Pregame notes on Tillman, Hardy, Janish and more

SARASOTA, Fla. - Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Chris Tillman's bullpen session today went well and the right-hander is scheduled for another one in a few days before the club will consider having him face hitters.

"We were trying not to jinx ourselves and get ahead of it," Showalter said. "It's the plan that we had. Everything's falling on the calendar that we put up three weeks ago or two weeks ago. He's right on schedule. It's going to be tough to withstand any setbacks, but if he stays on schedule, he's fine."

Shortstop J.J. Hardy was doing an assortment of baseball activities this morning on the back fields.

"It's good to see," Showalter said. "I just passed him over there. They were getting after it."

As I wrote earlier this morning, closer Zach Britton will throw off a half mound on Monday and a full mound most likely on Wednesday before making his Grapefruit League debut.

Showalter arranged a game of "pepper" on the turf field before batting practice, an exercise where a player hits brisk ground balls to fielders who are positioned closely in a line. Ballparks used to post signs saying "no pepper" because of the damage done to the grass fields.

"It was good," Showalter said. "They were really into it. We actually filmed it. I was told we might have a generation that didn't know how to play pepper, but we didn't. They knew. They liked it. We might do it some more.

"Because nobody does it, they don't even put up the signs anymore. It's another benefit of the Astroturf field. It makes you realize how easy it really is to put the ball in play sometimes if you have a certain mindset about it, keeping the ball out of the air. But they were into it. I appreciated it."

Paul Janish is starting at second base today after playing shortstop yesterday in Port Charlotte and making a great diving stop on a sharp grounder hit to his right.

"It's a reminder of how important that is to us and we've got multiple ways that we can go there now, and Paul's one of them" Showalter said. "It's hard to find a guy with his experience level at the big leagues who's not going to ... he's not going to have anxiety out there in tough moments. He's played.

"We've got two or three guys who are new to us who said, 'Man, you've got Janish? That's pretty good.' I think he's about as happy to be here as we are to have him."

Janish is playing second base today, with Manny Machado at shortstop, so he can get caught up on his at-bats. Machado leaves after today's game for the World Baseball Classic.

"When Manny leaves, he'll play predominately shortstop, but he can play other places," Showalter said. "We've got a lot of moveable pieces, a lot of parts that fit at different positions. We're ahead of last year in the outfield and infield where we were as far as depth pieces.

"The Norfolk club's got a chance to be pretty good this year. They had some real challenges last year, a lot of them that we provided, the major league club made happen."

The Orioles are listing Darren O'Day, Donnie Hart, Jayson Aquino and Parker Bridwell today before starter Mike Wright. They brought pitchers Jefri Hernandez, Brian Moran, Stefan Crichton and Garrett Cleavinger and infielder Jomar Reyes from minor league camp.

Steve Johnson (St. Paul's) passed his physical and signed his minor league deal. He's reporting to Twin Lakes Park.

For the Phillies
César Hernández 2B
Chris Coghlan DH
Maikel Franco 3B
Tommy Joseph 1B
Cameron Rupp C
Cameron Perkins LF
J.P. Crawford SS
Aaron Altherr RF
Roman Quinn CF

Nick Pivetta RHP