The importance of Keston Hiura

[OnTheBlack]

 

 

 

No kidding.....I've turned into a guy who roots for Scooter to a guy who almost dosn't like him for the irrational reason that people who seemingly don't understand why he was let go KEEP bringing him up.

 

Scooter Gennett has nothing to do with Keston Hirura. Why anyone even said, "I'd rather have Scooters last two seasons over Hirura."

 

I'd rather have a lot of guys over a lot of guys on this current team. But it'd seem to be more logical to discuss the guys we actually control.

[OnTheBlack]

 

Exactly. And I've said it over & over about Scooter: if you want the Scooter of the last 2 years you'd also need the Reds' hitting coach. It is well documented that he helped significantly in changing Scooter's swing.

 

 

Slightly off topic, but I hope we overstated how big of an impact Johnson had on our pitching staff. That might be the biggest off-season move we've made(or not made) so far if he really did have that big of a positive impact on the staff.

[Jenkins5]

Importance of Keston Huira? I don’t know, [sarcasm]how important is a future Hall of famer, 15 time all-star, 4 time MVP, and 10 time silver slugger winner? Answer? Still less important than having Gennett[/sarcasm]

 

I’m a big Huira fan & really believe in his bat. He just has it for a hit tool. He won’t hurt you with Ks. For 2nd base he should give you 15-20 hrs which is plenty for the position. Not a fan of his walk percent. 7-8% isn’t bad but also not great. I hope he can get that over 10 & maintain. That will go a long way to making him an even more dangerous offensive player.

 

I think he is pretty similar player has Daniel Murphy. High average, low K, not great bb%, good 15-20 power (maybe seasons with more down road). Defense average won’t get gold gloves but won’t hurt you much either. Most likely won’t steal much more than 10-15 bases a season.

 

To me, I personally think 6-7 years of control over a Murphy like 2nd baseman is very valuable. He could make a couple all-star games but don’t think he will be an annual all-star. He will just be a very good core player for us.

[3and2Fastball]

I predict Hiura will win a couple of batting titles. His ceiling is a Hall of Fame induction. His floor is a .265 batting average guy with 10-15 HR's & lots of clutch hits over his MLB career.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

The "giving away Gennett" thing is getting really old. They gave him away for nthing because that was his value at the time. It's not like the Brewers played him a month and gave up. He was abhorrent at the end of his run in Milwaukee. Nobody saw what happened to Gennett coming. It's just one of those weird things that happens and didn't work out for us.

[jerichoholicninja]

Stearns brought in Jesus Aguilar whom the Indians "gave up for nothing" so I'll call it a wash.

[3and2Fastball]

Stearns brought in Jesus Aguilar whom the Indians "gave up for nothing" so I'll call it a wash.

 

And Travis Shaw plus Dubon, who we got for a broken down relief pitcher. (Think the Red Sox weren't aware of Thornburg's medicals & didn't understand the risks involved in the trade?)

[TooLiveBrew]

I predict Hiura will win a couple of batting titles. His ceiling is a Hall of Fame induction. His floor is a .265 batting average guy with 10-15 HR's & lots of clutch hits over his MLB career.

Might want to pump the brakes just a tad

[Eye Black]

 

Exactly. And I've said it over & over about Scooter: if you want the Scooter of the last 2 years you'd also need the Reds' hitting coach. It is well documented that he helped significantly in changing Scooter's swing.

 

The last thing I want is for this to turn into a Scooter Gennett thread, but I have seen much of the credit for Scooter’s transformation given to Brewers assistant hitting coach Jason Lane, not the Reds coaching staff.

 

 

Example #1: How Scooter Gennett transformed from a Cincinnati Reds waiver claim into an All-Star from the Cincinnati Enquirer

 

Article includes the following:

 

Gennett made it look like a genius decision on his first day.

 

In his first Spring Training at-bat with the Reds, Gennett faced Cleveland Indians reliever Andrew Miller, one of the toughest left-handed pitchers in the sport. Gennett drilled a 2-2 pitch over the wall in left-center for a solo home run.

 

And this was the guy the Reds added to hit righties.

