AAA to MLB Leading Hitters Comparison 2021-24 (aka The Hiura Thread)

[KeithStone53151]

43 minutes ago, homer said:

Yes he keeps getting minor league deals because it's low risk with potentially high reward. Like signing a left handed bullpen guy that throws 100mph but his K: BB is like 1:1. You hope they figure it out at some point. But there's also a point where the guy gets ample opportunity and can't figure it out. 

 

Right, I'm not trying to say Hiura is a lock. But he does have the tools and is young enough to still figure it out. There are only 60 jobs for AAA 1b/DH and many are tied up by organizational depth/true prospects. While the cost is low, there is still a dollar cost and opportunity cost for atbats that could be given to a different player. I would think Hiura has 2-3 years of AAA work available to him to get over the hump before teams stop giving him a chance(and his tools start to degrade due to age).

[Brian]

34 minutes ago, KeithStone53151 said:

I would think Hiura has 2-3 years of AAA work available to him to get over the hump before teams stop giving him a chance(and his tools start to degrade due to age).

Hiura will be 28 in 3 weeks and 2-3 more years of AAA would put him at 30-31 years old. 

[KeithStone53151]

5 minutes ago, Brian said:

Hiura will be 28 in 3 weeks and 2-3 more years of AAA would put him at 30-31 years old. 

Right. With what he's done this year, hard to imagine a team not at minimum giving him a shot in AAA again next year. But if he continues his prior trajectory of mashing AAA and getting mashed in MLB...my speculation is teams will elect to give someone else a shot after 2-3 more years of it.

[Brian]

23 minutes ago, KeithStone53151 said:

Right. With what he's done this year, hard to imagine a team not at minimum giving him a shot in AAA again next year. But if he continues his prior trajectory of mashing AAA and getting mashed in MLB...my speculation is teams will elect to give someone else a shot after 2-3 more years of it.

I'm pretty sure he is in the starting lineup with the Angels today. That's why I was confused with your post. 

[umphrey]

I’m still kinda confused that guy could never learn to play 2B. Could have made him tens of millions of dollars.

[yfinn6]

Hiura reminds me a lot of the players the Brewers would've given a LOT of at-bats to in the early 2000s. High draft choice and potential and the Brewers would pick them off the scrap heap or as part of one of Doug Melvin's one player for six type of trade. We'd hope they'd find something in Milwaukee and then have maybe a nice season with homers but then they'd be junk again. 

This is different because it was our first round pick who flashed and then left and other teams that are going nowhere are hoping to catch lightning. 

Here and elsewhere, it's crazy how polarizing the overall Hiura topic can be. I don't have a ton of thoughts on it other than I figured he'd get a shot last year but then he got injured. Who knows what would've happened. 

No one can swing through a belt-high fastball like Hiura. 

[rickh150]

20 HRs in 36 games at Salt Lake City…

.357 Avg, 1.233 OPS

playing some 1B, it looks.

[wallus]

Awesome guy, awesome teammate, AAAA player

[umphrey]

I wonder if the Angels and Tigers have 50 page threads demanding playing time for him at MLB level

[sveumrules]

16 hours ago, rickh150 said:

20 HRs in 36 games at Salt Lake City…

.357 Avg, 1.233 OPS

playing some 1B, it looks.

...and a 30.9% K rate.

Nolan Schanuel is kind of locked into 1B as the Angels 1st Round Pick (11th overall) in 2023 and one of their only decent players.

When Hiura was up with LAA for a spell in July he started 4 games at 2B and 3 at DH.

The last week or so the Angels have been giving those reps to Brandon Drury (264 PAs | 27 OPS+), Michael Stefanic (82 PAs | 80 OPS+), Niko Kavadas (13 PAs | -51 OPS+), and Jack Lopez (13 PAs | -100 OPS+).

Pretty stiff competition.

 

[owbc]

17 hours ago, rickh150 said:

20 HRs in 36 games at Salt Lake City…

.357 Avg, 1.233 OPS

playing some 1B, it looks.

And that's why every team with a PCL affiliate has their pitching prospects skip AAA. 

[Fear The Chorizo]

On 8/21/2024 at 8:25 PM, rickh150 said:

20 HRs in 36 games at Salt Lake City…

.357 Avg, 1.233 OPS

playing some 1B, it looks.

Hiura will continue to get MLB looks, and at some point he will have a stretch of consistent mlb playing time with an organization, if he stays patient stateside.

