TT: It's time to bring up Colton Cowser

[Pickles]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

And he held his own last year..only to then be sent down and watch his playing time be sporadic this year. 

He's gotten pretty consistent playing time since he's been recalled.  It's not fair to blame his struggles this year on sporadic playing time.

[Safelykept]

5 minutes ago, Pickles said:

But now that Stowers has gotten all of 30 abs, he's to be jettisoned and that's his chance, and now Cowser gets his chance?  Presumably for more than 30 abs?

Again, this is schizophrenic, and not how you develop players.

The flip side of this not how develop players is Stowers getting a total 120 ABs and OPS under 600, this is not how you stay in the majors. He may very well get the 200 games And 500 plus ABs that DJ Stewart got but it will be with another Organzation if  he doesn't pick it up. This team is too good for that long a leash. 

[Bahama O's Fan]

16 minutes ago, Pickles said:

I'm not concerned about rushing him.

I want to know if he's better than Hays or Santander right now.

Everyone was very confident Stowers would be an upgrade.

(Narrator: He wasn't.)

Now after ten games he's to be jettisoned for the next prospect.

This is not how you develop players.

I think it was not whether he was better than Hays or Santander. It was about giving him a real shot as everyone felt he was done with AAA and he was okay last year. It was also about whether he was better than Vavra or Frazier, who were out in RF when Santander was DHing.

[Pickles]

1 minute ago, Safelykept said:

The flip side of this not how develop players is Stowers getting a total 120 ABs and OPS under 600, this is not how you stay in the majors. He may very well get the 200 games And 500 plus ABs that DJ Stewart got but it will be with another Organzation if  he doesn't pick it up. This team is too good for that long a leash. 

I'm not giving him 500 abs the way he's going.  I'm giving him another 3 weeks of playing most days and evaluating then.

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Pickles said:

But those at-bats aren't really available until Hays, Santander, or McKenna start to struggle.  They're all playing well.

So Cowser either takes at-bats from Stowers or he takes them from vets who playing well, and responsible for the 2nd best record in baseball.

There's no rush.  Cowser isn't being hurt by spending more time in AAA.  Stowers deserves a longer leash.  And as long as the vets are playing well, and we are winning, they deserve to keep playing.

Santander is playing well? He is 4 for his last 20 and had a 630 OPS in April.

Outside of his excellent stretch the first part of May, he hasn’t been that good this year and throughout his career, he has been a low OBP, oft injured guy with middling at best defense.

Don’t get me wrong, while he is here, I like having him here as the DH for most games. He has a lot of power and when he gets hot, he can carry a team for a week. But he can have at bats taken from him a few games a week. That’s not a big deal.

[Pickles]

1 minute ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

I think it was not whether he was better than Hays or Santander. It was about giving him a real shot as everyone felt he was done with AAA and he was okay last year. It was also about whether he was better than Vavra or Frazier, who were out in RF when Santander was DHing.

The rushing comment is in regards to Cowser.

I want Stowers to get a longer leash.  But it's not unlimited.

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, Pickles said:

He's gotten pretty consistent playing time since he's been recalled.  It's not fair to blame his struggles this year on sporadic playing time.

Ummm yea it is. Players don’t always magically start being great because they play 8 out of 13 games.

They don’t play him vs lefties..they have sent him down twice this year. His playing time has been all over the place and these guys are humans..he sees how he is being treated and he is likely pressing and has some mental hurdles to clear. If he felt better about his standing with the org, based on his playing time, maybe he is in a bette frame  of mind.

Now, that being said, he needs to get over it. It’s a SSS even 3 weeks from now but he needs to start showing something by then for all the reasons that have been discussed.

[Pickles]

Just now, Sports Guy said:

Santander is playing well? He is 4 for his last 20 and had a 630 OPS in April.

Outside of his excellent stretch the first part of May, he hasn’t been that good this year and throughout his career, he has been a low OBP, oft injured guy with middling at best defense.

