O's would "do anything" to trade Reynolds and Gregg

[GoldGlove21]

If Reynolds were playing average defense thus far while hitting 6 homeruns and adding an OBP of .380 the Orioles would not be trying to trade him. What I hate is that Reynolds is mentioned in the same article as Reynolds. Gregg has little value to most teams if you base it off of performance thus far in the season, but that is not how team base it. If the Orioles were willing to pay 3/4 of Gregg's salary would he still be an Oriole? Reynolds has value to an AL team like the Rays even if that value is through DH'ing only. With that said, you can't expect the Rays to take on $6.5M or whatever he is owed the rest of this season and give up something of value for him.

Gregg, Reynolds and Roberts will combine to earn roughly $21M this season and one of them will provide more value than the rest. Those three guys consitute the monies it would take to sign that ace we covet or the middle of the order 1B that we have always needed. That $21M could have been Prince Fielder money and its not like the Orioles do not have this sort of situation just about every year. That money coming off the books (in addition to Nick's big contract coming to a close moving forward) should at least allow the Orioles some added flexibility when it comes to extending Jones and Wieters IMO.

[Frobby]

I know that he will never glean anything from this, but this is a great post. Thanks for doing this research. Unrtunately the rules won't allow me to rep you until I spread it around, etc, etc.

I got him for you.

[The Wedge]

I understand why you, and many other people, dislike strikeouts. When you swing and miss, you look stupid. You just got straight-up beaten. And you're doing it 200 times a season. Players with good bat control look more skilled. However, it just seems to be the case (in large part thanks to sabermetric research) that as long as you're a good enough hitter in terms of OPS or whatever, it really doesn't matter how you make your outs, however ugly they look.

And to top it off, there's a strong correlation among major league hitters between striking out a lot and hitting for a lot of power. I looked at all hitters from 1950 til now with minimum 5000 PA (so these are players who were viewed as good enough to have long careers) and the only below-average hitters per wRC+ on the first page (30 batters) are Jose Hernandez and Brandon Inge. The list also includes a bunch of mashers. Richie Sexson, Adam Dunn, Sammy Sosa, Mo Vaughn, Troy Glaus, Jose Canseco, Reggie Jackson, etc. Flip it around and sort by lowest strikeout totals and you have about half of the thirty below average and half above. There are five I'd consider very good to elite - Tony Gwynn, Yogi Berra, Ted Kluszewski, Don Mattingly, and Stan Musial. Then you have pretty much who you'd expect. Nellie Fox leads the list, striking out an incredible 2.1% of time - and posting an incredibly mediocre .290/.348/.365 line. Bobby Richardson struck out 4.2% of the time and "hit" .266/.299/.335. Tim Foli put together a .251/.283/.309 line and struck out 6.1% of the time. Richardson and Foli got 5783 and 6573 plate appearances, respectively, in large part because of how professional they must have looked with the bat. It certainly wasn't because their bat was actually producing anything.

There are two players on the second list with isolated power over .200. There are fifteen with an ISO under .100. On the first list, every single player is over .100 ISO, and 26 out of the 30 - 26 out of 30! - have an ISO over .200.

I think it's a relatively easy thing to suss out, too...a more powerful swing tends to have less "control."

[Camden_yardbird]

Here is a stat to find. The average number of pitches seen in SO for Mark Reynolds. I know its an unproductive out, but I feel like even when he does K there is some value in the fact that I would guess he sees at least 4-5 pitches.

[The Rick]

Here is a stat to find. The average number of pitches seen in SO for Mark Reynolds. I know its an unproductive out, but I feel like even when he does K there is some value in the fact that I would guess he sees at least 4-5 pitches.

I'm not aware of an easy way to isolate it to just K's, but his P/PA is 4.17 over his career, compared to the MLB average of 3.80. We've talked about this before, but clearly this is another positive trait of Reynolds.

[fish113d]

At the end of the season, Mark Reynolds will be one of this team's 2 or 3 best offensive players.

A strikeout is no worse than any other out. The number of times an out advances a runner is offset completely by double plays.

Wait a second, so getting out by putting the ball in play, in which a defensive player may make an error, thus getting on base is not considered BETTER than striking out??? Is an "out an out?" Sure, but I'd rather put a guy at the plate with a guy on 1st who I think can hit the ball to the right side and move that runner OR has a higher rate of contact than a guy who I think will probably strike out. The only reason Reynolds gets a ton of walks is because pitchers don't throw the ball across the plate against him. They know he'll swing at garbage OR even when he does swing at balls over the plate he's so busy trying to mash the ball, that he can't possibly make contact and move a runner around by hitting it on the right side. You can't hit and run with him because he hits the ball in the air almost twice the amount he hits it on the ground. His BB/SO ratio is only 35%. He only creates a bit over 1.25 runs per 27 outs, which sucks vs. the average. I'm not a Reynolds hater by any means, and I would love to see him lift his average to about .240-.250, but I fear it won't happen.

[mcinww0]

Reynolds does see to see a ton of pitches

[mcinww0]

I'm not aware of an easy way to isolate it to just K's, but his P/PA is 4.17 over his career, compared to the MLB average of 3.80. We've talked about this before, but clearly this is another positive trait of Reynolds.

Where did you find that stat? I couldn't find it on Baseball reference even under the splits section. I'd love to see the averages of other guys because I think its an underrated and important stat. The Yank-me's have been so good at tiring out our pitchers just by taking and fouling off pitches.

[The Rick]

Where did you find that stat? I couldn't find it on Baseball reference even under the splits section. I'd love to see the averages of other guys because I think its an underrated and important stat. The Yank-me's have been so good at tiring out our pitchers just by taking and fouling off pitches.

You can get it from baseball-reference. When you go to a player's page, near the top, click on "More Stats". Once that page loads, go down to the section that says "Pitch Summary -- Batting". It's the 3rd stat category, Pit/PA.

[OFFNY]

Where did you find that stat? I couldn't find it on Baseball reference even under the splits section. I'd love to see the averages of other guys because I think its an underrated and important stat. The Yank-me's have been so good at tiring out our pitchers just by taking and fouling off pitches.

You can get it from baseball-reference. When you go to a player's page, near the top, click on "More Stats". Once that page loads, go down to the section that says "Pitch Summary -- Batting". It's the 3rd stat category, Pit/PA.

OK, now give him a greenie.

[brianod]

The problem with Reynolds is that the Orioles don't have another 3rd baseman who can field much better them him. So, while we can all debate his offensive value til were blue in the face, I would happily trade him for a competent fielding third baseman who would hit 17 hrs and get 80 rbis. I've heard numerous "move him to DH" statements. That's fine, will we play without a 3b or is Betimet all of a sudden become a competent defensive player? I like Reynolds and I think we should give him a month to see if he can turn his fielding around. But, if he doesn't, they need to find a major league 3b somehow, someway.

[mcinww0]

You can get it from baseball-reference. When you go to a player's page, near the top, click on "More Stats". Once that page loads, go down to the section that says "Pitch Summary -- Batting". It's the 3rd stat category, Pit/PA

Thanks

[Bradysburns]

I can no longer sit idly by and watch this board bash Mark Reynolds.

Tell me sir...why does he stink? Why should the Orioles be so desperate to throw 40ish home runs off the team?

Haha. That's funny. The overriding sentiment on this board - since Reynolds arrived, pretty much - has been in his defense.

[fish113d]

OK, now give him a greenie.

i also found my info by searching for Mark Reynolds sabermetrics....

[OFFNY]

i also found my info by searching for Mark Reynolds sabermetrics ....

OK, you get a greenie, too.