Dave Trembley isn't running a boot camp. He wants that understood. He's the Orioles' manager, not their drill sergeant.

But watch how his players march to the back fields during spring training, which begins with the first workout for pitchers and catchers today. Listen closely as Trembley barks commands, sending in motion a collection of pitchers and hitters who are joined together for the common cause. Notice how crisply everyone moves from one station to the next beneath the hot South Florida sun.

This is the way Trembley has envisioned his first spring in charge of the Orioles since the 2007 season came to a merciful end and he has been allowed to start planning ahead. He would personalize the organization's emphasis on fundamentals by implementing a new set of drills. He'd stay in constant contact with his staff over the winter, whether by cell phone or e-mail. Everyone would be on the same page before the team would gather in the same clubhouse.

Consider the next six weeks his back-to-basics training.

"Really, the entire month of December and January, I spent an awfully long time writing out schedules and coordinating everything with the coaches," Trembley said. "[Bench coach] Dave Jauss will do a lot of the legwork for me, as far as printing the schedules out, making sure everybody is where they're supposed to be. But as far as what goes into the program, I'm doing that."

Trembley was hands-on last spring as the camp's coordinator under former manager Sam Perlozzo. This year, he'll be fully immersed.

"I respect his energy, his enthusiasm and his focus," pitcher Jeremy Guthrie said. "That's the same person he's been and that's why he was hired and ultimately that's what this team needs to get better. And if we can do our part, I think it will be a nice future in Baltimore."

Trembley will find out how enthusiastic his players are about the present. He's setting up stations designed for pitchers to improve their ability to hold runners and field their position, for hitters to advance runners, for runners to go from first to third and second to home or to move up a base with fewer than two outs.

"There will be a lot of repetition of baseball fundamentals and getting guys in baseball shape and getting them ready for the season," Trembley said, "but also giving everybody the best opportunity to show what they can do.

"I think we'll utilize those back fields quite a bit. We'll probably repeat some of things we did last year, but maybe do them a couple more times. .... We're going to make sure we're doing things right."

New pitching coach Rick Kranitz has his orders. So does hitting coach Terry Crowley.

"We need to get better with our hitting style, our ability to work the count, move runners. I want to put those kinds of drills in place on the back fields," Trembley said.

"What you may see instead of the whole camp breaking for lunch, maybe see a lot of guys filter back to those fields and get more work in. And when the games start, our dugout really has been very crowded with a lot of bodies. I would like to use the back fields for the first hour of games to get some guys some work back there."

As a means to avoid breakdowns in communication and confusion over roles, Trembley will script the lineups for the exhibition games. Everyone will know in advance when he is starting and how long he is playing. Pitchers will be given the same consideration through Kranitz.

"I don't think there really are a lot of secrets, and you can make it a whole lot better for players," Trembley said. "I want to make it as easy as possible. I don't want them sitting in the dugout and wondering if they're going into the game in the seventh or how many at-bats they're getting."

These ideas were part of Trembley's appeal when the Orioles decided to remove the interim tag and make him the manager for 2008.

The Orioles went 40-53 after Perlozzo was fired, but the front office isn't consumed with wins and losses. This is a rebuilding project. Rookies and second-year players must be taught how to play the game correctly. Veterans will be reminded. And a man who spent 22 years in the minors before being hired as bullpen coach last season is firmly in charge.

To many, it seems like a natural pairing.

"I think he's ideally suited for the path that faces this franchise, and that is to establish a good work ethic and install it as best we can throughout the entire system," team president Andy MacPhail said. "A certain level of energy and effort is going to be expected, and he's going to do his part to try to ensure that we're as fundamentally sound as we possibly can be. We will make mistakes. That's the nature of the game. But with David, there are not going to be mistakes due to lack of preparation."

Said Guthrie: "The way the team is going with the composition of players, I think he fits in real well right now. We have a few veterans, but for the most part, we have a lot of young players in their first years. And fundamentally, we can improve, and his focus on those things, the small things that help a team get better, definitely will benefit us. Hopefully, that becomes second nature."

Trembley seems convinced that the older players will buy what he's selling, that they'll spend the extra hours sweating through drills in relative seclusion. If there has been any grumbling since he took over, he's not aware of it.

"I didn't sense that. I didn't hear that," he said. "I always have the approach that I try to ask people what they think and how they feel, and if they don't like something, feel free to discuss it and I'll try to make it better. ... I'm willing to listen and adjust and tweak and make things as compatible for everyone as I can.

"We're not running a boot camp. I'm not going to put guys in a position not to enjoy coming to the ballpark every day. But I'm going to touch on the basics and make sure everybody is doing them the right way and make sure the commitment will remain like that. I don't think anybody can have a problem with that."

Reliever Jamie Walker, one of the team's senior members at 36, doesn't sound concerned that there will be division in the ranks.

"I think Dave Trembley will get us going," he said. "I respect him and he respects us. He seems fair. You're going to have to have some patience, though. We'll go down there and you've got to do things right from Day One. I know Dave preaches that. I think that'll be fun. I'm looking forward to it."

Well, most of it.

"I'll be running around with all those young bucks -- 24, 25 years old," he said. "I can't run with them like that anymore. The old man might have to spend more time on the bike."

roch.kubatko@baltsun.com