Rickie Weeks looks the same to me; like a bust.

[RickieWeeksJr]

Dude, he's not gonna be Mike Schmidt. Not ever. BA aside, there are about six other things Schmidt did better than Weeks ever will. You can start with his glove.

[pitchleague]

wow, apirk, thanks for posting that! I had forgotten how non-2005-ish the first 10 picks in that draft were. I suppose Ian Stewart would have been good to have.

 

As for Weeks, you gotta give him time. I've had him on one of my Diamond Mind teams since his cup of coffee in 2003 (or 2002, whatever it was) as a franchise player, meaning I've been overpaying him for several years because I believe in him so much. If I'm wrong, I'll live with it, but I don't think I will be. He will produce. Maybe not to MVP caliber status but he'll be a good table setter for the offense.

 

I do wish his defense would improve so I didn't have the heebie-jeebies every time a ball is hit his way.

[kramnoj]

"Braun also hit .324 to Weeks' .235. He hit 34 bombs and knocked in 97 runs. And this was in 40 more at-bats. In his rookie year. C'mon man, some of your arguments are ridiculous".

 

That's true, but .OBP is more predictive than BA. There aren't a lot of .324 career hitters. Braun also gave up a lot of value on defense. The simple truth is that Braun was more likely to cause an out than Weeks last year, and you are calling Weeks a bust. You can't support it.

[apirk]

And it is two weeks into the season who is to say he won't. Also, he played 7 games in 03 and basically spent a year in the minors. Instead of blaming him for not meeting your expectations why not blame the Brewers for not giving him any time to develop in the minors. Maybe Weeks is a .260 hitter with an above avg OBP, speed, mediocre glove with a little pop. He is what he is and just because some magazine or fan think he should be better doesn't mean he is. Calling someone a bust to me is just stupid. It is just a nicer way to say that the organization and yourself were wrong about that player.

[kramnoj]

Dude, he's not gonna be Mike Schmidt. Not ever. BA aside, there are about six other things Schmidt did better than Weeks ever will. You can start with his glove.

 

I'm not saying he's going to be Schmidt. I'm saying that a player can provide value without having a good batting average. For Weeks, his value so far has shown to be getting on base, being productive on the bases, and showing the potential for more power than the usual person at his position/

[JJHardy7]

Right, he's 25 now meaning he was 24 last year when he provided above average production at 2B. Yes he's not Utley but then no one else is either.

 

I agree that "bust" is probably too strong of a word, but how about disappointing? Being the number 2 pick in the draft comes with a ton of money and some expectations. Rickie's inability to stay healthy is one of the major reasons I think he is disappointing. He may have had "above average" production at 2B with the bat if he actually could stay healthy for a full year and play anything close to average defense. He doesn't have the bat up to this point to justify his poor defense and again hopefully he pans out, but my expecations of Rickie weren't that he'd be great at getting on base. It's good and all that this has been his success for far, but it's disappointing that August and September of last year is Rickie Weeks' calling card. It'd be nice to add some more months to that.

[apirk]

wow, apirk, thanks for posting that! I had forgotten how non-2005-ish the first 10 picks in that draft were. I suppose Ian Stewart would have been good to have.

And he can't even make his team at three different positions.

 

[pitchleague]

well, that's not his fault, though. The Rockies are stacked. I just hope he can go somewhere (or get the chance with Colorado) and not turn into the next Ryan Shealy, who was supposed to be the "next" Todd Helton but was blocked and dealt to KC. And he's had a ho-hum career since, including injuries.

[RickieWeeksJr]

It's not 10 games into the season, it's several years into his career. And I don't see him as a substantially better player than he was four years ago. I get the Schmidt thing, but you cannot compare a guy who had his heyday in the 70s and 80s with someone who started in 2003. And even if you tried, Schmidt was successful with a relatively low BA because of everything else he did ... stuff Weeks doesn't do. No matter how you slice it, the comparison simply doesn't work.

[twobrewers]

It's all about the expectations...

 

If you were hoping that Weeks would ever have a .900+ OPS, you are certainly going to be disappointed.

 

To me, Weeks is becoming pretty similar to Jenkins. Both strike out way too much. And both look horrible at times. However, they are both going to have incredibly hot streaks where they can just carry a team. And at the end of the year, you look at their stats and say "You know what, that was a pretty good year."

 

It was discussed in the Trade Forum, but I would imagine a few more people would be on board with the idea of trading Weeks for Brian Roberts now.

[kramnoj]

It's not 10 games into the season, it's several years into his career. And I don't see him as a substantially better player than he was four years ago. I get the Schmidt thing, but you cannot compare a guy who had his heyday in the 70s and 80s with someone who started in 2003. And even if you tried, Schmidt was successful with a relatively low BA because of everything else he did ... stuff Weeks doesn't do. No matter how you slice it, the comparison simply doesn't work.

 

Actually, using context adjusted stats, you can compare anybody to anybody. That's the awesome thing about baseball-reference.com. I could have used Adam Dunn as a guy who is successful despite a .248 career batting average.

 

Weeks has shown flashes of being a valuable player. It is far too early to call him a bust. It's a claim you can't substantiate.

[Ennder]

It's not 10 games into the season, it's several years into his career. And I don't see him as a substantially better player than he was four years ago. I get the Schmidt thing, but you cannot compare a guy who had his heyday in the 70s and 80s with someone who started in 2003. And even if you tried, Schmidt was successful with a relatively low BA because of everything else he did ... stuff Weeks doesn't do. No matter how you slice it, the comparison simply doesn't work.

