It's Time To Bench Chris Davis

[El Gordo]

Bite your tongue. Nick to the bean eaters would be terrible. IMO

Don't worry he doesn't have a clue about Boston's OF for next season. There is no way they are spending that much money on a part time player. Unless he actually means 4/12 M, and in that case Nick would never agree to that little.

[Aristotelian]

Maybe this has been said on this thread at some point. But has anyone noticed Chris is taking a TON of first pitch strikes looking this year? He is not a good enough hitter to work from behind the count (and who really is that great at it?) and should probably start swinging at a lot of those first pitch strikes he's taking. They have largely been the best pitch he sees in the at bat. I don't think it's just me that sees this?

He is taking a ton of first, second, and third strikes.

[olehippi]

He is taking a ton of first, second, and third strikes.

And swinging at a ton of pitches out of the strike zone.

For the most part, Davis has been clueless with a bat in his hands this year. Thankfully, that ineptness hasn't carried over into the field. But, I wonder what would have happened if his glove had developed a hole like his bat did?

[DrungoHazewood]

I really can't believe the lack of love for Chris Davis

He will go to arb and the O's will gladly pay him at about what he made this year.

He has had an off year, and yet he has an outside chance at 30 HR's and 85 RBI's

He is athletic enough and good enough with the glove that he is our backup 3B (how much is that worth), do you really want to see Cord Phelps or Ryan Flaherty at 3B every day.

Folks that are willing to toss him to the side just amaze me. The O's will let him go to arb and pay him 10.5 million and I think he has a nice bounce back next year.

Who knows that bounce back might begin this September. It was Davis and Reynolds that carried us in Aug/Sept 2012

I don't think you can quite call this a typical down year. This isn't a bit of a slump. From his debut at 22 through 2012 he was a .775 OPS first baseman with a so-so glove. In 2013 he was astonishingly good. Then in 2014 he's been pretty abysmal, the only thing keeping him above replacement level are some out-of-character positive defensive metrics. UZR isn't so kind and thinks he's been worth 0.1 wins.

You have to at least talk about why you're doing going forward with him. He's going to make $11M and he's coming off a year where he is hitting .190 with 200+ Ks and a sub-.700 OPS. He's been so bad this year that his career OPS has fallen 35 points in less than 500 PAs.

They'll probably keep him, take a risk he bounces back. But it's kind of hard to carry a .683 OPS at first base for $10M+, if you want to keep winning.

[Redskins Rick]

My first thought early this year, maybe he wasn't healthy, tweaked his bat or something.

But, my eye tells me, he just looks uncomfortable at the ball.

For the last two years, he has been zoned in, and zapping the ball.

I don't think its the shift either.

Almost wonder, if he has lost some eyesight or something, and needs to get this vision tested.

And no, I don't play a doctor on the internet.

I went through this with my nephew playing travel league ball a few years ago, lost his stroke and two years of ripping the ball. He didn't realize how his eyes had changed, until he got his glasses and was able to see the ball clearly again and he resumed to ripping it. He went onto play college ball, and just wasn't good enough for the minors. Oh well.

[DrungoHazewood]

Well Davis is batting .371/.385/.771/1.156 in 39 PAs when he swings at the first pitch, so maybe you are onto something. Davis is batting just .149/.214/.306/.520 after he takes strike one.

I had to look up what the rest of the league does, and after starting off 0-1 the league has a .221/.261/.332 line, for a .593 OPS. Since Davis is 25 points below league OPS he's not doing too much worse than an average hitter when he starts with strike one.

[jjnono]

I don't think you can quite call this a typical down year. This isn't a bit of a slump. From his debut at 22 through 2012 he was a .775 OPS first baseman with a so-so glove. In 2013 he was astonishingly good. Then in 2014 he's been pretty abysmal, the only thing keeping him above replacement level are some out-of-character positive defensive metrics. UZR isn't so kind and thinks he's been worth 0.1 wins.

