Colton Cowser 2023

[Bemorewins]

Many of the posters/fans who are so down on Cowser now are the same ones that wanted him up. Also, many of these "assessments" were made about Gunnar Henderson (during April and May), Grayson Rodriguez before he came up the second time, Frazier at one point this season, and Mountcastle Vertigo return.

It's the nature of a message board where passion can run very hot. Just check out ANY game thread lol

Right now Cowser has not been a net positive in his short stint. Mullins and Hicks are going to return soon, which means he will probably go back down or won't play much (if he stays) in September when rosters expand. 

With the way Mountcastle has come on in the second half, I really don't see a need for Kjerstad this season. Though I love his potential and think that he could possibly be a great hitter for us one day. There is no need to risk rolling out an unknown rookie trying to get his feet wet, when you already have vets performing well in Santander/Mountcastle/O'Hearn to cover 1B/DH/RF. And then Hicks and Mullins will return also.

Most likely, Cowser will take time to adjust to the big leagues  like Gunnar, Adley, and Grayson all did. Westburg has held his own since being called up, but has certainly by no means lit the world on fire. I know patience is often in short supply in our society, but unfortunately most of these guys (even the best/most talented ones) take a little time. 

[Baltimorecuse]

18 minutes ago, deward said:

Saying that Cowser can't field is a serious overreaction to a couple of plays. 

Have it your way.  We'll see.  

[Sydnor]

15 minutes ago, deward said:

Saying that Cowser can't field is a serious overreaction to a couple of plays. 

Agreed. I think he can field. I don’t think he’s ever going to be prime Alex Gordon, but he should be fine.

However, you had posters that confidently said that he would be worth more fWAR or rWAR than Santander and/or Hays for the remainder of the season if the team would just call him up (I personally disagreed, didn’t really voice my opinion, but everyone is entitled to an opinion). People said he might not hit for as much power but the corner OF defense will be better. Unfortunately, it hasn’t yet (-2 DRS, 0 OAA in RF v. Santander 4 DRS, 0 OAA in RF). So there is a weight of expectations that he isn’t currently living up to. I think *hope* he will come around, and think it’s far too early to draw any conclusions, but it just isn’t there yet and because the team is fighting to win the East, you’re going to get overreactions.

[Malike]

27 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

Many of the posters/fans who are so down on Cowser now are the same ones that wanted him up. Also, many of these "assessments" were made about Gunnar Henderson (during April and May), Grayson Rodriguez before he came up the second time, Frazier at one point this season, and Mountcastle Vertigo return.

It's the nature of a message board where passion can run very hot. Just check out ANY game thread lol

Right now Cowser has not been a net positive in his short stint. Mullins and Hicks are going to return soon, which means he will probably go back down or won't play much (if he stays) in September when rosters expand. 

With the way Mountcastle has come on in the second half, I really don't see a need for Kjerstad this season. Though I love his potential and think that he could possibly be a great hitter for us one day. There is no need to risk rolling out an unknown rookie trying to get his feet wet, when you already have vets performing well in Santander/Mountcastle/O'Hearn to cover 1B/DH/RF. And then Hicks and Mullins will return also.

Most likely, Cowser will take time to adjust to the big leagues  like Gunnar, Adley, and Grayson all did. Westburg has held his own since being called up, but has certainly by no means lit the world on fire. I know patience is often in short supply in our society, but unfortunately most of these guys (even the best/most talented ones) take a little time. 

Gunnar came up last year and posted a 125 OPS+, we knew he could hit at the ML level. Gunnar's April and May totals were .193/.326/.347. I think most people would be thrilled if Cowser was posting an OPS of .670 instead of .419, especially, because he's a college bat and they generally are able to move a little faster than HS kids.

Rodriguez needed to go down, there is no shame in that and it was the correct decision at the time.

I'm sure your "assessments" are more accurate than the rest of the posters here, especially the astute observation that "Most likely, Cowser will take time to adjust to the big leagues" as if that wasn't completely obvious to anyone with 2 eyes.

I don't think anyone is saying Cowser will not be an okay ML player, but you can't hide his bat and current defense on a team trying to win right now. I think everyone thought he'd have the better part of the season to learn and grow, but he's been so bad, you just can't play him every day with the other black holes we have in the lineup and still try to win games/the division.

Patience is always in short supply for teams who are trying to win, the fast food society analogy doesn't work in this situation. + points for trying it, though.

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, RZNJ said:

He’s been terrible.  He’s going to be good.  That is all.

I’d put it this way.  He’s been terrible.  That doesn’t mean he won’t be good.  

It’s wrong to say that everyone struggles out of the gate.  And among those who do struggle, most don’t struggle as much as Cowser has. 

That said, Cowser’s definitely had some bad luck here and there, and when I watch him at the plate, I like his approach.  He just needs to start making better contact, and I expect he probably will.  

