Colton Cowser 2024

[Frobby]

13 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Well I’m not sure why that is the question here but there were certainly Frazier supporters.

“Frazier supporters” = anyone who didn’t think he should be tarred and feathered for the crime of being signed by the Orioles. 

Westburg did a solid job last year, getting less regular playing time than Cowser has gotten.  I didn’t expect him to reach his full potential in year one, and he didn’t, but he held his own.   Cowser is more or less holding his own, but he’s been spiraling downward now for quite a long time.  I don’t expect him to totally reverse course, but he needs to staunch the bleeding.  A month of .700.+ OPS would be a good start.   
 

Edited July 11 by Frobby

[Malike]

Westburg never looked truly overmatched at the plate last year. Cowser has....for months now.

[LGOrioles]

21 minutes ago, Frobby said:

“Frazier supporters” = anyone who didn’t think he should be tarred and feathered for the crime of being signed by the Orioles. 

Westburg did a solid job last year, getting less regular playing time than Cowser has gotten.  I didn’t expect him to reach his full potential in year one, and he didn’t, but he held his own.   Cowser is more or less holding his own, but he’s been spiraling downward now for quite a long time.  I don’t expect him to totally reverse course, but he needs to staunch the bleeding.  A month of .700.+ OPS would be a good start.   
 

Cowser has had more PA’s this year but Westburg still played pretty regularly last year. He had 228 PA’s in 86 team games after his debut. Cowser’s currently at 282 PA’s in 92 team games. So 3.07 PA’s per game for Cowser compared to 2.65 for Westy - definitely a difference but nothing too major. After his debut Westburg had the 6th most PA’s on the team and Cowser is currently 6th this year.

Westburg had an 87 wRC+ last year in the 2nd half, to go along with a 6.6 BB%, 27.3 K%, and .137 ISO. Cowser is at a 74 wRC+ since May 1st with a 8.7 BB%, 28.1 K%, and .151 ISO. Both players have a very similar GB%, LD%, and hard hit %, but Cowser has a very low .223 BABIP while Westburg was at .331. Not trying to get into the luck factor but that’s absurdly low for someone with his quality of contact. 

Bottom line is Cowser needs to perform but the talent and baseline for success is there and I think it’s worth it to continue feeding him AB’s to hope he turns a corner like we’ve seen before with other young guys. Because his upside is much higher than Mullins and his floor is pretty much how Mullins has performed the last calendar year anyways. 

[sportsfan8703]

This dude had a lot of red too. Lots of contact to damage ratio from the Buck era. Swinging hard is good, but what about when you miss?

Anyone want to guess the player?

[Pickles]

7 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

This dude had a lot of red too. Lots of contact to damage ratio from the Buck era. Swinging hard is good, but what about when you miss?

Anyone want to guess the player?

Chris Davis?

[KojiSplit]

Not only has Cowser been abysmal at the plate he showed no situation awareness in the 9th (guess those go a bit hand in hand).

.188 batting avg for month of May

.182 batting avg for month of June

.200 batting avg for month of July

O’s find themselves down 2 with no outs, runner on 1st, 3-1 count, a ball below the zone that he swings at and was fortunate to beat out a double play. 

He needs to lay off ball 4 and take a walk and bring the winning run to the plate. Have no idea what’s going through his mind other than he was trying to play hero ball. I’m sure he will be a good offensive player in due time whether that’s for the O’s or for another team if he’s traded but my goodness he’s been atrocious at the plate.

 

 

[Malike]

Just now, KojiSplit said:

Not only has Cowser been abysmal at the plate he showed no situation awareness in the 9th (guess those go a bit hand in hand).

.188 batting avg for month of May

.182 batting avg for month of June

.200 batting avg for month of July

O’s find themselves down 2 with no outs, runner on 1st, 3-1 count, a ball below the zone that he swings at and was fortunate to beat out a double play. 

He needs to lay off ball 4 and take a walk and bring the winning run to the plate. Have no idea what’s going through his mind other than he was trying to play hero ball. I’m sure he will be a good offensive player in due time whether that’s for the O’s or for another team if he’s traded but my goodness he’s been atrocious at the plate.

 

 

It was a terrible swing decision in that situation, the guy on the mound couldn't throw a strike. I assume he was scared to get to two strikes so wanted to put the ball in play. He should be a defensive replacement in games at this point. He's a mess at the plate and just guessing wrong on nearly everything.

[LGOrioles]

32 minutes ago, Malike said:

It was a terrible swing decision in that situation, the guy on the mound couldn't throw a strike. I assume he was scared to get to two strikes so wanted to put the ball in play. He should be a defensive replacement in games at this point. He's a mess at the plate and just guessing wrong on nearly everything.

It was a bad swing decision but saying he should be a defensive replacement is pretty outrageous considering Mullins has been much worse at the plate. Realistically, they both should have their playing time cut based off how they’re hitting but that’s not really possible with the current roster construction. 

