Pat Valaika claimed from Colo

[7Mo]

5'11" SS/2B who hit .320 with 26 doubles and 22 home runs in AAA in '19.

Thoughts?

[Aglets]

Career .256 OBP in the major leagues over 231 career games.   Kinda concerning.   Richie Martin 2.0?

Martin had a .581 OPS this year.   Valaika has a .656 for his major league career but that seems somewhat buoyed by a solid 2017 campaign that he was not at all able to replicate in '18 or '19.

[mdbdotcom]

Villar's replacement.

[OsEatAlEast]

Minor league numbers aren't very impressive last season set aside.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/valaipa01.shtml

Edited October 30, 2019 by OsEatAlEast

[DirtyBird]

I think the cuts from the 40 man were the more significant news.

[DrungoHazewood]

7 minutes ago, OsEatAlEast said:

Minor league numbers aren't very impressive last season set aside.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/valaipa01.shtml

They're not very impressive including last year.  He was playing AAA at the age of 26 with the equivalent of a pink rubber ball in a home park that's 5200' high.  Albuquerque had seven players OPS .900 as regulars or semi-regulars and they finished 60-80.  Their team ERA was 6.38, and their team OPS was .855.  Pat Dean started the most games on the team and had a 7.54 ERA.  They had eight players start 10+ games and none of them had an ERA under 4.93.  A guy named Mitch Horacek now has a mild case of PTSD after allowing 42 baserunners and 25 runs in 12 innings.

I love that places like that exist.  But you need to essentially throw out all metrics from players who play in run contexts like that.  Or to be safe, just cut 350 points off anyone's OPS transitioning from Albuquerque to a normal MLB park.

[DrungoHazewood]

21 minutes ago, Aglets said:

Career .256 OBP in the major leagues over 231 career games.   Kinda concerning.   Richie Martin 2.0?

Martin had a .581 OPS this year.   Valaika has a .656 for his major league career but that seems somewhat buoyed by a solid 2017 campaign that he was not at all able to replicate in '18 or '19.

He did bounce back from a 16 OPS+ in '18 to a 38 in '19.

[SteveA]

4 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

I think the cuts from the 40 man were the more significant news.

And those are?   (I don't see a thread about them).

[Frobby]

6 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

I think the cuts from the 40 man were the more significant news.

Eads, Rogers, Ortiz and Tayler Scott all cleared waivers and were outrighted to Norfolk.    

[DrungoHazewood]

Just now, Frobby said:

Eads, Rogers, Ortiz and Tayler Scott all cleared waivers and were outrighted to Norfolk.    

Does it make me less of a fan that I don't really know anything about any of those people, and if you'd told me they were backup singers for Taylor Swift I'd just nod my head?

[SteveA]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Eads, Rogers, Ortiz and Tayler Scott all cleared waivers and were outrighted to Norfolk.    

Thanks.

[Frobby]

8 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

A guy named Mitch Horacek now has a mild case of PTSD after allowing 42 baserunners and 25 runs in 12 innings.

You realize, of course, that this “guy named Mitch Horacek” is a former O’s prospect who spent five years in our organization?   He was our 9th round pick in 2013.

[wildcard]

I like the Valaika pick up.   He has hit lefties pretty well in the majors over parts of 4 seasons.   752 OPS vs lefties.   He seems to have great range at 2B.   He came through he Rockies system as a SS and looks like he is a good backup SS that will allow the  O's to send Martin to AAA.   He is not as good at 3B but can play there.

He looks like a platoon player vs lefties. So the O's have Ruiz and Wilkerson the hit hits.  Alberto and Valaika who hit lefties.   He does not look like a replacement for Villar to me.  I think Alberto gets a chance next season to be an everyday player because he did hit righties in AAA in 2018.

I like that the four guys were outrighted.  I am a little surprised that Ortiz made it through waivers.  He just turned 24 in September.   Right now all 4 look to be reliever in AAA but there will be a lot of guys in the O's system that could be a reliever at AAA next season and it will be interesting to see who Elias keeps and who is lets go.   I am glad the Ortiz 40 man  slot is freed up.

Until it is determined what happens with Villar  I think Elias is done with the position players.  Time to concentrate on acquiring pitchers.

[Luke-OH]

13 minutes ago, wildcard said:

I like the Valaika pick up.   He has hit lefties pretty well in the majors over parts of 4 season.   752 OPS vs lefties.  

That .752 OPS looks pretty bad when you consider he plays half his games at Coors. It's just a 80 wRC+, not good. He does hit lefties much better than righties. But an 80 wRC+ short half of a platoon is not going to keep you on a 40 man. 

The pick-up is just grabbing a position flexible guy who doesn't hurt you defensively who just had his best minor league season (compared to league average) in pro ball. It's a low cost bet that there was a real change made and if not, he's an easy DFA. 

[Tx Oriole]

1 hour ago, SteveA said:

And those are?   (I don't see a thread about them).

Neither did I.