Felix Hernandez says he’s all set for a bounce-back season.Now pitching entirely from the stretch http://www.indiansfanproshop.com/authentic-b.j.-upton-jersey , King Felix made his spring training debut Saturday, giving up four runs in 1 1/3 innings as the Seattle Mariners lost to the San Diego Padres 6-4.The six-time All-Star allowed four hits, only one of them solid. He didn’t walk anyone, but hit a batter and threw just 23 strikes in 42 pitches.“The most important thing is that my arm and my body feel good,” Hernandez said. “The pitches were moving, the curveball was really good.”Hernandez turns 33 in April and is entering his 15th season in Seattle — and the final year of his seven-year, $175 million contract. The Mariners hold a team option for 2020.Long the ace of the Seattle staff, he is coming off the worst year of his career, posting a 5.55 ERA in 155 2/3 innings and being removed from the rotation for the first time in his career.During the offseason, Hernandez decided to work from the set position.“I feel good from the stretch. I just feel like I’m going straight to the plate,” he said. “Not too much movement. From the windup, I got to do a lot of stuff.”AROUND THE GRAPEFRUIT AND CACTUS LEAGUESRED SOX 8, YANKEES 5Gleyber Torres hit a solo home run for the Yankees. Rafael Devers had two hits for Boston and top prospect Michael Chavis hit a three-run homer.METS 4, BRAVES 3Robinson Cano hit a go-ahead single for the Mets and highly touted Pete Alonso homered on the first pitch he saw this spring. Touki Toussaint started for Atlanta, allowing two runs on two hits.CARDINALS 11, MARLINS 1St. Louis ace Miles Mikolas pitched two perfect innings. Sandy Alcantara threw two scoreless innings for Miami.PIRATES 3, PHILLIES 2Jean Segura went 1 for 3 in his first game with Philadelphia while fellow newcomers Andrew McCutchen and J.T. Realmuto were both hitless in two trips.ORIOLES 7, TWINS (SS) 2Chance Sisco hit a three-run homer for Baltimore and rotation hopeful Yefry Ramirez allowed a run on two hits and two walks in two innings. Jake Cave had two hits for Minnesota’s split squad.TIGERS 4, BLUE JAYS 0Detroit starter Matt Moore pitched two scoreless innings and Niko Goodrum had a two-run homer. Teoscar Hernandez had two of Toronto’s four hits.ROCKIES 7, DIAMONDBACKS 3David Dahl doubled twice for Colorado. Colton Welker, drafted by the Rockies in 2016 out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Corey Kluber Jersey , Florida, hit a home run.Steven Souza Jr. homered for Arizona.CUBS 8, BREWERS 4Kris Bryant hit a home run in his first spring at-bat and also singled for Chicago. The former NL MVP worked over the winter to strengthen the left shoulder that robbed him of his typical power last season.Corey Ray, Milwaukee’s first-round draft pick in 2016, homered and doubled.INDIANS 3, REDS 3, 9 INNINGSMatt Kemp hit a two-run homer in his Cincinnati debut. Tyler Naquin homered for Cleveland.ROYALS 9, RANGERS 1Alex Gordon doubled and singled for Kansas City and Jorge Soler added an RBI single.Matt Davidson, signed to a minor league contract by Texas, started at third base and had a hit. He is slotted to work as both an infielder and a pitcher this spring.DODGERS 7, WHITE SOX (SS) 6Russell Martin marked his return to the Dodgers with an RBI double. He caught five seasons for LA and returned in a trade with Toronto. Joc Pederson homered for the Dodgers and Rich Hill pitched a fast inning.D.J. Peterson homered for Chicago.ANGELS 10, GIANTS 3Taylor Ward hit a grand slam for the Angels and Peter Bourjos had a two-run single.ATHLETICS 6, WHITE SOX (SS) 5Stephen Piscotty homered for Oakland. Yoan Moncada had two hits for Chicago, driving in a run and scoring once.PADRES 6, MARINERS 4Jose Pirela doubled and singled for San Diego. Shed Long, a former Reds prospect acquired in a three-team trade with the Yankees, homered for Seattle.NATIONALS 7, ASTROS 6Anthony Rendon homered and Spencer Kieboom added a three-run shot for Washington. Jake Marisnick led off with a home run against Nationals ace Max Scherzer, who threw 44 pitches in two innings.TWINS (SS) 10, RAYS 5Byron Buxton hit a three-run homer and a two-run single for Minnesota. Nelson Cruz scored twice in his Twins debut. It’s never too early to start talking about the draft, especially since the Orioles have the number one pick."As a “reward” for being the worst team in MLB last season Ricky Vaughn Jersey , the Orioles will make the first overall selection in June’s draft. It’s a big deal. Every team wants to find a franchise building block with their first-round pick. The team at the top of the draft has the best opportunity to do that, and the Orioles desperately need to add a transcendent talent (or two) to their organization.Mike Elias, the Orioles new general manager, has made his reputation through the draft. He spent time as a scout with the St. Louis Cardinals before becoming the director of amateur scouting with the Houston Astros and overseeing several drafts in which he picked Carlos Correa, Lance McCullers Jr. and Alex Bregman, among others.Elias, along