00:00Bob Haney, Vinny Serrato, Nolan McGraw, The Vinny and Haney Show, 105.7 The Fan.
00:09I have no input on the lineup. Our front office doesn't either, unless we're asked for it,
00:14which we work very collaboratively with Craig and his staff.
00:19They will ask, but other than that, we don't get involved in daily stuff.
00:23I always want the coaches that are close to the clubhouse situation, the health picture,
00:28what's going on, if the team's on the road.
00:30And they're also studying several games ahead, trying to plan out lineups.
00:35All right, here's a question I have.
00:36That's Mike Elias, Orioles GM, vice president of this, that, and the other thing.
00:40I mean, they always change titles.
00:42I hate knowing Mike Elias for his title, maybe his roster.
00:46We'll get into that.
00:48What manager or coaching staff would seek assistance from the front office
00:54in putting out the lineup?
00:57If I'm interviewing for a job and you're going to tell me that you're getting help
01:03with the math, I'd be like, not interested.
01:07Wouldn't you think, and let's look at it this way, too.
01:10It's Vinny and Haney, 105.7 The Fan.
01:12Bob, Haney, Vidi, Serato, Nolan McGraw's on the other side of the glass.
01:15All right, your coaching staff is already vast.
01:18You have pitching this, pitching that.
01:21How many hitting coaches do they have?
01:23Four, isn't it?
01:23You have bullpen coaches.
01:24You're coaching staff, and yeah, I'm going to go, oh, man, this ain't Earl Weaver
01:29with Billy Hunter, George Stoller, George Bamberger, and a bullpen coach.
01:35You know what I mean?
01:35This is, there are more hitting coaches than Earl Weaver's entire coaching staff
01:42nowadays.
01:42So you have all this intel coming from within your ranks.
01:48Guys who wear uniforms.
01:50Why would you ask the front office to help you?
01:55Wouldn't your pitching strategist have an idea of what their lineup's going to be?
02:02And wouldn't your hitting coaches, plural, have an idea of what the splits are for this guy
02:10and what the bullpen usage is for that?
02:12You've got all this data at your fingertips.
02:17Look, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but, you know, I play baseball not to a that level.
02:23I mean, I kind of sucked, actually.
02:25I mean, I can catch a ball and, you know, I have a new fundamentals, and I'd hit one every
02:29now and again.
02:29I wear a softball hat, though.
02:31Ting, ting, ting.
02:33But why would you?
02:35We got this.
02:36You hired me to be the manager of the team.
02:40Not the locker room babysitter or clubhouse.
02:43Babysitter.
02:45I have to deal with the media twice a day, which can be painstaking, let's be honest.
02:50Especially when you start to lose and you're going through the broken record day after day.
02:56Why would you ask for assistance?
03:00I mean, has the game changed that much?
03:03Were there someone sitting in the front office that would know more about your upcoming opponent
03:08or that game's pitcher than you do?
03:12That would influence the way that you would put your lineup together?
03:16You would think, Bob, that that's your preparation.
03:20You prepared for all of those scenarios.
03:24You know, I mean, once one game ends, that's what you're doing, prepping for the next game,
03:29I would think.
03:30You know, it kind of reminds you of, like, Parcells when he said, hey, you know, if you,
03:35what is it?
03:36I want to, you want me to cook, get to buy the groceries?
03:40If you want me to cook the food, let me buy the groceries.
03:43Same type of thing.
03:43You know, I mean, I want a coach that wants to run it.
03:47I'm going to run it.
03:48You think Buck Showalter would allow, you know, anybody to help him?
03:54Hell no.
03:55I mean, I'm sure he had assistance, but I don't know how much Dan Duquette, for instance,
03:59was influencing the daily lineup.
04:01So this is the third manager, third different manager that we've had under the Mike Elias
04:05regime, even if it was just a couple months of Mancelino last year.
04:09You've seen three different personalities, three different looks at it, three different
04:13guys in the seat.
04:14I'm not buying this comment about Elias having nothing to do with the lineup.
04:18If the way the lineup's being constructed looks identical to the way that Brandon Hyde was
04:24supposedly doing it, right?
04:26If the same kind of key principles and philosophies about building this lineup existed under him,
04:32then through Mancelino, and now again under Albernaz, well, then I'm sorry.
04:37That's one hell of a coincidence that you've got three guys that think exactly alike when
04:41it comes to live and die by the lefty-righty matchups.
04:45As soon as a player like Blaise Alexander is on a three-game hitting streak, he's on top
04:50of the world.
