Todays lineup: No Markakis Again

[jjdman]

CLEVELAND BALTIMORE

AVG HR RBI AVG HR RBI

Grady Sizemore CF .314 1 7 Brian Roberts 2B .313 0 11

Jason Michaels LF .270 0 3 Jeff Conine LF .162 2 5

Jhonny Peralta SS .246 2 7 Melvin Mora 3B .284 4 8

Travis Hafner DH .375 7 14 Miguel Tejada SS .375 2 11

Victor Martinez C .407 3 14 Jay Gibbons RF .328 4 13

Eduardo Perez 1B .286 2 7 Ramon Hernandez C .440 2 14

Ronnie Belliard 2B .288 1 9 Javy Lopez DH .214 0 6

Aaron Boone 3B .259 2 10 Kevin Millar 1B .234 2 8

Casey Blake RF .447 2 14 Corey Patterson CF .150 1 3

Fausto Carmona RHP (1-0, 1.50) Erik Bedard LHP (3-0, 2.25)

Umpires: HP: Laz Diaz. 1B: Rick Reed. 2B: Tim Tschida. 3B: Ted Barrett.

Weather: 84 degrees, sunny.

Wind: 6 mph, In from CF.

[StateFarmFSR]

Clearly our 400 year old over the hill outfielders are a better choice than Markakis. I am going to give Perlozzo a pass and assume he is rewarding the lineup from last night for a job well done. It had beter not continue.

[osyea]

Clearly our 400 year old over the hill outfielders are a better choice than Markakis. I am going to give Perlozzo a pass and assume he is rewarding the lineup from last night for a job well done. It had beter not continue.

Well to be fair conine is the only outfielder of the three that fits your description. I agree Markakis should be playing though.

[NewMarketSean]

If Markakis isn't going to start 4 times a week he should be starting in Ottawa. He's not going to get better sitting on the bench.

[bgfield]

Who's to say he wont start 4 times a week? Wasn't he in every game in the Angels series? And there are still games on Friday and Saturday.

I don't think it'd be good for morale if Perlozzo decided to bench either Conine or Patterson the day after both gave their best offensive performances of the season. It's just two games. Let's see if he's in the lineup tomorrow.

[Tony-OH]

If Markakis is not an everyday starter on this team he needs to be in the minors. Perlozzo's reluctance to run him out there everyday is ridiculous in my opinion. Perlozzo is playing a strict "If you produce you play" mentality which is fine with Conine, Patterson, Terrero and Newhan when healthy, but Markakis needs to be mainstay no less than five times a week. Anything less and and they are screwing with the kids head and development.

[birdsfan4ever]

If Markakis is not an everyday starter on this team he needs to be in the minors. Perlozzo's reluctance to run him out there everyday is ridiculous in my opinion. Perlozzo is playing a strict "If you produce you play" mentality which is fine with Conine, Patterson, Terrero and Newhan when healthy, but Markakis needs to be mainstay no less than five times a week. Anything less and and they are screwing with the kids head and development.

And by that logic Markakis should be playing instead of one of Patterson, Conine or Millar, but he isnt, which makes no sense at all to me.

[Sports Guy]

If Markakis is not an everyday starter on this team he needs to be in the minors. Perlozzo's reluctance to run him out there everyday is ridiculous in my opinion. Perlozzo is playing a strict "If you produce you play" mentality which is fine with Conine, Patterson, Terrero and Newhan when healthy, but Markakis needs to be mainstay no less than five times a week. Anything less and and they are screwing with the kids head and development.

Bingo...Well said.

[bluedog]

I agree with SG -- this is a game where he's rewarding everyone for what they did last nite. Kakes will be back in the lineup tomorrow unless we have another "every player gets 2 hits" kind of game today.

[bgfield]

I'm going purely off of memory here so please correct me if I'm wrong:

Markakis started Sunday vs the Angels

Markakis came in in the first inning on Monday following the injury to Newhan

Markakis started Tuesday vs. the Indians

There are two more games left in the week, Friday and Saturday, vs. New York. Markakis may well get to start those two days. That's five days this week.