with his right-hand man Sig Mejdal, knows as well as anyone that the MLB draft is an imperfect science. For every Correa there is also a Brady Aiken or a Mark Appel, two players that the Astros selected first overall under Elias’s supervision that can fairly be classified as “busts” to this point. Aiken did not sign with Houston following an unfavorable post-draft MRI, and Appel retired from professional baseball prior to the 2018 season without ever reaching the majors. Both Aiken and Appel were highly-regarded amateurs that few were surprised to see selected first overall, and yet they didn’t pan out.The consensus top prospect entering the 2019 draft is Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman. FanGraphs thinks so, as does MLB Pipeline, and ESPN’s Keith Law. The junior backstop has scouts drooling over his switch-hitting power, rifle arm and steady work behind the plate. Hitting .408/.505/.628 with nine home runs and 22 doubles over 67 games for the eventual NCAA champions a year ago doesn’t hurt either. He’s been even better in 2019, sporting a .375/.565/.875 slash line with five home runs in OSU’s first 10 games of the year.Rutschman has received comparisons to Matt Wieters, another switch-hitting college catcher from a big program (Georgia Tech). Wieters may not have turned into the Hall of Famer that Orioles fans hoped for after the team selected him fifth overall in 2007, but he had an impressive career in Baltimore nonetheless. Over parts of eight seasons, Wieters was named to four all-star games and won two Gold Gloves. If the O’s received a similar career from Rutschman they would not be disappointed.I mean, look at this guy. What’s not to like?College hitters at the top of the draft are safe bets to become steady major leaguers at the very least. Take the 2015 draft for example. The college hitters taken in the top 10 of that draft were Dansby Swanson, Bregman, Andrew Benintendi and Ian Happ. All of them have already established themselves in the show less than four years after being picked.The other side of that argument is that college hitters lack the “upside” of their high school counterparts. You get what you see from the college bunch Michael Brantley Jersey , whereas teams can dream about how good a teenager they draft may end up being. Many of the league’s best hitters were plucked straight from high school: Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, & Mike Trout to name a few. [Editor’s note: this section previously listed Kris Bryant as a high school player when he was drafted. User BUp22 correctly noted that Bryant was actually drafted out of the University of San Diego. This has been corrected.]However, this year’s batch of prep stars lacks the star power of past drafts. The high school names that keep popping up as potential options for the Orioles at number one are shortstops C.J. Abrams and Bobby Witt, Jr. with a distant chance given to outfielders Corbin Carroll and Riley Greene.FanGraphs gives all four of those players a future value of 50 on the 20-80 scouting scale. According to FanGraphs themselves, that would grade them as “average everyday players” with a projected yearly fWAR of 1.6 to 2.4. Rutschman, on the other hand, was given a future value of 60, making him a potential all-star that could accumulate 3.4 to 4.9 WAR per year. The Oregon State catcher is the only FanGraphs 60 in the entire draft and has clearly separated himself from the field in the minds of many scouts.Of course, this is all projection. Every draft sees a couple of players outplay their projection. Abrams or Witt, Jr. or someone else entirely may prove to be the best talent available. Mike Trout wasn’t selected until 25th overall back in 2009. Something similar could happen here.But Rutschman is as close to a sure thing as a front office could hope for in the draft. He would immediately become the club’s top prospect and one of the best catching prospects in all of the minor leagues. As a college hitter, the only realistic thing that could prevent him from getting to the big leagues would be injury, which is a concern for any player.The new front office’s strategy is plain to see. They plan to devote as little money as possible to the big league payroll for now while investing in scouting and player development. The hope is that this will result in a few high draft picks in a row. Those picks will then fight through the minors together and emerge in Baltimore at roughly the same time, ready to take back the AL East. In a word: Tanking.But that strategy can only work if enough good players arrive on the scene at similar times. Rutschman won’t need much minor league seasoning. If he is the pick, he could be in the majors by 2021, and the Orioles will want to start winning shortly thereafter. Could a core of Rutschman, Yusniel Diaz, Ryan Mountcastle and Austin Hays return the Birds to relevancy? That’s up to Elias and his team to decide. If not, they may prefer to select a high schooler, but that could indicate a much longer rebuild than some Birdland faithful will want to endure.