Keston Hiura called up, Shaw optioned

[TURBO]

Shaw looks totally lost to me and despite his protestations I don't think he's close. Aguilar's issue is he let his weight get a little out of hand and it's affecting his swing, but his timing looks okay to me. He's just a fraction away from barreling balls up.

 

Hiura needs to be up now, not in a month. Shaw needs to be given the same treatment given Santana last year. Send him down and forget he's there for a while and then move him for something of value in the winter. Let another team take a risk that he'll return to his 17-18 form. They have LH thunder in their lineup without Shaw. If need be they can always go out and pick up Neil Walker.

 

I have seen Neil Walker mentioned a couple times recently. What on earth for?

[MrTPlush]

Maybe it was a different player mentioned before, but just because you bat both ways doesn’t mean you are actually good against all pitching. Neil Walker is absolutely TERRIBLE against LHP. Like so terrible I don’t know why he switch hits. He doesn’t even have an OPS over .500 the last three years against LHP.

[tmwiese55]

This team needs Hiura to balance out the lineup. We currently don't have a real threat from the right side and we will need that to beat Chicago and LA who both have a lot of lefties.

 

There is no doubt Hiura will be up in September and for the potential playoffs. It's how they manage things leading up to it as they're trying to maintain their depth in case of injury.

 

FWIW Shaw is at 250/400/817 since he's been back which is obviously fine. I know he's become the whipping boy here but really Jesus is the issue. As soon as Hiura is past the date I think the move should be Jesus to the DL with back soreness to give him a break and some time playing every day in AAA. That buys you a few weeks to decide, see who else might get hurt, see who hits well, etc. Play Perez some at 1B and give Grandal is off days at 1B vs lefties in the meantime.

[pacopete4]

Jesus is just heating up. Doubtful that now they would give up on him.

[SeaBass]

Shaw looks totally lost to me and despite his protestations I don't think he's close. Aguilar's issue is he let his weight get a little out of hand and it's affecting his swing, but his timing looks okay to me. He's just a fraction away from barreling balls up.

 

Hiura needs to be up now, not in a month. Shaw needs to be given the same treatment given Santana last year. Send him down and forget he's there for a while and then move him for something of value in the winter. Let another team take a risk that he'll return to his 17-18 form. They have LH thunder in their lineup without Shaw. If need be they can always go out and pick up Neil Walker.

.250/.400/.817 since Shaw's return from the IL looks ok to me. Not that 6 or 7 games is a deciding factor either way but perhaps we could give him more time before casually tossing him aside.

[MrTPlush]

Jesus is just heating up. Doubtful that now they would give up on him.

 

Food for thought:

 

He has only 3 Ks in his last 24 PAs. Which is notably better than his 23.5% clip on the year. It is actually kind of shocking he improved both his K-Rate and BB-Rate compared to last year, but has been absolutely terrible despite that.

 

Not sure he is heating up, but he has done better recently. The HR might buy him some more playing time to get one last chance. I would guess he is doomed if he can't show more promise in the next few weeks. They really haven't shown much confidence in him for over a month.

[KeithStone53151]

Jesus is just heating up. Doubtful that now they would give up on him.

 

Food for thought:

 

He has only 3 Ks in his last 24 PAs. Which is notably better than his 23.5% clip on the year. It is actually kind of shocking he improved both his K-Rate and BB-Rate compared to last year, but has been absolutely terrible despite that.

 

Not sure he is heating up, but he has done better recently. The HR might buy him some more playing time to get one last chance. I would guess he is doomed if he can't show more promise in the next few weeks. They really haven't shown much confidence in him for over a month.

 

Aguilar is in a bench/PH role, so one big hit is going to severely skew his recent stat line. He looks a bit better, but I'm very skeptical of him being the answer in the postseason against LHP.

[SeaBass]

Jesus is just heating up. Doubtful that now they would give up on him.

 

Food for thought:

 

He has only 3 Ks in his last 24 PAs. Which is notably better than his 23.5% clip on the year. It is actually kind of shocking he improved both his K-Rate and BB-Rate compared to last year, but has been absolutely terrible despite that.

 

Not sure he is heating up, but he has done better recently. The HR might buy him some more playing time to get one last chance. I would guess he is doomed if he can't show more promise in the next few weeks. They really haven't shown much confidence in him for over a month.

I noticed that too. Aguilar is having by far his most successful month so far this season. But again, it's only good for a what, .724 OPS? Something around that and still only a ~.300 OBP. He's only getting part time ABs as a RH hitter, 10 to 12 ABs a week. A couple starts against lefties (less if they're going to play Grandal at 1B more often) and a handful of pinch hitting appearances a week, to me, doesn't feel like enough playing time to really make a dent in who he's been this season.

