Chris Davis, 2019

[MichaelK]

5 hours ago, wildbillhiccup said:

Agreed, it's definitely debatable, but my main point was that he was a bonafide HOFer and still willing to try and make changes to better himself. Chris Davis, on the other hand, just keeps doing the same thing over and over again. He's like a government worker just sitting at his desk playing solitaire everyday until he hits his retirement date. And his stubbornness really has me questioning his work ethic. Wanting to be better isn't enough. You have have to make physical and/or psychological changes to your approach and he doesn't seem to be doing either. That's not the type of example you want to set for your younger players. I realize the team is still on the hook for huge amount of money, but I really think that cutting Davis would be addition by subtraction at this point.

When my father died he held the most lucrative patents ever awarded a US government employee. He revolutionized an industry. How about you? don't talk smack. It isn't a good look.

[wildbillhiccup]

47 minutes ago, MichaelK said:

When my father died he held the most lucrative patents ever awarded a US government employee. He revolutionized an industry. How about you? don't talk smack. It isn't a good look.

No disrespect intended. In all honesty I was thinking more about state employs when I made my broad generalization (if that’s any better). It’s usually a wake up call for those who retire early then try to double dip in the private sector. Anyway, there’s good employees on both sides of the fence, but in my experience the state side is much more of a punch in/punch out kind. I’ll stop typing now because I feel the hole that I’m digging getting deeper.

[wildbillhiccup]

5 hours ago, Frobby said:

I don’t accept that Davis is doing nothing to try to change his performance.    From the same article that references him deciding not to go to a hitting school:

In the final weeks of the season, both Davis and Elias have referenced a “routine-based” program with designs on getting Davis to be more like the player who hit 197 home runs from 2012 to 2016 than the one who hardly saw the field in September the past two seasons. Speaking Monday after the announcement that he and his wife, Jill, were making a record $3 million donation to the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital, Davis said he’s already seeing the returns.

“There’s just direction,” he said. “I felt like last offseason, I had all this motivation and really no direction, so I was really just like, ‘Well, I guess I’ll try this and see if it works.’ And I feel like now, we have a plan in place, and we actually know what we’re trying to accomplish.”

And from Elias:

“He’s working. Without going into details, we’ve got a lot of things that he’s working on this winter. I don’t necessarily expect for that to get him back to the best seasons he’s ever had in his career, but we do think he can be better than what he has been the last two or three years.

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2019/11/more-from-mike-elias-on-hot-stove-show.html

So, show me.

Answer me one question. Have you noticed a single change in Davis’ approach to hitting over the last two years? 

[Frobby]

46 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

Answer me one question. Have you noticed a single change in Davis’ approach to hitting over the last two years? 

Nope.    But we’re talking about next year.    Elias says Davis is following a regimen they set for him.   I’m not optimistic it will work but we’ll see.   Honestly the regimen may have more to do with execution than approach, if you follow me.     

[NCRaven]

1 hour ago, wildbillhiccup said:

No disrespect intended. In all honesty I was thinking more about state employs when I made my broad generalization (if that’s any better). It’s usually a wake up call for those who retire early then try to double dip in the private sector. Anyway, there’s good employees on both sides of the fence, but in my experience the state side is much more of a punch in/punch out kind. I’ll stop typing now because I feel the hole that I’m digging getting deeper.

As a state employee, I enjoy watching people dig themselves deeper into holes.

[Ridgway22]

3 hours ago, wildbillhiccup said:

Answer me one question. Have you noticed a single change in Davis’ approach to hitting over the last two years? 

No....

.....and it is one of the most depressing / infuriating / frustrating things about the last two years. The guy is a millstone around the neck of the franchise. Mancini should be playing first. Anyone could see the rebuild coming, knew it would be difficult, but looked forward to seeing the emerging players. Some will flame out, some will flicker with hope, and some (Means seems to be the first) will exceed expectations. But C F'ing Davis watching belt high 91 mph sinkers for strike three with that deer in the headlights walk back to the dugout look.....   ugh. That I wish we could be spared.

[DrungoHazewood]

11 hours ago, TheOtherRipken said:

I never thought I’d defend the Angelos’s but if I had that much invested in one player and was fielding a 50 win team I’d hold off as long as possible to see if I could recoup even $1 back off that bad investment.  

What are you actually recouping?  Davis as been about as bad as anyone has ever been in 1000+ PAs.  You're giving up a roster spot and playing time to younger players on the hopes that he becomes not quite so terrible.  The theoretical recouping is that he's worth $0 and being paid $23M, instead of being worth -$10M and being paid $23M.  But that's all hand-waving and sabermetric calculations that have little bearing on a 50-win team.  No one cares if you have a slightly better ROI on wins 49 and 50.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, DrungoHazewood said:

What are you actually recouping?  Davis as been about as bad as anyone has ever been in 1000+ PAs.  You're giving up a roster spot and playing time to younger players on the hopes that he becomes not quite so terrible.  The theoretical recouping is that he's worth $0 and being paid $23M, instead of being worth -$10M and being paid $23M.  But that's all hand-waving and sabermetric calculations that have little bearing on a 50-win team.  No one cares if you have a slightly better ROI on wins 49 and 50.

The team would recoup some money if Davis agreed to a buyout at less than his full guaranteed contract.

