McKenna 2024

[Tony-OH]

8 hours ago, RZNJ said:

Didn’t know where else to post this.

1. McKenna goes in as a PR has 2B stolen easily and over slides the bag and is tagged out.

2. On the line drive double over his head, which may have been uncatchable, it looked like he took a bad route.

3.  On the sac fly it seemed like he was waiting to see if the runner from 3rd was going.   He was in fairly shallow RF, close to the line, took 3 extra steps before actually throwing the ball.   

I said this is the game thread this morning "The craziest thing is I don't normally yell during games because I can just type out my frustrations here. But without it, my expletive laced shouting at McKenna for making such an off line throw (after taking three steps), knowing Santander would have most likely made a better throw just annoyed me to no end. 

That's the second time McKenna as a defensive replacement has not worked."

I hope when Hays gets back we can end the McKenna era for a bit. He's hit a little bit off lefties, I give you that, but he such a poor instinctual baseball player and that's obviously not going to change.

 

 

[glenn__davis]

6 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

As someone that was all for DFA’ing McKenna for Hicks last week, I really can’t fault him for tonight.
 

I’m impressed he stole the base. He sort of had to run there with two outs. He stole it. He just came off the bag. That happens. 

The route may have not been the best because he was going to his left and as a RH thrower he was just trying to position himself to throw home. He doesn’t have Vlad Sr’s arm out there. That’s a .01% chance play there. 

 

I disagree pretty whole-heartedly with all of this.

Regarding the SB, just because "it happens" doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake.  I like the attempt at the steal there also, but the bottom line is he was put in a pinch runner and made a foolish out when he had the bag swiped easily.

The poor route to the ball wasn't on the throw home, it was on a previous play.  To be fair that one was a tough play to make, but he definitely didn't take a good route to it.

And I highly disagree about the 0.01% chance on the throw home.  He took like 3-4 steps before throwing the ball and it was still a relatively close play.  He probably lost at least a half a second just by not being ready to throw, which is an eternity in that context.

All in all a very bad night for him.

[Tony-OH]

4 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

McKenna>Hays 

You can't be serious Clark? 

Hays is getting back into a groove in his rehab and is certainly an all around better player than McKenna and it's not really close. Hays might be a 4th outfielder at this stage of his career, but I'll take him on the roster everyday of the week and twice on Sunday over McKenna.

[Moose Milligan]

2 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

You can't be serious Clark? 

Hays is getting back into a groove in his rehab and is certainly an all around better player than McKenna and it's not really close. Hays might be a 4th outfielder at this stage of his career, but I'll take him on the roster everyday of the week and twice on Sunday over McKenna.

Totally serious, go check the Hays thread.  SG laid out the stats, I did too.

McKenna's been performing better than him by a solid margin since ASB last year.  Granted, he doesn't have as many at-bats but still.  

Mateo's outperformed Hays with the bat since then, too.  

Fully aware that McKenna's a 40 watt bulb in a 60 watt socket, you won't get any argument from me there.  If that's your main complaint, I don't disagree.  

[Tony-OH]

5 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Totally serious, go check the Hays thread.  SG laid out the stats, I did too.

McKenna's been performing better than him by a solid margin since ASB last year.  Granted, he doesn't have as many at-bats but still.  

Mateo's outperformed Hays with the bat since then, too.  

Fully aware that McKenna's a 40 watt bulb in a 60 watt socket, you won't get any argument from me there.  If that's your main complaint, I don't disagree.  

I think you have to add in the defense. Hays is better in every way defensively and he's a much better instinctual player. I'm fully aware of how bad Hays has been since last June, but I'm not letting McKenna popping a couple of homers to make me feel he's a better player than Hays. 

Hays provides value deesnively and I don't have to worry about dumb gaffs like I do every time McKenna takes the field. Even in last night's final out he caught it a bit awkwardly and one handed. I'm sure MCKenna is a good clubhouse guy and that's why Hyde likes him, but I think he's shown that he's not a very good player in any aspect of the game.

 

[interloper]

McKenna has to be one of the worst defensive replacements in the game. I'd rather he hit .000 and play great defense. This team needs Hays back, and it's not even really a question for me. 

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

I think you have to add in the defense. Hays is better in every way defensively and he's a much better instinctual player. I'm fully aware of how bad Hays has been since last June, but I'm not letting McKenna popping a couple of homers to make me feel he's a better player than Hays. 

