It was about four hours before game time late last season, and Dave Trembley and Rick Kranitz were looking everywhere for their prized young pitcher. They searched the clubhouse, the training room, the dugout and even the seats at Camden Yards. When all those pursuits failed, Trembley called Brian Matusz's cell phone and got no answer.

The Orioles' manager and pitching coach, as well as president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail, wanted to meet with Matusz to tell him that his whirlwind season was officially over. They never considered looking in the Orioles' team store in the B&O; warehouse, where Matusz and teammate Chris Tillman had ventured in full uniform.

"We were looking and there's [ Nick] Markakis, Roberts and Jones jerseys. I was thinking, 'There are no pitchers' jerseys in here,' " Matusz said. "When I went back to the clubhouse and they told me I was shut down, I said to Andy, "How come there are no Matusz or Tillman jerseys in the gift shop?' He told me to 'hang in there.' "

There will probably be a time soon, perhaps as early as this season, when T-shirts and jerseys adorned with Matusz's name and his No. 17 are all over Camden Yards. In one year since the Orioles made him the fourth overall pick in the 2008 draft, Matusz tore through the minor leagues, going a combined 11-2 with a 1.91 ERA in 19 starts, and then culminated his brief eight-start run in the Orioles' rotation with a seven-inning, one-run gem at Yankee Stadium.

This spring, the left-hander wowed scouts and opposing hitters all over Florida with his four-pitch repertoire. Baseball pundits view the 23-year-old as the Orioles' best pitcher and have made him the preseason favorite to win American League Rookie the Year, which no Oriole has won since Gregg Olson in 1989.

"There's no other way to say it, but the sky is the limit for the guy if he stays healthy," Trembley said. "He's a bona fide No. 1 for me in the future. The guy is going to win a lot of games."

The Orioles' Opening Day starter, Kevin Millwood, a 14-year veteran who pitched in Atlanta Braves rotations that were considered some of the best in the history of the game, has known Matusz for about six weeks - long enough for him to conclude that "he might be one of the most talented young guys I've ever been around."

Second baseman Brian Roberts, the longest-tenured Oriole, has seen highly touted pitching prospects come and go in the organization, but he said Matusz, who went 5-2 with a 4.63 ERA in eight big league starts last year, stands out.

"I think [ Erik] Bedard was the only other guy that had this kind of stuff, but he didn't figure it out that quickly," Roberts said. "His was kind of a slow progression. I think Matusz has the potential and capability of being that guy pretty fast, but I don't think it would be fair to put that pressure on him, either. This is a tough league, a tough division, and I don't think any of us should expect him to go out and win 18 games with a 2.50 ERA. But certainly he has the capabilities to be a tremendous pitcher in the league."

More than a great arm Matusz's arsenal includes a fastball that he throws in the low- to mid-90s, a curveball, a slider and a changeup. He has enough confidence and command to throw any of the four pitches in any count. His changeup is particularly devastating and is one of the reasons Matusz is often compared to Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies.

But no dissection of Matusz, who will make his 2010 regular-season debut Thursday, is complete without mention of his intangibles.

Hall of Fame pitcher and team broadcaster Jim Palmer lauded Matusz for his ability to make adjustments and to think his way through an at-bat.

Team officials love that beyond Matusz's baby face, ever-present mischievous grin and slender build is an athlete who is driven by competition and the desire to succeed. They love that his youthful exuberance belies a confidence that he can get anybody out at any time.

"I just know that of all the young guys I've ever had, he really knows what he wants to do, and more than anything, he believes that he can do it," said Kranitz, in his third year as Orioles pitching coach. "I've always said the veterans bring the wisdom and the rookies bring the energy. You see that in a good, young pitcher. The other guys like to follow them. He's a great role model for young guys because he's done it the right way."

Matusz won his debut Aug. 4 at Detroit, but his most memorable 2009 outing came more than a month later. At sold-out Yankee Stadium, which was still buzzing over Derek Jeter's becoming the franchise's all-time hit king a night earlier, Matusz cruised into the seventh inning, having allowed only one run and three hits. Two men were on, one was out and Matusz had just issued a four-pitch walk for one of the few times in his life.

