Jackson Holliday 2024

[George Zuverink]

1 hour ago, spleen1015 said:

 

Doesn’t count. It was against a RH pitcher.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

Nice defensive play by Holliday tonight at 2B.

 

[emmett16]

9 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Nice defensive play by Holliday tonight at 2B.

 

He made a few nice plays.  He also made a couple blunders (missed a throw for a CS & was caught off-guard in wrong position a couple times).  He’s going to need to show consistency in the field. 

[Tony-OH]

19 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

He made a few nice plays.  He also made a couple blunders (missed a throw for a CS & was caught off-guard in wrong position a couple times).  He’s going to need to show consistency in the field. 

His fielding at 2B early on certainly shows he needs more experience there. Besides the ones you mentioned from last night, there's also been some poor throwing accuracy at times, and his tagging is not great. He also seems to lose focus at times defensively and as you pointed out, he's out of position or just hasn't covered the base at times when he should have. 

As much as I do think he was sent down because of service time, he does need to work on improving his defense. 

He has shown the range and hands to be a very good second baseman, so I don't see anything that won't improve with experience.

[Tony-OH]

Holliday is leaving little doubt his bat is ready to be at the top of the Orioles order once they get his 7th year of controllability. Holliday has hit 4 2b, 2 homer with a team best 11-8 BB-K ratio in 51 PAs. He's slashing .342/.490/.605/1.096. 

Super small sample size of 8 PAs against lefties but he has slashed .429/.375/1.000/1.375 with home run and double and has not struck out against a southpaw.

BUUUUUUUTTTTT, he defense has been pretty shaky overall at 2B as was discussed previously. His throwing accuracy has been off several times and he's been out of place a few times, and missed an easy one hop throw that would have nailed a base stealer. He also needs to work on his tagging.

So, if the Orioles can live with his defensively lapses, his first week and half of games shows, he's pretty ready for the big leagues offensively.    

 

[Frobby]

I predict we don’t see him before June, barring injuries.  He’ll continue to rake, and the fans will clamor for him on a nightly basis, but they won’t call him up until his defense settles down.  I expect it will, but going from shaky to solid doesn’t happen overnight.    

[Tony-OH]

5 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I predict we don’t see him before June, barring injuries.  He’ll continue to rake, and the fans will clamor for him on a nightly basis, but they won’t call him up until his defense settles down.  I expect it will, but going from shaky to solid doesn’t happen overnight.    

It would not surprise me if they did keep him down for a bit, but I would be surprised if it's all the way until June. I know they don't want to make a move with Urias yet, but Kemp is not very useful so Urias could move to his role. 

Of course there's the Mayo issue as well. He's ready offensively as well. Westburg will get 4-6 weeks, but if he's not improving on his .194/.242/.355/.597, he's going to get sent back to make room. 

I could see Mayo and Holliday in the regular lineup by mid-May if their defense settles down. They would instantly improve this lineup.

   

[CHIP]

25 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

he's been out of place a few times, and missed an easy one hop throw that would have nailed a base stealer. He also needs to work on his tagging.

So, if the Orioles can live with his defensively lapses, his first week and half of games shows, he's pretty ready for the big leagues offensively.    

 

I think this is also the same knock on Norby.  Offense is ready.  Defense is not.  I think this missed play by Holliday (4/4 game) should have been a routine play.  I had to go back and watch in slow-mo because Britton came out to argue interference on the batter.  Batter hit catcher in his back on swing follow thru... yet ball was still on line and above the knee.  Slowing it down Holliday wasn't even looking at the ball and the runner was still 10 feet from the bag.  I believe they charged the catcher with an error on the throw because it went into CF.  The runner easily advanced to third and scored on the next ground out.  So that play put more pitches on McDermott who has been walking a lot of batters...  On a side note, this was McDermott's 2nd game without any real defensive support...  Which again leads to frustration and walks.  

Same thing can be said for Norby who had a chance to play 2nd base on 4/6 during Means starter.  First inning Means throws a change up that catcher had to make a quick throw.  Throw was to SS side of bag and on a hop (like Holiday) but hits Norby in the palm and he makes the tag easily on the runner but without the ball. 

With all of the defensive errors so far, and with so much focus on the offense of the "Fab 5", I am curious if the AAA coaches are forgetting about the need for practice or if they simply don't have the time for fundamentals.

[Sports Guy]

Early June has been my prediction for a while now.

Likely avoid super 2 and likely won’t get enough at bats/playing time to get into the top 2 for ROY

[RZNJ]

Does anyone else question the max effort on every Holliday swing?   He seems to be coming out of his shoes on every one.  Was he like that last year?

[Tony-OH]

5 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Does anyone else question the max effort on every Holliday swing?   He seems to be coming out of his shoes on every one.  Was he like that last year?

Well he hits the ball pretty hard, pretty consistently so I'm not worried about it. Holliday seems to have the "do damage approach" early in the PA but will cut it back a bit with two strikes. Either way, his 11-8 walk-K ratio shows it's not an issue.

[Frobby]

5 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Does anyone else question the max effort on every Holliday swing?   He seems to be coming out of his shoes on every one.  Was he like that last year?

At a K rate under 16%, he can swing as hard as he wants.  

[Say O!]

7 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Does anyone else question the max effort on every Holliday swing?   He seems to be coming out of his shoes on every one.  Was he like that last year?

Bryce Harper is max effort.  To me, Holliday is more fluid and he recruits full body for his torque giving the appearance of high effort, but it is more akin to a golfer generating high swing speed with proper sequencing of kinetic chain. 

[LookinUp]

59 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I predict we don’t see him before June, barring injuries.  He’ll continue to rake, and the fans will clamor for him on a nightly basis, but they won’t call him up until his defense settles down.  I expect it will, but going from shaky to solid doesn’t happen overnight.    

I don't necessarily doubt the June prediction, but I wouldn't be shocked if Holliday quickly cleans up most of his issues at 2B. I actually do think it'll happen almost over night, though you'll need a good sample to know for sure.

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, LookinUp said:

I don't necessarily doubt the June prediction, but I wouldn't be shocked if Holliday quickly cleans up most of his issues at 2B. I actually do think it'll happen almost over night, though you'll need a good sample to know for sure.

That’s the thing.  How long do you have to see it before you know?