Mr. Duquette: You Gotta Fight For Your Right to Hardy

There are only two things you need to know about Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy. First, all of his home runs look exactly the same. For real. Identical. Google it. Youtube that shit. It's bizarre. It's like when salmon return after years to the same stream to spawn. How do the baseballs Hardy crushes know to always land in the same place? We may never know.

Second, Hardy's recent lower back issues have only served to show why Dan Duquette needs to move on extending him before he reaches free agency at year-end. Want proof? Fine! Here's our lineup against a RHP before J.J. got hurt:

Markakis RF

Lough LF

Jones CF

Davis 1B

Cruz LF

Wieters C

Hardy SS

Flaherty 3B

Schoop/Lombo 2B

And here's yesterday's lineup:

Lough LF

Markakis RF

Jones CF

Davis 1B

Wieters C

Cruz DH

Lombo 2B

Flaherty SS

Schoop 3B

Remember how the Orioles couldn't sustain any rallies yesterday despite appearing to be on the brink of breaking out several times? Well, batters 7 through 1 went 1-for-13 with a walk and four strikeouts. 

With or without Manny Machado, this team needs Hardy to lengthen the lineup. Get him locked up for the next several years at shortstop. He wants to be here and he's good for gold glove defense and 15-20 cookie-cutter bombs every year.