 

Maybe I'm wrong but the roster crunch is real and I feel like his name is at the bottom. He might have until the all star break to make an impression. I wanted to be able to make an argument for him to keep his spot on the team but it's really difficult to see that happening unless he starts mashing in nearly every AB he gets this next week or so.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Jesus is just heating up. Doubtful that now they would give up on him.

 

Food for thought:

 

He has only 3 Ks in his last 24 PAs. Which is notably better than his 23.5% clip on the year. It is actually kind of shocking he improved both his K-Rate and BB-Rate compared to last year, but has been absolutely terrible despite that.

 

Not sure he is heating up, but he has done better recently. The HR might buy him some more playing time to get one last chance. I would guess he is doomed if he can't show more promise in the next few weeks. They really haven't shown much confidence in him for over a month.

I noticed that too. Aguilar is having by far his most successful month so far this season. But again, it's only good for a what, .724 OPS? Something around that and still only a ~.300 OBP. He's only getting part time ABs as a RH hitter, 10 to 12 ABs a week. A couple starts against lefties (less if they're going to play Grandal at 1B more often) and a handful of pinch hitting appearances a week, to me, doesn't feel like enough playing time to really make a dent in who he's been this season.

 

Maybe I'm wrong but the roster crunch is real and I feel like his name is at the bottom. He might have until the all star break to make an impression. I wanted to be able to make an argument for him to keep his spot on the team but it's really difficult to see that happening unless he starts mashing in nearly every AB he gets this next week or so.

 

On top of that, they only have 3 more games at the end of July/1st of August where they can employ a DH (at Athletics). With Thames going pretty well of late and Grandal as a potential 1b option against a lefty starter assuming either Pina or Nottingham is behind the plate, a 0.724 OPS simply isn't good enough for Aguilar in a platoon advantage role as a PH/1B against lefties. IMO there aren't enough ABs available that Jesus should be taking to justify keeping him around assuming Shaw, Thames, Grandal, and Moose are all healthy and performing to anywhere close to career norms. Once Hiura is safely past the Super 2 cutoff, he's got to be recalled with Aguilar being the odd man out. Even if that means Jesus is no longer a Brewer, they'll still have a good amount of depth at the position options he can play.

 

Jesus was fantastic for about 3 months of 2018, and was in the NL MVP conversation through the AS Break...but I think we all knew that wasn't going to be sustainable. I'm sure he can still get on hot streaks where he'd carry a team for a week or two, but he's proven to be more of the player he was with the Indians that led to his release than anything close to a consistent All Star caliber performer.

[MrTPlush]

Jesus is just heating up. Doubtful that now they would give up on him.

 

Food for thought:

 

He has only 3 Ks in his last 24 PAs. Which is notably better than his 23.5% clip on the year. It is actually kind of shocking he improved both his K-Rate and BB-Rate compared to last year, but has been absolutely terrible despite that.

 

Not sure he is heating up, but he has done better recently. The HR might buy him some more playing time to get one last chance. I would guess he is doomed if he can't show more promise in the next few weeks. They really haven't shown much confidence in him for over a month.

 

Aguilar is in a bench/PH role, so one big hit is going to severely skew his recent stat line. He looks a bit better, but I'm very skeptical of him being the answer in the postseason against LHP.

 

Oh sure, of course. A few hits and a homer in a week is going to give him Yelich OPS stats. Just noted it was interesting he hasn't struck out much recently...like very little. I am not really a believer in Aguilar...and the Brewers aren't either obviously.

[Oxy]

Yelich from April 29th to May 31st: .247/.367/.568

Aguilar from April 29th to May 31st: .274/.397/.500

 

Aguilar has been fine in a part time role since his horrendous first month. Thames had a great April, bad May, and is having a great June. Shaw has been fine since he's come back from the IL.

[tmwiese55]

Good post. Generally yea I think you can survive fine right now with him a platoon and some Grandal days at 1B vs LHP. It's just that we know there is such a good RH bat waiting to come up that could do better. Still, knowing that you lose JEsus I get them holding out as long as possibly to maintain the organizational depth. It will be surprising if someone in this IF mix doesn't get hurt between now and September.

 

And for end of year and postseason we know Hiura will be up

[SeaBass]

Yelich from April 29th to May 31st: .247/.367/.568

Aguilar from April 29th to May 31st: .274/.397/.500

 

Aguilar has been fine in a part time role since his horrendous first month. Thames had a great April, bad May, and is having a great June. Shaw has been fine since he's come back from the IL.

