Jeremy Guthrie isn't worried about his crummy spring:
"You just go out there and try to execute pitches," he said. "Today, on the execution-level of things, I felt really good about it. I located fastballs. I got hitters out on fastballs away, righties, for a couple of strikeouts. That's important. I got in on some lefties. If I think about mistakes, the home run (to Justin Morneau), 3-2, I tried to go inside and left it a little bit middle and Justin put a nice swing on it. Nick Punto, I left a changeup up a little bit and the ball got up in that jet stream and went for a double, and they ended up scoring that run. The last inning, I experimented with a couple of curveballs and Delmon (Young) put a nice swing on it, and then I got behind two guys. In reality, today was two or three pitches away from being a real, real solid outing, but I'm still able to look at it and feel positive about what I was able to do, and realize I've still got to get better, and we've got two more starts to do that before it all starts counting."
Does Guthrie feel like he paid a price by leaving the Orioles for the World Baseball Classic?
"Who's to say?" he replied.
Chances are the WBC thing did not HELP Guthrie's situation any, but most likely it's just a bad spring either way. Sometimes guys have bad springs. No big deal. Probably. Hopefully.
Dempsey's Army talks about Pie v. Montanez, including some thoughts from Roch blog commenters, who appear to dislike Pie, love Montanez, and want to marry Reimold. I'm pretty much with DA on this one: Montanez was picked up by the O's to be minor league filler and he wound up hitting for the first time in his long, bust of a minor league career. Pie was traded for because MacPhail wants him to start. Pie is going to get the chance over Montanez. It's not even a debate. Pie has no options left. If he stinks it up really bad out there, he'll get replaced. But they're going to go with him because they already made the move. Welcome to baseball, folks, it's not a meritocracy all the time. That's why guys like Billy Ripken got so many looks. That's why Rick Dempsey's nephew got signed when in all candor Robby Hammock would've been just fine as a placeholder.
Roar from 34 remembers The Kid's 438' foot shot on April 24, 1994. This is a great little series of articles.