Sean Halton: Call Him Up?

[yoshii8]

Yes, he should be called up. It's really a no brainer, in my opinion.

[The stache]

Who cares what his size is? So he doesn't generate quite the power numbers the Brewers are hoping for from first base. Are they getting that now? Brewer first baseman have something like a disgusting .550 OPS this season. Give the kid a chance. He might surprise people, and at the very least, he sure can't be any worse that what we're trotting out there now.

[The stache]

Oh God, it's even worse than I thought.

 

From baseball reference:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=MIL&year=2013

 

For the season, Milwaukee Brewer first basemen are hitting for a combined .179 AVG. Their slash line? .219 OBP/.284 SLG/.503 OPS.

 

Halton in his last ten games is hitting .514 with 3 HR and 9 RBI. His OPS in that span is 1.481.

 

And still he sits there in Nashville.

[Thurston Fluff]

Is he likely to be a better option than Francisco? Not really. Is he likely to be better as a bench player than Gindl? Not really. Is he likely to be a better replacement for Braun than Schafer? Not Really. Where does he really fit?

[PrinceFielderx1]

If Halton keeps performing the way he's performing and the MLB options are still really this bad, you can bet heavily that the Brewers will find room for him at 1B. Sometimes the hotter batter even at AAA is a better alternative and enough of a reason to call him up to try someone new.

[The stache]

Is he likely to be a better option than Francisco? Not really. Is he likely to be better as a bench player than Gindl? Not really. Is he likely to be a better replacement for Braun than Schafer? Not Really. Where does he really fit?

 

You're right. I'm sure he's not an improvement over a guy that's striking out 40% of the time he comes to the plate.

[DHonks]

djoctagone, what could we get for Halton?

[reillymcshane]

Yuni should be gone. I don't really care who plays 1B, but he shouldn't. Cut Yuni. Bring up Halton or Morris or whatever. Anything but Yuni.

 

Bianchi is fine as the back up SS. We don't need a guy like Yuni taking up at bats.

[TURBO]

Is he likely to be a better option than Francisco?

 

Ok, I'll play. Yes, he is. He can't be any worse, and if he is better, it's a win!

 

Is he likely to be better as a bench player than Gindl?

 

Who cares, he can't be worse than anything else we are throwing out there at 1B

 

Is he likely to be a better replacement for Braun than Schafer?

 

Again, who cares, we need him at 1B.

 

Where does he really fit?

 

Isn't it obvious? 1B.

[Baldkin]

Yuni should be gone. I don't really care who plays 1B, but he shouldn't. Cut Yuni. Bring up Halton or Morris or whatever. Anything but Yuni.

 

Bianchi is fine as the back up SS. We don't need a guy like Yuni taking up at bats.

 

ABYB.

 

Anybody but Yuni B.

[Outlander]

I agree that it is time to bring up Halton and release Yuni. It made sense to ride the hot hand with Yuni for a couple of weeks but he is far removed from that now. With Francisco able to play third and Weeks/Scooter at second the Brewers don't really have anything to lose at this point. They can still play Francisco at first against righties if they want and then let Halton play when Ramirez takes his days off. It would be nice to at least get a feel if Halton can play in the majors and potentially be part of a platoon at first in the future and also backup in the outfield.

[Invader3K]

As noted, Yuni has put up a .430 OPS over the past month. I doubt Halton can be any worse.

[brewmann04]

why not call him up and Cut Yuni just don't see the logic. Halton at least has experience as a 1st baseman.

[Thurston Fluff]

Ok, I'll play. Yes, he is. He can't be any worse, and if he is better, it's a win!

Yes he can be worse. In fact if you compare their AAA numbers he is worse. The last time Francisco was in AAA he put up a .902 OPS. Halton currently has an .825 OPS. If he's likely to not be any worse and possibly better than Francisco then why does he have worse AAA numbers than Francisco had? The grass isn't always greener and sometimes there is no readily available answer. Just shuffling them around isn't always the best way to find an answer. Sometimes the answer is stick with the guy who is struggling but has the best chance of doing something.

[reillymcshane]

The Brewers simply should not have a 31 year old, bad fielding (at least at SS), bad hitting reserve middle infielder on the team.

 

When a team is contending there is a value and desire for a known quantity. But we are not contenders. Yuni only takes away playing time from guys who could be part of the team in 2014 and beyond. Guys like Bianchi, Scooter and Francisco (and Morris and Halton and whomever the team likes) should be given the chance to show what they can do.

 

I will say that I expect Yuni to get the axe once Hart returns (unless someone else gets hurt). So the team might simply be waiting out the inevitable. Still, I just hate that a guy with no future is taking at bats from other players who could use the playing to time to develop.

[Thurston Fluff]

The question is not if Yuni should be getting those at bats rather are those at bats more valuable to the team/prospect than more regular playing time in the minors. I think some people are overvaluing useful a few AB's in the majors is for prospect development. I think it can be useful at times. But I think those times are more for guys who have shown they are capable of handling it. I just don't see guys who are barely competent at AAA as being at that level yet.

