What about Mayo?

[Sports Guy]

6 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

Are you completely oblivious to baseball strategy?

1) Are you completely oblivious to what talent is?

2) Frazier and Odor were sh!t players but they hit left handed!  Obviously that was a good thing!

3) Holliday will be up soon enough and he is a lefty.

4) We have plenty of lefties throughout the lineup. You need right handed hitters somewhere.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Sports Guy

[Tony-OH]

16 hours ago, forphase1 said:

Just to be clear, I never said that Holiday NEEDS more time in the minors.  Just that I think Mayo is more ready to face MLB pitching right now than Holiday is, largely due to the amount of at bats and performance by both at the AAA level.  

This is where I'm at overall. I like Holliday will become the better overall hitter because he will grow into more power and he already has a plus-hit tool that will be plus-plus when he hits lefties better with more experience.

But for 2024, the Orioles could use a power bat in the lineup and the once Mayo made his AAA adjustments, he was the Tides best hitter. 

I realize some people have pause on his defense at 3B, and while he won't be Gunnar Henderson at 3B, he's not a big clog out there and his arm is actually stronger than Gunnar's.

He really did improve his defense last year and while he still makes some errors, he's shown good quickness over there, especially for a player of his size. He's also pretty good on pop ups and the times I've seen him play 1B, he's been pretty good overall considering his lack of experience there.

I think he could be an effective defensive 3B right now and his bat is ready in my opinion though historically he's always needed to time to adjust to a new level.

Here's a couple of examples:

https://www.mlb.com/video/00u7jzgkdtP9kH55c356/reels/coby-mayo-s-defense?partnerId=web_multimedia-search_video-share

[Frobby]

20 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

The question I have is does O'Hearn have much in the way of trade value?

I’d say he’d have more value at the deadline, if he’s hitting.  

[Just Regular]

If/when Mayo uses the strong arm to throw somebody out from far across the diamond, the play should be called a Miracle Whip.

[Can_of_corn]

11 minutes ago, Just Regular said:

If/when Mayo uses the strong arm to throw somebody out from far across the diamond, the play should be called a Miracle Whip.

I'd rather if they went with "Aioli!" when he hit a dong.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Can_of_corn

[btdart20]

3 hours ago, Just Regular said:

If/when Mayo uses the strong arm to throw somebody out from far across the diamond, the play should be called a Miracle Whip.

But does he start his career on Cinco de Mayo?

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, btdart20 said:

But does he start his career on Cinco de Mayo?

That’s a great idea!

[Tony-OH]

24 minutes ago, btdart20 said:

But does he start his career on Cinco de Mayo?

Maybe not, but once he's established, he better have a bobblehead day on Cinco de Mayo when the Orioles are home.

[George Zuverink]

6 hours ago, btdart20 said:

But does he start his career on Cinco de Mayo?

Why not, but even if he can play 3B there will only ever be one Cinco des Orioles. 

[RZNJ]

Some Oriole minor leaguers have made dramatic improvement in season but the plate discipline didn’t change all that much which got me thinking about Gunnar Henderson and Coby Mayo.

In Hendersons age 20 season (he turned 20 in June 22) in 105 games he had 56 walks and 143 strikeouts and ended the season with a few games at Bowie.  The next season he became the poster child for Oriole swing decisions with 41 walks vs. 38 strikeouts in 47 games at Bowie.  A very impressive improvement from the prior year.   He regressed a bit at Norfolk with 38 walks and 78 strikeouts in 65 games and onto Baltimore.  Last year he was a respectable 56 walks and 159 strikeouts in 150 games but there’s certainly room for improvement.

Now for Coby Mayo.  In his age 20 season split between Aberdeen and Bowie, he had 40 walks 114 strikeouts in 104 games.  At Bowie a concerning 12 walks 50 strikeouts in 30 games.    Now, here’s where Mayo does a Henderson and maybe one better in 2023 at age 21.

51 walks 86 strikeouts in 78 games at Bowie.  A dramatic improvement but not close to Henderson who had more walks than strikeouts.  On to Norfolk where Mayo out does Henderson.  Instead of regressing like Henderson did Mayo just keeps getting better.  42 walks and 62 strikeouts in 62 games.   Good times.

 

 

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, RZNJ said:

Some Oriole minor leaguers have made dramatic improvement in season but the plate discipline didn’t change all that much which got me thinking about Gunnar Henderson and Coby Mayo.

