Former Oriole Dave Johnson Talks Moving Machado To Shortstop
Dave Johnson from MASN joined Vinny and Rob to recap the Orioles game from last night and the recent roster changes the team is facing.
The Baltimore Orioles are coming off of an impressive 4-1 win against the last place New York Yankees.
Chris Tillman (3-1) went seven innings, surrendering just one run on five hits while tying his career high in strikeouts with nine, while also walking four.
When asked about why Tillman has been so effective to begin the year, Johnson said, "He's that guy and I think more than anything his velocity has gone up."
Manny Machado played shortstop last night while Ryan Flaherty manned third base, seemingly answering everyone's questions when it came to how the right side of the infield would look with the loss of J.J. Hardy. There had been some talk about moving Chris Davis to third while having Machado play shortstop, but Johnson said that he is better suited at first.
"Chris is very underrated at 3rd, he's very athletic, and he's very good at first base, maybe one of the best I've seen. The one hoppers and the in-between hops, he just always seems to make that play, and that play is one of the toughest. The ones in-between are the ones you don't know what they are going to do, but he handles them flawlessly," said Johnson.
When asked about the possibility of moving Jonathan Schoop to short, Johnson said there is no possibility of that happening. Johnson says what will probably happen is they will call Paul Janish up as depth, while Ryan Flaherty plays third and Manny Machado will fill in for J.J. Hardy at shortstop until he returns from the hairline fracture in his foot.
Listen to the rest of the podcast to hear what Dave has to say about how he thinks the rest of the Orioles – Yankees series will shape up, and also Buck Showalter's gamesmanship and what tactics he might be using to get his club the edge.
