2B: Villar/Sogard/Perez

[long ball]

I don't really think Orf or Dubon (sounds like the injury is bad) are really starting caliber players in the bigs. They're probably both suitable bench players though so I wouldn't have an issue with Sogard getting replaced. I sorta get the feeling this weekend was Sogard's chance to get going and since he didn't he's at severe risk of losing his roster spot in the next week or so when Knebel, Logan, and Davies will all presumably be back.

 

This team has an opportunity to make a meaningful upgrade to the roster at 2b. They're getting limited offensive production and pretty bad defense at the position.

 

Neil Walker has been bad, but there is a decent chance he gets DFAd when Bird comes back. If he does, the Brewers should explore acquiring him.

 

Beyond Walker, there are several 2b options who may become available before the trade deadline including Lowrie (personal preference), Schoop, Dozier, Cabrera, etc.

 

Until they can upgrade the position, I would ride Villar at second base as much as possible since he's unfortunately the best option at the moment.

[pacopete4]

Arcia isn’t 24 years old until August and OPS’d .731 a season ago. Brewers god Yount was trash at the plate until his mid 20’s but we should go a different direction at shortstop? Come on...

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Arcia isn’t 24 years old until August and OPS’d .731 a season ago. Brewers god Yount was trash at the plate until his mid 20’s but we should go a different direction at shortstop? Come on...

 

This. If they are going to get crap offense, at least provide Gold Glove defense. Sogard should be playing no SS, and Arcia should get every inning until he passes out. 23-year-old middle infielders who weigh 170 lbs shouldn't need breather days.

[MrTPlush]

Arcia isn’t 24 years old until August and OPS’d .731 a season ago. Brewers god Yount was trash at the plate until his mid 20’s but we should go a different direction at shortstop? Come on...

 

Short term, yup! Wouldn't even hesitate. He would still play a lot between SS/2B where it wouldn't effect his developement at all. Of course 2B production is so bad too I doubt we would fix two black holes up the middle at once. He has been the 14th worst offensive player this year...out of 220 players with 90+ PA. That's not just bad.

 

Comparing him to Yount is interesting to say the least, especially considering Yount entered the league at 18 years old. I guess A. Escobar will start mashing any second now. Age as an easy out answer...weird it doesn't work for 27 year old Villar though.

 

Throwing him out there everyday when he resembles a pitcher at the plate is doing nothing positive I can tell you that. Would I be starting Sogard/Perez over him...uhh no. I would not complain if they upgraded him to help the offense etc. though. SHORT TERM

[TURBO]

Set the controls for the heart of the sun....

 

Name that Band without googling...

 

dude, please...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pink Floyd, are there people who don't know this?

[pacopete4]

Arcia isn’t 24 years old until August and OPS’d .731 a season ago. Brewers god Yount was trash at the plate until his mid 20’s but we should go a different direction at shortstop? Come on...

 

Short term, yup! Wouldn't even hesitate. He would still play a lot between SS/2B where it wouldn't effect his developement at all. Of course 2B production is so bad too I doubt we would fix two black holes up the middle at once. He has been the 14th worst offensive player this year...out of 220 players with 90+ PA. That's not just bad.

 

Comparing him to Yount is interesting to say the least, especially considering Yount entered the league at 18 years old. I guess A. Escobar will start mashing any second now. Age as an easy out answer...weird it doesn't work for 27 year old Villar though.

 

Throwing him out there everyday when he resembles a pitcher at the plate is doing nothing positive I can tell you that. Would I be starting Sogard/Perez over him...uhh no. I would not complain if they upgraded him to help the offense etc. though. SHORT TERM

 

My point wasn’t that Arcia ever becomes a Yount type player but that if we never give these guys a long leash, we will never know. Even with Yount breaking in at 18, it took him 6-7 years to become a good player. Just imagine calling for him to be benched at 22? His stats probably would have justified it. We really need to be patient with a guy that has the talent of Arcia or we really might miss out on something special. Or we won’t. That’s the crapshoot of baseball.

[nate82]

Set the controls for the heart of the sun....

 

Name that Band without googling...

 

Umm that is easy Pink Floyd.

[brewmann04]

NO WAY should Sogard be on this team at this point.

