Orlando Arcia's Hitting Ability (And/Or the Lack There of)

[brewcrewdue80]

Well, Just like that and he's over .700 OPS now in ST. Fears squashed MVP on the team 2017!

[nate82]

Francisco Lindor who was thought of as a glove first SS has a very similar career AAA stat line that Arcia has you need to use two years to get close to the PA's that Arcia had last year. Now look at Lindor he is looking better at the plate. It is way too early to judge what Arcia is going to be and even if he doesn't hit all that well his defense more than makes up for his poor offense. Sending Arcia back to AAA just doesn't accomplish all that much right now it would be more of a set back than anything else right now.

[JimH5]

In the short time that I've seen him, I have to say I've been disappointed in his game. I recognize that Mike Trout struggled in his first go-round, so Arcia is hardly a lost cause, but I was expecting more.

 

His shortstop play is supposed to be his calling card, but last year seemed pretty ordinary to my eyes. He didn't look all that rangy. His arm was strong and accurate, but not eye-popping, at least to me.

 

His hitting stats were worthy of hitting no higher than 7th or 8th. He didn't blaze on the basepaths.

 

That said, he's young, cheap and under team control for a long time. He could still develop into a star.

 

But his struggles remind us that prospects aren't sure things.

[Ennder]

So this is somewhat unrelated but in the same theme. Is anyone else worried that Santana has exactly 1 BB all spring? His plate patience stats are simply awful and if they are a real representation of his skills there is no way he can succeed.

[brewerfan82]

In 40 spring training at bats? I'm not concerned. He's pretty consistently walked more than once every ten at bats and held an OBP 100 points higher than his batting average throughout his career. His 40 at bats this spring is a very small sample and he's a guy with a locked down starting spot, so he may be taking an approach he normally wouldn't during the regular season in order to get into the swing of things (ie. maybe he feels getting as many swings in and making as much contact as he can while results don't matter prepares his bat better than taking walks, etc.).

[FVBrewerFan]

He has struggled, but at least fouled off a ton of pitches tonight. He doesn't look completely lost. Just needs a little more discipline, maybe tweak his hands or stance.

 

But if there w a s ever a year to keep trotting him out there, this is it. I don't see any lack of confidence, at least not yet. Hardy, Escobar, Segues, and others went through it. Maybe he just needs to get a terrible first year out of the way, and we will see a big improvement in year 2. No reason not to just let him try to figure it out this year.

[3and2Fastball]

I think he has the ability to hit, he just really needs to learn to be selective. Meanwhile his defense is incredible, but it'd be good if he could at least hit .250

[yfinn6]

He has struggled, but at least fouled off a ton of pitches tonight. He doesn't look completely lost. Just needs a little more discipline, maybe tweak his hands or stance.

 

But if there w a s ever a year to keep trotting him out there, this is it. I don't see any lack of confidence, at least not yet. Hardy, Escobar, Segues, and others went through it. Maybe he just needs to get a terrible first year out of the way, and we will see a big improvement in year 2. No reason not to just let him try to figure it out this year.

 

I agree with this. Good year for some growing pains, just as long as those growing pains aren't a result from a lack of focus (I've never thought Arcia had a problem with that).

[stoutdude04]

I would like to see them do something with his stance/hands as well. There are times he looks like his hands are high and he is like a coil or something. I say this as someone who is not a professional hitter, so what do I know?

[brewmann04]

I think he pressing and needs maybe a few solid hits or a bloop hit to get him going.

he will never be a 300 Hitter IMO and does not have 20 Home run Power, but if he hits 250-260

with that glove he be ok. But like others said DS has a nice pipeline of Prospects at SS just in case

[newrivervalley]

Competition is great and I don't see anyone for a couple years to challenge Arcia. Hope he develops.

[clancyphile]

Competition is great and I don't see anyone for a couple years to challenge Arcia. Hope he develops.

 

There are options, though.

 

Villar could go back to shortstop if need be (indeed, I feel his presence mitigated AGAINST calling up Arcia given his struggles at Colorado Springs). Hernan Perez could play there, too.

 

In AAA, there is Ryan Cordell, who saw stints at SS in 2015 in the minors, Nate Orf, and Yadiel Rivera.

[pacopete4]

No options. Arcia is our shortstop.

[clancyphile]

No options. Arcia is our shortstop.

 

Tomorrow, Pittsburgh's GM could offer us Tyler Glasnow, Mitch Keller, and Austin Meadows for Arcia.

 

Would you seriously pass up three Top 100 prospects because "Arcia is our shortstop" instead of deciding to bolster the system even more and making one of Villar, Perez, Cordell, Rivera, or Orf work?

 

There are always options, and nothing is ever certain in baseball.

[yfinn6]

No options. Arcia is our shortstop.

 

Tomorrow, Pittsburgh's GM could offer us Tyler Glasnow, Mitch Keller, and Austin Meadows for Arcia.

