Tony-OH

It's opening day and veterans typically get the nod on opening day. Let's see a week or so worth of lineups before I'll get too concerned. I doubt Henderson is going to DH a lot this year.

Here's my prediction for today's game. Frazier goes 3-for-4 with a walk and two defensive gems as the Orioles beat Kluber and the Red Sox 3-2 in a cold two hour and ten minute affair. Shortly thereafter, all of the Frazier supporters claim they were right that Frazier was a great pickup and they begin the crafting their broze idol of Elias!

I agree honestly. Let's see how things are mostly shaking out after about a week or two of games. That will hold much more weight than the opening day lineup.

He's probably fine. They HAVE to have Frazier in the lineup because he cost $8 million, so you are not going to bench him for Urias. Urias is a veteran who hits Kluber well so they wanted him in the lineup and honestly, he is the reigning GG winner at 3B, so they probably gave him the nod at 3B. At the end of the day, they wanted Urias' bat in against Kluber and clearly still value Mateo's defense at SS over Henderson. And we all know, if one player has to be left out of the starting lineup that should be in there, it's going to be Stowers. Sig's computer absolutely hates that young man. Basically the Orioles are saying they value Frazier's defense at 2B over Urias at 2B so much that it will offset the loss of offense Stowers brings vs Frazier.

I think somewhere around 80-84 wins is about right. Could go higher if everything works out good like last year, but as could crater since on people, we are not better than the Yankees, Blue Jays or Rays. Let's hope we're surprised a bit, but I would not be surprised if the team wins less games than it did in 2022, mainly because the competition got better.

Heck, even I don't want to think about this on opening day! lol

I know this is being talked about elsewhere, but it's easier for people to find in its own thread for people coming in looking for news. https://www.mlb.com/news/orioles-2023-opening-day-roster?partnerID=mlbapp-iOS_article-share No huge surprises though Gillaspie over Krehbiel was a minor one. I think we'll see both up and own this year.

So his bosses provide "input" and then he makes the final decision? I can buy that, but that really is the same thing. He's going to go with that lineup "input" unless someone is banged up, tired, or sick.

I tend to agree with this, but I don't think we can make a final decision on that yet. So far, even how he drafts (he doesn't draft pitchers high and goes after mostly college bats early), he's a bit risk adverse. We'll see.

I agree, we will see. I don't think we'll really know for another offseason. We also don't know what kind of finanical limitations he's under with a budget. Afterall, Chris Davis is the 2nd highest paid player/former player in the organization.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure Hyde has a ton to do with the lineup except have input on guys health and tiredness. I think the lineups are more of what Sig's computer spits out. Either that, or they let the oldest guy on the team write out the lineups which would explain how Aguilar started last September!

At least we know that "dirtybird" is Elias' handle here at the Hangout! Saying that, I can't imagine even Elias would retrospectively give himself an "A" for this offseason.

He has yet to show any interest in taking on risk. That will need to change if the Orioles are to ever augment their young talent coming through the pipeline.

FYI This is the lineup thread. The opening day roster is another thread.

Urias hits Kluber very well and we do know that Elias/Sig's computer likes matchups. I still think we are going to see a healthy amount of Mateo at SS. Now, I would not put it past the Orioles to start Mateo at AA, Urias at 2B and Frazier in LF, because afterall, this is a team that started Rio Ruiz in 2B with very limited experience there one season. This is also a team that benched Stowers in favor of Aguilar despite his great success against lefties in the minors. So honestly, I have very little faith they will put the lineup out there that I think is best. But then again, I actually like Stowers.

It's 100% fair. Bemboom should not have even been resigned and Elias should have had a better 3rd string option to go with. He and his team were very active in trying to find that backup/3rd string option and they ended up with a guy who was pretty bad, even in AAA last year. Is it the biggest thing in the world, no, but it's just another thing that Elias failed to upgrade this offseason.

My guess: 1. Mullins (CF) 2. Rutschman (C) 3. Mountcastle (1B) 4. Santander (LF) Because of Fenway 5. Hays (RF) 6, Henderson (SS) 7. Urias (3B) 8. Stowers (DH) He struggled playing LF in Fenway last year and this defers to the vet on opening day in playing the field. 9. Frazier (2B)

If Frazier starts in LF and Stowers is on the bench, I will literally shut down the Hangout.

Elias does like his lefties. Except Stowers against lefties.

It's nice to see he's being given some time there. It will be interesting to see how they use him this year defensively.

I'm a little surprised as well, but they are similar level pitchers anyways. Kind of that last guy in the bullpen who can throw you some 5th and 6th innings though Krehbiel at times last year was very good. I think we'll still see both up and down this year.

When Mike Elias likes a guy, he likes a guy whether it makes any sense or not. The fact that Bemboom, he of the career .496 OPS in 206 major league PAs and .418 and .642 OPS last year with the Orioles and Norfolk respectively, is your backup catcher after McCann went down with the same injury he had last year kinda speaks to Elias' offseason woes. Elias claimed what, three separate catchers off waivers late in the season last year and early in the offseason and still ended up with Bemboom as his backup option when McCann went down this spring. No wonder he was such a priority sign for Elias this offseason. I mean, it's extraordinarily hard to find an average defensive backup catcher who can't hit at all.

There was always a give and take. Unfortunately for you guys, I probably need to read some of those ads that were annoying. Saying that, I always send in any issues so if you have issues like this, if yu could, screenshot it, tell me what browser and phone you are using and I can send them in to be reviewed and adjusted. I rarely use my phone with the Hangout so I don't see the problems very often.

Thanks, I was just venting. I try not to let everyone know how much of the pain in the ass it is to run this place sometime especially when you have an organization like Innvisioncommunity who have terrible customer service and don't care about their customers. My adverstising partner was great until I had to take them off because of Innvision's refusal to make a needed white list request. Oh well, F it. At least the site is up and running for everyone. Oh well, 1st world problems I guess. lol

Unfortunately, the site runs fast and clean but I lost about 70% of my revenue so it really, really sucks for me. Innovision really sucks.