2022 Season | Series #45 | Angels @ Guardians | Sep. 12-14, 2022

Criznit said:

To pile on the Oscar love...

He was reported to be a marginal/defective OFer.. Initial returns say otherwise. He seems perfectly capable of playing a solid RF with a good arm most days.

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I actually think he's been pretty rough out there.

He's better at RF than Naylor is at 1B, so I really have no intention of moving him to DH. I just don't think he's anything better than average at best in RF.

Out of the Rafters at the Q said:

I actually think he's been pretty rough out there.

He's better at RF than Naylor is at 1B, so I really have no intention of moving him to DH. I just don't think he's anything better than average at best in RF.

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The OG is pretty rough.. if he keeps after it.. he could rise to average & with his bat, that's good enough.. good enough, indeed..

W/R To Naylor.. he's already improved at 1B to at least average.. & it appears he'll continue to get better as he gains confidence in his leg while becoming stronger.. As an emergency, Naylor might see some time in the OF.. The less, the better..

Morris' rise to ML starter (currently spot starter) was foretold.. go back in the prospect listing archives (RCF/IBI) and find Cody listed in the top ten as the Indians #7... only once..

Wham with the Right Hand said:

But he simply cannot maintain a .347 BABIP. Thats Trout territory, and much higher than Manny Ramirez and even Ted Williams. So there is certainly gonna be regression there...probably significant regression.

Maybe not so much. He hits the ball hard and sprays it around which is the key to a high BABIP. He also gets infield hits - not many, but he beats out those ground balls in the hole and high choppers because he gets down the line so fast with that 90th percentile sprint speed.

If he learns to stop chasing so many pitches out of the zone he'll get in better counts and get more pitches he can square up. In that case his BABIP might actually go up.

As of now his hard hit percentage of 41.9% is best on the team. His average exit velocity is also best on the team, just a tick ahead of Naylor. It's not like he's getting a lot of lucky bloops that are dropping in. He's hitting the ball consistently hard and using the whole field.

His average launch angle of 5.9 degrees is the second lowest on the team; only Rosario is more of a ground ball/line drive hitter. The only other player who is not at least in double figures is Straw at 9.3 degrees.

Once Oscar starts laying off some of those bad pitches and getting more balls in the air it's gonna be showtime.

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I am not hitting expert but even with last night's home run, it just something in his swing mechanics that is wrong but special. It sometimes seems that he is fooled by the low slider but he is able to slow down his swing, keep his hands back (even if it seems like a hitch in his swing - a slight hesitation when he recognizes speed and then someone find enough power to hit it out by getting his hands extended through and out of the zone to get it to the ball to the wall and 50/50 shot at HR or warning track liner. Just saying something like this can explain the BABIP that he can square up a mistake of his where others just roll over their hands for a weak grounder. But, hopefully his pitch recognition improves as BABIP goes down to maybe 320 range (bit better than average).

And, for Oscar's average fielding, I think we all just remember how bad Santana, Naylor and Reyes looked when Tito got their bats in the lineup in OF thus he looks like better than average OF. But he will ultimately move to DH if someone like Valera (slightly better fielder) takes over RF.

Out of the Rafters at the Q said:

I actually think he's been pretty rough out there.

He's better at RF than Naylor is at 1B, so I really have no intention of moving him to DH. I just don't think he's anything better than average at best in RF.

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He can pretty much make all the routine plays though and that's what matters. Plus we will have someone like Benson to replace him if need be. OGonz doesn't have good bend and whatnot in his movements either. I don't 100% trust him out there, but I have seen way, way worse...

sportscoach said:

He can pretty much make all the routine plays though and that's what matters. Plus we will have someone like Benson to replace him if need be. OGonz doesn't have good bend and whatnot in his movements either. I don't 100% trust him out there, but I have seen way, way worse...

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I'm not saying we need to bench him or anything stupid like that--just that he's playing because of his bat. He's not an above average RF (and that's okay!)

Am curious as to what weight bat he uses? Seemingly has good bat speed but the pop he so often gets is unreal.

Is this simply due to him being so often near the "sweet spot" when hitting into the field of play, mechanics of his height & reach, or ability to provide torque at the plate via turning of torso, hips, or hands?

Played ball in youth and have casually followed the game on and off for years, however, some of you have farrrr more insight into the innermost workings within the sport ;^D

BONUS: Psychological Advantage for the G's for today's game.

First pitch is set for 1:10 P.M. EST or 10:10 A.M. PST lmao

Knowing many athletes have a nap based sleep regimen, I personally would not be stunned to see the Angels sleepwalking in their "getaway day" at this stage of what's turned to a long season for their squad.
They have tomorrow off prior to facing the Mariners in LA Friday night.

