Austin Hays 2024

[EdwinRip]

Did anyone think Cowser was going to OPS 1100 this year?  He still has the highest OPS on the team.

[Pickles]

5 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Well you bring the best out in me. What can I say?

Yeah, it's my fault I asked a simple question and you immediately, ironically, accused me of "jumping to conclusions" and go nuclear on me.

[Sports Guy]

2 hours ago, Pickles said:

How well Hays plays will determine his role.  I expect him to play a lot better than before he got hurt.

But there's no good argument to be made that McKenna is a better option.

Hays has a 617 OPS since last July 1.  71 wRC+ and 269 wOBA.

Now, it’s hard to compare the 2 because McKenna is a part time player but since the beginning of last year, McKenna has 148 PA.   His OpS is over 100 points higher, his wRC+ is 105 and he has 320 wOBA.

They both have an OAA of -1 between last year and so far this year.

Now, these are different roles and my guess is McKenna would be exposed playing everyday but guess what, Hays is also being exposed for the last half a year. I think he will be ok going forward but there is no definite there.

So, I think an argument exists and it’s a pretty obvious one.  It’s just not likely a super strong argument because we don’t have any idea about McKenna in an expanded role.

There is certainly an argument where the drop off isn’t much right now 

[Just Regular]

Hays cracked the first pro homerun yielded by Andrew Walters tonight.

Now Walters and Luis De Leon are both at 1.

[Hank Scorpio]

What a great job by Rutschman to get a piece.

[Hank Scorpio]

LOLOLOL hilarious

[Moose Milligan]

3 hours ago, Pickles said:

Yeah, it's my fault I asked a simple question and you immediately, ironically, accused me of "jumping to conclusions" and go nuclear on me.

Well, I never said anything about preferring McKenna in my previous post.  I just said I didn't miss watching Austin Hays play and then you just had to ask if that meant I preferred watching McKenna.  What made you assume that I'd think such a thing, I'm not sure.

You should know that Hays going down and McKenna coming up doesn't mean that McKenna is all of a sudden taking Hays' at bats full time.  No, it means more playing time in LF for Cowser and McKenna is the last outfielder playing as a defensive replacement and maybe getting a start once a week.  That's it.  That's as far as I thought it through.

But since you just had to ask and make me think about it, I think I'd actually watch McKenna full time over Hays right now and I don't have to think twice about it.

@Sports Guybeat me to it, but Hays has been so spectacularly bad that McKenna has outperformed him since the All-Star Break last year to present day. Similar stats to what SG showed, I ran them from the ASB last year...of course, McKenna is a part time player so we can't say for certain if he'd be able to replace Hays full time, but he'd have to be really pathetic to be as bad as Hays has been:

Hays:  .209/.275/.335 for a 69 wRC+ .   -1.58 in WPA.  

McKenna:  .275/.339/.431 for a 116 wRC+. -0.22 in WPA.  

Unfortunately fangraphs or bbref doesn't spit out WAR for the amount of time you want to look at, but I can't imagine Hays is in the positive since the ASB last year.  He's certainly in the negative for 2024.  McKenna probably isn't.

I get it, McKenna is kind of a doofus and the board's whipping boy for no good reason.  I mean, the dropped ball in Fenway, last year, whatever.  He's a 4th or 5th outfielder, I'm not trying to pretend that he's anything more than that.  But even if McKenna took every day at bats from Hays, I don't know if that'd necessarily be a bad thing.  

So actually, thanks for your question.  Yeah, I think I'd prefer to watch McKenna over Hays right now.  At least, I'd like to see if McKenna could be as miserable as Hays has been since mid-July last year...that'd actually be pretty hard to do.

I'll leave you with this:  even Mateo has actually been better in every slash category than Hays in the same amount of time since the 2023 ASB:  .231/.283/.388 for a 87 wRC+

 

[Pickles]

1 minute ago, Moose Milligan said:

Well, I never said anything about preferring McKenna in my previous post.  I just said I didn't miss watching Austin Hays play and then you just had to ask if that meant I preferred watching McKenna.  What made you assume that I'd think such a thing, I'm not sure.

