Time to Start Worrying About Villar?

[Ennder]

3 walks to 2 Ks in the past 2 games is a good sign.

[JohnBriggs12]

May: .150/.190/.300 with 7 K's in 20 ABs.

 

Overall: .197/.255/.323 and a -0.6 WAR with an OPS+ of 51. Yet he's in the lineup every day leading off.

[Boomer5]

May: .150/.190/.300 with 7 K's in 20 ABs.

 

Overall: .197/.255/.323 and a -0.6 WAR with an OPS+ of 51. Yet he's in the lineup every day leading off.

 

.

 

I have no problem giving Villar a long leash based on last season.

[adambr2]

Villar isn't getting platooned, at least not this early. He was a highly effective player last year and they need to give him more than a month to show he can be that player again.

 

With that said I would also be in favor of him moving out of the leadoff spot -- it might make sense to flip him with Broxton right now. They need to have a longer leash than this as a starter but not necessarily as a leadoff man.

 

I do wonder how often it creeps into his mind that he turned down 20 million dollars and what it's going to mean for his financial future if he can't get it together.

[Ennder]

I'm fine with moving Villar down until he starts hitting, heck you could lead Broxton off since he is hitting over .300 over the past 14 games. There is no reason to platoon him though. Guys start slow, you just push through it and it goes away.

 

Not counting today in his past 15 games he is hitting .258 with a .652 OPS. Not setting the world on fire but it isn't like he is just awful either. He struck out 26% of the time and walked 7%. Last year he struck out 26% and walked 12%. He hasn't been all that far off the last couple of weeks.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Let's just chill right out with the personal attacks and keep this on topic please, ok, thanks.

[adambr2]

I believe this board has a friend/foe feature to manage those who you are not interested in seeing posts from. Pretty simple solution IMO.

[Brewer Fever]

I believe this board has a friend/foe feature to manage those who you are not interested in seeing posts from. Pretty simple solution IMO.

 

Thank you!

 

Done

[homer]

If you want to ignore a user, simply click on their name and click on "add foe". You will see that they posted something but will not see the content.

[monty57]

To topic, it is odd that Villar is the only guy on the team to play in every game. I still believe he'll straighten things out, and am impressed that his defense seems to be looking better than it did to start the season. But I don't think it would hurt to give him a day off now and then, or to move him down in the lineup until he heats up.

[Roderick]

To topic, it is odd that Villar is the only guy on the team to play in every game. I still believe he'll straighten things out, and am impressed that his defense seems to be looking better than it did to start the season. But I don't think it would hurt to give him a day off now and then, or to move him down in the lineup until he heats up.

 

Yeah, it would seem to be a perfect spot to get Perez some at bats, especially when Braun comes back.

 

And I thought maybe the Brewers are hesitant to move Villar down the batting order because they thinkg that would screw up Broxton, if he batted first. But looking at Broxton's limited stats of him batting first, plus leading off an inning he seems to be fine.

[Ennder]

I believe this board has a friend/foe feature to manage those who you are not interested in seeing posts from. Pretty simple solution IMO.

 

Thanks for this.

[homer]

Guys - please stop beating dead horses and posting "I told you so" jabs. We are going to start deleting that stuff since it tends to send threads off topic rather quickly. Also, if this does happen do not respond with name calling or condescending posts. Consider this a universal warning on both counts. This is the second time I've had to intervene and delete/edit a bunch of posts related to this. I have better things to do....like my actual job.

[markedman5]

Villar gets the day off after the base running gaffes last night

 

[liveforoctober]

Just had the conversation last night on this board somewhere that Broxton should be leading off in the short term to take some pressure off of Villar. Happy to see this actually. If Keon has a good night at the plate again I would anticipate him leading off for a few days/weeks.

[rickh150]

Villar gets the day off after the base running gaffes last night

 

 

Guessing his first day off is not BECAUSE of his baserunning errors. It took about twenty unforced baserunning errors before that happened last season.

[rickh150]

Villar gets the day off after the base running gaffes last night

 

 

Guessing his first day off is not BECAUSE of his baserunning errors. It took about twenty unforced baserunning errors before that happened last season.

[Ennder]

Prorate is stats to his PA from last year and he has 20 HR, 32 SB, 82 R, 85 RBI. So the rate stats are right in line with last year minus a few steals.

