masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgSARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles are down to their final day of strictly workouts before their first exhibition game on Tuesday against the Tigers in Lakeland, Fla.
Players have reached the point in camp where they’re ready for the competition, ready to do something different besides going field to field for various drills, throwing off practice mounds and hitting in the cage. They want to face an opponent and reduce the distance between themselves and opening day.
Yesterday’s intrasquad game…

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles are down to their final day of strictly workouts before their first exhibition game on Tuesday against the Tigers in Lakeland, Fla.

Players have reached the point in camp where they’re ready for the competition, ready to do something different besides going field to field for various drills, throwing off practice mounds and hitting in the cage. They want to face an opponent and reduce the distance between themselves and opening day.

tj-mcfarland-gray-sidebar-throws.jpgYesterday’s intrasquad game followed a morning workout and provided a nice change from the usual routine. Rules are bent like pretzels – T.J. McFarland and Wesley Wright stayed on the mound after getting the third out, Tim Berry retired only one batter before reaching his pitch limit, Matt Wieters went from catcher to designated hitter, Alejandro De Aza was skipped in the sixth inning, Chris Parmelee moved down one spot to allow Rey Navarro to bat – but it still qualified as a game.

Henry Urrutia was the only hitter who didn’t collect an at-bat yesterday. Showalter couldn’t get him into the game, but he’s making the trip to Lakeland on Tuesday.

Wieters batted leadoff yesterday and Showalter left open the possibility that it could happen again in Wednesday’s home exhibition opener against the Tigers. Anything to get him more at-bats.

“You know how much I care about batting order, down here anyway,” Showalter said.

* The Orioles maintain interest in hiring former Dodgers pitcher Ramon Martinez and seem optimistic that they can bring him into the organization.

Martinez, who turns 47 later this month, works for the Dodgers as a senior adviser in Latin America. He’s the older brother of Pedro Martinez, who will be inducted this summer into the Hall of Fame.

Martinez, who retired in 2001 after 14 seasons in the majors, has a close relationship with pitching coach Dave Wallace and visited with him at the minicamp in Sarasota.

A specific job title for Martinez hasn’t been determined, but the Orioles obviously want him working with their minor league pitchers and enhancing their presence in Latin America. They’re discussing ways to take advantage of his skill set.

Martinez was 135-88 with a 3.67 ERA in 301 major league games, the first 266 with the Dodgers. He placed second in Cy Young voting in the National League in 1990 after going 20-6 with a 2.92 ERA and 12 complete games in 33 starts.

Wallace was the Dodgers minor league pitching coordinator from 1987-94 and their pitching coach from 1995-98, which also was Martinez’s last year on the team.

matusz pitch grey sidebar.jpg* Showalter sent Brian Matusz and others to minor league camp Saturday to throw live batting practice, and the left-hander figures to pitch against the Tigers on Tuesday in Lakeland or Wednesday in Sarasota.

Showalter said he wants to stretch out Matusz this spring, enabling the reliever to work on his changeup. Matusz logged six innings over three Grapefruit League games last spring, but those statistics don’t reflect appearances in B and simulated games. He had a few scheduled appearances washed away by rain and was sent to minor league camp.

“As far as I know, the plan is to get stretched out and hopefully get the opportunity to get in there and take advantage of whatever opportunity is given to me,” Matusz said. “But I think the ultimate goal is to not only work on the changeup, but work on fastball location and command of all four pitches. Get the curveball going and get the slider going and get all four pitches going.

“I think the reasoning behind that is obviously the more innings you throw and the more work you get, the better you can be. That’s the ultimate goal.

“I’m not sure what their plan is. I heard just get stretched out, but if there’s an opportunity to get a start, I’d love to embrace that opportunity if it were to arise. But, shoot, I wouldn’t mind getting stretched out as far as the starters get stretched out, as long as the innings are there and the opportunity is there. I’m full-go for any opportunity that presents itself.”

britton-sets-orange-sidebar.jpg* There’s no reason to stretch out Zach Britton beyond his one-inning appearances. He started for the home team yesterday in the intrasquad game, but only because somebody had to go first, and induced three ground balls.

Britton arrived in camp as the undisputed closer and that’s how he’ll leave it.

“We all know what kind of stuff he has,” Showalter said. “I haven’t had a question about will he ever go back to starting again. And more importantly, I haven’t heard it from him. He got a pretty good raise doing what he did last year.”

That’s a fact as concrete as the steps in the dugouts. Britton’s salary in his first year of arbitration eligibility jumped from $521,500 to $3.2 million.

It’s easy to forget that Britton reported to camp last spring out of options and without a defined role. He was ticketed to work out of the bullpen, but late relief wasn’t a real consideration until he began getting such heavy sink on his fastball and demonstrated the ability to command it.

Vice president of baseball operations Brady Anderson already was sold on Britton during the winter, and Wallace and bullpen coach Dom Chiti soon got on board after watching him throw.

“It started with Brady in the offseason,” Showalter said. “I was talking to him out on the West Coast. Britton basically spent the whole year with him. He said, ‘You’re really going to like Britton this year.’ About halfway through the spring, three-quarters of the way, Dom and Dave said, ‘Britton’s going to be a real contributor this year.’ I said, ‘Really?’

“They were on the back mounds with him every time with those strings trying to get him to grasp what the bottom of the zone was. He was like that golfer that’s playing his slice to land in the middle of the fairway. Well, Zach was bringing his sinker back to the middle. Starting it out of the zone and then bringing it back into it. And they were trying to get him to start the ball in the bottom middle of the zone and have it run out, take it off the sweet part of the bat, and we couldn’t get him to grasp what the bottom of the zone was.

“I’ll tell you, by the end of spring we were changing the strings after he threw every time.”