Whats is Rickie's problem? Is he hurting or confused?

[Brian the Automator]

[ so Weeks has been mediocre by your estimation Brian? His OPS is .751 for his career. ]

 

Yes. Weeks's performance so far in the majors has been mediocre. That's not the comparison I was making.

[gregmag]

Joe's analysis of Weeks' approach seems very astute, and I also agree with John that Weeks would do better in the second spot. I would actually love to put those two points together and see how his approach changed when he shifted spots in the lineup.

 

The argument that Weeks is done developing at age 24 flies in the face of logic and experience. His wrists have hampered his offense, he has a very broad skill set, and he has significantly improved not only his defense but his walk rate since coming into the league. Assuming, as Chris emphasizes, that Weeks survives this year, I can't really imagine a much better bet for a breakout next year.

 

We may be getting a little spoiled by just how ridiculously successful our other young players have been. A few years ago, when these guys were coming up, some more pessimistic posters pointed out quite a few times that some of our young phenoms wouldn't make it. The thing is, that was a reasonable argument. Instead, Fielder and Braun are hitting at an MVP level, while Hardy and Hart are hitting at an All-Star level. Meanwhile, Weeks presently ranks (by my informal count) sixth among NL 2b in OBP, eighth in OPS. That isn't great, but for a 24 year-old with the obstacles he's faced, we can live with it. He won't carry the team this year, but thankfully he doesn't have to.

 

Greg.

[TCSM]

Does anyone else except me think he might just be an average 2B. He has shown signs of good power and contact at times, but what player doesnt. More times then none I expect nothing but an out for him, why, simple he hasn't prooven to me he can hit consistently.

 

I don't know why but the Brewer faithful still seem to think he's the next big thing. People, this is his 3rd year. Are we still going to expect the best when the 4th, 5th, or even 6th year come rolling around. I sure think if we can get a better 2B, or a good trade for him I wouldnt hesitate to do so.

 

I'm not saying I hate Weeks or I want him gone. I just think people got to snap back to reality and realize he is what he is....average.

 

On another note, I like him down in the 8th spot. He's got speed so an attempted steal plus a sacrfice bunt gets a runner in scoring position. Lets just hope he snaps out of this slump.

[Thurston Fluff]

One thing to consider with his wrist is whether he needs to use it to get over the soreness. If he just sits will the problem just go away or does it need to be used to it's fullest extent tro get over it? I have no idea but it may play into why they feel he should be playing regularly.

[Brian the Automator]

[ I don't know why but the Brewer faithful still seem to think he's the next big thing. People, this is his 3rd year. Are we still going to expect the best when the 4th, 5th, or even 6th year come rolling around. I sure think if we can get a better 2B, or a good trade for him I wouldnt hesitate to do so. ]

 

I point to the points made above regarding injuries hampering performance.

[homer]

Quote:

---

I'm not saying I hate Weeks or I want him gone. I just think people got to snap back to reality and realize he is what he is....average.

---

 

And I don't think anyone is arguing that he's better than average right now.....just that it may be premature to say he'll always be average.

[gregmag]

I'm not saying I hate Weeks or I want him gone. I just think people got to snap back to reality and realize he is what he is....average.

 

Yes, he's average -- with a bum wrist, at an age when most players are just breaking in -- and the notion that he will never be anything but average isn't just your (entirely unsupported) opinion, it's absolute "reality," to which the rest of us "got to [sic] snap back"? Wow.

 

Greg.

[brewerphandog]

Braun is the next big thing offensively in the national league, along with Dan Uggla, Hunter Pence, Josh Hamilton, Adrian Gonzelez, Prince Fielder, Hanley Ramirez, Russell Marting, etc...

 

There are some big time young offensive players in the league, and Weeks doesn't register as a blip on that radar screen. I think the league has figured out that he'll swing at a slider or curve from his shoe tops to the first base dugout and anywhere in between. They seldom throw him fastballs middle in, which he loves and as a result he flails. He has put together some at bats that would make JosK Hernandez blush, and all the while still possessing one of the quickest bats in major league baseball. He has tremendous talent, but unless he corrects his shortcomings he will remain at best a tease, an enigma.

 

I think we in Brewcity see the bat speed and think, oh any day now...well unless he develops some semblence of a way to hit off speed pitches that bat speed is irrelevant. I talked to a HOF high school baseball coach about him and his response was trite and simple "clueless, he should hit .330 without even thinking about it with that bat speed". The bat speed is there, bad wrist and all, he just swings at unbelievably bad pitches. If you guys want to think they are related, be my guest. I just happen to think that approach is absolutely foolish. I think Yost tries to protect him from scrutiny such as mine, by talking about his focus on defense, and his wrist, etc...bottom line you can't hit a pitchout no matter how hard you try.

[rluzinski]

We may be getting a little spoiled by just how ridiculously successful our other young players have been.

 

I agree. When I look at any prospect, I really see:

 

x chance of being HOF

x chance of being all star

x chance of being solid

x chance of being mediocre

x chance of being a bust

 

The better the prospect. the higher the probability for greater success but it guarantees nothing. All those uber prospects flaming out across the league should make that very clear. I

 

f Weeks ends up "only" peaking at about a .800 OPS with mediocre defense at 2B, I just can't bring myself to be too disappointed. And at this point, he's shown me enough to suggest that's a very conservative estimate. I'm only really disappointed with the the lost playing time due to injuries, not really the production.

[Brian the Automator]

Weeks has the second most walks on the team, behind Prince... and this includes being on the 15-day DL.

 

He's only striking out in 21.3% of his plate appearances.

 

I disagree with the idea that strikeouts are what's killing Weeks.

[Invader3K]

I think some good points have been brought up on both sides of this thread.

