Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun reports that Manny Machado's (knee) checkup Thursday went well and he's currently 6-8 weeks ahead of schedule. That's presumably 6-8 weeks ahead of the original timetable of six months, which the Orioles said was a conservative estimate. The reality is that nothing has really changed, as the O's have said for a while that they thought Machado would be ready for Opening Day, and that's still the case. The young infielder can now begin baseball activities and shouldn't be too terribly far behind in spring training as long as his rehab continues to go well.