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I have this thing about Dana Eveland where I constantly forget that he exists and that he's on the Orioles. The fact that he has a 5.52 ERA in his career probably has something to do with this. I think that may be my defense mechanism, because otherwise if I think about him I have to remember that the Orioles traded two guys to get him. Never mind the value of either one of those two guys, which may be nil. The value of Eveland will also be nil, at best.
We are all reminded of this today because Eveland is the starter for a spring training contest against the Red Sox. There couldn't possibly be room for him on the major league roster, could there? How many guys do you think would have to get hurt or completely suck before you would say to yourself, "What the hell, let's throw Eveland out there"? Sometimes I wonder what spring training has to be like for the Evelands of the world. Being in the major leagues has to have been a life long dream and then you get there and you're not quite good enough. Kinda sucks. Poor Dana Eveland.
On the other hand, you know what else sucks? Rooting for a crappy baseball team for fourteen-plus years. Part of the reason for that is having too many baseball players who are probably very nice and have dreams of playing in the big leagues and then they get there and they're not quite good enough.
This game is going to be televised on MASN. This is the "A" game for the day. There was already a "B" game played on the back field this morning. Here are some things the Twitter tells me happened: Tommy Hunter pitched three innings, Jim Johnson pitched, Zach Britton pitched, and Kevin Gregg pitched and gave up a home run. Of course he did.
Lineups, courtesy of Roch:
Orioles: Andino 2B, Hardy SS, Jones CF, Wieters C, Reynolds 3B, Betemit LF, Davis 1B, Miller RF, Adams DH
Red Sox: Spears 3B, Pedroia 2B, Ellsbury CF, Ortiz DH, Sweeney RF, Aviles SS, Ross LF, Shoppach C, Anderson 1B
For the curious, that is the same Spears who was once traded by the Orioles to the Cubs for Corey Patterson. As for the O's lineup, when Nolan Reimold's face heals, slide Betemit to DH and put him in LF, then in RF will be either Endy Chavez or Nick Markakis. Shuffle around according to the whim of Buck Showalter and you have your Opening Day lineup. But hopefully Dana Eveland won't be the starter on April 6.