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

[Bradysburns]

Yes, but in my point of view, when he strikes out, at all, that's worse, as failing to put in to play at all puts the onus completely on him. And a guy who strikes out at league high/record heights is doing that waaaay more than he should be. Strikeouts are boring, besides that, they're fascist.

Basically, I want to see the ball put in play, make the defense work for the out. Handing them the out just bugs me. And while I know it's inevitable, and I accept that for the most part, high K guys bug me more as a result.

It's funny, I basically was just spitballing WHY someone would hate on Reynolds, not actually hating on him myself, but it brought out my pet peeve about K's.

Mark Reynolds is not a fundamentally sound baseball player. That's why we got him for a sack of sunflower seeds. I cannot believe that the same fan base that hated on Vlad Guerrero so viciously all year last year are perfectly fine paying Reynolds $7.5 million dollars to suck this badly. For the third year in a row, he's hitting well below his career averages for OPS and BA. His defense is every bit as erratic as it was last year - if not more so.

Yeah. He's great. Bring on more players like this! Question: Would anyone be happy with a team full of players with similar skill sets? Minus defenders, 200 strikeouts per season, and 35 HRs? If so, that would put us on very, very different sides of the question: What makes a good baseball team?

[Dagger420]

A strikeout is the same as any other out.

DH him if you don't like this defense.

I'm not a Reynolds hater, but that's just flat out wrong.

A strikeout is superior to a ground ball out with a runner on first, and its inferior to a fly-ball out with a runner on third and less than 2 outs. There's also at least a chance for an error if the ball is put in play.

For people who look at just numbers, I guess a strikeout is the same as anything else, but in game situations all is not equal.

Reynolds defense does make me cringe sometimes, but I liked what I saw of him at first. But besides a crazy inning in Chicago, Davis has looked too good to move.

And lets face it, his value is much too low to trade right now...

I think he's a decent answer at DH for us though. I can't stand watching Nick Johnson flail a wet noodle up there any longer... We saw last year that Reynolds is usually either Extremely cold or Extremely hot and there's not much in between... He'll hit one of those spells soon enough...

[Dagger420]

Mark Reynolds is not a fundamentally sound baseball player. That's why we got him for a sack of sunflower seeds. I cannot believe that the same fan base that hated on Vlad Guerrero so viciously all year last year are perfectly fine paying Reynolds $7.5 million dollars to suck this badly. For the third year in a row, he's hitting well below his career averages for OPS and BA. His defense is every bit as erratic as it was last year - if not more so.

Yeah. He's great. Bring on more players like this! Question: Would anyone be happy with a team full of players with similar skill sets? Minus defenders, 200 strikeouts per season, and 35 HRs? If so, that would put us on very, very different sides of the question: What makes a good baseball team?

I honestly think there's something going on up in his head. You hear from various sources that he puts in a ton of work, he seems like he takes it seriously, but he always looks so depressed and/or listless...

I think he should hit up Adam LaRoche for some of those ADHD drugs...

[PaulFolk]

Mark Reynolds is not a fundamentally sound baseball player. That's why we got him for a sack of sunflower seeds. I cannot believe that the same fan base that hated on Vlad Guerrero so viciously all year last year are perfectly fine paying Reynolds $7.5 million dollars to suck this badly. For the third year in a row, he's hitting well below his career averages for OPS and BA. His defense is every bit as erratic as it was last year - if not more so.

What does Reynolds have to do with Guerrero? Reynolds was far and away a better hitter than Vlad last year. He had an .806 OPS (highest on the team) compared to Vlad's .733. He had 37 homers to Vlad's 13. How is Vlad relevant to this discussion?

[section18]

Everyone on the team will breathe a sigh of relief when Gregg is off the roster. The fans and media will probably all go out and celebrate. There were times last year when I was at games when I felt sorry for him when fans at OP would boo him. This year is different. I actually think he is trying to look bad so he can get released and go sign with another team. $5.2 million salary.....wow! Somebody will be desperate and will pick him up.

[Roll Tide]

Mark Reynolds is not a fundamentally sound baseball player. That's why we got him for a sack of sunflower seeds. I cannot believe that the same fan base that hated on Vlad Guerrero so viciously all year last year are perfectly fine paying Reynolds $7.5 million dollars to suck this badly. For the third year in a row, he's hitting well below his career averages for OPS and BA. His defense is every bit as erratic as it was last year - if not more so.

Yeah. He's great. Bring on more players like this! Question: Would anyone be happy with a team full of players with similar skill sets? Minus defenders, 200 strikeouts per season, and 35 HRs? If so, that would put us on very, very different sides of the question: What makes a good baseball team?

1st the Orioles are already paying him 7.5 million dollars for this season guaranteed. They really dont have much of a choice at this point. In addition nobody is going to trade for him when he's not hitting. I believe he is just having a early season slump and will rebound and hit 30-40 bombs. I also think he should be a DH on this team or any other as they cant afford him to struggle mightily on defense. In addition Vlad had virtually lost all of his power and its too early to tell if thats the case for Reynolds.

[mcinww0]

Reynolds has started slowly throughout his career- look at his his march/april numbers: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=reynoma01&year=Career&t=b

He's basically guaranteed to hit 35 homers and will get on base at at least a .320 clip, which is about league average. He does commit a ton of errors, but, as buck often points out, reynolds does make a fair number of pretty exceptional plays. If you take his errors and subtract his highlight plays, the defense isnt quite as ugly.

