Are the O's Running Adley into the Ground

[RZNJ]

He’s catching less than ever.  Being the DH is a day off from catching.  That’s huge.  This has nothing to do with running him into the ground just like Henderson isn’t tired.   What does being tired even mean?   They are slumping.  They’re timing is off.  Whatever.   As soon as one or the other gets hot there will be no more talk of them being tired.

[interloper]

2 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

He’s catching less than ever.  Being the DH is a day off from catching.  That’s huge.  This has nothing to do with running him into the ground just like Henderson isn’t tired.   What does being tired even mean?   They are slumping.  They’re timing is off.  Whatever.   As soon as one or the other gets hot there will be no more talk of them being tired.

Yeah I think what's tough is this is the worst slump of his career. A sub-.500 OPS for the last month? That's really, really bad for someone that talented. He's like 4 for his last 45 or something like that. 

So, it's concerning for fans. Completely understandable IMO. A slump is a few weeks. Over a month you start to ask more questions. I hope you're right though and it will just pass. 

Edited July 30 by interloper

[RZNJ]

5 minutes ago, interloper said:

Yeah I think what's tough is this is the worst slump of his career. A sub-.500 OPS for the last month? That's really, really bad for someone that talented. He's like 4 for his last 45 or something like that. 

So, it's concerning for fans. Completely understandable IMO. A slump is a few weeks. Over a month you start to ask more questions. I hope you're right though and it will just pass. 

I think I saw him hit the ball hard 3 times last night.   Twice to RF and his last time up a fly out close to the warning track in LF, probably would have been a homer in some parks.  Didn’t look tired to me.   Looked dejected like a player in a slump who is having bad luck as well.

[interloper]

1 minute ago, RZNJ said:

I think I saw him hit the ball hard 3 times last night.   Twice to RF and his last time up a fly out close to the warning track in LF, probably would have been a homer in some parks.  Didn’t look tired to me.   Looked dejected like a player in a slump who is having bad luck as well.

Yeah, it was definitely promising to see the hard-hit balls. I agree he's not tired. It's very possible he's banged up, as a lot of them probably are, but who knows. 

[RZNJ]

Randy Arozarena had a .461 OPS in 30 games in April.   It happens sometimes.

[dtk9119]

57 minutes ago, vab said:

What I don't understand about Adley is he seems to have radically changed his whole hitting style. He went from a very patient, line drive hitter with occasional power to a very aggressive approach, going for more power. It has to be intentional and I don't know why he did it but he needs to go back to his original style. 

This is exactly what the Orioles want. All about hacking away and hitting the HR. Completely opposite of AR's hitting style. Not ready to say they have "ruined" him, but their team approach is not working and needs to be adjusted. Maybe after hitting some hard line drives last night he will break out. The team really needs him (and Gunnar) to start pulling their weight.

[Tbone83]

1 hour ago, vab said:

What I don't understand about Adley is he seems to have radically changed his whole hitting style. He went from a very patient, line drive hitter with occasional power to a very aggressive approach, going for more power. It has to be intentional and I don't know why he did it but he needs to go back to his original style. 

This. I feel like it started in the second half of last season. Not blaming the derby, but his uppercut/golf swing style and less patience seemed to escalate not long after then. I personally can't stand it, I loved the walks and the line drives, and I'd give up 5-10 HRs a year to get back to old Adley. 

 

[OriolesMagic83]

2 hours ago, vab said:

What I don't understand about Adley is he seems to have radically changed his whole hitting style. He went from a very patient, line drive hitter with occasional power to a very aggressive approach, going for more power. It has to be intentional and I don't know why he did it but he needs to go back to his original style. 

Yes, what this lineup needs is more patient hitters and walks.  We don't lack for HR hitters.  The few extra HR Adley hit didn't even raise his OPS.  Please go back to your old offensive approach.

[interloper]

If there's a case to be made for replacing the hitting coach duo - and it's hard to know if hitting coaches are ever at fault - the case is Adley. 

[webbrick2010]

Threads like this is why I was against using a 1-1 for a catcher

The constant speculation whether true or not that catchers wear down and can't be expected to play >145 game in a season without the excuse that they are too tired to hit.

 

[DrungoHazewood]

7 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

This is nice, but I don't think WAR encapsulates some ballplayers.  

I know @DrungoHazewoodwould slap my hand for thinking batting titles mean something...and I don't care, they mean something.  If Adley ever won three batting titles, that would be huge.  That's a big part of the reason why Mauer was just inducted into the Hall of Fame, because batting titles by a catcher don't happen very often...let alone three times by one catcher.

No one here is saying that Adley's a bad player.  He's a very good player, but like the above post said, he might be more Jason Varitek than Joe Mauer...which is fine.

Batting titles don't hurt, but Mauer is in the Hall mainly because he's tne 7th-best catcher of all time by JAWS, which, of course, is based on a mix of peak and career WAR. Yes, the BBWAA is still a combination of old-school writers and newer folks, but as time goes on traditional stats will mean less than contributions to wins.

Mauer had 27 wins through age 26. Rutschman will probably have about 15. But that's because Rutschman got started relatively late, not playing a full season until 25. It's hard to predict the future, especially with catchers who get broken down and worn out sometimes. But Jason Varitek didn't come up until 25 and never had even a 4-win season. Rutschman already has over 50% of Varitek's career value in 366 games (about 2.4 full seasons). Even if Rutschman just has 2-3 win seasons for the next decade he'll end up with a career along the lines of Yadier Molina, Jorge Posada, Buster Posey, and Jim Sundberg. In other words, arguable HOFer.

[DrungoHazewood]

It's pretty funny that Rutschman is leading all MLB catchers in WAR since 2022, despite not coming up until almost two months into his rookie season, is pretty clearly the best catcher in baseball, and the tone here seems to be that he's somewhere between disappointing and a failure because his current OPS+ is eight points off his career mark.

Edited July 30 by DrungoHazewood

[sportsfan8703]

An actual day off for Adley.