Friday Bird Droppings

Baseball begins Sunday. Orioles baseball begins Monday. Rejoice, friends.

Any big plans for Passover or Easter? Getting amped for the return/departure of Mad Men or premier of Wolf Hall? Things are happening.

Chen faces Markakis for first time in final start | Comcast SportsNet Baltimore
Chen was the superior Taiwanese pitcher on the day.

Rest, recover, reload: O's ahead of curve in injury prevention | orioles.com
This was touched on in the yesterday's thread, but I thought I'd re-post for those of you that might have missed it. Surprisingly, Rick Peterson does not make an appearance and frankly, I haven't heard a peep out of him in quite some time, Ah, well. It also talks about rehabbing position players, too, though.

Orioles rely on pitching in bid to repeat as AL East champs - Yahoo Sports
The AP's man in Baltimore provides his season preview.

10 most important MLB players nobody's talking about. | SportsonEarth.com : Anthony Castrovince Article False. We have definitely talked abut Travis Snider. Spoiler?

Local Blogs Discuss The Orioles - Baltimore Sports and Life A virtual roundtable featuring Mark and other non-CC O's bloggers.

Camden Depot: Did the Orioles Do Right by Jonathan Schoop? Checking out some historical comps for old Schoopy.

Dan Deacon on the Baltimore Orioles, Buck Showalter's Avocado Farm | Rolling Stone If I recall correctly, last year's edition featured Panda Bear. Reformed Yankees fan Dan Deacon is a little more gung ho.

On this day in 1997, Jimmy Key ran his Opening Day record to 7-0 as the O's beat the Royals 4-2. In 2011, Zach Britton won his major league debut and the O's defeated Tampa 5-1.

It's the birthday of fan favorite Koji Uehara. Justin Christian also celebrates a birthday today.