Is Matt Wieters >Adley?

[Sports Guy]

50 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

No, I'm not missing the point. I really kind of addressed it when I said he can do what he wants in his free time and we're allowed to say things like Instagram videos with his girlfriends are stupid.  

Asking questions isn't proving points, or making points.  Like I said, it's borderline conspiracy theory...trying to find reasoning when reasoning isn't readily visible.  That's why we're upset here, because he's suddenly gone off a cliff and we're searching for answers because there's no obvious injury, right?

But like I said, we can't call him a good leader and extol all his virtues and then turn right around and wonder if he's easily distracted.  It's either one or the other...and we've been praising him about his leadership qualities ever since he came up.  And now we want to wonder if he's distracted?  By a girl?

I know you're not saying it's definitely the case, but I think it's silly that anyone would suggest a girlfriend is the possible reason he's not working as hard and he's not watching as much tape (I'm addressing your point here, to be clear) and he's not the leader he once was and the reason why he's lost .100 points in OPS from '23. 

IMO, he looks out of shape.  He looks like he's gained weight.  Kind of hard to tell if that's good weight or bad weight, but he just doesn't look the same.

That said, weight gain doesn't explain why his plate approach has gone to ****.  A girlfriend doesn't explain that, either.

It does if you use common sense.  I know that’s in short supply these days though. 
 

Weight gain isn’t going to affect your hand/eye coordination. 
 

I think he’s hurt. I think that’s the actual explanation and I have been saying that for weeks.  If he’s not, all cards are on the table as why he’s been this bad

Edited 2 hours ago by Sports Guy

[Moose Milligan]

12 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

It does if you use common sense.  I know that’s in short supply these days though. 
 

Weight gain isn’t going to affect your hand/eye coordination. 
 

I think he’s hurt. I think that’s the actual explanation and I have been saying that for weeks.  If he’s not, all cards are on the table as why he’s been this bad

Common sense in regard to...a girl being an issue here?  

I agree being hurt is the likely issue.

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Moose Milligan said:

Common sense in regard to...a girl being an issue here?  

I agree being hurt is the likely issue.

Common sense being that a sudden non injury related drop off can occur for many reasons…one of those reasons being off field distractions, good or bad.

[AlbNYfan]

I don't know what the factors are in his regression over the second half. I sometimes wonder if the game becomes less "fun" now that it is a job and it's difficult to maintain the enthusiasm over the long haul. Whatever it is, why is he still batting near the top of the order?

[Moose Milligan]

14 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Common sense being that a sudden non injury related drop off can occur for many reasons…one of those reasons being off field distractions, good or bad.

Ok.

[Frobby]

There’s like 5 threads discussing Adley’s offensive decline in the second half, so I’m not going to repeat what I’ve said elsewhere.  

This thread asks about Rutschman vs. Wieters.   I still think it’s quite likely (75% or more) that Adley will have the significantly better career.   But we’ll have to see what version of Adley shows up in 2025.   

I hate the fact that suddenly this question isn’t ridiculous.  

 

[Sports Guy]

9 minutes ago, Frobby said:

There’s like 5 threads discussing Adley’s offensive decline in the second half, so I’m not going to repeat what I’ve said elsewhere.  

This thread asks about Rutschman vs. Wieters.   I still think it’s quite likely (75% or more) that Adley will have the significantly better career.   But we’ll have to see what version of Adley shows up in 2025.   

I hate the fact that suddenly this question isn’t ridiculous.  

 

It’s still ridiculous.

[Sports Guy]

14 minutes ago, AlbNYfan said:

I don't know what the factors are in his regression over the second half. I sometimes wonder if the game becomes less "fun" now that it is a job and it's difficult to maintain the enthusiasm over the long haul. Whatever it is, why is he still batting near the top of the order?

Respect 

[turtlebowl]

I still think it is the team philosophy that has hurt Adley's season.  I don't consider him a true HR hitter yet his swings started looking like someone who was trying to hit bombs.  People talk about his lack of bat speed but Adley at his best is great at using the whole field and barreling the ball up while working the count.  Every once in a while early in a count, he should hunt a pitch and put his "A swing" on it.  The thing is with him, that means a more aggressive forced swing which means less consistent barrel contact. 

At this point I think in the last month he has been trying to find his true identity again but sometimes that isn't easy.  Baseball is tough and if you are playing with less confidence and swagger then you have your whole life it makes the game even harder. 

My guess is after this season he is going to do some soul searching and get back to the player he is supposed to be, not some version of Santander.  I expect next year we will see Adley have his best season yet.  Sometimes you have to fail before you can find the best version of yourself.   

[Aristotelian]

4 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Just stop it. 

Word for word my reaction to the OP. 

Adley has been bad but we've seen enough of him to know this isn't who he is as a player. He deserves an offseason to get healthy and a long leash to fix whatever is wrong. 

[AlbNYfan]

12 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Respect 

Aretha Franklin should have no impact when writing a line-up.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

Just now, Aristotelian said:

Word for word my reaction to the OP. 

Adley has been bad but we've seen enough of him to know this isn't who he is as a player. He deserves an offseason to get healthy and a long leash to fix whatever is wrong. 

Adley had a down year finishing with a 107 OPS+ for the season. Wieters in his best full season offensively put up a 110 OPS+. Unless there is some permanent change in Adley's performance this isn't even going to be a debate by the time he retires.

[GoldGlove21]

3 hours ago, DirtyBird said:

"A down year" is over 33% of his career.

He is having a down second half so maybe 1/6th of his career. I do think this makes him harder to extend now. He will likely want to play better to get the best contract, but the closer he gets to free agency and if he bounces back, the number rises quickly. 

For me the issue with Adley is on offense and a future in which he needs to DH or play first. Just not enough offensive capability at this point to justify that contract. I do love Adley and I also think he is hurt.

[Safelykept]

27 minutes ago, GoldGlove21 said:

He is having a down second half so maybe 1/6th of his career. I do think this makes him harder to extend now. He will likely want to play better to get the best contract, but the closer he gets to free agency and if he bounces back, the number rises quickly. 

For me the issue with Adley is on offense and a future in which he needs to DH or play first. Just not enough offensive capability at this point to justify that contract. I do love Adley and I also think he is hurt.

If thats where he's at 1B or Dh there will be no extension. The bat woud have to be super special. and it's not. we already have like 3 of those Mounty, O'hearn and Mayo

[Sanity Check]

I am late to this party and have not read every comment.  But, the Weiters comparison aside, the real questions in my mind are  1) whether Adley will be able to improve on this season and maybe have this be his worst an an Oriole, and 2) if he will fulfill our expectations as a 1:1 pick, or will he end up overall disappointing us vs. those expectations?

I don't think he looks hurt, I think he looks overmatched, and for most of this year.  I know people hate hearing this, but even he hasn't been the same dude since last year's home run derby.  Watching from the stands yesterday, his bat looks slow.....similar to what we saw in Weiters.  So, my fear is, Adley won't meet the what many of us expected him to be, and I didn't see enough this year to warrant any consideration of making him a franchise player with a long extension?  Would anyone else roll the dice on that right now?  If so, are you basing it on anything more than hope and expectations?