Mark Reynolds is a Tease Someone Else Can Deal With

[Il BuonO]

Reynolds had a wRC+ of 116 last year. The second best offensive performance of his career. In fact, he improved quite dramatically from his 2011 level. So I'd say moving from the NL to the AL East last year had little effect on his offensive performance and does nothing to advance your argument. The issue last year was his horrifically bad defense at third base. Arguing HR's and RBI's does very little graduate you from Sesame Street level analysis. Additionally the batting average, K and clutch stuff has been shown to be nonsense as well.

It looks to me like Reynolds is being exposed to more and more offspeed stuff for three years now. Maybe he's also been affected by the larger strike zone and had to expand his zone. I think everybody gets the fact he's had a pretty horrible 2-3 weeks now.

As far as you hoping I'm right.... I don't like Reynolds. I argued most of the offseason we should have dealt him. I thought we should not have given him another shot at third base. I thought his offensive potential was limited at first/DH. That said, if we had Reynold's production from last year or even his overall average career production right now, I'd be fairly content with it and him at first base/DH.

As to if he'll continue to struggle offensively and have a horrible offensive year this year...I don't know. I agree he looks really bad right now.

Well,yes. He's not at that same level this year. I don't think he'll get there either.

According to Fangraphs for 1B with 200 PA or more Reynolds has a higher wOBA than Gonzalez, Morneau, Hosmer, Kotchman, and Smoak. He is just behind Pujols' .330, with a .326. Apparently you didn't check the stats.

The thing is, even if you counter his lack of production in the power numbers with OBP, that's not what we signed him to be. He is having a bad stretch right now. So, I would say he'll probably get through it, but does he reach the kind of production he did last year? Doubtful. I think he's shown to be somewhat more capable at 1st than 3rd and if he can get hot before the deadline that might make him more marketable to someone else. Say the Dodgers. Loney is really struggling and they can't score any runs.

[zero1]

He is horrible defensively, strikes out a lot, has great power, and is willing to take a walk. He's the exact same player today that the O's traded for.

[Va Beach O's fan]

The continual touting of obp for a poor fielding, poor contact hitter who is batting 6th in this current o's lineup with even worse hitters struggling at 7-9 is starting to get nauseating.

We get it, he's drawing alot of walks. Part of that is because he has a half way decent batting eye and part of it is because guys know he will swing at balls out of the strike zone. You don't set the all time strikeout record in the history of major league baseball by having a great batting eye.

Another factor is that the guys hitting 7-9 and then roberts coming back through the order at one scare absolutely no one. Pitchers are far more reluctant to throw Reynolds hittable pitches if they know they can just pitch him outside and hope he either gets himself out or they can just get the guys behind him.

Reynolds isn't here to get on base, he's here to hit. 1b aren't supposed to draw almost as many walks as they have hits (30-37), they are supposed to slug and drive in runs. If Mark Reynolds wants to be an OB guy, Buck needs to move him up to the two hole because drawing walks in front of the guys we normally have batting 7-9 does no good at all.

You can use all the advanced metrics that you want to try and prove Reynolds is an above average batter or what he is more valuable than us rubes think or that we really don't understand all his hidden value. But at some point, you take a step back, you look at the fact that he can't field his position, THEN you realize his position is 1b/3b and he is SUPPOSED to be hitting and then that .213 batting average this year sticks out like a sore thumb and it pretty much neutralizes any value at all that he is supposedly bringing by drawing a few extra walks this year batting in the 6 hole.

He has 2 hits and 2 walks in the last 10 games, batting 2 for 29. He's also struck out 12 times in those 10 games, quite often with runners in scoring position and in crucial situations in ball games where we needed a hit. His batting average has dropped .25 points in those 10 games.

What is the point of that? The point is, if he ISN'T hitting, he adds absolutely NOTHING to this team as a below average fielder. In fact, he hurts the team. So again, OBP is inflated by 30 walks compared to 37 total hits in 174 at bats. Batting where he is in the lineup and when you account all the external factors that there are to consider, I really fail to see how anyone can come to the conclusion that he is anything but a detriment to this team.