[Jaylyn]

Villar and Arcia should be starting everyday barring injuries. Villar just to see if he is 2016 or 2017 version, if he's the 2017 version, just him cut at the end of the year and move on. Arcia is 23, we are just going to have to roll with him and see if the bat comes around. (New hitting coach?)

As far as Sogard, while i'm sure he's a great guy and a positive for the clubhouse environment. He is bringing little to nothing on the field and CC's fascination with starting him is damaging the teams chances of winning.

Bring up Orf, will he be the next Altuve, Pedroia or, dare I say it, Gennett? Probably not, but we will never know unless we try it!

[brewmann04]

I agree play Villar he the guy with the most potential. I would like to see Orf over sogard too at this point.

[BrewCrewForever]

I just can't quit Villar. That 2016 was so good, it has to be in him still. He had a .369 OBP that season. I just don't get why he can't take his walks anymore. But he has the most potential yet and I think he needs to play just about everyday to see if he can start seeing the ball again like he did in 16' and start to hit for the power again he did that year (38 2B, 3 3B and 19 HR). Between 17' and so far this year he seems to swing and miss so much I honestly wondered if he needs contacts/goggles/lasik or something.

[MrTPlush]

We really need to be patient with a guy that has the talent of Arcia or we really might miss out on something special. Or we won’t. That’s the crapshoot of baseball.

 

What talent though? His prospect ranking exploded because of the small possibility his bat would be something after one good year. He then proceeded to be "meh" in Colorado's hitter haven. He was young, I know. He essentially lives off one great year in AA.

 

The way he is swinging the bat on a daily basis is quite sad. Either someone needs to fix the way he bats or we need to sop treating him like he is something special. He looks terrible at the plate, the mechanics don't make sense, and he produces. No amoun of ABs are going to make him better unless he sees a massive overhaul on multiple fronts.

 

Jonathan Villar had phenominal 24/25 year old seasons, but for some reason he is 100% 2017 Villar and no chance to be good again to the majority of people on this board. I just don't get how one can be so positive about Arcia, but Villar is assured to be trash. Both are young players with talent.

[pacopete4]

We really need to be patient with a guy that has the talent of Arcia or we really might miss out on something special. Or we won’t. That’s the crapshoot of baseball.

 

What talent though? His prospect ranking exploded because of the small possibility his bat would be something after one good year. He then proceeded to be "meh" in Colorado's hitter haven. He was young, I know. He essentially lives off one great year in AA.

 

The way he is swinging the bat on a daily basis is quite sad. Either someone needs to fix the way he bats or we need to sop treating him like he is something special. He looks terrible at the plate, the mechanics don't make sense, and he produces. No amoun of ABs are going to make him better unless he sees a massive overhaul on multiple fronts.

 

Jonathan Villar had phenominal 24/25 year old seasons, but for some reason he is 100% 2017 Villar and no chance to be good again to the majority of people on this board. I just don't get how one can be so positive about Arcia, but Villar is assured to be trash. Both are young players with talent.

 

You’re barking up the wrong tree because I’ve advocated for Villar and been in his corner, over and over again. It’s flat out ridiculous that guys like Perez and Sogard are playing over him but it has become expected from Counsell. Villar has too much talent to not have been given a chance to display it this year.

 

I’m not disagreeing that Arcia hasn’t been good but not playing him right now would be a very poor choice IMO. It’s exactly the opposite of what we should be doing IMO. Arcia will hopefully settle into being the mid .700’s ops’er that he should be but not playing him won’t get him there. The problem some are having is that they had too high of expectations to begin with.

[Boomer5]

As a poster stated in another thread, if Hiura can’t play 2B, they need to do two things;

 

1 Get him of the field and fixed be it rehab, surgery, stem cell, or witch doctor

2 Acquire a veteran 2B (and catcher) in the meantime because the Sogard Villar (and Bandy/Pena) experiment isn’t working and the offensive regression has been so massive we can no longer afford what is essentially a 4 pitcher caliber bottom of the order.

[adambr2]

Couple things on JV vs Arcia:

 

- Calling Villar “phenomenal” in 2016 is a bit of an overstatement. He was a very nice player, but it’s possible it was an aberration.

