Rickie Weeks so far this season

[rluzinski]

Like I said, I was more interested when you said it was a "huge dog". And of course, the lower the AB threshold, the the better chance he hits the under. Then again, the higher the AB total, the more likely he DID start hitting better.

 

Then again, presuming you don't pick the American Hair Band Association as your charity, it will be for a good cause. How about 450+ official AB's? He can lose a bunch of starts and still reach that. If I win, you can send the $50 here:

 

http://www.alz.org/

 

Let me know if you are in and what charity.

If you'd like, I'll risk $60 v. your $50 since I did go overboard with the hyperbole. 450 ab's is good with me.

 

http://www.alsa.org/donate/

 

$60/$50.... 450 AB sounds good.

[monty57]

Nothing personal Gobias, but for Rickie's sake I really hope Russ wins the bet.

[logan82]

Nothing personal Gobias, but for Rickie's sake I really hope Russ wins the bet.

I don't think any Brewers fans are cheering for Gobias on this one. Even Gobias.

[Funketown]

If nothing else, this bet will give us some entertainment down the wire.

[The stache]

RicKKKie with 3 more whiffs today. 74 K in 205 AB. BENCH HIM ALREADY!

[xisxisxis]

RicKKKie with 3 more whiffs today. 74 K in 205 AB. BENCH HIM ALREADY!

 

Gameday must be wrong because the 3 is under BB.... but yeah he does look like a steaming pile of out there this year and Rickie ain't gonna think his way out of this funk. At least Adam Dunn had a better track record when he disappeared last year. Outside of a hot 1.5 years for Weeks he is nothing but pedestrian and right now he is worse than awful.

[Dollarbill13]

RicKKKie with 3 more whiffs today. 74 K in 205 AB. BENCH HIM ALREADY!

 

Or 3 Walks... same thing.

[clancyphile]

Rickie's drawing walks... the problem is, he seems to not be making contact, or when he does... someone catches `em or makes an out.

 

38 BB compared to 202 AB... that is still quite good.

[dlk9s]

I mentioned it in the IGT, but I'll hand it to Rickie - it's still impressive that he can draw so many walks. He's in the top 5 in the NL, for pete's sake. I know people will say that he's so bad at hitting he looks to get walked, but if it was so easy, lots of bad hitters would be able to do it.

 

Yeah, when he swings he's a steaming pile, but I'll give him credit for still being able to get the free pass.

[Madtown343]

He still gets on base at. .300 clip. Impressive actually.

[The stache]

He still gets on base at. .300 clip. Impressive actually.

 

When his career OBP is .350, no, a .298 OBP is not at all impressive.

 

He's not being paid $10 mil a year to walk. He's supposed to be an impact hitter, and the only thing he's impacting is the team's strikeout totals.

 

He only struck out once today, that was my bad. It's still 72 in 202 at bats. If he did anything the times he wasn't striking out, that could be almost acceptable. Adam Dunn is hitting .226, and has struck out a whopping 96 times in 212 AB's. But he also has 20 HR and 46 RBI. Weeks is hitting .158 with a .287 slugging. His .585 OPS is laughable.

 

He hit .132 in May, and he's batting .091 the last seven days.

 

How much longer is Roenicke going to let him flounder? I hate having to be so negative about him, but enough is enough. He's not improving. It's time for him to go down.

[Dean Machine]

I'm beginning to think the DL or the minors are about the only options

[torts]

how many years is weeks signed for? two more? i honestly cant remember and baseball reference wont load for me at work

[Invader3K]

how many years is weeks signed for? two more? i honestly cant remember and baseball reference wont load for me at work

 

Three more, though the 2015 year can be voided if he does not get 600 PA in 2014 or 1200 over 2013-2014 combined, going by what baseball-reference.com says.

 

At a salary of $10-11 million per year, this could end up being a huge albatross contract for the team if Weeks doesn't turn things around.

[torts]

how many years is weeks signed for? two more? i honestly cant remember and baseball reference wont load for me at work

 

Three more, though the 2015 year can be voided if he does not get 600 PA in 2014 or 1200 over 2013-2014 combined, going by what baseball-reference.com says.

 

At a salary of $10-11 million per year, this could end up being a huge albatross contract for the team if Weeks doesn't turn things around.

 

 

aka bill hall / jeff suppan

[Funketown]

With the way the option is set up it can basically be viewed as 3 years if Weeks recovers and 2 years if he continues to flounder. So really it's only about half as much as Suppan, even in nominal dollars.

 

Weeks doesn't need to be great to be worth his contract. $10 million isn't terrible for an average to slightly above average player these days, so as long as Weeks can put up a line of about .220/.320/.400 or so he should be fine.

[torts]

With the way the option is set up it can basically be viewed as 3 years if Weeks recovers and 2 years if he continues to flounder. So really it's only about half as much as Suppan, even in nominal dollars.

 

Weeks doesn't need to be great to be worth his contract. $10 million isn't terrible for an average to slightly above average player these days, so as long as Weeks can put up a line of about .220/.320/.400 or so he should be fine.

 

sure, but the brewers are one of the smallest markets in baseball, $10 million for a floundering 2B is a lot. suppan made $12 million in each of the last two years.. Hall was making between 6 - 8 million. so while $10 million isnt terrible... for a team that is over its budget at $90 million... eating 1/9th of your payroll in a .200 hitter is horrible

[Invader3K]

With the way the option is set up it can basically be viewed as 3 years if Weeks recovers and 2 years if he continues to flounder. So really it's only about half as much as Suppan, even in nominal dollars.

