HELLO PETE O"BRIEN .....BYE BYE BALBONI
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Another shrewd move by the Royals, stealing O’Brien from the D Backs. Goodbye home run record, Mr. Balboni. This is the healthier version of Stanton. What a great move for you guys.
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@KUSTEVE This guy has been exciting to watch so far in spring training! Already 3 bombs.
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@Kcmatt7 Thanks for the link. That 27% whiff rate really sticks out as does the low walk %. BBB was “only” 24% but seems I recall seeing him do that often. Also the 36 count record for taters is gonna be tough to break in our park, but sure would be fun to see it go by the wayside.
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@globaljaybird Yea I’m not holding my breath on O’Brien. Not only does he not draw walks but he strikes out almost once every single game too. These type of guys crack me up. If you are hitting the ball 70 feet over the fence with ease, maybe take a little off of your swing and make some better contact. I’d rather you hit .270 with 25 HR than hit.220 and 35 HR. But they never do seem to learn…
But, if he does pan out, it would be a great move by Dayton. We have control of him for like 4 seasons I’m pretty sure.
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@Kcmatt7 how does he compare to morales?
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@Crimsonorblue22 Morales was a good patient veteran hitter who had good gap to gap power (A ton of doubles to both the left-center gap and right-center gap) and drew a decent amount of walks. He also understood how to swing with 2 strikes.
O’Brien appears to be an all or nothing hitter. No plate discipline and a horrible approach. More likely than not he will struggle to make a major league roster his entire career unless he gets one of those two things under control. Either he has to walk a lot more and get his OB% up to .310-330 or he needs to learn how to hit based on the situation. By that I mean, with a man on 3rd he needs to hit a sac fly, runners on 1st and 2nd you try to hit the ball to the right side of the field, and for the love of God when you have 2 strikes just make contact.
If he can do either of those things he will play. If he can lean how to do both things he is a potential All-Star. The good news, is that these are mental problems that can be fixed. The bad news is that these are mental problems and he is a 26 year old so they are pretty ingrained at this point.
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@KUSTEVE @Crimsonorblue22 @Kcmatt7 @HawkInMizery @brooksmd @globaljaybird
There is now a Royals & MLB separate topic so baseball doesn’t get lost in the General with political stuff and what-not. But @approxinfinity didn’t have time to properly format it on the Buckets home page so you might have to scroll down to the bottom on the left side (on my Android, at least–your layouts might look different).
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@Crimsonorblue22 Do you remember Dave Kingman? Mark Reynolds? Chris Carter? Obrien is alot like them. Very low contact rates. Bodacious power. Morales doesn’t have the same power, but he has a much better command of the strike zone. I think Morales breaks out in Toronto- easier park to knock 'em out. I’m projecting Morales hits more than last year, for sure.
