NumerOlogy

As the Birds fly north for tomorrow’s exhibition finale vs. the Nationals at the new stadium in D.C., the roster is 24/25ths set. It pretty much shakes out as I speculated on Monday. Brian Burres will be the fifth starter, with Matt Albers in the long relief role. Rocky Cherry was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a shoulder strain, though it’s not certain he would have made the team if he were healthy. I miscounted the position players; if the Orioles don’t eat Jay Gibbons‘ contract there is no room for either Scott Moore or Tike Redman (Chris Roberson will definitely start the season at Norfolk). The O’s hand on Gibbons might be forced now that MLB has put his 15-day drug suspension on hold pending further negotiations with the players’ association. Andy MacPhail and company were counting on the suspension to buy them some time. I realize that $11.9 million is a lot of money to burn, but it’s my opinion that it would be better spent getting Gibbons, his poor defense and declining bat, and his performance-enhancing drug taint off of the team, thereby opening up a spot for a more versatile and deserving player like Moore or Redman. But then, it’s not my money. Blah blah blah.

It just wouldn’t be a Spring Training wrap-up if we didn’t have another appearance by the multipurpose #18. The invaluable Roch Kubatko reported on the preponderance of 70s and 80s on the field for the O’s in yesterday’s road game in Viera, FL against the Nationals. The team gave most of the starters a break and took a bunch of players from the minor league camp on the five-hour round trip instead. He notes that a rare low number was worn by outfielder Adam Stern, who wore (what else?) #18. Yesterday was something of a cameo for Stern, who did not get an invite to the major league camp this year after spending the bulk of 2007 in Norfolk. He did have a cup of coffee with the O’s as a late-inning defensive replacement last April, wearing #40.

I don’t like to talk about those damned Yankees on this site, but this one involves uniform numbers and a former Oriole, so I felt obligated to mention it. Infielder Morgan Ensberg was given #21 when he came to Yankees camp in February, becoming the first New York player to wear it since former outfielder Paul O’Neill retired in 2001. When Ensberg learned that he’d made the Opening Day roster, he insisted upon switching numbers out of respect for O’Neill and his ongoing popularity with the Bronx faithful. Former O’s reliever LaTroy Hawkins plans to suit up in #21 in Ensberg’s place; he intends it to be a tribute to Pirates Hall-of-Fame outfielder (and Oriole killer) Roberto Clemente, who died in a plane crash ten days before Hawkins’ birth in 1972. Incidentally, another ex-Bird wore #21 throughout his career to honor Clemente: outfielder/malcontent Sammy Sosa.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty antsy for some games that count in the standings, and not just because it’ll give me a chance to update the All-Time Roster. It’s been a long winter.

Play Ball, and let’s go O’s!

The picture accompanying this post comes from the Baltimore Sun, which ran an amusing story last Thursday about Opening Day starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie (pictured on the right). Apparently he got tired of staring at Nick Markakis‘ golf bag, so he pulled it out of the outfielder’s locker, filled it with baseball equipment and towels, and carried it out to the field. Guthrie served as Nick’s caddy, even going so far as to wear a spare #21 Markakis jersey. My eyes could be failing me, but it looks like Nick’s bag may even be in Orioles colors, which would be a nice touch.

Speaking of jersey oddities, Mike Costanzo became the latest Oriole to wear the normally-vacant #18 last Friday. It seems that although Mike showed up for a road game against the Cardinals in Jupiter, his #66 jersey did not. When he entered the game at first base in the middle innings, he wore #18, just as Ramon Hernandez had done in a similar situation earlier this Spring. I know that college basketball teams are required to have a spare “blood jersey” in case of an accident, but has #18 become the O’s “amnesia jersey”?

Unfortunately for Costanzo, that was his last appearance for the Birds in the foreseeable future, as he was subsequently reassigned to minor league camp. Other recent cuts include outfielder #25 Luis Terrero, pitcher #54 Lance Cormier, and catcher #65 Omir Santos. Costanzo’s willingness to play anywhere on the field and his powerful bat made a good impression, but he needs some experience at AAA. Hopefully he’ll get to do some more catching at Norfolk and work on making more consistent contact; a late ‘08 callup to Baltimore is not out of the question.

With fewer than 40 players left in major league camp, let’s take a closer look at the fight for the last few available roster spots. Assuming that the Orioles go north with both in-house shortstop candidates (Brandon Fahey and Luis Hernandez, the latter of whom is out of options), infielder Scott Moore and outfielders Tike Redman and Chris Roberson seem to be the threesome jockeying for the last spot on the bench. One of them will get a reprieve, as Jay Gibbons begins the season by serving a 15-day suspension for his indiscretions with Human Growth Hormone. Further complicating matters is the possibility that Brian Roberts and Jay Payton could be traded, bringing in someone like Ronny Cedeno to start in the middle infield. Then there are the rumblings of a veteran middle infielder being picked up (Felipe Lopez, Mark Loretta, and Juan Uribe being the most frequently mentioned). Whew!

Fortunately, the pitching situation is a little more clear-cut. The battle for the fifth slot in the starting rotation seems to be down to Matt Albers and Brian Burres, with Jon Leicester fading fast. The loser of that competition will almost assuredly be the long reliever in a seven-man bullpen, joining veterans George Sherrill, Jamie Walker, and Chad Bradford. Three newcomers have also been sufficiently impressive: Rule 5 draftee Randor Bierd, former Diamondback and Brewer Greg Aquino, and ex-Astro Dennis Sarfate. Assuming my math is correct (a dangerous assumption), that adds up to seven pitchers, leaving Rocky Cherry as the odd man out. That would be a shame, since he’s only surrendered one earned run in Grapefruit League play, but it stands to reason that he won’t be stuck in Norfolk all year long.

