Baltimore Orioles: Thinking about Batting Orders
The opening day lineup of the Baltimore Orioles is filled with power potential and players hitting in unusual positions relative to their career.
While waiting an extra hour or two for the season to actually begin, it gives us some time while it rains to think even longer about this first batting order.
Buck Showalter occasionally, in response to questions or comments about his lineups, will say that he believes too much is made about who bats where in the order. He talks about how the first three are only the first three once in a game, mostly. And the bottom of the order needs to be also valued for how it turns over to the top.
The Orioles’ manager has placed Manny Machado at the top of the order, certainly no strange place for him (career .298/.364). This takes some pressure off new starter Joey Rickard, who will open his career batting ninth and serving as a sort of second leadoff hitter. Where this goes is yet to be seen, but it is good to see the Orioles have a more proto-typical leadoff guy in the house.
It seems odd to see Adam Jones batting in the second spot in the lineup. Most of our Baltimore memories are of him batting either third or fourth. Jones is not completely the model of a number two hitter, particularly in terms of pitch selection, using the entire field, hitting behind runners, and high contact and OBP.
But looking at his career splits, Jones has performed very well in the second position in the lineup. It could be argued from the numbers that it is actually his best placement, other than maybe the sixth hole. Adam has started 137 games in the second position, more than a small amount (not that I have much memory of it … was mostly in 2009). His numbers include a .294 average, 24 home runs, and an OBP of .339. In the third hole, it is .261/.299. Maybe when Joey Rickard is put at the top of the order it would be good to leave Adam at second and bat Manny Machado third — the place usually reserved for the best overall hitter on the team.
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Batting Chris Davis, Mark Trumbo, Matt Wieters, and Pedro Alvarez in the third through sixth places brings no serious argument from me. Historically I have felt that Wieters gets placed higher in the order by Buck than his record deserves, but Matt has looked very good at the end of the spring season.
Likewise, I believe that J.J. Hardy is too often batted higher than his recent performance has earned. It would be great to see him regain the offensive pop of several years ago, but I see him as the weakest overall hitter in the lineup and would bat him last … certainly after Jonathan Schoop.
In any event, this really is an impressive batting order and offensive lineup. As mentioned here on The Baltimore Wire a few weeks ago, we are going to track both the numbers of home runs and strikeouts, prorating the pace of both relative to franchise and all-time MLB records for each.
OK … Tillman is walking out of the bullpen and the season is ready to begin. BEST.DAY.OF.THE.YEAR.