masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgSARASOTA, Fla. – Darren O’Day has reached the point in his career where spring training numbers won’t determine his placement on the 25-man roster. He can just work toward staying healthy, maybe do a little experimenting.
Try telling that to O’Day.
It mattered to him that he struck out two batters in a scoreless inning in his debut Thursday afternoon against the Twins. It mattered that he made two stops on the disabled list last season with shoulder and hamstring injuries after signing his…

SARASOTA, Fla. – Darren O’Day has reached the point in his career where spring training numbers won’t determine his placement on the 25-man roster. He can just work toward staying healthy, maybe do a little experimenting.

Try telling that to O’Day.

It mattered to him that he struck out two batters in a scoreless inning in his debut Thursday afternoon against the Twins. It mattered that he made two stops on the disabled list last season with shoulder and hamstring injuries after signing his four-year, $31 million contract, limiting him to only 34 games and making him a spectator for stretches while the Orioles fought to earn the second wild card.

The 34 appearances were his fewest since totaling only 16 in 2011. He pitched in 69, 68, 68 and 68 games in his first four seasons in Baltimore

Darren O'Day gray throw.png“I feel great,” he said Friday morning. “It’s exciting to be back on a mound, a competitive environment. For the way I threw, I think it went well. It felt good, I feel good today, so I think it’s all positive.

“I’m going to take feeling good. I think I’m going to feel good. I did this in 2011, I hurt my shoulder pretty bad during the season. In 2012, I felt good all year, so the shoulder feels good, and I’m looking for good results because I want to feel …

“When you’re accustomed to a certain level of pitching, that’s what you want to get back to and even at the end of the year when I came back and I had some decent results, I didn’t feel like myself. There’s some work to do this spring. I want to get some guys out and show them that I’m 100 percent back.”

Manager Buck Showalter said the feedback from O’Day so far has been extremely positive. Showalter passes along this information with some trepidation, fearful of jinxing his setup man.

O’Day may get back on the mound this afternoon against the Phillies at Ed Smith Stadium.

“It’ll be a variety of two days off, then two innings or back-to-back, our standard things we do in spring training,” he said.

Camp tends to drag under the best of circumstances and it’s going to become more tiresome with the additional time spent in Florida due to the World Baseball Classic. Showalter held back reliever Brad Brach until Wednesday and O’Day until the following day.

“I do think that spring training is too long,” O’Day said. “They determined the length of spring training back when guys didn’t work out in the offseason, didn’t throw bullpens. I think it’s a bit too long.

“I was OK waiting a week. There’s plenty of time. You look back at the calendar last year and it’s just when we started a couple of days ago. I like watching these guys play. I’m OK waiting. I’ll get enough innings.”

Vidal Nuño’s next innings will come with Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic. He’s leaving camp today, along with Manny Machado and Welington Castillo, who are joining the Dominican Republic team.