Hays provides value deesnively and I don't have to worry about dumb gaffs like I do every time McKenna takes the field. Even in last night's final out he caught it a bit awkwardly and one handed. I'm sure MCKenna is a good clubhouse guy and that's why Hyde likes him, but I think he's shown that he's not a very good player in any aspect of the game.

 

That's fine, like I said McKenna is a doofus.  Yes, worse instincts than Hays, too.

I'm not sure how much better Hays is in the field than McKenna.  I'll concede that Hays is a better candidate to throw a runner out.  He's got a strong, accurate arm.

People can pick their defensive stats that they like, I really don't like investigating with them since they all have inherent flaws, and Hays has way more data to look at in innings, 1195.1 last year compared to McKenna's 78.2 innings.  But I don't think McKenna is that far behind him from a defensive (Rtot, Rdrs, rtot/yr rdrs/yr) perspective.  I'll concede defense overall but Hays has been so awful with the bat that I'm not sure he makes up for it with the glove.  

[Mooreisbetter27]

That route that McKenna took looked completely awful.  He was travelling almost completely horizontally when he needed to go back on the ball.  

Then the throw to home, it's like he thought for sure the guy wasn't going to run.  I asked in the game thread if Santander makes that throw, but I think he does.  

Just bizarre for a guy who's main carrying points are speed and defense to have such awful showings at both.  

[Too Tall]

I thought it telling that Melanie N. had an interview with McKenna on MASN before last night's game dealing with how he prepares. Particularly prepares to enter a game late as a defensive replacement or pinch hitter. The interview was headed, Melanie speakes to McKenna about Orioles' early defensive success.  I couldn't watch it all. Try it today for laughs or .

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

lol

 

[Fiver6565]

I think McKenna is a goner when Hays is ready. He’s been out in as a defensive sub twice now for Santander, only for it to almost immediately backfire. You could easily argue he’s a downgrade from Santa defensively at this point. Especially last night, when Santa he made that great play in the gap just a couple innings before getting removed for McKenna. Does McKenna even get to that ball?  I think Hude will start thinking twice about that substitution pattern, and if that’s the case, then McKenna truly serves no purpose. 

[Tony-OH]

7 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

lol

 

That's funny, but I guess a player should think of himself as a "Ferrari" vs a "Yugo."  

Players need to to think if they played everyday they could be a star. they need that kind of confidence in themselves because self doubt will kill their career quickly.
 

[Tony-OH]

56 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

That's fine, like I said McKenna is a doofus.  Yes, worse instincts than Hays, too.

I'm not sure how much better Hays is in the field than McKenna.  I'll concede that Hays is a better candidate to throw a runner out.  He's got a strong, accurate arm.

People can pick their defensive stats that they like, I really don't like investigating with them since they all have inherent flaws, and Hays has way more data to look at in innings, 1195.1 last year compared to McKenna's 78.2 innings.  But I don't think McKenna is that far behind him from a defensive (Rtot, Rdrs, rtot/yr rdrs/yr) perspective.  I'll concede defense overall but Hays has been so awful with the bat that I'm not sure he makes up for it with the glove.  

I guess I'm not quite convinced that Hays is done offensively as some of you are. I do think he's probably betters suited as a 4th outfielder, but he's a 4th outfielder that should still start 2-3 times a week.

[Fiver6565]

13 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

I guess I'm not quite convinced that Hays is done offensively as some of you are. I do think he's probably betters suited as a 4th outfielder, but he's a 4th outfielder that should still start 2-3 times a week.

I agree, way too much dirt thrown on the Hays grave lately.  Less (not zero, to be clear) exposure to lefties for Cowser would be a good thing, and Hays is more likely to provide the offsetting RH bat needed than McKenna is, with at least equal and probably better defense.  I know Kjerstad isn't getting many at bats, but McKenna needs to be the one to go in spite of that.

[spleen1015]

5 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

McKenna>Hays 

Whole package, I'm not so sure about that. I'll agree that McKenna's bat has been better lately. I can't say that about defense. You are always confident in Hays on defense.

Here's that linedrive play. I thought in the moment and I think now that with the correct line, Santander makes this catch because he's taller than McKenna. I've believed for a long time that height is an untalked about attribute with OFers.

https://www.mlb.com/video/luis-garcia-jr-doubles-9-on-a-sharp-line-drive-to-right-fielder-ryan-mcke?partnerId=web_video-playback-page_video-share