Chris Davis 2019 and beyond

[Natty]

Davis can't stay focused. It's that simple. It happens to him at the plate and in the field playing first base. Needs Adderal.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

This struck me as odd, too.  When he was in his prime, I never thought of him as out of shape or fat.  A big dude for sure and a good bit of muscle, but certainly not a Prince Fielder type.  

If I'm Davis, I'd have gone to Craig Wallenbrock last offseason.  Then again I don't think Wallenbrock can fix a slow bat.

Davis is going to transform himself into a .190 singles hitter to earn that contract. 

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

This struck me as odd, too.  When he was in his prime, I never thought of him as out of shape or fat.  A big dude for sure and a good bit of muscle, but certainly not a Prince Fielder type.  

If I'm Davis, I'd have gone to Craig Wallenbrock last offseason.  Then again I don't think Wallenbrock can fix a slow bat.

Davis made some remarks in a late offseason interview that he felt he had lost flexibility by becoming too muclebound and needed to slim down and focus on conditioning that would allow him to be more athletic.    And I think he was taking his defense into account as well as his offense.   

[Moose Milligan]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Davis made some remarks in a late offseason interview that he felt he had lost flexibility by becoming too muclebound and needed to slim down and focus on conditioning that would allow him to be more athletic.    And I think he was taking his defense into account as well as his offense.   

He's lying to himself.  He was plenty athletic back in the day.  He bailed Manny out on a lot of throws because of it.

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

He's lying to himself.  He was plenty athletic back in the day.  He bailed Manny out on a lot of throws because of it.

I think his point was he felt he had lost some of that athleticism the last year or two.    It’s certainly true that his defense dropped significantly the last two years.   My question is whether that’s due to the way he was training and conditioning, or simply a loss of reflex time with age.     

Bottom line, we will find out if the changes Davis made have helped or not.    I won’t prejudge it.   

[Natty]

I watched Davis strike out last year and on the replay he was not even watching the pitch. He was kind of looking towards third base, maybe the coach, with this weird far away look in his eye. 

At least on a couple of plays at first last year he was confronted with a sharp hit and did not know where to go with the ball...

WTF?

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

14 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

He's lying to himself.  He was plenty athletic back in the day.  He bailed Manny out on a lot of throws because of it.

Plus Davis could play right field a few years back and not totally embarrass himself.  I want to know has Davis switched to a lighter bat that might help, but really any production will be a surprise at this point.

[jerios55]

On 3/1/2019 at 4:02 PM, SteveA said:

Yes, and his spring OPS is .717, which is 187 points higher than last year.

This is the IMPROVED Chris Davis we are seeing this spring.

[Showing my work:   the hit was a HR, so slugging = 4/9 = .444.   He has two walks so far, so OBP = 3/11 = .273.   OPS = .717].

So clearly SSSS (super small sample size). But if davis managed .717 and slightly better d, what kind of war would would be looking at?  Replacement level or slightly above?

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

6 minutes ago, jerios55 said:

So clearly SSSS (super small sample size). But if davis managed .717 and slightly better d, what kind of war would would be looking at?  Replacement level or slightly above?

Would depend on how he performs relative to other 1B this year.  I guess it would at least be 0.0 or better.  

[Frobby]

8 minutes ago, jerios55 said:

So clearly SSSS (super small sample size). But if davis managed .717 and slightly better d, what kind of war would would be looking at?  Replacement level or slightly above?

Depends on how he gets to .717, and whether his defense improves.    A low OBP with a .717 OPS and poor defense might not get him to replacement level.   He was at -0.1 rWAR two years ago with a .732 OPS.

[jerios55]

So a potentially massive improvement and he could still get to about replacement level.  That puts a bit more meat behind why some are so convinced he's done.  I hope he can be something, but dang that's a huge hole to dig out of.  I mean I knew it mostly, but didn't really want to focus on just how bad he was last year.

[DrungoHazewood]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Depends on how he gets to .717, and whether his defense improves.    A low OBP with a .717 OPS and poor defense might not get him to replacement level.   He was at -0.1 rWAR two years ago with a .732 OPS.

Think about it this way: if you wanted to acquire a first baseman with an adequate glove and a .700ish OPS what would that take?  I'd say a March 22nd waiver claim.

[Natty]

3 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Think about it this way: if you wanted to acquire a first baseman with an adequate glove and a .700ish OPS what would that take?  I'd say a March 22nd waiver claim.

We already have one. His name is Trey Mancini...

[Frobby]

5 minutes ago, Natty said:

We already have one. His name is Trey Mancini...

If he hits like last year.    But I think he’s a better hitter than that.   

[Natty]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

If he hits like last year.    But I think he’s a better hitter than that.   

His rookie year was definitely better. He needs to get back into that form, or even better.