Chris Davis has a problem with velocity.

[interloper]

Just took a low and away 95 mph fastball the other way and just missed a home run. Don't think he would have been able to do that if the ball wasn't low in the zone, but hey, he did it. 

[baltfan]

Let me go on the record again and say that I think Davis is going to be better than people think.  He is obviously trying to make adjustments and has seen some intermittent success.  Strikeout rate is also down and not nearly as many watched called strike 3's.  

[Tony-OH]

5 hours ago, atomic said:

You know I buy all the declining age thing but what I don't get is Davis can't hit straight fastballs right down the middle.  I have never heard of a 32 year old slugger not being able to hit those.  If it were high fastballs or inside fastballs I would buy it was just an aging thing but what kind of slugger can't hit the ball right down the middle with no movement?

Oh, oh, I know the answer...

The kind like Chris Davis!

[jabba72]

35 minutes ago, baltfan said:

Let me go on the record again and say that I think Davis is going to be better than people think.  He is obviously trying to make adjustments and has seen some intermittent success.  Strikeout rate is also down and not nearly as many watched called strike 3's.  

11 K's in his last 20 PA's with 2 Walks.

 

[NashLumber]

5 hours ago, Frobby said:

IMO, it’s crazy to think that the Orioles’ front office and management aren’t aware of just about every single thing we discuss, plus a lot more.    But people who don’t write the checks are a lot quicker to want to abandon something they think is a sunk cost than the people who do write the checks are.

I generally agree with you on plenty, but here I disagree. Is it conceivable that some Warehouse bean counter stat guy has this data but is afraid to share it as they’ve heard plenty of shouting and arguments behind the scenes about Davis and don’t want to rock the boat? I have seen it happen in my career and I’ve seen it in government and have read it in history. Failure to share bad news unless asked. 

My former boss, a university president, was a former White House Chief of Staff and folks were afraid (terrified) to give him bad news unless absolutely necessary or asked. Or the bad news went to the next person up the chain and they were afraid to approach him. Other examples, McNamara knew the US could not win in Vietnam and had data to prove it but didn’t have the resolve to share it with LBJ. 

[DrungoHazewood]

On ‎4‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 11:47 AM, atomic said:

No reason not to sit him against left-handed starters. I am pretty sure this is all on Buck. 

It's pretty simple from my perspective. If Buck lets Davis try to work through his issues and it succeeds that increases the odds of the O's having a non-horrible season by quite a lot.

If they bench Davis and use him as a poor pinch hitter or emergency fill-in while playing some other random body in his place the Orioles aren't likely to right the ship.  They're not going to win with some guy playing first and a broken Davis on the bench.

Maybe you think the odds of him fixing himself are slim, but I think the odds of replacing him with someone else who'll be good are even more faint.  If you're 10 games out and you still have years and years to go on his deal you might as well let him try to figure it out.  They aren't a two-week Chris Davis slump from first place.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

It's pretty simple from my perspective. If Buck lets Davis try to work through his issues and it succeeds that increases the odds of the O's having a non-horrible season by quite a lot.

If they bench Davis and use him as a poor pinch hitter or emergency fill-in while playing some other random body in his place the Orioles aren't likely to right the ship.  They're not going to win with some guy playing first and a broken Davis on the bench.

Maybe you think the odds of him fixing himself are slim, but I think the odds of replacing him with someone else who'll be good are even more faint.  If you're 10 games out and you still have years and years to go on his deal you might as well let him try to figure it out.  They aren't a two-week Chris Davis slump from first place.

Isn't that what the Phillies did with Howard?

[DrungoHazewood]

14 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Isn't that what the Phillies did with Howard?

If it were me I'd have probably called it about 1500 PAs earlier than the Phils.  But I suppose they wanted to be extra sure.

[Frobby]

10 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Isn't that what the Phillies did with Howard?

Obviously there’s a limit.    But April 2018 probably isn’t it.   If he’s still putting up sub-.200 months in June, I think in that case you have to do something fairly radical.   For now, just tweak things by keeping him away from hard-throwing lefties and maybe some top velocity righties, especially if he has crummy numbers against them over the last 2 years.  

[eddie83]

There is nobody pressing Davis for playing time. It would be nice when the roster is constructed when Mancini can play 1st but we aren’t there yet. 

[Nite]

Chris is to big and strong to just "lose" his bat speed. This is 100% mental and mechanics. I think the injuries have really done him in. He seems to have "adjusted" so that he doesn't hurt himself. Looking at that video like 2 pages back shows this. When he was an MVP candidate he was quick and explosive with his right shoulder and got the bat head through the zone with authority. Now he's slow and kinda deliberately not trying to swing as hard as he can with authority. I think he's unconsciously altered his swing in fear of hurting himself with his old style. 

 

Best way I can relate to that is I was flying with my bench press. At 215 lbs I worked my way up to 300 lbs bench. Then I had tendinitis in my left elbow, bad. I altered my form tremendously just so I could keep benching for my pursuit of a 315 bench. It didn't happen as I couldn't find any form to keep the pain away. I finally rested, and had it fixed through massage bla bla. Either way I went back to bench and was only able to do like 225, for 2... I was devastated. I though I lost all my strength. Started to video tape my lifts and noticed, I was doing my "new" form which was actually not anywhere near my "power" zone. So I reverted back to my original form and wow, the power was there. I haven't fully tested myself yet, building back up and the elbow is getting naggy again. 

Long story short, maybe when he does swing hard it hurts some. Fear of hurting himself more has him instantly changing things to this now slow can't catch up swing we are seeing.

[Aglets]

Yea it's incredibly depressing what's going on with Davis right now.  We can't avoid a secondary uncomfortable question though:

-who is beating down the door to take his place?

Outside of Alvarez, Mancini, and Machado there isn't anyone really impressing at the plate.  None of them are really competing with Davis for playing time right now.  If we had another elite DH or LF option maybe that's another discussion.......

sigh

[Can_of_corn]

5 minutes ago, Aglets said:

Yea it's incredibly depressing what's going on with Davis right now.  We can't avoid a secondary uncomfortable question though:

-who is beating down the door to take his place?

Outside of Alvarez, Mancini, and Machado there isn't anyone really impressing at the plate.  None of them are really competing with Davis for playing time right now.  If we had another elite DH or LF option maybe that's another discussion.......

sigh

If Hays or Stewart get it together I'd be more than happy to move Mancini to first and improve the outfield defense.

[DrungoHazewood]

3 minutes ago, Aglets said:

Yea it's incredibly depressing what's going on with Davis right now.  We can't avoid a secondary uncomfortable question though:

-who is beating down the door to take his place?

Outside of Alvarez, Mancini, and Machado there isn't anyone really impressing at the plate.  None of them are really competing with Davis for playing time right now.  If we had another elite DH or LF option maybe that's another discussion.......

sigh

That was half my point before.  Benching or releasing Davis in mid-April means you have to go find a good first baseman from among the freely available options right now.  I'd be surprised if you could cobble together a +1 win player.  You might as well just let him try to figure it out instead of wishing and pretending that Garabez Rosa or Aderlin Rodriguez will get hot for a month.

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, DrungoHazewood said:

That was half my point before.  Benching or releasing Davis in mid-April means you have to go find a good first baseman from among the freely available options right now.  I'd be surprised if you could cobble together a +1 win player.  You might as well just let him try to figure it out instead of wishing and pretending that Garabez Rosa or Aderlin Rodriguez will get hot for a month.

I think Mullins in Center over Jones could be worth a couple wins.