This really isn't true though. He is a better fielder than he was when he came up. He still isn't a good one but he is better.

 

His Ks were down in the 2nd half last year and have been so far this year. His BB rate is up. His power has gone up. His SB effeciency has improved.

 

He has actually improved in every single area since 2005, but since people obsess on AVG for some reason(it is one of the least useful offensive stats) they assume he has not improved.

 

 

[JJHardy7]

He has actually improved in every single area since 2005, but since people obsess on AVG for some reason(it is one of the least useful offensive stats) they assume he has not improved.

 

Marginal improvements in terms of home runs per at bat and Ks per at bat. I wouldn't really put too much weight into some of those "improvements". He has increased his walk ratio quite a bit. I think this season should be a true indicator of how much or how little Weeks has improved.

[1992casey]

I think this season should be a true indicator of how much or how little Weeks has improved.

 

Exactly. The season--added to the rest of his career--can tell us a lot. Ten games are diddly-squat.

[sgtcluels]

You mean busting right out of Shea!

[TheBrewer]

I think he needs to break out yes this year, and really could be a make or break type season for him. I don't think he's a bust. When I think bust I think a player that didnt' make it to the majors, or just sucked horribly in the majors and bounced around 5X to different clubs. He's not a "bust", at the same time he's turnining into the type of player that may not warant a starting spot....

 

10 games mean nothing, Everyone's really playing poorly right now on the offesne. Fielder is hitting what .240 no HR's? You'll say then well Fielder hit 50HR last year so he's proven.. yes but if you're saying Weeks is a bust or w/e because of the games he's played this season, you can't use that. Even the best hitters go into funks and or can start the season off poorly as evidenced by Fielder.

 

If Weeks plays poorly all year long he could be dealt. But when I say poorly I mean like .220-.230BA/4-8HR/ something like that. And I really don't see Weeks playing that bad. He may end up with a .240/15HR/30SB mark.. but in that sense thats still valuable to some clubs.. and they may think more is to come.

 

Come back to this post Mid-Season and look and see how Weeks is doing. This is nothing ... as of right now..

[monty57]

You mean busting right out of Shea!

 

This is exactly what I was referring to earlier. How can someone that can hit the ball completely out of a park (in addition the the shot today, his HR at Chicago hit the buildings across the street) not hit 30+ HR / year?

 

I think Rickie is valuable. I think he should be (and still could be) a superstar.

[JJHardy7]

I think I posted this in off-season somewhere, but I'll throw my thought out there again. If Rickie is healthy and consistent, it'd be like trading or signing a big free agent. I know a lot was made of the Brewers moves and to really go for it this year, but Weeks could be that prized off-season player if he plays like we all know he can.

[TooLiveBrew]

It's not really true that the best hitters make outs 7 out of 10 times. That's for people who don't understand OBP. The best hitters will have an OBP of .400 or higher and will make outs 6 out of 10 times, or less.

Yeah, I think the misconception is that you 'have to' be hitting the ball to make impact. Then people have made strange assumptions that since your BA hasn't been .300, you haven't been hitting the ball. In some cases, nothing could be further from the truth. Old 'baseball truths', stuff you hear Dusty Baker spewing constantly, are imo simply assumptions that got repeated so many times no one ever really bothered to check if they were, in fact, true.

 

Rickie Weeks will prove the doubters wrong this year. We've had similar discussions about Hardy, and basically what happened is that people's panic had to be quelled.

[Gobias Industries]

Rickie Weeks will prove the doubters wrong this year. We've had similar discussions about Hardy, and basically what happened is that people's panic had to be quelled.

Month 1 Month 2

Player A: .345/.524 .355/.605

Player B: .500/.519 .409/.571

Of course Hardy is A and Weeks is B. Why isn't there a similar thread about Hardy starting out slow and being a bust?

 

I will point out that Hardy did have more plate appearances in the span. I think about 37 when you factor in walks and HBP.

[RockCoCougars]

Geez, it's April 12. I'll hold judgment on Weeks until at least June. Last year, he was a stud the first two weeks and we all know what happened next.

[Gobias Industries]

This is exactly what I was referring to earlier. How can someone that can hit the ball completely out of a park (in addition the the shot today, his HR at Chicago hit the buildings across the street) not hit 30+ HR / year?

Who's to say he can't hit 30 in a year. His big league career so far has been all partial seasons.

[logan82]

RickieWeeksJr wrote:

Braun also hit .324 to Weeks' .235. He hit 34 bombs and knocked in 97 runs. And this was in 40 more at-bats. In his rookie year. C'mon man, some of your arguments are ridiculous.

Ridiculous is using RBI's to compare a leadoff hitter to a middle of the order hitter.

[And That]

IMO, Rickie *can* hit 30 home runs, but if he does it won't be for a few years.

 

The key to his whole approach at the plate is getting his timing down - that's why he's so inconsistent. When he's on with his timing, he takes pitches for a reason and knows what he can hit. When he knows what pitch he can hit and he looks for it, he mashes like few others in the game... he's hit some of the hardest hit balls I've ever seen.

 

When his timing is off, he takes pitches to take pitches. He'll hit a few mistakes and get hit but will also strike out badly . This is the Rickie we see more often than not.

 

Once and if he starts getting his timing down pat, he'll start hitting more jacks. I think that'll take a few years. He has such quick hands that it might actually take a little age to slow him down to the point where he'll hit the balls he should. I honestly don't believe any trigger mechanism will help him stay in the hitting zone. It'll just be maturity.

[Fatter than Joey]

For me -- I'd like to see him moved off of 2b so his defense doesnt cancel out his offense