Age 20 7-6 3.83 ERA 110.1 IP 101 hits 120 k's 37 walks 11 homers

Alfredo Simon - Turns 28 on May 8th
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/S/Alfredo-Simon.shtml

Simon showed a live arm with the O's during his 13 innings in 2008.

The last time Simon regularly produced was at High A ball in 2004.

In 2007 at AAA Simon went:
5-10, 6.43 ERA, 119 innings, 152 hits, 73 k's, 46 walks

Penn is 3 full years younger, and has had far greater minor league success…. He had the appendix issue which robbed him of the 2nd half of 2006… the elbow issue which eliminated most of 2007…. It was not a surprise that it took most of 2008 for him to become comfortable back on a mound.

Anyone that saw the MASN start towards the end of last year (prior to him getting hit with the broken bat) against the Tampa AAA team, saw Penn throwing good stuff.

Maybe he has not worked back to the point where he has that stuff consistently… but his minor league history, and his age should make him the choice if the decision is between the two.

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Pete's reply: Why not both?

Pete,

I agree with you, The Orioles should go with 12 pitchers and an extra position player. The team is going to go through a lot of pitchers this year and the opening day roster will merely be the opening audtions, as Trembley and Kranitz search to put togeteher a healthy and effective group.

There will be some roster cuts by other teams in the coming days and it may be that the Orioles can upgrade a little.

This has certainly been one of the strangest Spring training camps we have ever seen when it comes to the management, makeup, and health of the pitching resources.

Have you ever seen anything like it since you have covered Spring Trainings?

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Pete's reply: I can't remember a staff this uncertain, and I've been around longer than dirt.

Schumcker,

Thought you would enjoy this tidbit about our trust announcers:

http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/mets/archives/2009/03/os_announcers_u.html

"O's announcers up and leave
FORT LAUDERDALE -- This is a bit off topic, but too funny nonetheless:

The Orioles' flagship radio team of Joe Angel and Fred Manfra quietly left the stadium here today during a 90-minute rain delay and didn't come back for the final eight innings, telling their bosses at 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore that the game had been canceled.

"Yes, the rest of the game was not on the air back home and we don't know why," baffled Orioles PR rep Jeff Lantz said later. "We looked over during the game and they weren't there."

What if, for example, All-Star reliever George Sherrill -- who ended up pitching this afternoon when the game resumed -- had hurt himself? Amazing. None of the Mets' radio crew I talked to had ever heard of such a thing.

All you would-be announcers might want to get your resume tapes ready, because there could be an opening or two in Baltimore very shortly."

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Pete's reply: My understanding is that they were told to pack up and go by the people at the station. Don't think either one needs to work on his resume.

Pete , be honest isn't it a little more difficult being a beat writer for a team especially in baseball with 162 games to be critical of the manager in fear of not getting any interviews. or having a bad relationship with him I look at your job and i look at Roch's job and i rarely if ever see anybody being very critical of Dave t. Dave steele and mike preston seem to tell it like it is which i find to be much more refreshing. Don't get me wrong Pete i like you and find your columns to be very insightful. Roch since he left the sun and now working for Masn ought to be ashamed of his self for being a yes man.

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Pete's reply: C'mon now. Roch is far from yes man. Neither myself nor Roch will give Dave a free ride when push comes to shove this season, but this isn't the time to do that. He is trying to build a team out of the players he is given by the front office and -- in some cases -- he isn't the guy deciding which guys make the roster. This time of year, that's largely Andy, and that's why options matter more than performance in some cases. It's pretty hard to put it on the manager and pitching coach when you don't have a true No. 1 starter and you're filling the 3-5 slots with a collection of other teams' castoffs. I think if Dave had his way -- and I'm speculating -- he'd go right now with Wieters, Bergeson, Tillman and Arrieta. This is one of those cases where business gets in the way, though O's fans probably will be happy later that those guys didn't get wasted on what is going to be a lost season.

To answer your original question, being a beat guy on a major league baseball team is a balancing act, but the beat writer is supposed to report more than criticize anyway. I'm not a beat writer, though I've been helping out on news here this spring. I will not hesitate to criticize the manager or anybody else when it's warranted, but generally spring training doesn't lend itself to that because there aren't a lot of decisions until the end. I agree David and Mike do a great job, but football is a different kind of beat.

Pete; What happens to Bass if he doesn't make the team? Is he under contract? Can they send him down without losing him?

He's had a pretty good spring and was consistently good for the Os last year, at least until his pitch count got up. What do you think of his chances?

To me, unless Penn shows something the next time out, I'd keep Bass. He's only 27 years old.

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Pete's reply: I believe he's out of options, but we've been going back and forth on that. If he is, he has to be waived and outrighted if he doesn't make the team.

How can we not be looking in to Pedro Martinez at this point?

Our rotation is such that we will most likely have the highest ERA in baseball whether we played in the AL East or not. Pedro is a perfect fit, and would relish the opportunity to stick it to the Yankees and especially the Red Sox. 5 million seems like a bargain, and we can probably deal him at the deadline for some prospects when we bring up the future ;Matusz and Tillman etc.

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Pete's reply: It would certainly be fine with me.

As a long time Oriole fan from Wyoming this actually is the first spring i've been excited about in many years, I like the direction of the pitching, holding back the youngsters until there ready and can't wait to see Wieters. How we all long for Cuellar, McNally,Dobson and Palmer!