Davis. What do you see different with him?

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

You know, I would have said this as well until I looked up his stats. He's been less and less pull happy since 2015 and his power his dropped as well.
           Pull %      HR
2015: 54.9%      47
2016: 40.6%      38
2017: 40.0%      26
2018:  37.6%     16 
2019:  36.8%     12

Never would have guessed.  

Well, then I dunno.  Doesn't give me confidence that this uptick is for real.

[Hallas]

45 minutes ago, Redskins Rick said:

He is swinging with his whole body, and I think he was shocked at how much his hip was impacting his ability to twist.

Sometimes when we lose something gradual, we dont notice the difference.

Personally, I think its a combination of things.

He was given a set of goals to accomplish over the off season, and apparently this has corrected one of the issue.

I say some of it is mental, you lose confidence in your own ability, maybe try to much, maybe over think things too much.

He is looking more like himself at the plate.

Is this permanent? Way to soon.

Wonder what happens, when during the regular season, he hits his first slump. Does it knock him off his confidence for the entire season???????

 

Did he say something about his hip?  That would affect his pull rate, for sure.

[DrungoHazewood]

4 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Never would have guessed.  

Well, then I dunno.  Doesn't give me confidence that this uptick is for real.

My assumption is that nothing is different until it is.  He's still unplayable.

But... most of my assumptions are based on data, on information.  I don't know that there has ever been another case of a player completely and totally losing the ability to hit for multiple seasons and then being asked to come back and try again.  Perhaps others would have recovered if only they'd been given 1500 PAs to try.  I doubt it, but maybe?

[Hallas]

7 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

My assumption is that nothing is different until it is.  He's still unplayable.

But... most of my assumptions are based on data, on information.  I don't know that there has ever been another case of a player completely and totally losing the ability to hit for multiple seasons and then being asked to come back and try again.  Perhaps others would have recovered if only they'd been given 1500 PAs to try.  I doubt it, but maybe?

I posted this before, but I'm willing to entertain the possibility that he's recovered some of his past magic if he mashes for the entire spring.  At least with Davis, spring performance seems to have correlated reasonably well with full-season performance.  I'm not going to discount his past 2 years entirely, but if he ends Spring with a 1.000 OPS I'd at least be cautiously optimistic that he might be north of .800 for the regular season.

[Moose Milligan]

7 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

My assumption is that nothing is different until it is.  He's still unplayable.

But... most of my assumptions are based on data, on information.  I don't know that there has ever been another case of a player completely and totally losing the ability to hit for multiple seasons and then being asked to come back and try again.  Perhaps others would have recovered if only they'd been given 1500 PAs to try.  I doubt it, but maybe?

I agree on your assumption.

And...I can't really think of one that fits that bill.  Obviously injuries, thats a different story.  But that's not the case here.  

[jamalshw]

1 hour ago, Sir_Loin said:

He said he was hoping that losing the weight and being more flexible/agile would help him prolong his career. Seemed like he was scared of ending his career early because of his big frame/weight etc. Maybe he though it would break down his knees earlier or cause an injury? At his age one injury could do you in for your career if its tendons in the knee.

I wonder if the old regime got into his head after he resigned as a Free Agent. It was clear that the signing was Angelos and not DD and company. I wonder if their biggest concern was health and they communicated that to him when he was signed. It wouldn't surprise me.

In any case, it's at least encouraging to think he has a chance (albeit remote) to not be a complete waste of a roster spot even if he's still going to be vastly overpaid. Honestly, I'll be happy if he can get back to being a replacement level player. 

[Redskins Rick]

22 minutes ago, Hallas said:

Did he say something about his hip?  That would affect his pull rate, for sure.

It was mentioned last week by Roch and here in OH.

[MongoBoy]

2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

This is where I'm at.  I haven't seen him either (thanks for broadcasting, like, 7 preseason games, MASN!). 

Don't understand this sentence.  Is MASN showing any, or none at all, or only a few?