[crissfan172]

Reynolds has started slowly throughout his career- look at his his march/april numbers: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=reynoma01&year=Career&t=b

He's basically guaranteed to hit 35 homers and will get on base at at least a .320 clip, which is about league average. He does commit a ton of errors, but, as buck often points out, reynolds does make a fair number of pretty exceptional plays. If you take his errors and subtract his highlight plays, the defense isnt quite as ugly.

Seriously...it's like people don't remember his .566 OPS in April last year. I mean...it wasn't that long ago, and I would think they would remember complaining about it last year.

[lormat]

Last year Reynolds had a .367 average of strikeouts, that is a good average. NOT! Dump him and Gregg for a bag of balls the balls can even be lopsided.

[Kevin Lomax]

I'm not a Reynolds hater, but that's just flat out wrong.

A strikeout is superior to a ground ball out with a runner on first, and its inferior to a fly-ball out with a runner on third and less than 2 outs. There's also at least a chance for an error if the ball is put in play.

For people who look at just numbers, I guess a strikeout is the same as anything else, but in game situations all is not equal.

Reynolds defense does make me cringe sometimes, but I liked what I saw of him at first. But besides a crazy inning in Chicago, Davis has looked too good to move.

And lets face it, his value is much too low to trade right now...

I think he's a decent answer at DH for us though. I can't stand watching Nick Johnson flail a wet noodle up there any longer... We saw last year that Reynolds is usually either Extremely cold or Extremely hot and there's not much in between... He'll hit one of those spells soon enough...

Read the links that have been posted in this thread. The amount of times that a strike out would have been non productive, i.e. man on third, none out, is so small it's insignificant.

So while literally, a strike out is not the same as any other out, it basically is when you look at how rare a situation like that comes up.

I would suggest everyone read the posts by Frobby, The Rick, Srmeowmeow, and I have one in there with links. Read those first, then intelligently, using statistics and not just "watching a game", make an argument about how Reynold's strikeouts are killing this team. I will give you a cookie if you can do this.

Just saying "to those of us who played the game" and the "game isn't played on paper" makes you sound like a scout from Moneyball*. "The kid has an ugly girlfriend, no confidence." Means nothing.

*totally undeserved Oscar nominations for that movie...all of them

[Kevin Lomax]

Reynolds does see to see a ton of pitches

This. We talked about this in the link I posted first but it was a sampling of last years numbers. But it still illustrates the point.

[Kevin Lomax]

1st the Orioles are already paying him 7.5 million dollars for this season guaranteed. They really dont have much of a choice at this point. In addition nobody is going to trade for him when he's not hitting. I believe he is just having a early season slump and will rebound and hit 30-40 bombs. I also think he should be a DH on this team or any other as they cant afford him to struggle mightily on defense. In addition Vlad had virtually lost all of his power and its too early to tell if thats the case for Reynolds.

Aside from agreeing with Paul that Vlad has nothing to do with this, I will add to Johnny that Vlad is a decade older than Mark. Mark has not lost his power. It's a slow start. He does it every year.

[Frobby]

Reynolds has started slowly throughout his career- look at his his march/april numbers: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=reynoma01&year=Career&t=b

He's basically guaranteed to hit 35 homers and will get on base at at least a .320 clip, which is about league average. He does commit a ton of errors, but, as buck often points out, reynolds does make a fair number of pretty exceptional plays. If you take his errors and subtract his highlight plays, the defense isnt quite as ugly.

I think his bat will turn around, but I would not say 35 HR are "basically guaranteed." He's only hit that many in two seasons in his career.

[Can_of_corn]

Mark Reynolds is not a fundamentally sound baseball player. That's why we got him for a sack of sunflower seeds. I cannot believe that the same fan base that hated on Vlad Guerrero so viciously all year last year are perfectly fine paying Reynolds $7.5 million dollars to suck this badly. For the third year in a row, he's hitting well below his career averages for OPS and BA. His defense is every bit as erratic as it was last year - if not more so.

Yeah. He's great. Bring on more players like this! Question: Would anyone be happy with a team full of players with similar skill sets? Minus defenders, 200 strikeouts per season, and 35 HRs? If so, that would put us on very, very different sides of the question: What makes a good baseball team?

I wouldn't characterize David Hernandez as a "sack of sunflower seeds". He was a price controlled RP with a closer ceiling with plenty of team control left.

The O's gave up for more for Reynolds then they did for Hardy.

[Bradysburns]

What does Reynolds have to do with Guerrero? Reynolds was far and away a better hitter than Vlad last year. He had an .806 OPS (highest on the team) compared to Vlad's .733. He had 37 homers to Vlad's 13. How is Vlad relevant to this discussion?

It's a tangent - I'll grant you. Feel free to ignore the Vlad part. It's largely an emotional/fan thing for me, not an arm-chair analysis thing.

I have always been a huge Guerrero fan - since his Expo days. My point was, the guy was a fairly consistent hitter, even though his power numbers sucked. And yet people talk about him the way they talk about Garret Atkins. Yet they seem happy to apologize for atrocious defense and truly extreme strikeout numbers.

From reading this thread, in all seriousness, one could conclude that we should SEEK high-strikeout hitters (presumably with horrid defense), as long as they knock in 35 HRs. Yuck. I just hate that kind of baseball, personally.

And by the way, calling anyone a "hater" of Reynolds is a bit extreme. To say you don't like him as a full-time third baseman is not hating; it's simply expressing an opinion about his skills.

He seems like a very nice guy, and would probably be really fun to have a beer with or whatever. And for the umpteenth time, I do like having him on the team - just not at third.