Hicks activated, Cowser optioned

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, eddie83 said:

It’s not my narrative it’s yours. You act like they never gave him a chance. 
 

1st place teams don’t hand out at bats. 

Well, you are 10000% wrong about that and history proves that.

Right now, this team is handing out crucial innings to lots of players who haven’t earned it, haven’t played this much of a season, are struggling, haven’t been good in the past or combinations of all of these.

So, that is completely wrong.

[eddie83]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

I’m not cherry picking anything. What he did when he first got here is great but the fact is that when you look at the last several years and the rest of his time this year, that first few weeks here is a clear outlier. Another team is literally paying him millions not to play for them anymore because he was so bad.

And you want to ignore that because of a good 40-50 at bats?  Were you clamoring for him when NY DFA’ed him?

It’s a bench role. You act like he will be playing everyday. 
 

Cowser has had 2 extra base hits. He isn’t hitting the ball with any authority. 

[eddie83]

Just now, Sports Guy said:

Well, you are 10000% wrong about that and history proves that.

Right now, this team is handing out crucial innings to lots of players who haven’t earned it, haven’t played this much of a season, are struggling, haven’t been good in the past or combinations of all of these.

So, that is completely wrong.

Just because you say so? Being ranked on a prospect list means nothing unless you produce. 

[DirtyBird]

2 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:

I'm not really passionately arguing that Hicks > Cowser is the wrong move. I think Hicks is probably a little better defensively and he certainly has more playoff environment experience than Cowser. Plus he's a switch hitter, slightly better from the left side than the right but not overwhelmingly good from either side over his career. 

I think that over the course of an entire season, Cowser would prove to be the better player. 

But Hicks gives Hyde more flexibility than Cowser does right now, so it's certainly a defensible move. And if Cowser were hitting the ball with the same authority Westburg has, it would be a much more egregious call. 

Keep winning and I don't care if Chito Martinez is our left fielder.

Ok. I don’t disagree. I just wanted to know if there was a metric saying Cowser was unlucky. I don’t think BABIP tells the full story on luck.

[AnythingO's]

I'm OK with this for 2 reasons, Hyde won't play Cowser regularly enough to get make adjustments and this preserves his ROY eligibility for next year. He will go down with a plan and get regular PT to execute that plan. I am hoping to see Kjerstad's bat in Sept.

[eddie83]

4 minutes ago, AnythingO's said:

I'm OK with this for 2 reasons, Hyde won't play Cowser regularly enough to get make adjustments and this preserves his ROY eligibility for next year. He will go down with a plan and get regular PT to execute that plan. I am hoping to see Kjerstad's bat in Sept.

He shouldn’t be playing him regularly when other players are outperforming him. 

[Hank Scorpio]

9 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

Ok. I don’t disagree. I just wanted to know if there was a metric saying Cowser was unlucky. I don’t think BABIP tells the full story on luck.

Cowser's hard hit % is 25% https://www.fangraphs.com/players/colton-cowser/29591/stats?position=OF

Hicks' hard hit % is 25.3% https://www.fangraphs.com/players/aaron-hicks/5297/stats?position=OF 

Not much difference. Hicks' value is in his defense and switch hitterness. 

I guess.

He's not much better, honestly. Cowser's EV's are slightly higher as well. 

[EricK]

Cowser still has less than 45 days of service time.  So, he keeps his rookie status intact.  Convenient timing.

Hopefully, Holliday comes up on Aug 31 and helps the O's to the WS and keeps his rookie status into next year.  Then, the O's rookies will go 1 and 2 in the ROY voting in 2024 to rack up the extra draft picks after Henderson wins ROY this year.

[Sports Guy]

28 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

It’s a bench role. You act like he will be playing everyday. 
 

Cowser has had 2 extra base hits. He isn’t hitting the ball with any authority. 

He will play a lot. He’s already starting tonight.

[Sports Guy]

27 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Just because you say so? Being ranked on a prospect list means nothing unless you produce. 

What does a prospect ranking have anything to do with the post you quoted?

[Sports Guy]

32 minutes ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

Don't get emotional. buttercup. I thought we were having a good numbers based conversation.

No, you are a conversation where you are choosing to ignore the whole picture  and want to put a ton of weight into 2 weeks of good play surrounded by 3 years of bad to awful play, including the last month he was healthy with the Os.

[eddie83]

21 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

What does a prospect ranking have anything to do with the post you quoted?

Cowser is slugging .148. On what basis should he be playing? 

[Jammer7]

Cowser looked awful. He rarely got the barrel out front and drive anything. He was blown away regularly by mediocre pitchers. His at bats were short and predictable. He hit the barrel to one about 10 days ago and drove it to RCF for a double. Other than that, he hit some balls hard right at the 3B, sure. But he was not driving barely anything. He was very tentative in the box and we need more than that from an OF. 

He is not a CF for me, and he looked below average in a corner right now. He was just tentative everywhere. I was very disappointed in how he seemed to be at a loss of confidence. The game is hard. I still think he can be a real good player, but he is far from being able to be a contributing member of a contender right now.

OTOH, Hicks will probably be hurt again soon. I would rather see McKenna come up over Cowser. I do not love Hicks’ game, but no one can deny his contributions for the first 3-4 weeks in Baltimore. He adds another quality at bat and helps lengthen a lineup. To me, he is a mistake hitter, which is a lot better than what Cowser is right now. Some here wrote about how Cowser is struggling like Henderson did. It isn’t even close for me. Henderson was much more intentional and confident with what he was doing. Cowser has lost his confidence for the time being. I’m sure his buds will carry on the Star Wars Lego building without him until he gets back.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Jammer7

[Alasdaire]

2 hours ago, orioles119 said:

Orioles Hangout never disappoints.  Posters are clamoring for Cowser to get sent down.  When he in fact does, it's suddenly a bad move.  He may have a bright future, he may not.  But now is NOT the time to give him AB's in Baltimore in the middle of a pennant chase.

It's almost like a message board isn't a monolith...

My personal take is that for the foreseeable future (as in, for years to come), it's never going to be a "good time" to give young guys ABs. We're in the AL East and the games in May count too. There has to be an eye toward the future and not a total focus on this year's results.

Now I'm not ascribing that myopia to the front office. This move might not be so much about maximizing the major league team's present value at any cost. It could be that Colton needs to go to Norfolk to work on a few mechanical issues like Grayson did earlier this year. I'm more so addressing the idea that now isn't a good time.

[Sports Guy]

4 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Cowser is slugging .148. On what basis should he be playing? 

Because his numbers are unlucky (even if they still wouldn’t be good but would likely look similar to what Hicks has been the last month here before he got hurt). Because he’s young, learning and will get better. Because he’s inmensely talented. Because his P/PA would be the best in the league if he qualified. Because his arm strength is very high. Because he has basically dominated in the minors and has nothing left to prove and because his replacement blows and has basically been a bad player for much of the last several years.