Overview

It’s Opening Day! The Orioles will roll out the orange carpet and fireworks and balloons will fill the air. There will be bunting s far as the eye can see. Baseball is back.

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Opening-Day-levin

As for the teams that will be lining up on the infield, it will be the Boston Red Sox taking on the Orioles Monday afternoon. The reigning World Series champions come to Baltimore to kick off the 2014 season with a three game series at Oriole Park with hopes of starting another World Series campaign. The Red Sox avoided the allure of spending big on augmenting their roster or keeping free agents this offseason, instead opting to rely on their young players to step up and fill the holes on the roster. The team with a mix of youth and veterans was able to win an MLB high 97 games in 2013, tied with their World Series competition the Cardinals. This season the Red Sox actually look a lot more green with youngsters like Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley, Jr. expected to play big roles this year.

Meanwhile the Orioles did decide to spend to augment their current roster with Ubaldo Jimenez and Nelson Cruz looking to play big roles in the team’s success this season. The Orioles hope that these additions coupled with progression from the team’s young players will allow them to improve on last season’s 85 win total. While the Orioles won’t have any ring ceremonies to look forward to, they did have a successful season a year ago, even if it didn’t result in a trip to the playoffs. Some O’s fans may actually be looking forward to Wednesday’s game more than Opening Day as they will get their first real look at new addition Ubaldo Jimenez.

One key to watch for this series will be how the O’s pitching staff handles a Red Sox lineup that took more pitches than any other team in baseball last season. The O’s staff tends to walk a lot of hitters and the Red Sox make pitchers work. Early in the season pitch counts are likely to be somewhat limited still so the O’s starters will have to be efficient if they want to give the bullpen a well rested start to the season.

 

Pitching Matchups

3/31 – Jon Lester (LHP) vs. Chris Tillman

Lester in 2013: 15-8, 213.1 IP, 7.47 K/9, 2.83 BB/9, 0.80 HR/9, 3.75 ERA, 3.59 FIP
Tillman in 2013: 16-7, 206.1 IP, 7.81 K/9, 2.97 BB/9, 1.44 HR/9, 3.71 ERA, 4.42 FIP

4/2 – John Lackey vs. Ubaldo Jimenez

Lackey in 2013: 10-13, 189.1 IP, 7.65 K/9, 1.90 BB/9, 1.24 HR/9, 3.52 ERA, 3.86 FIP
Jimenez in 2013: 13-9, 182.2 IP, 9.56 K/9, 3.94 BB/9, 0.76 HR/9, 3.30 ERA, 3.43 FIP

4/3 – Felix Doubront (LHP) vs. Wei-Yin Chen (LHP)

Doubront in 2013: 11-6, 162.1 IP, 7.71 K/9, 3.94 BB/9, 0.72 HR/9, 4.32 ERA, 3.78 FIP
Chen in 2013: 7-7, 137 IP, 6.83 K/9, 2.56 BB/9, 1.12 HR/9, 4.07 ERA, 4.04 FIP

The Opponent

C- AJ Pierzysnki, 90 WRC+
1B- Mike Napoli, 129 wRC+
2B- Dustin Pedroia, 115 wRC+
3B- Will Middlebrooks, 83 wRC+
SS- Xander Bogaerts, 86 wRC+
LF- Jonny Gomes, 109 wRC+
CF- Grady Sizemore, 94 wRC+ (2011)
RF- Shane Victorino, 119 wRC+
DH- David Ortiz, 152 wRC+

BENCH- Ross, Herrera, Carp, Nava
ROTATION- Lester, Lackey, Doubront, Buchholz, Peavy
BULLPEN- Badenhop. Capuano, Miller, Mujica, Tazawa, Workman, Uehara

2013 Ranks

Boston
Batting Average- 2nd
Runs- 1st
Home Runs- 6th
wOBA- 1st
wRC+- 1st
K/9- 6th
BB/9- 25th
HR/9- 17th
ERA- 14th
FIP- 16th

Baltimore
Batting Average- 10th
Runs- 5th
Home Runs- 1st
wOBA- 8th
wRC+- 10th
K/9- 26th
BB/9- 14th
HR/9- 30th
ERA- 23rd
FIP- 29th

Jeff Long
Jeff Long

Jeff was the owner of the Orioles blog Warehouse Worthy, which focused on making advanced statistics a part of the conversation for the average fan. Outside of baseball, Jeff is a graduate of Loyola University where he received his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Business Administration. The Maryland native currently works for an Advertising Agency in downtown Baltimore. Previously a contributor to Beyond the Boxscore, he joined Baseball Prospectus in September 2014. You can reach him at [email protected].

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