FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -The topic of conversation was Daniel Cabrera, and Baltimore Orioles manager Dave Trembley was emphatic that things would be different this year for an inconsistent pitcher whose most viable quality has long been his potential.
“He’s going to have a big season this year,” Trembley asserted, pointing out that Cabrera sharpened his control in winter ball, came to camp with a businesslike attitude and embraced the wisdom of new pitching coach Rick Kranitz.
“If he repeats his delivery and commands his fastball, everything is going to come for him,” Trembley said. “I know there’s a lot of people that go, oh here we go again, they’ll believe it when they see it. But I’m confident that he is going to have a turnaround season.”
Trembley spoke Thursday before Cabrera made his second start of spring training. In his first outing, the right-hander needed only 27 pitches to get through three scoreless innings against the Washington Nationals. With a similar performance against the Minnesota Twins, the 6-foot-7 Cabrera could have taken a huge stride toward backing up Trembley’s claim.
Instead, Cabrera threw 39 pitches in the first inning and allowed five runs. He permitted seven of 12 batters to reach base before lifted in the second.
Here we go again.
A big year? We’ll believe it when we see it.
When the Orioles signed Cabrera in 1999, they figured he would ultimately rank among the league leaders. He did that last season, although not in the fashion the team envisioned: Cabrera led the majors in losses, walks and earned runs allowed. He went 9-18 with a 5.55 ERA, numbers that hardly represented another step in his development.
“The kind of season he had will humble you,” Trembley said.
Some could argue that Cabrera has regressed. He was 12-8 as a rookie in 2004, then 10-13 and 9-10 before last year’s disaster. But he’s only 26, is an imposing figure on the mound and on occasion pitches well enough to make the Orioles believe it would be foolish to dismiss him before being absolutely certain he will never be a big league star.
Besides, Baltimore doesn’t have much else to rely upon in the starting rotation, and at least Cabrera is proficient at eating up innings. He started 34 games last season and topped the 200-inning mark for the first time. But for every efficient outing, he had two that were downright awful.
“When he did have problems last year it seemed like it was always one inning and it was the result of walks or pitching from behind and then the home run ball would enter into play,” Trembley said. “But knock on wood, so far this spring we haven’t seen that.”
Until Thursday. After shortstop Brandon Fahey booted a grounder by leadoff hitter Jason Pride, Cabrera walked Alexi Casilla after getting ahead in the count 0-2. The Twins didn’t stop until nine players had come to the plate.
Afterward, Cabrera merely shrugged his shoulders and wrote it off as an unproductive day at the office.
“I feel very good what’s going on in spring training and what I’ve been doing in the Dominican in the offseason,” he said.
During spring training, he said he’s ready to pitch on some days and on others he has bad games. “I just try to take a positive thing to the next start.”
The positives, he said, were that he threw six changeups – a new pitch in his repertoire – and that he fielded a sharp comebacker and made the play at first.
Nothing happened that made Cabrera think this won’t be the season in which he finally reaches his potential.
“I always expect a good year,” he said. “All I can do is keep working until the season starts.”
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