SARASOTA, Fla. - Manny Machado is making another road trip today, batting third against Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Alex Cobb. Jason Pridie is playing right field and batting cleanup. Xavier Avery is starting in left field and batting ninth. Yes, most of the regulars are staying in Sarasota. For the Orioles: Alexi Casilla 2B Ryan Flaherty SS Manny Machado 3B Jason Pridie RF Chris Dickerson CF Trayvon Robinson DH Travis Ishikawa 1B Luis Exposito C Xavier Avery LF Wei-Yin Chen LHP For the...

SARASOTA, Fla. - Who's up for another road trip? The Orioles are heading to Port Charlotte this morning to play the Tampa Bay Rays. It's a nice facility with a press box that seats about three reporters from the visiting media - with two obstructed views. But everything else about the place is fairly impressive. Wei-Yin Chen makes his 2013 Grapefruit League debut today, followed by Brian Matusz, Tommy Hunter, Troy Patton and Daniel McCutchen. Hunter was supposed to go two or three innings...

Today I present the third edition of 10 questions for O's fans. I'll once again throw out some questions and topics and hope you answer and respond to any or all of them. If you number your answers it will be easier to follow the responses. Now on with the latest edition: 1. Is Brian Matusz better suited to be a starter or reliever? 2. Who do you rate as the Orioles' best defensive outfielder? 3. What will Wei-Yin Chen's stats look like in his second season as an Oriole? 4. Which is...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - It looked for a second like the Braves were going to tie tonight's game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth when Jordan Parraz singled up the middle just behind the second base bag. Joey Terdoslavich (boy, what a name that is) made a turn around third and was ready to head for home, but Nationals second baseman Will Rhymes made a diving stop of the ball, hopped to his feet and kept Terdoslavich at third. One pitch later, reliever Jeremy Accardo got Elmer Reyes...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Jordan Zimmermann has been working on his changeup for three years now. He's struggled to get a good feel of the pitch in the past, had issues finding the right arm action and searched for the proper velocity to maximize the changeup's effectiveness. Zimmermann didn't trust his changeup last year, and therefore threw it just 2.2 percent of the time. And now? "It feels really, really good right now," Zimmermann said following tonight's start against the Braves....

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Tyler Clippard took a while before getting into a spring game, but once he did, he looked just like his old self. Clippard pitched a 1-2-3 sixth inning tonight, striking out Christian Bethancourt swinging for the second out of the frame. The right-hander threw nine pitches, seven for strikes. He threw three changeups, by my count. That pitch is still nasty, even on March 1. We got a bit of a surprise in the sixth when Anthony Rendon trotted out to shortstop to take...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Bryce Harper put the Nationals on the board just three batters into tonight's game at Champion Stadium, smacking an opposite-field home run off Braves starter Julio Teheran. The wind is blowing out to left here tonight, and a ball that looked like it might come down feet short of the fence ended up landing on the berm just beyond the wall. It's Harper's first home run of spring and makes him 7-for-11 on the Grapefruit League season. The reigning National League...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Every time the Nationals make the trip here to face the Braves, I look forward to watching Bryce Harper take batting practice, assuming he's on the trip. About 20-40 feet beyond the right field fence here, there's a castle-like tan wall that stands maybe 20 feet tall. I'm not really sure what purpose it serves, but it's out there, and it serves as another target for the heavy-hitting Harper. Harper has no problem clearing the Champion Stadium right field fence...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Based on all we know about Anthony Rendon and the makeup of the Nationals' roster, it was probably safe to assume that Rendon has no shot at making the team out of camp this year. After all, Rendon has only 133 career professional at-bats under his belt, and he batted just .162 in 21 games at Double-A Harrisburg last year, the highest level he saw in 2012. Rendon, the Nationals' top pick in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft, has battled injuries for much of the last...

SARASOTA, Fla. - Nolan Reimold made the decision to remove himself from today's game before he batted in the bottom of the second inning. As it turned out, he was allowed to hit and responded with a long home run. The at-bat easily was the best part of his brief day. Reimold said he's going to take a "day or two off from throwing" because of soreness in his right shoulder that, obviously, doesn't impact the way he swings a bat. "I just had a little bit of shoulder soreness and this is...