According to today's Baltimore Sun, Kris Benson had two pitches in his arsenal last year, presumably a fastball and a breaking ball. Under Leo Mazzone this year, he has added a cut fastball and a changeup. This begs a couple of questions.

First, how do you watch baseball and not realize that pitchers who throw cut fastballs tend to be very successful with them? Greg Maddux in the 90's was one of my favorite pitchers to watch, because every pitch moved. They're not even that hard to throw, other than the part where they need to be at least in the high 80's.

Second, did he really just add those pitches this Spring, or did Mazzone just get him to bring them back? If they're new, it's pretty impressive that he has good command of them already. If they're old, why the hell didn't he use them in New York? Ray Miller used to make pretty much every pitcher learn to throw a changeup. It's another dimension of deception and strategy at your disposal. It's an essential pitch for people who are not Randy Johnson and yet still plan to pitch more than one time through the batting order.

The O's are back at .500, which is my goal for the season. I have excellent seats to see them in Oakland in September, and I'd like for the O's to be decent at that point. At some point here I'll write about the A's, who have secured their position as my second-favorite team.