L. Hernandez Experiment Coming to an End?

[Frobby]

What has Cintron done to show he's ready to play? He doesn't have the arm or the range anymore to play SS so unless his offense is going to get back to something resembling what he did in 2003 there's absolutely no point in bringing him up. Just because we haven't tried him yet doesn't mean he's the answer. Bynum is a better solution. And I hate Bynum.

Cintron hit a HR tonight. Just mentioning it, not going anywhere with it. I've never seen the guy play and never even heard of him until this winter.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Cintron hit a HR tonight. Just mentioning it, not going anywhere with it. I've never seen the guy play and never even heard of him until this winter.

Was it cold and damp under that rock?

[RShack]

I want this noted, for those of you not staying up late to watch this game. 1st and 2nd, nobody out, DCab makes a great sequence of pitches to get ahead and then induces a lazy pop-up, almost worthy of the infield fly rule, into shallow LCF. It's clearly Luis Hernandez's ball, but he doesn't hustle out and Scott can quite get there so it goes as a "hit," leading to a run on a fielders' choice later in the inning that never shoud have scored.

If this had happened on Tejada's watch, we'd have a 15-page thread about how he doesn't hustle or has no range, how much he's costing us on defense, how it doesn't always show up in the stats, blah blah blah blah blah.

Sorry, but LH just lost the last shred of an argument that he had. Grounded in to a rally-killing DP with 2 on and one out in the bottom half of the inning, too.

Send him down and bring up Cintron. Now.

First time ever that I'm calling Frobby on a bush league post.

LH was going after it, way out in the OF, looking up at the ball...and then he very all-the-sudden put his head down and got out of the way... both the SEA TV guys and Angel reported that Luke was hollering "I got it, I got it". In that situation, the IF'ers job is to do what the OF'er says. If an OF'er calls for a ball when an IF'er is going back on it, the IF'ers job is to get the hell out of the way. Dissing LH about this is just wrong. He did exactly what he's supposed to do in that situation.

And if it was Miggi on that play, we never would have talked about it because he wouldn't have been within 20 feet of where LH was.

[RShack]

Yeah, Scott was calling out "I got it". The ball should have been caught by someone. It almost hit LH in the back.

BTW, if LH holds onto the ball in the first, Ichiro is caught stealing.

This is crazy. What's wrong with you guys? Ichiro's foot got to LH's glove right when the ball did. If it happened to BRob, people would be yelling about Ichiro cheating, or Ramon throwing the ball to the wrong place, or something.

This is nuts.

[Anonymous]

Eider Torres has played a little SS, anyone think maybe he is the right man for the job. He is off to a good start. Maybe it is just the beers talking.

Offensively, he's off to a more-than-good start. I'm intrigued by the IDEA of Torres as a SS candidate.

However, can someone please provide a scouting report on his defense at that position?

While Torres has played some SS both this year and in the past, he certainly gets the bulk of his time at 2B. I'm assuming that if he had the physical attributes needed for SS, he would get a more serious look there. Here's hoping I'm wrong on that assumption -- and that it's just a matter of Norfolk working its way through a few other options before they turn to Torres. (But somehow, I don't think so.)

[Frobby]

Did he hit it in the 14th inning?

milb.com has the boxscore updated through the middle of the 14th, and Cintron is 1 for 5 with no runs scored and an RBI - and no home runs.

I must have been hallucinating when I looked at the boxscore 3 innings ago.

[ejf1025]

Really? 15 pages on Luis Hernandez.

The guy is a bum...he is all glove, and not doing that well at it.

Cintron's not much better.

Frankly, I can't imagine McPhail would allow either option to be around past July 31...and if they are I will be disappointed.

[blueberryale77]

BBA - have you seen Cintron play?*

*I don't really have a position one way or the other.

Have I seen him play? Yes. However I will admit that I have only actually taken notice of him in a game maybe 3-4 times ever. My mental image of him is of a play where he had some trouble getting to a ball to his right that I thought would have been fairly routine for most shortstops, double clutched a couple of times before throwing, and made a weak throw that didn't get the runner. Not an error but clearly a poor play. My brief impression of him has, however, been reinforced by quite a few White Sox fans' accounts of his performance last year, and by scouting reports/articles about him. His fielding statistics from last year are quite unimpressive as well. All I'm saying is that there shouldn't be a rush to call him up without the O's having a chance to evaluate him in our minor league system, particularly in regards to his arm strength which by all accounts was significantly impacted by his pre-2007 elbow surgery.

[vatech1994]

My take on last night's pop up.

The ball was in the range where a SS would have normally caught it, especially against a power hitter in a big park because C and LF were quite deep. LH got a poor read on it off the bat (so did AJ). He then looked pretty bad running back for it, almost ungainly. As he got about 8 steps out he seemed to lose any thought that he could catch the ball and sort of gave up. At about the same point, Luke Scott came barreling into the picture. He was clearly yelling "I've got it" at that point. However, it appeared to me that he started yelling that because he became aware that LH wasn't going to catch the ball / didn't want the ball.

I would ultimately describe the drop as Scott's issue because he did take charge and then couldn't make it happen. However, LH should have been camped under the ball and had it easily. If LH had been under the ball, I don't believe Scott calls him off.

I don't think this was laziness by LH though. I just think he looks much less than fluid out there this year AND I didn't think he was particularly good at reading pop ups BEFORE this play happened. Tracking a ball like that is a completely different skill than typical SS fielding skills.

