Kjerstad Joining Team

[deward]

6 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

@Moose Milliganthe first time he hears Kevin Brown make this quip.

I had to go look at the replays of last year's home runs, because I couldn't believe Brown hadn't already used that. He probably missed his chance since the first home run was an Apple game. 

[Sports Guy]

 

[interloper]

33 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

I wonder if Kjerstad sticks for a while when Holliday goes down. Then bring up Norby to restore the R/L balance. So it's essentially Hays and Holliday for Kjerstad and Norby.

Either way this feels like an opportunity to give a deserving prospect some AB's. Even if he takes some AB's from the starters they need to rest occasionally over 162 anyway. While he is here, carrying Kjerstad can allow Adley to get full rest when McCann starts, plus get Santander and Mountcastle one day a week etc.

 

You can definitely make the case that this is a precursor to Holliday going down because you replace one left-handed bat with another. You can make the case against it, too, but it's a theory. 

It's still a bit weird though since the guy Kjerstad effects most is (seemingly) Mountcastle, not Holliday. But I get what you're saying. 

Edited April 23 by interloper

[Sydnor]

22 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

Before Cowser lost his “prospect status”, wasn’t he higher rated on many top 100 lists (at his peak prospect status) than Mayo is now?

I just had a slight curiosity. But 

I don’t want to spend a lot of time going back and forth about who’s better between the 2. Because that’s not how I fan. They both can be wonderful and I can appreciate both as individuals. As I am rooting for both to do well as Baltimore Orioles, regardless of who is “better”.

Coby Mayo is 22 years old, started the year in AAA, and currently is running a 1.043 OPS.

At the same age, Cowser started the season in Aberdeen, where he had a .795 OPS.

At the same age, Kjerstad wasn’t playing because of the myocarditis, so it’s not really fair to compare on that basis. However this year, Kjerstad’s OPS is 1.176, which is higher, but you have to remember that Kjerstad is 3 years older. In my opinion, having seen them both in Norfolk numerous times, Mayo is also better at third than Kjerstad is at RF.

With respect to rankings, as SG said, everyone has Mayo in the top 30. That is not true for Kjerstad, and was not true for Cowser.

I hope they all succeed, but Mayo is different. IMO, he’s the type of player you make room for.

[CaptainRedbeard]

52 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

I agree with every word of this post. 
 

And to be clear, the guys I really think should see a drastic drop in at bats would be OHearn and Hays.  Mounty and Santander would still be 500+ guys but maybe not 600+.
 

It also means that Adley gets less DH time, which I think should be happening anyway.

The wild card in this is Mullins. The bottom line is I want him in the lineup everyday because he’s our only true CFer. I want that defense but if he’s really struggling or hurt or something, he needs to lose at bats too.

As for trades in season, if the young kids perform, something will get done. He needs pitching.  They can actually be buyers and sellers at the same time if they want and it not even hurt them to sell.  Thats crazy to think about.

A big issue for Kjerstad getting playing time is that I don’t realistically see him getting ABs vs RHP at O’Hearn’s expense, at least in the near term. There’s some chance that O’Hearn is in the midst of a late-career breakout and he doesn’t play against LHP so they are going to have him in there against RHP and see where it goes.

O’Hearn last year had terrible K/BB, but did so much damage on contact that he still ended up decent overall. Now he’s hitting the ball even better, while also dramatically improving his chase and K/BB rates. And it’s still small sample obviously but those stabilize quickly, so there’s a good chance there’s some signal in there. 

And as you said there’s a lot of good indicators for Mountcastle as well. So if he’s really only playing when Santander or Mountcastle get days off, even if they increase the rate that happens that doesn’t leave much for Kjerstad.

Plus with Kjerstad’s defense a question mark, who knows how comfortable they are with him or O’Hearn in RF on Santander’s off days. It also makes it very hard to work him in on Mullins’ off days, even though I think they’re ok with Cowser in CF I don’t see them doing 2 of Santander/O’Hearn/Kjerstad in the corners. 

[interloper]

6 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

 

Kudos to Elias for just making the easy move for the deserving prospect, rather than overthinking it and calling up a temporary guy with a more 1:1 match for Hays' role, like McKenna. 

Kjerstad isn't honestly the best fit on the roster right now, but he's the best player other than Mayo to call up, and the guy has 10 dingers. Hyde will figure it out. 

[24fps]

1 hour ago, Bemorewins said:

Understood. Are we going with that as his nickname? lol

Works for me.  It sure beats something like calling Cowser "Milkman".

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, CaptainRedbeard said:

A big issue for Kjerstad getting playing time is that I don’t realistically see him getting ABs vs RHP at O’Hearn’s expense, at least in the near term. There’s some chance that O’Hearn is in the midst of a late-career breakout and he doesn’t play against LHP so they are going to have him in there against RHP and see where it goes.

O’Hearn last year had terrible K/BB, but did so much damage on contact that he still ended up decent overall. Now he’s hitting the ball even better, while also dramatically improving his chase and K/BB rates. And it’s still small sample obviously but those stabilize quickly, so there’s a good chance there’s some signal in there. 

And as you said there’s a lot of good indicators for Mountcastle as well. So if he’s really only playing when Santander or Mountcastle get days off, even if they increase the rate that happens that doesn’t leave much for Kjerstad.

