He logs 5,000 miles a month in his van, lugging around bags of baseball equipment, destined for the next minor-league ballpark in the next small town. Stays for five days. Catches the pitching rotation one time around. Heads for the next minor-league ballpark in the next small town.

The long rides have been a lot shorter this season than in years past for Orioles roving pitching instructor Tom Brown, a resident of Sarasota, Fla. Or at least they have seemed shorter.

"Everyone talks about our depth at Double-A, which is justified, but we're loaded at every one of the lower levels, too," Brown said. "It makes my job a lot easier."

So does the fact no minor-league pitcher has undergone arm surgery the past two seasons, an indication the Orioles are drafting durable pitchers with free and easy deliveries, teaching them proper mechanics, and putting them through helpful preventive exercises.

Other than Armando Benitez, who made a spectacular major-league debut in the days leading up to the strike, none of the pitchers in the Orioles' organization has an eye-popping arm.

No one is projected as an ace of a pitching staff, the way Mike Mussina and Ben McDonald did. But talent judges inside and outside the organization agree the Orioles have a greater number of pitching prospects now than they have had in several years.

The best place to start is at Double-A Bowie, where no fewer than seven bona fide major-league prospects pitch.

The Fab Five rotation, ranked in order of their chances of landing as major-league starters: Jimmy Haynes, Brian Sackinsky, Scott Klingenbeck, left-hander Vaughn Eshelman and Rick Forney. They are backed by a bullpen featuring Benitez and Joe Borowski.

Benitez struck out 14 major-league hitters in 10 innings and hit 100 mph on the radar gun twice in one inning.

Borowski, 23, was acquired from the Chicago White Sox in a 1991 trade for Pete Rose II.

"He has as good a slider as you're going to see in baseball," Brown said of Borowski.

At the other end of the Baysox's staff, Haynes has as good a curveball as can be found in the Orioles' minor-league system.

"He's not ready yet, but next year he is one of those guys you have to take a serious look at," Brown said. "He has two curveballs -- one that goes straight down and one that kind of cuts a 45-degree angle across the strike zone and goes down. His arm speed is so quick. He only throws 86 or 87, but he sneaks it by guys pretty good."

Haynes' deceptive delivery makes his fastball appear faster to hitters than it actually is, which makes him something of a right-handed Sid Fernandez. Then again, Haynes stands 6 feet 4 and weighs 175 pounds. So much for that comparison.

Klingenbeck, whose best pitch is a changeup, drew comparisons to former Orioles right-hander Bob Milacki when he defeated the Detroit Tigers in a June 2 start, limiting them to three earned runs in seven innings.

Sackinsky, 23, got off to a rough start in the organization after being drafted in the second round in 1992. He had an 11-17 record coming into this season, his best.

"He's a great big, strong brute, the Clydesdale of the pitchers," Brown said. "He's all muscle, no fat, works real hard. He came in from Stanford his first year out of shape and overmatched. He really struggled. Then he decided he was not going to let that happen anymore. He stuck the Walkman in his ear and started running religiously."

And his stock has been running up ever since. Still, Haynes is considered the top prospect among the Fab Five.

"Sackinsky and Klingenbeck are nice prospects, but you wouldn't want either one of them to be the main guy you would get in a trade," said a scout from another American League organization. "Haynes is another story. But they won't even talk about trading him."

Not all of the prospects are at Bowie.

Bluefield's Rocky Coppinger (75 strikeouts in 64 2/3 innings) was drafted in the 19th round last season and projected as a second-round pick this past June. That's why the Orioles signed Coppinger to a $200,000 bonus rather than let him re-enter the draft.

"He's a big, strong hard thrower who has a great future," Brown said. "He goes right at them, stares at 'em. He's a mean, aggressive guy on the mound and that's good to see. He's capable of making the jump [to the majors] pretty quick."

Orioles assistant general manager Doug Melvin saw Coppinger pitch recently and came away impressed.

"He has a power type arm," Melvin said. He's big, strong, athletic. He looks like he's going to be durable. The day I saw him, he overmatched the hitters in that league."

Francisco Saneaux, who recently overcame a severe case of Steve Blass Disease, otherwise known as fear of home plate, has overmatched hitters lately for the Single-A Albany (Ga.) Polecats.

Saneaux, 20, had averaged more than a walk per inning until recently.

"He has an 88 mph fastball and a curveball that buckles their knees and he also has a major-league changeup," Brown said. "He's really starting to turn some heads."

Fellow Dominican Billy Percibal, 20, and Arubans Calvin Maduro, 19, and Sidney Ponson, 17, also have shown promise.

The Orioles have no can't-miss left-handed prospects in the organization, but a few stand above the rest.

Brad Pennington's search for the strike zone continues at

Rochester, where he has worked out of the starting rotation recently, but the organization still projects him as a reliever.

Pennington, the hardest-throwing left-hander in the organization outside of Arthur Rhodes, is throwing more changeups and trying to become a pitcher instead of a raw thrower, but he continues to walk too many hitters.

Eshelman, Rochester's Rick Krivda and Albany reliever Aaron Lane are the most promising left-handers without major-league experience in the organization.

Krivda, twice disappointed when the Orioles bypassed him to promote Klingenbeck, then Rhodes when in need of a starter, has not pitched as well in the second half of the season as in the first half. Some scouts look at his average, high fastballs that stay pretty straight and wonder how he figures out a way to win. Brown disagrees.

"People say he just figures out a way to win, but it's more than that," Brown said. "What they don't realize is he's got one of the best curveballs in the organization."

Eshelman has bounced back impressively from elbow surgery that wiped out his entire 1992 season. A 1991 fourth-round draft choice out of the University of Houston, Eshelman has an above-average fastball, but he needs to refine his command within the strike zone to become major-league ready, according to Brown.

Lane, a 1992 24th-round draft choice who went 2-10 at Albany last season, has had a breakthrough season out of the bullpen.

"He just needed to realize how good he was," Brown said. "He has really found himself this year. He's a real bear on the mound now. He attacks people. He has an above-average fastball and )) an above-average curve."

Lane is one of the many pitching prospects generating excitement in an organization that as recently as four years ago had few exciting pitching prospects.

PITCHERS' RATINGS

Best prospect: Armando Benitez (Bowie)

Best left-handed prospect: Rick Krivda (Rochester)

Best fastball: Armando Benitez (Bowie)

Best breaking pitch: Jimmy Haynes (Bowie)

Best changeup: Scott Klingenbeck (Bowie)

Best control: Brian Sackinsky (Bowie)