Around the Majors - 2022 Version

chop2chip said:
Austin Riley currently ranks dead last in OOA. Not among 3B, that’s every single player in MLB.

While he is more or less average on plays to his right or left, he is a staggering -8 on plays “In” (I believe these are balls where he is charging in to field and throw). That specific weakness signals a lack of athleticism which isn’t something that can be fixed.

How does everyone else feel about this? I am under no illusion that he’s Arenado, but as a casual fan I would have assumed he would be closer to average (and I think he was actually quite good last year). If Riley is truly this bad at 3B then I wonder what position the Braves can play him at. 1B isn’t an option. I’m not sure he has the body type to play outfield (though he was pretty decent back in 2019).
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Seems BS.

He’s made some damn good plays at 3rd.
 
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chop2chip said:
Austin Riley currently ranks dead last in OOA. Not among 3B, that’s every single player in MLB.

While he is more or less average on plays to his right or left, he is a staggering -8 on plays “In” (I believe these are balls where he is charging in to field and throw). That specific weakness signals a lack of athleticism which isn’t something that can be fixed.

How does everyone else feel about this? I am under no illusion that he’s Arenado, but as a casual fan I would have assumed he would be closer to average (and I think he was actually quite good last year). If Riley is truly this bad at 3B then I wonder what position the Braves can play him at. 1B isn’t an option. I’m not sure he has the body type to play outfield (though he was pretty decent back in 2019).
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If Shewmake and Grissom keep hitting, this could answer a lot of future question marks.

Re-sign or extend Dansby on a really reasonable deal - other than Philadelphia, I find it really hard to find any potential competition for his services (and they more or less blew their bank by signing Castellanos and Schwarber). With Correa, Turner, and Bogaerts all ahead of him on the market, it seems awfully hard to see someone offering him more than 3 years/$36 million. Riley moves to LF and Shewmake and Arcia take over at 3B next season. Team defense would improve substantially, and keeping Dansby in place would give you plenty of time to take things slow with Grissom (and find out if you potentially have a fast-riser in Tavarez or Benitez). You can split the DH ABs between Ozuna and Contreras next season to get William's bat into the lineup more often while he splits time with d'Arnaud, then he takes over behind the plate during the second year of Dansby's deal which saves you a big chunk of d'Arnaud's salary. Rosario is still under contract next season, so he could take some ABs in LF and at DH if/when Olson takes a day off (you could play Riley at 1B on those days).

That would leave lots of money available in the event you need to replace Morton AND add another SP - with Rodon/Syndergard/Eovaldi/Manaea/Bassit/Musgrove/Taillon/Clevinger/Lorenzen/Gibson all available, there's enough high-upside inventory available if you need to add two arms.
 
msstate7 said:
He wasn't terrible last year, and from watching, he looks fine.

ETA... now I don't watch much mlb other than braves, so I don't have much reference.
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He was rated very poor before the Braves started implementing a drastic defensive shift last year. Where they went from the team that shifted the least to the 2nd most. Before April 30th last year the Braves shifted on 10% of pitches which was dead last. Starting May 1st they shifted on 46% of pitches which was 3rd highest. And Riley's defensive numbers got progressively better as they kept shifting. Braves are now shifting only 36% of the time which is league average. Does that have any thing to do with it? Could also be early season noise too. A few bad plays can really tank your numbers.
 
thewupk said:
He was rated very poor before the Braves started implementing a drastic defensive shift last year. Where they went from the team that shifted the least to the 2nd most. Before April 30th last year the Braves shifted on 10% of pitches which was dead last. Starting May 1st they shifted on 46% of pitches which was 3rd highest. And Riley's defensive numbers got progressively better as they kept shifting. Braves are now shifting only 36% of the time which is league average. Does that have any thing to do with it? Could also be early season noise too. A few bad plays can really tank your numbers.
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You get that MS bashing crap out of here!!!!

Haha

ETA... I'm drinking. Don't mind me
 
Garmel said:
[tw]1531363770882150400[/tw]
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If Dansby could find a way to cut his strikeout rate to 20%, he’s a legitimate 4-5 WAR player. Despite his reputation for being streaky (which is earned), he’s been consistent on a yearly basis.
 
Knebel gave up a game tying homerun in the 9th. (Fortunately for him Phillies tied it in the bottom of the 9th).

The Phillies run of bad bullpens is unprecedented in sports. It’s the Falcons pass rush of baseball.
 
chop2chip said:
Austin Riley currently ranks dead last in OOA. Not among 3B, that’s every single player in MLB.

While he is more or less average on plays to his right or left, he is a staggering -8 on plays “In” (I believe these are balls where he is charging in to field and throw). That specific weakness signals a lack of athleticism which isn’t something that can be fixed.

How does everyone else feel about this? I am under no illusion that he’s Arenado, but as a casual fan I would have assumed he would be closer to average (and I think he was actually quite good last year). If Riley is truly this bad at 3B then I wonder what position the Braves can play him at. 1B isn’t an option. I’m not sure he has the body type to play outfield (though he was pretty decent back in 2019).
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Of all advanced stats, infield defensive stats are by far the most suspect. I don’t think Riley is a defensive wizard by any means, but I’m skeptical he is the worst defender in MLB. I imagine he’s average or worse, and 40 games isn’t enough for defensive stats to mean anything.

If his biggest weakness is plays “in”, I’m not sure I can think of a single play charging the ball that he hasn’t made. Granted I don’t see every single inning, but I see a lot of innings, and I feel think I would have noticed “hey, Riley can’t charge a ball at 3b, and is so bad at it that he’s the worst defender in the game”.
 
Enscheff said:
Of all advanced stats, infield defensive stats are by far the most suspect. I don’t think Riley is a defensive wizard by any means, but I’m skeptical he is the worst defender in MLB. I imagine he’s average or worse, and 40 games isn’t enough for defensive stats to mean anything.

If his biggest weakness is plays “in”, I’m not sure I can think of a single play charging the ball that he hasn’t made. Granted I don’t see every single inning, but I see a lot of innings, and I feel think I would have noticed “hey, Riley can’t charge a ball at 3b, and is so bad at it that he’s the worst defender in the game”.
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The worst defender in the game is obviously small sample size chicanery. The good news for the Braves is that, as a whole, the infield defense has been pretty good this year which indicates that whatever deficiencies he has can be masked to an extent. Still, OOA is at minimum directionally accurate and at least begs the question about what type of future commitment he is worth.
 
For those thinking the Pirates series is going to be easy next week, they are now 4-1 against the Dodgers this year and only 1 GB of Atlanta in the WC hunt.
 
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WaitingFor2017 said:
I'm perfectly fine selling off Swanson, Will Smith, Morton, and Jansen this year to help replenish the 27th ranked farm system unless things change quickly.
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I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet on the WC.

Duvall has to go ASAP though if we want any shot
 
Hudson2 said:
It’s comical it really is lol. People talking about selling in May
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It’s June, and the Braves are farther than they’ve ever been out and won the division.

Wild card is still in play if they get their **** together anytime soon.
 
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