Anthony Santander 2022

[Il BuonO]

1 minute ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

The O's can always put Owings in RF,  That guy can play anywhere!

Let’s not give them any ideas.

[sportsfan8703]

.875 OPS vs LHP

[Frobby]

10 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

.875 OPS vs LHP

How’d he do today?

[Just Regular]

Cool feature during the Santander PA just now on a Fuller-Borgschulte training technique to help him with zone judgement.

During batting practice, in the catcher's spot, a medicine ball sits atop a bucket.    Santander practices Swing/Take and gets a sound cue immediately on pitches he lets go by.

You can see the practice getting into the on-field results here.

BAL Bats by Called Strikes + Whiffs yielded to Arms.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=20&type=5&season=2022&month=0&season1=2022&ind=0&team=2&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2022-01-01&enddate=2022-12-31&sort=12,a

Mullins-Adley-Hays-Mountcastle are top Bats.   Santander's mid-pack in this measurement, but if you parse the Called Strike and Whiff components, he gets to the middle with a high Called Strike (still making some mistakes while watching pitches) and a low Whiff percentage (helped by practicing improved discernment).

Five Year scan of Santander Swing%: 51-52-52-52-43.   Entering the Boston series he had the same .720 OPS as last year on the nose, trading about 45 points of SLG for OBP.   He appears to be the 2022 centerpiece project for the Fuller-Borgschulte team.

[Aristotelian]

Santander's walk rate slipped in May but overall is holding strong at 11% for the season, still double his career norm. Just passed 1 WAR, on pace for a tad under 3 WAR. Might be doing just enough to get himself traded to a contender in need of a DH/OF. 

[AlbNYfan]

Maybe not if the team might play Blue Jays in playoffs.

[Just Regular]

Its two games old by now, but bump for that plate appearance against Kirby Monday night, ending in a HR after about 13-14 pitches.

Pre-game show yesterday, Hyde called it the at-bat of the year, and credited it with "earning" Hays follow up for the second set of back-to-back homeruns.

FWIW, this month he is running team-worst in O-Swing% and team-lowest in Z-Swing% (one game to go for June, Santander-Mateo-Hays all chasing more than Mountcastle), though collectively the lineup is doing damage.   I think his pitch watching inspired by the medicine ball is still rather mechanical for him, but on balance the results are still fine.

 

[RZNJ]

I have grown tired watching Santander's AB's.  It seems he has one swing with no adjustments.  Throw the ball middle in and you're guaranteed a foul ball, sometimes an extremely foul ball.  It seems like the pitcher has to find just the right spot for Santander to hit the ball fair and solidly.  He loves to swing at the inner half, inside corner, two inches off the inside corner. He just can't hit it fair.  Middle to middle out and he's dangerous.  Enough already!

[interloper]

12 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

I have grown tired watching Santander's AB's.  It seems he has one swing with no adjustments.  Throw the ball middle in and you're guaranteed a foul ball, sometimes an extremely foul ball.  It seems like the pitcher has to find just the right spot for Santander to hit the ball fair and solidly.  He loves to swing at the inner half, inside corner, two inches off the inside corner. He just can't hit it fair.  Middle to middle out and he's dangerous.  Enough already!

At first I thought this was a little harsh, but the more I think about it the more I kind of agree and know what you mean. I love that he's managed to get his OBP up to .331 despite a .236 average. And the home runs are nice. But watching him, it doesn't really FEEL like he's now a .330 OBP guy, you know? I would definitely look to trade while he's putting up decent numbers. 

To your point: only 6 doubles. A guy with his power should be hitting more doubles. Mountcastle has 14. Trey has 13. 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

33 minutes ago, interloper said:

At first I thought this was a little harsh, but the more I think about it the more I kind of agree and know what you mean. I love that he's managed to get his OBP up to .331 despite a .236 average. And the home runs are nice. But watching him, it doesn't really FEEL like he's now a .330 OBP guy, you know? I would definitely look to trade while he's putting up decent numbers. 

To your point: only 6 doubles. A guy with his power should be hitting more doubles. Mountcastle has 14. Trey has 13. 

Large part of that is due to Santander putting up a .402 OBP in April where he drew 16 walks in 67 at bats. Since April Santander has drawn 15 walks in 183 at bats.

Even with his diminished walk rate Santander's best month has been June with an .801 OPS. 

[jdwilde1]

Santader's stats over his last 162, which goes back to last May, are below.  During that period his rWAR is around 1.1 or 1.2.  This matches up pretty well with his career numbers.  Also, as noted above, he has traditionally been a low walk guy, but had a big bump in March/April of this year (16 walks in 21 games).  Since May, he has 15 walks in 48 games, which works out to about 50 walks per 162 games (still a 10% increase from his career walk rate, but not anything mind blowing).  He has been an average (or maybe slightly above average) right fielder for his career, which is supported by a -.3 dWAR per 162 over parts of six seasons (positional adjustment for RF/LF is -7 runs).    I think this pretty much sums up what kind of player he is; a switch-hitter with good power, low OBP, and decent enough defense.  Since he hits equally from both sides, he is good enough to be a starting corner outfielder for one of the thirty teams, but he's really not a game changer unless he is able to get his walk rate closer to what he did in April.  Moreover, I am really not sure how much trade value he has even though he is not a FA until 2025.  With that said, he is still just 27 and has less than 1,500 career plate appearances.  There may still be some room for improvement at the plate.  His defense most certainly is not going to improve, but should be fine for several seasons.       

G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO HBP SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS 162 662 596 81 145 29 0 30 81 52 143 9 1 3 0.243 0.311 0.442 0.753

[Oriole1940]

Definitely s/b traded, not given away.

[Frobby]

Somewhat under the radar, Santander is having a very good July.  .875 OPS for the month, .980 over the last 16 games.  Maybe it’s me, but a lot of his homers seem to come at big times.  6 of 18 have tied the game or put the O’s ahead.  

[Sports Guy]

7 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Somewhat under the radar, Santander is having a very good July.  .875 OPS for the month, .980 over the last 16 games.  Maybe it’s me, but a lot of his homers seem to come at big times.  6 of 18 have tied the game or put the O’s ahead.  

Good. He needs to get dealt. 
 

Hoping ownership is ready to spend money and we can use AS to get Snell. 

[sportsfan8703]

He seems a little underrated given all the other performances happening around him. He’s been healthy all year. Steady. Switch hits. 125 OPS+. Only 10 points off his “career year” in the shortened 2020 season. He could end up somewhere around 27/90. That’s pretty solid.