nate82

No because the top of the zone he is still swinging like he has since 2019. There is no improvement for Hiura at the top of the zone he is either worse or just about the same there. He has regressed back to his 2019 norms in the lower part of the strike zone for the most part. The others you have pointed out wouldn't have an outcome on more K's. Actually a better barrel rate should lower his K's if anything. It should also improve his BA and other stats. Hiura looks to be the same hitter he was in 2019-2021 there hasn't been much of a change for Hiura. The only thing that has changed a bit are the results and that he is whiffing less in the middle part of the strike zone and the lower part of the strike zone. At the top of the strike zone he is still the same player he has always been and that is a K machine. He doesn't barrel up the ball at all in the top of the strike zone and when he does make contact it is mostly weak contact up there. Power hitters should be feasting on upper-middle pitches but Hiura is all famine.

No, I do not. Teams do make adjustments once a player proves they can hit where they are pitching them. If you look at Hiura's zone coverage in 2021 he was whiffing a lot in the middle of the zone and not so much in the bottom part of the zone. Now in 2022 Hiura is whiffing a lot less in the middle of the zone but also whiffing more in the bottom-away and bottom-inside part of the strike zone. Not that big of difference though. So teams believe they can get Hiura out in bottom-away and bottom-inside. Bottom-away for Hiura is still an out the majority if times so teams are going to try and exploit that. If the pitches misses inside the zone there then it falls into Hiura's hitting area where he is hitting the ball hard and out of the park. Take Sunday's home run as an example. The pitch was supposed to be bottom-away but the pitcher missed and the pitch was bottom-middle. Which Hiura doesn't miss many of those pitches as that is his 2nd lowest Whiff% 24%. If the pitch is located correctly it lands in an area where Hiura whiffs 38% in the zone and 57% out of the strike zone. I think teams are just going to change how they approach Hiura and start throwing more in the upper part of the strike zone instead of throwing bottom-away. The good teams are going to start pitching Hiura more in the upper part of the strike zone as they abandon the bottom portion of the strike zone to reduce mistake pitches that Hiura can hit.

Hiura hasn't really made any adjustments to his swing. He is about the same as he was in 2021 with balls in the upper part of the strike zone. Hiura basically can not hit in the upper part of the strike zone as the majority of his hits come from either middle-middle, middle-away, low-inside or low-middle. Hiura has exactly one hit in the upper part of the strike zone and that is up-away which was a single. Hiura basically has zero power and about a zero percent chance of getting a hit in the upper part of the strike zone as he whiff's at those pitches more than he does in any other spot of the strike zone. Even going all the way back to 2019 Hiura has had trouble with pitches in the upper part of the strike zone. But in 2019 he was able to get a few more hits and he wasn't whiffing at the same rate as he has been since 2021. His current season looks exactly like 2019 and 2021 in the mid to lower part of the strike zone. I don't believe there has been any improvement in Hiura at all he is still the same player he has been. Teams are still going to exploit the top of the strike zone against Hiura and even if Hiura watches the pitches go by they are still strikes. The issue with Hiura is that he can only hit in the middle to lower part of the strike zone. Hiura has a very low chance of getting a hit in the top portion of the strike zone. When teams start making the adjustment back to the upper part of the strike zone Hiura is absolutely useless as he can't hit in the upper part of the strike zone at all.

The biggest problem with Hiura is the top of the strike zone. All of Hiura's home runs have come at the bottom to the middle of the strike zone. Anything above the middle of the strike zone and Hiura has a huge hole. I expect pitchers to start pitching Hiura up in the zone where he whiffs at a 42% - 69% of the time. These are both balls in the strike zone and out of the strike zone. As can be seen in the images below pitchers are going to go back to pitching Hiura up in the strike zone and Hiura is just going to strike out. The book is out on Hiura and has been for awhile that he is unable to hit pitches up in the strike zone and will get himself out. I am not sure why teams have tried to pitch Hiura lower in the strike zone maybe these are just misses but teams should be just throwing high fastballs to Hiura and watch him strike out. The whiff% and K% out of the strike zone are as expected but the 60-100% for K% in the top part of the strike zone is extremely bad for a hitter. Hiura's Whiff% is also really bad ranging from 50-69% in the upper part of the strike zone. Teams are going to exploit this which is going to bring Hiura back to his 2021 season. Hiura has made zero improvements to the upper strike zone. This is one of the reasons why what Hiura is doing is not sustainable. Once teams start pitching Hiura up in the zone more he is an extreme liability to the offense. All from: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/keston-hiura-669374?stats=statcast-r-zones-mlb

Obviously a HR is always going to be 1.000. What is the point here? FYI on the definition of BABIP.

