What's Up With Lough?

[EagleOriole]

McLouth in 88 at-bats: .135 .264 .203 .467

Lough in exactly the same number of ABs: .175 .233 .225 .458

Add in that Lough is a superior defender and I think the O's knew what they were doing when they didn't re-up Nate despite the fine 1.5 years he gave us.

Yeah, but they both stink.

[LA2]

Still can't believe we traded Valencia for this guy.

On the one hand, Valencia is apparently the new starting third baseman for KC (Moustakas has been sent down to AAA). On the other, I think we will see his stats regress once he plays regularly against both RHP and LHP. We also had better options as far as reserve defenders are concerned, which Buck places a premium on.

[LA2]

I agree! But, I'd still rather have Nate (more of a track record of doing well here) if the Nats were willing to take on most of the contract and only want a marginal player in return.

McLouth in 88 at-bats: .135 .264 .203 .467

Lough in exactly the same number of ABs: .175 .233 .225 .458

Add in that Lough is a superior defender and I think the O's knew what they were doing when they didn't re-up Nate despite the fine 1.5 years he gave us.

[Can_of_corn]

Yeah, but they both stink.

But Lough stinks for 1/10th the money.

[Sanfran327]

Whi is Lough still starting games? He is strictly a defensive replacement right now, IMO. Pearce should be starting in LF for Lough, unless you think Cruz is better than Pearce in the field.

[Can_of_corn]

Whi is Lough still starting games? He is strictly a defensive replacement right now, IMO. Pearce should be starting in LF for Lough, unless you think Cruz is better than Pearce in the field.

Unless of course you think that at some point Lough's numbers are going to move toward his established baseline.

[Sanfran327]

Unless of course you think that at some point Lough's numbers are going to move toward his established baseline.

Do you?

[Can_of_corn]

Do you?

I don't think they are going to stay as bad as they currently are. I don't think his bat will ever have much value but it should get to a point where his glove more then compensates.

[Sanfran327]

I don't think they are going to stay as bad as they currently are. I don't think his bat will ever have much value but it should get to a point where his glove more then compensates.

I don't know if I think that's wishful thinking or not. He looks pretty bad, but he's got a decent track record.

[Bahama O's Fan]

I think Lough needs about a week or so of steady playing time to get back into a rhythm. But can we stand to put up with that?

[DrungoHazewood]

I don't know if I think that's wishful thinking or not. He looks pretty bad, but he's got a decent track record.

Unless something has radically changed Lough is still the guy who was worth almost three wins last year, and has over an .800 minor league OPS. You can take all the air you want out of PCL numbers, but a .800 in Omaha doesn't translate to a .480 in the majors.

[SteveA]

Unless something has radically changed Lough is still the guy who was worth almost three wins last year, and has over an .800 minor league OPS. You can take all the air you want out of PCL numbers, but a .800 in Omaha doesn't translate to a .480 in the majors.

Fully understand the statistical analysis and expectation of someone returning to the mean, that you and Can of Corn have brought up in this thread.

But some of the frustration with Lough isn't just his STATS. It is how completely and utterly overmatched he LOOKS at the plate. I've seen guys hitting .150 for a stretch who don't look so completely out of sync up there. But that's not the case here with Lough. Watching him flail helplessly at pitches all over the place and outside the zone does not give me any confidence that he will turn it around, regardless of what past history dictates.

No, I'm not a baseball scout, but the old "eye test" still means SOMETHING.

[DrungoHazewood]

Fully understand the statistical analysis and expectation of someone returning to the mean, that you and Can of Corn have brought up in this thread.

But some of the frustration with Lough isn't just his STATS. It is how completely and utterly overmatched he LOOKS at the plate. I've seen guys hitting .150 for a stretch who don't look so completely out of sync up there. But that's not the case here with Lough. Watching him flail helplessly at pitches all over the place and outside the zone does not give me any confidence that he will turn it around, regardless of what past history dictates.

No, I'm not a baseball scout, but the old "eye test" still means SOMETHING.

So what changed and why? How is it that nine months ago he was a good major league player? Generally 28-year-old professional athletes don't lose all of their value overnight.

[PA724_Oriole]

The usual . Teams are sometimes close to the vest about injuries. I know Buck gets annoyed when information comes out.

Manny Machado?s doctor, Neal ElAttrache, keeps giving updates on the third baseman?s status to ESPN before telling the Orioles and it?s starting to annoy manager Buck Showalter.

Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun writes that Showalter ?purposely didn?t mention ElAttrache by name? during a postgame interview with the local media and replied ?I?ll let ESPN take care of that? to a question about Machado.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/21/buck-showalter-is-annoyed-with-manny-machados-doctor/

Lmao. Go ahead Buck.

[SteveA]

So what changed and why? How is it that nine months ago he was a good major league player? Generally 28-year-old professional athletes don't lose all of their value overnight.

I have no idea. I just know what I see. Minor league equivalents are all well and good, but one thing that does NOT happen in the minor leagues is significant use of advance scouting and detailed scouting reports on opposing hitters, with pitchers knowledgable and experienced enough to make good use of those reports. That does happen in the majors. When a guy does well enough for teams and pitchers to figure out how to shift for him, and to develop scouting reports on how to pitch to him, the pitchers and defenses adjust accordingly, and it's up to the hitter to adjust in turn.

I am not an astute enough observer to understand in detail how every pitcher is pitching to Lough, especially since I am often making posts like this on a message board while watching a game out of the corner of my eye. But after 400 plate appearances in 2012-2013, maybe teams started to develop a book on how to pitch and defense Lough, and exposed flaws that to a greater extent than they had before.