Jordan Westburg 2024

[Pickles]

5 minutes ago, Roy Firestone said:

At this point, and it's close, Westburg is an even better all around player than Cowser or Henderson.I hope he can sustain his excellence over the long season.

He's not a better player than Henderson.  Stop.

[ThisIsBirdland]

6 minutes ago, Pickles said:

He's not a better player than Henderson.  Stop.

I once saw Jordan Westburg lift a burning car off of a trapped mother and child with his bare hands. He crushed the car down into a small ball and then launched it into orbit with a flick of his wrist.

Edited April 17 by ThisIsBirdland

[Pickles]

1 minute ago, ThisIsBirdland said:

I once saw Jordan Westburg lift a burning car off of a trapped mother and child with his bear hands. He crushed the car down into a small ball and then launched it into orbit with a flick of his wrist.

Jordan Westburg showed me a video of him making love to my wife.  It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.  He impregnated her and she gave birth to our third son.  And he's the best one of the bunch.

[deward]

5 minutes ago, jabba72 said:

He's having a shocking start to the season no question. 

It's a little perplexing to me to see so many people surprised that a player with a first-round pedigree and a strong minor league track record would be finding success in the big leagues. What were your expectations?

[Frobby]

22 minutes ago, Roy Firestone said:

At this point, and it's close, Westburg is an even better all around player than Cowser or Henderson.I hope he can sustain his excellence over the long season.

I’m not ready to say Westburg is a better all around player than those two, especially Henderson.  But, he doesn’t need to be.   If he’s an above average major league player, that’s a huge win for us.   

I’ve compared him to JJ Hardy earlier in this thread.   What I meant by that is he’s very fundamentally sound, and he’s kind of a stoic, even tempered guy.   He’s not on JJ’s level as a defender, and he’s probably going to be a better hitter, but just in terms of overall value and demeanor, I think he’s going to be in the Hardy category.  

But I can also envision him as being in the Sal Bando category.  Bando was the 3B on the A’s teams that won three straight WS from 1972-74.   Never led the league in any triple crown category, never won a Gold Glove, but was a clutch hitter and solid defender with good pop in his bat, and got MVP votes in 7 seasons (including 2nd, 3rd and 4th).  When you think of those A’s teams he’s not the first guy who comes to mind, but he was a huge piece of those teams.   Finished at 61.5 rWAR, really just a notch below Hall of Fame level.  

If Westburg had a career comparable to either of those two, that would be amazing.  
 

Edited April 17 by Frobby

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, deward said:

It's a little perplexing to me to see so many people surprised that a player with a first-round pedigree and a strong minor league track record would be finding success in the big leagues. What were your expectations?

I don't expect anyone except a handful of guys to have great success in the majors.

It happens every year but it also doesn't happen many times every year.

I think I'm on record as saying he could be a 3 win guy, a solid ML contributor.  Right now his 162 rWAR is at 4.4 which isn't too far off that.

[interloper]

Let's pump the brakes on the MVP and "better than Gunnar" talk. Guy is having a great month, he's going to be a very good player. Yes he's underrated. But it is April 17th. We're not out here saying Cowser is better than Gunnar, right? 

[maybenxtyr]

4 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I don't expect anyone except a handful of guys to have great success in the majors.

It happens every year but it also doesn't happen many times every year.

I think I'm on record as saying he could be a 3 win guy, a solid ML contributor.  Right now his 162 rWAR is at 4.4 which isn't too far off that.

Which one is rWAR?

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, maybenxtyr said:

Which one is rWAR?

Baseball reference is rWAR, Fangraphs is fWAR.

The 162 rate is for the career.  If you want to find out his rate for this season, just do the math.

[Moose Milligan]

20 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Jordan Westburg showed me a video of him making love to my wife.  It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.  He impregnated her and she gave birth to our third son.  And he's the best one of the bunch.

This would be funnier if @OnlyOneOrioleposted it.  

[Frobby]

5 minutes ago, interloper said:

Let's pump the brakes on the MVP and "better than Gunnar" talk. Guy is having a great month, he's going to be a very good player. Yes he's underrated. But it is April 17th. We're not out here saying Cowser is better than Gunnar, right? 

Truthfully, Westburg hasn’t had a great month, he’s had a great week.  As of April 10, he had a .597 OPS.   Then he got hot.  So yeah, pump the brakes a little.  But I do think he’s going to be very solid.  

[Mooreisbetter27]

Just now, Frobby said:

Truthfully, Westburg hasn’t had a great month, he’s had a great week.  As of April 10, he had a .597 OPS.   Then he got hot.  So yeah, pump the brakes a little.  But I do think he’s going to be very solid.  

There's definitely some excitement with him.  Even when he had a low OPS, he was still hitting the ball hard a lot.  He just wasn't finding the same holes.

He takes really good at bats and seems to have a really good eye at the plate.  Really happy he's on our team.  

[interloper]

I think Westburg would be a good option to leadoff against LHP. I bet we see that at some point. 

[jabba72]

25 minutes ago, deward said:

It's a little perplexing to me to see so many people surprised that a player with a first-round pedigree and a strong minor league track record would be finding success in the big leagues. What were your expectations?

Nothing in his minor league career suggested he would put up a 900+ OPS in the majors. And late 1st round picks seldom do anything of note with some exceptions. Of course its only April 17th but his heater is impressive along with the power he's shown. 

[deward]

30 minutes ago, jabba72 said:

Nothing in his minor league career suggested he would put up a 900+ OPS in the majors. And late 1st round picks seldom do anything of note with some exceptions. Of course its only April 17th but his heater is impressive along with the power he's shown. 

I don't expect a 900+ OPS over the course of a full season, but a guy who put up a 939 OPS in AAA at age 24 should be a decent bet to be a solid player in the big leagues. And while all 1st round picks are more likely to fail than they are to succeed in the pros, their odds improve dramatically if they show consistent success in the minors. Anyway, I'm just glad he's playing as well as I'd hoped he would, and hopefully he'll continue to be an important part of the club.