David Hernandez Has Won a Rotation Spot?

Saw this from Oriole beat reporter Britt Ghiroli's Twitter account:

Hernandez smiled secretly when I bugged him about the 5th starter spot. Safe to say he's gonna be the #orioles fifth guy.

That's a shocker to me. Even though Dave Trembley has said all spring that there is an open competition for the 5th spot in the rotation, I certainly didn't believe him. But given Trembley's annoying tendency to take Spring Training performances way too seriously (see Alfredo Simon 2009), I guess I should have seen this coming.

David Hernandez has struck out 20 over 15 innings this spring and only walked 3. A strikeout pitcher in the minors, I suppose that the Oriole brass may believe he has figured it out again after only striking out 68 over 101.1 innings in 2009. I like Hernandez's makeup. Even when he was getting shelled last season, he never seemed to lose his composure. I just wasn't sure he was cut out for the rotation.

Chris Tillman has nothing left to prove in terms of performance in AAA. He dominated the International League and was the best pitcher in the league not named "Tommy Hanson". The only reason they might be sending him down would be to work on his control. He has walked 9 in 16 innings this spring and when I saw him, he was running deep into counts even when he was doing well. This was always a concern for Tillman and if that's why they are sending him down, I guess I can live with that.

To recap, not crazy about this move but you can make the argument. I just wonder if the Orioles are making that argument or just making a snap decision based on Spring Training stats.