Chris Davis’ defense

[Frobby]

Putting aside yesterday’s terrible play, to me Chris Davis has played a pretty poor 1B this year.    B.B.-ref has him at -7 Rtot, -4 Rdrs.   Fangraphs has him at -1.3 UZR.    From what I’ve seen, he’s still very good on starting double plays and executing other throws, but not as good at scooping bounced throws or fielding hard hit balls in his vicinity.   To me, it’s just another sign that his reflexes and reaction time have slipped.

Thoughts?

[LocoChris]

Can’t be. Buck says he’s great. 

[pastorfan]

Just now, LocoChris said:

Can’t be. Buck says he’s great. 

Yeah that ball had a lot of spin. Thankfully, balls did not have that sort of spin when Brooks played!

[atomic]

32 minutes ago, pastorfan said:

Yeah that ball had a lot of spin. Thankfully, balls did not have that sort of spin when Brooks played!

Spin accounts for him not getting his glove down?  I still blame that play on Buck for having the infield in there.  If Davis played in his normal position he gets to it.  A run scores but we leave the inning 1-1 instead of down 2-1.  Even if Davis got to it the run would have scored.  

[Moose Milligan]

He's not good.  I used to think he was an excellent first baseman.  He's slower around the bag.  

[nadecir]

The Orioles defense is just historically bad everywhere.  If you are going to bad, might as well be really, really bad I guess.

------

Unfortunately for Showalter’s decidedly not division-winning 2018 squad, these Orioles are mind-bogglingly bad at catching balls put in play. Orioles fielders have combined for negative-84 runs of defensive value compared with the average team, per the advanced stat defensive runs saved. That is already one of the 10 worst totalssince 2002 (which is how far back DRS data extends), and because DRS is a counting stat and Baltimore’s season is just about half over, the O’s should blow by the current record. At their current pace, they will finish the season with negative-160.1 DRS—40.1 worse than the previous record holder, the 2005 Yankees.

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2018/7/5/17536062/baltimore-orioles-worst-defense-manny-machado-adam-jones

[LC_O's_87]

Just now, nadecir said:

The Orioles defense is just historically bad everywhere.  If you are going to bad, might as well be really, really bad I guess.

------

Unfortunately for Showalter’s decidedly not division-winning 2018 squad, these Orioles are mind-bogglingly bad at catching balls put in play. Orioles fielders have combined for negative-84 runs of defensive value compared with the average team, per the advanced stat defensive runs saved. That is already one of the 10 worst totalssince 2002 (which is how far back DRS data extends), and because DRS is a counting stat and Baltimore’s season is just about half over, the O’s should blow by the current record. At their current pace, they will finish the season with negative-160.1 DRS—40.1 worse than the previous record holder, the 2005 Yankees.

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2018/7/5/17536062/baltimore-orioles-worst-defense-manny-machado-adam-jones

This is some truly amazing stuff.  We've seen it with our eyes, but this puts it into context.

Might be an unbreakable single season record. 

The only "fear" is that they may actually call up some athletic, youthful players once they start the tear-down.

[Frobby]

Defense is the most underrated aspect of baseball.    The rise and fall of this team the last 6 seasons is very directly related to how the defense performed.    

[ShaneDawg85]

Makes me absolutely miss JJ Hardy.  Say what you will about the decline in his offense, or how his range wasn't the best compared to other short stops especially over time, but the infield defense was never the same when Hardy wasn't at short.  He was so darn fundamentally solid in every way that at a certain point, I think it rubbed off on the other guys.  

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

2 hours ago, LocoChris said:

Can’t be. Buck says he’s great. 

Buck apparently has little league standards for Davis. As long as you try that is good enough.  

Can’t wait for game 162 when everyone on the 40 man roster gets a participation trophy.

[Can_of_corn]

27 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Defense is the most underrated aspect of baseball.    The rise and fall of this team the last 6 seasons is very directly related to how the defense performed.    

Well, Buck and Dan seem to underrate it.  I'm not sure how much folks here do.  Myself and others have been pointing at the decline in defense for years now.

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Buck apparently has little league standards for Davis. As long as you try that is good enough.  

Can’t wait for game 162 when everyone on the 40 man roster gets a participation trophy.

You want to make Colby cry don't you?

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

13 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

You want to make Colby cry don't you?

Colby did his best to make the fans cry. Time for some payback.

[Can_of_corn]

7 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Colby did his best to make the fans cry. Time for some payback.

If you are serious about this course of action be prepared for a phone call or sternly worded letter from Colby's dad.

[Tx Oriole]

35 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Well, Buck and Dan seem to underrate it.  I'm not sure how much folks here do.  Myself and others have been pointing at the decline in defense for years now.

Probably before Buck arrived.