Or, he goes the Thames route and dominates in Korea or Japan a few years before he's back in MLB.  His numbers the past few seasons in AAA across different leagues suggest he's a MLB hitter amd much more than a AAAA player in the right situation.  It's got to be a team that uses the DH just as a hitter, and doesn't require that position on the roster to carry any defensive value/role.  The Rockies or White Sox make a ton of sense to pick him up over the offseason.

The Angels should have just let him play out the season instead of giving him about a week.

[wiguy94]

2 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

Hiura will continue to get MLB looks, and at some point he will have a stretch of consistent mlb playing time with an organization, if he stays patient stateside.

Or, he goes the Thames route and dominates in Korea or Japan a few years before he's back in MLB.  His numbers the past few seasons in AAA across different leagues suggest he's a MLB hitter amd much more than a AAAA player in the right situation.  It's got to be a team that uses the DH just as a hitter, and doesn't require that position on the roster to carry any defensive value/role.  The Rockies or White Sox make a ton of sense to pick him up over the offseason.

The Angels should have just let him play out the season instead of giving him about a week.

Hiura's a AAAA player because he has a hole in his swing that MLB pitchers can consistently expose while AAA pitchers can't. It's really that simple.

[Fear The Chorizo]

4 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Hiura's a AAAA player because he has a hole in his swing that MLB pitchers can consistently expose while AAA pitchers can't. It's really that simple.

If it were that simple, he wouldn't be destroying pitching on the cusp of the major leagues or former major league pitchers who can readily put the baseball where they want consistently.  Regardless of what league it's in.  

Hiura has gotten roughly 1 week of mlb at bats in the last two seasons, I'm not going to make any grand statements based on that.

[wiguy94]

3 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

If it were that simple, he wouldn't be destroying pitching on the cusp of the major leagues or former major league pitchers who can readily put the baseball where they want consistently.  Regardless of what league it's in.  

Hiura has gotten roughly 1 week of mlb at bats in the last two seasons, I'm not going to make any grand statements based on that.

Hiura's had plenty of chances and has continually showed that he crushes AAA pitching and gets exposed by MLB pitching. Since 2020 he has a 28% K-rate and 137 wRC+ in AAA compared to a 39% K-rate and 84 wRC+ in the MLB and that's a 740 PA MLB sample so it's not like he only has a couple hundred PA. He offers nothing to a team outside of his bat and his bat has extreme holes that are too easy for MLB pitchers to pick apart. He should definitely just go over to Korea and Japan where there isn't as much velo and where he'd get paid more than he does in AAA.

[Jopal78]

37 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

If it were that simple, he wouldn't be destroying pitching on the cusp of the major leagues or former major league pitchers who can readily put the baseball where they want consistently.  Regardless of what league it's in.  

Hiura has gotten roughly 1 week of mlb at bats in the last two seasons, I'm not going to make any grand statements based on that.

Pitchers in AAA might be “on the cusp of major leagues” because of the structure of the minor-league system. But it’s not like AAA is full of tomorrow’s big league pitching stars. It’s mostly pitchers who weren’t good enough to stick in the major leagues or haven’t knocked anybody socks off yet in their professional career

[sveumrules]

15 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

If it were that simple, he wouldn't be destroying pitching on the cusp of the major leagues

The gap between AAA (especially the PCL where LAA has their affiliate) and the Majors is much wider than just a cusp.

MLB Average
244/313/400 (4.41 R/G)

IL Average
255/345/421 (5.14 R/G)

PCL Average
268/357/446 (5.77 R/G)

[LouisEly]

He's a modern-day Joey Meyer.

[rickh150]

Brewers could have played him all year at DH last year, have him play 100 points worse with OPS than he did in 2022, and still outplay their sad production. Happy he is still playing and I expect he'll get  more opportunities with DH league wide and hitters more scarce.

[Jopal78]

17 hours ago, rickh150 said:

Brewers could have played him all year at DH last year, have him play 100 points worse with OPS than he did in 2022, and still outplay their sad production. Happy he is still playing and I expect he'll get  more opportunities with DH league wide and hitters more scarce.

Getting DFA’d by the 2nd worst team in the AL (and being Hiura’s 2nd DFA), then reporting to their AAA club, to me suggests Hiura might be running out of the opportunities where he’s more than an organizational soldier