Should Austin Hays be Orioles 2018 Starting RF?

[webbrick2010]

Unproven young player with some potential

Kind of move a team in a re-build should make (better if he starts in CF), which is what the O's should be.

Wouldn't put it past DD/Buck to block him with some washed up veteran (Nick Markakis anyone?)

[interloper]

58 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

No to Rickard.  His glove improved to the point where I can live with him as a 5th outfielder but no way should he be starting, I don't care how good a spring he has.

Sure, I'm just saying, those are the current in-house candidates who have played RF, not including Trumbo. Rickard would basically have no chance of winning that starting job.

[El Gordo]

If they are willing to spend on SP,  then I would rather they do that and go with some in house combination than spend on a Smith type stop gap.

[SteveA]

I go back and forth on this.

Before he came up, I would have laughed at the idea.   He started the year in A ball and THAT was considered by many to be rushing him.

Then he came up and we saw him with our own eyes, and it was indeed impressive.

But still, you are talking a guy with very little experience over A ball.   And Buck and many others have said you can't always believe everything you see in September.

Add to the fact that right now we are too righthanded hitting a team.   We need another lefty bat or two, and RF is the logical place to put one.   Yes, that is given that 1B and DH are kind of tied up with likely untradeable contracts.   Let's not re-hash that and gripe about it in this thread, there are 100 other threads for that.   It is what it is.

I expect that Dan will go out and get a lefthanded hitting outfielder.   I don't know who.   I never saw Seth Smith coming until the day he became an Oriole.   But there are always some out there on the market.

Hays probably starts in the minors.   If he forces his way up by doing great down there for a couple months, then that's great.   If there's an early injury to Mancini, Jones, Trumbo, Davis or UnknownLeftyOutfielder, it's sure nice to have Hays ready to come up and step in (in the case of a Davis injury, Trumbo would move to 1B and DH would be freed up to be shared between Hays and ULO).

[mdbdotcom]

No, Hays should not be the RF in 2018. Adam Jones should be the RF in 2018. Put Hays in LF and sign a stopgap CF until Mullins is ready.

Of course, this means dumping Trumbo and letting Davis and Mancini handle DH/1B.

[theobird]

Adam Jones should be the orioles Rfer in 2018. I agree that Mullins is the Cfer of the future, but I would play hays  in cf until Mullins is ready. 

[Can_of_corn]

21 minutes ago, theobird said:

Adam Jones should be the orioles Rfer in 2018. I agree that Mullins is the Cfer of the future, but I would play hays  in cf until Mullins is ready. 

I don't think it is worth the potential difficulties with Jones or the pressure it would put on Hays.

It is not as if we are even sure Hays would be the superior fielder.

Plus I don't think Buck would do it.

[Il BuonO]

4 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I don't think it is worth the potential difficulties with Jones or the pressure it would put on Hays.

It is not as if we are even sure Hays would be the superior fielder.

Plus I don't think Buck would do it.

Buck wouldn’t do it, but I’m surprised you don’t think think Hays would be an upgrade. Jones is not good out there and the metrics back that up.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Il BuonO said:

Buck wouldn’t do it, but I’m surprised you don’t think think Hays would be an upgrade. Jones is not good out there and the metrics back that up.

The stuff on Hays I have seen says he projects better to right field than center.  Without much real evidence to counter that I'm being conservative.