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The Orioles placed Alfredo Simon (RHP, BAL) on waivers Saturday, clearing up some questionmarks about the team's starting rotation, while also freeing up space on BAL's 40-man roster for additional offense. Simon compiled pedestrian stats in 16 starts for the Orioles in 2011 with a 6.6 Dom and 3.1 Ctl. However, his xERA (4.18) and slight uptick in Cmd from 2010 to 2011 (1.7 to 2.1) provides hints of usefulness.

Along with the regular season's first real game comes the regular season's first injury. Mike Carp (OF/1B, SEA) sprained his shoulder in Wednesday's opener in Japan. It was enough to send Carp to the DL. Carp 's surprising 2011 MLB production in his first extended look (290 AB) was due in part to high hit and hr/f rates (35%, 18%). Still, he had won the LF job in spring training and at 25 and with some pop (12 HR, 136 PX in 2011) he held, and still holds, some promise.

As expected, Mike Aviles was named the starting shortstop in Boston to begin the season. His main assets are his contact rate (86 percent career) and his speed. Aviles has stolen 14 bases each of the past two years, and did so in just 286 at-bats last year. A consistently low walk rate makes getting on base a struggle, though, which could eventually cut into his playing time somewhat. At this point, though, that doesn't seem to be a major concern, as manager Bobby Valentine is thinking of using Aviles in the leadoff spot.

Minnesota OF Josh Willingham will be shifted from right to left field, where he has played most often during his career, manager Ron Gardenhire announced March 25. The fallout from the move may impact the playing time of some of Willingham's OF colleagues.