Hays discusses core injury sustained last season

[Sports Guy]

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2021/11/hays-details-core-injury-sustained-in-may.html

 

Makes how he ended the year all that more impressive.

[Moose Milligan]

Someone call me when he makes it a whole season without being on the IL.  I'll be more impressed then.

[Frobby]

I had a hernia (not a sports hernia) that I just tolerated for about 10 years.  It finally started bothering me this spring and I had surgery over the summer.   The recovery was quick and easy.   Sports hernias are a little different but the surgical procedure is basically the same. I doubt it will hamper Hays’ offseason in any major way.   

[wildcard]

Diving in the outfield is part of his game.  But he and the O's pay for it with injuries. 

[owknows]

1 minute ago, wildcard said:

Diving in the outfield is part of his game.  But he and the O's pay for it with injuries. 

And knowing when discretion is the better part of valor, is the wisdom that comes from a few years of experience.

If he stays on the field he's better than Mullins.

Throw in Stowers...  They have a real outfield.

 

[waroriole]

5 minutes ago, owknows said:

And knowing when discretion is the better part of valor, is the wisdom that comes from a few years of experience.

If he stays on the field he's better than Mullins.

Throw in Stowers...  They have a real outfield.

 

People are really selling Mullins short. What part of Hays’ game is better than Mullins? The only thing I can see is arm. 

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, waroriole said:

People are really selling Mullins short. What part of Hays’ game is better than Mullins? The only thing I can see is arm. 

I’m not sure anyone is selling his game short as much as there is a desire to see him do it again.

The history of MLB is filled with players who looked great for a year and never came close to that level again.  Is Mullins one of those guys?  Is he really an MVP candidate or is he the guy he was before 2021 or is it something in between?

Personally, I feel he’s somewhat in between and that is also where I feel Hays is as a player.  
 

I think I would rather have Mullins in CF over Hays but I don’t have enough of a sample size for Hays out there to say for sure.  I know I would rather have Hays on either corner.  

[owknows]

4 minutes ago, waroriole said:

People are really selling Mullins short. What part of Hays’ game is better than Mullins? The only thing I can see is arm. 

I'm not selling Mullins short in the slightest.

He had one helluva season. He's shown himself to be an awesome ball player.

I don't think any less of Mullins, for thinking Hays may be even better.

 

[waroriole]

5 minutes ago, owknows said:

I'm not selling Mullins short in the slightest.

He had one helluva season. He's shown himself to be an awesome ball player.

I don't think any less of Mullins, for thinking Hays may be even better.

 

But what do you think Hays does better?

[LookinUp]

According to BBref, Hays had a 3.1 WAR season last year in 131 games.

Mullins was 5.7 in 159 games. 

I didn't realize how valuable Hays was.

[owknows]

Just now, waroriole said:

But what do you think Hays does better?

You've conceded the better arm.

I think they may be equivalent fielders.

I think Hays has shown a longer more sustained offensive game than Mullins. 

Hays .833 OPS over 5 minor league seasons.

Mullins .749 OPS over 5 minor league seasons.

Mullins has significantly improved his offensive game by dropping the pretense of being able to hit from both sides of the plate.

Hays had a significant series of injury related setbacks.

While I hope Mullins continues his newfound magic, I rather suspect that he may cool a bit. And I rather suspect that second half Hays is much more like his MiLB body of work than his herniated first half.

In short... I think Hays may ultimately be better than Mullins.

That's by no means a criticism of Mullins.

[Frobby]

6 minutes ago, waroriole said:

But what do you think Hays does better?

In the minors, Hays hit for higher average and for more power than Mullins.   In the long run, I think that will be true in the majors as well.    The big wrinkle is that Mullins stopped switch hitting and his numbers vs. LHP went way up this year.   I don’t have stats to corroborate this, but I think he did better vs. LHP early in the season than he did later on, and that’s one reason his stats overall were down in the second half.   I’m interested to see how he does vs. LHP this year now that the league has seen him left-on-left for a year.  

[waroriole]

The only thing I see is that Hays had a better minor league career. To me it seemed like Mullins had a legit breakthrough and looking at minor league numbers becomes less relevant the further we are from them. 
 

Mullins has a better hit tool, he shows more patience at the plate, and his power is at least equivalent to Hays. Not to say that Hays won’t be a good player too, I’ve just not seen anything to indicate he’ll be at Mullins’ level. 

[Just Regular]

Hays/Mullins Glass Half Full, I suppose 2131 Eutaw Street could become a marketing angle of a new home in the same neighborhood as 2110 Eutaw Street.

2131 just a random meaningless number of course, wouldn't help evoke nostalgia for another year of Orioles that "might be a little short" as Hyder I imagine will have to put it sometime in May.

[interloper]

Pretty incredible he was able to have the season he did playing with a torn ab. 

But it does add to his injury-prone narrative. That said, you can't argue with the numbers so here's hoping it's behind him.