04:50Get him out of there.
04:51Let's get Kobe Mayo in there for a day and just derail everything.
04:54The same kind of stuff has been there every step of the way.
04:59Why?
04:59Why in the world would I believe that the decisions aren't coming from the one constant?
05:04And I think when he even mentioned the fact that if they ask for input, there's the, we
05:11have nothing to do with it except, so there was the qualifier that was in there to begin
05:16with.
05:17I don't think Mike Elias is filling out the lineup card and going, here is what you do, that
05:22sort of thing.
05:22But I think there's more input than maybe he alluded to.
05:27Now, I'll agree, or I'll believe, I should say.
05:30I don't think he's telling him what relievers to put in and all this nonsense or whomever
05:34the analytic, you know, backbone could be.
05:39But, yeah, I, my problem is, as I stated, you've got all these people that you already have
05:46on your staff.
05:47Why in the bleep would you even have to rely on the front office to put your lineup together?
05:53What are you paying these other people for?
05:55It sure as hell isn't infield practice or learning how to bunt or anything like that or base running
06:02IQ.
06:03Bob, that's like...
06:04And you're running hot all of a sudden.
06:06That's like the guy up in the press box that, uh, uh, situationally, no, go for it.
06:12No, don't go for it, you know?
06:15I mean, look, we got coaches in the NFL whose job it is to grab the head coach and tell
06:19him
06:19get off the field.
06:19Get that coach.
06:20I mean, that's, I'd like that job.
06:22Well, like, when I would go to Bud Grant's training camp, they had like, what, like six,
06:27maybe seven coaches?
06:29Now, what do they have, 20?
06:31Well, the Ravens just put out that new, well, within the scouting department.
06:35Oh, my God.
06:37It's not scout, Midwest scout, South scout, East, West.
06:41There are all these titles and they just, it makes it seem more, what's the word I'm looking
06:49for?
06:50It's too crowded.
06:52We're like a bigger deal than it really, he's a scout.
06:55Oh, okay.
06:56I see what you're saying.
06:57It's just, okay, he scouts the Northwest.
07:00But instead, he's vice president of this, that he's an analytical president of that.
07:03Yeah.
07:04Who counts the paperclubs?
07:05Well, you know what they do is, instead of giving you a raise, they give you a title.
07:11That prevents them from having to pay you because you get this nice title.
07:16Well, I like what Bob was saying, and I would like to believe that Albernaz has full reign,
07:20once the game starts.
07:22I mean, at the very least, that's got to be the last thing that remains untouched in terms
07:26of meddling from above in the front office.
07:30But I do get suspicious when I see stuff like the Trey Gibson thing last week, right, where
07:35he's getting pulled in a dominant, you know, he's rolling, he's cruising.
07:39You can't tell me Albernaz is sitting there in the dugout saying, yep, time to pull this
07:43guy.
07:44This is 100% my decision.
07:47This is totally in line with the feel of the game.
07:50Maybe it was.
07:51But something about that whole situation, to me, read like the law was laid down from above
08:00that said, this guy's on a pitch count and he can't pitch more than four innings today
08:04or he can't go past 65, 70 pitches, whatever it was, that they're going to keep babying Trey
08:10Gibson because he's a rookie or whatever it is.
08:13That's the kind of stuff that I just, I can't get on board with.
08:16And even Gibson himself said he knew he was coming out after the inning.
08:19That's why he was jacking up to 97, 98 miles an hour, which we haven't seen normally from
08:25him.
08:26So Orioles, well, here's the bottom line.
08:28Why they've gotten to this point, injuries, inconsistencies, poor play by your stars, some
08:34stars, not all of them, but some.
08:35Um, there's seven games below 500, the three out of the wild card and they just can't seem
08:41to gain any traction.
08:42The Red Sox just swept the Yankees, the Red Sox, who would be getting swept on a regular
08:47basis themselves this year, just swept New York.
08:51And in doing so, put Tampa back in first place.
08:53And we'll get into that when we do the AL East later in the show.
08:57And now Boston's breathing down Baltimore's next, only a game and a half back.
09:01And now Toronto's crapping themselves, losing four to Texas, and that doesn't help the Orioles
09:07or the Blue Jays, because now Texas, they're chasing Seattle for the AL West, but that puts
09:13him in a prime playoff spot.
09:16We're seven games below 500, the last two days of June.
09:19We asked this question a month ago.
09:21Give us one word to describe the Orioles.
09:24Let's do it.
09:25410-583-1057, Vinny Hattie, Nolan here on The Fan.
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