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Opening Day is two weeks away, which means that spring training lineups are going to keep having more and more of an Opening Day feel. For Orioles fans who have had a spring of seeing young players who may be part of a more exciting future, this may not be the most interesting of times. Today’s lineup marks the same time this spring that Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo will both be playing.
However it’s going to go, you can watch it on TV - at least, assuming you can access the MASN broadcast from wherever you find yourself in the world this afternoon. Maybe your boss will thwart you. If so, you won’t get to see Dylan Bundy either. It’d be nice if he starts getting better results as we get towards Opening Day. There are only so many more chances for tune-up outings.
Here’s what that lineup will look like, at least until the inevitable spring training shift change:
- Cedric Mullins - LF
- Mark Trumbo - DH
- Chris Davis - 1B
- Renato Núñez - 3B
- Chance Sisco - C
- Austin Hays - CF
- Jace Peterson - 2B
- Richie Martin - SS
- Eric Young Jr. - RF
Pitchers who are expected to get into the game after Bundy, in alphabetical order by last name: Pedro Araujo, Paul Fry, Branden Kline, Jimmy Yacabonis.
Depending on how things go the rest of the way with Davis’s health/performance and Trumbo’s health, I could see as many as seven of the nine guys in today’s starting lineup being in the Opening Day lineup. We’ll see how it all shakes out between now and then.
After playing on Tuesday night, Davis had this to say, as transcribed by MASN’s Steve Melewski:
“Honestly, I feel like I’m seeing the ball well. My timing is getting better. Most of the time when I am taking pitches that are in the strike zone or around the strike zone, it’s because I’m getting caught in between, but not on the latter side of that. Feel like I’m getting in the hitting position so much earlier than in the past.”
It’s not super inspiring even if it is in touch with reality, which based on Davis’s results and strikeout rate so far in spring training it may not be. If he proves me wrong today and for the rest of spring training, I’ll be glad to be wrong about him.