Mark Reynolds is a Tease Someone Else Can Deal With

[Nigel Tufnel]

He should have been traded in the offseason.

You have to figure they tried.

[DrungoHazewood]

I think Earl would have figured out a way to use Reynolds effectively. That was Earl's thing. From the mid-70s on he took players nobody else wanted and made them productive members of very good teams. The world looked at John Lowenstein and saw a 31-year-old utility infielder who looked like a muppet. Earl turned him into 2/3rds of an MVP left fielder. Tell Earl he can have a guy who walks 60 times and hits 40 homers and he'd have said "stop right there, I can use him." Ok, he actually would have said "F'ing stop right there, I can f'ing use him (takes a drag off a Camel)."

[OFFNY]

Unlike you, I pay $1,400 for season tickets.

[brianod]

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.

Ya, but it's not up to you to determine what is appropriate and what isn't. I see nothing wrong with a thread that points out that Reynolds is a terrible, unproductive weakness. It's sort of the point of the board. Just a few posts ago, someone said as long as Reynolds remains productive, I don't care about the strikeouts. Productive? Really?

Anyway, because you kept this civil, I'm going to now send you positive rep. Not that you should care:)

[brianod]

Ya, but it's not up to you to determine what is appropriate and what isn't. I see nothing wrong with a thread that points out that Reynolds is a terrible, unproductive weakness. It's sort of the point of the board. Just a few posts ago, someone said as long as Reynolds remains productive, I don't care about the strikeouts. Productive? Really?

Anyway, because you kept this civil, I'm going to now send you positive rep. Not that you should care:)

oops, can't do it. I'll have to owe you one...

[Frobby]

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

Wrong again. Reynolds swung at pitches outside the zone 27.8% of the time in 2011, not at the very bottom, but much better than Guerrero, Jones, Wieters, Hardy and a bunch of part-time players (Davis, Fox, Pie, Bell, Hudson).

Reynolds' problem is, and always has been, that he swings and misses at a lot of pitches that are in the strike zone. Last year he swung and missed on those pitches 26.8% of the time, worst on the team; this year he has swung and missed at those pitches 24.5% of the time, worst on the team. He's actually been better at making contact on those pitches with the Orioles than he was with the Diamondbacks, but he's still the worst we have at that aspect of hitting.

So, I think the point is, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Reynolds' ability to lay off bad pitches. His problem is that he misses a lot of good pitches. But that isn't a new problem.

Personally, I just accept the strikeouts, so long as I get the benefits on the flip side -- a decent to good OBP and some good power. Right at this moment, we aren't getting enough OBP and power to make that trade worthwhile. Like almost everyone else on this team, Reynolds is slumping. Hopefully he snaps out of it soon and the tradeoff will look better.

[CA-ORIOLE]

Just a few posts ago, someone said as long as Reynolds remains productive, I don't care about the strikeouts. Productive? Really?

Really. Overall, an out is an out. The strikeouts don't matter that much on the aggregate. The batted ball DP's essentially wash the K's. If you don't understand that, then you just haven't been paying attention to the analysis that/studies that have been presented over and over again. Production is production and Reynold's has been productive in the past with very high K rates.

http://www.tangotiger.net/strikeout.html

[CA-ORIOLE]

Wrong again. Reynolds swung at pitches outside the zone 27.8% of the time in 2011, not at the very bottom, but much better than Guerrero, Jones, Wieters, Hardy and a bunch of part-time players (Davis, Fox, Pie, Bell, Hudson).

Reynolds' problem is, and always has been, that he swings and misses at a lot of pitches that are in the strike zone. Last year he swung and missed on those pitches 26.8% of the time, worst on the team; this year he has swung and missed at those pitches 24.5% of the time, worst on the team. He's actually been better at making contact on those pitches with the Orioles than he was with the Diamondbacks, but he's still the worst we have at that aspect of hitting.

So, I think the point is, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Reynolds' ability to lay off bad pitches. His problem is that he misses a lot of good pitches. But that isn't a new problem.

Personally, I just accept the strikeouts, so long as I get the benefits on the flip side -- a decent to good OBP and some good power. Right at this moment, we aren't getting enough OBP and power to make that trade worthwhile. Like almost everyone else on this team, Reynolds is slumping. Hopefully he snaps out of it soon and the tradeoff will look better.

Reynolds is getting 31% fastballs this year. In his first three years he got between 51-56% fastballs. In his last three years he's gone from 38% to 31% fastballs. He did ok last year, but he's having issues with breaking balls and it appears to have had an affect on his babip (the last 2 years)and his HR's this year. With Reynolds, these adjustments are more concerning because he's really on the fringe with those high K rates.

[Can_of_corn]

Ya, but it's not up to you to determine what is appropriate and what isn't. I see nothing wrong with a thread that points out that Reynolds is a terrible, unproductive weakness. It's sort of the point of the board. Just a few posts ago, someone said as long as Reynolds remains productive, I don't care about the strikeouts. Productive? Really?

