NumerOlogy

Well, the first roster cuts of Spring Training came on Friday, as Matt Wieters, Chris Tillman, Kam Mickolio, Esteban Yan, and Ryan Keefer were assigned to minor league camp. So it looks like the Opening Day roster won’t feature the numbers 58, 76, 82, 75, or 81.

We also won’t see #43 at all this season. New Oriole pitcher Troy Patton will miss all of 2008 after undergoing surgery to repair a small tear in his left shoulder. This will mark the second straight season that an O’s pitcher in #43 has been lost to injury, following Sendy Rleal in 2007. Is it the Curse of Sidney Ponson?

I made a few minor corrections to various pages of the site, including fixing some bad links and updating Corey Patterson-related content, now that he’s officially an ex-Oriole. He signed a minor league deal with the Cincinnati Reds earlier this week.

A few links to pass along today. First, Matt Silverman, who has written three books about the New York Mets (most recently collaborating with Mets by the Numbers mastermind Jon Springer on a book that’s right up my alley), has just started his own sports blog. It’s a good read from a diehard baseball fan.

For those who don’t keep tabs on my baseball card blog, yesterday I linked to the personal website of Steve Pappas, son of Milt Pappas. He’s got some great tidbits about his father, who’s one of best to ever put on an O’s uniform (and certainly the best #32). Steve’s also an avid player of APBA, and he’s got lots of information about his hobby on the site.

It seems like only yesterday that pitchers and catchers reported to Fort Lauderdale for the Orioles. That’s probably because it was yesterday. As soon as I see more pictures and everyone gets to camp, I’ll try to roll out a Spring Training Roster, so we can keep ourselves occupied with numerical comings and goings from now until the games start to count. We already have one confirmed number change for 2008; Roch Kubatko reports that Daniel Cabrera has switched from #35 to #40. Hopefully we’ll find out why, but considering his recent performance, it couldn’t hurt to change things up. Glancing over the Baltimore Sun’s roster, there are some other items of interest:

• Greg Aquino is listed as #35; he would replace Cabrera in that number.
• Fernando Cabrera might supplant Kris Benson as #34; he wore #23 late in 2007.
• Speaking of #23, that now seems to reside with Rocky Cherry, who was last seen in #38.
• Jon Leicester still claims #52, so it appears that George Sherrill will make do with #51.
• Radhames Liz jumps up to #64, with nonroster invitee Matt Wieters taking Liz’s old #58.
• Steve Trachsel is back in #41, which briefly resided with Victor Zambrano after Trachsel’s trade to the Cubs.
• Among other pitchers who have a good shot at making the team, Troy Patton is assigned #43 and Dennis Sarfate looks to have jumped on Erik Bedard’s new available #45.
• Guillermo Quiroz, the early favorite to back up Ramon Hernandez at catcher, sports a number familiar to O’s backstops - #24.
• Only notable digits among infielders go to Scott Moore, who swaps #43 for #9 (formerly the property of Paul Bako).
• In the outfield, new Orioles Adam Jones (#10) and Luke Scott (#30) will likely keep the numbers they’d most recently worn in Seattle and Houston, respectively.
• Has Aubrey Huff turned over a new leaf? He may have given up #19 in favor of #17.  Aubrey has worn #19 for his entire major league career except for the second half of 2006, when he wore #9 with the Astros.

Of course, for now these numbers should all be taken with a grain of salt. After all, that same roster currently lists Chris Tillman’s age as -1, and several numbers have changed just today.