An implosion seemed imminent when Matusz followed the four-pitch walk with three straight balls to pinch hitter Jorge Posada. He struck out Posada on three consecutive fastballs and then sent Jeter on the same path back to the dugout with a nasty changeup.

"I remember walking off the mound and chills went through my body," said Matusz, who was shut down a couple of days later as he reached the maximum number of innings the club allowed him. "I was thinking, 'This is it; this is the real thing.' That's a special moment. To go out on that note meant so much to me."

Just happy to be hereThere were plenty of other moments during the 2009 season that exposed Matusz for exactly what those who know him say he is - a kid getting paid to do the thing he loves most, and appreciating every minute of it.

"He turned to me last year during our team photo and he said that it was the best day of his life," said fellow starter Jeremy Guthrie, who has been close with Matusz since requesting him as a locker mate in spring training last year. "I said, 'Come on, you just won your major league debut against the Tigers.' He said: 'This is a better day than that. Now I'm in the big leagues and I have a picture to prove it.'

"The thing that is so different with him than other people is how much he really, really enjoys baseball. He's living a childhood dream every single day that he pitches."

In the Paradise Valley, Ariz., home that he shares with his 25-year-old brother, Chris, Matusz has a framed jersey and scorecard from his first big league win and the ball from his first major league strikeout, of Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera.

But just as meaningful to him is a ball signed by former Oriole Kevin Millar, who became the first major leaguer to hit a homer off Matusz, on Aug. 9 in Toronto.

"I'd always talk to Guthrie, saying, "I know it sounds bad, but I can't wait to give up my first major league home run because it's going to happen,' " Matusz said. "When I showed up at Toronto the next time, there was a ball in my locker signed by Kevin that said: "Thanks for [batting practice] in the show. I kept one eye closed to make it fair.' I knew Guthrie and Millar were good friends and he put him up to it. I thought it was hilarious. You're going to give up home runs. It's part of the game."

Matusz struck up a close friendship with Tillman, also one of the organization's top pitching prospects, and the two, who insist they have vastly different personalities, have become inseparable, much to the amusement of their teammates.

Tillman said the relationship started last spring training when he saw Matusz "really not talking to anybody and being the dorky kid at camp."

Before the first game of every road series last year, Tillman and Matusz took a tour of the ballpark where they were about to play. In Boston, Trembley looked up and saw the pair sitting in the seats atop the Green Monster while the Red Sox were taking batting practice. Kranitz heard both of them scream his name while they were walking on the catwalk just below the roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. Always in uniform, they've even stopped by the press box on occasion to chat with reporters and broadcasters.

"I'm excited to do anything that has to do with baseball," Matusz said. "We have the opportunity to walk around these stadiums and nobody ever says anything. We can go pretty much wherever we want and do cool things. People would kill to be able to do this. It's basically like working and going on vacation at the same time."

All baseball, all the timeMatusz's season included stops at big league spring training in Fort Lauderdale, minor league camp in Sarasota, and stints at Single-A Frederick and Double-A Bowie. Despite the grind, the pitcher was ready to start all over again two weeks into the offseason.

"I asked him, 'So, are you looking forward to maybe doing a little traveling and getting a little rest?' And he said, 'No, I'm anxious to get back to spring training,' " recalled Mike Matusz, Brian's father. "And this was back in November."

The first week after the season, Chris Matusz watched his younger brother and roommate mope around the house in obvious boredom.

"It was miserable for him," Chris said. "He'd rather be at the ball field. If it was a 12-month season, this kid would be in heaven."

The stakes have certainly risen for Matusz, who has embraced the hype and the expectations. Told that prognosticators have installed him as the favorite for AL Rookie of the Year, Matusz said: "I love having that. I just cannot wait for the season to start. I feel like I'm so prepared and so ready."

The response does not surprise Eric Valenzuela, Matusz's former pitching coach at the University of San Diego, where the Oriole became one of the top amateur pitchers in the country and learned more about the mental side of the game.

Matusz and Valenzuela still speak after every one of the left-hander's starts as the pitcher goes over each outing in great detail but always fixates on the positives.

"He's not surprised by anything that comes his way," said Valenzuela, now the pitching coach at San Diego State under Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn.

"It doesn't matter who he faces. His mind-set has always been that he belongs. Guys like him are able to make adjustments a lot faster than everybody else. He's not going to be an average guy. He's just too good to be average."