 

FWIW, he did change his bat earlier this season. Notice that he doesn't have that big knob at the bottom anymore? I would've thought the change would help him, but maybe not.

[Kpanz20]

Quote:

---

I'm only really disappointed with the the lost playing time due to injuries, not really the production.

---

What if the "average" production is a result of injuries? For all we know he could be playing with stiffness and soarness which I doubt anyone could argue affects performance.

[lukevan]

I have yet to be disappointed by Weeks.

 

We knew before the season started that the wrist was going to bother him for a year or so. He's middle of the pack for starting 2B's with the wrist injury, his defense has come along light years since the first half of '06, he's in a lineup that's so stacked he is batting 8th and he's still only 24 years old. For me, he still has '08 and '09 to really break out, when by all indications his wrist should be back to normal. The Brewers don't need him to be the guy to carry our offense right now; we can certainly afford to be patient with Rickie especially considering he hasn't been bad offensively or defensively yet.

[brewerphandog]

Lukevan

 

"I have yet to be disappointed by Weeks"

 

are you an employer anywhere in the Milwaukee area? I'd like to come and work for you...

[TerraceReserved]

"----- People, this is his 3rd year. Are we still going to expect the best when the 4th, 5th, or even 6th year come rolling around."-----

 

Sure, why not? Not to mention those 3 years were hampered by injuries. Plenty of players didn't develop fully until after their first 3 years.

[brewerphandog]

I'd be delighted if he developed in any year. Two things are certain:

 

a>it's highly possible he will develop.

b>should he not develop, people will still wait trotting out the myriad of Weekscuses that we currently suffer from.

[Brian the Automator]

[ should he not develop, people will still wait trotting out the myriad of Weekscuses that we currently suffer from. ]

 

I think it's pretty "week" of you to run that out there pre-emptively in an attempt to strengthen your current argument.

[homer]

It's certain he will possibly develop?

[Gobias Industries]

Sure, he has "3 years" of MLB experience. But in reality he has only ~ 1000 at-bats, and several hundred or so you could argue he hasn't been 100% during those at-bats.

 

If I recall correctly, he has had somewhat of a hot-streak in April on our first road-trip (Florida, St. Louis, Cinncinnati). Pretty much in that span he hit all his homeruns and was one of our only threats as Prince and JJ were in early season struggles at the time.

[danzig6767]

I'm by no means giving up on Weeks,but he obviously needs to learn how to hit offspeed pitches if he ever wants to breakout like the other young guys on our team have.

 

Even when pitchers hang sliders and curves,Weeks seems to struggle crushing those mistake pitches and instead swings right through them.If he was hitting those balls and they just weren't hit all that hard i could see blaming his wrists,but instead it looks to me that Weeks simply has trouble timing those sliders/curves and either misses or rolls them over.

 

He is still young though,hopefully one day the light clicks on for him and those sliders/curves won't fool him so badly.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Baseball isn't football - what I mean by that is that you can't succeed in the sport with nagging injuries in your hands/wrists. You end up adjusting your swing in order to get to pitches.

 

With a bad right wrist, Weeks would be susceptible to fastballs up and in, and generally anything hard inside. When Weeks first came off the DL, opposing teams tried busting him in with hard stuff - Weeks was feeling well enough to be able to handle those pitches that were inside strikes, which was why the first 5-6 games back from the DL he was lacing doubles all over the field.

 

Advanced scouts saw that Weeks was looking for hard stuff inside, and pitchers began pitching him by busting him in off the plate, and then going low and away with sweeping breaking stuff. Weeks hasn't adjusted his approach yet to force pitchers to throw him strikes consistently to get him out.

 

Part of it is probably him still dealing with a weak top hand, and trying to cheat a little at anything that appears to be on the inner half (this would make him very susceptible to breaking stuff from righties), and part of it is probably not being able to stay in the lineup consistently enough to hit his way out of it. I would bet that his wrist hasn't allowed him to take much batting practice at all.

 

While it is disappointing to see Weeks struggle, there are obvious reasons as to why he is. I'm not saying he's automatically going to rake once his wrist is 100%, what I am saying is let's hold out on calling him a bust until finding out whether he can stay healthy and produce offensively. Defensively, he's light years better than he was last year.

 

----------------------

[lukevan]

are you an employer anywhere in the Milwaukee area? I'd like to come and work for you...

 

How'd I know this would be the response I'd elicit?

 

No matter how hard you try, you can't compare the expectations of working 9-5 to playing professional baseball. And I'd hardly say that Weeks is "underperforming" to the point where he would be "fired" from a normal job.

[brettac1]

One thing I can't stand is when a player is blamed for the expectations that get put on him, it's not as if he decided to "not live up to the hype". He is what he is - an above-average offensive second baseman with good on-base and base-stealing skills.

 

I have pretty much resigned to the idea that he's not going to be a superstar level player, because I don't think his wrist and the violence of his swing will ever allow it. There is still a chance that he could, of course.

 

That said, he's by far the best in-house option the Brewers have for the next few years. It's not like there's someone in the minors banging down the door to take that job, Iribarren's never going to push him.

 

So, you just wait it out and see what happens.

[dadofandrew]

I think it hurts him some every time he swings the bat. Between slight alterations of his swing to make it hurt less, not wanting to swing because it will hurt, and the like, it's tough to maintain average production, like he has.

[FVBrewerFan]

As much as I fight the urge, it's difficult at times to realize how long the season is. We're only half-way through the season. In mid-September we may be discussing how hot Weeks has been the 2nd half, and what in the world is wrong with Fielder and Braun?!?!

 

Weeks has numbers that make a decent baseline if he has a huge month in July or August. It's not like he's starting from .220.