It's past time to move Davis up in the order

[El Gordo]

I'd much rather them pitch around Davis to get to Jones, than to get to "Automatic Out" Wieters.

Wieters doesn't have to bat behind Davis either. I would bat Nick behind him and have Jones bat #3.

[Uli2001]

He is hitting under .200 when batting 3rd in his career. Granted he is having a much better year but he hit .190 there last year and .330 in the 5th or 6th spot last year in about the same number of at bats.

But there's no reason for that. I would say this must be a small-sample case. How many times has he batted 3rd? I think this is a kind of superstition by Showalter, not to bat him third.

[pollaxt]

No matter what, it just stinks that we have McLouth's .360 OBP and Machado's .352 OBP and we are kind of wasting that by having to get through Markakis and Jones and their < .800 OPS in order to get to the guy leading the universe in HR and ISO.

[El Gordo]

Who are you batting 5th if Jones should hit 6th. Wieters, Hardy or Reimold

vs RHP

Nate

Manny

Jones

Davis

Nick

Wieters

Hardy

Flaherty

Roberts

vs LHP

Nick

Manny

Jones

Davis

Wieters

Hardy

Valencia

Henry U

Roberts

[Ripken]

1 Mclouth -L

2 Markakis - L

3 Machado - R

4 Davis - L

5 Jones - R

6 DH

7 Hardy - R

8 Wieters - S

9 2B

I've wanted another veteran bat to hit behind Davis all season but with the offense producing it seems better to use org resources to add pitching. Still, if a good bat is out there for the right price I'd get him. This parade of AAAA players is okay but can be improved.

[Moose Milligan]

I agree...don't mess with what's working.

People constantly just have a need to want to make things that are perfectly fine even BETTER. Remember New Coke?

We can debate up and down whether batting order matters, some seem to think it does...I dunno. I'm perfectly happy with a guy that's hitting .330, has 31 homers and 80 RBI. If he's comfortable where he hits in the order (and it appears that he is), then why mess with it?

[justice98]

As of right now here are the numbers of Oriole ABs with runners on base this season:

Jones -- 169

Machado -- 151

Markakis -- 149

Hardy -- 138

Davis -- 122

Wieters -- 114

People keep defending Showalter's lineup by claiming we're scoring enough runs as it is, but is that really a good argument? If batting Davis 3rd or 4th over the rest of the season would translate into an additional 10 or 20 runs scored shouldn't the team make that move? Right now we're in 2nd place in the ultra tight AL East, 3 games ahead of TB in the Wild Card race, and only 5.5 games ahead of the surging Blue Jays. Are we so rich and confident that we can afford to leave potential runs on the field? Or should we be scrapping for every run we can get? 10 extra runs could boost us ahead of Boston. 10 lost runs could put us in 4th place. Don't know about you guys, but I've spent too much of my life watching other organization laughing at us, and I want every run and every win I can lay my hands on.

I agree 100%. Those additional runs over the course of a season could make all the difference.

I don't think Davis needs to go up to 3rd, but cleanup certainly. Imagine Davis with 47 more ABs with runners on.

[Aristotelian]

No matter what, it just stinks that we have McLouth's .360 OBP and Machado's .352 OBP and we are kind of wasting that by having to get through Markakis and Jones and their < .800 OPS in order to get to the guy leading the universe in HR and ISO.

Good thing about Markakis in the #3 spot is that McLouth can have a green light in any situation. If you had CD batting in that spot, there are going to be a lot of times in which you would not want to run McLouth: a) you take the bat out of his hands; b) risk a strike-em-out throw-em-out double play; and c) SB is meaningless any time CD gets a HR or extra base hit. So in that sense you are maximizing McLouth's value with Markakis batting third, not wasting his OBP. You are turning some of CD's 2-run HRs into solo HRs, but by putting a basestealer in front of Nick you are just as often turning otherwise meaningless base hits into RBI singles. Markakis does not have a high OPS but he is an ideal #3 hitter in all other respects--good with the bat, high OBP, gets a lot of hits.

I think there is a good case to be made to swap CD and Markakis, but there is also a very good case to keep things the way they are, both because the status quo is working, and there is a logic to it.

[gmelson26]

Some people have argued here that Davis is protecting Jones.. whats the point when he'll swing at anything. There's no need for strikes.. wasted protection.

[BarclaySouthway]

Well, he batted 4th against the lefty tonight with excellent results. He'll bat 4th tomorrow. I wonder what happens when we face a righty?

[Barnaby Graves]

Some people have argued here that Davis is protecting Jones.. whats the point when he'll swing at anything. There's no need for strikes.. wasted protection.

That's a good point actually.

Unless you don't believe in lineup protection... I'm not sure what to think of it but if you do believe in it then Jones is basically unprotectable.

[gmelson26]

That's a good point actually.

Unless you don't believe in lineup protection... I'm not sure what to think of it but if you do believe in it then Jones is basically unprotectable.

I'm in the same boat.. not sure what I think of it, but to the argument that Jones benefits from it.. I'm not seeing it. Sure they don't wanna walk him to get to Davis but everyone knows he'll swing at just about anything.

[Can_of_corn]

Lineup construction has little to do with runs scored.

My guess is that player comfort is more of a concern to Buck.

[crawjo]

I'd say Davis should be hitting third. In fact, I think my lineup would be:

1. Nick Markakis RF

2. Manny Machado 3B

3. Chris Davis 1B

4. Adam Jones CF

5. Nate McLouth LF

6. J.J. Hardy SS

7. Matt Wieters C

8. Nolan Reimold DH

9. Brian Roberts 2B

[Bahama O's Fan]

I just want them to switch Davis and Markakis. So we have Davis protected by Jones and Markakis instead of Weiters.