Adley’s Conditioning

[Buntingdownfourruns]

First off, I’m a huge Adley fan. I firmly believe he brings a winning culture to this team that can’t be measured with a WAR stat. He’s someone we’re lucky to have.

That being said, we all know that the team seemed to have offensive issues that last few weeks of the season. Not shocking as this is a young team at key core positions and the strain of chasing that division title at that age is exhausting.

Adley specifically is a major component of the teams offensive output. While he had a strong start to September he really seemed exhausted to me by the end of the month and into the playoffs. He had a lot of swings that were unbalanced with severe uppercuts being lead by his upper body as his legs seemed exhausted with a lack of lower body drive. I think of his first at bat in game two of the ALDS on the 3-1 count as an example. 
 

It seems by the end of the season  he noticeably put on some weight. Not shocking if you’re crouching three hours  a day, and are spending more time recovering by the end of the season. I would argue catchers don’t need to be as sticky anymore as the collision at the plate plays no longer exist in baseball. Perhaps a little better conditioning next season and more rest days would do the trick?

Thoughts?

Edited October 14, 2023 by Buntingdownfourruns

[Frobby]

Just now, Buntingdownfourruns said:

First off, I’m a huge Adley fan. I firmly believe he brings a winning culture to this team that can’t be measured with a WAR stat. He’s someone we’re lucky to have.

That being said, we all know that the team seemed to have offensive issues that last few weeks of the season. Not shocking as this is a young team at key core positions and the strain of chasing that division title at that age is straining.

Adley specifically is a major component of the teams offensive output. While he had a strong start to September he really seemed exhausted to me by the end of the month and into the playoffs. He had a lot of swings that were unbalanced being lead by his upper body as his legs seemed exhausted with a lack of lower body drive. I think of his first at bat in game two of the ALDS on the 3-1 count as an example. 
 

It seems by the end of the season  he noticeably put on some weight. Not shocking if you’re crouching three hours  a day, and are spending more time recovering by the end of the season. I would argue catchers don’t need to be as sticky anymore as the collision at the plate plays no longer exist in baseball. Perhaps a little better conditioning next season and more rest days would do the trick?

Thoughts?

My thoughts are that you are wrong  about how Adley finished the season. He had a 1.195 OPS over his final 12 games.  He was worth 0.9 rWAR, 1.3 fWAR over the final 18 games.  

[DirtyBird]

Crouching makes you gain weight?

[Buntingdownfourruns]

Thank you for the stats. Would you happen to have a breakdown of how those 12 games broke down? I’m a little bit older so I’m not great with the computer stats. I just remember his being hot through the middle of the month and then really trailing off. 

[Buntingdownfourruns]

Crouching doesn’t make you gain weight. Your legs being tired and resting more leads to less cardio conditioning in between games. 

[terpoh]

12 minutes ago, Buntingdownfourruns said:

First off, I’m a huge Adley fan. I firmly believe he brings a winning culture to this team that can’t be measured with a WAR stat. He’s someone we’re lucky to have.

That being said, we all know that the team seemed to have offensive issues that last few weeks of the season. Not shocking as this is a young team at key core positions and the strain of chasing that division title at that age is exhausting.

Adley specifically is a major component of the teams offensive output. While he had a strong start to September he really seemed exhausted to me by the end of the month and into the playoffs. He had a lot of swings that were unbalanced with severe uppercuts being lead by his upper body as his legs seemed exhausted with a lack of lower body drive. I think of his first at bat in game two of the ALDS on the 3-1 count as an example. 
 

It seems by the end of the season  he noticeably put on some weight. Not shocking if you’re crouching three hours  a day, and are spending more time recovering by the end of the season. I would argue catchers don’t need to be as sticky anymore as the collision at the plate plays no longer exist in baseball. Perhaps a little better conditioning next season and more rest days would do the trick?

Thoughts?

There is no evidence that he put on weight or bodyfat or any of that. He also had one of his best months of the season in September and was the Orioles best hitter for the entire month. I do not think his conditioning is of any concern, he is built well and held up over the course of an entire MLB season, very impressive physically.

