Eloy Jimenez aquired

[LookitsPuck]

2 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

I guess I just don't understand what magic hitting fairy dust the Orioles can put on a guy in the middle of a season that makes a hitter suddenly start hitting the ball in the air? 

Do you have any examples of where the Orioles tweaked an acquired hitter in the middle of the season and made them better?  

Aaron Hicks. And I know O'Hearn wasn't acquired in the middle of the season, but the O's staff had Ryan make changes and it paid off.

Edited September 10 by LookitsPuck

[Aglets]

3 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

I guess I just don't understand what magic hitting fairy dust the Orioles can put on a guy in the middle of a season that makes a hitter suddenly start hitting the ball in the air? 

Do you have any examples of where the Orioles tweaked an acquired hitter in the middle of the season and made them better?  

Hicks or Slater maybe?   I know the sample size is fairly small with Slater still.

[Explosivo]

I think some players you just can’t reach. We were never able to change Austin Hayes’ approach either. 

[maybenxtyr]

5 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

I guess I just don't understand what magic hitting fairy dust the Orioles can put on a guy in the middle of a season that makes a hitter suddenly start hitting the ball in the air? 

Do you have any examples of where the Orioles tweaked an acquired hitter in the middle of the season and made them better?  

What is your opinion on how he hit 31 HR's in 2019 and then hasn't really come close to that kind of production since? 

 

I had some hopes that he would at least be somewhat of a line drive hitter and be able to move runners around. It worked for a few games, but he's at the point now where I'd like to see them move on and bring Kjerstad back up. I still think Eloy is down on the list for first to go though. Maton or Soto should be first.

[Tony-OH]

3 minutes ago, LookitsPuck said:

Aaron Hicks. And I know O'Hearn wasn't acquired in the middle of the season, but the O's staff had Ryan make changes and it paid off.

Huh. Do we have any proof the Orioles made him better or that a change of scenery did him good. Maybe I missed the interview where Hicks pointed toward the Orioles hitting "gurus" for re-making his swing. Guess he forgot once he left.

Even Sig said they were surprised by O'Hearn and even pointed out that they sent him to AAA first. Maybe I missed the O'Hearn interview where he explained how the Orioles reworked him from spring training on into the hitter he became.

My point is that there is no "magic hitting dust" and the Orioles don't have some secret code to hitting that allows for a hitter to suddenly start putting the ball in the air and become a better power hitter. Even Eloy said this is the hitter's he's always been, even when he was hitting some home runs with the White Sox.

 

[Tony-OH]

5 minutes ago, Aglets said:

Hicks or Slater maybe?   I know the sample size is fairly small with Slater still.

Seriously? You think the Orioles remade these guys because they did better with them? It's not like you just pick the two guys that did a bit better with them and say, "Look, our hitting coaches did great with them."

But maybe I' missing the interviews where the players talked about how the Orioles hitting coaches were able to change them in what, a day or two?

[MurphDogg]

I think the situation with the White Sox was so dire, the idea was that a shift to a contending team could provide a spark. He had a few groundball singles in his first few games that gave some hope, but at this point, he looks like the guy he has been all season.

It is wild for a 27 year-old to have his SLG plummet from .504 (his average through 2022) to .345. I can't see him getting a Major League deal this offseason with the season he has put up in 2024. 

You gotta cut him loose and give Mayo his at-bats at this point.

[Explosivo]

1 minute ago, MurphDogg said:

I think the situation with the White Sox was so dire, the idea was that a shift to a contending team could provide a spark. He had a few groundball singles in his first few games that gave some hope, but at this point, he looks like the guy he has been all season.

It is wild for a 27 year-old to have his SLG plummet from .504 (his average through 2022) to .345. I can't see him getting a Major League deal this offseason with the season he has put up in 2024. 

You gotta cut him loose and give Mayo his at-bats at this point.

Plus he just looks overweight, lazy, and makes stupid decisions out there. Hell he doesn’t even run out grounders. There’s talent there for sure but I don’t think he gives a shit anymore. Same thing happened to Chris Davis. Dude just plays completely uninspired baseball out there. Cut him.

[LookitsPuck]

18 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Huh. Do we have any proof the Orioles made him better or that a change of scenery did him good. Maybe I missed the interview where Hicks pointed toward the Orioles hitting "gurus" for re-making his swing. Guess he forgot once he left.

Even Sig said they were surprised by O'Hearn and even pointed out that they sent him to AAA first. Maybe I missed the O'Hearn interview where he explained how the Orioles reworked him from spring training on into the hitter he became.

My point is that there is no "magic hitting dust" and the Orioles don't have some secret code to hitting that allows for a hitter to suddenly start putting the ball in the air and become a better power hitter. Even Eloy said this is the hitter's he's always been, even when he was hitting some home runs with the White Sox.

 

Yeah, definitely Aaron Hicks:

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/sports/orioles-mlb/aaron-hicks-baltimore-orioles-fix-swing-3IVETGSEZBEPVP6TMOWO4AXQPE/

Quote

The videos were all from Hicks’ 2018 season in New York, the best of his career. He slugged 27 homers while playing the most games he has in a single season. Hicks hasn’t reached those heights since, and perhaps he never will.

But the 33-year-old can at least try.

“A lot of the technique that I used in my swing [in 2018] is what they’re trying to implement, or try to get me to get back to,” Hicks said.

Borgschulte described it as wanting Hicks to be in more of an athletic position in his initial stance and when his stride foot lands. Hicks said, to be more athletic, he wants to stand taller. By focusing on his posture more than his swing, Hicks feels his hands will have more space to work through the swing.