They’ve both had 1 really good month, one average month, one poor month, and they’ve both been poor so far in July. Cowser’s best month was better than Mullins best month and his two worst months (including July) were also better than Mullins worst months. They desperately need one of these guys to hit well with more consistency, that’s for sure.

 

Edited July 14 by LGOrioles

[Malike]

Just now, LGOrioles said:

It was a bad swing decision but saying he should be a defensive replacement is pretty outrageous considering Mullins has been much worse at the plate. Realistically, they both should have their playing time cut based off how they’re hitting but that’s not really possible with the current roster construction. 

They’ve both had 1 really good month, one average month, one poor month, and they’ve both been poor so far halfway through July. Cowser’s best month was better than Mullins best month and his two worst months were also better than Mullins worst months. They desperately need one of these guys to hit well with more consistency, that’s for sure.

 

Mullins puts the ball in play at least. I know you are Cowsers biggest defender, but I had much more confidence in Mullins coming through there than I did when Cowser was at the plate. For as bad as they've both have been, Mullins OPS is .100 points higher in the past 30 days. with 19 more PA's. They are clearly dialing Cowsers play time back, he's a liability with a bat in his hands and he's literally the worst player in MLB in high leverage/clutch situations and at the very bottom in WPA.

[LGOrioles]

1 hour ago, Malike said:

Mullins puts the ball in play at least. I know you are Cowsers biggest defender, but I had much more confidence in Mullins coming through there than I did when Cowser was at the plate. For as bad as they've both have been, Mullins OPS is .100 points higher in the past 30 days. with 19 more PA's. They are clearly dialing Cowsers play time back, he's a liability with a bat in his hands and he's literally the worst player in MLB in high leverage/clutch situations and at the very bottom in WPA.

I do like Cowser and certainly think he’s a better option than Mullins right now and more important for the future of the team. But I wouldn’t call that defending him since virtually every objective statistic shows he is the better player as well. Yes, Mullins has been better in the last 30 days, but Cowser has been better in the last 14 days, last 60 days, since the beginning of May, and the beginning of the season. I don’t know how you can watch them both hit and look at the stats and call Cowser a liability with the bat? What does that make Mullins then?

Cowser isn’t some untouchable in my eyes either or free from blame. And I agree with you that in that situation today, I would rather have Mullins at the plate. Cowser also does need to be better in high leverage situations because he’s been abysmal in them so far this season. At the end of the day though, I really just want the Orioles to win. I think Cowser gives them the best chance at that going forward (the high leverage performance need to improve though). If Mullins is the better player in the second half though, he should rightfully play more. 

Edited July 14 by LGOrioles

[InsideCoroner]

10 hours ago, Malike said:

Mullins puts the ball in play at least. I know you are Cowsers biggest defender, but I had much more confidence in Mullins coming through there than I did when Cowser was at the plate. For as bad as they've both have been, Mullins OPS is .100 points higher in the past 30 days. with 19 more PA's. They are clearly dialing Cowsers play time back, he's a liability with a bat in his hands and he's literally the worst player in MLB in high leverage/clutch situations and at the very bottom in WPA.

There’s one caveat to Mullins’ contact rate. Yes, he strikes out less (22% to Cowser’s 30%), but he’s also got 19 pop-ups, so an equal number of their ABs are completely useless (because Cowser, weirdly, does not have an infield pop-up this year). I agree Cowser is awful in high leverage situations… but I don’t particularly want either of them up there with the game on the line. 

[Brian88]

I doubt it happens, but if they are comfortable enough with Hays/Stowers/Mateo as the backup CF options, I'd like to see Cowser go down when Kjerstad comes back and let Stowers stay. Just let Mullins be the everyday CF, we don't need a platoon between two all glove no bat lefties.

[Bemorewins]

18 minutes ago, Brian88 said:

I doubt it happens, but if they are comfortable enough with Hays/Stowers/Mateo as the backup CF options, I'd like to see Cowser go down when Kjerstad comes back and let Stowers stay. Just let Mullins be the everyday CF, we don't need a platoon between two all glove no bat lefties.

Stowers would probably be more useful to the Orioles in helping us to acquire a bp arm. Or at least being part of a package to bring pitching.

IMO we need another SP and at least one RP more than we need a good backup OF.

Plus Stowers at his age deserves a regular shot in the Major Leagues (which isn’t going to come here).

[interloper]

He should absolutely be optioned after the break for either Kjerstad, Mayo, or Holliday. Stowers is the better offensive player right now.

Anyone saying otherwise is basically in full denial. The guy is an absolute mess at the plate right now. Enough already. 

Edited July 15 by interloper

[interloper]

OPS by month:

April: 1.004

May: .580

June: .679

July: .443

Bleh. He's barely above replacement and deserves to be demoted. Don't care about the red on his statcast if he clearly shows atrocious swing decisions.. He's a defense only player and we have that in Mullins.

Edited July 15 by interloper