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2024 Ongoing Lineup Thread


spleen1015

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35 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

Cowser has started just three games in center. 

I don't think they trust him much out there and let's not forget, he hasn't been hitting either. 

I agree. I just wish they'd at least try to get Stowers bat in the lineup. With Hays, Cowser and especially Mullins struggling to hit, the team has a real outfield problem right now. They needed to give Kjerstad more of a chance too. 

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16 minutes ago, gtman55 said:

I agree. I just wish they'd at least try to get Stowers bat in the lineup. With Hays, Cowser and especially Mullins struggling to hit, the team has a real outfield problem right now. They needed to give Kjerstad more of a chance too. 

 

15 minutes ago, Natty said:

Surely with an outfield like that you'd think we could fit Stowers in. 

Y'all got this macroed up with a blank spot you can just insert the new name?

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1 hour ago, gtman55 said:

At this point, what other manager doesn't sit a comatose Mullins? Unreal. 

Put Cowser in center and get Stowers in left. 

It’s not like Cowser is hitting either. They both look like auto outs to me right now.

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Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

It’s not like Cowser is hitting either. They both look like auto outs to me right now.

From NBC Sports on Cowser (screenshot attached, not sure if it will display).

Cowser needs to continue to get playing time and be afforded the same opportunity to struggle consistently over a long stretch of games (now half a season pretty much) that Cedric Mullins has been given.

The attached screenshot is a snippet from an article on Baseball Savant metrics for fastest bat swings combined with quickest bat paths. Cowser is one of the MLB leaders in the category, right behind guys like Juan Soto, Gunnar, Bobby Witt, Elly De La Cruz, Fernando Tatis Jr., Pete Alonso, and others. 

Cowser has the swing of a stud. Mullins and Hays do not.

Screenshot_20240514_004935_Chrome.jpg

Edited by Brooks The Great
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1 minute ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

Cowser walks occasionally

I guess that’s but better because of that? But I don’t want either up with any men on base at this point. One is a guaranteed pop out and the other will most likely watch strike 3 center cut.

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5 minutes ago, Brooks The Great said:

From NBC Sports on Cowser (screenshot attached, not sure if it will display).

Cowser needs to continue to get playing time and be afforded the same opportunity to struggle consistently over a long stretch of games (now half a season pretty much) that Cedric Mullins has been given. 

Screenshot_20240514_004935_Chrome.jpg

I’m not questioning the talent/abilities of Cowser or Mullins. But the results are simply not there right now.

It’s hard to succeed as an offense when you have two guys who are auto outs and another guy named Jorge Mateo. That’s an awful lot of water for the other 6 hitters to carry. 

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1 minute ago, Bemorewins said:

I’m not questioning the talent/abilities of Cowser or Mullins. But the results are simply not there right now.

It’s hard to succeed as an offense when you have two guys who are auto outs and another guy named Jorge Mateo. That’s an awful lot of water for the other 6 hitters to carry. 

The solution is to phase out Mullins and Mateo. But as I added in my post, Cowser is someone who needs to stay in the lineup because the metrics show someone who will come out of his slump. There's very little to suggest, however, that Mullins will return to his 2021 form or that Mateo is anything else but the terrible hitter he's always been. 

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4 minutes ago, Brooks The Great said:

The solution is to phase out Mullins and Mateo. But as I added in my post, Cowser is someone who needs to stay in the lineup because the metrics show someone who will come out of his slump. There's very little to suggest, however, that Mullins will return to his 2021 form or that Mateo is anything else but the terrible hitter he's always been. 

IMO Mateo is fine for a #9 hitter for now. We can’t afford to replace him with another struggling/adjusting rookie right now.

I don’t think Mullins has to be a 30/30 guy again to give us value. But he cannot be a sub .200 hitter (which I don’t think that he will be). Mullins peak was an all-star, top 10 MVP candidate. I don’t think that it is very likely that Cowser ever ascends to that kind of level.

But I am fine with trotting Cowser out there to allow him time to figure it out at this level. But while we are doing that and while Mullins is struggling so bad and while Santander hasn’t been very good either, it is killing our offense at the moment. And I don’t think we can add another (likely struggling) young hitter to the mix. IMO Elias is on to something in staggering promotions and allowing for one acclimation at a time.

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Westburg to #2 should be in consideration. Mateo everyday while he’s producing should be a lock. Great range at 2nd. Plus, he can be a bat that can really drive, maybe carry, a lineup like he’s shown last April. 

Gotta like the speed at the bottom of the lineup. Mullins and Mateo. Mullins will get going. 

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11 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Westburg to #2 should be in consideration. Mateo everyday while he’s producing should be a lock. Great range at 2nd. Plus, he can be a bat that can really drive, maybe carry, a lineup like he’s shown last April. 

Gotta like the speed at the bottom of the lineup. Mullins and Mateo. Mullins will get going. 

Ya, I don't understand batting Westburg down near the bottom of the lineup. Jays pitching around him the other night in a critical situation shows that other teams see him as one of our better hitters. Why doesn't Hyde?

Rutschman C

Westburg 3B

Henderson SS

Mountcastle 1B

O'Hearn DH

Santander RF

Cowser LF

Mateo 2B

Mullins / Hays CF

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  • Posts

    • Just to be clear, though, fWAR also includes a substantial adjustment for position, including a negative one for Cowser.  For a clearer example on that front, as the chart posted higher on this page indicates, Carlos Santana had a +14 OAA — which is the source data that fWAR’s defensive component is based on. That 14 outs above average equates to 11-12 (they use different values on this for some reason) runs better than the average 1B.  So does Santana have a 12.0 defensive value, per fWAR? He does not. That’s because they adjust his defensive value downward to reflect that he’s playing a less difficult/valuable position. In this case, that adjustment comes out to -11.0 runs, as you can see here:   So despite apparently having a bona fide Gold Glove season, Santana’s Fielding Runs value (FanGraphs’ equivalent to dWAR) is barely above average, at 1.1 runs.    Any good WAR calculation is going to adjust for position. Being a good 1B just isn’t worth as much as being an average SS or catcher. Just as being a good LF isn’t worth as much as being an average CF. Every outfielder can play LF — only the best outfielders can play CF.  Where the nuance/context shows up here is with Cowser’s unique situation. Playing LF in OPACY, with all that ground to cover, is not the same as playing LF at Fenway or Yankee Stadium. Treating Cowser’s “position” as equivalent to Tyler O’Neill’s, for example, is not fair. The degree of difficulty is much, much higher at OPACY’s LF, and so the adjustment seems out of whack for him. That’s the one place where I’d say the bWAR value is “unfair” to Cowser.
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