O'Hearn:

https://www.masnsports.com/blog/ryan-o-hearn-on-his-hot-bat-batting-fourth-and-better-flyball-rates

Quote

O’Hearn throws some props to the O’s hitting coaches, who helped him make changes to get the ball in the air more and get more consistent launch angles for better production.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I think I had to make some mechanical adjustments to allow myself to hit the ball in the air. Nobody wants to hit the ball on the ground anymore and I wasn’t trying to the past few years. But the stuff I had going on mechanically, it was hard not to. Got that cleaned up and the work I’ve done in the cage with these hitting coaches has really helped me.”

 

[Aglets]

23 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Seriously? You think the Orioles remade these guys because they did better with them? It's not like you just pick the two guys that did a bit better with them and say, "Look, our hitting coaches did great with them."

But maybe I' missing the interviews where the players talked about how the Orioles hitting coaches were able to change them in what, a day or two?

I appreciate your skepticism.  But yes such interviews do exist.

Here is a SI article that contains a link to a video Hicks did with MLB network.  Listen to the last 45 seconds or so of the clip.

Veteran Outfielder Explains Stunning Resurgence With Baltimore Orioles - Sports Illustrated Baltimore Orioles News, Analysis and More

[MurphDogg]

16 minutes ago, Explosivo said:

Plus he just looks overweight, lazy, and makes stupid decisions out there. Hell he doesn’t even run out grounders. There’s talent there for sure but I don’t think he gives a shit anymore. Same thing happened to Chris Davis. Dude just plays completely uninspired baseball out there. Cut him.

He has had a slew of injuries, so I am not totally comfortable saying he is lazy. Not running out grounders could be a load management thing as a result of the injuries. That said, he certainly doesn't look like someone who should be handed a Major League contract next year.

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, LookitsPuck said:

Yeah, definitely Aaron Hicks:

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/sports/orioles-mlb/aaron-hicks-baltimore-orioles-fix-swing-3IVETGSEZBEPVP6TMOWO4AXQPE/

O'Hearn:

https://www.masnsports.com/blog/ryan-o-hearn-on-his-hot-bat-batting-fourth-and-better-flyball-rates

 

O' Hearn wasn't in a middle of a season, and Hicks suddenly went back to a pumpkin, so I guess he forgot everything once again. Must need more magic hitting pixie dust. 

Believe what you want. I guess the magic fairy dust doesn't work on players already here? Wonder why this offense is not fixed and players like Adley and hmmm, I don't know, O'Hearn, have been in long slumps. Maybe the dust doesn't work more than once? Maybe it has some kind of amnesia effect after some amount of time where players just forget what the dust fixed? 

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, Aglets said:

I appreciate your skepticism.  But yes such interviews do exist.

Here is a SI article that contains a link to a video Hicks did with MLB network.  Listen to the last 45 seconds or so of the clip.

Veteran Outfielder Explains Stunning Resurgence With Baltimore Orioles - Sports Illustrated Baltimore Orioles News, Analysis and More

You and Puck are welcome to believe in anything you like. I mean, if the hard hitting journalists at SI wrote a piece on the O's hitting, it must all be true. I mean afterall, they used the word Stunning resurgence, on a team that has gone 33-38 over it's last 71 games, mostly because the hitting (I posted the stats of many players over the time period in another thread) has gone ice cold. Quite stunning indeed.

[forphase1]

5 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

You and Puck are welcome to believe in anything you like. I mean, if the hard hitting journalists at SI wrote a piece on the O's hitting, it must all be true. I mean afterall, they used the word Stunning resurgence, on a team that has gone 33-38 over it's last 71 games, mostly because the hitting (I posted the stats of many players over the time period in another thread) has gone ice cold. Quite stunning indeed.

I agree.  I think a bunch of it is simply like the 'club house' presence junk.  When a reporter asks about a guy who is barely hitting his weight and not really contributing much, if anything, to the team, inevitably some reporter asks about the veteran presence, and of course whoever is on the other end of the microphone is going to rave about all the intangibles and off the field benefits that the player bring to the team, thus the birth of 'veteranosity'.  In reality the player may suck, they may not do a darn thing to help the culture or the clubhouse, but what else is the interviewee going to say?  I know for a FACT that in some other sports it happens like that, I am sure baseball isn't any different. 

I think much of the same thing comes into play with coaches.  When a guy comes here and starts hitting better, of course he's going to give credit to the staff.  But take Hicks for example.  Anyone could have looked at this 2018 stats and videos and tried to replicate that.  Any coach would be stupid to NOT see what worked best for him in the past and see if he can recreate it.  That's not to say that sometimes an organization can't see a hitch in someone's swing, or the changing some mechanics might unlock some more power or potential.  It DOES happen.  But it also happens to players who leave the Os and end up having more success in other places than they had here.  And for every Hicks/O'Hearn type, there are a dozen others who we tried to 'fix' and failed miserably.  There is no magic fairy dust and some players are simply flawed, and won't be 'fixed' no matter what we try.  Mateo is one of the best examples of this I've ever seen.  He can spend a month looking like an MVP candidate then become the worst player in MLB for the next 6 weeks.  Surely if we had a way to permanently fix him, we'd have done it a long time ago.  Heck, it's way past time to give Adley a bit more of this special sauce, as what he got originally is wearing off!

I'm not trying to downplay coaching or to talk about any of their efforts, or about our players.  But baseball is a game of failure, and some are simply better at failing less frequently than others.  Most guys, like Jimenez, Mountcastle, Jones back in the day, Mateo, etc are very unlikely to be 'fixed'.  Their flaws can sometimes to hidden for a small time, but eventually who they are wins out.  

[Can_of_corn]

Man I wish Eloy would could hit his weight.