Will Bill Hall ever make adjustments?

[Ayt]

He can adjust himself all he wants against righties from the bench.

[BrewCrewForever]

Hall=fail. Ken will do the right thing and only play him against LHP now. Time for Mat the Batt!

[twobrewers]

I prefer to say "Will Macha ever make adjustments"?

 

Bill Hall is a versitile defensive player who kills LHP. Macha is the one who keeps putting him in positions to fail.

[dadofandrew]

Looked like it was hit hard to me, one hopper right at the 2B, and Keppinger fielded it awkwardly too. 5 feet toward the line, all the talk would be how Hall stayed on the ball and did not try to pull it.

[trwi7]

I prefer to say "Will Macha ever make adjustments"?

 

Bill Hall is a versitile defensive player who kills LHP. Macha is the one who keeps putting him in positions to fail.

Very good point. One thing I liked about Yost was he was never afraid to use young players. Haven't seen that from Macha yet.

[Postseason2006]

Versatile defensively? Right now his defense stinks too. That ball should've been gotten to. Bill Hall has 2 K's andab killing inning DP plus a routine play for most bounce off his glove.

[crossface21]

Macha puts him in positions to fail?? The only other position to put him in is a platoon where he only faces left-handers. I don't think it's too much to ask of a Major League player who would like to be an everyday starter to hit a meager .200 against right-handers.

[trwi7]

Macha puts him in positions to fail??

Yes. Macha makes the lineup everyday. If he keeps putting Hall in against righties, he's putting him in a position to fail.

[TheCrew07]

Well Hall certainly has enough natural ability to be able to hit anyone, so in the end the fault rests with the player.

 

That being said I do get the point that his career statistics clearly demonstrate how he's become a platoon player, so hopefully Macha wises up to that point and gets another impact bat in the lineup to replace Weeks.

[Ayt]

Macha puts him in positions to fail?? The only other position to put him in is a platoon where he only faces left-handers. I don't think it's too much to ask of a Major League player who would like to be an everyday starter to hit a meager .200 against right-handers.

I think it might be too much to ask of Hall since he hit .174 against righties last year and is hitting .190 this year.

[crossface21]

You're right, it is too much.

[twobrewers]

If you ignore Bill Hall's contract and 35 HR history - he is a very useful player. He will never live up to his contract.

 

He is versitile defensively as he can play 3B, 2B, SS, CF and LF. (Most of them fairly well)

He also kills LHP.

 

If Bill Hall has an average of under .300 it is Macha's fault. The only RHP Bill Hall should see is during a pitching change or batting practice.

[PrinceEatMeat]

I completely agree with that. Billy shouldn't be getting at-bats against righties. It's Macha's fault for playing him. We all know that he won't hit righties, but yet he continues to play against them. He is an asset to this team if he only plays against lefties.

[brewtank34]

I am a Bill Hall apologist, so with the understanding that he is completely failing to produce under pressure this past week, and Gamel has shown promise...I would just like to remind everyone that up until Gamel showed up, Hall was making Web Gem after Web Gem and hovering around the .300avg.

My point is that I find it funny that we as fans are so quick to find fault as the grass is always so much greener on the other side. With that said...if we can get someone to take Hall's contract from us, I wouldn't be upset with it as I agree with the title of this thread....I don't see him ever adjusting.

[Ennder]

I don't blame Macha at all, he has to see what he has on the roster. He gave Hall a promise that he'd let him play full time through this series to win his job and Hall obviously completely failed. He double switched him out of the game in the middle of the game which to me says Hall's fulltime job is done. As long as Macha sticks to his guns and keeps Hall out vs RHP I'm fine with how he handled the situation. If Hall finds his way into the lineup on a regular basis vs RHP from here on out I have a big problem with it.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

The Bill Hall meltdown was a little much on the IGT thread tonight. The guy has done a solid job at 3B defensively. That has been a big part of the Brewers improved play this year and the ancillary effect on our pitching staff cannot be discounted.

 

That being said, he is not our best option vs. RHP. I don't fault Macha for giving him a shot, including this week. I would also caution that Gamel may still be a liability at 3B and historically Counsell is not that big of an upgrade vs. RHP. Hall does need a blow and Gamel does deserve a chance, but I will cringe if Hall starts getting booed at Miller Park again. Hall is not as bad even against RHP as he has been in the last 2 games. Over a season he might OPS at .700. Not great, but if he's above average defensively it's not a complete disaster. Especially with a staff full of pitch to contact pitchers.