 

Weeks doesn't need to be great to be worth his contract. $10 million isn't terrible for an average to slightly above average player these days, so as long as Weeks can put up a line of about .220/.320/.400 or so he should be fine.

 

$10 million for a .720 OPS 2B is pretty bad. The team could probably get similar results platooning Eric Farris with some cheap veteran at a much lower cost. Like someone else pointed out, Weeks wasn't signed for his .300 OBP skills. He was signed to be an impact bat like he was in 2010-2011.

 

He really just needs to be benched at this point for a series or two to "clear his head" or whatever else.

[Funketown]

Invader, Farris is putting up a .251/.300/.276 line in AAA this season. He was also far below league average last season at the plate in AAA as well. Green would be a reasonable replacement though if he can't get this figured out. $10 million for a league average guy isn't ideal, but it's at worst a few million too much. Suppan was getting $10 million over his market value. If he continues to hit .160/.300/.300 then yes, $10 million is about $12 million too much for him. I just don't expect him to hit .160/.300/.300 going forward.

[rluzinski]

$10 million for a .720 OPS 2B is pretty bad.

 

No it isn't:

 

MLB 2B, 2011: .260/.319/.388/.708

MLB 2B, 2012: .253/.317/.381/.699

 

And like it or not, if you want to buy a player who projects to be average in free agency, you are going to spend around $8-$10 mil. If you assume just average defense, Weeks does not have to have even an .800 OPS to earn his salary. Going forward, he's projected to have a .236/.337/.422 line this year. He can't undo what he's already done (his product was worth negative $, obviously) but if he could reach that modest project and play average defense, he'll earn his money going forward. That's why he's still in the lineup.

[TooLiveBrew]

It was kinda crazy to me, but the Padres pitched Weeks like he was Fielder or Votto yesterday. They just seemed to want no part of giving him anything to hit.

[ninja33]

I remember you saying that but the article on fangraphs seems to indicate otherwise....

 

Weeks’ batting struggles can also be attributed to a terrible infield fly ball rate. Weeks has hit an infield fly ball in 20.6% of his plate appearances.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/whats-wrong-with-rickie-weeks/

 

Well, that article is also using it incorrectly. If you look at the numbers, Weeks has a LD% of 16.7%, a GB% of 44.7, and a FB% of 38.6%. Conveniently that adds up to 100%, or all of his total plate appearances. If he hit an IFFB on 15.7% of all of his PA...that would mean 40+% of his flyballs land in the infield (15.7/38.6), which just doesn't seem right when you think about it for a second. Also, if you go to his 2003 stats on fangraphs he had an IFFB% of 66.7%, which was higher than his FB% of 50%. And that is not mathematically possible, unless FB% only counts balls to the OF. Which it doesn't, because as we've established LD%+GB%+FB%=100, which wouldn't work if infield flies were ignored. FB% counts both infield and outfield flys, therefore if IFFB% was IFFB/PA it would be impossible for it to be higher than his FB%. It has to be (and it is) IFFB/FB.

 

Again, not questioning your initial point (Weeks is popping up a lot....although that number has dropped almost 5% in the three weeks since that article, so maybe he's making better contact/normalizing to his career rate of 13.7%), just trying to help explain the stat.

[Oldcity]

He's not being paid $10 mil a year to walk.

Kevin Mench? Is that you?

[sveumrules]

When Suppan was making 12.75 million a year that represented about 15-16% of total team payroll. With payroll creeping towards and possibly set to exceed 100 million, the 11 million due Weeks in coming years will represent a lower overall percentage. Potential albatross, sure. But Suppanesque, no way. Plus everyone knew Soup was cooked (simmered? boiled? I'm no cook.) while there is still some hope for Rickie to regress (progress?) to his established mean.

 

Also, as Rluz did a great job illustrating offensive production overall in MLB has been in a free fall while free agent prices continue to rise. There's very little positive you can say about Rickie right now (Hey there's like 30 qualified batters who make outs at a more frequent pace, like Ichiro Suzuki to name one!) but I'd say our team giving up the 3rd most runs in the NL is more problematic than a struggling second baseman on a team that has still managed to score runs at a league average rate.

[torts]

When Suppan was making 12.75 million a year that represented about 15-16% of total team payroll. With payroll creeping towards and possibly set to exceed 100 million, the 11 million due Weeks in coming years will represent a lower overall percentage. Potential albatross, sure. But Suppanesque, no way. Plus everyone knew Soup was cooked (simmered? boiled? I'm no cook.) while there is still some hope for Rickie to regress (progress?) to his established mean.

 

Also, as Rluz did a great job illustrating offensive production overall in MLB has been in a free fall while free agent prices continue to rise. There's very little positive you can say about Rickie right now (Hey there's like 30 qualified batters who make outs at a more frequent pace, like Ichiro Suzuki to name one!) but I'd say our team giving up the 3rd most runs in the NL is more problematic than a struggling second baseman on a team that has still managed to score runs at a league average rate.

 

 

Mark A has already said that payroll over 90 million is not sustainable for this franchise, that last year and this year are extreme opportunities, and Rickie will be making 11 million for 3 more years. so when payroll returns to reality in milwaukee in the coming seasons (70-80 mil), his contract will most definitely be an albatross.