Hyde on his debut, lineup, starters and more (O's up 3-1)

SARASOTA, Fla. - The first game for Brandon Hyde as a major league manager has arrived today. Does a win or loss really matter to him?

"No, not at all, zero," he replied while sitting in the home dugout at Ed Smith Stadium.

Let's remember that it's spring training and other goals rank higher in the pecking order.

"It's 100 percent about what we just did up until 11:30 and how we play," Hyde said. "We're going to evaluate that, we'll talk a little bit about a couple things that maybe we did poorly, we did well. But this is a straight evaluation deal, straight trying to get our mindset right. Identity-type of stuff.

"These games are so, one, scripted, and two, you just never know in spring training. I've been on really, really good teams that had awful spring training records. I've been on really bad teams that had great spring training records. Obviously, you want your team to play well and usually when you play well you win more than you lose, so I think just playing well is the biggest part."

Hyde appreciates the opportunity placed before him and noted the excitement attached to his managerial debut. He isn't dismissing it completely. He's just maintaining his perspective.

"I'm excited. Got a little pregame buzz going. It's pretty cool," Hyde said.

"They're ready more than anything to see another uniform and looking forward to watching our guys compete."

Hyde is searching for his routine, accustomed to being a coach or coordinator in camps.

"I'm still trying to get a feel," he said. "I've been so entrenched in schedules and doing certain things. Running around, hitting the fungo, everything that I was doing the last so many years to now almost like overseeing and letting other people kind of ...

"The main word for me now is 'delegate' because I'm not used to delegating stuff, so now as a manager I'm delegating a lot of things and inserting how I feel about certain things when I feel like it's necessary. So delegating the best I can."

Hyde anticipated that some of his younger players would be nervous today, which isn't a concern to him.

"That's great butterflies," he said. "They're playing in front of people again, playing in front of a new coaching staff, a new front office. I just want guys to really be comfortable and I want guys to not try to impress, but just play aggressively.

"I talked to all these guys individually about playing their game and not worrying about making a mistake. That's the biggest thing for me is understanding if we run into outs, if we make aggressive mistakes, we can coach you from there. If I have to push you through games, that's not what I want to happen. I want guys to feel free and to play and we'll coach from there."

Hyde is resting some veterans despite the setting - the first exhibition game played at home and broadcast on MASN and 105.7 The Fan. Chris Davis, Trey Mancini and Jonathan Villar are expected to crack Sunday's lineup versus the Blue Jays.

"Obviously, there are league mandates where you want to get so many starters in, so you have to really split up your guys," he said. "I just kind of planned it out with, talking with some of our veteran guys, about how I saw the first 10 days to two weeks work out and tried to take into consideration a lot of things. But there's no real science behind it. You've just got to split it up as best as possible."

The first three confirmed starters in exhibition games don't include Dylan Bundy, Alex Cobb or Andrew Cashner. As I wrote earlier today, David Hess starts Sunday and Nate Karns on Monday.

"We're trying to get looks, but at the same time, Bundy, Cashner, Cobb, we're talking to them as professionals and what's best for them at this point," Hyde said. "And it just worked out that we're pulling them back a little bit off the stadium and we're able to see other guys throw.

"Like we talked about before, there's obviously a ton of opportunity and competition here in camp to win jobs and this is a great opportunity for all these young guys to go out and show that they're major league ready and face major league lineups. So it just kind of worked out that way."

Hyde is hopeful that catcher Jesús Sucre can get his work visa in Venezuela and arrive in camp within the next few weeks.

"What I heard this morning is we're making serious, positive signs about Sucre, hopefully in the next couple weeks," Hyde said.

The missed time in camp won't necessarily eliminate Sucre from the catching competition.

"Unfortunately, it's just out of our control," Hyde said. "We'd love to have him here, but it's just out of our control. Trying to get him over here and the paperwork and everything that goes into that. There's nothing we can do but sit and wait and hope he gets here.

"He's got a ton of major league innings under his belt. He's a veteran catcher that obviously has caught in this division and in the American League. I think if we give him two or three weeks, he'll be fine."

Hyde also sounded optimistic about the improved health of pitchers Dean Kremer (oblique) and Gregory Infante (illness), the latter remaining in Venezuela.

"All three are going in the right direction," he said.

"Kremer had a great evaluation yesterday, so he's progressing perfectly, and Infante is feeling better and we're looking forward to getting him over here as soon as we can."

Stevie Wilkerson is playing his first major league game at first base today and only his fifth as a professional.

"I would not even look anything into that," Hyde said. "We're going to move Steve around, we're going to move a bunch of these guys around. Steve's going to be playing second, Steve's going to be playing third, Steve's going to be playing the outfield. There's a lot of guys who are going to be playing different positions, so I wouldn't put any stock in where somebody's playing today or tomorrow.

"It's really about getting everybody on the field at one time, getting guys at-bats, getting guys to feel comfortable in different spots, and we go from there."

Twins left fielder LaMonte Wade Jr. attended St. Paul's School and the University of Maryland. He was drafted in the ninth round in 2015.

According to the Orioles public relations staff, the following players have stated their preferences for how their names will appear in print and on broadcasts:

Nate Karns instead of Nathan
Stevie Wilkerson instead of Steve
Mike Wright instead of Mike Wright Jr.
Christopher Bostick instead of Chris

Update: Chance Sisco hit a three-run homer in the first to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead. Cedric Mullins walked, stole second and took third on catcher Tomás Telis' throwing error and Joey Rickard walked.

Update II: Yefry Ramirez gave up a run in the second on a walk, single and Telis RBI grounder. I have Ramirez at 45 pitches in two innings and Mike Wright is warming.

New Orioles skipper Brandon Hyde stretches before a workout prior to his first exhibition game.