Adam Frazier 2023

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Tony-OH said:

True. Earlier in the year when he was having some success late in games, a lot of that came in games he started and was playing regularly.

I was surprised when I looked these #s up a few weeks ago, but he's been a really bad PH this year going 1-for-16 with a walk, HBP, and SF (19 PAs) and no RBIs. The only good news is he's only struck out in two of those PAs. 

Now, these are clearly SSS stats so I looked at his career PHing stats and they are .222/.336/.291/.626 in 128 PAs with one home and 7 RBIs. 

So the more I look at it, the more I think he might not be a very good part-time player and he's certainly not a good option at PHing unless you just need a guy to put the ball in play. With his lack of speed and defense, it's not like he's bringing much else to the field.

 

 

Interesting. Kind of makes you wonder if it’s worth it to keep him around at this point, like  I was talking about last night in this thread.

Combine this stuff with how awful he has been this month.

[Malike]

Westburg has a WRC+ of 90. His OBP is driven mostly by his batting average and just cracked .300 in his last game, I believe. He's superior defensively, so he should be getting most of the starts, but right now, he's not an offensive upgrade over Frazier by the numbers.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Malike

[Jim'sKid26]

3 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Interesting. Kind of makes you wonder if it’s worth it to keep him around at this point, like  I was talking about last night in this thread.

Combine this stuff with how awful he has been this month.

I think he's hurt. He injured his hand in Toronto. It has really effected his swing. Lost a bunch of power. I think Roch wrote about it recently.

 

https://www.masnsports.com/blog/notes-on-frazier-s-thumb-voth-s-return-from-elbow-injury-and-lots-of-henderson

Edited August 29, 2023 by Jim'sKid26
add reference

[webbrick2010]

7 minutes ago, Malike said:

Westburg has a WRC+ of 90. His OPB is driven mostly by his batting average and just cracked .300 in his last game, I believe. He's superior defensively, so he should be getting most of the starts, but right now, he's not an offensive upgrade over Frazier by the numbers.

That might be what the stats say NOW, but Westburg is clearly the superior hitter

Exit Velocity 91 to 86, huge difference

Hard Contact % 47.6% to 24.7%

It's kind of a miracle that Frazier keeps his average above .200

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, webbrick2010 said:

That might be what the stats say NOW, but Westburg is clearly the superior hitter

Exit Velocity 91 to 86, huge difference

Hard Contact % 47.6% to 24.7%

It's kind of a miracle that Frazier keeps his average above .200

Frazier has always had low EVs.  This was a point of discussion when we signed him.  Nothing new there.  The counterpoint is that he doesn’t strike out much and has better bat control than many hitters with higher EVs.  

[Malike]

5 minutes ago, webbrick2010 said:

That might be what the stats say NOW, but Westburg is clearly the superior hitter

Exit Velocity 91 to 86, huge difference

Hard Contact % 47.6% to 24.7%

It's kind of a miracle that Frazier keeps his average above .200

Right, but the numbers NOW are what matters, not what he might do next season. I suspect the reason that Frazier keeps his average above .200 is because he puts balls in play, when you do that, anything can happen, even if the exit velo isn't great. Guys have made long careers of flicking balls into the outfield. 

[Brooks The Great]

1 hour ago, Malike said:

Westburg has a WRC+ of 90. His OBP is driven mostly by his batting average and just cracked .300 in his last game, I believe. He's superior defensively, so he should be getting most of the starts, but right now, he's not an offensive upgrade over Frazier by the numbers.

Westburg can/will get better with more regular playing time - he hasn't been given the opportunity to play everyday, and he actually hit RHP well in the minors, so platooning him is poor player development on multiple levels.

Not benching Frazier and releasing Mateo sooner is going to hurt the team's efficiency moving forward, especially in the playoffs. Westburg is more talented than either player and should be given the opportunity to provide superior production to both/either mediocre infielders.

[Malike]

26 minutes ago, Brooks The Great said:

Westburg can/will get better with more regular playing time - he hasn't been given the opportunity to play everyday, and he actually hit RHP well in the minors, so platooning him is poor player development on multiple levels.