If this team is going to do anything more than just have yet another hot start only to fade south of .500 by the end of the season, one of these things needs to happen. Either we need to move Reynolds down to number 2 in the order so he can start seeing better pitches because batters are more leery of walking guys in front of Jones and Wieters and so we can take advantage of that miraculous OBP everyone keeps referring too, or we need to trade for a real 3b like Chase Headley and relegate Reynolds to pinch hitter/platoon DH status.

He can't keep killing us in the field and failing to hit the ball consistently in the 6 hole. And again, you can point to the OBP all you want but it really does lose much of its meaning when the guys behind him are so bad that they continually fail to make it hurt when pitchers walk him. Move him down to the two hole and see what he can do there or move him out!

[Tx Oriole]

The continual touting of obp for a poor fielding' date=' poor contact hitter who is batting 6th in this current o's lineup with even worse hitters struggling at 7-9 is starting to get nauseating.

We get it, he's drawing alot of walks. Part of that is because he has a half way decent batting eye and part of it is because guys know he will swing at balls out of the strike zone. You don't set the all time strikeout record in the history of major league baseball by having a great batting eye.

Another factor is that the guys hitting 7-9 and then roberts coming back through the order at one scare absolutely no one. Pitchers are far more reluctant to throw Reynolds hittable pitches if they know they can just pitch him outside and hope he either gets himself out or they can just get the guys behind him.

Reynolds isn't here to get on base, he's here to hit. 1b aren't supposed to draw almost as many walks as they have hits (30-37), they are supposed to slug and drive in runs. If Mark Reynolds wants to be an OB guy, Buck needs to move him up to the two hole because drawing walks in front of the guys we normally have batting 7-9 does no good at all.

You can use all the advanced metrics that you want to try and prove Reynolds is an above average batter or what he is more valuable than us rubes think or that we really don't understand all his hidden value. But at some point, you take a step back, you look at the fact that he can't field his position, THEN you realize his position is 1b/3b and he is SUPPOSED to be hitting and then that .213 batting average this year sticks out like a sore thumb and it pretty much neutralizes any value at all that he is supposedly bringing by drawing a few extra walks this year batting in the 6 hole.

He has 2 hits and 2 walks in the last 10 games, batting 2 for 29. He's also struck out 12 times in those 10 games, quite often with runners in scoring position and in crucial situations in ball games where we needed a hit. His batting average has dropped .25 points in those 10 games.

What is the point of that? The point is, if he ISN'T hitting, he adds absolutely NOTHING to this team as a below average fielder. In fact, he hurts the team. So again, OBP is inflated by 30 walks compared to 37 total hits in 174 at bats. Batting where he is in the lineup and when you account all the external factors that there are to consider, I really fail to see how anyone can come to the conclusion that he is anything but a detriment to this team.

If this team is going to do anything more than just have yet another hot start only to fade south of .500 by the end of the season, one of these things needs to happen. Either we need to move Reynolds down to number 2 in the order so he can start seeing better pitches because batters are more leery of walking guys in front of Jones and Wieters and so we can take advantage of that miraculous OBP everyone keeps referring too, or we need to trade for a real 3b like Chase Headley and relegate Reynolds to pinch hitter/platoon DH status.

He can't keep killing us in the field and failing to hit the ball consistently in the 6 hole. And again, you can point to the OBP all you want but it really does lose much of its meaning when the guys behind him are so bad that they continually fail to make it hurt when pitchers walk him. Move him down to the two hole and see what he can do there or move him out![/quote']

The whole team is bad right now. Reynolds is frustratuing but he not only one to blame. As for Headley i wouldlike the O's to get him.

[spmags]

He is horrible defensively, strikes out a lot, has great power, and is willing to take a walk. He's the exact same player today that the O's traded for.

