TwinsCentric: Preview The Orioles By The Numbers

I know the Twins still have five days until they get to play the Orioles, but I can't wait. The roster is set. There are a couple more meaningless games against the Rays, because you can't play enough meaningless games against the Rays. And then a game versus the Miracle? Really? I'll be damned if I'm not going to look forward to Friday.

Orioles By The Numbers Overall69.5 – The over/under Vegas set for Orioles wins this year. Which means if they go 70-92, they would still exceed expectations. That's the worst over/under in the American League. 103-116 – Manager Buck Showalter's record with the Orioles. 2-6 – Twins record against the Orioles last year. Pitching30 – Where the Orioles whole pitching staff ranked in ERA last year, one spot behind the Twins. 5.39 – The collective ERA of the Orioles starting rotation, worst in the major leagues. 0.57 – How much worse that ERA was than the second worst team. 3 – Days before the season opener that Showalter will be announcing his Opening Day starting pitcher and the rest of the Orioles rotation. That's Tuesday. 13 – Combined number of wins the Opening Day starting pitching candidates, Jake Arrieta and Tommy Hunter, had last year. (Both are right-handers.) Offseason$3.25M – Biggest contract the Orioles paid to a free agent from MLB this offseason. That's not per year - that's total. $19.5M – Amount Orioles spent on a pair of Japanese starting pitchers, Wei-Yin Chen and Tsuyoshi Wada. .290 – The highest batting average of an Orioles everyday player last year. It belonged to Vladimir Guerrero, who was not signed during the offseason and is considering playing in Japan. Offense14^th – Where the Orioles offense ranked in runs scored last year in MLB. 196 – Number of times Orioles third baseman Mark Reynolds struck out last season while hitting .221. .806 – The highest OPS of any Oriole regular last year. It belonged to Mark Reynolds. 7/9 – The fraction of this year's Orioles lineup that had an OPS of at least 750 last year. 0 - Percent chance JJ Hardy will not be ready for Opening Day, according to JJ Hardy. He's been out for a week with discomfort in his right shoulder and received a cortisone shot for it on Thursday. ~~~ All those roster moves made for a busy weekend at TwinsDaily.

• Nick breaks down the biggest decisions, including the decision not to carry three catchers.
• The community had a lot of thoughts as the final decisions were made yesterday.
• If you missed the season premiere of the Ron Gardenhire show, Seth has the Cliff Notes version.
• And spring training isn't just winding down for the major leaguers. Minor league pitcher Tim Shibuya wrote about how spring training ends, both for better and for worse.