Miguel Tejada will get his final workout in today before making his first career regular-season start at third base, and Juan Samuel, the man who has spent the most time working with him this spring, thinks that he's going to do just fine.
"We were still doing some extra work up until a couple of days ago," said Samuel, the Orioles' third base and infield coach. "The last thing we were working on was some balls coming in and fielding the bunt, bare-handing some balls. We did a whole lot of that. I expect things to get better once we get to better fields. He's been good. As long as he makes the routine plays, I think things will be fine."
Tejada, who is making the transition from shortstop to third base, made a team-high five errors this spring, but team officials expected that he'd have some ups and downs, especially early. Overall, they are pleased by how hard Tejada has worked at his new position.
"He did even more than what I wanted him to do," Samuel said. "There were some days when I was trying to get him off days and he said, 'No, let's go do something.' I think he even overdid it a little bit. Now, we get to see the results of the work that we put in."
After driving in five runs in Saturday's Grapefruit League finale, Tejada pronounced himself ready to go.
"For me, this spring, I didn't worry about hitting. I worried about how to play third base," he said. "From my point, I think I played a good third base. In spring training, the field is not the same and you play all day games. It's different in the regular season. I think I made four or five errors and all of them have been throwing. I think it's been a good spring training. "
-- Jeff Zrebiec