One refreshing story out of Orioles camp involves several former Birds who accepted invitations to come impart their wisdom (and their stories of better times in Baltimore) to the current crop of players. Those on hand this Spring have included former pitchers Mike Cuellar and Scott McGregor, former catcher Rick Dempsey and former outfielder/third baseman B. J. Surhoff. Although the numbers that each of these men made famous are now worn by others (#35 Greg Aquino, #16 Jay Payton, #24 Guillermo Quiroz, and #17 Aubrey Huff, respectively), it appears that the ex-O’s were allowed to wear their familiar digits anyway. The sight of Cuellar in orange and black again (and the promise of Boog Powell and others in the future) is a positive sign that Andy MacPhail has what it takes to undo a lot of the damage that has been done over the past decade.

Meanwhile, Opening Day is right around the corner and the pitchers are dropping like flies. In the past few days, the following players were sent to minor league camp: #57 Garrett Olson, #59 Craig Anderson, #60 Ryan Bukvich, #62 Radhames Liz, and #63 Roberto Novoa. I think the O’s are still looking for a fifth starting pitcher, if anyone wants to grab a glove and head for Fort Lauderdale.

Five more cuts today, as the Birds’ roster continues to take shape. #19 Ben Davis, #49 Hayden Penn, #71 Bob McCrory, #72 Fredy Deza, and #74 Zach Dillon are all headed to the minor league camp in Sarasota. McCrory’s the only cut that surprises me, as he’s had an impressive Spring. Of course, the new organizational focus seems to involve not rushing folks to the major leagues. Besides, Bob should get his shot in a month or two, when the bullpen is beset by its next round of bomb-outs/elbow injuries. The Orioles still have 45 players in camp, with open competitions at shortstop, utility infielder, backup catcher, fifth starting pitcher, and a handful of bullpen slots.

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.

Mini-update from Roch Kubatko’s invaluable Spring Training coverage. Yesterday, catcher Ramon Hernandez arrived in Jupiter, FL to play the Marlins, but forgot to bring his orange #55 jersey with him. With the top half of his uniform sitting in his locker in Fort Lauderdale, Ramon wore #18 for one game only. As we’ve seen on the Spring Training Roster, #18 is the lowest number not claimed by a player or coach (not counting retired numbers, of course). It has most recently been worn by a string of catchers: Javy Lopez (2004-2006); Chris Widger (2006); and Alberto Castillo (2007), who spent some time in Baltimore while Ramon battled injuries last year. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find photographic evidence of Hernandez in #18 yesterday. If anyone comes across a picture, you can send it to kevin AT oriolesnumbers.com.

Now that the results of Monday’s Photo Day are up on Getty Images, we might as well take a closer look at the Spring Training roster, in numerical order (of course!). Click below to see who’s wearing what.

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I’ve got a Friday quickie for you:

• Roch Kubatko confirms that Aubrey Huff has switched from #19 to #17 to honor former Tampa Bay teammate Joe Kennedy, who passed away on November 23 due to heart disease. Joe had worn #17 with the then-Devil Rays in 2002 and 2003.
• New pitching coach Rick Kranitz is sporting #39, last worn by reliever Jim Hoey. Hoey is listed on the roster as #27, which should be free now that Jaret Wright is out to pasture.
• Finally, I wanted to pass along a link to reader Kasey Ignarski’s website, which has year-by-year rosters for the Chicago Cubs dating back to 1932(!) as well as an all-time roster. Kasey’s actually gotten some help from the Cubs in completing his research, which is very cool.

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.

Lots to get to today. First of all, the slowest-developing trade in MLB history has been consummated. Erik Bedard is now a Seattle Mariner, so I’ve updated the roster and the 40-49 page to reflect his departure. Best of luck to Erik…except when he’s facing the O’s, of course. If yesterday’s press conference in Seattle is any indication, he’ll continue to wear #45 for the Mariners. Time will tell which numbers Adam Jones and George Sherrill will wear; Jones wore #10 in Seattle last year (recently vacated by Miguel Tejada) and Sherrill wore #52. The most recent #52 in Baltimore was Jon Leicester, who seems to be a long shot to make this year’s team. Welcome to Birdland, guys!

In other news, we’ve got our first confirmed Orioles player to have found this little site! I got an email this morning from reliever Dick Hall, whose grandson showed him NumerOlogy. He says the following:

“Some of players were into numbers. I remember one time in the bullpen paying a game (we were safely way ahead - we didn’t play games much if the game was close) where someone would say a number and then people would name all the players in the league with that number. Milt Pappas especially knew everyone.”

Dick was also fairly certain that when he first arrived in Baltimore in April 1961, he wore a number other than #29. He thought it might have been #38, but wasn’t sure. He also didn’t know when he switched for good. I did a little sleuthing, and Baseball Almanac lists him as #29 and #38 in 1961. I had already confirmed pitcher Dick Hyde for #38, but he didn’t appear in a game until May. This would support Hall’s claim that he started out in #38, and switched to #29 either before or when Hyde joined the team. I’d like to thank Dick for helping me make that correction, and if anyone has more specific dates for the switch they can let me know.

I wanted to acknowledge a few blogs that have had some positive things to say about this site and that were kind enough to toss a link my way:

Neal Shaffer at the Baltimore-centric sports blog The Loss Column asserts that “this is what the Internet is really for”.

Bill Ordine of the Baltimore Sun’s O, by the Way sports blog says, “Count on a great read”.

Finally, Ben Penserga of The Daily Times in Salisbury, MD was kind enough to interview me for his O’s Chat blog. I answered Ben’s questions by email, so hopefully I’ll actually come across as articulate.

Thanks, guys! The feedback for NumerOlogy is already exceeding my expectations. Don’t forget, pitchers and catchers report to Fort Lauderdale in four days!