All Things Yuni

[stoutdude04]

I believe managers who manage based purely on hot streaks are not good at their job.

 

Yuni does have some value in that he can play many positions. However, bein able to pop a home run once every 25 at bats should not get you playing time in a lost season. In fact, if he was purely a bench guy you wouldn't even have his home run numbers to fall back on. He has minimal value on the field. He must be an awesome clubhouse guy.

[jerichoholicninja]

BarneyStinson is either Betancourt or Ron Roenicke. I'm leaning more towards Ron.

[DuWayne Steurer]

OBP is quantitatively, measurably more important than slugging. Continually bringing up Yuni's dozen homeruns as his standout feature (which actually is not all that impressive) doesn't really bolster the case for why he should be kept on the roster.

 

I don't care that Doug and Mark "know more about baseball". Anyone carrying a .238 On Base Percentage doesn't belong on a major league roster. Period. End of Story. Fin. Not as a starter, a bench player, or even as a 25th man. He's making scads of outs, to go along with one homer every 22-23 at bats or so, the vast majority of which were hit 4 months ago. He can play 3 defensive positions! Great! He provides negative value at all of those positions!

 

Melvin may think that Yuni can help the Brewers win more games in 2013 than Sean Halton or whoever. He may think that, and he might be right (but chances are, he's actually wrong). My question is, to what end? What is the point of winning 68 games instead of 66? The one thing it fails to do is show us what we MIGHT have in Sean Halton or some other fringe player. Is Sean Halton a future answer? Most likely not. But I am 100% CERTAIN that the Yuni-Bomber is not a solution in ANY way shape or form to what ails this Brewers team. So why are we still seeing at bats given to a guy who's clearly on the downslide of his career, and is 100% guaranteed to not be a meaningful piece of the future?

[stoutdude04]

OBP is quantitatively, measurably more important than slugging. Continually bringing up Yuni's dozen homeruns as his standout feature (which actually is not all that impressive) doesn't really bolster the case for why he should be kept on the roster.

 

I don't care that Doug and Mark "know more about baseball". Anyone carrying a .238 On Base Percentage doesn't belong on a major league roster. Period. End of Story. Fin. Not as a starter, a bench player, or even as a 25th man. He's making scads of outs, to go along with one homer every 22-23 at bats or so, the vast majority of which were hit 4 months ago. He can play 3 defensive positions! Great! He provides negative value at all of those positions!

 

Melvin may think that Yuni can help the Brewers win more games in 2013 than Sean Halton or whoever. He may think that, and he might be right (but chances are, he's actually wrong). My question is, to what end? What is the point of winning 68 games instead of 66? The one thing it fails to do is show us what we MIGHT have in Sean Halton or some other fringe player. Is Sean Halton a future answer? Most likely not. But I am 100% CERTAIN that the Yuni-Bomber is not a solution in ANY way shape or form to what ails this Brewers team. So why are we still seeing at bats given to a guy who's clearly on the downslide of his career, and is 100% guaranteed to not be a meaningful piece of the future?

 

Well said.

[Funketown]

Yeah, but that's just like, your opinion, man.

[djoctagone]

i was convinced that betancourt would be dfa'd today when aramis ramirez was expected to be activated from the disabled list. rickie weeks' injury seems to have ensured that betancourt remains a brewer through at least 31 august.

[502 to Right]

.232 OBP, .600 OPS and still starting games.

 

This is beyond incredible.

[reillymcshane]

.232 OBP, .600 OPS and still starting games.

 

This is beyond incredible.

It is pretty amazing. I just don't get it. A-Ram is back. Cut Yuni, let Bianchi back up the spot. Have Halton play 1B against lefties. Is it that hard to figure it out? It's not like Yuni is key guy for our team's future.

 

Sigh.

[502 to Right]

According to Joe Posanski, at the conclusion of the season Yuni B will become the first player in 100 years to have a negative WAR 6 seasons in a row. He's currently at -1.4.

 

I think Doug Melvin is treating this as some kind of inside joke. Or perhaps he lost a bet or something.

[jjgott]

According to Joe Posanski, at the conclusion of the season Yuni B will become the first player in 100 years to have a negative WAR 6 seasons in a row. He's currently at -1.4.

 

I think Doug Melvin is treating this as some kind of inside joke. Or perhaps he lost a bet or something.

 

http://i.imgur.com/RkZ5n4L.gif

[torts]

According to Joe Posanski, at the conclusion of the season Yuni B will become the first player in 100 years to have a negative WAR 6 seasons in a row. He's currently at -1.4.

 

I think Doug Melvin is treating this as some kind of inside joke. Or perhaps he lost a bet or something.

 

http://i.imgur.com/RkZ5n4L.gif

 

BEST GIF EVER OMG

[reillymcshane]

Yuni has a -3.8 combined WAR since 2008 - easily the worst in baseball.

 

The next closest is our old friend, Mark Kotsay, with a -2.8 WAR.

[gregmag]

I just want to mention -- because nobody else has in the past ten minutes or so -- that WE'RE PLAYING HIM AT FIRST BASE. This is a guy who couldn't help you at ss, and we're playing him at by far the easiest position on the field to find talent. Also, we're paying him almost a million dollars to lose games for us. We paid Weeks eleven million to do basically nothing, but that contract was predicated on the fact that Weeks used to win games. We knew with Yuni exactly what we were getting, and we still paid him, and we're still playing him -- even though we have obviously better options. To me, the discussion about whether or not to fire RR begins and ends with Yuni's continued presence on the lineup card.

