Owings DFA’ed

[OriolesMagic83]

4 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

I think we have different definitions of what a crisis is.

Crisis = the entire O's 2022 season if you want to see good baseball.

[OriolesMagic83]

Not that it matters, but who is the utility guy now?  Owings had the skill of doing many things poorly.

[SteveA]

8 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Um, small sample size.  McKenna also OPS'ed close to 1.200 in about 100 at bats in AAA a couple of years ago.  David Newhan looked like an inner circle Hall of Famer for a month.  etc, etc.

But isn't judging him on this year's performance and deciding he is useless, JUST as small a sample size?

[OriolesMagic83]

Just now, SteveA said:

But isn't judging him on this year's performance and deciding he is useless, JUST as small a sample size?

I'm trusting the eye test.  He looks lost at the plate.  Maybe another team will take a chance on him and he will bring something with the bat, but I doubt it.

[SteveA]

6 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Not that it matters, but who is the utility guy now?  Owings had the skill of doing many things poorly.

We have 4 infielders for the 3 non-1B infield spots at the moment:  Urias, Odor, Nevin, Mateo.

Urias and Nevin have both played 3B.

Urias and Mateo have both played short.

Urias, Mateo, and Odor have both played 2nd.

So we do have a backup at each position.   

Have to bring an additional position player up by June 20, so this situation is somewhat temporary.   And it could be sooner.

[SteveA]

Just now, OriolesMagic83 said:

I'm trusting the eye test.  He looks lost at the plate.  Maybe another team will take a chance on him and he will bring something with the bat, but I doubt it.

Look, I'm not trying to defend him, but anyone who says it was idiotic of our management to bring him in at all for the utility infielder role because he is "obviously" worthless is using a heck of a lot of hindsight.

[OriolesMagic83]

10 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Look, I'm not trying to defend him, but anyone who says it was idiotic of our management to bring him in at all for the utility infielder role because he is "obviously" worthless is using a heck of a lot of hindsight.

Owings career OPS+ is 72.  Last year was obviously an outlier.  2018, the last year he had near full time at bats, his OPS+ was 53.  I understand his exit velocity has been extremely low this year, so it's not just bad luck.  I guess you could hope that there was some improvement in his bat from last year, but 44 at bats is extremely small.  Barely 10 games worth.

[DrungoHazewood]

14 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Owings career OPS+ is 72.  Last year was obviously an outlier.  2018, the last year he had near full time at bats, his OPS+ was 53.  I understand his exit velocity has been extremely low this year, so it's not just bad luck.  I guess you could hope that there was some improvement in his bat from last year, but 44 at bats is extremely small.  Barely 10 games worth.

If you can find a really meaningful difference between Owings and Willie Bloomquist I'd be surprised. Bloomquist spent 14 years in the majors as a utility guy.  78 OPS+.  1.7 WAR.

In a world where teams keep 12, 13, 14 pitchers someone has to be able to play like five positions adequately and not whine about sometimes getting 14 at bats a month.

Lenn Sakata had a 71 OPS+.  Jeff Reboulet a 72.

[interloper]

I'm not sure why it took until June for the O's to understand they can just have Urias slide to SS if needed instead of carrying dead weight on the roster. 

[Tony-OH]

15 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Not that it matters, but who is the utility guy now?  Owings had the skill of doing many things poorly.

I'm thinking they add Martin. He's earned another shot and at least brings some speed for late in the game pinch running.

[Tony-OH]

18 minutes ago, interloper said:

I'm not sure why it took until June for the O's to understand they can just have Urias slide to SS if needed instead of carrying dead weight on the roster. 

With Urias now as the regular third baseman, it makes it harder. When they were carrying Gutierrez it made NO sense to have Owings on the roster. I'm thinking they bring up Martin to replace Owings.

[justD]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

I'm thinking they add Martin. He's earned another shot and at least brings some speed for late in the game pinch running.

And they had him playing CF again last night.  Only 2 games there last year, and this is the first time this year. 

(Which seems to be a trend - in AA they've been switching Graffanino from IF to OF, same with Cullen.)

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

I'm thinking they add Martin. He's earned another shot and at least brings some speed for late in the game pinch running.

I hope so. Fingers crossed. The Russell Martin Fan Club member 1:)

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, NelsonCruuuuuz said:

I hope so. Fingers crossed. The Russell Martin Fan Club member 1:)

I'm sure Russel Martin had a fan club already, but how about you start up the RICHIE Martin fan club instead?

[NCRaven]

With Vavra, Westburg and Henderson in Norfolk, the only way that Martin is going to get at bats on a regular basis is if he learns to play on the grass.  I doubt Martin would start over any of the others at the MLB level.  His only path forward at the ML level is as a multi-positional utility player.