Not benching Frazier and releasing Mateo sooner is going to hurt the team's efficiency moving forward, especially in the playoffs. Westburg is more talented than either player and should be given the opportunity to provide superior production to both/either mediocre infielders.

Westburg is getting more playing time at 2B and he's not really a platoon candidate, that I can see. His OPS vs. RHP is .694 and against LHP .699. He should be playing more based on his defense alone, but he's not hitting much more than Frazier right now, so there is no clear offensive upgrade.

His OPS was .928 in June, .676 in July, .670 in August, and .696 on the season. There is absolutely no guarantee that he's going to get better with more ABs this season, he's actually trended downward, which isn't unexpected, he'll have to adjust as the pitchers have adjusted to him.

[Frobby]

If I had to start one player 100% of the time for the rest of the year, Westburg or Frazier, I’d choose Westburg.  But Hyde doesn’t need to do that, and he shouldn’t.  Westburg has started 2/3 of the games since he reached the majors, and that’s fine.  

[eddie83]

2 hours ago, Jim'sKid26 said:

I think he's hurt. He injured his hand in Toronto. It has really effected his swing. Lost a bunch of power. I think Roch wrote about it recently.

 

https://www.masnsports.com/blog/notes-on-frazier-s-thumb-voth-s-return-from-elbow-injury-and-lots-of-henderson

He hit great in July. 

[DirtyBird]

When things were looking rough tonight, Adam stepped up and prevented the shutout.

We are blessed to have him on the team.

[Tony-OH]

16 hours ago, Malike said:

Westburg has a WRC+ of 90. His OBP is driven mostly by his batting average and just cracked .300 in his last game, I believe. He's superior defensively, so he should be getting most of the starts, but right now, he's not an offensive upgrade over Frazier by the numbers.

Over the last month Westburg has out performed Frazier offensively but the overall numbers show them to be about even. Westburg's lack of power has been a bit of a disappointment. His home/road splits are pretty even so it not like it's just the The Great wall of Baltimore causing all of the problems. 

Even with Westburg's below average arm strength, he's an accurate thrower and has much better range than Frazier so defensively he gets the huge edge. 

I'm ok with Frazier getting some starts here and there to keep him somewhat sharp, but Westburg should be out there at least 5 out of 7 games.

[Sports Guy]

The thing I will say about what Westburg is doing is that, for me at least, he isn’t separating himself from Ortiz to the point that when you have to trade one of them (and you likely do need to do that), that Westburg is the clear winner.

I’m still not convinced that Ortiz is the better long term option between the 2, which is by no means a shot at Westburg. I like him a lot as well.

But yea, he has to play way more than Frazier..that’s obvious.

[Frobby]

Nice game-tying hit from Frazier last night at a time when the O’s really needed it.  The game turned into a laugher later, but the O’s had done nothing up to the point where Frazier got that knock.   

[DrungoHazewood]

20 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

True. Earlier in the year when he was having some success late in games, a lot of that came in games he started and was playing regularly.

I was surprised when I looked these #s up a few weeks ago, but he's been a really bad PH this year going 1-for-16 with a walk, HBP, and SF (19 PAs) and no RBIs. The only good news is he's only struck out in two of those PAs. 

Now, these are clearly SSS stats so I looked at his career PHing stats and they are .222/.336/.291/.626 in 128 PAs with one home and 7 RBIs. 

So the more I look at it, the more I think he might not be a very good part-time player and he's certainly not a good option at PHing unless you just need a guy to put the ball in play. With his lack of speed and defense, it's not like he's bringing much else to the field.

 

 

Major League pinch hitters in 2023 are slashing .214/.303/.325. Frazier is almost exactly a league-average PHer. 

With the death of almost all pitchers hitting I have to wonder if pinch hitting is also going the way of the dodo. There's always been a pinch hitting penalty (along with the smaller DH penalty), in that PHers always hit worse than players who've been in the game and in the field. A typical .750 OPS hitter is more like a .650 when pinch hitting. I'd guess that in most situations outside of LH vs LH with a big platoon split, or maybe bringing in a good starter on an off day, you're really not gaining anything by pinch hitting.