Is it time to upgrade over Urias and McCann?

[Greg Pappas]

11 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Forget  it!     Oops.

 

 

Seriously, hang in there.  Going through a few things myself this past year.  Hopefully, that joke will not go over like a lead balloon.

Now that thar was funny.

[sportsfan8703]

Are we getting close to this?

Norby for Urias?

Hunt for McCann?

 

[wildcard]

If I am evaluating what is the most important skills of a backup catcher  it goes something like this.

1.  Call a good game

2.  Be good defensively

3.  Be able to control the running game

4.  Hit

McCann is above average at the first 3 IMO.    Most backup catchers don't hit much.  I think the OH is a little too hard on McCann.   Remember the O's are paying him 4M this year.   They are not likely to DFA him.

[rm5678]

2 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Are we getting close to this?

Norby for Urias?

Hunt for McCann?

 

I would be happy to see Norby replace Urias on the roster. Norby is not in today's lineup for the Tides, but of course that may have no significance.

[sportsfan8703]

1 hour ago, wildcard said:

If I am evaluating what is the most important skills of a backup catcher  it goes something like this.

1.  Call a good game

2.  Be good defensively

3.  Be able to control the running game

4.  Hit

McCann is above average at the first 3 IMO.    Most backup catchers don't hit much.  I think the OH is a little too hard on McCann.   Remember the O's are paying him 4M this year.   They are not likely to DFA him.

The success of the starting staff, and that McCann knows our pitching lab/analytics stuff makes him really hard to replace. 

[Frobby]

18 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

The success of the starting staff, and that McCann knows our pitching lab/analytics stuff makes him really hard to replace. 

I have the impression that he’s an extremely well-liked leader in the clubhouse.  I’ll be shocked if he’s DFA at any point.  
 

[CHIP]

44 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I have the impression that he’s an extremely well-liked leader in the clubhouse.  I’ll be shocked if he’s DFA at any point.  
 

There are a lot of well liked players that are no longer in the clubhouse.  McCann has always been a great guy.  But at what point does performance outweigh feelings?  I just took a peek at Fangraphs.  There is a trend that is very apparent...  McCann's AVG, SLG, ISO, wRC, wRC+are all at the lowest they have been with his current club before moving to a new club (excluding his all star year of 2020 that was a fluke but a $40M fluke).  His numbers this year are worse than his last year with Detroit in 2018 and his last year with the Mets (2022).  His defense is also starting to slide.  Of course there is still 70% of the season left and a 4-4 game would jump McCann up to .250 in 1 day. 

So... if his performance continues to 'lag'... when is a change appropriate?  'Who' that change could be is a separate topic and one that will need some time to measure watching head to head not between Handley/Hunt or another outside pick.

[dystopia]

7 minutes ago, CHIP said:

There are a lot of well liked players that are no longer in the clubhouse.  McCann has always been a great guy.  But at what point does performance outweigh feelings?  I just took a peek at Fangraphs.  There is a trend that is very apparent...  McCann's AVG, SLG, ISO, wRC, wRC+are all at the lowest they have been with his current club before moving to a new club (excluding his all star year of 2020 that was a fluke but a $40M fluke).  His numbers this year are worse than his last year with Detroit in 2018 and his last year with the Mets (2022).  His defense is also starting to slide.  Of course there is still 70% of the season left and a 4-4 game would jump McCann up to .250 in 1 day. 

So... if his performance continues to 'lag'... when is a change appropriate?  'Who' that change could be is a separate topic and one that will need some time to measure watching head to head not between Handley/Hunt or another outside pick.

What backup catcher would you rather have? 

[sportsfan8703]

49 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I have the impression that he’s an extremely well-liked leader in the clubhouse.  I’ll be shocked if he’s DFA at any point.  
 

Agreed. Plus he knows our pitchers, he spent a whole ST with them, he knows our analytics, what would even 100 OPS pts gain?

I’d keep an eye on a blockbuster trade with Toronto where we get Romano, Danny Jansen the C, and Justin Turner as our vet bat for the postseason.

Not to go too far off the deep end after a reasonable McCann take. 

[oriole]

My vote is DFA Urias and send down Stowers. Bring up Jackson Holliday and sign Matt Holliday. 

[Frobby]

57 minutes ago, CHIP said:

There are a lot of well liked players that are no longer in the clubhouse.  McCann has always been a great guy.  But at what point does performance outweigh feelings?  I just took a peek at Fangraphs.  There is a trend that is very apparent...  McCann's AVG, SLG, ISO, wRC, wRC+are all at the lowest they have been with his current club before moving to a new club (excluding his all star year of 2020 that was a fluke but a $40M fluke).  His numbers this year are worse than his last year with Detroit in 2018 and his last year with the Mets (2022).  His defense is also starting to slide.  Of course there is still 70% of the season left and a 4-4 game would jump McCann up to .250 in 1 day. 

So... if his performance continues to 'lag'... when is a change appropriate?  'Who' that change could be is a separate topic and one that will need some time to measure watching head to head not between Handley/Hunt or another outside pick.

Veteran backup catchers are just a different breed of cat.  I remember Kyle Gibson gave a post-season interview where he raved about McCann and talked about how much influence he’d had and would continue to have on Adley.  I don’t think you pull that particular plug mid-season.  

By the way, if you look at McCann’s 2023 season, he had a .564 OPS the first 4 months of the season, had a red hot 9-10 games, then was .520 OPS the remainder of the year.   So really, he’s no different this year than last, other than the one short-lived hot streak.  
 

[interloper]

Cutting McCann will have basically zero positive impact on the club or offense. It's a total non-factor. 

Urias, on the other hand, feels like a wasted roster spot simply because we don't use him ever. 

[gtman55]

Urias just rides the bench. It should be Norby time. If we can trade Urias someplace where he'd get more playing time, that'd be great. Seems like a good guy.

[interloper]

7 minutes ago, gtman55 said:

Urias just rides the bench. It should be Norby time. If we can trade Urias someplace where he'd get more playing time, that'd be great. Seems like a good guy.

Seems like he's destined for the Baumann treatment of "forced trade by way of DFA". No one wants to trade for him right now, but someone will want to jump the waiver line if he's DFA'd. Padres? They just lost Xander. 

[Fiver6565]

For those of you advocating for Norby over Urias, would you rather have Norby rotting on the bench than Ramon?  That makes no sense.  Norby is not going to unseat Mateo at second, or Hays as the RH Ofer, so what would be the point of that?

 

And you really want to jettison your vet leader, who is a BACKUP for a kid in AAA who's never been in the majors?  What are you guys smoking?