 

“He hits the home run and I’m like, ‘Wow, that makes us look pretty good,’” Williams said. “It just kind of went from there. But he was instantly accepted as a good clubhouse guy. He made his presence known and honestly as much as we’d like to say we were that smart – we did see him as a role player.”

 

Gennett made his biggest adjustment at the plate in one of his final seasons with the Brewers. Working with Milwaukee's assistant hitting coach Jason Lane in the batting cages, Lane told Gennett to change where his back foot landed at the end of his swing.

 

It helped Gennett keep his front hip closed on swings and the immediate impact was he started to hit for more power.

 

 

Example #2: How the Reds found their surprising slugger from MLB.com

 

Article includes the following:

 

To hear Gennett tell it, the change actually began in his final year in Milwaukee, thanks to Brewers assistant hitting coach Jason Lane, who played in parts of seven Major League seasons for the Astros and Padres. Lane encouraged Gennett in a 2016 batting cage session to change where his back foot landed on his swing, falling behind him (towards the backstop) rather than directly under him. This would have the effect of adding some elevation to a previously flat swing.

 

"OK, that's kind of odd," Gennett recalled this spring in a conversation with MLB Network's Eric Byrnes about Lane's suggestion, "but I'll try it out. First swing I went, 'Boom,' OK, that felt a little weird. I did it again, and all of a sudden I'm getting true flight on the ball, because my front side is actually staying closed, I'm hitting behind -- boom -- and I've just rolled with that."

[phnxcrew]

Clearly, we traded scooter for Hiura and simply don’t know it. Me? I blame Royce Clayton.

[adambr2]

I wonder if Red Sox fans have these conversations about Travis Shaw.

[NievesNoNO]

I wonder if Red Sox fans have these conversations about Travis Shaw.

 

Probably, but I'm sure some of the dismay is eased by a WS win.

[3and2Fastball]

Thanks Eye Black, I stand corrected!

[TooLiveBrew]

Clearly, we traded scooter for Hiura and simply don’t know it. Me? I blame Royce Clayton.

Oh don't even act like Junior Spivey is blameless in this debacle!

[CheezWizHed]

Clearly, we traded scooter for Hiura and simply don’t know it. Me? I blame Royce Clayton.

Oh don't even act like Junior Spivey is blameless in this debacle!

 

Go the root of the problem at 2B!

 

[dlk9s]

Somehow, this must all go back to the Richie Sexton trade.

[TURBO]

Somehow, this must all go back to the Richie Sexson trade.

 

Has to be Yuni's fault, just has to...

[dlk9s]

I'll blame autocorrect?

 

And no, I won't go back and fix it because I have to own my mistake.

[trwi7]

At least when we traded Sexton we got Molar and Council in return.

[ebmackenzie]

I wonder if Toronto Bluejay blogs are having The importance of Cavan Biggio threads since his AA OPS is .887

[homer]

I wonder if Toronto Bluejay blogs are having The importance of Cavan Biggio threads since his AA OPS is .887

 

They're too busy salivating over Vlad Jr.

[dlk9s]

At least when we traded Sexton we got Molar and Council in return.

 

Me all excited about my great joke:

 

[TURBO]

That looks like about 3 different injuries these days...

[trwi7]

That looks like about 3 different injuries these days...

 

I'm going with torn groin, sprained wrist and somehow getting himself in the back of the head with his cleats.

[xisxisxis]

Where's "The importance of a backup plan for SS" Topic? Brewers were 28th in SS productivity last year (-2.7 WAA from average; only PA teams were worse) and, while Sogard is gone, what happens if Arcia continues to hit like a blind squirrel? His defense doesn't make up for his anemic bat and just hoping he's more like 2017 than 2018 is a path we've already been down before (Villar)... The Brewers were a 500 team last year when they were getting almost nothing out of the bottom of the lineup. Near average production out of C/SS/2B would go a long way for the Brewers to be a serious playoff contender in 2019. For all the concern about an upgrade at C and 2B, the Brewer got average production out of Pina/Kratz/Bandy last year (-0.2 WAA from average), and better production out of 2B (mostly due to Shaw; -0.2 WAA from average) than the black whole at SS. We need at least a platoon partner for Arcia and in a perfect world, a replacement in the wings, if he stinks again. Every other playoff team last year had at least a league average SS.