• Submitted by: admin
• Sports
• 04 / 15 / 2010

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Orioles owner Peter Angelos told the Associated Press in November that he’d like his team to play a home-and-home series against the Cuban National Team next spring in a repeat of the historic games the two sides played in 1999.

However, I’m told there has been zero movement on that front and the series is no longer in the works for spring training 2011. It’s not impossible that Angelos could revisit it and try and get it on schedule in a couple of years, but it’s not going to happen anytime soon.

On another topic, a bunch of people have written in and asked what’s going on with minor leaguer Mychal Givens, the high school shortstop from Tampa, Fla., and the team’s second-round draft pick last year. Givens, 19, has yet to be assigned to an affiliate and remains in extended spring training in Sarasota, Fla., but farm director John Stockstill told me today that is by design, and not because of injuries or anything like that.

“He’s just going through a heavy instructional period on his total game at this point,” Stockstill said. “There’s nothing wrong with him at all.”

Stockstill said he’s planning to return to Sarasota within seven to 10 days to get a better look at Givens, and a decision could be made then on where the organization’s ninth-ranked prospect, according to Baseball America, starts the 2010 season.

Stockstill also said that Mike Flacco, another guy who I’ve been asked about quite a bit, is in the same boat as Givens, and it has not been determined what affiliate he’ll report to.

Source: weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles