Opinions that didn't age well: 2023

[Roll Tide]

I thought we would spend in free agency . Oh well there’s always next season…..Wait

[banks703]

2 hours ago, dystopia said:

There’s some good ones in that thread. 

I didn't see egregiousness in this thread. 

[oriolediehard]

29 minutes ago, Roll Tide said:

I thought we would spend in free agency . Oh well there’s always next season…..Wait

It's against JA policy to spend. If we don't win next year how are OH fans going to react after we didn't do anything this off-season? There is no guarantee we are going to win 101 games again after doing nothing.  I definitely want to be very wrong.

[dystopia]

13 minutes ago, banks703 said:

I didn't see egregiousness in this thread. 

Mainly the "this team won't sniff 75 wins" post and those that agreed with it. 

[Jammer7]

I believed Mateo’s hot fist month was sustainable. And just like that, it wasn’t. He stopped doing things that made him successful.

@Sports Guy hates everyone, who cares if he said Mateo would falter.

[Sports Guy]

28 minutes ago, Jammer7 said:

I believed Mateo’s hot fist month was sustainable. And just like that, it wasn’t. He stopped doing things that made him successful.

@Sports Guy hates everyone, who cares if he said Mateo would falter.

He wasn’t capable of sustaining it. It’s not that he stopped, it’s that he just isn’t good enough. 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

9 hours ago, Yardball85 said:

I thought Ryan O'Hearn would be DFA'ed by June. 

Same. I also thought Mateo could hit enough to remain a useful piece. Outside of Mateo’s April he might have been the worst hitter in MLB. 

[Jammer7]

49 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

He wasn’t capable of sustaining it. It’s not that he stopped, it’s that he just isn’t good enough. 

At this point, I cannot argue much. I do think he is “good enough” to play everyday at the MLB level. He is not as good as he appeared at that time. I don’t think he understands the value of some of the good things he was doing. There is not a more talented infielder that I have ever seen. There is nothing he cannot do, physically. I thought he clearly worked very hard in 2022 on his defense. In 2023, I wonder if he worked nearly as hard on it. You do not simply regress that much at his age if the work ethic is equal.

I honestly hope I am wrong. I was disappointed to not see much of him in the extra work session for infielders in July in Tampa. He should be the first guy on the field every day. 

[forphase1]

32 minutes ago, Jammer7 said:

There is nothing he cannot do, physically. 

Yeah,  except consistently hit a baseball...

[Frobby]

8 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

I also said his defense wouldn’t be at the level he showed in 2022.

Im not really sure why so many on here get fooled so quickly by new shiny things.

The history of a players career matters. Hoping that every crappy toolsy player will buck history and because Jose Bautista is funny to me.

It was likely that Mateo’s defense would regress, and to be fair to Mateo, his defense was very good when he was starting regularly and went downhill when he started sitting a lot.  

As to the offense, obviously it was silly to think he’d put up a 1.000 OPS all year.  But after he’d done it for a month, it was pretty reasonable to think the rest of his year would be better than he was in 2022, and that the statistical effect of being at 1.000 for 1/6 of the season would keep his overall OPS over .700.   Even his revised ZiPS projection called for that, and ZiPS of course fully took into account Mateo’s prior history.  So in short, your prediction turned out to be correct, but I don’t think it was unreasonable at all to expect more at that point.  
 

[Sports Guy]

1 hour ago, forphase1 said:

Yeah,  except consistently hit a baseball...

Or show a good eye at the plate..or lay off a pitch down and away.

[ShoelesJoe]

3 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

He wasn’t capable of sustaining it. It’s not that he stopped, it’s that he just isn’t good enough. 

My optimism was based on my (obviously amateur) observations that Mateo looked to have changed his hitting approach at the beginning of the season. He was letting the ball travel deeper into the zone, and hitting lots of hard line drives to the opposite field. I don't know if he didn't have the discipline necessary to maintain that process, or if opposing pitchers made an adjustment which nullified what he was trying to do, but he sure did fall off a cliff a month into the season. 

Quote

 I’ve literally never seen a player go from that hot to that cold from one month to the next.  

Jeff Manto?

[Sports Guy]

8 minutes ago, ShoelesJoe said:

My optimism was based on my (obviously amateur) observations that Mateo looked to have changed his hitting approach at the beginning of the season. He was letting the ball travel deeper into the zone, and hitting lots of hard line drives to the opposite field. I don't know if he didn't have the discipline necessary to maintain that process, or if opposing pitchers made an adjustment which nullified what he was trying to do, but he sure did fall off a cliff a month into the season. 

Jeff Manto?

How many times did people think Adam Jones was changing his style because he didn’t chase the low and away pitch for 6 weeks?

 Players almost always revert back to who and what they are. 
 

They are capable of short stretches of looking much better but ultimately, they are what they are.

 

[Jammer7]

12 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Or show a good eye at the plate..or lay off a pitch down and away.

Of course, those are mental things, not physical. 

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Jammer7 said:

Of course, those are mental things, not physical. 

Ehhh..maybe.  Muscle memory could be kicking in. Is that mental or physical?  Kind of both I think.

There is also just maybe not seeing that pitch recognition.  Again, mental or physical? 
 

He’s just not a very good baseball player no matter how much you want it to be true. He does certain things well and he has value in certain ways but overall, he’s just not good.