Base Hits: 3/25/2009

Shocked and saddened to learn of the untimely death of John Brattain whose work I enjoyed often over at The Hardball Times. Brattain was a diehard Blue Jays fan and I had the pleasure of e-mailing back and forth with him on occasion about AL East baseball. He was always funny, pleasant and opinionated.

My deepest sympathies to his family and friends. He will be missed.

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According to Roch Kubatko, David Pauley is out of the running for a spot in the rotation and Dave Trembley also seems pretty sure that Chris Waters will not make the rotation either. By my estimation, that leaves Brian Bass, Adam Eaton, Hayden Penn, Danys Baez, Alfredo Simon and Mark Hendrickson in competition for the last three rotation spots with Rich Hill waiting on the DL.

If I made a guess, I'd figure Hendrickson, Baez and Eaton make up the rotation on Opening Day.

(edit: Dave Trembley has eliminated Baez from the competition since I wrote this. Nice guess!)

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Hall of Famer George Kell has passed away at the age of 86. Kell finished up his career in Baltimore and played on the first modern Oriole team to finish at .500 or better in 1957.

Kell manned third base but slowly gave way as the season wore on to a 20-year old defensive wizard named Brooks Robinson...

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Maryland native Harold Baines has been elected to the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.

It seemed like Baines always came through with the big hit when nobody else on the team was hitting. One of my favorites and clearly the best DH in Oriole history.