[DrungoHazewood]

14 minutes ago, Hallas said:

I posted this before, but I'm willing to entertain the possibility that he's recovered some of his past magic if he mashes for the entire spring.  At least with Davis, spring performance seems to have correlated reasonably well with full-season performance.  I'm not going to discount his past 2 years entirely, but if he ends Spring with a 1.000 OPS I'd at least be cautiously optimistic that he might be north of .800 for the regular season.

The one thing in spring data that has some real-ness is slugging.  I have seen studies that show some correlation, at least slight, that massive jumps in power in the spring tend to carry over.  So if Davis slugs .600 in the spring after slugging .326 last year I'd have some faith that will carry over, at least to some degree.

[Tony-OH]

21 minutes ago, Hallas said:

I posted this before, but I'm willing to entertain the possibility that he's recovered some of his past magic if he mashes for the entire spring.  At least with Davis, spring performance seems to have correlated reasonably well with full-season performance.  I'm not going to discount his past 2 years entirely, but if he ends Spring with a 1.000 OPS I'd at least be cautiously optimistic that he might be north of .800 for the regular season.

There is nothing he can do in spring training that can convince me he's "fixed". If we're a month into the season and still hitting like the old Chris Davis, I'll start to think he found the same genie that made him good before.

[Moose Milligan]

13 minutes ago, MongoBoy said:

Don't understand this sentence.  Is MASN showing any, or none at all, or only a few?

They're showing a select few.  IIRC they're only showing like 2 or 3 more after this.

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

I get that, but you can still be flexible and have strength.  And, IMO, he was one of the better fielding first baseman around, he was plenty agile.  Just seems odd that he'd want to get away from strength when it's what landed him that big contract.

I don’t think it’s something he did immediately.    It’s something he did as a reaction to struggling.    And it did help him defensively, if you compare 2018 to 2019.    Incidentally, spring 2019 was the first time I heard him say he’d slimmed down on purpose (that winter).    He might have done it before then, but he never said so at the time.

[turtlebowl]

8 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

You know, I would have said this as well until I looked up his stats. He's been less and less pull happy since 2015 and his power his dropped as well.
           Pull %      HR
2015: 54.9%      47
2016: 40.6%      38
2017: 40.0%      26
2018:  37.6%     16 
2019:  36.8%     12

This likely says a lot.  Davis had lost so much bat speed over the last several of years that you could see him at times cheating on the fastball yet he still wasn't able to get the bat head out in front to pull the ball with authority.  I would guess that many of the balls put in play to the right side the last couple of years were on off speed pitches where he rolled over.  

I know in your earlier post you were curious why Davis would try to lose weight after having success and getting a large contract.  I kind of read a little sarcasm  but I could of been misinterpreting.  I will say it though,  only one thing seems to make sense and it does involve the S word.  How many guys did we see during the steroid era go from hulking figures to losing a bunch of weight and along with that, the power numbers shrunk also.  If something is working (and legal) why change anything?  Maybe he gained the weight and muscle back this winter honestly and maybe that is helping his confidence this spring.  You do have to wonder though if he just figured he can't do it without the help so at this point he has nothing to lose?  He admittedly said he had discussions about quitting so if he does go the illegal route and gets caught it ends up the same result, he quits baseball. However with cheating there is that chance that he becomes Crush again and continues playing the game he loves.  Desperate people can take desperate measures. 

I know this is a lot of speculation but it has some merit to it just from what we have seen over the last few years.  Ultimately though I hope I'm wrong on all accounts and Chris just turns his career around without doing anything that is considered cheating.  Doesn't happen very often but it would be a good story.

[wildcard]

Davis looks like he is seeing the ball better.   Not swinging at balls.   Not leaving the bat on his shoulder.   Looks like he is ready to hit.   The extra weight helps him when he makes contact.  

[SteveA]

38 minutes ago, MongoBoy said:

Don't understand this sentence.  Is MASN showing any, or none at all, or only a few?

They're showing 7 games this spring.

All the info is here: