Now the work begins for Elias-Hyde management team

For so many years, we were used to the Dan Duquette-Buck Showalter duo leading the Orioles. But now Mike Elias and Brandon Hyde are in place as executive vice president/general manager and manager.

Hyde was introduced Monday at a Camden Yards press conference as the 20th manager in Orioles history. He has pictures of Earl Weaver and Cal Ripken Sr. in his office and he met Brooks Robinson, so he's already off to a good start.

Hyde promised to be "patient and positive." Maybe we should put that on a T-shirt as the Orioles theme for the next several years. Hyde said he wants his players to focus on getting better every day and to play really, really hard. That sounds like a good plan, but as that happens, some losses could pile up. That's where the "patient and positive" will come in handy. Hyde will need to stay upbeat and so will his players, as starting in 2019, they look for individual progress and development while their team is expected to lose a lot.

Elias shortened his managerial candidate list to six and Hyde won out after 16 years in the coaching ranks and four as a player in the minors.

"He's someone who's viewed as an up-and-coming star in our business," Elias said.

Elias and Hyde have a few things in common, but perhaps the most important as it relates to the current Orioles is they both were involved with 100-loss teams that later improved enough to win the World Series. And they did so with different clubs. Hyde joined the Cubs in December 2011 as minor league field coordinator and later was director of player development. The 2012 Cubs lost 101 games and the 2013 Cubs lost 96. He was on the farm at that time, helping to produce players who would win the franchise's first World Series title in 108 years in 2016.

Hyde talked about developing players at the major league level and this is so important. This doesn't mean rushing players, but he means completing the player's development that starts on the farm. Almost no player arrives in the majors as a finished product. They all still have things to learn and until you face major league competition, you can't truly know what it takes to succeed at the highest level.

Now that a manger is hired, getting the coaching staff in place is next for Hyde, while Elias can now more fully focus on staffing his front office. He has several scouts and minor league staff with 2019 contracts, so he is inheriting some staff already and inheriting some very good people.

The job of building the Orioles' analytics operation can now continue to move forward. Elias and Hyde come from organizations that relied heavily on analytics and they are bringing this to Baltimore. The upgrades were needed.

This new era of Orioles baseball took another huge step forward on Monday.