You have to at least talk about why you're doing going forward with him. He's going to make $11M and he's coming off a year where he is hitting .190 with 200+ Ks and a sub-.700 OPS. He's been so bad this year that his career OPS has fallen 35 points in less than 500 PAs.

They'll probably keep him, take a risk he bounces back. But it's kind of hard to carry a .683 OPS at first base for $10M+, if you want to keep winning.

That's downright Mark Reynolds-esque! And without the walks, it's actually worse than Reynolds!

Thankfully we didn't do an extension... $11M is a lot to try and determine who the real Chris Davis is, but that's what next year is looking like. Better spend some time in the offseason coming up with Plan B if, after June, Davis is hitting below the Mendoza line...

[El Gordo]

I had to look up what the rest of the league does, and after starting off 0-1 the league has a .221/.261/.332 line, for a .593 OPS. Since Davis is 25 points below league OPS he's not doing too much worse than an average hitter when he starts with strike one.

Maybe AJ is on to something?

[ledzepp8]

I really can't believe the lack of love for Chris Davis

He will go to arb and the O's will gladly pay him at about what he made this year.

He has had an off year, and yet he has an outside chance at 30 HR's and 85 RBI's

He is athletic enough and good enough with the glove that he is our backup 3B (how much is that worth), do you really want to see Cord Phelps or Ryan Flaherty at 3B every day.

Folks that are willing to toss him to the side just amaze me. The O's will let him go to arb and pay him 10.5 million and I think he has a nice bounce back next year.

Who knows that bounce back might begin this September. It was Davis and Reynolds that carried us in Aug/Sept 2012

I agree. His season has been crappy for sure but he was MVP candidate last year. No matter how bad he's been this year, he hasn't been the worst. I don't think you just throw him away when you still have control over him and know his capability. I mean he's probably more 2012 Davis than 2013 Davis but I definitely think he's better than the 2014 version. It's worth it to find out...imo.

[paulcoates]

Counting every single player who has enough AB's to qualify for the batting title in all of baseball, Chris Davis is dead last, and by a good bit.

BJ Upton .205

Chris Davis .188

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/count/112/qualified/true

[crawjo]

Last year was a fluke in terms of his batting average. This year I think it's become psychological. I would keep playing him, though. I don't think the Orioles have better options at this point, especially with Machado out for the rest of the year.

[MurphDogg]

That's downright Mark Reynolds-esque! And without the walks, it's actually worse than Reynolds!

Thankfully we didn't do an extension... $11M is a lot to try and determine who the real Chris Davis is, but that's what next year is looking like. Better spend some time in the offseason coming up with Plan B if, after June, Davis is hitting below the Mendoza line...

Mark Reynolds' career walk rate is 11.6 percent. This season Davis' walk rate is 11.1 percent, well above the league average (and incidentally also his career average) of 8.3 percent.

[O's84]

Mark Reynolds' career walk rate is 11.6 percent. This season Davis' walk rate is 11.1 percent, well above the league average (and incidentally also his career average) of 8.3 percent.

Yep, he still has a 100 point split between his Avg and OBP.

[Chavez Ravine]

Mark Reynolds' career walk rate is 11.6 percent. This season Davis' walk rate is 11.1 percent, well above the league average (and incidentally also his career average) of 8.3 percent.

It is like Davis is doing a tribute album to the 2012 Sheriff. He is even starting to flash the leather at third...only this time replacing Manny. For me, his season is turning from complete loss to interesting curiosity. Plus I still believe that he is going to turn in a monster September-October.

[El Gordo]

It is like Davis is doing a tribute album to the 2012 Sheriff. He is even starting to flash the leather at third...only this time replacing Manny. For me, his season is turning from complete loss to interesting curiosity. Plus I still believe that he is going to turn in a monster September-October.

Indeed. He is 1st in P/PA, 1st in BB, 4th in R, 3rd in RBI, and 3rd in HR in spite of his horrible BA, OBP, and OPS.