 

Would you seriously pass up three Top 100 prospects because "Arcia is our shortstop" instead of deciding to bolster the system even more and making one of Villar, Perez, Cordell, Rivera, or Orf work?

 

There are always options, and nothing is ever certain in baseball.

 

I would also like to say that I wouldn't turn down someone wanting to give me $10,000,000.00 for my house.

 

It would be cool if we could've traded Scooter for Kris Bryant and Javy Baez. Maybe toss in someone like Suter for Arrieta.

[Austin Tatious]

You don't panic too fast but if he doesn't stop being an automatic out, I'm not going to be shocked if he's sent to CS soon. You can't just wreck a guy who is overmatched. He's still young. He can still develop at the plate with less scrutiny. Broxton went down last year and got a lot better.

 

We've got Dubon as a hedge for the long term.

 

As good of a fielder as Arcia is, he just needs to be a passable hitter. But he's going to need to improve to be passable. I think he's athletic and with a lot of talent and moxie. Maybe he's pressing. But he needs to improve with the stick.

[Ennder]

He has shown improvements this season. He is taking the ball the other way more and driving it more instead of hitting weak grounders. He has struck out too much though. He looks way better now than he did at any point last year.

[FVBrewerFan]

Toronto series, first game he was trying to go to RF, fouled off a lot of pitches. Last night, listened to radio off and on, and heard one AB where he drove the ball hard to RF. So there is hope. Obviously if he's hitting .100 in July, need to send him down. Not sure when that point is, but you know it when you see it.

 

He's a very young, very confident guy. No proof of this at all, but it's possible suggestions have been made about his hands, stance, approach that he has dismissed. This baptism by fire may help get his attention, so he'll listen to advice. Disclaimer again, not saying he hasn't been open to advice.

[monty57]

Competition is great and I don't see anyone for a couple years to challenge Arcia. Hope he develops.

 

There are options, though.

 

Villar could go back to shortstop if need be (indeed, I feel his presence mitigated AGAINST calling up Arcia given his struggles at Colorado Springs). Hernan Perez could play there, too.

 

In AAA, there is Ryan Cordell, who saw stints at SS in 2015 in the minors, Nate Orf, and Yadiel Rivera.

 

Clancy brings up a solid point in the second line. The Brewers called up Arcia last year at a point when they didn't have to, and Arcia wasn't forcing the issue with his play. He had a great year at AA, but struggled (as many do) when he moved up to AAA. There was no reason to call him up, as he probably needed more "seasoning" in the minors. Taking a struggling young player and advancing him to the majors didn't seem to me to be the best decision at the time.

 

I understand that he bears the title "top prospect," but that means they should do what they can to put him in situations where he is most likely to succeed. We're only a few games into the season, but if he doesn't show some improvement soon, for his own good and for the long-term good of the franchise it seems that he should be sent down for a while. There, he can take what he's learned at the MLB level, work on some things, and hopefully come back much better.

[3and2Fastball]

That line drive to right yesterday was fantastic. Bautista made a great catch on it. Contrary to my original post, I think the issue is mostly pitch selection. Which I think he can evolve on.

[Lathund]

I'm worried about his hitting, but he's young and still has a lot of time to improve. His excellent defense makes it less of a liability to carry him while that happens. If there's no improvement towards the end of the season, one might need to reconsider his approach and maybe time in instructional league/AAA.

[Thurston Fluff]

Count me in as one of the ose who were a bit confused with his call up last year. I really hoped they would stop rushing players to the majors before they were ready. It's one thing to do it when there is an obvious hole that needs to be filled on a competitive teams like when Luc came up. But why bring up your top prospect in the first year of a major rebuild when he isn't completely ready? The only explanation I could think of is Colorado Springs might be worse for developing hitters than pitchers. If they can get away with bad habits there it's a lot harder to correct after doing it for a year.

[MilwaukeeBeers]

Seems like Arcia has picked up a variation of Aguilar's batting stance. Maybe they had a talk together about timing Venezuelan to Venezuelan, and that's the conclusion they came to.

[wildcat2237]

Count me in as one of the ose who were a bit confused with his call up last year. I really hoped they would stop rushing players to the majors before they were ready. It's one thing to do it when there is an obvious hole that needs to be filled on a competitive teams like when Luc came up. But why bring up your top prospect in the first year of a major rebuild when he isn't completely ready? The only explanation I could think of is Colorado Springs might be worse for developing hitters than pitchers. If they can get away with bad habits there it's a lot harder to correct after doing it for a year.

 

+1 on being confused with the call-up.

 

Problem with your bad habits theory is that he wasn't hitting well despite bad habits. He was awful and got called up anyway. There is nothing about a .320 OBP with 77 strikeouts in 440 plate appearances at Colorado Springs that screams call-up.

[pacopete4]

Brewers brass doesn't just look at stat lines and I'm glad they don't.