You should know that Hays going down and McKenna coming up doesn't mean that McKenna is all of a sudden taking Hays' at bats full time.  No, it means more playing time in LF for Cowser and McKenna is the last outfielder playing as a defensive replacement and maybe getting a start once a week.  That's it.  That's as far as I thought it through.

But since you just had to ask and make me think about it, I think I'd actually watch McKenna full time over Hays right now and I don't have to think twice about it.

@Sports Guybeat me to it, but Hays has been so spectacularly bad that McKenna has outperformed him since the All-Star Break last year to present day. Similar stats to what SG showed, I ran them from the ASB last year...of course, McKenna is a part time player so we can't say for certain if he'd be able to replace Hays full time, but he'd have to be really pathetic to be as bad as Hays has been:

Hays:  .209/.275/.335 for a 69 wRC+ .   -1.58 in WPA.  

McKenna:  .275/.339/.431 for a 116 wRC+. -0.22 in WPA.  

Unfortunately fangraphs or bbref doesn't spit out WAR for the amount of time you want to look at, but I can't imagine Hays is in the positive since the ASB last year.  He's certainly in the negative for 2024.  McKenna probably isn't.

I get it, McKenna is kind of a doofus and the board's whipping boy for no good reason.  I mean, the dropped ball in Fenway, last year, whatever.  He's a 4th or 5th outfielder, I'm not trying to pretend that he's anything more than that.  But even if McKenna took every day at bats from Hays, I don't know if that'd necessarily be a bad thing.  

So actually, thanks for your question.  Yeah, I think I'd prefer to watch McKenna over Hays right now.  At least, I'd like to see if McKenna could be as miserable as Hays has been since mid-July last year...that'd actually be pretty hard to do.

I'll leave you with this:  even Mateo has actually been better in every slash category than Hays in the same amount of time since the 2023 ASB:  .231/.283/.388 for a 87 wRC+

 

Bro, I asked a question.

Hays is way better than McKenna. 

Don't have an aneurysm.

 

 

[Moose Milligan]

5 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Bro, I asked a question.

Hays is way better than McKenna. 

Don't have an aneurysm.

 

 

Uh, no.  No he isn't.  There's at least a case to be made that McKenna could be better.  Hays has probably been the worst player on the team since July of last year.  

Not having an aneurysm, but way to address anything I wrote in my previous post.  Like, you just ignored it all and come back with "bro, Hays is way better than McKenna" which makes me wonder if you read anything at all.

If you think Hays is way better than McKenna, prove it.

Edited May 9 by Moose Milligan

[Orioles Jim]

Call it a hunch (truly) but something tells me Hays would be less of a space cadet if he were given McKenna’s role.

Its anecdotal but McKenna really seems to fall asleep at the wheel.

[btdart20]

Who gets claimed first if cut:  McKenna or Hays?

There's the answer.

[Moose Milligan]

1 hour ago, btdart20 said:

Who gets claimed first if cut:  McKenna or Hays?

There's the answer.

That’s kind of weird and irrelevant. Any GM who hasn’t paid attention to how bad Hays has been since the 2nd half last year and wants to claim him can have him. 

[Sports Guy]

1 hour ago, btdart20 said:

Who gets claimed first if cut:  McKenna or Hays?

There's the answer.

Do either of them get claimed?

[Moose Milligan]

Just now, Sports Guy said:

Do either of them get claimed?

Probably the correct answer. 

[Rbiggs2525]

I think what the O’s asked McKenna to do is pretty difficult. To sit the bench 6 days and then expect to get good jumps on fly balls. I prefer to keep McKenna up and send Kjerstad down right now. Hays has reverse splits so he is actually filling Kjerstad role more than McKenna. Kjerstad needs regular AB’s and that’s not going to happen right now in Baltimore.