Chris Davis 2019 and beyond

[Frobby]

19 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

How about "single biggest reason"? He put up -3 WAR himself last year (underperforming his contract by about 6 WAR). Then you add the financial constraints that the contract puts on the rest of the organization, and the ripple effect of having to play Mancini in OF, it's hard not to point the finger at Davis. Of course there were other factors.

I’m fine with “single biggest reason.”    That’s probably indisputable.

[DrungoHazewood]

35 minutes ago, PaulFolk said:

Not if Harper's "bad years" are better than Davis's bad years, which I think they will be. I don't think Harper -- or anyone, really -- will ever put up a season as bad as Davis' 2018.

No respect!  .566 OPS with a -25 glove.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

37 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

...and signing other one-dimensional players (like Trumbo) to multi-year deals. 

Praying those days are over.  

[Frobby]

6 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

No respect!  .566 OPS with a -25 glove.

You have to wonder what happened to Royster in 1977.   Here’s a guy who was established in the majors and was 24 years old.    He managed to stick in the majors until he was 35.    His fielding was -9 for the rest of his career combined.    How was he that awful in ‘77, and how did he keep his job?

[spiritof66]

I don't think having Davis in the lineup is going to hurt this team much over the next couple of months -- kind of a Bobby McGee situation -- unless giving him ABs and watching him flail away at breaking balls or watch strikes poured over the heart of the plate is somehow dispiriting to younger players, and I have no way of knowing that. 

I do think giving Davis playing time at 1B will hold the team back from what I think it should be trying to accomplish. I want to see how Mancini handles 1B defensively (on, I hope, a concentrate-on-playing-1B- you're-an-OFer-on-an-emergency-only basis). As the season goes on, there will other defensively limited guys I'd like to see tried at first. Let Davis DH. Unless he shows some offensive improvement, I would hate to see him get in the way of those defensive fact-finding missions.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

You have to wonder what happened to Royster in 1977.   Here’s a guy who was established in the majors and was 24 years old.    He managed to stick in the majors until he was 35.    His fielding was -9 for the rest of his career combined.    How was he that awful in ‘77, and how did he keep his job?

Well that Braves team was filled with terrible players, not like they could turnover the whole roster.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/ATL/1977.shtml

 

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, spiritof66 said:

I don't think having Davis in the lineup is going to hurt this team much over the next couple of months -- kind of a Bobby McGee situation -- unless giving him ABs and watching him flail away at breaking balls or watch strikes poured over the heart of the plate is somehow dispiriting to younger players, and I have no way of knowing that. 

I do think giving Davis playing time at 1B will hold the team back from what I think it should be trying to accomplish. I want to see how Mancini handles 1B defensively (on, I hope, a concentrate-on-playing-1B- you're-an-OFer-on-an-emergency-only basis). As the season goes on, there will other defensively limited guys I'd like to see tried at first. Let Davis DH. Unless he shows some offensive improvement, I would hate to see him get in the way of those defensive fact-finding missions.

The designated non-hitter?   For what it’s worth, NL pitchers had a .295 OPS last year.    I guess Davis as DH still beats letting the pitchers bat.   

[spiritof66]

4 minutes ago, Frobby said:

The designated non-hitter?   For what it’s worth, NL pitchers had a .295 OPS last year.    I guess Davis as DH still beats letting the pitchers bat.   

Maybe "designated bat-wielder."

I should have said, "Let Davis DH or sit, or send him to the bullpen to work on his secondary pitches."   

[baltfan]

If there was ever a guy that needed three swings it is Chris Davis.  He needs to stop looking for the perfect pitch

[DrungoHazewood]

I have a nice table that won't paste here very well, but I tried to find the worst dollar/win performances of all time.  It takes a lot of guessing and assumptions about $/WAR, but I'm reasonably confident that the following reached the coveted 5.0 wins worse than what you paid for threshold:

Pete Rose, 1983
Ted Simmons, 1984
George Bell, 1993
Dante Bichette, 1999
Carlos Lee, 2010
Albert Pujols, 2017
Davis, 2018

Adam Dunn in 2011 just missed, along with Bret Boone in '05.  Alex Rios ('11) and Jose Guillen ('09) made $10M+ in years where they were around -2 WAR.

[mdbdotcom]

30 minutes ago, spiritof66 said:

I don't think having Davis in the lineup is going to hurt this team much over the next couple of months -- kind of a Bobby McGee situation -- unless giving him ABs and watching him flail away at breaking balls or watch strikes poured over the heart of the plate is somehow dispiriting to younger players, and I have no way of knowing that. 

I do think giving Davis playing time at 1B will hold the team back from what I think it should be trying to accomplish. I want to see how Mancini handles 1B defensively (on, I hope, a concentrate-on-playing-1B- you're-an-OFer-on-an-emergency-only basis). As the season goes on, there will other defensively limited guys I'd like to see tried at first. Let Davis DH. Unless he shows some offensive improvement, I would hate to see him get in the way of those defensive fact-finding missions.

Davis might get upset when he realizes that the snickering he hears as he walks to the plate is coming from the dugout 

[Dipper9]

So far this Spring he's 1 for 12 with 7 strikeouts.  I guess he's in mid-season form.  

[DrungoHazewood]

34 minutes ago, Frobby said:

You have to wonder what happened to Royster in 1977.   Here’s a guy who was established in the majors and was 24 years old.    He managed to stick in the majors until he was 35.    His fielding was -9 for the rest of his career combined.    How was he that awful in ‘77, and how did he keep his job?

Nobody recognized his -25 glove because a) it really wasn't that bad and is an idiosyncrasy of how we retroactively figure defensive metrics, or b) he looked okay while splitting time between multiple positions while having abysmal range.

That '77 Braves team has some of the worst fielding metrics I've ever seen.  It looks like almost everyone with significant playing time was well below average defensively.  They won 61 games, and were 12th in the 12-team NL in a bunch of pitching metrics, which is consistent with having terrible defense.  They were last in RA/G by almost half a run a game, and were last in defensive efficiency.  Royster was probably below-average, but was also trying to cover for other players who were even worse while splitting time at four positions.

[BohKnowsBmore]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

I’m fine with “single biggest reason.”    That’s probably indisputable.

As long as we realize that it's a plurality, not a majority of the blame.

[Moose Milligan]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Nobody recognized his -25 glove because a) it really wasn't that bad and is an idiosyncrasy of how we retroactively figure defensive metrics, or b) he looked okay while splitting time between multiple positions while having abysmal range.

That '77 Braves team has some of the worst fielding metrics I've ever seen.  It looks like almost everyone with significant playing time was well below average defensively.  They won 61 games, and were 12th in the 12-team NL in a bunch of pitching metrics, which is consistent with having terrible defense.  They were last in RA/G by almost half a run a game, and were last in defensive efficiency.  Royster was probably below-average, but was also trying to cover for other players who were even worse while splitting time at four positions.

This has nothing to do with anything, but I took the time to look up Jerry Royster cause I've seen that name and have a few of his cards laying around.  

I came across this:

 

 

I'm assuming this was taken at spring training.  I'm also pretty sure I have little league photos that look better than this.