Orioles Adley problem

[now]

This discussion brings up a point I haven't seen addressed here, which is how to evaluate cost of missed playing time for a catcher compared to other positions. It's probably a simple calculation but the point is, doesn't that reduction affect his overall value/ranking? For example as a draft pick? I have no problem with the pick and think of Adley as a legit superstar in the making. I also acknowledge the rarity of the offense-defense-intangibles he brings for the position... so perhaps that offsets the relative limits of a catcher's playing time?

[Oriole1940]

Lets just enjoy the next  few years. We certainly deserve to, anyway.  Not try to invent possible problems.  If not, why should we hope that the Orioles become long term winners.  

[Aristotelian]

10 minutes ago, seak05 said:

Yeah, basically the guys who catch as often as Adley don't DH on their days off. The catchers who are in the lineup as often as Adley, don't catch as often/DH more often

Not a huge surprise, most C's don't hit enough to DH. The number of games caught is something to keep an eye on. Seems like the O's have been appropriately strict resting him for day games after night games basically without exception. Ironically, if he was injured and missed time he wouldn't be on this list. 

[UMDTerrapins]

Nothing wrong with asking about his playing time, but I wouldn’t correlate a slump as proof of anything other than he’s a rookie and hitting major league pitching is really hard. I’m old enough to remember him struggling when he first came up. 

[Bahama O's Fan]

12 minutes ago, UMDTerrapins said:

Nothing wrong with asking about his playing time, but I wouldn’t correlate a slump as proof of anything other than he’s a rookie and hitting major league pitching is really hard. I’m old enough to remember him struggling when he first came up. 

This right here

[Fiver6565]

Every time Adley is not in the lineup there is much gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands in the lineup thread. Now we think maybe he’s playing too much because of a short slump?  It’s hard to keep up. 
 

I think Hyde has done a nice job of keeping him fresh. He’s caught basically zero day games. And acting as DH is close enough to a day off for someone Adley’s age. Batting four times and sitting the bench is a far cry for catching nine innings. 
 

non-story if you ask me. 

[Sports Guy]

This isn’t a problem.  

[Fiver6565]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

This isn’t a problem.  

This is basically what I said but much more succinct. LOL. 

[Sports Guy]

From 2012-2017, Posey appeared in 140 or more games every year.  Now, he didn’t catch every game but I believe he was normally in the 115-130 games started at the C position. 
 

Adley is slumping because he’s not recognizing the breaking ball well enough and he is trying to pull everything.   He is rolling over on a lot of pitches.

He needs to use all fields more effectively.

[Just Regular]

1 hour ago, Orioles0615 said:

This seems more like a Chrinos/backup catcher problem. They need to get a backup catcher who can hit next year. If you want to keep Adley in the lineup then do what the Giants did with Posey and play him at 1B 30-40 games a year

Posey never had the DH option either, so if I'm scheming to get Adley in shouting distance of 600 PA, I might try to avoid pulling him in the 1B defense direction also.    

We should trade for Bumgarner, and then see if Brady-Gronk style he can persuade Posey to un-retire.

[seak05]

21 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

From 2012-2017, Posey appeared in 140 or more games every year.  Now, he didn’t catch every game but I believe he was normally in the 115-130 games started at the C position. 
 

Adley is slumping because he’s not recognizing the breaking ball well enough and he is trying to pull everything.   He is rolling over on a lot of pitches.

He needs to use all fields more effectively.

I think Posey is a good model, the most games he ever started at catcher was 122 in 2016, from 2012-2017 he averaged starting 112 games at catcher, or a shade under 70%. In those same seasons, he averaged playing in 146 games or 90%. (Interestingly his low season for total games was also 2016, so the trade-off for catching more, was played less overall)

Hitting MLBers is hard, and they've definitely adjusted to how they've pitched Adley, but dismissing fatigue as entirely not a possibility seems foolish, especially when we know catchers tend to wear down because of the physical demands of the position, and between how often they've asked him to catch, and how often he's been in the line-up overall, the Orioles are playing him relatively more then nearly any other team is playing their catcher. 

It makes sense, given the Orioles poor alternatives, but think for next year O's need to be able to roll out a lineup that doesn't have Rutschman catching, and doesn't leave us wanting to scream bloddy murder, because it's likely to happen 50+ times a season. 

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, NashLumber said:

This year, he's had 68 games catching in Baltimore out of the 83 he's played in since May 21. 17 were as DH. He's pinch hit twice that I know of, once in July to help beat Rays in extra innings in Tampa and then last night. 

Only 62 of the 68 were starts.  He’s come into 6 other games as C In the late innings.  3 of those were after you pinch hitting, the other three were moving from DH to C.

in the minors this year, he started 13 games at C, 5 at DH, 2 at 1B.  So cumulatively (majors and minors, he’s had 75 starts at C, 22 at DH, 2 at 1B.   Last year he had 80 starts at C, 28 at 1B.

[RZNJ]

He's a good hitter with elite strike zone awareness.   He misses a lot of hittable pitches and takes a fair amount of hittable breaking pitches.   Overall, he's great.  He's just not a great hitter.

[Fiver6565]

7 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

He's a good hitter with elite strike zone awareness.   He misses a lot of hittable pitches and takes a fair amount of hittable breaking pitches.   Overall, he's great.  He's just not a great hitter.

Now he’s not a great hitter?  What the heck team is everybody watching?  This whole thread is bizarre. 

[Fiver6565]

If an Adley Problem is our main concern, then I like where the overall team sits.