Keston Hiura has a .984 OPS in Nashville

[Brock Beauchamp]

I'm locking the previous thread because it has become so stale.

So let's find the same old way to make this thread stale, too!

[igor67]

This thread will only last days until it becomes moot after his promotion.

[sveumrules]

Alex Jackson has a 1.003 OPS in Nashville.

Franchy Cordero has a 1.082 OPS in Scranton (572 OPS in NYY).

Bobby Dalbec has a 1.057 OPS in Worcester (452 OPS in BOS).

Matt Reynolds has a 1.021 OPS in Louisville (400 OPS in CIN).

[BruisedCrew]

20 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Alex Jackson has a 1.003 OPS in Nashville.

Franchy Cordero has a 1.082 OPS in Scranton (572 OPS in NYY).

Bobby Dalbec has a 1.057 OPS in Worcester (452 OPS in BOS).

Matt Reynolds has a 1.021 OPS in Louisville (400 OPS in CIN).

The other thing to add to this is what Hiura did in previous tours at Nashville. 

Also, unless he has improved significantly he does nothing to address the defensive issue at first base. 

[JohnBriggs12]

I'm not sure anything is imminent.  They may want to give Jones a longer look.

[rickh150]

2022 Hiura OPS+115

2023 Yelich OPS+129, Contreras 110, Adames 93, Anderson 92, Wiemer 83, Tellez 81…

What I like about OPS+ is that fielding your position is not taken into account, but it is adjusted to the ballpark. It compares the league to how you are hitting, as well. It is just the bat. And if Hiura would simply be plopped into that DH position, I think this is what you could expect.

[rickh150]

Brewers now .601 DH OPS… League worst. Staggeringly bad for a designated bat the manager hand picks each game.  
The Oakland A’s team OPS is .650, league worst, by the way. 
It gets worse. The 20th best team DH OPS is the Mets at .703, over 100 points higher than Brewers. Over half MLB have team DH OPS in upper 700s or.800s. Easy way to fix that seemingly in house. 

[Jopal78]

20 minutes ago, rickh150 said:

Brewers now .601 DH OPS… League worst. 
It gets worse. The 20th best team DH OPS is the Mets at .703, over 100 points higher than Brewers. Over half MLB have team DH OPS in upper 700s and .800s. Easy way to fix that seemingly in house. 

It is though you assume the Brewers brass hasn’t looked at a stat sheet. Come on, Instead of being a broken record maybe come up with some hypothesis as to why Hiura isn’t on the 40 man roster despite your opinions on his fit. 

[rickh150]

Just now, Jopal78 said:

It is though you assume the Brewers brass hasn’t looked at a stat sheet. Come on, Instead of being a broken record maybe come up with some hypothesis as to why Hiura isn’t on the 40 man roster despite your opinions and n his fit. 

I am trying to show different stats… not same. Apologies for repeats. I am in the right thread, though.

I am game for discussing why he is not on team. Good point……I cannot fathom why he is not in Milwaukee. Cannot get over it. To me, he would instantly be filling a gaping hole. Hit him DH and hit him low in order.

Strike outs? Not good, yep.  He also struggles with high velocity up in zone especially. Most do, but he specially and maddenly so. Low velocity high in zone were whiffs or fouls back. So maybe hole in his swing is part of it too.

But I’ll take it all if he can still put up what he did last season. Who wouldn’t? His barrels/PA was 4th on team last year, 83rd in all of baseball. His barrels/batted ball easily was first on team and 17th in all of baseball. And he is hitting well in AAA this year.

If there wasn’t a DH, defense would be another reason. Yet he could fill in at 1B or LF in a pinch.  But it is incomprehensible why a top 5 or 10 bat (currently… not in two or three years with Chourio, Black, Frelick, etc.) in the entire organization is not on a team desperate for hitting at the DH spot. 
 

 

[ClosetBrewerFan]

The chance Hiura hits worse than Winker for the rest of the year is very low.  And I was a big Winker fan when they got him.  But he has nothing left and is not improving (.641 OPS in last 28 days).  That is just not good enough for DH.  Insert Hiura in as the full time DH.  This just needs to happen.

[homer]

Hiura is striking out less. I'll give him that. He's got a K% of 23.8 in AAA this year as opposed to 33.4% he had in 2021.

[brewcrewdue80]

Looking at Hiura's AAA, he's approaching the PAs he had at AAA back in 2019 before first callup. Fairly similar aside from slugging being lower. I'm curious on his team control. He's clearly had an additional year added to it. But at this stage where does he sit on Super 2? Started year 3.009 how many days are left this season? I'm counting 80days from just after ASB. That's long past the .110+ you'd think making him a Super 2.

What does Winker have going for him that keeps him on the team? Statcast numbers show his decrease in hitting. The expected numbers are nearly identical.  How does the front office continue forward keeping him on the roster? He's a .320OB-.572 OPS batter. 

Is it really important that Hiura remains on AAA team because the hole he'd create when gone being the reason?  Winker needs to be gone. A bad year last year is looking great for his numbers if he produced that this season. He's toast stop already with seeing if there's any good left.

[Jopal78]

I don’t believe Hiura has “found something” at this point. He is who he is. Call him up and he’ll likely be a low OBP hitter with homeruns. 
 

Nonetheless here’s a few thoughts.
The Brewers use Contreras at DH 15% of the time. They’ve used their other position players at DH 41% of the time. 
 

Hiura doesn’t play defense and while he might play 1B, 2B or LF he is a liability in the field. 
 

So one reason is how the Brewers use their DH position. They rotate players through at DH the majority of the time. 
 

Another is the Brewers are a “pitching and defense” team, a guy like Hiura who is a liability everywhere he plays isn’t an ideal fit. And his inability to make contact hurts him as a PH too.