[Outlander]

He couldn't be in the lineup if he wasn't on the team. As was done in Moneyball if you don't want a guy to play then don't give the manager the chance to play him. This one is on Melvin, should have released him a long time ago. If RR wants a righty first baseman then Melvin should make him choose between Halton/Lucroy/Maldonado/Davis.

[RobertR]

Yuni should never start another game for the Brewers. Period.

 

I don't know if there's any point in releasing Yuni now, but he should be seated firmly on the bench and only given ABs/playing time after everyone else available at this point. There are guys available that may be part of the next winning Brewers team. Heck, other than Maldonado and most pitchers, it's not like Yuni's bat is better than anyone else's.

 

The continued presence of Yuni B on this team is a mark against Melvin and RR. A big one. Penciling him in the lineup is something that really calls in the question that talent evaluation and big picture skills of RR.

[two_three_the_count]

Guys, yes, Yuni is horrible. But did you ever think that maybe the Brewers are keeping him around for non performance reasons? He seems to be pretty tight with Jean Segura (they like to do little dances together in the dugout) he seems to be always smiling and everyone says hes a nice guy. Maybe he is "the club house guy" for the Hispanic players on the team. If you listen to BP's - Effectively Wild podcast they said that ARAM was most likely "club house guy" for the Brewers, but I bet Yuni is to some extent as well.

 

Besides, I don't want to see the Brewers playing themselves out of a top ten draft pick next year. The top ten picks are protected, so you wont lose your first round pick if you sign a FA. Not sure where they stand right now, but Yuni being on the team I think helps.

 

All that being said, goofing on Yuni will always be entertaining. Carry on.

[trwi7]

That's an awful reason to keep him. Does that mean they'll keep him next year and every year as long as Segura is a Brewer? He's not playing right now anyways, or at least playing very rarely so keeping him to stay in the top 10 isn't a good excuse either.

[two_three_the_count]

That's an awful reason to keep him.

 

Oh don't get me wrong, I fully agree. But it's the only thing left that makes sense. As others have pointed out, Yuni is historically bad, one of the worst players in 100 years.

 

Does that mean they'll keep him next year and every year as long as Segura is a Brewer?

 

He was brought in as a stop gap until Corey Hart made it back. By the time they realized that Corey wouldn't be back, the season was lost and I'm thinking they recognized that Yuni had a vet/mentor relationship with some of the younger guys. (Segura, Peralta, Maldonado, Francisco?). I don't know maybe its a stretch, but its the only thing I can think of why the Brewers are keeping that walking piece of history that is Reeking Billy.

[RightFieldCoder]

As others have pointed out, Yuni is historically bad, one of the worst players in 100 years.

To be fair to Yuni, he isn't the worst player in 100 years. He's the worst to stay in the bigs. There have been plenty worse that didn't last in the majors.

 

Yuni may be the dumbest person in Mensa, but you still have to give him a little credit for being in Mensa. He's also earned collected $15M in his career.

[mothershipconnection]

There's only 1 solution: send Craig Counsell to Latin America and don't allow him to return until he learns Spanish. This way, we have the Spanish speaking mentor but don't blow a roster spot on him. Again, if they really need to employ a great guy who speaks Spanish, there are tons of guys who fit the bill that can be had for a $50,000 salary (Director of Being Friendly) and no roster spot.

[reillymcshane]

Yuni has the worst OBP (.230) for a player with 300 or more plate appearances since 2000, when Alex Gonzalez had a .229 OBP for the Marlins.

 

The man is Epic.

[502 to Right]

Has anyone heard Doug Melvin explain why he's still on the roster? Though I can already predict the answer: He can play all of the infield positions, he's got some "pop" from the right side, and he's a good clubhouse guy.

 

Thankfully the team isn't going anywhere so it's not like Yuni B prevented them from making the playoffs or anything--but this is nuts.

[gregmag]

He was brought in as a stop gap until Corey Hart made it back. By the time they realized that Corey wouldn't be back, the season was lost and I'm thinking they recognized that Yuni had a vet/mentor relationship with some of the younger guys. (Segura, Peralta, Maldonado, Francisco?). I don't know maybe its a stretch, but its the only thing I can think of why the Brewers are keeping that walking piece of history that is Reeking Billy.

 

This does make more sense than any other explanation, if you combine it with 502's versatility-pop thing. Doug Melvin is an intelligent person, and I can see how an intelligent person could follow that thought process. The fact that the thought process is hideously wrong makes this a very interesting case of cognitive and/or deductive failure. I'm not being snarky; I think this situation can teach us a lot about how mistakes happen.

 

One other thing about this. If the Brewers really are keeping Yuni around because they think he adds meaningfully to the contentment / performance / whatever of their Spanish-speaking players, that's a huge mark of its own against the organization. Half the hemisphere, or close to it, speaks Spanish. Making your Spanish-speaking players comfortable should be a priority, but it shouldn't be that difficult. It shouldn't require the bizarre contortion of wasting a 25-man roster spot on the worst player in MLB.

[JimH5]

I can't see how he could possibly get any meaningful playing time/at bats in September. . .and yet I probably thought the same thing in August. And July.

 

It's not Yuni's fault. He seems like a pleasant enough guy. He hustles, and tries and doesn't make excuses.

 

Still, it will say a ton about Roenicke this month if/when we see Yuni in action. There is no reason to take any time away from younger players. If they want to pinch hit him in a 7-2 game, that's fine, but that's about it.

[logan82]

I can't see how he could possibly get any meaningful playing time/at bats in September. . .and yet I probably thought the same thing in August. And July.

 

It's not Yuni's fault. He seems like a pleasant enough guy. He hustles, and tries and doesn't make excuses.

Change could to should and I would agree.

 

How much he hustles is debatable. It is hard to make excuses when you are almost never interviewed.