Is this Weeks breakout year?

[pitchleague]

thread title = Is this Weeks' breakout year?

 

pitchleague's answer = yes, so far

 

I am thrilled to death that he's hitting the ball hard and getting hits left and right as well as slugging the ball all over the place, including over the wall nine times (cue Principal Ed Rooney quote.)

 

Yes, he's not walking as much, but I like the approach. And somebody else posted what I was going to say: the advance scouts are there at the games and are getting word to their teams. The walks will start coming (or at least not as many fastballs for Rickie to scald). Maybe Weeks will start chasing bad pitches (even more than now) since he'll possibly begin getting a steady diet of them. Who knows?

 

Right now, he's a definite candidate for the NL All-Star team.

 

Put me into the camp of getting him signed long-term, also.

[mnevis]

It is down right scary, when a supremely talented player becomes supremely confident. I was really pulling for Rickie to get that double for the cycle. With Rickie doing his thing, this offense is explosive. Give up three runs, no worries we got you covered. Everyone is feeding off Rickie, which is what we all wanted to see happen. Most of us felt if he could be consistently good everyone could have banner years. Rickie is "The Catalyst". I know it's cheesy, but you get the point.

[Ennder]

He seems to be having a power breakout but he still is popping out too much and striking out too much and isn't taking his walks. I'm not sure in the end that it will be some huge breakout instead of a minor one.

[rluzinski]

If the Brewers offered him a 4/$24 mil offer, I think there is a near zero chance of him accepting that.

[logan82]

If we could get him for a good price, I would love an extension for Weeks. If he is going to walk we need all of Escobar, Gamel, Green, and Lawrie to become good MLB players. While I think that is a good possibility, signing Weeks would give us the ability to trade one of those guys for another need and give us a little leeway for injuries or poor performance from those guys. If we are going much over $10M in any year of a contract to Weeks, I think we should pass.

 

If Weeks can keep up the quality of defense he had last year and so far this year, he is at worst a league average player. He really needs to get his OBP over .340 or I consider him very disappointing. He needs to be above his .352 career OBP and preferably in the .360+ range for me to be happy with his production.

[TooLiveBrew]

If the Brewers offered him a 4/$24 mil offer, I think there is a near zero chance of him accepting that.

 

I disagree. I think the chances of him accepting that would be zero.

 

 

If we could get him for a good price, I would love an extension for Weeks

 

Agreed. Locking Rickie up semi-long-term would be a big help for this franchise, for exactly the reason you mention (pressure on needing seemingly all our positional prospects to pan out).

[NYChez]

Rickie's RBI total is just mind boggling. An NL leadoff hitter on pace for 70 RBI's is unheard of, and Weeks is on pace for over 100.

[fondybrewfan]

His K:BB ratio has gotten a lot better in May, probably closer to his career norms.

 

He had a 19:4 K/BB ratio in April, after today I believe it is 17:8 for May. So yeah he is still striking out way too much but he starting to draw more walks like he usually does. If he can get his K:BB ratio closer to 1.5:1 and keep up the power we definitely have an allstar on our hands. Heck at this rate he is probably an All Star anways. Although there is a ton of competition at 2nd in the NL including Utley, Hudson, Sanchez, and Phillips.

 

With all the HR's I am a little bit suprised that he has so fews doubles. Whats even weirder is that Utley only has 2 doubles all year despite hitting .286 with an OPS over 1

 

Going into this season I was going to hope for a .785 OPS or so which would have been a good improvement from last year. If he hangs around .850-.900 all year I will be ecstatic.

[NYChez]

If he hangs around .850-.900 all year I will be ecstatic.

If he hangs around .850-.900 all year I will be watching playoff games at Miller Park.

[ILuvDaBush]

Much like our brethren in Cleveland annually watch playoff games at the Jake due to their even better leadoff hitter. But seriously, Rickie seems to just be playing baseball. There's no frustration or anger. He just looks like he's having fun (which is a cliche but it REALLY does look that way). It also doesn't hurt that Hall/Hardy/Kendall keep the bases clogged for him to hit with a purpose. I've always argued he's a #3 hitter trying to act like a leadoff hitter. Imagine what Braun would look like in the leadoff spot and Weeks in the 3-hole.

[BrewCrewForever]

I know what you mean ILuvDaBush. I would love to see the Brewers find a CF that can leadoff so Weeks could bat 2nd, 5th or 6th. I think he could really thrive in one of those spots in the order. Drive in a lot of runs.