Blake Davis...SS prospect?

[LookinUp]

I didn't do all of the math, but he's hitting about .300 since the beginning of June and he's supposedly strong in the field. Is this guy a pretty good prospect?

[blueberryale77]

I believe the book on him is that he's a utility prospect at best, but he looked pretty good in spring training. I don't know how much worse he could be than our other current options. He's hitting .266 with a .691 OPS this year, and his career MiL marks are .266 and .694, so I definitely don't think we can count on him to be any kind of long term solution. He is 25 and seemed to handle himself pretty well in ST, so I don't know that it would hurt to throw him in the mix in September and see if he could give us a few less than painful games at SS and raise his stock for a future utility job.

Edit: Oops, 24. I saw that he was still in college at 22 and multiple minor league lines after that and assumed his birthday must have been early in 1983. This is only his second full pro season. In that case they should probably wait a little longer before throwing him into the fire that has already consumed Luis Hernandez, Freddie Bynum a couple of times, Eider Torres, etc.

[Big Mac]

I believe the book on him is that he's a utility prospect at best, but he looked pretty good in spring training. I don't know how much worse he could be than our other current options. He's hitting .266 with a .691 OPS this year, and his career MiL marks are .266 and .694, so I definitely don't think we can count on him to be any kind of long term solution. He is 25 and seemed to handle himself pretty well in ST, so I don't know that it would hurt to throw him in the mix in September and see if he could give us a few less than painful games at SS and raise his stock for a future utility job.

Blake is actually 24, not 25. He did post a .771 OPS at Frederick last season. I think if he continues to hit through this month, it might be worth it to give him a shot in September.

With a career line of .269/.325/.379/.704, he is probably just a utility player, but if he were able to produce a line like that in the big leagues while playing above-average defense, he could become a ML starting SS.

[LookinUp]

I believe the book on him is that he's a utility prospect at best, but he looked pretty good in spring training. I don't know how much worse he could be than our other current options. He's hitting .266 with a .691 OPS this year, and his career MiL marks are .266 and .694, so I definitely don't think we can count on him to be any kind of long term solution. He is 25 and seemed to handle himself pretty well in ST, so I don't know that it would hurt to throw him in the mix in September and see if he could give us a few less than painful games at SS and raise his stock for a future utility job.

In fairness, his April and may were terrible. His OPS is more like .750 since June with a steady progression upwards. I'm not saying he's ARod or anything, but he also doesn't appear to be a Luis Hernandez.

Many on this board have made the point that great teams can have an offensively average SS. In theory, he could potentially be that guy for the O's.

For example, if we signed Tex and Crede this offseason, Davis might be a good fit.

[Big Mac]

In fairness, his April and may were terrible. His OPS is more like .750 since June with a steady progression upwards. I'm not saying he's ARod or anything, but he also doesn't appear to be a Luis Hernandez.

Many on this board have made the point that great teams can have an offensively average SS. In theory, he could potentially be that guy for the O's.

For example, if we signed Tex and Crede this offseason, Davis might be a good fit.

I sure hope we don't sign him. I'm just not crazy about 30 year old 3rd baseman with a .756 career OPS.

Scott Moore could probably match his production over the next 5 years at a fraction of the cost.

[mikezpen]

His avg. has climbed steadily over the past couple of month and is almost .270 now.

[Say O!]

Here's my brief scouting report on Blake Davis (granted this is from seeing only a couple of games at Bowie):

-Small guy, small build. Strength looks to be an issue with him (in terms of swinging the bat with authority, throwing arm). Now Brian Roberts is a small guy too, but watching him you do not get the impression that he lacks strength fundamental to playing the game at a high level.

-Bat is very questionable. The times I saw him, he was overmatched by relatively weak pitching. Had a tough time getting around on the fastball (and this guy was only dialing it up at 88mph). And it was extremely evident that he was overmatched, hitting weak ground balls because he was so late on the pitches. I do not think Blake will hit for any power, let alone collect doubles. Also, Blake batted 8th in the batting order, which could be an indication that the manager does not have much confidence in his hitting ability. Hard to envision a true "prospect" batting so low in the order in AA, especially at Blake's age.

