Corey Hart Love

[RobDeer 45]

I feel like he really needs to get some love on these boards. He was bashed so much on here and has really been amazing so far this year. I thought he was done but I'm eating my words and I'm glad that I am. He's been nothing but humble through the good and bad. Good for your Teen Wolf!

[Invader3K]

I'll admit that he has certainly lived up to his arbitration award so far this season, especially after a lousy spring training. Good for him. He's definitely become a bright spot on the Brewers team.

[sheethead]

I think those contacts are starting to work. I have to admit, so far, I was way off on Hart. He's been incredible the last 18 games.

[TooLiveBrew]

Just figured if this topic didn't get merged, it would be useful to have

a link to the offseason thread about Hart.

Link

to last posts

 

(edited URL --1992)

[CheezWizHed]

I've been a Hart supporter since he came up, but I'll admit I started to doubt this offseason. I don't think anyone (maybe Corey's mom), expected this hot of a start. I was surprised to see he now leads the team on OPS. And he drew 2 walks last night.

 

So what do people expect contributed the most to Hart's improvement?

- Contacts?

- Macha wanting him to see more pitches last year -> causing him to be less aggressive?

- Playing way above his socks and will regress back to the last two years (700s OPS player)?

- Just had poor years (2008/2009) and having a good year now, but

average is in between (800s OPS player)?

- Finally adjusted to how people were pitching him and this is what to expect (900s OPS player)?

- Finally figured out the correct elbow position?

 

I tend to think the contacts are probably helping, but I'm thinking Hart's norm would be around an 850 OPS. So was just below average the last two and playing above average now.

[TooLiveBrew]

Finally adjusted to how people were pitching him and this is what to expect?

 

I think it's a combination of him adjusting to how he gets pitched, & relatively good platoon usage from Macha. The contacts have to help -- perhaps a big reason why he's been able to lay off the low/low & away slider. I think '09 was a big season for Corey, developmentally. I remember reading a comment (this offseason) from him that one thing he learned from last season was to not just take pitches for the sake of taking them, but to take pitches in order to work yourself into a situation where you get a pitch you like, a pitch you can drive.

 

So, while he wasn't very productive at the plate in '09, I believe it went a long way toward helping him become more selective at the plate & kinda slow the game down. It seems he learned the fine line of when taking pitches is better & when swinging away is better. I believe he'll probably regress a little bit, but we might be seeing a Corey Hart that's taken enough of a step forward that he's going to be the hitter many felt he could become.

[TheCrew07]

I was a huge Hart fan as he came up through the minors, my immediate family members even refer to him to this day as "TheCrew07's boy Hart".

 

I had given up on him as a hitter, he was so pathetic last season, the issue seemed so easy to fix but he wasn't making progress. I'm not sure what to make of this torrid HR streak he's on, the funny thing is that he's not even hitting over .300 on this streak. His defense certainly hasn't improved though, in fact I think he's regressed.

 

The bottom line? Even though he's one of my boys I really have no idea what to make of him as a player, I don't think I'll be willing to say anything definitively until much later in the season.

[BREWCREW5]

I just think that right now, he's very hot.

 

Geoff Jenkins would do this stuff all the time where he would carry the team for 2 weeks. It didn't mean that he suddenly figured things out.

 

 

Not to be a downer but I'm sure he will be swinging at that outside slider soon enough and his numbers will fall back in line with career norms.

 

Hopefully the Brewers trade him at the end of the month.

[JohnBriggs12]

In watching Hart the past couple seasons, his approach often had turned into that of a singles hitter. He seemed to be slapping at the ball and just looking to put it in play rather than using a power-type stroke. He also bunted a lot. It was if he fell in love with the idea he was a speed guy more than a power guy.

 

I don't know what's turned him around, whether it was Sveum or something else. I know Sveum preaches being aggressive in the zone. It might just be that he's finally confident now that he's learned to lay off the bad breaking stuff and realized that power is his game.

 

Corey Hart is 6'6" 230. Yeah he has speed, though I think he's lost a step and he's not going to get faster. He needs to continue to realize that he's a power guy and forget trying to be a spray hitter.

[homer]

I guess he finally fixed that elbow.

[Tbadder]

Trade him now! I do not believe in leopards changing their spots. I'm glad for his sake, really. He's kept the hounds at bay but now's the time Dougie. Do we really want to pay this guy 5 or 6 mil next year? And for god's sake I don't want to hear anything about extensions, etc.

 

On a side note, he gives credit to Sveum for some adjustments to give him more lift--if true kudos to Dale (the guy who should be our manager).

[CheezWizHed]

I think JB is on to something.

 

- His BA and OBP is almost identical to last year. Its his SLG that has improved dramatically (.418 up to .588).

- His flyball % is up (50.8% from career 42.5%), groundout % down (36.7% from career 40.0%)

- Funny thing is that his BABIP is way below career norms (.243 vs .301), so he could improve his BA yet.

[1992casey]

Just figured if this topic didn't get merged, it would be useful to have

a link to the offseason thread about Hart.

Link

to last posts

Rather than merging, I locked the old topic and directed discussion to this one.

 

Also, I changed "Link to last page" to "Link to last posts" and changed the URL to one of the posts near the end. The problem with a URL like this - http://forum.brewerfan.net/viewtopic.php?t=21779?page=8 - is that not everyone sees the same number of replies per page. There was no page 8 in that topic for me.

 

It's better to grab the URL of an individual post:

 

How do I find an individual message's direct URL?

