Orioles defense so far by Statcast

[Tony-OH]

18 games into the season I thought it was a good idea to look at some early returns on the Orioles defense this year. Note Outs Above Average is a culminative stats so the more a player plays the better chance they have adding or being negative with OAA.

The two surprises for me is how well Ruiz has done at 2B with no experience basically, and how poorly Hays has done so far, albeit in limited play. I expect Hays to even out as the year goes on if he stays healthy. Franco and Mountcastle have been unmitigated disasters at their positions with Mountcastle already moved to DH or 1B before Santander injury. The catchers are just as poor as we thought framing wise. They are two worse catchers for strike percentage (in those edge zones) so far if you go with 150 pitches caught or more.

Above average fielders
Player                 POS         Runs Prevented     OAA      Success added
Santander          RF                    1                         1                    4%
Mullins               CF                    1                         1                    3%
Mancini              1B                    1                         1                    3%
Ruiz                    2B                    0                          1                    1%

Average Fielders
Urius                  2B                    0                          0                     0%
Galvis                SS                    0                          0                     0% 

Below average Fielders
Stewart             OF                  -1                          -1                     -6%
Hays                  OF                  -1                          -1                     -8%
Mountcastle    OF                  -2                           -2                     -18%  (Worse success added in MLB)
Franco              3B                   -3                          -4                     -7%  (2nd worse in MLB at 3B for OAA, tied for worse in success added)

Catcher Framing             Runs extra strikes                               Strike percentage             
Severino                                     -1 (Tied for worse in league)           40.8%     (Worse in MLB for catchers who have caught 150 or more pitches)                       
Sisco                                            0                                                         41.7%      (2nd worse in MLB for catchers who have caught 150 or more pitches)

 

[Ripken]

I think AR should be here now.  Let him work on offense at this level while being a good catcher.  But, that's not the [control] plan and all that.  Whatever.  And, yeah, he'd struggle with the stick.  Don't care.

[ScGO's]

9 minutes ago, Ripken said:

I think AR should be here now.  Let him work on offense at this level while being a good catcher.  But, that's not the [control] plan and all that.  Whatever.  And, yeah, he'd struggle with the stick.  Don't care.

If not him, cut one and bring up Wynns.

Franco has not impressed me at 3B.  Ruiz to 3B, Urias to 2B in the later innings?

[Morgan423]

20 minutes ago, ScGO's said:

If not him, cut one and bring up Wynns.

Franco has not impressed me at 3B.  Ruiz to 3B, Urias to 2B in the later innings?

Wynns has yet to impress me.   Maybe that's because he made one of the worst defensive plays I have ever seen in my entire lifetime a couple of seasons ago, and that is huge negativity bias in my assessment of him.

[Moose Milligan]

44 minutes ago, Ripken said:

I think AR should be here now.  Let him work on offense at this level while being a good catcher.  But, that's not the [control] plan and all that.  Whatever.  And, yeah, he'd struggle with the stick.  Don't care.

I'm into it.  I'm tired of watching Severino not being able to catch/block.  

[jabba72]

Nothing really sticks out so far. Mullins and Santander both had strong years defensively last season that has carried over. Hyde is still giving Mountcastle starts in LF, and he had a nice relay on a single last night. The infield is poor as probably expected. Its a basement bargain infield, besides 1B. 

[Frobby]

Remember that Hays has only played 5 games (less, really, as he was removed pretty early in Game 3 after his injury).   In one of the Boston games, he lost a ball in the sun and it landed about five feet away from him.   That one play is probably enough to put him in the below average category in such a small sample.   
 

[Tony-OH]

9 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Remember that Hays has only played 5 games (less, really, as he was removed pretty early in Game 3 after his injury).   In one of the Boston games, he lost a ball in the sun and it landed about five feet away from him.   That one play is probably enough to put him in the below average category in such a small sample.   
 

Agreed, which is why I said I expect it to come around.

[NCRaven]

I'm assuming Severino and Sisco are what they are at this point.  But, Mountcastle has virtually zero experience in the outfield and I do expect him to get better and hate the idea of DH'ing him so much.

[Just Regular]

We are 25th on the Team list, but hey, we are 3rd in the division with Red Sox and Blue Jays lagging even more.

Rays with their platoon batters who can field for 2% pay more than the MLB minimum riding 2nd in MLB to those athletic Marlins.

Gleyber's Yankees are 21st.   

Perhaps slightly promisingly for the long term competition, Bichette is down with Eugenio Suarez at the bottom of SS in the early going.

[Tony-OH]

19 minutes ago, NCRaven said:

I'm assuming Severino and Sisco are what they are at this point.  But, Mountcastle has virtually zero experience in the outfield and I do expect him to get better and hate the idea of DH'ing him so much.

It is hard to give up on him playing left field effectively, and maybe his early mistakes were just that, early mistakes, but basically he's been awful outside of 1 star catches.

[Sports Guy]

27 minutes ago, NCRaven said:

I'm assuming Severino and Sisco are what they are at this point.  But, Mountcastle has virtually zero experience in the outfield and I do expect him to get better and hate the idea of DH'ing him so much.

I don’t disagree but the bottom line is his future is not in the OF if things go right.

His future is at first or DH.

The better question, imo, is should we be playing him at first and DH Trey a lot more often?  Mountcastle is obviously the player more likely to be here long term, so if that is his long term position, why not put him there now?

Of course, you also could just trade him.  He is a player I felt should have been traded over the years because of this exact discussion.

[Philip]

13 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

It is hard to give up on him playing left field effectively, and maybe his early mistakes were just that, early mistakes, but basically he's been awful outside of 1 star catches.

Why is it hard to give up on him in left? He’s terrible. Everybody, all the scouting reports I’ve ever read on him complained about his defense and said he would eventually end up in left or at first. All he has done is just confirm what everybody has seen all along.

Mwanwhile the apologists for Sisco have a smaller ledge on which to stand now. Please dump one or both and bring up guys who can at least defend.

Finally, Tony, thank you very much for sharing this info.

[Philip]

8 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

I don’t disagree but the bottom line is his future is not in the OF if things go right.

His future is at first or DH.

The better question, imo, is should we be playing him at first and DH Trey a lot more often?  Mountcastle is obviously the player more likely to be here long term, so if that is his long term position, why not put him there now?

Of course, you also could just trade him.  He is a player I felt should have been traded over the years because of this exact discussion.

MC has no trade value. Everybody would claim him off waivers, or trade cash considerations for him, but nobody’s going to give anything meaningful for him

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, Philip said:

MC has no trade value. Everybody would claim him off waivers, or trade cash considerations for him, but nobody’s going to give anything meaningful for him

Are you talking about Mountcastle?  

If so, this is the most foolish thing I have seen on this site.