With the Orioles hitting the road, so will the Marlins, but in a different way.

The Baltimore Orioles' move out of Fort Lauderdale means the Florida Marlins will spend more time on the road during spring training than they have since moving to Jupiter in 2003.

The Marlins will travel to the state's West Coast for four games and to the Orlando area for two, according to a tentative schedule.

Last year, the Marlins traveled twice to the West Coast - to Fort Myers - and once to Lakeland, while traveling four times to Fort Lauderdale to play the Orioles.

Ideally, spring training "allows you to kind of amp up for the season and not really stress yourself out so much with travel, because you're going to have plenty of travel during the season," pitcher Burke Badenhop said. "Now, you're taking about getting on a bus at 6:45 in the morning to drive three hours and play."

 

Trust me Hopper, veterans rarely make the bus trip.  And after last year's season you have earned the right to sit them out if you so choose.  Let the youngsters from Triple and Double-A make the journey, you already have a spot on the team.

It is sad to see the Orioles leave the area, between them and the Cardinals that was, oh I don't know, about two-thirds of our spring training games.

Here is the Marlins tentative spring training schedule.