Austin Hays 2022

[Ohfan67]

Six games into the season Austin is sporting a .383 OPS. I'm surprised his name has not come up more in the discussion of the Orioles' 1-5 start to the season. Pretty terrible start to the season. When he's hot he's hot...but when he's cold.

[Moose Milligan]

As someone who is not a Hays fan, I hope he can heat up enough to trade him.

 

[interloper]

4 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

As someone who is not a Hays fan, I hope he can heat up enough to trade him.

 

I'm warming up to this idea. Kind of tired of his Jones-lite approach. Yeah he'll have a hot month or two, but... 

And for anyone worried about LF, I think a guy like Stowers would be just fine out there. Cowser. Kjerstad if he gets healthy. It's certainly nice to have a defender of Hays' ability/speed out there, but as long as the LFer is a real outfielder, I think it's fine. 

[Jammer7]

17 minutes ago, Ohfan67 said:

Six games into the season Austin is sporting a .383 OPS. I'm surprised his name has not come up more in the discussion of the Orioles' 1-5 start to the season. Pretty terrible start to the season. When he's hot he's hot...but when he's cold.

The numbers are a little misleading. He has been stinging the ball regularly, and been robbed by several very good defensive plays. The Taylor kid in CF made a great catch on a liner that was well over his head. That said, in 2021, he became a guy who dives in and tries to pull most everything. When he stays balanced, he’s a much better hitter. I was higher on his swing from 2018 than I am now. He used to have 60 plus power to all fields. 

[interloper]

2 minutes ago, interloper said:

I'm warming up to this idea. Kind of tired of his Jones-lite approach. Yeah he'll have a hot month or two, but... 

And for anyone worried about LF, I think a guy like Stowers would be just fine out there. Cowser. Kjerstad if he gets healthy. It's certainly nice to have a defender of Hays' ability/speed out there, but as long as the LFer is a real outfielder, I think it's fine. 

By the way... just realized the 3 guys I mentioned (Cowser, Kjerstad, Stowers) are all left-handed hitters. Which works pretty nice in Camden Yards these days. 

[OriolesMagic83]

8 minutes ago, Jammer7 said:

The numbers are a little misleading. He has been stinging the ball regularly, and been robbed by several very good defensive plays. The Taylor kid in CF made a great catch on a liner that was well over his head. That said, in 2021, he became a guy who dives in and tries to pull most everything. When he stays balanced, he’s a much better hitter. I was higher on his swing from 2018 than I am now. He used to have 60 plus power to all fields. 

He also had the line drive right at the pitcher.  Just like the guy hitting .600 right now, Hays isn't going to hit under .100 all season.  I'm a big Hays fan, but Mullins seems to be a better OBP guy.  I wonder if Hays is the guy who is going to be traded at the deadline, not Mullins.

[Aristotelian]

He also started really slow last year before eventually putting up a respectable .769. He hit only .221/.683 vs RHP (.897 vs LHP), so that is something to keep an eye on. If he continues to struggle vs RHP he could become a better version of McKenna if we had a good lefty to go with him.

I was open to trading him this offseason. Can't say for sure there would have been much market for him but I hope we didn't miss an opportunity to sell high. He would be easier to replace than Mullins but then again might not bring as much in return. 

[waroriole]

51 minutes ago, Jammer7 said:

The numbers are a little misleading. He has been stinging the ball regularly, and been robbed by several very good defensive plays. The Taylor kid in CF made a great catch on a liner that was well over his head. That said, in 2021, he became a guy who dives in and tries to pull most everything. When he stays balanced, he’s a much better hitter. I was higher on his swing from 2018 than I am now. He used to have 60 plus power to all fields. 

Hopefully the fences being pushed back causes him to realize he can’t get cheap HR by pulling everything and he uses the whole field again. 

[wildcard]

Tough start but he will get better.  I would not trade him because I think his defense is valuable and there is no one to replace that who can hit.

Mancini is probably the most vulnerable to be traded at the deadline.

[Hazmat]

38 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

He also started really slow last year before eventually putting up a respectable .769. He hit only .221/.683 vs RHP (.897 vs LHP), so that is something to keep an eye on. If he continues to struggle vs RHP he could become a better version of McKenna if we had a good lefty to go with him.

I was open to trading him this offseason. Can't say for sure there would have been much market for him but I hope we didn't miss an opportunity to sell high. He would be easier to replace than Mullins but then again might not bring as much in return. 

Bobby Neustrom OPS'd .851 against RHP vs .672 against LHP last year in AA/AAA.

[yark14]

1 hour ago, Ohfan67 said:

Six games into the season Austin is sporting a .383 OPS. I'm surprised his name has not come up more in the discussion of the Orioles' 1-5 start to the season. Pretty terrible start to the season. When he's hot he's hot...but when he's cold.

His BABIP is .133 with a 40% hard hit rate.  His poor average and OPS so far is pure bad luck.  Those averages will balance out soon.  

Dude is still a beast.

[interloper]

21 minutes ago, yark14 said:

His BABIP is .133 with a 40% hard hit rate.  His poor average and OPS so far is pure bad luck.  Those averages will balance out soon.  

Dude is still a beast.

That's incredibly unlucky, jeez. 

[Frobby]

Six games just isn’t enough to worry about.   I bet if I looked at his (or most players’) game logs from last year I could find multiple stretches this bad or worse.  It just gets magnified when it’s the first six games of the year.   

[SteveA]

2 hours ago, interloper said:

By the way... just realized the 3 guys I mentioned (Cowser, Kjerstad, Stowers) are all left-handed hitters. Which works pretty nice in Camden Yards these days. 

I wonder if the left field fence project was already in the works or in the back of Elias's mind the past few years when he was drafting?

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, SteveA said:

I wonder if the left field fence project was already in the works or in the back of Elias's mind the past few years when he was drafting?

I'm sure the plan had been in the works.

I hope he hasn't been revolving his drafts around it.