Yesterday on MLB Radio, there was considerable talk about the Baltimore Orioles and their lack of doing anything at all over the off-season. The Orioles philosophy is similar to the Rangers. Getting Matt Wieters back from injury, and Manny Machado back from injury, and Chris Davis out of his funk, is like they traded for three stud offensive pieces. They are really hoping for 2013 Chris Davis not 2014 Chris Davis. In light of that, here is a re-post of an article from August 3, 2104. Enjoy:
Here’s something I was thinking about while watching the Rangers offense do yet another David Copperfield disappearing act.
What a difference a year makes.
I am not talking about the Rangers, although they are eighteen games behind last year’s pace, and fading fast.
The difference I am referring to is how few times this year I have heard someone complaining about the Chris Davis Trade.
Could it have something to do with the fact that the Baltimore Orioles have benched Chris Davis for lack of offense? (If only the Rangers could bench their offense for lack of offense.)
Last season, all we heard about was the Chris Davis Trade. Because last season Chris Davis was all world. He was the poster boy for The One That Got Away. And because of that, he was also Mitch Moreland’s savior, almost his de facto agent.
“We can’t trade Mitch Moreland because he will turn into another Chris Davis.”
“We can’t trade Mitch Moreland because he will turn into another Chris Davis.”
“We can’t trade Mitch Moreland because he will turn into another Chris Davis.”
This season, ironically, Chris Davis turned back into Mitch Moreland. And I don’t think I have heard a single grumble about the Chris Davis Trade in months.
Welcome to the effects of baseball gravity.
Last season Davis had an MVP-like season. He batted .286 with and a league-leading 53 home runs and 138 RBIs, and an OBP of .370 and a SLG of .634.
He was so good, in fact, that when the MVP voting was said and done, Davis was the third best player in the league. Now, he might be the third best first basemen on his team.
That’s because this season he’s lost nearly a hundred points off his batting average, which stands at .196. His OBP is .308 and his SLG is a barely visible .389. To put that in painful context, it’s not much better than Leonys Martin’s .366 SLG.
(In all fairness to Davis, though, his 17 HRs would be leading the Rangers, and his 51 RBIs would be just seven behind Beltre.)
But as the Rangers begin the long, arduous trek toward respectability, I hope we don’t hold too dearly to Mitch Moreland, or to the notion that he will blossom, somehow, magically, somehow, into the 2013 Chris Davis.
Keep this in mind. Davis averages a home run every 16.5 at bats. Moreland, every 24.1 at bats.
I think I can safely say Moreland will not turn into another Chris Davis of 2013.
Now, if we just had a General Manager who didn’t believe that.
(What we’d get for Moreland, well, that’s a whole other discussion.)