3/21: Orioles vs. Blue Jays

[Don Quixote]

Arencibia with a solo homer to left to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead. One away.

[Don Quixote]

Lind with a pop fly to short. Two away.

[Don Quixote]

Francisco with a pop fly to second, side retired. Orioles trail 2-1 after 2-1/2.

Have to step out. Take it away, Paul....

[Going Underground]

Arencibia with a solo homer to left to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead. One away.

Arencibia is a pretty good hitter. Had more homers and RBI's then Wieters last year. Batting average was low and Wieters alot better defensively.

[weams]

Tommy Hunter is going to be the opening day Starter.

[NCRaven]

Tommy Hunter is going to be the opening day Starter.

Really think so? Over both Hammel and Arrieta? I think he'd have to pitch his way out of the rotation, but I'm not so sure about opening day.

[PaulFolk]

Endy Chavez: Table-Setter. He draws a leadoff walk in the 3rd. Teams can't get him out.

[Tony-OH]

Tommy Hunter is going to be the opening day Starter.

If he is, I hope it's because we are putting our 5th starter up against the other team's TOR in order to get a better matchup later. I still think Hunter is better off as a reliever and will be before the season is out.

[PaulFolk]

Hardy singles, and Chavez gets to third. The O's are trying to brew another rally.

[MarylandAaron]

Hardy singles, and Chavez gets to third. The O's are trying to brew another rally.

At first i thought this said trying to blow another rally haha.

[weams]

Really think so? Over both Hammel and Arrieta? I think he'd have to pitch his way out of the rotation, but I'm not so sure about opening day.

Yeah, I think so if he goes 4 plus his first time out with 3 or less runs.

Also Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop are both playing short stop this year, on different teams.

Meanwhile, we now have just over two weeks to go before the Orioles' minor league teams begin play. The Double-A Bowie Baysox open up at home Thursday, April 5 and the Single-A Frederick Keys open at home the next night. Manny Machado will be playing shortstop for one of those clubs, but which one?

Also, will Jonathan Schoop be playing alongside him at second base or will Schoop be at shortstop playing for the club where Manny is not?

The Orioles may want to spend some of the early portion of this year seeing both Schoop and Machado starting at short. If that proves true, it may not be a safe assumption that Machado goes to Bowie and Schoop to Frederick. It's possible it could be the other way around.

While Machado is the higher-rated prospect of the two, Schoop makes a few top 100 lists as well and is the slightly older and more experienced player. Plus Schoop's offensive stats were better than Machado's with Frederick last season.

Schoop has played 258 career games to Machado's 110 and he is nine months older. I think one scenario that might be worth thinking about is to have the pair play short for different teams in the first half of the year and then join forces for the second half in Double-A to gain more experience together.

However it ends up, they remain the club's two best position player prospects and should be fun to watch during the 2012 season. Just be sure to double check which player will be at which ballpark.

Update: I had a conversation this afternoon with Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette about the Orioles minor leagues and will publish many of his comments tomorrow, but he did indicate during our interview that Machado and Schoop would start at different teams this year with each starting at shortstop.

[PaulFolk]

And Betemit can't get the run home, flying out to left (must not have been deep enough for Chavez to tag).

Great situational hitting, guys.

[Going Underground]

Tommy Hunter is going to be the opening day Starter.

Wada bout Chen?

[PaulFolk]

At first i thought this said trying to blow another rally haha.

Give it time.

[CamdenTerp]

At first i thought this said trying to blow another rally haha.

That's what is brewing.