Orioles’ Huff is looking just fine

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Map, News) - Aubrey Huff walks into the Baltimore Orioles clubhouse in Fort Lauderdale every morning lacking the polish most multi-millionaire baseball players exude. A five-o’clock shadow is present and his hair looks like his hand ran through it once or twice after a night’s rest.

There’s sort of an everyman vibe about Huff that smacks of clock-in, clock-out. It’s very Baltimore. But what he lacks in glitz, he makes up for with prolific offense.

Signed by the Orioles in the offseason to add much-needed potency to the lineup, the 6-foot-4, 230-pound Huff, 30, seems ready to make the three-year, $20 million deal he signed look like a bargain.

Despite his bleary-eyed morning look, Huff says he’s happy, even if he gets ejected for animatedly disagreeing with a call, as he did in Saturday’s split-squad game in Port St. Lucie.

“It’s a fresh start for me, you know?” Huff said. “Being able to come into a place and start spring training with a different team is exciting for me. It feels like we’ve got a good team here and a great group of guys. Things are looking up here, and it’s a positive environment for me.”

Huff entered Monday’s game against Boston hitting .380 with eight RBI and one home run. He’d be the first to tell you, though, that spring training provides little indication for what a player will do in the 162-game regular season. When the local press began churning out stories about the Orioles’ lack of offensive production during a recent stretch this spring, the panic befuddled Huff.

“I don’t think fans and the media understand what spring is sometimes,” Huff said. “Spring is getting your starters some at-bats, getting a lot of the younger kids some looks at first. Toward the end of spring is when you need to start getting it dialed up a little bit. Early on, it’s not really a big deal. The regular lineup’s not playing together the whole time, and the environment’s kind of blah.”

Huff can afford to dismiss the panic. His career numbers, albeit down last season with 21 home runs split between Tampa and Houston, are impressive. But then, 141 homers and 487 RBIs over six-plus seasons will get people’s attention.

Huff’s new home stadium should provide some added confidence at the plate. Inside the cozy confines of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the left-handed batter has eight career home runs and 29 RBI. Still, the Orioles don’t want him to eye up Eutaw Street with too much zeal.

“I don’t want him to be homer-happy or anything like that,” Baltimore manager Sam Perlozzo said. “We just want Aubrey to fit in and do his own thing. We’ve seen him from the other side. He hits righties. He hits lefties. He’s going to do what we expect.”

It’s almost time to go to work, with the April 2 opener with the Minnesota Twins less than a week away. Huff said he and his teammates are itching to be unleashed.

“We were ready two weeks ago,” Huff said.

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