How effective are Orioles’ batting orders? / MAILBAG

Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. If you’d like to submit a question, send it to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com. Questions may be edited for clarity, length and style.

Question: I am wondering why I don’t see Brandon Hyde making lineup changes that I’ve seen regularly in baseball.  Most teams covet the top half of the lineup for power and runs and move batters around based on current production. Guys get hot?  Move to key spot … Guys slump? Move down to less pressure-filled spot. It’s obviously not an exact science, but I have watched it work well and very well at times. From: Randy McNallen San Antonio, Texas

Answer: Randy, I get a lot of questions about the Orioles’ lineups, and recently, Les Diver and Doug Harbach have also had questions about it.

Including Sunday’s games, the Orioles have used 114 different lineups in 138 games, so the lineups are always evolving..

The Orioles have five left-handed hitters and two switch-hitters, and Hyde likes to space them out when possible against right-handed hitters. He’s never hit Colton Cowser and Gunnar Henderson successively. In Saturday night’s lineup, he had Henderson hitting first, Ryan O’Hearn third, Cowser fifth, Cedric Mullins seventh and Jackson Holliday ninth, Adley Rutschman and Anthony Santander, switch-hitters, batted second and fourth.

It’s not just who’s hot, but how can he avoid getting tripped with too many left-handed hitters in succession if a team uses a left-handed reliever.

Question: Do you think Jordan Westburg will need a rehab assignment, or will he be able to step back into his starting role with the Orioles? From: Charles Lowe

Answer: Charles, that’s a tricky one because if the injury happened at the end of June, I would confidently say Westburg would need a rehab assignment, but, there are only four weeks left in the season, and Norfolk’s season ends in three weeks, on September 22^nd. In an ideal world, they’d probably like to see him play in a few games before he’s activated, but the calendar may be against them.