 

No harm no foul, of course. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I freely admit that I was short Corey Hart coming into 2010. He's always had a long swing and has never shown an ability to lay off that low outside junk...until this year. I'd probably still trade him if the price was right, but hats off to Corey for finally making the adjustments. Kudos to Sveum as well.

 

The foot in my mouth tastes pretty good right now.

[bigredrobbo]

Not everyone pre-season was down on Hart. Myself and a few other hardy souls believed he was better than he showed since he started swinging at the low and away stuff every time. On Brewerfan, I find the loudest voices are usually the most negative voices...

[joepepsi]

I figured he'd be around league average for a corner OF'er this year. If you look at his current avg/obp, 268/333, you'll see it's right where he was last year. The difference is the slugging, which I don't expect to stay at .599 for the whole season. He's on a great homer streak now, so look for the slugging to drop a bit over the next month. Still, I see no reason why he can't maintain the 268/333 number for the season. His slugging should stay in the upper .400's through the end of the year at the very least, giving him a solid .800+ OPS for the year.

 

He'll probably hit a power slump at some point. This will result in a slew of Doug Melvin criticisms on this board for not having traded Hart for Zack Greinke while he had the chance.

[MJLiverock]

Hart is off to a great start, better than I would have expected, but it isn't the first time in his career he has had a hot month. As JB mentioned his slugging is improved, particularly vs. RHers but his OBP is still only .303 vs. RH pitching. Hart is killing LH pitching with a 1.20 OPS vs. them while being .794 vs. RHers. He has 25 hits vs. RHers in 122 or so PA's but 8 of those 25 have gone for HRs. Even vs. LHer's 6/17 hits have been HR's.

 

Unlesss he is in for one of the those special years I would expect that HR rate to fall and with it his slugging percentage pulling that .940 OPS back toward the .800 level. Especially since he is still only managing a .303 OBP vs. RH pitching, for all the complaints about Gomez batting in the two hole he has a .312 OBP vs. RH pitching. All in all, great start but I won't get too excited until he does it for a whole season and not just a month or two and can avoid his miserable months that trickle in every year.

[JohnBriggs12]

"He'll probably hit a power slump at some point"

 

Well he won't keep up 11 HR in 17 games pace, but he shouldn't fall into the kind of two month power slumps he's had in the past unless he goes back to the "all-arms" swings he often used in the past.

 

Hopefully Sveum is saving his tapes from the past couple weeks.

[JohnBriggs12]

Hart is off to a great start, better than I would have expected, but it isn't the first time in his career he has had a hot month. As JB mentioned his slugging is improved, particularly vs. RHers but his OBP is still only .303 vs. RH pitching. Hart is killing LH pitching with a 1.20 OPS vs. them while being .794 vs. RHers. He has 25 hits vs. RHers in 122 or so PA's but 8 of those 25 have gone for HRs. Even vs. LHer's 6/17 hits have been HR's.

 

Unlesss he is in for one of the those special years I would expect that HR rate to fall and with it his slugging percentage pulling that .940 OPS back toward the .800 level. Especially since he is still only managing a .303 OBP vs. RH pitching, for all the complaints about Gomez batting in the two hole he has a .312 OBP vs. RH pitching. All in all, great start but I won't get too excited until he does it for a whole season and not just a month or two and can avoid his miserable months that trickle in every year.

I'm not concerned about his OBP vs. RHP being "only .303".

 

First, batting 6th, OBP isn't that critical and .303 isn't grossly bad either especially when combined with a SP just under .500.. Second, that's a season long stat. His power surge started in mid-May. We're only now starting to see that having an affect on how he's pitched. Pitchers are going to be more likely to nibble now than they were in April. That OBP should go up.

[TooLiveBrew]

endaround made the good observation in a Transactions Forum thread on Hart that his HR/FB is unsustainably high (21.5% as of today). His career avg. is 12.1%, and his highest full-season rate was 13.0% in 2007.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Hart needs to be traded before he inevitably stinks again.

[valpocrewsader]

I wake up every morning hoping to hear he's been traded. Parlay this hot streak into something useful.

[RockCoCougars]

I can understand selling high, but does anyone honestly think that his value is at a point right now that's worth trading him? This would be effectively giving up on the season, and, in my view entering official rebuilding mode. How often do you see a team trade arguably their best hitter to this point of the season in June? Maybe closer to the deadline next month, but I'm not sure. Outside of a few minor league arms, what do you think that Hart will bring? I highly doubt that he would bring a quality MLB-ready arm now. Frankly, the only way that I would consider moving him at this point would be if the other team was willing to take more dead salary with him (Suppan, Hoffman, Riske, Hawkins, Wolf, etc.) and still give up something of good value.

[chadomac]

I also hope they trade him at the deadline for some young pitching.

 

I also want to know why he all of a sudden is such a terrible outfielder this year. He used to be okay, but he's just awful now.

[Funketown]

My issue with this whole "Sell high" notion is that most like other teams know that we're "selling high". I think that for the most part, GM's are smart enough to know not to pay a premium for a player that is playing above his head. With all of the information that is freely available about MLB players, there is little reason to believe that GM's will be able to get a premium for 'selling high', as other GM's have the exact same information at their disposal (ignoring bizarre things, like undisclosed injuries, which usually negate a deal anyways).

 

This isn't to say that Hart's value hasn't risen due to his power surge. I think it's reasonable to project Hart at something like .260/.320/.480/.800, while I would have said something like .250/.310/.430/.740 before the hot streak.

 

The big issue is Melvin does not have a huge comparative advantage in the trade market for Hart, unless there is something he knows which other GM's don't.