He said he also wants to train pitching this winter. Do you buy into that?

I would assume he will mostly be a mop up reliever.

 

With the bat I like the walk increase but he still wiffs a ton. Probably more of a platoon/bench bat.

 

As long as it's legit. I know he looked decent the few times he did pitch, but a lot of guys can look halfway decent in those spots. It doesn't hurt to have an extra guy to save your bullpen in out of reach games. If it's just a novelty,  pass.

Here is my question.....if he is the DH, then pitches an inning, does he remain the DH after he comes out of the game as a pitcher or do we lose the DH as what happens if the DH plays the field? 

 

32 minutes ago, Harry Chappas said:

Here is my question.....if he is the DH, then pitches an inning, does he remain the DH after he comes out of the game as a pitcher or do we lose the DH as what happens if the DH plays the field? 

 

As I recall the rules state that the DH is a replacement hitter specifically for the pitcher and if the DH takes the field, the pitcher then must bat.

I have no problem with Davidson as a mop up reliever, last guy out of the pen situation.  I don 't want to see him as a legitimate reliever as that would screw up the bench and the DH situation with an already short bench in the modern AL.

10 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

I have no problem with Davidson as a mop up reliever, last guy out of the pen situation.  I don 't want to see him as a legitimate reliever as that would screw up the bench and the DH situation with an already short bench in the modern AL.

This.  Let him pitch once or twice a month in mop up duty.  I don't see it getting any more serious than that, and while I think Davidson is probably safe on the roster, that is definitely not a guarantee at this point. 

8 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

This.  Let him pitch once or twice a month in mop up duty.  I don't see it getting any more serious than that, and while I think Davidson is probably safe on the roster, that is definitely not a guarantee at this point. 

There are going to be a decent amount of moving parts this winter too.  If someone like Avi doesn't get brought back, that makes Davidson's spot more secure.  It also makes him more secure if he can pitch too.  We'll see.

I think sox should allow Davidson to entertain it. Writing is on the wall for him, he both improved quite a bit and also not enough to see him as a piece. However, his pitches look good. 

Renteria ruling it out looks bad imo. If you only let this guy hit you may be eliminating a shot for him to stay on an mlb roster.

What exactly do the white sox have to lose by letting him pitch this offseason? They have to work harder to evaluate?

He's trying to make the roster in any way possible, so i respect that.. however he's not going to be worth anything that resembles a winnable game. If he can do 15-30 innings of complete mop up duty that may save us a roster spot or give us the ability to look at an additional player.

It's meh to me though. Take it or leave it. Don't think he's part of any future.

This is no surprise. With pitching taking up roster spots guys like Matt will become a necessity. No one wants to acknowledge MLB's roster problem. People agonizing over Moncada and Anderson hardly noticed that they rarely got a day off. In the 1960's teams had 8-9 pitchers and now it is 13. 

On 10/25/2018 at 9:02 AM, Dick Allen said:

As long as it's legit. I know he looked decent the few times he did pitch, but a lot of guys can look halfway decent in those spots. It doesn't hurt to have an extra guy to save your bullpen in out of reach games. If it's just a novelty,  pass.

I agree with Dick here. His stuff wasn't THAT good, was it? I know he didn't give up a run but he only pitched a couple times. Two, right?

9 hours ago, greg775 said:

I agree with Dick here. His stuff wasn't THAT good, was it? I know he didn't give up a run but he only pitched a couple times. Two, right?

He appeared in 3 games as a pitcher and had 3 IP.

 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/davidma02-pitch.shtml

To me, his ability to pitch will make or break his chances of sticking with us.  Right now, he’s a weak side platoon corner infielder / DH.  While he was exceptional against lefties last year (wRC+ of 144) & could create a pretty nice DH combo with Palka, guys with his skillset are generally tough to carry on a short bench.  That being said, if he could pitch a couple times a week (even in mop-up spots), he just might provide enough utility to be worth rostering.

On 10/25/2018 at 1:29 PM, BrianAnderson said:

He's trying to make the roster in any way possible, so i respect that.. however he's not going to be worth anything that resembles a winnable game. If he can do 15-30 innings of complete mop up duty that may save us a roster spot or give us the ability to look at an additional player.

It's meh to me though. Take it or leave it. Don't think he's part of any future.

Same with me. He did well in the mop ups in 2018,, but that is with no scouting report on him, and no intensity from the opposition. If they project him to be anything but a joke in a legit situation, pursue it. Otherwise, work on making some contact this offseason.

 

the problem with working on his pitching is it takes away from working on his hitting. His hitting needs a lot of work.

Edited October 27, 20187 yr by Dick Allen

He had his shot. Time to move on

I don’t mind this at all. The ship on him being a productive enough hitter to start for a contender has probably sailed. If he can eat 25-30 innings a year on days where he starts at first, it makes his roster spot a lot more useful. 

3 hours ago, Eminor3rd said:

I don’t mind this at all. The ship on him being a productive enough hitter to start for a contender has probably sailed. If he can eat 25-30 innings a year on days where he starts at first, it makes his roster spot a lot more useful. 

I just thought of this after reading your post for some reason, but Davidson also has pretty impressive platoon splits as a hitter. .882 OPS last year against lefties, .687 against righties. A team like the Dodgers that goes heavily in with using subs to get the platoon advantage - the ability to get one out could be a big deal for that team. Pinch hit the guy for the pitcher's spot, get the platoon advantage, then throw him out there against the right handed hitter or two that leads off the next inning before bringing in another reliever, and in the process it saves a roster spot for the game while still giving them that platoon advantage.

On ‎10‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 11:24 AM, southsider2k5 said:

I have no problem with Davidson as a mop up reliever, last guy out of the pen situation.  I don 't want to see him as a legitimate reliever as that would screw up the bench and the DH situation with an already short bench in the modern AL.

If he is a "mop up" reliever, chances are he would be pitching the 9th inning of a blowout game, so the bench and the DH situation would be a moot point.

6 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

I just thought of this after reading your post for some reason, but Davidson also has pretty impressive platoon splits as a hitter. .882 OPS last year against lefties, .687 against righties. A team like the Dodgers that goes heavily in with using subs to get the platoon advantage - the ability to get one out could be a big deal for that team. Pinch hit the guy for the pitcher's spot, get the platoon advantage, then throw him out there against the right handed hitter or two that leads off the next inning before bringing in another reliever, and in the process it saves a roster spot for the game while still giving them that platoon advantage.

For sure, now's the time to be creative. Depth and specialization are in. Yeah, we need to grow some stars, but we had those before -- we were missing the depth that the good teams have.

On 10/27/2018 at 6:23 AM, Sleepy Harold said:

He appeared in 3 games as a pitcher and had 3 IP.

 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/davidma02-pitch.shtml

He did well also in his 3 appearances. 3 IP. 1 H . 0 R. ! BB. 2 K. That's without much training and against MLB hitters . Pitch him in more mop up duties. I'm sure we will lose enough to have plenty of opportunities. If he continues to show promise try in  some higher pressure situations where you might need an out or 2 against  righties. Never know, could get a real pitcher out of it.

Renteria's assessment be damned. He's living in the past . Davidson will be playing MLB in some capacity  longer than Renteria manages.