Amen to that. What else did you think we were getting? He came as advertised and has done exactly what his numbers prior to his time with the Os suggested he would do. He's actually been BETTER in terms of strike outs/PA since coming to the Os than he had been most of his career.

Don't blame him for playing to his skill set. At the same time, yes, I would like to see some improvement at both 1b and 3b.

[glenn__davis]

He is horrible defensively, strikes out a lot, has great power, and is willing to take a walk. He's the exact same player today that the O's traded for.

I agree with this generally, though I think they expected that he would at least be competent at 3rd. Or if not competent, then at least not so bad that they'd be forced to move him.

Though I'm not really sure why they moved him for Betemit, who isn't any better.

But other than that, yeah, he is who we thought he was. A player who is flawed in some aspects but provides value in others.

[Going Underground]

So the O's trade Reynolds and what do you get for him? His value is at an all time low. Do you get a Wynn Pelzer type for him? That does not help the team. The O's got him for two relief pitchers and his value is less right now. I think he is a flawed player and after he left Arizona they went from 97 losses to division title but he has little to no trade value to make the O's better.

[DrungoHazewood]

Saying he's done enough to justify him being in the lineup is just dumb imo. Compare his stats to every other starting 1b and get back to me.

Ok. Everyone who's played 25+ games at first base in the majors this year:

