Corey Hart's defense

[Patrick425]

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with Cory Hart's defense and lack of range/jump on balls hit towards the gap. Although, the Brewers won the last two games, it seems like they could have avoided "walk off" situation games if Hart had made some better plays. He wasn't charged on an error for any of these but...

 

A) Tuesday night-The ball hit to shallow/mid right field that Weeks took instead of Hart (weeks then lost the ball on the transfer after having to stop his backward momentum). Now, perhaps this was Weeks fault for not letting Hart get it, but I wonder if he felt he had to go get it because he wasn't sure Hart would get there (based on Hart's lack of range) or I wonder why Hart did not emphatically call him off. The runner on 3rd should have never scored on that.

 

B) Tuesday night - Ball hit near the line that Hart trys to make a sliding catch on, over slides it a little, hit's his glove and drops. I'm pretty sure this cost the Brewers a run. I think an average fielder with average speed/range like Morgan or Aoki gets to that ball and makes the catch without having to leave their feet. Any ball hit towards the line, even if it's a lazy fly ball, seems to be a mile away for Hart.

 

C) Last night - First inning ball hit towards the gap. Again, ball goes off the tip of Hart's glove and to the wall. Again, I believe Morgan or Aoki get that ball.

 

I'm not saying we take Hart's bat out of the lineup in favor of Morgan or Aoki, but I just don't see Hart continuing to be an outfielder for many more years. I see either 1st base or AL DH in his future. What kills me is that as little as 4 or 5 years ago I thought he was one of the fastest players on the team and I thought his defense was underrated. He had 23 SBs in both 2007 and 2008. How does a player seem to lose so much speed in such a short time? He's only 30. That's not that old!

[Dragonbait]

I think an average fielder with average speed/range like Morgan or Aoki gets to that ball and makes the catch without having to leave their feet. Any ball hit towards the line, even if it's a lazy fly ball, seems to be a mile away for Hart.

 

I think you have your expetactions a little high. Morgan and Aoki are above average defenders so you might want to pick different examples. Hart is the average defender. He's not gonna win a Gold Glove over there, but he's not Carlos Lee either.

[rwa12]

Knee problems, as well as the fact that (from personal experience) tall people and leg injuries=slowdown. I still have nightmares of him not being able to get to flyballs in the NLCS last year.

[Outlander]

I guess I don't get frustrated with him because it's not really his fault and it's not due to lack of effort. I wouldn't be surprised to see him DH in a couple of years.

[Invader3K]

Have to remember with Hart that he just had knee surgery a couple months back. His defense has never been stellar, but I would say he's still adequate defensively.

[RightFieldCoder]

A: Hart should have called off Weeks. But Weeks seems to be the current Captain of the team, so players will peel off if he is calling for it. Hart should have demanded to take the ball.

B: Hart was worried about the wall and getting injured from it again. I'll take a little less defense near that wall if it prevents Hart from getting injured.

C: Off the bat, I thought it was a clean double with maybe a chance of keeping it a single. I was worried when Hart was running to make a catch instead of just trying to play it off the wall. I was shocked he got a glove on it. I'm not discounting his D because of that play.

[GormanHarvey]

C). He took a really bad route to that ball. Should've been caught

[dlk9s]

I'm not concerned. There's been a ton of complaints about defense the last couple years and while I get that the Brewers have been below average in that regard, we have to remember that there are very few "perfect" players in the league. It would be great to have amazing outfielders or Gold Glove corner infielders, but in order to get those guys, you are either going to have to a) give up a lot on offense, or b) pay gajillions of dollars to an amazing player.

 

Corey Hart isn't a slick fielder, but he's not a butcher, either. Sure, it would be nice to have someone better manning right field, but I'd rather not replace Hart's stick.

[Patrick425]

I guess what is frustrating to me is that I truely believe that 4 or 5 years ago Hart not only makes these plays, but makes them look relatively easy. I can not get over how slow he is now. I guess it could have something to do with his height and that age takes a toll on longer legs quicker than someone who is 5 or 6 inches shorter. I also realize that the knee surgery certainly may be having an affect, but as was mentioned, he seemed to be just as slow last year.

