Chris Davis needs to hit for avg.

[webbrick2010]

3 hours ago, nadecir said:

Drungo's right.  All Chris Davis needs to do is find the fountain of youth, reverse the problems of baseball aging, and he will be good to go

Here's Chris Davis' fastball runs above average from 2012-2017:
2012    Orioles    12.8
2013    Orioles    26.2
2014    Orioles    12.0
2015    Orioles    31.9   
2016    Orioles    24.0    
2017    Orioles    -2.2

Chris Davis crushed fastballs from 2012-2016.  Last year he was terrible versus the fastball.  Davis was good versus the slower pitches, like the cutter or the changeup.  What does that say?  Take away some reaction time with a faster pitch, and he now has real trouble.   My guess he is going to see plenty of heaters this year until he shows he can consistently catch up with them.

https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=9272&position=1B#pitchvalues

Yep he's washed up, 23 million a year and in a few months it will be clear to ALL that he wouldn't even hold a spot on our or any 25 man roster if not for THE CONTRACT.

[Frobby]

15 minutes ago, webbrick2010 said:

Yep he's washed up, 23 million a year and in a few months it will be clear to ALL that he wouldn't even hold a spot on our or any 25 man roster if not for THE CONTRACT.

We will see.   You might be right, and I certainly have big concerns, but I have no idea why you’re so certain about it.

[webbrick2010]

5 minutes ago, Frobby said:

We will see.   You might be right, and I certainly have big concerns, but I have no idea why you’re so certain about it.

It's not rocket science... I watched him hit last year, he was totally overmatched by a good fastball, even if it was fat and middle in, and that was confirmed by the Fangraph stats.

He wasn't a great hitter in his "prime" so he doesn't need to lose much to fall off a cliff He strikes out nearly a third of his PA which doesn't give him many opportunities to succeed and the refuses or is incapable of adjusting to the shift. If he doesn't hit it over the fence there are very few holes in the defense where he can drop in hits.

Hey really I hope I'm very wrong and he has a bounce back year... its just when I watched him last year I saw a hitter that was done.... and we haven't even discussed his increased rate of injuries and lost games.

[Il BuonO]

3 minutes ago, webbrick2010 said:

It's not rocket science... I watched him not hit last year, he was totally overmatched by a good fastball, even if it was fat and middle in, and that was confirmed by the Fangraph stats.

Ftfy....

[webbrick2010]

11 minutes ago, Il BuonO said:

Ftfy....

LOL, Thanks

[Hallas]

On 3/26/2018 at 10:50 AM, Frobby said:

From his comments in the offseason, I think Davis will definitely be attempting to be more aggressive.   We all know, and I'm sure he knows, that taking called strikes has been a growing problem for him the last two years.    The real issue to me is whether he simply doesn't have the bat speed/reflexes necessary to pull the trigger as well as he used to.    Approach is often tailored to physical abilities, not merely a choice to be more or less aggressive.   

^

He's a dead pull hitter because has to cheat in order to catch up to fastballs.  I was thinking about this a bit, and I actually don't think it's a loss in bat speed or reflexes.  I think it's because the average fastball in 2017 was 1.6 mph faster than it was in 2010.  This change in pitcher skills probably affected him more than most, because of his borderline contact skills and the deleterious effect of increased velocity on contact.

[Pheasants]

16 minutes ago, Hallas said:

^

He's a dead pull hitter because has to cheat in order to catch up to fastballs.  I was thinking about this a bit, and I actually don't think it's a loss in bat speed or reflexes.  I think it's because the average fastball in 2017 was 1.6 mph faster than it was in 2010.  This change in pitcher skills probably affected him more than most, because of his borderline contact skills and the deleterious effect of increased velocity on contact.

The weird thing is that if he quit trying to catch up to fastballs, he could hit them to the opposite field and thus raise his average.  He needs to slow the start of his swing by a fraction of a second.  So if he's cheating to get ahead, he's overcompensating. 

[interloper]

Davis had 10 K's in 32 PA this spring. Hey, that's a 6% improvement of K/PA over last season!

Obviously joking that a ST SSS means anything, but just for fun, a 6% decrease of K/PA last season would have resulted in 162 K's instead of 195. Although interestingly, the last time he had a strikeout total of 173, he batted .196. 

[Just Regular]

This won't help Davis's AVG.

https://www.mlb.com/news/astros-consider-4-man-of-vs-lefty-hitters/c-269799738

I just read on Fangraphs that air balls are up another few ticks this spring training.  There's a tipping point coming and it sounds like some regular season run could be possible starting now.

[OFFNY]

On 3/26/2018 at 6:56 AM, bird watcher said:

 

https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=9272&position=1B

 

I was looking through his stat line and noticed that he hit for really good avg. through the minors and in his good years at the majors was making much better contact.  His OBP looks pretty good in the years when his average is up.  Likely because he has natural power and pitchers know that.  Just hit the ball.  Make them pitch obviously out of the zone balls if they want to pitch around you.  

Don't try and walk.  Don't try and hit for power.  Just hit the ball and let the chips fall.  My betting is they will fall in his favor.  

If he has focus issues then JUST focusing on hitting the balls in the zone would go a long way in calming the mind.  Anything close to a strike = swing the bat. 

 

o

 

Well, he is going to get a chance to work on his average as soon as humanly possible ........ Showalter has him penciled in as the Orioles' very first batter of the 2018 season.

 

http://www.baseballpress.com/lineups

 

o

[bird watcher]

Maybe that will help him focus more on contact and less on bombs. 

 

The bombs will come. Just get hits!

[spleen1015]

Duquette should be fired for his contract alone.

This year is going to be a mess and then we lose Machado at the end of it.

Looking forward to a long year.

[DrungoHazewood]

Davis has to be one of the least traditional leadoff hitters of all time.  I'll run a query when I get a chance, but there can't been too many leadoff hitters in history who were slow-ish, .220 power hitters.  Maybe some from the 1940s or early 50s, when you could lead the league in steals with 17.

[survivedc]

1 minute ago, spleen1015 said:

Duquette should be fired for his contract alone.

This year is going to be a mess and then we lose Machado at the end of it.

Looking forward to a long year.

Today of all days.

[spleen1015]

1 minute ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Davis has to be one of the least traditional leadoff hitters of all time.  I'll run a query when I get a chance, but there can't been too many leadoff hitters in history who were slow-ish, .220 power hitters.  Maybe some from the 1940s or early 50s, when you could lead the league in steals with 17.

I wonder how many leadoff hitters strick out 37% of their ABs.