                                                                                                                                   Rk              Player OPS+  PA Year Age  Tm Lg  G  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS   BA  OBP  SLG   OPS    Pos1           Joey Votto  193 323 2012  28 CIN NL 75 258 49 90 32  0 14  47 60  12 61   3  0  2   7  4  3 .349 .474 .636 1.109     *32         Paul Konerko  155 283 2012  36 CHW AL 68 250 37 83 15  0 13  39 30   4 40   3  0  0  10  0  0 .332 .410 .548  .958    *3D3    Edwin Encarnacion  147 314 2012  29 TOR AL 73 277 47 79 14  0 22  54 29   3 53   5  0  3   4  6  2 .285 .360 .574  .934 *D3/754         Bryan LaHair  139 232 2012  29 CHC NL 65 204 29 57 12  0 13  28 27   3 73   0  0  1   6  1  1 .279 .362 .529  .891  *3/975       Prince Fielder  135 329 2012  28 DET AL 76 287 41 86 18  1 12  50 32   8 42   5  0  5  11  1  0 .300 .374 .495  .869   *3/D6       Matt Carpenter  135 138 2012  26 STL NL 44 122 19 36 10  4  3  21 11   1 26   2  0  3   4  0  0 .295 .355 .516  .871 *3/9577     Paul Goldschmidt  132 246 2012  24 ARI NL 64 217 32 62 19  1 10  32 25   1 60   2  0  2   3  6  1 .286 .362 .521  .883     *38         Brandon Belt  129 201 2012  24 SFG NL 64 166 17 43 12  2  4  29 31   3 48   1  0  3   2  4  1 .259 .373 .428  .801     *39         Adam LaRoche  127 286 2012  32 WSN NL 68 247 29 62 16  1 15  48 34   5 70   0  0  5   2  1  1 .251 .336 .506  .842     *310       Albert Pujols  121 328 2012  32 LAA AL 75 293 39 79 20  0 12  46 28   6 35   2  0  5   9  4  0 .270 .332 .461  .793  *3/D511      Mitch Moreland  116 173 2012  26 TEX AL 55 158 25 43  8  0 10  25 12   2 31   1  1  1   7  0  0 .272 .326 .513  .838  *3/D912          Corey Hart  113 310 2012  30 MIL NL 73 280 42 70 21  2 15  36 20   2 87   6  2  2   3  2  0 .250 .312 .500  .812    *9313         Chris Davis  110 254 2012  26 BAL AL 64 236 33 63 11  0 12  31 13   1 69   3  0  2   5  0  3 .267 .311 .466  .777 *3D/9114       Mark Teixeira  108 306 2012  32 NYY AL 72 266 40 66 17  0 13  44 30   0 40   4  0  6   7  1  1 .248 .327 .459  .785   *3/D15          Carlos Lee  106 253 2012  36 HOU NL 60 234 22 68 11  1  5  29 19   2 16   0  0  0   4  0  0 .291 .344 .410  .754   *3/D16       Garrett Jones  104 185 2012  31 PIT NL 61 176 19 44 10  1  9  28  7   1 43   0  0  2   2  2  0 .250 .276 .472  .747   39/D17      Justin Morneau  102 239 2012  31 MIN AL 56 214 24 49 12  1 10  34 21   3 48   2  0  2   7  1  0 .229 .301 .435  .736    *3D18     Freddie Freeman   99 267 2012  22 ATL NL 62 243 39 63 15  1  9  43 17   1 64   2  0  5   5  0  0 .259 .307 .440  .747     *3[b]19       Mark Reynolds   98 209 2012  28 BAL AL 54 174 23 37 12  0  6  22 30   0 65   3  0  2   6  1  1 .213 .335 .385  .720   *35D[/b]20     Adrian Gonzalez   96 330 2012  30 BOS AL 76 298 37 80 24  0  6  43 23   1 61   3  0  6   5  0  0 .268 .321 .409  .731    *3921         Carlos Pena   96 327 2012  34 TBR AL 76 267 43 52 10  0 10  32 52   0 96   7  0  1   5  1  1 .195 .339 .345  .684     *322       Yonder Alonso   96 290 2012  25 SDP NL 73 259 22 68 17  0  2  18 27   3 51   2  1  1   5  2  0 .263 .336 .351  .687     *323         Todd Helton   94 240 2012  38 COL NL 59 207 29 51 13  1  7  34 31   1 32   0  0  2   6  1  0 .246 .342 .420  .762     *324       Casey McGehee   94 199 2012  29 PIT NL 65 175 18 41  8  1  5  21 21   0 38   1  0  2   3  1  1 .234 .317 .377  .694   *3/525        Ty Wigginton   93 243 2012  34 PHI NL 71 216 30 54  8  0  8  33 22   0 55   1  0  4   5  1  0 .250 .317 .398  .715    *35Rk              Player OPS+  PA Year Age  Tm Lg  G  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS   BA  OBP  SLG   OPS    Pos26         Eric Hosmer   80 290 2012  22 KCR AL 70 263 29 58 11  1  9  35 25   1 34   1  0  1   4  7  1 .221 .290 .373  .662   *3/927           Ike Davis   79 264 2012  25 NYM NL 73 238 26 47 11  0 10  41 26   2 71   0  0  0   5  0  1 .197 .277 .370  .646     *328         James Loney   76 239 2012  28 LAD NL 73 217 18 52 13  0  2  21 21   6 26   0  1  0   9  0  3 .240 .307 .327  .634     *329        Justin Smoak   75 295 2012  25 SEA AL 71 270 25 56  3  0 11  32 24   1 62   0  0  1   8  1  0 .207 .271 .341  .612   *3/D30      Casey Kotchman   73 247 2012  29 CLE AL 66 227 24 51  7  0  6  27 14   0 32   4  1  1   9  3  0 .225 .280 .335  .615     *331        Daric Barton   71 126 2012  26 OAK AL 37 106  7 21  6  0  1   4 19   0 30   1  0  0   1  1  0 .198 .325 .283  .608     *332           Adam Lind   57 140 2012  28 TOR AL 37 126  8 24  6  0  3  11 14   1 25   0  0  0   4  0  0 .190 .271 .310  .581   *3/D33      Chris Parmelee   48 108 2012  24 MIN AL 36  97  7 18  5  1  0   3  8   1 26   3  0  0   1  0  0 .186 .269 .258  .526  *3/9734        Gaby Sanchez   41 179 2012  28 MIA NL 51 168  9 33 10  0  2  16 10   1 35   0  0  1   7  1  0 .196 .240 .292  .532     *3

If Reynolds is bench material, then so are Alonso, Freeman, Pena, Gonzalez, Helton, Smoak, Davis, Hosmer, Morneau...