 

[Pickles]

Not a great  night for Cowser.

Went 0-1 with a walk at the plate.  So pretty typical there.

However, he made another terrible play in RF which resulted in his first error of the season.  Double down the line, and Cowser's throw into the infield was seemingly to no one and allowed the runner to make it to third.  It's hard to tell exactly what happened there but it appeared to me that Cowser threw the ball in  to third, where the cut off man (2b) was lined up to 2nd, and the SS was at 2nd, so the ball just rolled in to third.

Another interesting thing I noticed was that when Cowser entered the game as a pinch runner for O'Hearn, the camera showed Hyde yelling at someone, gesturing to first, and saying quite clearly, "Get your ass in there!"  and then a very exasperated "God Damn!"

I'm almost certain he was talking to Cowser; presumably, Cowser wasn't ready to enter the game.  Anyone else catch that?

[deward]

13 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Not a great  night for Cowser.

Went 0-1 with a walk at the plate.  So pretty typical there.

However, he made another terrible play in RF which resulted in his first error of the season.  Double down the line, and Cowser's throw into the infield was seemingly to no one and allowed the runner to make it to third.  It's hard to tell exactly what happened there but it appeared to me that Cowser threw the ball in  to third, where the cut off man (2b) was lined up to 2nd, and the SS was at 2nd, so the ball just rolled in to third.

Another interesting thing I noticed was that when Cowser entered the game as a pinch runner for O'Hearn, the camera showed Hyde yelling at someone, gesturing to first, and saying quite clearly, "Get your ass in there!"  and then a very exasperated "God Damn!"

I'm almost certain he was talking to Cowser; presumably, Cowser wasn't ready to enter the game.  Anyone else catch that?

I can't figure out what happened on that throw. On the replay, it seems like he was throwing it towards Westburg, who decided to get out of the way for reason, and no one was home behind him. Not entirely sure it was Cowser's fault.

[Pickles]

8 minutes ago, deward said:

I can't figure out what happened on that throw. On the replay, it seems like he was throwing it towards Westburg, who decided to get out of the way for reason, and no one was home behind him. Not entirely sure it was Cowser's fault.

I haven't gone back and watched the play.  I saw it live and then the two replays they showed last night.  It is difficult to tell what happened.  I saw someone in the gamethread made a similar comment that it appeared Westburg "ran away" from the ball.  I really think that might be a camera angle thing.  To me he's just chasing the ball, because it's so far upline from where he was positioned.

[AdamK]

31 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Not a great  night for Cowser.

Went 0-1 with a walk at the plate.  So pretty typical there.

However, he made another terrible play in RF which resulted in his first error of the season.  Double down the line, and Cowser's throw into the infield was seemingly to no one and allowed the runner to make it to third.  It's hard to tell exactly what happened there but it appeared to me that Cowser threw the ball in  to third, where the cut off man (2b) was lined up to 2nd, and the SS was at 2nd, so the ball just rolled in to third.

Another interesting thing I noticed was that when Cowser entered the game as a pinch runner for O'Hearn, the camera showed Hyde yelling at someone, gesturing to first, and saying quite clearly, "Get your ass in there!"  and then a very exasperated "God Damn!"

I'm almost certain he was talking to Cowser; presumably, Cowser wasn't ready to enter the game.  Anyone else catch that?

Hyde included Cowser in his reaction, post game, to that Austin Hayes catch in Toronto. He said something like "at first I was wondering where Cowser was, then out of nowhere here comes..."

I re-watched the highlight wondering if Cowser in CF should've had a better shot at it but the OF was shading towards right and the ball was hit between he and Hayes. Cowser was a touch deeper and I don't think he could've gotten there but I'm not sure how his jump was.

Maybe Cowser needs this. I'm glad he has his buddies in the clubhouse.

[banks703]

19 hours ago, Sydnor said:

Agreed. I think he can field. I don’t think he’s ever going to be prime Alex Gordon, but he should be fine.

However, you had posters that confidently said that he would be worth more fWAR or rWAR than Santander and/or Hays for the remainder of the season if the team would just call him up (I personally disagreed, didn’t really voice my opinion, but everyone is entitled to an opinion). People said he might not hit for as much power but the corner OF defense will be better. Unfortunately, it hasn’t yet (-2 DRS, 0 OAA in RF v. Santander 4 DRS, 0 OAA in RF). So there is a weight of expectations that he isn’t currently living up to. I think *hope* he will come around, and think it’s far too early to draw any conclusions, but it just isn’t there yet and because the team is fighting to win the East, you’re going to get overreactions.