[GormanHarvey]

I agree with what you guys are saying twobrewers and PEM, but at the same time I respect Macha for giving Hall a chance to prove he can be the everyday 3rd baseman with an understanding of his past success, contract and lack of other viable options to begin the season. He stayed true to his word of what he told Billy at the outset, and now that Billy has really started to struggle he sat him down and talked to him about "what" is going to happen if he doesn't show him that he can be respectable against RHP and soon. And that "what" is about to happen - a platoon where Hall starts at 3rd vs LHP and Gamel see's the majority of the starts agains RHP, which is the majority because we don't see that many LHP. And that I can respect. I don't blame Macha for giving Hall a chance to prove himself because if he did we would be a better team for it. But he failed, and now we get to see what Mat is all about and I am excited!

[bobskube]

My point is that I find it funny that we as fans are so quick to find fault as the grass is always so much greener on the other side. With that said...if we can get someone to take Hall's contract from us, I wouldn't be upset with it as I agree with the title of this thread....I don't see him ever adjusting.

I have ripped Hall for over two years so this is nothing new for me. His .300 average was nothing special because rarely was a hit important. This guy can't simply handle righties or pressure anymore. He just refuses to hit to right field when he used to mash it there. I just don't understand.

[PrinceEatMeat]

I respect Macha for giving Hall the chance, which he definitely deserved. But, it's been over two months now, and I think the experiment needs to end. Gamel has shown flashes of what he can do already, and I think he deserves at least a platoon with Hall at third. Macha now owes that to Gamel. Especially if he succeeds as the DH this weekend.

[rluzinski]

When fans think there's any easy solution for a player's woes but can't figure out why the player doesn't do it, it's almost certainly because it's not that simple.

 

The problem for Hall is that he's a marginal starter, offensively. That means his offensive production when he has the platoon advantage is good but he's going to struggle the rest of the time. And it's possible that Hall naturally has a larger than average platoon split, which just compounds his problems. I just don't see him getting around that.

[dragoon84]

Hitting 35 HR in 2006 was the worst thing Billy could have done to himself.

 

I don't want 2006 Bill Hall to return, I want that Bill Hall from 2004 and 2005, where he hit in the six hole regularly, when he was extremely valuable getting two or three starts a week. That 35 HR year got us all expecting the world from Billy, but that year was a total aberration. From then on, he abandoned the oppo approach, only to come back to it to great success from time to time, only to give up on the approach again and again. Whenever I see Billy up there now, it looks like he is riding for the pull shots all the time, instead of using his natural power to RF.

 

Example; two years back, I went to a game with some college friends. We were high up in the terrace, above the RF foul pole, when Billy came up to bat. He fouled off a few pitches, and then absolutely crushed a ball to RF. My friends and I thought it was gonna get caught by the fielder, but it cleared the fence with about three inches to spare. I've never seen a ball hit that hard before, or make the stands like that, it was a total bullet shot.

 

That is what Billy needs to get back to, to driving the ball to the opposite field. If he can remember 2004 or 2005, instead of 2006, he will be a much better player for us. Start him two or three times a week against LHP for Counsell or Gamel, play him against RHP he has good stats on. Tell him to shoot for doubles and singles to RF, and the inside pitches will come. Billy will never get close to 35 HR again, and his contract is grossly overpaying him, but he can still be a very productive and useful player for the Brewers.

[moofnelson]

Hall said he expected the worst when Gamel was called up and let it "get in my head."

 

 

 

Bill's latest excuse for his current batting slump.

[logan82]

When Macha was hired he said he wanted to come in with fresh eyes and make up his own mind on what we had in our players. He was giving Hall a fresh start to the year. I think that was a bad idea to some extent, but I can see why he would want to do it. I think he has handled the Hall situation pretty well. Hall has been in a soft platoon for almost the entire year. Counsell just can't handle the load as the big half of a platoon. I think Hall should still get some starts vs RHP if he is platooned with Counsell.

[Postseason2006]

He should get "some" starts against pitchers he has had success against like a Josh Johnson. He should've never seen Oswalt last night.

[pebadger]

Given his career numbers against Oswalt, I'm wondering then what the criteria would be for determining which starts those would be?