It was always a longshot but it at least appeared to be a possibility at some point given some of his statements.

[webbrick2010]

His physical tools have completely eroded,  it happens.

Even if his mind was ready his body is gone.... and I'm pretty sure his mind knows it.

[Larry18]

6 hours ago, Ridgway22 said:

No....

.....and it is one of the most depressing / infuriating / frustrating things about the last two years. The guy is a millstone around the neck of the franchise. Mancini should be playing first. Anyone could see the rebuild coming, knew it would be difficult, but looked forward to seeing the emerging players. Some will flame out, some will flicker with hope, and some (Means seems to be the first) will exceed expectations. But C F'ing Davis watching belt high 91 mph sinkers for strike three with that deer in the headlights walk back to the dugout look.....   ugh. That I wish we could be spared.

Thank you for using Millstone 

[BRobinsonfan]

On 11/9/2019 at 8:31 AM, Frobby said:

I don’t think comparing Davis to Ripken is really apt.    First, Ripken was really rare in the degree to which he changed his stance and his swing over the course of a season or between seasons.   And I’m not sure it’s a good thing for most players.    Did Eddie Murray change a single thing from the day he debuted to the day he retired 20 years later?

Second, I’m not sure most players have the athletic skill to make the kind of frequent adjustments Cal did and have any success.    
 

At the same time, Davis seems to meet Einstein’s definition of insanity: trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.    
 

I need to go back and read some of the articles, because although the quote that has everyone stirred up suggests Davis is not going to do anything this offseason to address his problems, I’ve read other quotes suggesting that he is doing some things Elias suggested.   To date, I’ve only read the quotes people posted here, without the context of everything else he said.   

I've been sympathetic to Davis in the past but his most recent quote pushed me over the edge.  You're right that at his age he's probably not going to be able to reinvent himself as a hitter... but what does he have to lose by trying?  The optics of this... like his performance at the plate... are abysmal.  

[wildbillhiccup]

2 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

What are you actually recouping?  Davis as been about as bad as anyone has ever been in 1000+ PAs.  You're giving up a roster spot and playing time to younger players on the hopes that he becomes not quite so terrible.  The theoretical recouping is that he's worth $0 and being paid $23M, instead of being worth -$10M and being paid $23M.  But that's all hand-waving and sabermetric calculations that have little bearing on a 50-win team.  No one cares if you have a slightly better ROI on wins 49 and 50.

We're still ignoring the elephant in the room. Is Chris Davis a negative influence on the younger players. Well, over the last few years we've seen him:

1) Set the example that he doesn't have to make adjustments and change, even when everyone is probably telling him to. 

2) It's ok to lash out at the manager...during the game...while on camera. 

And it's not just me, let's not forget the rant that Jim Palmer went on (during the game) about his off season work ethic. Eating his contract would be a tough pill to swallow, but if the team thinks his "stink" will rub off on any of the younger players then it's a move they'd be wise to make. 

[TheOtherRipken]

13 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

What are you actually recouping?  Davis as been about as bad as anyone has ever been in 1000+ PAs.  You're giving up a roster spot and playing time to younger players on the hopes that he becomes not quite so terrible.  The theoretical recouping is that he's worth $0 and being paid $23M, instead of being worth -$10M and being paid $23M.  But that's all hand-waving and sabermetric calculations that have little bearing on a 50-win team.  No one cares if you have a slightly better ROI on wins 49 and 50.

They arent really giving up a roster spot, they seemed to have more than enough spots to cycle sub-par players in last year. Once they truly need that roster spot, Davis will be gone.

[TheOtherRipken]

On 11/11/2019 at 9:12 PM, Can_of_corn said:

I thought that was a worthy gambit when he sounded all upset about his poor performance.  He seems resigned to it now.  I don't think we have any chance of him not collecting every dollar.

Oh I’m with you, no shot he improves and I think you described it exactly right.  All I’m saying, if that was my money I’d hold out as long as humanly possible as long as we aren’t in a roster crunch or actually threatening to win games. 

 

[atomic]

On 11/11/2019 at 4:16 PM, wildbillhiccup said:

Agreed, it's definitely debatable, but my main point was that he was a bonafide HOFer and still willing to try and make changes to better himself. Chris Davis, on the other hand, just keeps doing the same thing over and over again. He's like a government worker just sitting at his desk playing solitaire everyday until he hits his retirement date. And his stubbornness really has me questioning his work ethic. Wanting to be better isn't enough. You have have to make physical and/or psychological changes to your approach and he doesn't seem to be doing either. That's not the type of example you want to set for your younger players. I realize the team is still on the hook for huge amount of money, but I really think that cutting Davis would be addition by subtraction at this point.

When I was an intern in college I worked for the state.  I was shocked that half of the civil engineers did nothing all day.  I would see them reading novels each day.  I chalked it up to government workers. 
 
But as I went into the private workforce I have seen the pattern among professional employees.  Half the employees do all the work while the rest effectively do nothing.  They aren’t reading novels these days but it comes down to zero real work being done.  I am not sure why this occurs but it seems to be the norm wherever I have worked.  It used to bother me the first few years but then I realized it is just easier to do things myself and ignore them.  
 

In baseball there is no place to hide. If you don’t pull your weight the world knows it.