Ryan Flaherty's OPS is now .385

[scOtt]

We have JJ at SS so a Belanger at 2nd will play just fine.

And just to check myself... Flash is no Belanger of course! But he's real good in the field!

In the meantime, it's Flaherty against right-handers and Alexi Casilla against left-handers. And if we're going to dissect Flaherty's shortcomings at the plate, we also should mention how well he's playing in the field.

Flaherty hasn't committed an error in 21 games at second base. What's caught my eye is how he's been turning double plays. He just looks more comfortable, much smoother, this season compared to 2012. And he's made some throws that I didn't think were possible to get the out at first base.

"Definitely more comfortable," said shortstop J.J. Hardy.

One throw in particular stood out to Hardy during an April 23 game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Camden Yards. I remembered it, too. The Orioles turned a 6-4-3 double play after Hardy fielded a slowly hit ground ball from Munenori Kawasaki in the third inning.

"I was impressed," Hardy said. "The way he turned it, I'm like, 'Oh wow.' I didn't know he had that quick release and that arm strength behind it.

"It's something you see him working on all the time, and it's nice to see he's definitely getting better at it."

[UpstateNYfan]

You can make a case for Flaherty staying...good defense, team can afford to have him with the offense others put up, had some hard fouls (????), line drive outs, even hit one all the way to the warning track. It doesn't bother me that he is out there, but there have been countless players with great gloves that never make it. He's had a good tryout with poor hitting. He seems really lost and guessing. Team chemistry, really?? You know other players have to be shaking their heads at the situation. Doesn't hurt the team?? You can't say that. Maybe save the bp a bit with another run or two every so often. Apparently BS thinks he can be an everyday player. Maybe so, but send him down for a bit a get a bit of confidence back. They know that BRob is not coming back for a while, so Flaherty is not just a short term replacement, he is the second baseman and is really not showing enough to be in there everyday.

[murph]

We can DH for anyone, right? Let the pitcher's hit, DH for Flaherty. Yes, I am kidding.

I do hope he turns it around soon, it is tough to watch his AB's.

[Ornithological]

Flaherty is drawing walks in 8.0% of his plate appearances, which isn't bad. The problem is, he has a crazy low .143 BABIP. He's had really bad luck so far.

Keep in mind, a big part of the Orioles success is turning tons of double plays. 100 so far (3rd best in the majors). The Red Sox are #8 with 81 double plays, the Yankees are #17 with 73 double plays, Blue Jays are #19 with 72 dp's, and Rays are #29 with just 58 double plays.

I expect Flaherty's OPS to go much higher with normal luck on his BABIP, and he is playing really good defense.

[TiredofLosing20]

Whats interesting is that Flaherty appears to be recognizing pitches better. He is swinging at fewer pitches outside the zone and more pitches in the zone while still swinging roughly the same amount overall. The issue is his contact rate has dropped off. It appears he is seeing more offspeed stuff this year. His BABIP is a putrid .143 so when he is making contact he isn't getting very lucky and/or he isn't hitting it very hard. He is having a hard time squaring up pitches right now. Hopefully he can make some adjustments.

[callahan09]

I've seen Flaherty hit a lot of balls well lately that go just short of the stands, or just foul, or a hard hit like that an infielder makes a great play on or just happened to be in the perfect position to grab. I see a guy who is almost getting hits but that last little bit of luck isn't going his way to put those balls where they need to be. I have patience with him. He can start hitting any time. Reimold is ticking me off though. He looks so stiff at the plate and he just isn't providing anywhere close to what you need out of a DH. Flaherty's D makes him more valuable.

[Ruzious]

Flaherty is drawing walks in 8.0% of his plate appearances, which isn't bad. The problem is, he has a crazy low .143 BABIP. He's had really bad luck so far.

Keep in mind, a big part of the Orioles success is turning tons of double plays. 100 so far (3rd best in the majors). The Red Sox are #8 with 81 double plays, the Yankees are #17 with 73 double plays, Blue Jays are #19 with 72 dp's, and Rays are #29 with just 58 double plays.

I expect Flaherty's OPS to go much higher with normal luck on his BABIP, and he is playing really good defense.

I don't buy the bad luck argument. His last hit was a lucky bloop hit. His 1 pitch popups and 3 pitch strikeouts hurt the team. The O's have been winning despite the fact that he's been terrible. It's time for a change.

[Ruzious]

And Navarro is up to a .405 OBP and .866 OPS. And it's not like Flaherty has a better resume. He doesn't. They shouldn't let roster management technicalities interfere with playing the better player.

[Tony-OH]

Flaherty is drawing walks in 8.0% of his plate appearances, which isn't bad. The problem is, he has a crazy low .143 BABIP. He's had really bad luck so far.

Keep in mind, a big part of the Orioles success is turning tons of double plays. 100 so far (3rd best in the majors). The Red Sox are #8 with 81 double plays, the Yankees are #17 with 73 double plays, Blue Jays are #19 with 72 dp's, and Rays are #29 with just 58 double plays.

I expect Flaherty's OPS to go much higher with normal luck on his BABIP, and he is playing really good defense.

Although I'll be the first to admit I think BABIP is a fairly worthless stat in most cases, he's putting up a .143 BABIP because he's weakly grounding out a bunch of times. This isn't some lack of luck, this is him not hitting ball very well very often.

[Tx Oriole]

Wow, that is unbelievably bad. His defense has been very good, but .385 OPS is about 200 points below what you can carry over the long term.

I'm drawing the line at May 31.

For what Frobby? You think they make a change?

[Tony-OH]

It's pretty obvious at this point that as long as the Orioles are winning, he's going to take the defense over the offense at second base. Flaherty is -0.8 in oWAR and .04 in dWAR. For me, I'm ready to give Navarro a chance but Buck knows his clubhouse and team pretty well and if he's more comfortable with Flaherty flailing away, I guess I can't complain too much.

[Frobby]

I don't buy the bad luck argument. His last hit was a lucky bloop hit. His 1 pitch popups and 3 pitch strikeouts hurt the team. The O's have been winning despite the fact that he's been terrible. It's time for a change.

Flaherty has a terrible 10.5 LD%, a terrible 13.0 IFFB% and a very poor 25% K rate. Anyone who thinks he's hitting the ball hard but has been really, really unlucky is kidding themselves.

[EddieO'sSC]

We can DH for anyone, right? Let the pitcher's hit, DH for Flaherty. Yes, I am kidding.

I do hope he turns it around soon, it is tough to watch his AB's.

Too funny, in the game Tuesday night, I told my wife "lets just let the dh hit for Flaherty and let the pitchers hit. At least the pitchers would get some bp for National league games".

I was kidding. I think.

[isestrex]

Flaherty is drawing walks in 8.0% of his plate appearances, which isn't bad. The problem is, he has a crazy low .143 BABIP. He's had really bad luck so far.

Keep in mind, a big part of the Orioles success is turning tons of double plays. 100 so far (3rd best in the majors). The Red Sox are #8 with 81 double plays, the Yankees are #17 with 73 double plays, Blue Jays are #19 with 72 dp's, and Rays are #29 with just 58 double plays.

I expect Flaherty's OPS to go much higher with normal luck on his BABIP, and he is playing really good defense.

Flaherty has a terrible 10.5 LD%, a terrible 13.0 IFFB% and a very poor 25% K rate. Anyone who thinks he's hitting the ball hard but has been really, really unlucky is kidding themselves.

This is why BABIP can help raise your eyebrows but shouldn't draw your conclusions for you. Flaherty has not been unlucky. He has gotten good pitches to hit and has put very poor contact on most of them. That's not poor luck, that's poor skills.

I've been a pretty big supporter of Flaherty in the early goings but even I didn't realize the OPS had sunk this low. I think it's worth letting him try to find his stroke in Norfolk. I still think he has 25-30 HR power one day and I would hate to see him realize that in another organization.

[Gofannon]

I have literally never seem someone with a .114 batting average, mainly because no one ever gets 79 at bats at the start of the season that look like Flaherty's at bats have.

I wonder if Roberts' surgery means they need to stop seeing this as a stop-gap and try to find a real solution to the 2B issue.