Austin Slater 2024

[Tony-OH]

23 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Slater also knows he is a bench/role player. Hays hasn’t figured that out yet.

This is actually an important part. While I still think Hays might be the better overall player, Hays still thinks he's an everyday guy and somebody will probably give him some money to prove it once again. Slater on the other hands pretty much knows his role and seems to be good with it on a contending team.

[Aristotelian]

15 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

This is actually an important part. While I still think Hays might be the better overall player, Hays still thinks he's an everyday guy and somebody will probably give him some money to prove it once again. Slater on the other hands pretty much knows his role and seems to be good with it on a contending team.

I also wonder if it helps Cowser a bit to feel like the organization is giving him a longer leash. Knowing that the organization is willing to trade a starter from last year has to be a nice vote of confidence in the back of his mind. 

[Sports Guy]

29 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Because Hays historically has been a better player than Slater.  9.2 rWAR in 2193 PA compared to 4.6 in 1671.   Hays was the odd man out on this team when he got off to a slow start and Cowser had a hot one.  I understand the decision to play Cowser and eventually to trade Hays.  Will Hays be a bench player in the future?   Maybe, but I wouldn’t be so hasty.   He’s 28 and capable of bouncing back from a down year.  We’ll see what the future holds for him.  
 

Hays isn’t the same player now he was and even if he becomes a starter again, it wasn’t happening here. His play for over one full calendar year dictated he wasn’t a starter anymore.

[Sports Guy]

30 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

This is actually an important part. While I still think Hays might be the better overall player, Hays still thinks he's an everyday guy and somebody will probably give him some money to prove it once again. Slater on the other hands pretty much knows his role and seems to be good with it on a contending team.

In this day and age of analytics, we tend to overlook the human element too much imo.

Role acceptance matters. It changes how you go about your daily routine, how you conduct yourself and how you act overall. If you feel you should be a starter and aren’t playing starter minutes, you may sulk which effects other things.

[LGOrioles]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Because Hays historically has been a better player than Slater.  9.2 rWAR in 2193 PA compared to 4.6 in 1671.   Hays was the odd man out on this team when he got off to a slow start and Cowser had a hot one.  I understand the decision to play Cowser and eventually to trade Hays.  Will Hays be a bench player in the future?   Maybe, but I wouldn’t be so hasty.   He’s 28 and capable of bouncing back from a down year.  We’ll see what the future holds for him.  
 

According to fWAR though, since 2020 Slater is at 5.3 WAR in 1127 PA’s while Hays is at 6.6 WAR in 2055 PA’s. So Hays accumulated more value through almost double the playing time, but on a rate basis, Slater has clearly been a better player.

He also has unquestionably been the better hitter (112 wRC+ to Hays’ 106) and base runner (40 steals and 4.0 BsR value to Hays’ 15 steals and -2.7 BsR). So rWAR must like Hays’ defense a lot? 

[LA2]

On 9/3/2024 at 8:40 AM, Tony-OH said:

Slater has ended up a good addition as the McKenna on this team. Having that nice game against a righty yesterday was nice, but he's here to hot against lefties and he's done well with that overall. 

Defensively he's solid in all three spots which is a rarity.

Also runs intelligently and well, incl. sharp turns at the bases, and can steal.

[glenn__davis]

Slater keeps playing like this and he'll be able to pull Kelly Kapowski instead of Jessie.

[DrinkinWithFermi]

1 hour ago, glenn__davis said:

Slater keeps playing like this and he'll be able to pull Kelly Kapowski instead of Jessie.

I really hope Slater isn't chasing after high school girls at his age.

Just ask Wander Franco about how that kind of behavior turns out...

[theobird]

I think this guy is the perfect 4th outfielder, I have been very impressed with his overall game

[Tony-OH]

Slater's catch to the end the game was a 4-star, borderline 5-star catch with a 50% catch probability. That was good enough to give him 1 OAA in RF for the Orioles.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=5eb223df-49c9-4caa-8e6c-9a3ae75445d9

[Frobby]

6 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Slater's catch to the end the game was a 4-star, borderline 5-star catch with a 50% catch probability. That was good enough to give him 1 OAA in RF for the Orioles.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=5eb223df-49c9-4caa-8e6c-9a3ae75445d9

I wish they’d brought that up on the Statcast broadcast.