Austin Hays called up

[Ohfan67]

13 hours ago, DirtyBird said:

Hays is playing catch-up now in real major league games. Diaz is much further behind.

I hear you, but I think they’ve scheduled Diaz for a lot of AAA time next year. He will have plenty of time to catch up in Norfolk. 

[interloper]

He was fun to watch last night, man. I think it's a bit of a hot streak and he'll get exposed next year a bit, but until then, it's nice to see a guy with both offensive and defensive talent out there.

He's the best player on the field right now for the O's without question. 

Already 0.8 bWAR!  

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, interloper said:

He was fun to watch last night, man. I think it's a bit of a hot streak and he'll get exposed next year a bit, but until then, it's nice to see a guy with both offensive and defensive talent out there.

He's the best player on the field right now for the O's without question. 

Already 0.8 bWAR!  

I think it is safe to assume he's not going to give Gold Glove defense and a 991 OPS next season.

[interloper]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

I think it is safe to assume he's not going to give Gold Glove defense and a 991 OPS next season.

Sure, of course. He'll get hurt before he can. 

[Frobby]

18 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I think it is safe to assume he's not going to give Gold Glove defense and a 991 OPS next season.

Probably not.    Let’s enjoy this while it lasts, though.    

One thing is sure, Hays is faster than I’d realized, and fast enough for CF.    His sprint speed is 28.7 ft/sec, which is pretty much the median for a CF.    My sense is he’s still learning some of the nuances of the position.    He’s a little slow to recognize balls that are hit shallow and has a slow first step in that direction, but he’s aggressive and able to make up for it.    No reason he can’t stick in CF for several years.    

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Probably not.    Let’s enjoy this while it lasts, though.    

One thing is sure, Hays is faster than I’d realized, and fast enough for CF.    His sprint speed is 28.7 ft/sec, which is pretty much the median for a CF.    My sense is he’s still learning some of the nuances of the position.    He’s a little slow to recognize balls that are hit shallow and has a slow first step in that direction, but he’s aggressive and able to make up for it.    No reason he can’t stick in CF for several years.    

Maybe those Adam Jones comps were not that far off?

[MurphDogg]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

As between the two reasons to shut him down, keeping him eligible for ROY is far more legit than trying to boost our prospect ranking going into next year.    But I’d rather just let him play.    I’d bet he’d rather do that.   The kid enjoys himself out there.    

Maybe ask him to draw a walk or two or hit a sac fly or a sac bunt. It is definitely feasible to play 5 games and only get 19 at bats while still getting additional plate appearances. The 8 at-bats last night really hurt those odds though.

If he has 19 at-bats going into like the 5th inning of the last game of the season, on the road, I would rather he get pulled than get two extra at-bats.

Just from a marketing standpoint it is nice to have a rookie in contention for the various awards.

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, MurphDogg said:

Maybe ask him to draw a walk or two or hit a sac fly or a sac bunt. It is definitely feasible to play 5 games and only get 19 at bats while still getting additional plate appearances. The 8 at-bats last night really hurt those odds though.

If he has 19 at-bats going into like the 5th inning of the last game of the season, on the road, I would rather he get pulled than get two extra at-bats.

Just from a marketing standpoint it is nice to have a rookie in contention for the various awards.

Yea, Means is sure selling a lot of tickets.

Also Mountcastle is going to be RoY.

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, MurphDogg said:

Maybe ask him to draw a walk or two or hit a sac fly or a sac bunt. It is definitely feasible to play 5 games and only get 19 at bats while still getting additional plate appearances. The 8 at-bats last night really hurt those odds though.

If he has 19 at-bats going into like the 5th inning of the last game of the season, on the road, I would rather he get pulled than get two extra at-bats.

Just from a marketing standpoint it is nice to have a rookie in contention for the various awards.

I hadn’t realized that it was at bats, not plate appearances, that decided rookie eligibility.    How archaic!    Yeah, hopefully he draws a couple walks and keeps eligible that way.  

[MurphDogg]

7 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Yea, Means is sure selling a lot of tickets.

Also Mountcastle is going to be RoY.

Heh, a little easier to market a guy who is robbing home runs and beating his chest than a guy throwing 6-7 solid innings every 5th day on a team with 100+ losses.

[Frobby]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

One thing is sure, Hays is faster than I’d realized, and fast enough for CF.    His sprint speed is 28.7 ft/sec, which is pretty much the median for a CF.    My sense is he’s still learning some of the nuances of the position.    He’s a little slow to recognize balls that are hit shallow and has a slow first step in that direction, but he’s aggressive and able to make up for it.    No reason he can’t stick in CF for several years.    

Per Statcast, Hays has a very slow reaction time (-1.3 seconds, 161st out of 183 with at least 10 2-star catch opportunities).   But, he’s above average in burst (+0.4, 36th/183) and route (+0.6, 30th/183), so overall, his jumps (as they define it) are just slightly below the mean (-0.3) but above the median (73/183).    Bottom line, he makes up for lost time, and that makes for a lot of exciting plays.   

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/jump?year=2019&min=10

[wildcard]

17 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Probably not.    Let’s enjoy this while it lasts, though.    

One thing is sure, Hays is faster than I’d realized, and fast enough for CF.    His sprint speed is 28.7 ft/sec, which is pretty much the median for a CF.    My sense is he’s still learning some of the nuances of the position.    He’s a little slow to recognize balls that are hit shallow and has a slow first step in that direction, but he’s aggressive and able to make up for it.    No reason he can’t stick in CF for several years.    

Hays said the hesitation is by design.  It helps him recognize the fly of ball rather than taking a step in the wrong direction.   His speed allows him to make up the ground lost by the hesitation.

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, wildcard said:

Hays said the hesitation is by design.  It helps him recognize the fly of ball rather than taking a step in the wrong direction.   His speed allows him to make up the ground lost by the hesitation.

Interesting.   Where did he say that?   The stats bear him out, more or less.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

Heh, a little easier to market a guy who is robbing home runs and beating his chest than a guy throwing 6-7 solid innings every 5th day on a team with 100+ losses.

Still might be 100+ losses next season.

I wonder if the attendance is higher when Means pitches.  I'm guessing there is no bump.

[SurhoffRules]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Per Statcast, Hays has a very slow reaction time (-1.3 seconds, 161st out of 183 with at least 10 2-star catch opportunities).   But, he’s above average in burst (+0.4, 36th/183) and route (+0.6, 30th/183), so overall, his jumps (as they define it) are just slightly below the mean (-0.3) but above the median (73/183).    Bottom line, he makes up for lost time, and that makes for a lot of exciting plays.   

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/jump?year=2019&min=10

I'm always happy when numbers and eyes line up. I've enjoyed watching him play but a lot of time I'm left thinking...that would've been much less exciting if he hadn't taken a step and a half in the wrong direction to start his route. Hopefully it's something he can improve on since he's quick and has decent hands from what I can see.