 

I completely agree with GormanHarvey in that he took a bad route to that ball last night and it should have been caught (and he got a horrible jump on it...I was at the game. I watched Hart right after the ball was hit and I thought...GEEZ...GO!). I guess I'll just have to disagree with some others on this thread. To me it's painful to watch him labor to try track down balls that seem to be very catchable. I'm not saying it's a lack of effort on his part, but that still doesn't mean that it's still not frustrating to watch.

[Dragonbait]

No, I completely agree that Hart has gotten much slower than he was even a few years ago.

 

Now I don't expect him to leg out an infield single like he used to.

[PKBadger]

Players' skills decline with age? Well, I'll be damned...

[GormanHarvey]

I don't think it helps him being so tall either in that tall people never really "look" like they are running very fast and sometimes gives the illusion that there is a lack of effort.

 

Of course not of that excuses bad routes or late jumps. The scary part is I think he looks a touch faster this year than last.

[monty57]

People slow down as they age. Some more quickly than others. This is why we need to steadily infuse young players into the team and why I'm always open to the option of trading older players on the downside of their career who cost a lot for younger players on the upswing of their career who cost less.

 

Hart went from a tall, skinny fast guy to a tall, bulky power guy, so I'm not at all surprised that he's had knee problems and lost speed. People who add a lot of weight to a frame not designed for that weight often end up with knee problems. Prince will probably never have knee problems, while Hart adds 20 pounds or so and the knees go out. Fortunately he's not yet at the age where he'll lose bat speed, but he'll eventually be better suited to a role with less need for speed (if he's not there already).

[Madtown343]

All the more reason I hope he has a great year, and the team sells high on him to an AL team. He is slowly trending to be a difficult play defensively for a national league team not at first base.

 

His offense will be what carries the weight especially with a plus plus defender in Gomez usually next to him, but right now is likely as good as he is going to play defense ever again. (a little improvement with confidence in knee)

 

Keep hitting Corey, keep hitting Caleb, and maybe RF could be a prince to Gamel like transition in 2013. If we can get a decent haul for Hart (SS prospect) and use his salary toward Grienke I am all for it.

[bjkrautk]

Hart has never been my favorite defender; I've seen him struggle with plays just like the one from last night in the past (trying to remember if it was '08 or '10 ASG when he butchered a ball in RF).

 

I don't exactly think he's a liability in the outfield - I'd say average-to-just below average - but I think that is another sign that points away from signing him to a long-term deal.

[Patrick425]

Players' skills decline with age? Well, I'll be damned...

 

 

A player's peak years are generally between 27 and 32. If Hart was 35 or 36 I could understand your snarky comment, but he is 30. His skills should not be declining at this point.

[CheezWizHed]

A player's peak years are generally between 27 and 32.

 

That's a generally held principle for baseball based solely on hitting. Rarely are people faster at age 30 than at age 20...

[FVBrewerFan]

He should play deeper, simple as that. Hart is still pretty effective at getting a good jump on the ball and making plays on balls hit in front of him. He struggles when the ball is hit in the gap or over his head. So why fight it? Take the Ethier approach and play deeper.

 

Hart may have lost a bit of speed, but not a ton. He just doesn't get a quick first step and take good routes on balls deep or in the gap. He still has an average to slightly above avg arm for a RF, you don't see teams run on him in general.

[igor67]

It's a little bit older analysis, but what I've seen suggests that defense at least across the population of baseball players regresses basically from the beginning of a players career. The explanation was that unlike batting, defense is primarily physical skill and speed drops off way earlier than everything else.

[rluzinski]

I think we all had hopes/expectations that Hart could be an above average OFer when he was first called up. I think it was clear pretty quick that it just wasn't going to happen, however. I don't think he's as slow as some think but he doesn't get good jumps and doesn't always take good routes. It is what it is. If he can remain just a little below average defensively, he'll stay in RF. He'll probably move to 1B at some point though.

[Baldkin]

There were many people (myself included) who thought he might have a shot of playing CF from time to time when he was first called up. A play in the gap in Houston comes to mind. One of the best catches I've ever seen.

 

I still think he's better than Braun out there, which means our OF as a whole is pretty darn good all things considered.