Third, Winker isn’t going to play 1B and doesn’t play OF often. With a 10 million dollar salary, it’s not cheap for the Brewers so (rightly or wrongly)he probably gets chance after chance to give them some return on their money. 

Fourth, the great unknown, the Team brass knows these players better than game tape and stat sheet, and based n that inside knowledge they prefer their roster as currently constructed .

[rickh150]

2 minutes ago, brewcrewdue80 said:

Is it really important that Hiura remains on AAA team because the hole he'd create when gone being the reason?  

If this be the reason, I’m not sleeping tonight and will walk and talk myself to the nearest mental institution with Cubs gear on.

[rickh150]

19 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

I don’t believe Hiura has “found something” at this point. He is who he is. Call him up and he’ll likely be a low OBP hitter with homeruns. 

Fourth, the great unknown, the Team brass knows these players better than game tape and stat sheet, and based n that inside knowledge they prefer their roster as currently constructed .

Hiura 2022 ranked 4th on team in OPS and 6th with OBP last year. Only current Brewer ahead of him then was Yelich in OBP and Tellez in OPS.

Hiura’s 2022 would rank 2nd on team in OPS and 8th in OBP on team this year.

I was a fan of trying Winker and all, but he is hitting .572 OPS at All Star break.

 

[umphrey]

They are probably trying to trade him (again, most likely). 

[82brewcrew82]

9 minutes ago, rickh150 said:

Hiura 2022 ranked 4th on team in OPS and 6th with OBP last year. Only current Brewer ahead of him then was Yelich in OBP and Tellez in OPS.

Hiura’s 2022 would rank 2nd on team in OPS and 8th in OBP on team this year.

I was a fan of trying Winker and all, but he is hitting .572 OPS at All Star break.

 

Are you saying that something that has proven to be awful to this point in the season has zero chance of turning it around despite a proven track record of performance in past seasons?

[82brewcrew82]

11 minutes ago, umphrey said:

They are probably trying to trade him (again, most likely). 

This might be a good point.  Maybe Keston has some trade value as a well performing rebound player in AAA.  If he comes up and fails again, he may have zero utility.  He may have more value to the Brewers as a AAA trade chip.

[82brewcrew82]

2 hours ago, rickh150 said:

2022 Hiura OPS+115

2023 Yelich OPS+129, Contreras 110, Adames 93, Anderson 92, Wiemer 83, Tellez 81…

What I like about OPS+ is that fielding your position is not taken into account, but it is adjusted to the ballpark. It compares the league to how you are hitting, as well. It is just the bat. And if Hiura would simply be plopped into that DH position, I think this is what you could expect.

Is 230 at bats enough to make the determination that Keston has improved?  Are we ignoring the previous 500 or so at bats that say he isn't very good at all?  I tend to be in the camp that think bringing Keston up is worth the try but its not a different  gamble than trading for Winker.  There are reasons to think it may help but plenty of reasons to think it might not.

[Jopal78]

24 minutes ago, rickh150 said:

Hiura 2022 ranked 4th on team in OPS and 6th with OBP last year. Only current Brewer ahead of him then was Yelich in OBP and Tellez in OPS.

Hiura’s 2022 would rank 2nd on team in OPS and 8th in OBP on team this year.

I was a fan of trying Winker and all, but he is hitting .572 OPS at All Star break.

 

Let me put it more bluntly and you can have the final word as far as I’m concerned:

Who cares what his stats were last year? He was given a shot to make the team this spring failed to do so, was cut, and every other team in both leagues passed on him.

That tells you all we need to know about the importance of his statistics from last year.

 

That tells you all we need to know about the importance of his statistics from last year.

 

There is a reason/s Hiura is not on the Brewers 40 man roster. Repeatedly pointing out the obvious, that Winker has not played well, and citing Hiura’s  has stats either from last year or from AAA doesn’t really move this debate anywhere.

 

 

[wiguy94]

Keston Hiura since returning from the IL is slashing .278/.381/.407 for a 105 wRC+…can we please stop talking about him every single day?

[duewizard]

I think that part of the reason for not why he is not up is that if he sucks he can refuse the assignment once DFA'd. If he comes back up we are likely to lose him, and I think the front office sees enough in him to try to keep him longer

[duewizard]

3 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Keston Hiura since returning from the IL is slashing .278/.381/.407 for a 105 wRC+…can we please stop talking about him every single day?

Yeah, he has been just a guy. Any clue what the K-rate since the IL stint is? That has always been the ´problem with Keston

[rickh150]

11 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Keston Hiura since returning from the IL is slashing .278/.381/.407 for a 105 wRC+…can we please stop talking about him every single day?

Hiura thread….

[brewcrewdue80]

3 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

Let me put it more bluntly and you can have the final word as far as I’m concerned:

Who cares what his stats were last year? He was given a shot to make the team this spring failed to do so, was cut, and every other team in the league passed on him.

That tells you all we need to know about the importance of his statistics from last year.

 

That tells you all we need to know about the importance of his statistics from last year.

 

There is a reason/s Hiura is not on the Brewers 40 man roster. Repeatedly pointing out the obvious, that Winker has not played well, and citing Hiura’s  has stats either from last year or from AAA doesn’t really move this debate anywhere.

 

 

Hiura was out of options. If a team claimed him they had to insert him in to their opening day roster or waive him leaving the Brewers to rinse repeat.  Part of the reason towards keeping him down. The next time he can refuse and become a FA.

The team is walking an idiotic line continuing to play Winker and not give Hiura his final chance to stick with this team as a ML.   I'm of the suspicion that the team has every intention to sell. Keeping Winker/Tellez through trade deadline in hopes they have a hot streak like Adames is now and get something in return with a trade.