Hanser Alberto’s season

[jamalshw]

Is it an either/or argument with Valaika and Alberto? And does it have to be? I get Rio Ruiz is a year and a half younger and I don't believe he's arbitration eligible until 2022, but I'm not sure he's an answer moving forward either and thus, does he hold on to his spot? The money is, obviously, a factor, but it should be interesting to see what happens this offseason. We should see a real shake up in the 40-man roster to make room for some good prospects that need protecting. I think we've taken a nice step forward in the rebuilding process where we are now at the point where we have a roster crunch. In the end, I hope that roster crunch doesn't nab any of the aforementioned players ahead of Davis.

 

[interloper]

41 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

It depends on if being competitive is a goal for next season.  If the plan is to secure another high draft pick then it doesn't matter.

I don't think having Alberto really affects whether or not the O's are competitive or not. At least not drastically. I just think they don't really have the depth at those positions unless they want to field a bunch of Martin/Velazquez types which would be incredibly boring offense-wise. 

Rylan will hopefully push next year, but there are no other 2B or 3B prospects that are close. 

[Can_of_corn]

14 minutes ago, interloper said:

I don't think having Alberto really affects whether or not the O's are competitive or not. At least not drastically. I just think they don't really have the depth at those positions unless they want to field a bunch of Martin/Velazquez types which would be incredibly boring offense-wise. 

Rylan will hopefully push next year, but there are no other 2B or 3B prospects that are close. 

Sure, I'll agree that it isn't as cut and dried as I said.

What I meant was that if you goal is to be competitive you don't balk at paying 3M for a Hanser Alberto and instead pay league minimum for a guy you hope is as productive.

If the goal is to keep payroll as low as possible and secure another top pick you let him go.

[DrungoHazewood]

3 hours ago, wildcard said:

When Valaika has gotten regular playing time in the majors he has done pretty well.

In 2017 he got 195 PAs and had an 817 OPS.  Most the those PAs were when Story was injured so Valaika was playing fairly regularly during that period.

In 2020 he played pretty regularly, got 150 PAs and  had a 791 OPS.    In the other years he did not get regular playing time and that is reflected in his offense numbers.

As a utility player he has played many positions thus the lower overall fielding rate.  But if you look at how he has preformed at 2B the fielding rate is higher than Alberto at 2B.

There is reason to be believe that Valaika given regular playing time will perform well.  Its appears he will perform better than Alberto has in the last two years.

I am always skeptical of breaking down already relatively small samples into smaller samples and trying to discern trends and make projections based on a 100 PAs here, 200 PAs there.  You're almost always better off assuming that career marks will be where the player ends up.

Also, if consistent playing time drives better performances, in the minors Valaika played 136 games/589 PAs in 2016 split between AA and AAA.  He OPS'd .722 with a .297 OBP.  In 2015 in AA he played 124 games/512 PAs, .642 OPS. 

[wildcard]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I am always skeptical of breaking down already relatively small samples into smaller samples and trying to discern trends and make projections based on a 100 PAs here, 200 PAs there.  You're almost always better off assuming that career marks will be where the player ends up.

Also, if consistent playing time drives better performances, in the minors Valaika played 136 games/589 PAs in 2016 split between AA and AAA.  He OPS'd .722 with a .297 OBP.  In 2015 in AA he played 124 games/512 PAs, .642 OPS. 

He had a 320/364/589/952 in 2019 in 383 PAs in the PCL.  While I would discount any numbers from the PCL I would certainly think Valaika did a lot better that a 642 OPS that you pointed out and this is more current then the 2014 data.