[RZNJ]

16 minutes ago, Buntingdownfourruns said:

First off, I’m a huge Adley fan. I firmly believe he brings a winning culture to this team that can’t be measured with a WAR stat. He’s someone we’re lucky to have.

That being said, we all know that the team seemed to have offensive issues that last few weeks of the season. Not shocking as this is a young team at key core positions and the strain of chasing that division title at that age is exhausting.

Adley specifically is a major component of the teams offensive output. While he had a strong start to September he really seemed exhausted to me by the end of the month and into the playoffs. He had a lot of swings that were unbalanced with severe uppercuts being lead by his upper body as his legs seemed exhausted with a lack of lower body drive. I think of his first at bat in game two of the ALDS on the 3-1 count as an example. 
 

It seems by the end of the season  he noticeably put on some weight. Not shocking if you’re crouching three hours  a day, and are spending more time recovering by the end of the season. I would argue catchers don’t need to be as sticky anymore as the collision at the plate plays no longer exist in baseball. Perhaps a little better conditioning next season and more rest days would do the trick?

Thoughts?

Disagree 100%.  

[Buntingdownfourruns]

Appreciate everyone’s perspective! Sometimes I think silly things. 

[dystopia]

3 minutes ago, Buntingdownfourruns said:

Appreciate everyone’s perspective! Sometimes I think silly things. 

Adley's the face of the franchise now so I feel like he's going to get analyzed to death. Meanwhile. Cedric Mullins did zilch offensively after that 3 run homer in Houston (.258 OPS after that!). O'Hearn did zilch. There were others that slumped horribly too, even Gunnar.  Maybe it was fatigue, maybe it was just a teamwide slump. Hard to say. 

[Aristotelian]

He hit .296 in August and .292 in Sept. Whatever you are seeing with your eyes is not backed up by data. I also thought his defense got better and better as the season progressed.

2023 was Adley's first full year playing 162 (or 165) games. The fact that he played 100+ games at C speaks to excellent conditioning. If he ever struggles for an extended period, I would suspect overuse more so than conditioning. By all accounts Adley is a leader with an excellent work ethic. 

[Buntingdownfourruns]

13 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

He hit .296 in August and .292 in Sept. Whatever you are seeing with your eyes is not backed up by data. I also thought his defense got better and better as the season progressed.

2023 was Adley's first full year playing 162 (or 165) games. The fact that he played 100+ games at C speaks to excellent conditioning. If he ever struggles for an extended period, I would suspect overuse more so than conditioning. By all accounts Adley is a leader with an excellent work ethic. 

Like I said I’m old. I guess recency bias with the playoff series clouded my judgement. Thank you for the data 

[Frobby]

58 minutes ago, Buntingdownfourruns said:

Thank you for the stats. Would you happen to have a breakdown of how those 12 games broke down? I’m a little bit older so I’m not great with the computer stats. I just remember his being hot through the middle of the month and then really trailing off. 

You can find his game log at the link below.  You can get a sum for any series of games during this season by clicking on the first and last lines of the group you want to sum up.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=rutscad01&t=b&year=2023

[Buntingdownfourruns]

18 minutes ago, Frobby said:

You can find his game log at the link below.  You can get a sum for any series of games during this season by clicking on the first and last lines of the group you want to sum up.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=rutscad01&t=b&year=2023

Thank you!!

[Hts1980]

I hear you.  He’s a stalky guy.  Kind of a prototypical catcher.  I think there was the perception that he was not doing well because the whole team was not doing well, guilt by association.  Specifically not doing well at the plate.  We were fortunate our pitching kept us in games, and part of the pitching is the catcher.   So he’s certainly a very good catcher, better than Chris Hoiles even.   But his stamina seemed to be consistent throughout the year.   

[OnlyOneOriole]

I think Adley was fine and we are lucky to have him.  Great leader and teammate.

That being said, being the nature of the position in general?  I don't really think any catcher is worth the first pick in the draft.  The position is too taxing on the body and mind and because of that IMO it really makes a lot of catchers all about the same.  They just kind of morph into the same quality of player.