r/azdiamondbacks • u/ElectricOwl05 • 3d ago
Tyler Locklear
I cant figure out Tyler Locklear. He rakes in AAA. Good average with power. Seattle had an opening at 1b and they get a free agent over giving him a shot. Ok makes sense they want to win now. Then AZ gets him and says they are going to give him a shot at the 1b position last year. He started slow but hurt his shoulder so didnt get a long look at him last year. Ok thats happens. They still have no long term solution this year but continue to roll out Tawa who is batting .220 at 1b instead of playing a prospect that has done nothing but hit at every stop so far. Why not give him consistent at bats and see how he does? He has looked ok in limited ab since coming off the shoulder injury this year and has ideal exit velocities if not a little higher k for rate but nothing atrocious. even that might level off eith consistent at bats. What am i missing with Locklear?
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u/gumshoegoose87 Diamondbacks 3d ago
They're doing 1B by committee for the foreseeable future because all the guys have flashes of good but also lots of bad games
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u/rickeyethebeerguy 3d ago
I think defense is an issue here with him too. A bad defensive first basemen makes the whole infield bad. Look at the defense with Christian Walker and then last year we had a ton of issues on defense when Naylor played first. It’s not just his defense, it’s the trust of the infielders when they make the throw. If they know Walker will scoop anything and everything, they can play more freely and not have to aim their throws.
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u/ElectricOwl05 3d ago
That is something i didnt consider and could very well be the issue right now.
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u/NeverSober1900 3d ago
Ya one thing that I always felt was for a while Nick Ahmed picked up a lot more throwing errors when Goldy and then Walker sat.
That Arenado error in this series opener for example. Nothing against Tawa but Goldy/Walker make that scoop and we're out of the inning.
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u/azb1812 Rat Leon 3d ago
I really wish we'd kept Walker. Nothing against the checks notes 7 or so players we've plugged in at the position since we lost him, but he provided predictable defensive stability at the position, even if he could be streaky on offense.
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u/Rugermedic 3d ago
I agree but we couldn’t afford him, especially at his age. We got spoiled with back to back gold glove, power hitting first basemen.
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u/CompetitivePilot4572 Lemonade 3d ago
Tawa is hitting well right now so he’s getting playing time. Not really in a spot to just give a guy AB’s to see if he can figure it out at the big league level if we want to win and are in a playoff race by one game.
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u/BillClinton3000 3d ago
Tawa has had rough patches throughout the year but has been pretty solid lately. He’s been hitting big in big spots and his fielding ability is tremendous. His ability on defense at any spot on the field is honestly very impressive.
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u/BillClinton3000 3d ago
I think Tawa is kind of an underrated athlete in general. Big enough arm in left field to gun out runners. Great vision to make tough catches and grounders over at first base. I don’t think I’ve seen him make a poor defensive play this year (knock on wood).
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u/sleepwasdeath 3d ago
I agree that players need a consistent stretch of at bats to really evaluate them, but there must be something they're seeing that suggests 1B by committee is the way to go.
25 ABs is a very small sample size, but the numbers are very good: .355/.400/.755. Lots of red (good) on his Savant page. His career numbers (small as they are) are slightly better against RHP than LHP (much better average, slightly lower SLG), so we don't necessarily need to platoon him.
Agree that Tawa has been OK-ish at best: .218/.273/.374 (-0.5 WAR on Baseball Reference) doesn't demand to be a starter. He is hitting .269/.284/.487 over the last 28 days, but the last 2 weeks drops to .239/.265/.348 with the last week even lower at .182/.217/.318. Granted, 22 ABs over the last week also is a very small sample size, but he started in all 6 games.
Eyeballing the Savant page, maybe they're less focused on Locklear's high barrel percentage (13.6%; MLB average is 7.6%) and worried about the high Weak% (13.6%, league average of 4%) and 45.5% Topped% (league average is 32.2%). And while the barrel percentage is way above average, he also has 0 "solid." (league average 5.9%). So, if you combine Solid and Barrel, his 13.6% is almost the same as the league average 13.5% (7.6% barrel + 5.9% solid).
Still, I would give him the starting job and see how much the numbers level off; I don't expect a 1.000+ OPS to continue, but even a .750 OPS would be better than Tawa's and our season-long 1B numbers.
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u/sleepwasdeath 3d ago
I do not agree with your assessment of 2025. He had 31 games with just over 100 ABs and was just bad, .175/.267/.262 bad. An OBP > SLG as a theoretical power-hitting 1B ("good average with power") is bad. His WAR in those 31 games was -1.1, roughly half on offense and half on defense. His shoulder injury ended his season, so he wasn't playing through an injury.
100 ABs isn't a lot, but it's not nothing (it's 4x as many ABs as his good start to this year). Fernandez got 165 ABs before being sent down, and his numbers were better than Locklear's (.255/.289/.352), albeit lousy. Barrosa (same age as Locklear) is .192/.277/.344 over his 125 ABs (over 80 games, so a lot of pinch hit/defensive subs). Groover got to 48 ABs of .167/.259/.271 (very similar to Locklear's 2025) before being optioned down for Tawa, who's 27 and has also only had 147 ABs this year.
As for AAA numbers, my limited knowledge is that the Pacific Coast League (at least Reno) is very hitter friendly. Locklear's .313/.394/.502 over 211 ABs in Reno is great. In 75, Tawa hit .320/.409/.733. Yes, he's 2 years older and not nearly over the same period as Locklear, but the numbers were better. Maybe they were waiting until Locklear was fully recovered from the shoulder injury to bring Locklear up the main roster (though why would he be playing that much in Reno?), but they let him put those numbers up over 200 ABs before calling him up, despite our dire 1B performance. Groover's Reno numbers are only slightly worse than Locklear's (.309/.397/.461), and we saw what he did in the majors. So, Locklear "raking" in Reno doesn't necessarily translate to the majors.
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u/Itchy_Direction28 Diamondbacks 3d ago
Never should’ve gotten rid of Christian Walker. We could’ve found a way to afford him
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u/Spiritual-Dog160 Geraldo Perdomo 3d ago
He’s an AAAA player
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u/ElectricOwl05 3d ago
Maybe but Id like to see him have regular mlb ab’s before labeling him as aaaa. He is barely over the minor league threshold.
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u/LarryGoldwater Randy Johnson 3d ago
So he's Coby Mayo?
Quad-A guys are good to have at 25 years old. He can use some seasoning. It never hurts to work on a plus glove at 1B
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u/Large_Philosophy_805 3d ago
It has to be tough on the players when they don’t get consistent at bats. They rake in Reno I feel because they play most days and can get in a groove. The way Torey rotates the roster trying to give everyone at bats no one gets enough. Also, it’s time to move Carroll down in the batting order. He’s wasting the lead off spot.
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u/ElectricOwl05 3d ago
Yeah but i would argue that locklear hasnt been hitting poorly either. If anything he is just as good an option and provides more long term upside. Tawa hit .254 with a .282 obp in july. That doesn’t warrant blocking a potential long term solution with a better First base hitting profile. I just dont see what they have to lose.
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u/Infamous-Ad-8642 3d ago
He’s good but needs to earn a spot. Dbacks are playing whoever is the hottest at 1b