[mi_oriolesfan]

So the O's trade Reynolds and what do you get for him? His value is at an all time low. Do you get a Wynn Pelzer type for him? That does not help the team. The O's got him for two relief pitchers and his value is less right now. I think he is a flawed player and after he left Arizona they went from 97 losses to division title but he has little to no trade value to make the O's better.

I tend to agree. I was listening to the game last night and it was almost unbearable to listen to his at-bats. 3 strikeouts? I could visualize every single one. Weak, cumbersome lumberjack swing at something not even close.

[DrungoHazewood]

I tend to agree. I was listening to the game last night and it was almost unbearable to listen to his at-bats. 3 strikeouts? I could visualize every single one. Weak, cumbersome lumberjack swing at something not even close.

I'm sure it's only been mentioned 22 times in this very thread, but Reynolds is one of the better players on the Orioles at not swinging at out-of-zone pitches.

[Va Beach O's fan]

What were Reynolds numbers last year on swinging outside the zone? There is no way he was near the top of the team.

He has 65 strikeouts and only 37 hits in 170 or so at bats.

So I'm honestly not sure which is worse, that he's struck out 65 times or that he's struck out 65 times without even swinging at many balls outside the zone.

That means he striking out again and again at hittable pitches because of his awful swing. Pretty bad either way.

[mi_oriolesfan]

I'm sure it's only been mentioned 22 times in this very thread, but Reynolds is one of the better players on the Orioles at not swinging at out-of-zone pitches.

What were Reynolds numbers last year on swinging outside the zone? There is no way he was near the top of the team.

He has 65 strikeouts and only 37 hits in 170 or so at bats.

So I'm honestly not sure which is worse' date=' that he's struck out 67 times or that he's struck out 67 times without even swinging at many balls outside the zone.

That means he striking out again and again at hittable pitches because of his awful swing. Pretty bad either way.[/quote']

This is what I mean. I know that he's doing well to draw walks and not swing at balls out of the zone but that swing makes everything look like it's a mile away. You'd think the bat weighed 300 lbs.

[DrungoHazewood]

What were Reynolds numbers last year on swinging outside the zone? There is no way he was near the top of the team.

He has 65 strikeouts and only 37 hits in 170 or so at bats.

So I'm honestly not sure which is worse' date=' that he's struck out 65 times or that he's struck out 65 times without even swinging at many balls outside the zone.

That means he striking out again and again at hittable pitches because of his awful swing. Pretty bad either way.[/quote']

As long as he's productive (and yes, he could be better) I simply don't care. If there was a way to be producive where you hit homers in 15% of your at bats but otherwise popped up to first 85% of the time, I'd be cool with it.

Set aside preconceived notions and accept what works.

[Can_of_corn]

My number one gripe about this site is people who think they have the right to tell others what they should post or where they should post it or when they should post it. This board has come a long way over the last 6 months to get away from that. I believe it is arrogant to take the position that those who let off a little steam are somehow doing something wrong. Unlike you, I pay $1400 for season tickets. If I get mad and frustrated and feel the need to say something like "Reynolds blows", I've earned that right and I don't need you threatening me with "negative rep." The real arrogant part of your statement is that you actually think that people care whether you negative rep them. EEEEEEEWWWWW, I better watch my step or can of corn might negative rep me. Frightening:) By the way, I couldn't type all of this when I gave you negative rep because I was at the game, getting frustrated.

While I will give you kudos for being a season ticket holder it doesn't grant you special complaining rights on message boards. (I also think putting out how much you spend is tacky) You are correct is stating that I, a Florida resident, am not a season ticket holder.

As I stated earlier I consider neg rep constructive criticism and creating an individual thread to rant when other options are available is frowned upon on these boards. You will notice that a mod had to come after the OP and merge the thread into another thread since last night. I fully respect folks right to vent but they should do it in the appropriate areas.

[NewMarketSean]

He should have been traded in the offseason.