In Hendersons age 20 season (he turned 20 in June 22) in 105 games he had 56 walks and 143 strikeouts and ended the season with a few games at Bowie.  The next season he became the poster child for Oriole swing decisions with 41 walks vs. 38 strikeouts in 47 games at Bowie.  A very impressive improvement from the prior year.   He regressed a bit at Norfolk with 38 walks and 78 strikeouts in 65 games and onto Baltimore.  Last year he was a respectable 56 walks and 159 strikeouts in 150 games but there’s certainly room for improvement.

Now for Coby Mayo.  In his age 20 season split between Aberdeen and Bowie, he had 40 walks 114 strikeouts in 104 games.  At Bowie a concerning 12 walks 50 strikeouts in 30 games.    Now, here’s where Mayo does a Henderson and maybe one better in 2023 at age 21.

51 walks 86 strikeouts in 78 games at Bowie.  A dramatic improvement but not close to Henderson who had more walks than strikeouts.  On to Norfolk where Mayo out does Henderson.  Instead of regressing like Henderson did Mayo just keeps getting better.  42 walks and 62 strikeouts in 62 games.   Good times.

 

 

Got post RZNJ. That improvement in his plate discipline and the defensive improvements at 3B are what really shone through this season and should have reminded all that's got a chance to be very special. 

I still think he's a bit undervalued and the fact that we haven't hear much from Elias on him like we heard about Holliday is a little surprising. Maybe nobody asked him about him, but I do think there's a very real chance of Mayo winning the 3B job out of spring training.

[Frobby]

36 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Got post RZNJ. That improvement in his plate discipline and the defensive improvements at 3B are what really shone through this season and should have reminded all that's got a chance to be very special. 

I’m sure he improved defensively last year, but a .919 fielding percentage is still pretty awful.  The major league average is .963, which means that Mayo makes more than twice as many errors as the average major league third baseman.  The worst team in the majors had a .935 fielding percentage at 3B.

Now, I know that fielding percentage tends to pick up at the major league level due to (1) better maintained fields and (2) more skilled first basemen who save some errors with their pick skills.  And, fielding percentage isn’t the only measure of defense, tells you nothing about range, blah blah blah.   Still, I think it’s fair to question whether Mayo is (1) below major league standards of adequacy and/or (2) significantly inferior to the four other options we have at 3B (Urias, Henderson, Ortiz, Westburg).   Mayo will need to answer that this spring. 

[Tony-OH]

5 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’m sure he improved defensively last year, but a .919 fielding percentage is still pretty awful.  The major league average is .963, which means that Mayo makes more than twice as many errors as the average major league third baseman.  The worst team in the majors had a .935 fielding percentage at 3B.

Now, I know that fielding percentage tends to pick up at the major league level due to (1) better maintained fields and (2) more skilled first basemen who save some errors with their pick skills.  And, fielding percentage isn’t the only measure of defense, tells you nothing about range, blah blah blah.   Still, I think it’s fair to question whether Mayo is (1) below major league standards of adequacy and/or (2) significantly inferior to the four other options we have at 3B (Urias, Henderson, Ortiz, Westburg).   Mayo will need to answer that this spring. 

It's fair to question him defensively at 3B because the fielding percentage most definitely has to improve. It did improve some at AAA last year but the biggest improvements was just his ability to play closer to the ball and his lateral movement, especially to his glove side thanks to learning a drop step. 

He's obviously going to be better at 1B, but I don't think he's unplayable at 3B. As long as Mountcastle is here though, I don't see him getting PAs at 1B and DH will be taken up by Adley when he's not catching, so if he's going to play this year with the Orioles, it needs to be at 3B.

[RZNJ]

27 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’m sure he improved defensively last year, but a .919 fielding percentage is still pretty awful.  The major league average is .963, which means that Mayo makes more than twice as many errors as the average major league third baseman.  The worst team in the majors had a .935 fielding percentage at 3B.

Now, I know that fielding percentage tends to pick up at the major league level due to (1) better maintained fields and (2) more skilled first basemen who save some errors with their pick skills.  And, fielding percentage isn’t the only measure of defense, tells you nothing about range, blah blah blah.   Still, I think it’s fair to question whether Mayo is (1) below major league standards of adequacy and/or (2) significantly inferior to the four other options we have at 3B (Urias, Henderson, Ortiz, Westburg).   Mayo will need to answer that this spring. 

There’s hope.  Gunnar Henderson’s overall minor league fielding percentage is .919 at 3B and .929 at SS.   He did show a lot of improvement at AAA though.   

[Moose Milligan]

Are his errors at third base due to wild throws to first or booting and bobbling balls?