 

His BB rate is right in line with last year. His ISO is higher than last year. He is roughly 7 singles away from matching last years overall numbers. BABIP this year is 50 pts below his career norms which is pretty much the difference. I hope people aren't worried about him anymore.

 

He is never going to be good defensively and I hope we don't sign him as our long term 2B. I hope we get something juicy for him in trade though.

[pacopete4]

He's been pretty good to me at 2B since about the second week of the season.

[istanbultaye]

Villar in May, while still not lighting the world on fire, has been solid enough that I don't feel an urgent need to push him down in the order. I do think that giving him a few more days off here and there than what he's gotten so far wouldn't hurt.

[rickh150]

Villar in May, while still not lighting the world on fire, has been solid enough that I don't feel an urgent need to push him down in the order. I do think that giving him a few more days off here and there than what he's gotten so far wouldn't hurt.

 

Not a big fan of his for many reasons.....

Yet, he needs to play for now. Sogard can play a couple days a week for him, though. No reason to treat a 220 hitter like the missing link when our entire lineup at AAA is hitting 300.

[Greenleaf1]

Sogard is having a great week so far but he's kind of a known quantity. His upside is nowhere near what Villar did last year. He's definitely not the answer for the Brewers at 2B, so I wouldn't be so quick to give him a bunch of Villar's playing time.

 

When the whole team gets healthy, Perez is going to need places to play every day, and given the insane offensive production of the entire outfield at this point plus Shaw and Thames, that really only leaves SS and 2B, so if Villar is continuing to struggle in a week or two here I wouldn't be surprised if Perez starts to see some time at 2B, especially against lefties (certainly wasn't expecting heading into this year that Villar was the guy who would need platooning).

 

Until then, there are plenty of spots that need filling out there and Villar has been playing better both offensively and defensively, so let's give him a chance to turn it around. If he can get back to the guy he was last year he'd be tremendously valuable to us as a team or in a trade.

[JohnBriggs12]

Hmmm....Villar struggling (again) and Sogard soaring.

[JohnBriggs12]

Sogard is having a great week so far but he's kind of a known quantity. His upside is nowhere near what Villar did last year. He's definitely not the answer for the Brewers at 2B, so I wouldn't be so quick to give him a bunch of Villar's playing time.

 

When the whole team gets healthy, Perez is going to need places to play every day, and given the insane offensive production of the entire outfield at this point plus Shaw and Thames, that really only leaves SS and 2B, so if Villar is continuing to struggle in a week or two here I wouldn't be surprised if Perez starts to see some time at 2B, especially against lefties (certainly wasn't expecting heading into this year that Villar was the guy who would need platooning).

 

Until then, there are plenty of spots that need filling out there and Villar has been playing better both offensively and defensively, so let's give him a chance to turn it around. If he can get back to the guy he was last year he'd be tremendously valuable to us as a team or in a trade.

 

I'll grant you Villar's defense has improved but his hitting isn't where it needs to be. Is Villar's upside in 2017 what Villar did last year? Sogard spent almost his entire major league career playing in Oakland, with 3 times the foul territory of any other park. His WAR per B-R from 2013-2015 when he was a semi-regular were a respectable 1.9, 0.6, 1.0. So that puts his ceiling at 2.0 WAR. Villar through a quarter of the season is -0.2 and he's leading the NL in strikeouts. Sogard is a plus defender too. Nobody thinks Sogard is a long term option at 2B, but until he cools he should be getting playing time from Villar who still looks completely messed up.

[monty57]

Hmmm....Villar struggling (again) and Sogard soaring.

 

We can't make important decisions based on small samples. Believing that Sogard is a long-term upgrade based on a few games is akin to believing that Nelson is now a stud #1 based on his last couple of outings.

 

Let Sogard ride out this hot streak while half our team is injured, but he'll drop back to what we expected when we picked him up. He's capable of being an okay placeholder, but not someone for the long-term plans.

 

Villar has a chance of becoming an above average MLB player, so we need to ride out his bad start to see if he can get things going. 25% of a season is not enough time to make that determination when he has some history of being better. I could see him getting some extra days off, or moving him down in the order, but he should remain our starting 2B. His potential upside benefit for this team, both now and for the future, is too high for us to replace him with someone with little present value and basically no future value in Sogard.