Richie Martin's range and arm

[wildcard]

4 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Martin booted a hot one-hopper hit straight at him, and was charged with his second error in three games.   He also failed to field another hot one-hopper cleanly, but was able to recover in time to throw out the runner.   

So you want Valaika back playing SS?   I say give Martin and Mateo time.   They may not hit.  They may commit errors.  But the also may benefit from play regularly at SS and 2B and turn into solid players.   Time will tell.

[Frobby]

7 hours ago, wildcard said:

So you want Valaika back playing SS?   I say give Martin and Mateo time.   They may not hit.  They may commit errors.  But the also may benefit from play regularly at SS and 2B and turn into solid players.   Time will tell.

All i did was report the fact of what happened.   I didn’t imply anything.   

[LA2]

54 minutes ago, Frobby said:

All i did was report the fact of what happened.   I didn’t imply anything.   

I guess he would have understood better if the report was in the Defense thread. People recently getting touchy about small things, it seems. It's a last-place team and the easy part of the schedule is over.

[interloper]

Has anyone gotten a good look at his batting stance so far? I don't know if we've seen a guy tinker with his stance this much since Cal. It's completely different from his 2019 stance, but it doesn't look like it would do anyone any favors at the plate.

He sets up deliberately relaxed, but awkwardly kind of leaning back with the bat on his shoulder (sometimes even this part is slightly different each time), then straightens up as the pitcher winds up and raises the bat, then kind of bends his knees and swings. It's got like 3 phases. I'm not sure why folks don't just look at Cedric Mullins and the simplicity of his swing and just emulate that. 

Anyway, Martin hasn't been too bad at the plate since coming up, but man. That's a fugly swing! 

[OriolesMagic83]

On 8/5/2021 at 6:22 AM, maybenxtyr said:

He will probably not hit enough to be a ML regular at any position. That being said, I think he should get as many starts as possible the rest of the season because he may be the best defensive option at SS. He could carve out a career as a utility guy for sure.

The O's have about 10 toolsy utility guys.  They need 1, at the most 2.  If the O's put all these "toolsy" guys on waivers, would any of them get claimed?

[HowAboutThat]

30 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

The O's have about 10 toolsy utility guys.  They need 1, at the most 2.  If the O's put all these "toolsy" guys on waivers, would any of them get claimed?

Did anyone claim Valaika?

[interloper]

1 minute ago, Philip said:

Did anyone claim Valaika?

Valaika is not young or toolsy.
 

Mateo and Martin would absolutely be claimed. Urias isn't as toolsy, but he's a perfectly good UIF on the younger side that plenty of teams would want. 

[HowAboutThat]

Just now, interloper said:

Valaika is not young or toolsy.
 

Mateo and Martin would absolutely be claimed. Urias isn't as toolsy, but he's a perfectly good UIF on the younger side that plenty of teams would want. 

No disagreement. I continue to believe that Martin has value, and I certainly think he’s better than the fools who have danced around the infield so far.

Mateo is fast and I’m happy to let him have the rest of the season, but I want to get rid of Franco.

[Ruzious]

Martin's a talented player, but he needs to cut down on the mistakes - not just on defense but also running the bases.  For a very fast runner, he's not a good baserunner.  The recent time he did a pop-up slide at 3rd base was a prime of example of what you should never do when you've easily beaten a throw.  The 3rd baseman kept his glove on him and got the out only because Martin bounced off the bag.  We would have had runners at 1st and 3rd with no outs.  

[Frobby]

I hate to say it, but I just don’t see consistently good defense from Martin.  Today he double clutched a routine DP grounder so we only got the force at 2B. Made an error Friday night, his 3rd in 14 games (now 15).    OPS < .600 and the glove doesn’t justify it.  

[Aristotelian]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

I hate to say it, but I just don’t see consistently good defense from Martin.  Today he double clutched a routine DP grounder so we only got the force at 2B. Made an error Friday night, his 3rd in 14 games (now 15).    OPS < .600 and the glove doesn’t justify it.  

To be fair one of his errors was actually a plus plus play where Franco missed a pretty easy pick.

[Il BuonO]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

I hate to say it, but I just don’t see consistently good defense from Martin.  Today he double clutched a routine DP grounder so we only got the force at 2B. Made an error Friday night, his 3rd in 14 games (now 15).    OPS < .600 and the glove doesn’t justify it.  

Agreed. He has the athleticism to make a spectacular play, but often blows a routine play. Don’t like his approach at the plate, he looks uncomfortable and stiff in his stance.

[Ripken]

We all have those players we really like, or don't, for whatever reason.  I think Martin sucks.  Sorry.  Good kid and all... but to me there's nothing about him that looks like (or ever will) a major league player.  Nothing.  I'd release him today and never look back.  Whatever.

[glenn__davis]

58 minutes ago, Ripken said:

We all have those players we really like, or don't, for whatever reason.  I think Martin sucks.  Sorry.  Good kid and all... but to me there's nothing about him that looks like (or ever will) a major league player.  Nothing.  I'd release him today and never look back.  Whatever.

Haha, was thinking the same thing. Martin definitely has his share of fans on here, and I'm certainly not gonna tell them that they're wrong, but I just don't get it.  He can't hit and never has. He can play SS ok but not exceptionally so.  I agree, I'd have no issues if he were released tomorrow.  He's no consideration for me for the future. 

But to each their own. 

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, glenn__davis said:

Haha, was thinking the same thing. Martin definitely has his share of fans on here, and I'm certainly not gonna tell them that they're wrong, but I just don't get it.  He can't hit and never has. He can play SS ok but not exceptionally so.  I agree, I'd have no issues if he were released tomorrow.  He's no consideration for me for the future. 

But to each their own. 

I’m not sure why he’s a better option than Mason McCoy, to be honest.