So would expect at least a sliver of some of their thoughts to be on just returning West, meanwhile the Tribe should be locked in here for the homestretch.

There truly is seemingly something to Cal's call to action earlier this year when he stated to the team that he felt they had every right to compete each time out and weren't outgunned.

This simple act of stating such a belief empowered the team to stop that losing skid and has manifested in some serious run support during his outings. {Some statistics could be displayed in the opposite effect for those of Plesac's [and ofc some are simply anomalous] }

Out of the Rafters at the Q said:

I actually think he's been pretty rough out there.

He's better at RF than Naylor is at 1B, so I really have no intention of moving him to DH. I just don't think he's anything better than average at best in RF.

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I ain't expecting him to ever achieve more than solid-average play with the occasional good play to help offset the boneheaded ones. Again the book out was he would essentially be a liability and Franmil Reyes (if lucky) quality. He certainly looks "better" than that to me and definitely consider him a OF/DH not a DH/OF.

Looks like he maybe slow to jump, doesn't seem like he'll run the best routes... Just needs to limit the mistakes and he should be fine.

Criznit said:

I ain't expecting him to ever achieve more than solid-average play with the occasional good play to help offset the boneheaded ones. Again the book out was he would essentially be a liability and Franmil Reyes (if lucky) quality. He certainly looks "better" than that to me and definitely consider him a OF/DH not a DH/OF.

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If anyone said he's Franmil Reyes quality in RF, they're smoking something.

z

Out of the Rafters at the Q said:

If anyone said he's Franmil Reyes quality in RF, they're smoking something.

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There are plenty of examples of his D being roasted on this site if you want to dig... Even Bimbo wasn't too kind.

Again - he was supposed to be a DH who plays OF.. I think he has been much better than advertised.

Criznit said:

z

There are plenty of examples of his D being roasted on this site if you want to dig... Even Bimbo wasn't too kind.

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Have an example of people calling him Franmil Reyes out there?

Because there's a chasm between "He's Franmil out there" and "He's not good"

Criznit said:

Again - he was supposed to be a DH who plays OF.. I think he has been much better than advertised.

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I still think he has a shot at being a DH if some of the Benson/Brennan/Valera/Jones group prove they deserve every day MLB AB's.

Out of the Rafters at the Q said:

Have an example of people calling him Franmil Reyes out there?

Because there's a chasm between "He's Franmil out there" and "He's not good"

I still think he has a shot at being a DH if some of the Benson/Brennan/Valera/Jones group prove they deserve every day MLB AB's.

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Oh he certainly could be pushed out by a better defender.

Again feel free to go back and review for yourself, a good reference point would probably be around his AAA callup in 2021. I do seem to recall plenty of people comparing Oscar's D to Franmil.

It really depends on where you set your reference point I guess.

Bimbo posted this on April 22nd in the MILB Thread:

BimboColesHair said:

In order to be a good corner OFer you have to play passable defense in a corner OF spot.

Oscar plays LF & RF at Franmil's level.

Couple that in with power being the least translatable skill from the minors to the MLB and it's easy to see why a guy who almost put up a 30/30 season between AA and AAA his age 23 season received no interest from other organizations as a minor league free agent and was left off the 40 man and potentially exposed for the Rule 5 by a team in dire need of talent in the OF, right-handed hitters, and power in the lineup.

I hope he gets a chance and I would love it if he proved me wrong, but Oscar at the MLB level playing RF and seeing MLB breaking pitches would be a disaster, defensively and offensively, to my untrained eyes.

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Criznit said:

Oh he certainly could be pushed out by a better defender.

Again feel free to go back and review for yourself, a good reference point would probably be around his AAA callup in 2021. I do seem to recall plenty of people comparing Oscar's D to Franmil.

It really depends on where you set your reference point I guess.

Bimbo posted this on April 22nd in the MILB Thread:

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There is one thing that the OG does well in the field.. he has a howitzer for an arm, for both power and accuracy... perhaps the best arm of anyone in the Guardian system (MLB & MiLB) not named Gabriel...

Here is where we get in trouble, where we become ridiculous, where we send our expectations over a cliff...

We look at our youngsters and project the nearly impossible onto to them.

I went back 100 years, beginning in 1923.

Out of untold thousands of MLB players, do you know how many players with at least 2000 PAs (basically four seasons) were able to maintain a BABIP of at least .347?

Sixteen.

How many of those 16 did it while having a K rate of at least 20%?

Five

A study was done in 2008 of BABIP....1913-2007. Among players with at least 3000 PAs, only eleven maintained a BABIP of .347. Ten of them are, or will be (Miggy, Ichiro), in the HOF.

Some of us are projecting Oscar as a possible HOF candidate.

Ain't gonna happen. Not even close.

There is plenty of room for increased production, as mentioned. But lets keep it real.