Austin Hays

[Frobby]

11 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

He could choose to spend more time perfecting his craft.

Sure.    And it may or may not do any good.   

[Frobby]

A few observations on Hays:

1.    Love the way he bursts out of the batter's box and makes the fielders work.     He got to 2B twice on plays where a lot of guys would have stopped at first, and he forced Bogaerts to try to barehand a ball that he muffed (scored as a single and an error, but a lot of runners wouldn't have forced the barehanded play and would just have been out at 1B).

2.   The throwing arm is legit, both strong and accurate and he gets rid of it quickly.

3.    He seems slightly tentative coming in on balls.    The first Boston hit in the 5th was a blooper he might have caught.    To be fair, Schoop was also chasing after it, and Hays either may have thought Schoop was going to get there, or was worried about a collision.   

4.    In the 10th inning, Gentry tried to steal on a fastball right down the middle.    I think Hays should have swung, both because it was a good pitch to hit and to make things harder for the catcher.

In any event, he's making a good impression and looks to me like a realistic candidate for the OD roster.

[Luke-OH]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

A few observations on Hays:

1.    Love the way he bursts out of the batter's box and makes the fielders work.     He got to 2B twice on plays where a lot of guys would have stopped at first, and he forced Bogaerts to try to barehand a ball that he muffed (scored as a single and an error, but a lot of runners wouldn't have forced the barehanded play and would just have been out at 1B).

2.   The throwing arm is legit, both strong and accurate and he gets rid of it quickly.

3.    He seems slightly tentative coming in on balls.    The first Boston hit in the 5th was a blooper he might have caught.    To be fair, Schoop was also chasing after it, and Hays either may have thought Schoop was going to get there, or was worried about a collision.   

4.    In the 10th inning, Gentry tried to steal on a fastball right down the middle.    I think Hays should have swung, both because it was a good pitch to hit and to make things harder for the catcher.

In any event, he's making a good impression and looks to me like a realistic candidate for the OD roster.

Good observations, as for the AB with Gentry on first, I have to think he was getting a take sign.  I've watched a ton of Hay's ABs and I don't remember seeing him watch pitches like that. He always tracks pitches and gets his body moving, those two pitches looked out of character for him.

[Ohfan67]

SSS and all that but it's exciting to see Hays have some immediate success. 

[eddie83]

21 minutes ago, phillyOs119 said:

Good observations, as for the AB with Gentry on first, I have to think he was getting a take sign.  I've watched a ton of Hay's ABs and I don't remember seeing him watch pitches like that. He always tracks pitches and gets his body moving, those two pitches looked out of character for him.

Was hoping Buck was going to be asked about that sequence at the post game and wasn't.  

[glenn__davis]

35 minutes ago, phillyOs119 said:

Good observations, as for the AB with Gentry on first, I have to think he was getting a take sign.  I've watched a ton of Hay's ABs and I don't remember seeing him watch pitches like that. He always tracks pitches and gets his body moving, those two pitches looked out of character for him.

Honestly I think once he saw Gentry go he thought that the "correct" play would be to defer and allow him to try to steal the base.  I think when these youngsters come up they do a bit too much thinking and he didn't want to "mess up" the play.  

Or, as you mentioned, he just got the take sign.

[Frobby]

Watching Hays a lot this week, including in person on Saturday night, I'm kind've of the view that a little AAA time would help polish him up.     I think he could survive in MLB as of now, but he'd benefit from seeing more experienced pitchers and working a bit more on his defense.

[OriolesMagic83]

I think Hays is ready defensively now.  The play he made Saturday night, flying through the air against the right field wall was amazing.  Will he make some errors, sure.  I would much rather see Hays in RF than some 4th OF platoon type the O's can sign for 1 year.  I believe he can put up at least a .700 OPS w/ above average defense for next year.  I'm hoping for much more.  I would rather the O's spend all their available money on SP than an average OF.

[Can_of_corn]

28 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Watching Hays a lot this week, including in person on Saturday night, I'm kind've of the view that a little AAA time would help polish him up.     I think he could survive in MLB as of now, but he'd benefit from seeing more experienced pitchers and working a bit more on his defense.

 

2 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I think Hays is ready defensively now.  The play he made Saturday night, flying through the air against the right field wall was amazing.  Will he make some errors, sure.  I would much rather see Hays in RF than some 4th OF platoon type the O's can sign for 1 year.  I believe he can put up at least a .700 OPS w/ above average defense for next year.  I'm hoping for much more.  I would rather the O's spend all their available money on SP than an average OF.

The problem I have with Hays starting in the minors is that they will need to add an outfielder to man the position until Hays is ready.  Or they can throw an even more unready Santandar into the fire.

 

[mdbdotcom]

47 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

 

The problem I have with Hays starting in the minors is that they will need to add an outfielder to man the position until Hays is ready.  Or they can throw an even more unready Santandar into the fire.

 

Let Joey play RF until Santander does his time on the ML roster (40 days?), then send down Santander and bring up Hays.

[Luke-OH]

4 minutes ago, mdbdotcom said:

Let Joey play RF until Santander does his time on the ML roster (40 days?), then send down Santander and bring up Hays.

Well if the O's are trying to compete, that is not a viable solution.

[mdbdotcom]

5 minutes ago, phillyOs119 said:

Well if the O's are trying to compete, that is not a viable solution.

Nonsense.

[Luke-OH]

27 minutes ago, mdbdotcom said:

Nonsense.

Tell me then what other team with any hope of competing would start a guy with a 180+ game track record of being at or below replacement level.  

[wildcard]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

Watching Hays a lot this week, including in person on Saturday night, I'm kind've of the view that a little AAA time would help polish him up.     I think he could survive in MLB as of now, but he'd benefit from seeing more experienced pitchers and working a bit more on his defense.

Do you think the O's have anyone better than Hays to play right field?

[mdbdotcom]

36 minutes ago, phillyOs119 said:

Tell me then what other team with any hope of competing would start a guy with a 180+ game track record of being at or below replacement level.  

For 35 games? Happens all the time.