[oriole from cal]

Here's my brief scouting report on Blake Davis (granted this is from seeing only a couple of games at Bowie):

-Small guy, small build. Strength looks to be an issue with him (in terms of swinging the bat with authority, throwing arm). Now Brian Roberts is a small guy too, but watching him you do not get the impression that he lacks strength fundamental to playing the game at a high level.

-Bat is very questionable. The times I saw him, he was overmatched by relatively weak pitching. Had a tough time getting around on the fastball (and this guy was only dialing it up at 88mph). And it was extremely evident that he was overmatched, hitting weak ground balls because he was so late on the pitches. I do not think Blake will hit for any power, let alone collect doubles. Also, Blake batted 8th in the batting order, which could be an indication that the manager does not have much confidence in his hitting ability. Hard to envision a true "prospect" batting so low in the order in AA, especially at Blake's age.

I saw him play a few more times then you, I guess, and I saw him just smashed the ball from guys throwing up to 92MPH. He is never going to hit 20HRs in a season but he can hit for a reasonable .260 and he can hit for doubles(he has gap-to-gap power and the speed to go with it ). Also if you look at the Bowie's lineup it's pretty stack, but he really could hit in the 2nd spot where Rojas hits. I don't think that hitting 8th has anything to do with him being a propect or not. His defense has really improved and I believe it's major league caliber. The 2 games you saw must of been bad days and we all have those days.

[NCRaven]

Granted, I only saw him play in one game last year in Frederick. Bynum was making a rehab start at 2B with Davis at short and I thought Davis was the best player on the field. Primarily, he just looked like he knew how to play the game, what he wanted to do both in the field and at the plate. I think he still has a shot, anyway.

[BowieMike]

I saw him play a few more times then you, I guess, and I saw him just smashed the ball from guys throwing up to 92MPH. He is never going to hit 20HRs in a season but he can hit for a reasonable .260 and he can hit for doubles(he got gap power and the speed ). Also if you look at the Bowie's lineup it's pretty stack, but he really could hit in the 2nd spot where Rojas hits. I don't think that hitting 8th has anything to do with him being a propect or not. His defense has really improved and I believe it's major league caliber. The 2 games you saw must of been bad days and we all have those days.

Once again, I agree with you on all counts.

He'll never be a home run hitter but he certainly has gap-to-gap power and decent speed. Though his arm was the one attribute that's raised serious questions, he's really improved on all aspects of his game since the beginning of the season. Comparing him now to the type of player he was in the early stages of the season, Davis looks to me like a completely different player. And that's a good thing.

[LookinUp]

I figured I'd bump this...Davis continues to improve with the bat. Look at these splits.

Season AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS OBP SLG OPS

April .185 23 81 11 15 2 3 0 10 9 19 4 3 .264 .284 .548

May .263 27 95 12 25 2 1 2 8 5 22 0 0 .307 .368 .675

June .281 26 89 10 25 7 1 1 8 5 16 0 2 .313 .416 .728

July .309 29 94 9 29 5 2 1 13 1 14 1 0 .323 .436 .759

August .349 17 63 11 22 3 0 0 5 3 5 3 1 .388 .397 .785

Pre All-Star .251 90 311 37 78 14 6 3 31 20 66 4 5 .298 .363 .661

Post All-Star .342 32 111 16 38 5 1 1 13 3 10 4 1 .365 .432 .798

[Tony-OH]

I will say this right now, Davis has shown me that he's improved as a player and that's a good thing. His arm was stronger this year then I've seen in the past and although I don't think he's ever going to be a plus bat, he's making the improvements that suggests he's starting to figure out what kind of hitter he is and that's not going to be a power hitter.

If he can stay gap to gap and his arm strength can hold up, he might start getting people to think he could be an option at short one day. Like some other posters have said, he's certainly not worse than our current options.

[connja]

With a career line of .269/.325/.379/.704, he is probably just a utility player, but if he were able to produce a line like that in the big leagues while playing above-average defense, he could become a ML starting SS.

Hey, that's about the same line as Miggy Tejada!! :rofl:

[Three Run Homer]

Had another good night at the plate last night (3-for-4)...is it just me, or does he look a little like Elijah Wood (aka Frodo)?

[byrdz]

Had another good night at the plate last night (3-for-4)...is it just me, or does he look a little like Elijah Wood (aka Frodo)?

I wouldn't wish that on anyone. By the way, I ran into Frodo about a year ago at a Valient Thorr show, little dude driving a little mini.