Don’t get me wrong, while he is here, I like having him here as the DH for most games. He has a lot of power and when he gets hot, he can carry a team for a week. But he can have at bats taken from him a few games a week. That’s not a big deal.

Dude, why do you insist on making terrible arguments that you know are terrible?  You're going to cherry pick Santader's last 4 games, then leap back to April to cherry pick some more stats, to argue he isn't playing well.  The guy's got a 114 OPS+ for the season.  You don't replace that with a rookie in the middle of a "pennant race."

A "few games a week" could be 2-3 starts a week.  Yeah, you don't take 30-40% of the guy's playing time and give it to a rookie and call it no big deal.

[Hank Scorpio]

1 minute ago, RZNJ said:

So we should concentrate on developing Stowers even if we think we have a guy ready who is a better defender and better overall hitter?

They should give the majority of at bats to whomever presents the best matchup. 

30 at bats isn't much, but when you're 2-25 or whatever he is (which, by the way, happens to almost everyone in the lineup over the course of a year), your opportunities are going to start to diminish. I think he's just stuck in a funk... last night he checked a swing and accidently fouled it off the butt.

Crap like that happens to everyone. But when you don't have the longest of leashes, it might just make a difference. 

[orioles22]

27 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Good news then because they aren’t rushing him and rushing isn’t even a real thing to begin with.

I've seen your theories on that before. I don't agree. We might as well bring up Holliday then, and maybe whoever we draft this summer.

[orioles22]

25 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

I see statements like this.  If it's not broke, don't fix it? 

I would argue that if you have a leaky valve somewhere, and a perfectly fine replacement part in hand, you might as well make the repair. 

I'm more worried about messing Cowser up than if he's better than Stowers. I think we should do what's best for Cowser for the long term.

[Pickles]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

Ummm yea it is. Players don’t always magically start being great because they play 8 out of 13 games.

They don’t play him vs lefties..they have sent him down twice this year. His playing time has been all over the place and these guys are humans..he sees how he is being treated and he is likely pressing and has some mental hurdles to clear. If he felt better about his standing with the org, based on his playing time, maybe he is in a bette frame  of mind.

Now, that being said, he needs to get over it. It’s a SSS even 3 weeks from now but he needs to start showing something by then for all the reasons that have been discussed.

No, consistent at bats doesn't make you perform, but he's gotten pretty consistent at bats the last few weeks and has failed to perform, thus citing inconsistent opportunities for his failures is bad reasoning.

I give him the next few weeks of playing most days and then I reevaluate.  But if he continues like he is now, then yeah, he goes down.

And THEN it makes sense to talk about bringing Cowser up, and figuring out exactly what that means for his and other's playing time.

[maybenxtyr]

Regardless of how well Cowser and Westburg is doing, this wouldn't be as big of a conversation if there weren't as many holes in the offense as there is. The team really needs Henderson and Stowers to get in a groove.

[Sports Guy]

6 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Dude, why do you insist on making terrible arguments that you know are terrible?  You're going to cherry pick Santader's last 4 games, then leap back to April to cherry pick some more stats, to argue he isn't playing well.  The guy's got a 114 OPS+ for the season.  You don't replace that with a rookie in the middle of a "pennant race."

A "few games a week" could be 2-3 starts a week.  Yeah, you don't take 30-40% of the guy's playing time and give it to a rookie and call it no big deal.

You said he is “playing well”. Playing is in the present tense and in the present tense, he hasn’t hit.

He had a 7 game stretch in May that he was great. He was terrible in April and has not been good since that great early  May stretch.

Show me what I said is false.

[RZNJ]

It’s funny how the same people who insist you can’t rush prospects and if their psyche is hurt by struggling then they just aren’t tough enough to succeed anyway will resort to maybe Stowers is struggling because his feelings are hurt by the way the organization has handled him.  LOL