Iglesias signs with O's

[Tony-OH]

2 hours ago, interloper said:

I remember in the post-Tejada years when the Orioles simply could not find a SS. There just weren't any! They tried guys Luis Hernandez, Freddie Bynum, Cesar Izturis (certainly the most competent of this group), Brandon Fahey (!!), Alex Cintron, etc. 

The pitch black dark days of Orioles shortstops!

 

[interloper]

1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

The pitch black dark days of Orioles shortstops!

 

Imagine if a guy like Iglesias had been available for a mere $3m then. We would have been ecstatic.

[Tony-OH]

4 hours ago, interloper said:

What I like is this makes the lineup pretty watchable on a nightly basis. It removes one "auto-out" in Martin (I still love ya Richie) and leaves essentially just one in Davis, who at some point in the season will cease to play every day (again). 

I could see a lineup like this, give or take:

Hays - CF
Alberto - 2B
Mancini - RF
Nunez - DH
Santander - LF
Davis - 1B
Iglesias - SS
Ruiz - 3B
Severino - C

Not that this lineup won't struggle a ton - it will. But it's not hideous. Alberto, Iglesias, and Ruiz all make decent contact even though they lack power/on-base ability. And there's a good amount of pop in there - there exists the possibility of Mancini, Santander, and Nunez all popping 30 if things break right. 

It'll be even more watchable to you as soon Mountcastle joins the team somewhere in mid-late April.

[interloper]

25 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

It'll be more watchable to you as soon Mountcastle joins the team somewhere in mid-late April.

Absolutely.

[Ruzious]

I like the signing.  My only question is - Why didn't the O's sign him last year when the market was so dry for him that he agreed to a minor league deal in February with the Reds?  And he was coming off an 88 OPS+ season - better than the 85 OPS+ he had last season.  

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Ruzious said:

I like the signing.  My only question is - Why didn't the O's sign him last year when the market was so dry for him that he agreed to a minor league deal in February with the Reds?  And he was coming off an 88 OPS+ season - better than the 85 OPS+ he had last season.  

My guess is he didn't have the funds available.

[Spl51]

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/infield_outs_above_average

Iglesias was the 9th best defensive infielder in the MLB and 6th best shortstop last season according the new statcast defensive value metric for infielders.

 

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/infield-defense?year=2019&team=BAL&range=year&min=10&pos=&roles=&viz=show

It really didn't like Villar last year, but it did like Alberto.

[Tony-OH]

11 minutes ago, Spl51 said:

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/infield_outs_above_average

Iglesias was the 9th best defensive infielder in the MLB and 6th best shortstop last season according the new statcast defensive value metric for infielders.

 

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/infield-defense?year=2019&team=BAL&range=year&min=10&pos=&roles=&viz=show

It really didn't like Villar last year, but it did like Alberto.

First off, thanks for showing me the infield metrics are finally available! This is awesome..

Saying that, the -5 OAA for Richie Martin shows that the statcast metrics agrees with the traditional metrics on his defense last year. At first glance of the data, it appears his arm side (in the hole) was his weakness which is honestly a little surprising based off my eye test. 

This explains why they went out and got Iglesis for defense.

Interesting stuff though. Now my evening will get wasted looking over this new data!

[Spl51]

Just now, Tony-OH said:

First off, thanks for showing me the infield metrics are finally available! This is awesome..

Saying that, the -5 OAA for Richie Martin shows that the statcast metrics agrees with the traditional metrics on his defense last year. At first glance of the data, it appears his arm side (in the hole) was his weakness which is honestly a little surprising based off my eye test. 

This explains why they went out and got Iglesis for defense.

Interesting stuff though. Now my evening will get wasted looking over this new data!

A lot of young players like Tatis are getting graded pretty poorly. -9 of Tatis's -14 OAA was from errors, mostly throwing errors, they seem to weigh pretty heavily in this metric. Martin certainly made more than a few rookie mistakes.

[7Mo]

1 hour ago, Ruzious said:

I like the signing.  My only question is - Why didn't the O's sign him last year when the market was so dry for him that he agreed to a minor league deal in February with the Reds?  And he was coming off an 88 OPS+ season - better than the 85 OPS+ he had last season.  

I've seen articles suggesting that when they checked on him last year, he carried a reputation for being a problem in the clubhouse. This year, the narrative was that he'd changed and was a positive in the clubhouse. 

[sportsfan8703]

4 hours ago, interloper said:

What I like is this makes the lineup pretty watchable on a nightly basis. It removes one "auto-out" in Martin (I still love ya Richie) and leaves essentially just one in Davis, who at some point in the season will cease to play every day (again). 

I could see a lineup like this, give or take:

Hays - CF
Alberto - 2B
Mancini - RF
Nunez - DH
Santander - LF
Davis - 1B
Iglesias - SS
Ruiz - 3B
Severino - C

Not that this lineup won't struggle a ton - it will. But it's not hideous. Alberto, Iglesias, and Ruiz all make decent contact even though they lack power/on-base ability. And there's a good amount of pop in there - there exists the possibility of Mancini, Santander, and Nunez all popping 30 if things break right. 

Unless Davis really shows something in ST I think we see Mancini at 1B and Smith in LF to start the season.  Whatever time that Mountcastle is being held down for needs to be used to evaluate Smith and Stewart(once healed).  

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, Ruzious said:

I like the signing.  My only question is - Why didn't the O's sign him last year when the market was so dry for him that he agreed to a minor league deal in February with the Reds?  And he was coming off an 88 OPS+ season - better than the 85 OPS+ he had last season.  

I’ve read some reports that he had a reputation as a bad clubhouse guy in Detroit, but that he was well regarded in Cincinnati last year in that respect.    That may have had something to do with it.   Also, the O’s may have had more interest in giving Richie Martin a full opportunity to play last year compared to this one.  
 

Edit: I see 7Mo beat me to the punch on the clubhouse rep point.  

[interloper]

53 minutes ago, 7Mo said:

I've seen articles suggesting that when they checked on him last year, he carried a reputation for being a problem in the clubhouse. This year, the narrative was that he'd changed and was a positive in the clubhouse. 

His quotes in the Roch article were really, really good. The epitome of "saying the right thing". Seems to me the clubhouse thing was really overblown, but we'll see. 

[SteveA]

3 hours ago, Ruzious said:

I like the signing.  My only question is - Why didn't the O's sign him last year when the market was so dry for him that he agreed to a minor league deal in February with the Reds?  And he was coming off an 88 OPS+ season - better than the 85 OPS+ he had last season.  

We had chosen Richie Martin in the Rule 5 draft and were giving him the shot in a season where we weren't going anywhere anyway.

I don't think anyone thought his bat would be QUITE as bad as it was in the first half.

[NCRaven]

4 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

It'll be even more watchable to you as soon Mountcastle joins the team somewhere in mid-late April.

Mountcastle to 1B and Davis to the bench or off the roster?  Or, Mountcastle to LF; Santander to RF; Mancini to 1B and Davis to the bench or off the roster?  Or Davis or Mancini replacing Nunez as DH?  Seems to me that the two players most likely to be affected by Mountcastle are Davis and Nunez, unless Mancini is traded.  Promoting Mountcastle has the potential to affect the roster in lots of different ways.