I reminded us in one of the threads that prior to being called up last month, CC missed time with a quad issue. You're right that a lot of the folks that clamored for his promotion are the first ones casting him off now... because he is struggling to adjust to the what is arguably the highest level of competition in any sport. I asked the poster in the other thread who was down on Cowser's defense to pull their quad severe enough to miss two weeks from work then tell me how they feel over the course of the next three weeks when asked to sprint around their job. It's not an excuse but quad, groin, lower ab injuries can be EXTREME nuisances (see Cedric Mullins) and it's reasonable that he's not 100% right. The club decided that he was healthy enough for a promotion, so, again, not an excuse but had he been promoted when he was in four week stretch when he was hitting .400 over 25+ games before the quad, perhaps he would have adjusted better to ML pitching. We'll never know. 

CC is going to be fine. He's barely logged 65 PAs thus far in his career. To the folks who blindly state that he's struggling at the ML level and contributing nothing, who refuse to acknowledge that Gunnar and Adley similarly struggled at various times during their rookie years, need to look at what CC has done in his 66 PAs:

10 BB for a 15.2% BB% (15% is considered Excellent, ML average is 8%)

13 Runs Scored

He's been doubled-up just once (looking at you Hays) 

Three ABs that he was put-out but moved the runner to third with less than two outs. All three times that runner scored

On his BABIP his Hard% is at 22.9%, Medium is at 62.9% and soft at 14.3%, which shows that he's not completely lost at the plate. He's making decent contact, he's just not making hard contact as much as we all would prefer to see from him

Obviously his average is not good. His ISO and overall BABIP are not good right now. He's hit into some bad luck or great plays and he's been rung up on a few questionable/bad calls. Had the Yankees not made two outstanding plays last Saturday to rob him of hits his average would be sitting at .150 right now (still not good). Had three of his strikeouts on the year resulted in walks (at least three that come to mind where he worked the count for what should have been a walk but was punched out on questionable/bad calls) he'd be hitting .160. Had they resulted in hits, he'd be hitting .207. 

For everyone who claims that Gunnar was doing so much more during his struggles here is Gunnar through his first 17 games this year in which he recorded an AB (54 ABs) posted:

10 Hits

3 Doubles

1 HR

3 RBI

12 Runs Scored

15 BB

24 Ks

.185/.371/.298

 

So through the same number of games, CC has K'd five less times than Gunnar K'd (in one less AB than Gunnar). CC has scored one more run than Gunnar scored through those 17 games and has one less double than Gunnar had. 

Just like when everyone was ready to send Gunnar packing..patience with rookies is absolutely necessary. Not all of them are going to be Corbin Carrol and Francisco Alvarez. 

[banks703]

1 hour ago, deward said:

I can't figure out what happened on that throw. On the replay, it seems like he was throwing it towards Westburg, who decided to get out of the way for reason, and no one was home behind him. Not entirely sure it was Cowser's fault.

It wasn't

[Three Run Homer]

I'd rather see Cowser in the lineup than McKenna, at least against RHP.  

[glenn__davis]

1 hour ago, Pickles said:

Not a great  night for Cowser.

Went 0-1 with a walk at the plate.  So pretty typical there.

However, he made another terrible play in RF which resulted in his first error of the season.  Double down the line, and Cowser's throw into the infield was seemingly to no one and allowed the runner to make it to third.  It's hard to tell exactly what happened there but it appeared to me that Cowser threw the ball in  to third, where the cut off man (2b) was lined up to 2nd, and the SS was at 2nd, so the ball just rolled in to third.

Another interesting thing I noticed was that when Cowser entered the game as a pinch runner for O'Hearn, the camera showed Hyde yelling at someone, gesturing to first, and saying quite clearly, "Get your ass in there!"  and then a very exasperated "God Damn!"

I'm almost certain he was talking to Cowser; presumably, Cowser wasn't ready to enter the game.  Anyone else catch that?

I did see that but I thought he was showing frustration at O'Hearn for not taking 2nd base. O'Hearn looked like he was trying to explain something to the dugout.   And Hyde looked like he was pointing to second and said "Go! G** D***!"

But your explanation might be possible as well. 

[Pickles]

9 minutes ago, glenn__davis said:

I did see that but I thought he was showing frustration at O'Hearn for not taking 2nd base. O'Hearn looked like he was trying to explain something to the dugout.   And Hyde looked like he was pointing to second and said "Go! G** D***!"

But your explanation might be possible as well. 

So I just went back and watched and your explanation might be correct as well.

The only thing I would say to that though is the throw came in to the cut off man and O'Hearn probably would have been out at second if the throw had gone there.

[Pickles]

I went back and watched Cowser's throw in the 8th and that actually appeared to be an error that should be spread around to three rookies, with Cowser being the least responsible.

Westburg doesn't "run away" from the ball but he inexplicably doesn't cut it off and lets it go through.  The problem with that is both he and Henderson are out of position so the ball just rolls into left field.