 

- Arcia was a top 10 prospect and is 23. Villar is 27. Not very comparable as far as age and upside.

 

- That said, I do believe both should be starting middle infielders for what we have right now and not constantly jerked around for guys like Sogard.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

As a poster stated in another thread, if Hiura can’t play 2B, they need to do two things;

 

1 Get him of the field and fixed be it rehab, surgery, stem cell, or witch doctor

2 Acquire a veteran 2B (and catcher) in the meantime because the Sogard Villar (and Bandy/Pena) experiment isn’t working and the offensive regression has been so massive we can no longer afford what is essentially a 4 pitcher caliber bottom of the order.

 

When I mentioned in March that Hiura should get it over with and get TJ surgery, I was told that he would be better off getting the ABs and playing DH, and get the surgery later. I just don't know if, as a 2B, if he can get the surgery in, say, August or September, and still be ready for Spring Training next year. I know the turn-around for a position player is much less than a pitcher.

[Fear The Chorizo]

With Hiura not playing defense everyday, regardless of how well he's hitting there should be no discussion of him as a MLB solution to 2B for 2018. If surgery winds up being the best option to solve his arm woes (may not be the case, if there's not structural damage requiring surgery it's not the solution), then I wonder if he gets that done at the end of the Carolina league's 1st half, which is late June I believe. That would hopefully have him recovered and ready to go for Spring training 2019, likely opening the year at AA with the opportunity to wind up in Milwaukee in 2019 or most likely opening day 2020.

 

It's fun yet frustrating for me to read the Link Reports and see Hiura raking right now - Hiura is off to a Braun-like minor league start to his professional career offensively, but he's got to at least be able to put a glove on and play a below average 2nd base defensively for me to be over the moon excited at what he could add to the MLB Brewers as soon as 2019 / 2020. Without being able to play the field due to his arm, it just feels like the Brewers are prolonging the day when he'd be called up to the Brewers for good - I fully expect there to be most of a season lost for Hiura due to resolving the arm issue, and my hope is that process starts as soon as possible. I'm also still holding on to a strand of optimism that he can get back on the field every day without surgery and could potentially wind up this year in AA with a legit shot at the opening day 2019 Brewer roster. That seems the least likely scenario considering Hiura has barely played any games defensively for 2+ seasons going back to his sophmore year in college because of that arm problem.

[MrTPlush]

Couple things on JV vs Arcia:

 

- Calling Villar “phenomenal” in 2016 is a bit of an overstatement.

 

I mean 4 WAR...pretty darn good I would say. We all probably have a different definition for the word though.

[rickh150]

Couple things on JV vs Arcia:

 

- Calling Villar “phenomenal” in 2016 is a bit of an overstatement.

 

I mean 4 WAR...pretty darn good I would say. We all probably have a different definition for the word though.

 

 

WAR doesn't factor in the amount of times thrown out on the bases (SB or unforced), does it?

[stoutdude04]

Couple things on JV vs Arcia:

 

- Calling Villar “phenomenal” in 2016 is a bit of an overstatement.

 

I mean 4 WAR...pretty darn good I would say. We all probably have a different definition for the word though.

 

 

WAR doesn't factor in the amount of times thrown out on the bases (SB or unforced), does it?

 

According to a quick google search, it does.

[pacopete4]

That last post got me.

[3and2Fastball]

So rumor has it Nate Orf is in Milwaukee today. Sogard DFA'd? Villar or Sogard to the DL maybe?

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

So rumor has it Nate Orf is in Milwaukee today. Sogard DFA'd? Villar or Sogard to the DL maybe?

 

I just looked ... can't find anything other than one parody Twitter account saying this.

[adambr2]

I would guess if the Brewers were going to make a move they would have made it yesterday on the day off. The fact that none was made would indicate that none is forthcoming to me, unfortunately.

[bill hAll Star]

So rumor has it Nate Orf is in Milwaukee today. Sogard DFA'd? Villar or Sogard to the DL maybe?

 

I just looked ... can't find anything other than one parody Twitter account saying this.

 

Check out the Knebel thread. He's with Knebel in Milwaukee (or so the picture seems).