BRobinsonfan

We'd essentially be trading for a 30-year-old DH with a -2.1 dWAR who strikes out 200 times a year. If we were to trade Hays I would hope we'd get someone who better fit our needs.

The race isn't always to the swift but that's where the smart money goes. Of course past performance isn't always destiny, but it's a pretty good predictor. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy that O'Hearn is performing well... and I hope he defies the odds and continues to perform well. It sometimes happens... Mike Yastrzemski comes to mind. But just as Hicks is returning to earth, the odds are O'Hearn does as well. David Newhan, had one magical stretch of 95 games for Baltimore in 2004 at the age of 30 when he hit .311. Prior to that he hit .162 in parts of 3 seasons in the majors. The year after hitting .311 he returned to earth and hit just .202 and 3 years after that he was out of baseball.

What do you mean, check out Cowser? He's had 32 at bats in 13 Major League game. That's a pretty small sample size on which to evaluate him. Cal Ripken hit .128 in his first 23 games in the majors. Brooks Robinson hit .181 in his first 66 major league at bats. They went on to have pretty successful major league careers.

So you don't think past performance is a good tool to evaluate future performance? I guess we might as well just ignore high school and college performance and just draw names out of a hat in future drafts?

The Orioles once had an infielder who went 5 for 39 in his first 23 games with no extra-base hits and only one walk batting just .128 with a .150 OBP. He also had 2 errors in 36 chances and had a Rtot/yr of -12. His name was Cal Ripken and he went on to have a pretty decent career.

So if you don't evaluate players on their performance (statistics are just a measure of performance), then what do you evaluate them on?

So if we don't use minor league stats to evaluate minor league talent, then why keep them?

I'm upset about you telling me that I shouldn't be upset.

I'm with you! (And King Felix, of course)

Huh?

Outstanding midseason report, as usual. I would quibble a bit with Adley. Has he been what we hoped? No, but I think he's put up a solid season, so I would grade him a B-. Hay's gets an A in my book. He's putting up the kind of numbers we all hoped he would. Cano worries me. Like you, I wasn't expecting much of anything from him, so he's been a terrific surprise. His April and May numbers were near perfection and obviously unsustainable. But he's come back to earth in the last part of May and June. He's been lucky so far he hasn't given up a big inning to blow up his ERA... but 12 hits in 10 innings in June, coupled with 5 walks and only 5 strikeouts has me worried. I'd probably give him a B+ at this point because of the 1.64 WHIP in June.

Why not simply say, "I really disagree with you, and here's why?" Over the years, I've come to regard you as one of the most knowledgeable people on this board. But frequently, your vitriolic responses seem over the top and uncalled for and distract from your usually well-thought-out takes. It probably wouldn't come off the same way if we were having these conversations over a beer, but on a message board, your remarks often seem gratuitous and undermine what are usually excellent observations on your part.

Ironically, Los Angeles is pretty good right now. I found this webpage that allows you to look it up for any location. https://aqicn.org/city/california/los-angeles/long-beach-route-710-near-road

I blame Cito Gaston!

So your saying there's a chance!

To be far he's only been given 33 sporadic at-bats. Not really enough to show what he can do yet or how his power will translate. I think Westburg is more of a power bat, but Ortiz isn't that far behind.

I had forgotten about the injury to Ortiz. But I do think the minor-league numbers are significant. I think the O's front office values the experience gained by Westburg in the additional 450 ABs in AAA. Rightly or wrongly, I think they view Ortiz as requiring a little more time at AAA and have used him in more of a taxi cab role. Hopefully, he gets the chance to play at the MLB level more regularly in the near future.

Ortiz has a .940 OPS in AAA in 257 ABs - a relatively small sample size. Westburg has an .899 OPS in 711 ABs in AAA. Over their entire minor league careers, in 300 more ABs Westburg is .831 OPS vs. .796 for Ortiz. Having said all that, I'd like to see Ortiz get more of an opportunity, but I understand why Westburg seems to be favored more highly at this point.

This x 1000!

Westburg has 303 more AB's in the minors. He leads Ortiz in OBP .371 to 352, SLG 506 to 444, OPS .831 vs. 796. Westburg, at this point is the more complete hitter.

Hyde disagrees. He values him as a late-inning defensive replacement for Santander, as someone who plays all three outfield positions, and as a pinch runner. Between last year and this year, Hyde has utilized him a lot.

Against right-handers. At this point, I think he should be in the lineup against right-handers until he shows he shouldn't be. Platoon Mountcastle, who's hitting .311 against left-handers, and you've got a hell of a first baseman in those two players.

It's almost like it's a long season and a hot week or two at the plate and his numbers are back up.

Can't argue with you when you're right. If I'm remembering correctly when Mullins made it back to the majors after his disastrous 2019 season, he dropped a fair amount of bunts that helped boost his batting average as well as his confidence.

He smokes Merit Ultra Lights - the Gatorade of cigarettes for athletes!