PIT's Gregory Polanco

[Dead Simmons]

It's early, but he's hit in all six games he's played, hitting over .400 and of course a game winning HR. He's touted as a five tool player. No Pirate rook has hit in his first 6 since Clemente so Buc's fans are pretty exited.

 

Mc Cutchen has been out of his mind with 8 srtaight multi-hit games with 11 xtra base hits! Some kind of other worldly 1.400+ OPS. in that span. Yet they don't seem to be making up any ground on the Central leader.

 

Ditto the Reds in spite of being bolstered by returning casualties. I have to feel that at some point soon one of those teams will get on a roll. BTW, does anyone know who Polanco replaced?

 

[brewcrewdue80]

I believe it was a combo of Travis Snider and Jose Tabata

[phnxcrew]

meh. Still not worried about the pirates. Most of their young pitching is hurt. The reds have the best team IMO but never seem to get on a roll. The cardinals are on a roll and will soon roll us into 2nd place.

[torts]

it was that combo, outfield is and will be for a very long time, Marte, McCutchen, Polanco. Tabata is the 4th OF, Snider is.... hopefully gone.

[Dead Simmons]

meh. Still not worried about the pirates. Most of their young pitching is hurt. The reds have the best team IMO but never seem to get on a roll. The cardinals are on a roll and will soon roll us into 2nd place.

The starting pitching is in a good stretch right now, but the team is only scoring about 3.5 runs a game. To my utter amazement Jon Jay has started to hit again (after a 2 year slump) and ended the Taveras experiment.

 

The recent anomaly of starters making it to the later innings has greatly reduced the opportunities for Matheny to screw up the team. A blessing, to be sure.

[JohnBriggs12]

That game winning HR is Polanco's only extra base hit so far. The other 11 have been all singles. Difference between Pirate and Brewer young players are Pirates get ballyhooed and the Brewer's young players like Davis and Gennett don't.

 

In his last 6 games, Gennett is 10 for 24, with 3 doubles a HR and 5 RBI. So Brewer fans should be just as excited right?

[Dead Simmons]

That game winning HR is Polanco's only extra base hit so far. The other 11 have been all singles. Difference between Pirate and Brewer young players are Pirates get ballyhooed and the Brewer's young players like Davis and Gennett don't.

 

In his last 6 games, Gennett is 10 for 24, with 3 doubles a HR and 5 RBI. So Brewer fans should be just as excited right?

Oh my! I guess ESPN hasn't yet got the memo. (it's news to me)

[Thurston Fluff]

The cardinals are on a roll and will soon roll us into 2nd place.

 

Just like the last time they got on a roll?

[sveumrules]

That game winning HR is Polanco's only extra base hit so far. The other 11 have been all singles. Difference between Pirate and Brewer young players are Pirates get ballyhooed and the Brewer's young players like Davis and Gennett don't.

 

In his last 6 games, Gennett is 10 for 24, with 3 doubles a HR and 5 RBI. So Brewer fans should be just as excited right?

 

I'd say the reason Polanco is ballyhooed compared to guys like Scooter and Khrush is that he is a legit 5 tool player whereas Gennett (hit) and Davis (power) both only have one plus tool.

[Dead Simmons]

Now THAT'S a thread stopper.

[TheCrew07]

That game winning HR is Polanco's only extra base hit so far. The other 11 have been all singles. Difference between Pirate and Brewer young players are Pirates get ballyhooed and the Brewer's young players like Davis and Gennett don't.

 

In his last 6 games, Gennett is 10 for 24, with 3 doubles a HR and 5 RBI. So Brewer fans should be just as excited right?

 

Yea it's media bias and not just the fact that they are all outstanding athletes with special skills. The disparity in talent between Taveras vs. Davis and Polanco vs Gennett is immense. Pick any small sample you want to prove your point now while ignoring age and relative talent, the proof will be in the career they make for themselves.

 

Plenty of posters on this very forum were yapping about how overrated Mike Trout was after his first taste of the big leagues... how did that turn out? Obviously not all extremely talented players will hit their hit ceilings, many won't come close, but it would be nice if posters on an educated forum like this would at least look at the big picture making an effort to be unbiased.

 

Personally I find the rush to judgement on prospects both good and bad to be very off-putting. Why is there no patience in baseball? Seriously it's the sport with greatest amount of games over the longest season, it should be the sport in which patience comes most naturally but if a guy isn't performing in about 100 ABs or so he's "killing the team" and is sent back down. Polanco won't hit .400 all year but his talent is also undeniable, and his power will come as he matures in MLB... he's only 22 years old as is Taveras. I'd be willing to bet we will still be very sick of playing against both players long after Davis and Gennett are after thoughts for the Brewers.

 

Mike Trout the scrub:

[pre]Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+

2011 19 LAA AL 40 135 123 27 6 0 5 16 9 30 .220 .281 .390 .672 89[/pre]

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Generated 6/17/2014.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I don't honestly think people are comparing the long term career potential of a Gennett to a Polanco, Taveras, or Trout - part of the debate has to be that the very best prospects with the best physical tools often need time to adjust to MLB, just like the late 20's callups who don't have the physical tools to be All Stars but have the ability to carve out a solid MLB career in their own right...it's all about what players make out of their opportunities when they get them. Trout's likely overblown expectations for all prospects getting called up by how historically great he was almost from the moment he got to Anaheim as a 19-20 yr old kid. ESPN hears that Taveras is getting called up, the next thing they do is have Eric Karabell on for 5 minutes talking about fantasy baseball projections that top 5 outfielders produce...it's silly season with this stuff, and often rookies and young players who never make top 100 prospect lists get completely overlooked early in their careers even if they produce at the MLB level. Jonathan Lucroy is a pretty good example of a player that never was a top 100 prospect who's turned into a guy a few teams would want on their roster.

 

The Pirates or Cardinals aren't going to suddenly be dominant teams just because they call up 22 yr old corner outfielders with a ton of talent - the other 24 guys on their rosters need to be better at baseball in order for them to make an impact at the MLB level. That said, Polanco and Taveras are the type of talents the Brewers hope some of their recent high school draftees turn into by the time they are 22.

[Thurston Fluff]

Well said Chorizo. I would add that the way Puig jump started LA last season might have something to do with overblown expectations of what a rookie can do for a team.

As far as comparing our rookies with others we should be able to have a discussion without someone getting hammered for focusing on current performance. There is room to discuss both how they are doing now and how they project to do over time. Especially when the now is so important to our team and as Chorizo pointed out, those less talented rookies sometimes turn into all star type players later.