Plus with Kjerstad’s defense a question mark, who knows how comfortable they are with him or O’Hearn in RF on Santander’s off days. It also makes it very hard to work him in on Mullins’ off days, even though I think they’re ok with Cowser in CF I don’t see them doing 2 of Santander/O’Hearn/Kjerstad in the corners. 

Yea, I agree that OHearn is the issue here. To be fair, he should play vs righties until he shows otherwise.

That may mean Mounty sits a little more.  It may mean that they make sure HK plays vs lefties, since he has hit them well in the minors.

If he hits, I think they simply find a way to make sure he gets enough at bats.

[Bemorewins]

3 minutes ago, Sydnor said:

Coby Mayo is 22 years old, started the year in AAA, and currently is running a 1.043 OPS.

At the same age, Cowser started the season in Aberdeen, where he had a .795 OPS.

At the same age, Kjerstad wasn’t playing because of the myocarditis, so it’s not really fair to compare on that basis. However this year, Kjerstad’s OPS is 1.176, which is higher, but you have to remember that Kjerstad is 3 years older. In my opinion, having seen them both in Norfolk numerous times, Mayo is also better at third than Kjerstad is at RF.

With respect to rankings, as SG said, everyone has Mayo in the top 30. That is not true for Kjerstad, and was not true for Cowser.

I hope they all succeed, but Mayo is different. IMO, he’s the type of player you make room for.

I appreciate the well thought out response/rationale. I like you and all O’s fans are rooting for them all!

Maybe the O’s keep all 3 and trade Basallo or some other combo of prospects at some point? Who truly knows how any of this will play out?

[interloper]

Just now, Sports Guy said:

Yea, I agree that OHearn is the issue here. To be fair, he should play vs righties until he shows otherwise.

That may mean Mounty sits a little more.  It may mean that they make sure HK plays vs lefties, since he has hit them well in the minors.

If he hits, I think they simply find a way to make sure he gets enough at bats.

If Cowser and Kjerstad can both hit lefties decently and with power, Hays is really in some jeopardy at that point. 

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, interloper said:

Kudos to Elias for just making the easy move for the deserving prospect, rather than overthinking it and calling up a temporary guy with a more 1:1 match for Hays' role, like McKenna. 

Kjerstad isn't honestly the best fit on the roster right now, but he's the best player other than Mayo to call up, and the guy has 10 dingers. Hyde will figure it out. 

It was the only move to make imo. I get the whole best roster fit thing but his OPs is almost 1200! in AAA and it’s not like he was hot garbage in the majors last year. 
 

You had to get the bat here.

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, interloper said:

If Cowser and Kjerstad can both hit lefties decently and with power, Hays is really in some jeopardy at that point. 

Hays has a spot because of his defense (not great but it’s solid enough) but yea, this is why trades could happen. 
 

The Os have valuable guys and clear pitching needs in a year where you are trying to win it all. You have to address those needs and the Os have proven and yet to be established positional talent that they should use to address those pitching needs.

[Fiver6565]

I didn't realize Heston had gotten to 10 home runs already this season.  That's wild stuff.

I think this spells a little more bench time for Mounty, deserved or not.  VS RHP we'll see a little more O'hearn at 1B w/ Heston at DH.  If they want Mount in there then they'll sit Tony Taters every once in a while and either Heston or O'hearn can play RF.  Imagine Santander's switch hitting bat on the bench late - quite a weapon!

All the talk about who gets starts where, but what this really does is makes the bench a true weapon that managers will have to think about when making pitching changes.  You sure you want to bring in that LHP in the 7th to face O'hearn?  OK, here's Mountcastle to take his place at 1B seamlessly and mash.   You sure you to want to bring in a RHP to face McCann?  OK we can bring in Heston and still have O'hearn for later, or vice-versa.  Its wild, its versatile, and it packs a real punch late in games.

[CaptainRedbeard]

10 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Yea, I agree that OHearn is the issue here. To be fair, he should play vs righties until he shows otherwise.

That may mean Mounty sits a little more.  It may mean that they make sure HK plays vs lefties, since he has hit them well in the minors.

If he hits, I think they simply find a way to make sure he gets enough at bats.

Yeah, I agree. It makes sense for them to do now while Hays is injured and they can figure it out, especially since Mountcastle is dealing with his knee injury. When Hays comes back though, I don’t know what they’ll do if there’s no other injuries. Somebody has to be the odd one out and I don’t see them DFA’ing Urias or Mateo. Possibly that could be their excuse to send down Holliday for a reset/service time if they think his chance at ROY is shot, but the bench composition works a lot better with the additional infielder.

Anyway I hope Kjerstad rakes in the opportunities he gets now and makes it interesting. 

[dtk9119]

14 minutes ago, interloper said:

Kudos to Elias for just making the easy move for the deserving prospect, rather than overthinking it and calling up a temporary guy with a more 1:1 match for Hays' role, like McKenna. 

Kjerstad isn't honestly the best fit on the roster right now, but he's the best player other than Mayo to call up, and the guy has 10 dingers. Hyde will figure it out. 

I was dead wrong on this -- i thought for sure it would be McKenna. Kjerstad is obviously deserving of it and happy for the kid. If Hyde is gonna try and get him in the line up regularly its gonna come at the expense of someone else. Who is that? Maybe Mountcastle's knee is worse than they are telling us. Either way, what happens when Hays gets healthy? I'm sure they are operating on the "things always work themselves out" theory. Long term, this org really needs to develop or trade for a power hitting RH bat that plays the OF/1B. Looking forward to see how this works out.