If you read what I posted I said combined 2020 and 2021. If you combine them both you get about a seasons worth of data for Hiura. The fact remains that Hiura's BABIP is not sustainable.

Ruiz is Weeks bad defensively. Actually reading through some of his scouting reports he sounds a lot like Weeks but with more speed. This is from 2021 and Ruiz has improved a bit with the bat since this scouting report was put together but defensively it doesn't look like he has changed much though he looks to be a decent CF. So along with LF it looks like CF is also a spot he can play. https://www.prospectslive.com/scoutingreports/esteury-ruiz Field: Poor fielder with major questions around where he ends up long term. Throughout his professional career Ruiz has spent time at second, third, and left field, the latter of which most likely his final home. An extreme lack of instincts and poor hands really hinder Ruiz's ability to be even a fringe defender at any position at the MLB level. Likely limited to left field long term where you hope his plus speed plays. Grade: 30 I think Ruiz, Turang and Frelick are probably untouchable in a trade unless the Brewers are overwhelmed with an offer. Wiemer and Mitchell are probably available for the right price but I don't think they will be moved. Taylor will start to get expensive here soon so the Brewers will need a replacement for him. I think Mitchell is probably the more likely player to get traded if the Brewers do move one of the OF's.

They way you said it makes it a strawman argument. It is also impossible to tell how much that impacted the season or if there was any at all. Just because a player is young it doesn’t mean they can not regress. Also please list a successful player with a .400 BABIP and a high K rate. Also a majority of players only have about 30 to 50 points above their batting average. Hiura is nearly triple that. He is not going to sustain that high BABIP it is impossible. If his BABIP drops to around .350 he is going to be a liability to the offense.

Nice strawman for the firs point. There are very few players who can carry a .400 BAPIP and the majority of them regress a lot. It is not sustainable. Strikeouts are not bad and I never said they are. But there is a point where the player strikes out too much and Hiura is at that point where he is striking out too much. If a player is striking out at 35% rate that is an out in about 1/3 PA's. So in a game you are expecting Hiura to K in two of his 3 PA's and then you take the randomness of baseball and you are looking at a .200 average hitter with power. You are basically looking at a Mark Reynolds type of a hitter. Hiura is basically Mark Reynolds, Chris Carter and others the Brewers have had. Unless Hiura can get his K% around 30% he is only going to be as good as Mark Reynolds.

Nice strawman.

You obviously do not understand regressing. It doesn't mean nothing positive will happen it means that his current production is not sustainable over the rest of the season and he will regress back to his career norms and right now his career norms are worse than McCutchen.

Not everything is about you. Just because I posted something about posters calling for big name signings in the off season doesn't mean I am directing it anyone please get over yourself.

Hiura currently has a babip of .404 which is not sustainable. He is going to hit a major regression at some point. The only question is will he regress to as bad as he was in 2021 which would make him far worse the McCutchen. So no the Brewers do not have a clearly superior hitter sitting on the bench. Just like in 2019 when Hiura had a babip of .402 people were predicting he would regress from that season and if you look at his combined 2020 and 2021 season this was correct. Hiura is going to regress from his current hitting line the big question is how far is he going to regress. From past performances it looks as though it is going to be a huge regression which would put him as a far worse option than McCutchen.

