Baltimore O's Young Pitchers Are Showing the Baseball World What They've Got

The Baltimore Orioles' rotation has been one of the best in baseball early on this season.

And that's without their projected future ace— Brian Matusz.

That's without a solid pitcher in Justin Duchscherer, and without a Brad Bergesen pitching to his capabilities.

Right now, the Orioles rotation has two of the top three pitchers in the AL in terms of ERA who have made at least two starts. Jeremy Guthrie (0.64) and Zach Britton (0.66) have been nothing short of amazing so far this season, and both of them have faced some adversity already.

Guthrie threw six innings of one-run ball against the mighty Texas Rangers this past Sunday, just days after being released from a Baltimore hospital with a form of pneumonia, only to get saddled with a tough loss on his record.

The rookie Britton wasn't even supposed to be in the majors yet, but was called up to replace Matusz to start the season. His task? To deliver a sweep in game three of the opening series of the season at Tropicana Field against the reigning AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays.

He answered the call by giving up only one run in six innings of work, then in his second career start, shut out the Rangers on four hits over 7.2 innings, handing them their first loss of the season.

Now, of course it'd be absurd to expect these two pitchers to maintain that kind of an ERA throughout the season.  But if Guthrie can put out a season like everyone knows he's capable of and has done before (around a 3.60-3.80 ERA) and Britton puts up a solid rookie campaign, there's no telling what the top three of the rotation can do once Matusz returns.

After last year's strong finish under manager Buck Showalter, many of the O's young pitchers have confidence in their talent. Jake Arrieta, in his season debut against the Detroit Tigers, gave up one run over six innings to give the O's a win.

Chris Tillman threw six no-hit innings against the Rays in the second game of the year.

If these kids can keep their confidence up, they'll show the baseball world their talent. And that can only equal good things for the team as a whole.

I can't wait until Matusz comes back to see how he follows up his solid rookie season, which was capped off by an awesome run once Showalter took over those last two months.

Everyone knows the outcome of this season relies mainly on the young starting pitching. They'll all take their bumps along the way, but growth at this point in time is more important than anything for the future of the club.

So far, so good.