Terrin Vavra Bandwagon

[Frobby]

One thing I’ve really noticed is that the way the Orioles deploy their 2B, a strong arm is pretty essential.  The 2B spends a lot of time in medium RF or left of the 2B bag.   It may be that Hyde doesn’t think Vavra has the arm for it.   

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Aglets said:

Odor can't be benched under any circumstances.  Guess he has it in his contract.  Perks of getting a great agent ??? 

He only played in 102 games last year for the Yankees so I don't think it's the contract.

[RZNJ]

3 minutes ago, RVAOsFan said:

Right, so why aren't they playing him at 2B in the majors? The lineup improves a lot more replacing Odor for Vavra than it does replacing Santanders bat in the OF or DH.

He’s not replacing Santander’s bat. He’s replacing Mancini’s.   Replacing Odor is tricky.  Can Vavra make those throws from shallow RF? I think Vavra is more likely to replace Hays or Mullins eventually.   Urías is probably going to replace Odor and Henderson will take over 3B.

[RVAOsFan]

5 minutes ago, Frobby said:

One thing I’ve really noticed is that the way the Orioles deploy their 2B, a strong arm is pretty essential.  The 2B spends a lot of time in medium RF or left of the 2B bag.   It may be that Hyde doesn’t think Vavra has the arm for it.   

This makes the most sense.  MLB pipeline has the arm rated a 50 which you would think would be good enough for at least a spot starter at 2B maybe not every day the way the Orioles shift around.

[Hank Scorpio]

It's good to see guys coming up through our system who can identify pitches. 

He's impressive thus far.

[Number5]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

One thing I’ve really noticed is that the way the Orioles deploy their 2B, a strong arm is pretty essential.  The 2B spends a lot of time in medium RF or left of the 2B bag.   It may be that Hyde doesn’t think Vavra has the arm for it.   

Seems odd to me to say a guy doesn't have the arm for 2B, so we'll play him in the outfield.  I guess I'm just too old school.

[Tony-OH]

I've been saying for awhile that Vavra's plate discipline is excellent and he's great linedrive hitter, particularly the other way. You have to be impressed with his ability to not swing at borderline pitches that are balls even with two strikes. Very impressive.

 

Now, pitchers will start challenging him inside and that will be his test. Can he get to good velocity in on the hands? I've seen him pull the ball, but he's definitely very comfortable hitting balls middle and middle-away to the opposite field on a line. 

The bigger concern is the Orioles do not seem to think he can play a major league second base. Now, I do think he's probably a below average defender overall at 2B, but I also believe his on base skills will offset that and he should be playing over Odor who brings little to the field consistently.

I'm glad to see him getting PAs against right-handed pitching. I haven't really seen him challenged enough in the outfield in the minors so I can't really say how good he is out there yet, but 4th outfielder type might be his calling eventually.

Personally, I'd like to see him at 2B the rest of the season to see how he does. Last year the Orioles weren't even willing to give Mateo everyday PAs at SS but once they did l=he settled in quite well. 

Now Vavra does not have nearly the defensive tools as Mateo, but he was yanked around defensively between OF and 2B in AAA instead of focusing on 2B where he brought the most value, so who knows how good he could be if he was actually being developed as a second baseman.

Vavra seems like one of those guys that Elias would move in the right deal since they don't seem to like him in any position primarily.

 

[Tony-OH]

40 minutes ago, Frobby said:

One thing I’ve really noticed is that the way the Orioles deploy their 2B, a strong arm is pretty essential.  The 2B spends a lot of time in medium RF or left of the 2B bag.   It may be that Hyde doesn’t think Vavra has the arm for it.   

True, but that won't be needed when the shift is abolished next year.

[Tony-OH]

The acquisition of Phillips is a bit of a headscratcher with Vavra on the team since he can play outfield too. So far he's only played LF and has had two chances, one of which was a 3-star catch with a 75% success rate that he made giving him a +5% success rate added in his very limited play.

The Oriole have seemed to have made it very clear that Vavra is not going to much if any 2B since they continually start sub replacement level Odor there almost every game. 

So why get a left-handed McKenna if you have Vavra to also play the outfield?

 

[Just Regular]

Yes, here is a filter set to 10 plate appearances.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=10&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

It shows Vavra with an O-Swing rate half of Adley's.

Its been a known known he has the DJ Stewart pitch selection thing, but can he hit?    I assume fairly quickly MLB pitchers will start trying to knock the bat out of his hands, and then we'll see if he can announce his presence with any authority.

[Frobby]

5 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

True, but that won't be needed when the shift is abolished next year.

Yep.   By the way, I’m against abolishing the shift.  But it seems destined to happen.  

[Camden_yardbird]

31 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Yep.   By the way, I’m against abolishing the shift.  But it seems destined to happen.  

But if the shift goes away we can bring back Chris Davis.

[jerios55]

45 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Yep.   By the way, I’m against abolishing the shift.  But it seems destined to happen.  

 

13 minutes ago, Camden_yardbird said:

But if the shift goes away we can bring back Chris Davis.

I wasn't for the shift,  but camden may have changed my mind. 

[Filmstudy]

All Aboard!!!

[OriolesMagic83]

Can Vavra play 3rd?  I understand that Odor's veteranosity bonus only works if he's in the lineup.