Davis. What do you see different with him?

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

[Chavez Ravine]

On 3/6/2020 at 10:27 AM, makoman said:

He has to 1) be capable of judging bat speed and exit velocity based only on his eyes, and 2) be capable of comparing that to his memory of what Davis's bat speed and exit velocity looked like back when Davis was good, so at least 3 years ago, depending on what he meant by good. 

I am confident that weams fully believes what he's saying, but I'm not buying that he's that skilled, no offense intended. Unless he's just saying "Davis doesn't look as good as 2013 Davis," and that more general type of statement I could buy.

MLB hitters judge stuff way harder than that using just just their eyes over the span of a couple seconds (well, the Astros might have had some help). The “eye test” is often pretty good.it often sucks. After a few more months of data we can quantitatively decide the degree to which 2020 Davis did or did not match the mean assemble projections. In March, with a guy we are already paying, I think Weams’ eye is as good as anything.

[Frobby]

Long discussion of Davis’ good spring here:  https://blogs.fangraphs.com/spring-training-stats-only-almost-mean-nothing/

[Moose Milligan]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Long discussion of Davis’ good spring here:  https://blogs.fangraphs.com/spring-training-stats-only-almost-mean-nothing/

Quote

Maybe spring is just the time when Davis has always come alive? Nope. Last year at this time, Davis was in the middle of an entirely ignorable training camp, putting together a 7-for-37 spring (the same amount of hits he had by Tuesday) with 19 strikeouts as the prologue to a regular season that would see him hit .179 in 105 games. In only 12 of those games would he play all nine innings and not log a strikeout. He wore the golden sombrero three times. Departing Sarasota for Baltimore, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde had slotted Davis in the seven-hole for the first game of the season, saying he wanted to get the only former All-Star in his offense off to a good start by putting as little pressure on him as possible. Davis struck out three times and was benched after the opener.

The article doesn't do a deep dive into why he's performing well this spring, they're just taking note that he is doing better.  Frobby, I do believe you pointed out earlier that he was as terrible in ST last year as he was in the regular season.

There's some reason for optimism though, and that's good.  He hasn't looked this good, ST or regular season at any point in the past few years so maybe there's some hope.  It'd be quite a story if he could get back on track.  

[weams]

On 3/6/2020 at 12:59 PM, jabba72 said:

I haven't watched any ST games, so im going solely off of Weams...but I do trust his take on Davis. 

It's probably best to. Though he has been walking!

[weams]

On 3/8/2020 at 11:43 PM, Chavez Ravine said:

MLB hitters judge stuff way harder than that using just just their eyes over the span of a couple seconds (well, the Astros might have had some help). The “eye test” is often pretty good.it often sucks. After a few more months of data we can quantitatively decide the degree to which 2020 Davis did or did not match the mean assemble projections. In March, with a guy we are already paying, I think Weams’ eye is as good as anything.

He looks bigger. He is standing upright again. His swing seems just as slow. He seems to lose the ball middle in visually. I even wore the Crush shirt the other day. Did not change much. These aren't majestic shots out to the alligators.  He did not even hit Boog's. In his defense, I think he has decided on a pitch that he will look for and swing at and when he does not get it it, he walks off these spring training pitchers. We have not been facing Shane Bieber. 

[weams]

On 3/6/2020 at 1:27 PM, makoman said:

He has to 1) be capable of judging bat speed and exit velocity based only on his eyes, and 2) be capable of comparing that to his memory of what Davis's bat speed and exit velocity looked like back when Davis was good, so at least 3 years ago, depending on what he meant by good. 

I am confident that weams fully believes what he's saying, but I'm not buying that he's that skilled, no offense intended. Unless he's just saying "Davis doesn't look as good as 2013 Davis," and that more general type of statement I could buy.

I'm not that skilled. But he sure swings and misses in a very similar way. 

[weams]

His first pull side here.