Lough... leadoff... why?

[weams]

Is he the fastest starting position player in a dead sprint?

I think that might be what Buck is basing it on.

He beat Brady I think.

[BradyBunch]

Lough has a .308 OBP. In his lengthy minor league career he walked about once every 17 PAs. I see no reason he should ever bat above 7th.

Explained above.. but hits are better then walks as we've told by others on this forum.

Learning to walk is EASY to fix, ask Chris Davis who doubled his walk total from 2012 to 2013.

[Can_of_corn]

.329 OBP, Nick Markakis last year. .329 OBP for McLouth last year as well. So that's a few extra walks or hits from Lough to surpass last year's leadoff hitters. So that's an improvement.

Lough went to college so he was 21 when he was drafted and 22 before he was playing in the minors. So he was gonna be older then the bunch. That's just a reality we can't change. Being stuck in the PCL because KC didn't want to use his options shouldn't count as a negative against him. He was stuck behind Alex Gordon, Jeff Francoeur (who had the big contract), Scott Podsednik (for 2010), Melky Cabrera (2011) and others. Kinda hard to crack a team's outfield when you have the likes of Francoeur, Podsednik, Cabrera, and Gordon sitting in the outfield over that period as well.

Kinda like how David Dellucci could never crack the O's outfield in 1997 and was not protected in the expansion draft and we lost him in 1998.

I wasn't holding it against him I was just supplying context to his stats. Being older then the competition matters, repeating levels matters.

[Can_of_corn]

Explained above.. but hits are better then walks as we've told by others on this forum.

Learning to walk is EASY to fix, ask Chris Davis who doubled his walk total from 2012 to 2013.

Why don't you ask Jones while you are at it?

[BradyBunch]

I wasn't holding it against him I was just supplying context to his stats. Being older then the competition matters, repeating levels matters.

And I am adding to the context that doesn't support your position. He was kept at AAA that long because look who he was playing behind. No baseball team would call up a player and waste MLB service time if they weren't gonna play everyday and if they did, they should be taken out back and shot because they are just wasting money and years of team control.

[BradyBunch]

Why don't you ask Jones while you are at it?

Jones is one player I don't understand. He say's he's being paid to hit homers and drive in runs, which is fine as I understand that thinking. But he's killing his average and hurting the team in cases when he decides to free swing. He should be a plus .300 hitter, with a .350 OPS. Oh and he'll never get 200 hits (which he says is one of his goals each year) if he keeps being a free swinger.

[Can_of_corn]

And I am adding to the context that doesn't support your position. He was kept at AAA that long because look who he was playing behind. No baseball team would call up a player and waste MLB service time if they weren't gonna play everyday and if they did, they should be taken out back and shot because they are just wasting money and years of team control.

Why he stayed at AAA isn't relevant when one is simply looking at his minor league stats.

[epic]

Explained above.. but hits are better then walks as we've told by others on this forum.

Learning to walk is EASY to fix, ask Chris Davis who doubled his walk total from 2012 to 2013.

Learning to walk and plate discipline in general isn't easy to fix. Chris Davis is an outlier in this case due to how well he was hitting. Pitchers were afraid to throw the ball over the plate and let him get his arms extended. I don't think Lough will ever be a feared hitter like Davis is.

[DrungoHazewood]

.329 OBP, Nick Markakis last year. .329 OBP for McLouth last year as well. So that's a few extra walks or hits from Lough to surpass last year's leadoff hitters. So that's an improvement.

Lough went to college so he was 21 when he was drafted and 22 before he was playing in the minors. So he was gonna be older then the bunch. That's just a reality we can't change. Being stuck in the PCL because KC didn't want to use his options shouldn't count as a negative against him. He was stuck behind Alex Gordon, Jeff Francoeur (who had the big contract), Scott Podsednik (for 2010), Melky Cabrera (2011) and others. Kinda hard to crack a team's outfield when you have the likes of Francoeur, Podsednik, Cabrera, and Gordon sitting in the outfield over that period as well.

Kinda like how David Dellucci could never crack the O's outfield in 1997 and was not protected in the expansion draft and we lost him in 1998.

What does that have to do with his lack of on-base ability?

[DrungoHazewood]

Explained above.. but hits are better then walks as we've told by others on this forum.

Learning to walk is EASY to fix, ask Chris Davis who doubled his walk total from 2012 to 2013.

Ha! That's hilarious. You learned from Trea: walking isn't so much a skill as it is a desire. The difference between Adam Jones and Ted Williams is the right coach.

[Ruzious]

Explained above.. but hits are better then walks as we've told by others on this forum.

Learning to walk is EASY to fix, ask Chris Davis who doubled his walk total from 2012 to 2013.

Davis' walks increased probably in large part because pitchers got a lot more careful pitching to him - as he became a much better hitter than people expected.

[AlbionHero]

I'm more interested in why Rotoworld thinks Lough won't have the everyday job. Barring a Cruz signing, he has more value than anyone else we can put out there, and actually has a higher career OPS against lefties. Throw him out there every day and he likely ends up with a 2.5/3 WAR season.

[DrungoHazewood]

And I am adding to the context that doesn't support your position. He was kept at AAA that long because look who he was playing behind. No baseball team would call up a player and waste MLB service time if they weren't gonna play everyday and if they did, they should be taken out back and shot because they are just wasting money and years of team control.

Wait... what? MLB teams never call up anyone unless they're going to step right into the lineup and be productive? Pretty sure I could find 100 counter-examples in an hour. Maybe a half hour. Middling players constantly get called up to be role players. Almost every single day. The Orioles weren't concerned about Xavier Avery's service time. They needed a player and they called him up. You can't tell me the 70-win Royals went all of Lough's many years in AAA never needing an outfielder.

David Lough never even got a September cup of coffee until he was 26. He didn't get called up mainly because he was a middle of the pack PCL hitter. Even in 2012 when he OPS'd .850 he was something like the 6th-best Omaha Storm batter. In 2012 he was .060 OPS points worse than an average Omaha hitter.

[DrungoHazewood]

I'm more interested in why Rotoworld thinks Lough won't have the everyday job. Barring a Cruz signing, he has more value than anyone else we can put out there, and actually has a higher career OPS against lefties. Throw him out there every day and he likely ends up with a 2.5/3 WAR season.

He's only an above average player if he both continues to have a very high BABIP and extremely good defensive metrics. If he hits like he did in 2012 (or in July-August of last year) he's a 0-1 win player.

[JayThomas]

Ha! That's hilarious. You learned from Trea: walking isn't so much a skill as it is a desire. The difference between Adam Jones and Ted Williams is the right coach.

I "think" (hope) that he was being facetious.

By the way, did we ever get an editorial comment from the site monitors on the use of the word "think"? Can I stop putting it in quotes now?