I'm not too concerned about this - Sam made it clear in Spring Training that if Markakis made the club he'd be getting plenty of playing time. If he doesn't play either Friday or Saturday (or both) then he should definitely be sent down.

EDIT: And I'm just purely speculating here, but it may be that Perlozzo wants Markakis to be completely rested for his debut in Yankee Stadium. Playing there is already a chore in itself. Could just be he wants to make sure the guy's fresh and ready to handle it.

[jim busby]

If Markakis is not an everyday starter on this team he needs to be in the minors. Perlozzo's reluctance to run him out there everyday is ridiculous in my opinion. Perlozzo is playing a strict "If you produce you play" mentality which is fine with Conine, Patterson, Terrero and Newhan when healthy, but Markakis needs to be mainstay no less than five times a week. Anything less and and they are screwing with the kids head and development.

I agree with your conclusion, but I do not agree that Markakis should be playing today. The lineup from last night produced amazing results, and because most hitters are streak hitters, I think you definitely use the same lineup today, if possible.

I do want Markakis to start the vast majority of games or be sent to Ottawa. But today is an aberration, it's the rare chance to take advantage of what may be a mass collective hot streak.

As to "screwing with the kid's head," I think Nick Markakis is smart enough and mature enough to see that a lineup that produced 18 runs Wednesday night deserves another shot Thursday afternoon.

The object is to win, and although developing Markakis is a huge priority, it doesn't take precedence over winning a game.

[NCRaven]

I assume that Perlozzo knows more about the availability and readiness of his players than we do and am willing to give him some leeway on this. The entire organization seems to understand Markakis place in our future. They're trying to both protect him and give him plenty of opportunities to improve, as well. And, it's only April 20, hardly time to really see any trends. I'll be patient.

[Tony-OH]

I agree with your conclusion, but I do not agree that Markakis should be playing today. The lineup from last night produced amazing results, and because most hitters are streak hitters, I think you definitely use the same lineup today, if possible.

I do want Markakis to start the vast majority of games or be sent to Ottawa. But today is an aberration, it's the rare chance to take advantage of what may be a mass collective hot streak.

As to "screwing with the kid's head," I think Nick Markakis is smart enough and mature enough to see that a lineup that produced 18 runs Wednesday night deserves another shot Thursday afternoon.

The object is to win, and although developing Markakis is a huge priority, it doesn't take precedence over winning a game.

I usually agree with you but I think you off base here.

You wanna bet the same lineup doesn't even put a five spot on the board today? Yesterday was lightning in the bottle. Conine starting two games in a row against righties with Markakis on the bench is ridiculous.

Yesterday may have been the kind of pitching that got Markakis on track. Got his confidence back to the level it was in spring training. Instead, he got to sit on the bench while everyone raised their averages and now sees his name not in the lineup for the second straight day.

Markakis can have the best makeup in thw orld, but eventually he's going to wonder what his role is with this tea,. He'll never say anything of course, and he shouldn't, but there is not good reason for today, or for the future that Conine should be starting over Markakis two days in a row against righties.

[McLovin]

Also seems like we are really riding Ramon Hernandez too hard. Why not flip him and Javy for the day game today? Cleveland is a team that doesn't run - seems like a good day to get some rest before the Yankees series...

[Tony-OH]

I assume that Perlozzo knows more about the availability and readiness of his players than we do and am willing to give him some leeway on this. The entire organization seems to understand Markakis place in our future. They're trying to both protect him and give him plenty of opportunities to improve, as well. And, it's only April 20, hardly time to really see any trends. I'll be patient.

So are you suggesting Markakis is not ready or unavailable? If not, then your point doesn't make any sense. If you want to say Perlozzo knows his team's personalities better than us and has gone with this lineup becasue this is what he sees as best, ok, but to insinuate that Markakis is banged up without any information on that just doesn't make any sense in this argument at all if you ask me.