Anyway, because you kept this civil, I'm going to now send you positive rep. Not that you should care:)

Then why give users the power to neg rep?

You have been rather civil as well, which is appreciated.

oops, can't do it. I'll have to owe you one...

Don't worry about it...I'm good.

[DrungoHazewood]

Just a few posts ago, someone said as long as Reynolds remains productive, I don't care about the strikeouts. Productive? Really?

Earlier in this thread I posted a list of regular first baseman who've been equal or worse than Reynolds and it included players like Adrian Gonzalez and Eric Hosmer, Ike Davis and Justin Morneau, Alonso and Freeman, etc. He's been right around the median for production among first basemen. Sure, he's not OPS'ing 1.000. But the idea that he's on the shortlist for release or salary dump trade seems misguided, at best.

[DrungoHazewood]

Last point for me. I have no problems with Mark Reynolds as a person. He seems like a lovely person. I just think he's incredibly limited as a baseball player and his inability to play defense

coupled with his lack of desire or inability to DH makes everything on the team revolve around him. Davis cant play 1b, Betemit out of position at 3b and it all snowballs from there. For the want of the HR ball which is NOT happening, this team goes into contorsions to get this guy in the lineup. Mark Reynolds will not be a member of this team in 2013, so why are they investing in him now?

Id rather have Davis at his natural position(1b) move Andino to 3b and put someone else in LF. If Reynolds doesnt DH, sit him.

So your solution to the Reynolds "problem" is to basically replace him with Robert Andino playing third base? Most of Andino's career value is tied up in his ability to play second, he's started 29 professional games at third, and he's currently OPSing .617 with a .299 OBP. It's hard to see the advantages there, except the warm feelings we'd get from watching Andino strike out in 25% of his PAs as opposed to Reynolds' 31%.

[CA-ORIOLE]

Earlier in this thread I posted a list of regular first baseman who've been equal or worse than Reynolds and it included players like Adrian Gonzalez and Eric Hosmer, Ike Davis and Justin Morneau, Alonso and Freeman, etc. He's been right around the median for production among first basemen. Sure, he's not OPS'ing 1.000. But the idea that he's on the shortlist for release or salary dump trade seems misguided, at best.

Yeah well, I get the impression Brian is a bit selective as to what he acknowledges.

[El Gordo]

Bottom line, the team is playing badly and in danger of a big slide. Reynold's stuck out 3 times last night when we were desperate for some runs. There fore he is a totally worthless player and should be dealt for a bag of balls ASP. Never mind that the numbers disagree. His OBP is among the best on the team, as is his hitting with RISP, his P/PA is the highest and he ranks among the middle of the pack offensively for 1B. As for his D, he has now played over 100 IN more at 1B and most likely never see 3B again on this team. Why do we keep ignoring his decent play at 1B, and keep bashing for poor defense at a position he doesn't play any more?

[DrungoHazewood]

Bottom line, the team is playing badly and in danger of a big slide. Reynold's stuck out 3 times last night when we were desperate for some runs. There fore he is a totally worthless player and should be dealt for a bag of balls ASP. Never mind that the numbers disagree. His OBP is among the best on the team, as is his hitting with RISP, his P/PA is the highest and he ranks among the middle of the pack offensively for 1B. As for his D, he has now played over 100 IN more at 1B and most likely never see 3B again on this team. Why do we keep ignoring his decent play at 1B, and keep bashing for poor defense at a position he doesn't play any more?

As we both know Reynolds is just a proxy for the summation of:

- JJ Hardy OPSing .541 in June

- Chris Davis having one hit in his last 37 PAs

- Jason Hammel and Wei-Yin Chen having a rough patch of starts

- Robert Andino OPSing .477 in his last 31 games

- Nick Markakis getting hurt and not being Stan Musial

- Adam Jones having a .638 OPS over the last two weeks

- Endy Chavez and Xavier Avery's Stan Jefferson impersonations

- Wilson Betemit getting 9 hits in 55 PAs against lefties

- Ryan Flaherty hitting like an overmatched Rule 5er on a team in need of a bat or 5

Everybody is in a slump all at once, and Reynolds' idiosyncracies are a nice, easy thing to lash out at.

[CA-ORIOLE]

Bottom line, the team is playing badly and in danger of a big slide. Reynold's stuck out 3 times last night when we were desperate for some runs. There fore he is a totally worthless player and should be dealt for a bag of balls ASP. Never mind that the numbers disagree. His OBP is among the best on the team, as is his hitting with RISP, his P/PA is the highest and he ranks among the middle of the pack offensively for 1B. As for his D, he has now played over 100 IN more at 1B and most likely never see 3B again on this team. Why do we keep ignoring his decent play at 1B, and keep bashing for poor defense at a position he doesn't play any more?

He hasn't done anything lately, he strikes out a lot, he has a low batting average, and he looks goofy.