[RightFieldCoder]

Oh God, it's even worse than I thought.

 

From baseball reference:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=MIL&year=2013

 

For the season, Milwaukee Brewer first basemen are hitting for a combined .179 AVG. Their slash line? .219 OBP/.284 SLG/.503 OPS.

 

Halton in his last ten games is hitting .514 with 3 HR and 9 RBI. His OPS in that span is 1.481.

 

And still he sits there in Nashville.

For a bonus gut shot, look at our splits for the #4 and #8 holes. No wonder we can't put together a rally.

[joepepsi]

But the Brewers have Veteran Gamers who Know How to Win and Play the Game the Right Way. Sabermetrics can't put a value on that, only the keen eyes of an aging scout. Thank God we have YuniB. The AP even wrote a story about he great he was in April. RRR was quoted. Much mocking was made about Yuni being cut at Spring Training by another team but how clever Doug was to bring him back.

 

The Cardinals, facing adversity, actually bring up players to fill roles. They play them on a regular basis. They are so clever. Cheaters. Matt Carpenter was a 26 year old with great success in a long minor league career before he was given a full time job in St. Louis. Golly, they are so lucky giving a minor league player a chance to succeed in the majors. If only the Brewers had their secret to success. Damn you Tony LaRussa!

[SoupTown]

It is amazing, is it not. No matter how you look at it, our management seemingly loves to over pay for poor, old players. How many times will we pay $2 to $4 mill for a player that seems a shoe in to perform worse than a 400k rookie. And the $2 to $4 mill vet has NO CHANCE to improve. You know what you get. The 400k rookie will give you (90% chance) what the aging vet will give you... AND AND AND you have a chance the rookie will have upside and produce more than the $3 mill vet.

 

And, and, and if you save $2.5 mill 4 or 5 times a year, you suddenly are not in a panic about your team salary.

 

I guess it is just a very complex concept for our management to grasp.

[Roderick]

.....

 

And, and, and if you save $2.5 mill 4 or 5 times a year, you suddenly are not in a panic about your team salary.

 

I'm not saying I wouldn't have went with young players, but this is an overstatement. Gonzalez is $1.75M and Yuni is $900K. So you could have saved $1.67M this year if you went with min wage minor leaguers out of the chute. With Bianchi out to begin the year, they actually did need one of the them, so you couldn't have saved that much. Who else were you referring to?

[CheezWizHed]

It is amazing, is it not. No matter how you look at it, our management seemingly loves to over pay for poor, old players. How many times will we pay $2 to $4 mill for a player that seems a shoe in to perform worse than a 400k rookie.

 

I find this a very ironic statement for this year. Because many of the vets we have playing right now are due to either injuries or poor play of our younger players.

 

Yuni B was a direct result of Green and Bianchi both being injured (not to mention Gamel & Hart). Lohse was signed because our young pitchers were performing poorly in ST plus Roger's injury.

 

We signed several BP guys, but they really aren't blocking anyone in AAA either. And I think everyone of those guys has turned up roses this year. Several AAA BP guys were given chances due to injury, but none of them really held up. So we had to sign K-Rod.

 

In the OF, Khris Davis and Logan Schafer were targeted for the backup OF spots. And Gindl is getting a chance now.

 

So I'm not sure how anyone can complain about the Brewers using vets over in-house options (at least for this year). The only possible exception there was Alex Gonzalez and they corrected that mistake too.

[502 to Right]

ABYB.

 

Does Yuni B have compromising photos of Doug Melvin or Mark A.? That's the only reason I can think of as to why he's still with the team.

[Funketown]

He caught Doug Melvin selling US military secrets to Dayton Moore.

[The stache]

I got this in today:

 

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/1213/4hv8.png

 

Sean was 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI, including his 9th home run of the year, to go with a .287 average and 33 RBI.

 

Why, oh why, is he not even getting a look?

[Thurston Fluff]

It is amazing, is it not. No matter how you look at it, our management seemingly loves to over pay for poor, old players. How many times will we pay $2 to $4 mill for a player that seems a shoe in to perform worse than a 400k rookie.

 

I find this a very ironic statement for this year. Because many of the vets we have playing right now are due to either injuries or poor play of our younger players.

 

Yuni B was a direct result of Green and Bianchi both being injured (not to mention Gamel & Hart). Lohse was signed because our young pitchers were performing poorly in ST plus Roger's injury.

 

We signed several BP guys, but they really aren't blocking anyone in AAA either. And I think everyone of those guys has turned up roses this year. Several AAA BP guys were given chances due to injury, but none of them really held up. So we had to sign K-Rod.

 

In the OF, Khris Davis and Logan Schafer were targeted for the backup OF spots. And Gindl is getting a chance now.

 

So I'm not sure how anyone can complain about the Brewers using vets over in-house options (at least for this year). The only possible exception there was Alex Gonzalez and they corrected that mistake too.

 

Can't agree more. Doug has said in the past he thinks veterans work better on the bench so I understand why it is easy to think he is set on doing so. But this season does show he is smart enough to adjust to his resources.