all photos in this article by Craig Landefeld, Gulf Bird Photography
In what has become a bit of a tradition for me, going back to my BMoreBirdsNest.com days, it’s time to once again crowdsource the Baltimore Orioles’ lineup. While in the past I would call it the “Opening Day lineup,” this year there are enough issues with that particular day that I wanted to expand the definition a bit – Chris Davis is still suspended, Matt Wieters and J.J. Hardy will be on the disabled list, yadda yadda yadda.
In addition to that, ol’ Dan & Buck have done a wonderful job of creating an extremely flexible roster for themselves, one that will likely look very different depending upon the handedness of the opposing pitcher, the stadium in which the game is being played, the phase of the moon, and the barometric pressure, just to name a few variables.
So instead of going with the lineup on that particular day, which is just one of 162, I decided to have the folks instead predict the Birds’ “everyday lineup;” that is, which player will appear in said position/spot in the batting order the most frequently during the season. We’re talking about in a perfect world here, of course, so we’re going to cross our fingers and assume for the sake of argument that everyone stays healthy for most of the year.
I asked respondents to not take this too seriously – those who voiced objections at the notion of an “everyday lineup” have a very valid point. Still, it’s tradition, and it’s fun. Shits & giggles, as it were.
First off, a hearty thanks to all who participated this year:
@2Zuethes
@Bonzi777
@lilasc
@Sean_Deere
@BortzSports
@RantingOriole
@JTrea81
@rwags614 (Ryan Wagner, the man who reads these lineups at OPACY)
@ksauersESR
@FakeLough
@nottheflaredog
@Falk_You
@JPFinkel
@huntrdavis
@simplyas10_
@BananaSlapdick
@Ello_Chop
So with 17 participants sending me their predictions, along with mine, we had 18 total lineups to average this year.
Six players appeared in every lineup submitted – Manny Machado, Adam Jones, J.J. Hardy, Matt Wieters, Jonathan Schoop, and Chris Davis – so they’ll be slotted into our “ideal everyday” lineup at the average spot at which our panel put them. Steve Pearce was in 17 of the 18 lineups – not sure if @2Zuethes just forgot about him, or what. Here’s what he had to say:
@EutawStReport I guess Pearce was a casualty of my irrational hope for Moldy.
— Chris (@2Zuethes) March 31, 2015
I can get behind the Reimold love, I really can…just not at the expense of Steven Wayne.
Other players to appear were Alejandro De Aza (14 of 18 lineups submitted), Nolan Reimold (five), Delmon Young (eight), Travis Snider (10), Jimmy Paredes, and David Lough (one each). So Snider and De Aza will fill out our lineup.
Boring explanations out of the way, let’s see what you the fans voted as the “everyday” O’s lineup in 2015:
Alejandro De Aza – LF
De Aza’s average position in our lineups was 2.0, but 12 of the 14 folks who had him in the lineups put him at the leadoff spot, while the other two had him eighth.
Manny Machado – 3B
Manny’s average lineup position was 3.1. Ten of the 18 lineups had him batting second, while others had him at leadoff, fifth, sixth, or seventh.
Adam Jones – CF
AJ comes in third, with an average lineup position of 3.4. Ten folks had him hitting third, and eight batting cleanup.
Chris Davis – 1B
Things got a little wonky at the cleanup spot. While Steve Pearce had a higher average position than did Davis (3.6 to 3.9), none of the 18 lineups had Pearce actually batting fourth. So, we’re going with Davis here, as 10 folks are banking on a bounce-back year and had him cleaning up.
Steve Pearce – DH
That leaves us with Pearce in the five hole, where eight folks put him. Others had him leading off (one), batting second (five), third (two), or seventh (one).
Matt Wieters – C
Our currently-disabled catcher came in at sixth, with an average position of 6.1. Nine of the lineups had Matty in this batting slot.
J.J. Hardy – SS
Continuing down the currently-disabled part of our batting order, James Jerry comes in at seventh with an average lineup position of 6.5. Five people had J.J. batting seventh.
Travis Snider – RF
The surprise of the exercise (to me, anyway), Travis Snider barely beat out Delmon Young by appearing in two more lineups (10-8). His average position of 7.1 lands him eighth in our lineup.
Jonathan Schoop – 2B
Johnny Beisbol rounds out our lineup. Schoop was in every lineup, and 17/18 had him batting ninth.
Tell us why we’re wrong in the comments (but please don’t go with “there won’t be an everyday lineup;” we already conceded as much)!