Going back to the 2019 offseason there have been some posters on here who were adamant if the Brewers didn't sign some key free agents that they would be absolutely horrible lets review these free agents. 2019 free agents that a few posters said the Brewers had to sign or they are not serious about competing 3B Anthony Rendon. Rendon: Season Team Level wRC wRC+ WPA -WPA +WPA RAR WAR Pos BB SO OBP SLG OPS BABIP 2020 LAA MLB 44 153 0.94 -4.17 5.1 25.4 2.5 0.8 38 31 0.418 0.497 0.915 0.302 2021 LAA MLB 29 95 -0.57 -4.46 3.89 1.9 0.2 0.7 29 41 0.329 0.382 0.712 0.267 2022 LAA MLB 22 104 0.58 -3.08 3.65 8.4 0.9 0.7 23 32 0.324 0.383 0.707 0.252 2021 free agents that a few posters said the Brewers had to sign or they are not serious about competing OF/DH Nick Castellanos Season Team Level wRC wRC+ WPA -WPA +WPA RAR WAR Pos BB SO OBP SLG OPS BABIP 2022 PHI MLB 47 91 -0.9 -7.91 7.01 -11.1 -1.2 -5.2 24 103 0.302 0.385 0.687 0.321 If the Brewers signed either of these players the offense production would be worse than what the Brewers currently already have. Rendon is looking like an absolute disaster for the Angels as he can't stay healthy and Castellanos looks like he is on a severe decline. In fact some of the posters favorite hating on in McCutchen is about equal to Rendon and is outperforming Castellanos. All at a lower cost in terms of years and money. If the Brewers would have added Castellanos instead of Renfroe and McCutchen this off season this team would be at a lower win total than it is now. Castellanos probably would have caused a fire sale at the deadline of Burnes, Woodruff, Hader and others. I am not sure if that would have been good or bad. McCutchen's season so far: Season Team Level wRC wRC+ WPA -WPA +WPA RAR WAR Pos BB SO OBP SLG OPS BABIP 2022 MIL MLB 49 102 0.04 -7.39 7.43 2.9 0.3 -7.5 37 74 0.324 0.397 0.721 0.287 There is also evidence that Castellanos looks like his going to regress even more. The Phillies may have a .700 OPS max player on their hands going forward in Castellanos. It would have been better for them to resign McCutchen to a one or two year deal than it was signing Castellanos. Lesson learned stop looking at big names in free agency and determining that is what will make a team better. The Angels haven't improved their team by adding the popular top free agents in Pujols, Rendon and others over the last 5+ years. The Phillies have also been doing the same and have yet to even make it work. Free agency is a trap in MLB and you hardly ever get the value out of signing the top free agents. The best value is actually in the middle where you are only doing one to three year deals anything more than three years is just setting yourself up for failure. Another bad idea is extending players past the age of thirty. Once a player gets closer to thirty small market teams shouldn't even think about extending the player it just ends in disaster like signing the top free agents. Case in point is the Yelich extension. The Brewers never should have done this in hindsight. Even if Yelich would be at MVP level Yelich it would have been better to just let him walk after his first contract was over with. It is better to just keep on rotating players in and out and then letting them leave once they hit the age of thirty. I don't really care about players playing their whole career for the Brewers. I just don't care and it is something dumb and stupid that fans like to hold onto even if it means that player is taking up a huge amount of the payroll and sucks for the last years of their contract.

I already did. You are unable to read or comprehend what he said in his follow up Tweet. Uggg why do I argue against crackheads?

Suter is more likely to be released than Bush.

Yeah no. You have contradicted everything from the source so no you don’t know what happened.

Better to be able to pick the team that gives you the best opportunity to make an MLB roster. I don't see that being with the Brewers maybe with a rebuilding team but he will be out until at least 2024 so he will have time to choose which team he sees as the best fit for him.

1. Jackson Chourio (OF) 2. Sal Frelick (OF) 3. Tyler Black (2B/3B) 4. Brice Turang (SS/2B) 5. Esteury Ruiz (OF) 6. Joey Wiemer (OF) 7. Garrett Mitchell (OF) 8. Robert Gasser (P) 9. Jeferson Quero (C) 10. Hendry Mendez (OF) 11. Eduardo Garcia (SS) 12. Jacob Misiorowski (P) 13. Mario Feliciano (C) 14. Hedbert Perez (OF) 15. Eric Brown Jr. (SS) 16. Felix Valerio (2B) 17. Ethan Small (P) 18. Zavier Warren (3B/1B) 19. Tristen Lutz (OF) 20. Carlos F. Rodriguez (P)

How did the home plate ump not see that as a swing? You really needed to conference with Angel Hernandez on that one?

Hey a Brewers starting pitcher has made it past the 7th inning without a blowup what in the.......... Also if I said it would be Lauer doing this about a month ago I would have been laughed at. A nice start by Lauer tonight.

Just saying but going down a slide with a skirt with a camera around is never a good idea, just sayin.

Hopefully this is the new Yelich. Power is down but I can live with a high average and OBP Yelich.

Maybe it is an Android thing but I didn't have to log into anything through my iPhone.

He has a hard time with off speed pitches but got a hold of that one. He had a few to hit against the Pirates and was either to early or to late. Taylor is a better fastball hitter since the Brewers changed his swing.