Update: Chris Davis missed two games with sinus infection, has recovered

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, weams said:

Nor should anyone have. There has been no need for roster room whatsoever. This is not a competitive team nor has it been during the Mike Elias ERA of baseball operations control. 

Odd capitalization choice.

[MurphDogg]

19 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

You think someone has to "play well" or "hit like a major leaguer" to be as good or better an option than Chris Davis?

To be a better option, yeah. I'm not interested in cutting Davis and then paying someone else to be as good of an option as Davis.

Davis has shown stretches of competence and looked good in Spring Training.

You can carve up his 2019 season into reasonable and awful stretches.

2019

First 14 games - 38 plate appearances (.000/.132/.000)

Next 25 games - 85 plate appearances (.273/.341/.506)

Next 18 games - 60 plate appearances (.093/.183/.130)

Next 25 games - 83 plate appearances (.253/.313/.440)

Next 14 games - 42 plate appearances (.063/.238/.094)

Final 11 games - 44 plate appearances (.222/.364/.500)

 

Those are not normal slumps, he hit worse than a pitcher for 14, 18 and 14 game stretches. If the awful stretches were merely mediocre, rather than sub-pitcher level, he wouldn't be a total disaster.

I liked his approach in the Boston series although he only got the one hit and he looked good in spring training.

I wouldn't be comfortable cutting him unless and until the other options were clearly better than him since they have to pay him either way. I am not convinced that Stewart, Mountcastle, Rio Ruiz and even Santander are all there yet.

[scOtt]

2 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

You think someone has to "play well" or "hit like a major leaguer" to be as good or better an option than Chris Davis?

Mountcastle will strike out more and walk less than Davis.

And Elias has made it clear many times he's going to play LF. At least primarily. So except for the roster spot, Davis isn't the one blocking him.

[Can_of_corn]

11 minutes ago, scOtt said:

Mountcastle will strike out more and walk less than Davis.

And Elias has made it clear many times he's going to play LF. At least primarily. So except for the roster spot, Davis isn't the one blocking him.

You think Mountcastle is going to strike out more than late career Davis?

He had 139K in 307 at bats in 2019.

[scOtt]

10 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

You think Mountcastle is going to strike out more than late career Davis?

He had 139K in 307 at bats in 2019.

I think he might. Ryan had 130 in 553 PA at Norfolk last year. Either way I don't think he's a huge improvement.

 

edit: And to preface that, of course he's much more of a prospect than Davis is a good player. I'm not down on him. Not his hitting at least. I think he's going to struggle at first, maybe all his ML time this year. He'll get there eventually.

I'm just down on his defensive value. He's not great if he's only a DH.

[MurphDogg]

14 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

You think Mountcastle is going to strike out more than late career Davis?

He had 139K in 307 at bats in 2019.

Davis struck out more in the minors than Mountcastle did, and Davis was in the minors at a time when strikeouts were considered less acceptable than they are now.

Davis struck out 497 times in 2020 minor league plate appearances, 24.6% rate

Mountcastle has struck out 446 times in 2217 minor league plate appearances, 20.1% rate.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

Davis struck out more in the minors than Mountcastle did, and Davis was in the minors at a time when strikeouts were considered less acceptable than they are now.

Davis struck out 497 times in 2020 minor league plate appearances, 24.6% rate

Mountcastle has struck out 446 times in 2217 minor league plate appearances, 20.1% rate.

From what I've seen Mountcastle has clearly superior bat to ball skills.

[scOtt]

2 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

From what I've seen Mountcastle has clearly superior bat to ball skills.

I'll defer to you guys. I haven't seen him. Couple ST ABs this year.

[HowAboutThat]

Davis is here until he isn’t. It’s moot how he performs because his performance has nothing to do with his presence.

Meanwhile, Mountcastle’s limitations are well known. We shall see whether his virtues overcome them. It’s pretty annoying he’s not here right now, but if he needs 8 days for an extra year of control, I think that happens in the next day or so, so we will see him then, and put paid to the Smith Jr experience.

Edited July 30, 2020 by Philip

[interloper]

I hope all is well with Davis. I'm assuming COVID related things until we hear otherwise, as that was the process with Santander and Smith.

[makoman]

5 minutes ago, interloper said:

I hope all is well with Davis. I'm assuming COVID related things until we hear otherwise, as that was the process with Santander and Smith.

[spiritof66]

4 hours ago, Frobby said:

Meh.   This is Chris Davis we’re talking about, and the 2020 Orioles.    It’s not like Mike Trout suddenly decided to skip a day in the waning days of a September pennant race.    I really couldn’t care less if Davis needs to skip a game.

I don't care if he misses one or 10 or 60. That's not the point. I think the fans who support the sport, even if we can't buy tickets right now, deserve to know a little more about what's going on with players who are absent and if it's feasible the expected length of the absence, whether the player is Gerrit Cole or David Hess. 

[SteveA]

2 minutes ago, spiritof66 said:

I don't care if he misses one or 10 or 60. That's not the point. I think the fans who support the sport, even if we can't buy tickets right now, deserve to know a little more about what's going on with players who are absent and if it's feasible the expected length of the absence, whether the player is Gerrit Cole or David Hess. 

There are medical LAWS that make that possible.   Instead of complaining on a message board, write your Congressman and get rid of those pesky laws that allow people to have privacy about their medical condition.

And as we know with game injuries, the expected length of the absence often turns out to be wrong anyway.   How often has the first diagnosis been soreness that will go away in a few days, and a week later we find out they need Tommy John surgery.   So it's not like we get accurate predictions of the future for game related injuries either.

[accinfo]

No one here has said it but could Chris Davis have failed a drug test?  I am not saying he has but it has been something I have thought about since he has put on this extra weight this year.

 

[backwardsk]

5 minutes ago, accinfo said:

No one here has said it but could Chris Davis have failed a drug test?  I am not saying he has but it has been something I have thought about since he has put on this extra weight this year.

 

You’d think that, if that were the case, we’d hear something from MLB by now.