FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Orioles reduced their spring roster to 37 players before last night's game when right-handers Rocky Coppinger and Gabe Molina were optioned to Triple-A Rochester and left-hander Terry Burrows was reassigned to the minor-league camp. Burrows also is expected to pitch for the Red Wings.

Coppinger's work this spring consisted of only five innings, a point he raised while gathering his gear after leaving manager Ray Miller's office. He allowed four homers, and five runs, in three games.

"I knew it was coming. It was just a matter of time. I'm sad to leave, but I know I've got an opportunity to come back," he said.

His only complaint, he said, was not getting enough innings and being able to "show them more."

"The five innings I had were bad innings," he said. "I don't know why I started fast and ended the way I did, but I know there's a lot more positive and good things to come from myself. They just told me to go down and keep pitching."

Coppinger won 10 games as a rookie in 1996, but made two stops on the disabled list the next season and needed surgery in August of that year to repair a partial tear in his shoulder and remove a bone spur in his right elbow. He spent most of last season in the minors, getting a September call-up by the Orioles and allowing nine runs and 16 hits in 15 2/3 innings.

"I know I'm healthy. I think they know I'm healthy," he said.

With Scott Kamieniecki's place in the rotation threatened by a strained hamstring, Coppinger, 25, views the move as a potential "blessing in disguise." Removed from Fort Lauderdale, he'll have the chance to build up his arm and reclaim his status as a starting pitcher.

"I've gotten one inning here, two innings there. You can't do that," he said.

Once looking like a fixture in the rotation for years to come, Coppinger wonders if he's still got a future in Baltimore.

"Sometimes I doubt it, sometimes I feel good about it," he said. "All I can do is put the ball in my court and pitch well. And if there's no future here for me, somebody else would like to have me. But I'd like to stay here. It's a great place to play. It's a great organization. I hope I stay here."

Burrows, 30, had spent parts of four seasons in the majors with three clubs before settling at Rochester last year. He made 15 starts among his 29 appearances, going 9-6 and leading the International League with a 2.92 ERA. He threw well early in camp, but was torched once the exhibition games began, allowing 10 runs in 6 2/3 innings. Opponents were batting .424 against him.

"It's not the first time I've been sent down, but it's not easy when it happens. You can sit here and smile and laugh about it, but it never does get easy," he said.

"It's a disappointment for me because I didn't pitch near as well as I did the end of last year. I know last year's the past and you can't live in the past, but this isn't the way I can throw. That's the hardest thing to deal with."

Molina, who saved 24 games at Double-A Bowie last season, appeared in five games covering 5 2/3 innings. He hadn't been scored upon until allowing two runs in the ninth inning Tuesday against St. Louis.

Miller called each pitcher into his office to break the news. "I told them that last year I had 11 pitchers and when I got to 12, there wasn't a 13th. Right now, in this camp there are about five guys who I think can help us either at the start or anytime we need them. They're three of them."

Linton or Evans?

If Kamieniecki goes on the DL, a move that can be retroactive to today, Miller appears to favor using Doug Linton over David Evans when the Orioles need a fifth starter April 11 against Toronto. Sidney Ponson would slide into Kamieniecki's No. 4 slot the previous night against the Blue Jays.

Linton, signed to a minor-league contract in December, hasn't allowed an earned run in 12 innings. Evans had his own scoreless streak broken Monday when he surrendered two runs to St. Louis. Linton's experience as a major-league starter gives him an edge over Evans, whose career has been built solely in the minors.

"I think that factor would lend an edge toward Linton," Miller said.

Though Ricky Bones has been a starter for much of his career, Miller prefers keeping him in long relief along with left-hander Doug Johns.

"That's what we got him for, the role he's in right now," Miller said. "I don't want to start taking a guy and starting him and then putting him in the bullpen the next time. If you have someone who can do something very well, why not leave him where he can do something very well?"

In other words, don't travel down the same road as last season.

Kamieniecki cut short his side session on Monday, limping off the mound because of tightness in the hamstring. Kamieniecki insisted Tuesday that he wouldn't be ready to make the April 9 start because of time lost to the injury.

"They tell me it's not a disabled list-type thing where it's going to take a long time," Miller said, "but the bottom line is, if it's a pulled hamstring and he can't pitch, you can't have somebody sitting around who's going to be way off his pitch count. I'm not saying he's at that situation yet, but it's going to be close by next week."

Ponson struggles

Unable to keep his fastball down, Ponson struggled last night in his fourth start this spring. He allowed four runs in four innings, and needed some defensive help to keep the damage from being worse.

"I'm not happy at all with my outing," said Ponson, who had a 1.80 ERA before last night. "I just have to go to the bullpen and work on my game plan."

A diving catch by shortstop Mike Bordick of a liner from New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza ended the first inning and prevented a run from scoring. Luis Lopez was cut down at third base by catcher Charles Johnson trying to advance after a two-run double in the second.

Unsafe, by a foot

Linton continues to pitch with a broken toe and bruised heel on his right foot, the result of two line drives in separate games against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The toe still is swollen, but Linton said it doesn't bother him on the mound. The same goes for the heel.

"Now, if I get hit a third time, I don't know. I'm running out of spaces on that foot," Linton said.

Pub Date: 3/25/99