BTW, in the first, I don't think he gets Ichiro if he catches it, but saying he dropped the ball because Ichiro hit his glove isn't accurate. I slow mo'ed it. The ball was coming out BEFORE LH touch Ichiro. Tough play either way, but again LH didn't look particularly graceful on the play.

There were also a couple ground balls last night where his footwork looked a bit sketchy, though he did make the plays.

LH doesn't deserve to be lampooned for the plays last night. However, he clearly doesn't resemble the excellent glove we all saw last year at this point. He isn't hitting any better than expected so he has to field pretty much near all world levels to justify keeping him in there. Right now, I'd call him average defensively thus far this year (he has done some things better than avg and some worse, but the composite is avg). That isn't going to cut it.

[Sports Guy]

My take on last night's pop up.

The ball was in the range where a SS would have normally caught it, especially against a power hitter in a big park because C and LF were quite deep. LH got a poor read on it off the bat (so did AJ). He then looked pretty bad running back for it, almost ungainly. As he got about 8 steps out he seemed to lose any thought that he could catch the ball and sort of gave up. At about the same point, Luke Scott came barreling into the picture. He was clearly yelling "I've got it" at that point. However, it appeared to me that he started yelling that because he became aware that LH wasn't going to catch the ball / didn't want the ball.
I would ultimately describe the drop as Scott's issue because he did take charge and then couldn't make it happen. However, LH should have been camped under the ball and had it easily. If LH had been under the ball, I don't believe Scott calls him off.

I don't think this was laziness by LH though. I just think he looks much less than fluid out there this year AND I didn't think he was particularly good at reading pop ups BEFORE this play happened. Tracking a ball like that is a completely different skill than typical SS fielding skills.

BTW, in the first, I don't think he gets Ichiro if he catches it, but saying he dropped the ball because Ichiro hit his glove isn't accurate. I slow mo'ed it. The ball was coming out BEFORE LH touch Ichiro. Tough play either way, but again LH didn't look particularly graceful on the play.

There were also a couple ground balls last night where his footwork looked a bit sketchy, though he did make the plays.

LH doesn't deserve to be lampooned for the plays last night. However, he clearly doesn't resemble the excellent glove we all saw last year at this point. He isn't hitting any better than expected so he has to field pretty much near all world levels to justify keeping him in there. Right now, I'd call him average defensively thus far this year (he has done some things better than avg and some worse, but the composite is avg). That isn't going to cut it.

Exactly right....That was clearly LH's ball.

[Dr. FLK]

Exactly right....That was clearly LH's ball.

The ball was barely into the OF grass. It was obviously LH's ball. I think he got confused. He should have been the one to take charge in that situation, and he didn't. He currently is overmatched in every aspect of major league baseball. He can't hit, he can't field, and he hasn't looked good on the basepaths. Other than that, he's swell.

I don't know if Cintron is a better option. I don't know if Fahey is a better option. But, at this point, I'd rather see anyone than LH. He didn't deserve the gift chance he got, and he hasn't done anything to keep it. Let's see what someone else can do. They can't be worse.

Maybe Bynum could be the best option in the bunch. That's more of an indictment of "the bunch" than it is an endorsement of Bynum.

[Sports Guy]

The ball was barely into the OF grass. It was obviously LH's ball. I think he got confused. He should have been the one to take charge in that situation, and he didn't. He currently is overmatched in every aspect of major league baseball. He can't hit, he can't field, and he hasn't looked good on the basepaths. Other than that, he's swell.

I don't know if Cintron is a better option. I don't know if Fahey is a better option. But, at this point, I'd rather see anyone than LH. He didn't deserve the gift chance he got, and he hasn't done anything to keep it. Let's see what someone else can do. They can't be worse.

Maybe Bynum could be the best option in the bunch. That's more of an indictment of "the bunch" than it is an endorsement of Bynum.

Yep...This hasn't been talked about much but he seems to be a poor base runner as well.

[LookitsPuck]

Updated Luis Hernandez stats through 21 games:

.205 AVG
.298 OBP
.231 SLG
.529 OPS

4 strike souts
6 walks

I think the SLG might come up a bit more, and I really, really do believe the OBP is going to drop. But about ~.530 OPS is what we should expect from Luis. Obviously his trike outs are going to go up, and his walks are going to be less than his strike outs, because he never really had all that good of an eye.

[Dr. FLK]

Updated Luis Hernandez stats through 21 games:

.205 AVG
.298 OBP
.231 SLG
.529 OPS

4 strike souts
6 walks

I think the SLG might come up a bit more, and I really, really do believe the OBP is going to drop. But about ~.530 OPS is what we should expect from Luis. Obviously his trike outs are going to go up, and his walks are going to be less than his strike outs, because he never really had all that good of an eye.

Add in his mediocre defense so far, poor base running, and his poor off-season conditioning and you have a guy who might belong in AA...and he'd struggle at the plate there too.

[now]

Really? 15 pages on Luis Hernandez.

The guy is a bum...he is all glove, and not doing that well at it.

Cintron's not much better.

Frankly, I can't imagine McPhail would allow either option to be around past July 31...and if they are I will be disappointed.

Of course. Didn't you know? There is a well-established inverse relationship between a player's WARP5 and his NOPOOH (Number of Posts on Orioles Hangout). (See Cust, House, Knott, Stephens, et al.)