Sure when you include April 29 & 30 when Aguilar hit 3 HR in two days that'll boost the numbers nicely. Looking at his game log and the ocean of zeros in the HR column before and after those dates is very telling.

 

If you just take his May numbers they're not nearly so good. .236/.380/.327/.707

 

Oh and Yelich didn't even play April 29 & 30. That's when he was hurt and missed 5 games. You're comparing apples to lugnuts.

[pacopete4]

Or he’s just comparing two players using the same range of dates.

[MrTPlush]

Or he’s just comparing two players using the same range of dates.

 

No, clearly he is manipulating his date range to fit his narrative. Only way you decide to use a month plus two days.Then I suppose you use Yelich to add shock value and hopefully the shock value makes you not think of how he seeked out the perfect date range to make Aguilar actually look decent this year.

 

Of course if Aguilar was actually fine and doing good I think he would be starting more than 2 times a week. Over the last four weeks, actually, he hasn’t even averaged that. Of course if Thames struggled in May and Aguilar was so good I would have expected him to start more....thus he did not.

[pacopete4]

Still, it is not “comparing apples to lugnuts” as was said. Maybe it’s a silly way to compare players but you’re using the same date range. The numbers are what they are. I don’t think anyone would say Aguilar has been in the same world as Yelich but those numbers at least say he’s been somewhat serviceable.

[SeaBass]

He's comparing 2 days of Aguilar to Yelich's worst month of the season, part of which he was hurt. Of course it's not apples to lugnuts but it's a doctored comp.

 

And in no way does that magically make Aguilar serviceable because his "serviceable" period happened over a month ago. For 2 days.

[Oxy]

The only point I was trying to make is that perceptions get repeated ad nauseum in this place (usually in the IGTs) and those perceptions aren't really all that accurate. I find the strange group fixation on finding a whipping boy and stoning him until he's off the roster a bit weird.

 

Shaw from June 4th to June 16th .250/.400/.417 in 30 PAs

Aguilar from Jun 4th to June 16th .273/.333/.455 in 24 PAs

[Oxy]

Of course if Thames struggled in May and Aguilar was so good I would have expected him to start more....thus he did not.

 

Huh? Thames and Aguilar were both bad at hitting in the arbitrary dates of May 1st to May 31st, but they both got on base. Thames has been hot in June, and Aguilar has been okay.

 

In May-

Thames .210/.380/.306 in 79 PAs

Aguilar .236/.380/.327 in 72 PAs

[shanedog19]

How much longer do we wait to call him back up? Offense has really scuffled with RISP, I’m tired of waiting for Shaw to be the guy he was the past few years.

[KeithStone53151]

It's hard to say our offense is scuffling too much. In June we are 8th in OPS with a .302 BABIP...so luck has probably been roughly average. We've scored about 5 runs per game in June, that should win us a lot of games. The problem is pitching, specifically starting pitching. The Brewers starters have a 5.86 ERA in June, with a 4.37 FIP and 3.96 xFIP and .345 BABIP. You can definitely argue the starters have been unlucky this month, but still overall not great. Also 70 innings in 14 starts or exactly 5 innings per start. Certainly not great.

 

Overall, I think the Brewers struggling a bit lately is more related to luck going a bit against them after luck has generally been on their side the first couple months based on production. As much as Hiura is the better option, it's hard to blame Shaw specifically for our 8-6 start to the month of June.

[pacopete4]

Still amazed that so many think Hiura solves the problems of this team. It has been the pitching and there’s really no arguing it.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Still amazed that so many think Hiura solves the problems of this team. It has been the pitching and there’s really no arguing it.

 

It's the pitching and also poor lineup balance from the righthanded batters box - not sure why wanting the best RH bat in the system back on the MLB roster to help improve that roster weakness has to keep being looped in with the obvious pitching problems the Brewers also have, which undoubtedly need to also be addressed if they hope to seriously contend down the stretch. Getting Hiura back up is an internal move that can easily be made - acquiring pitching to improve MLB results from the mound will be a more difficult task.

[True Blue Brew Crew]

Still amazed that so many think Hiura solves the problems of this team. It has been the pitching and there’s really no arguing it.

 

Odd thing to say coming off a 2-0 loss. Hiura doesn't solve all the problems of this team, but he has shown the ability to help solve one of them. I don't think there's a person here who thinks the team is better equipped to win a game today with him in AAA.

[pacopete4]

The stats have shown that the hand the pitcher has thrown with, hasn’t made a difference in our offensive production. While Hiura may be our best RH bat (very debatable), it the least of the concerns for Stearns right now. Hook an co. need to figure out our pitchers or go find some arms down the road.

 

 

Dubon making a case to come up as well. And he’s probably actually good at defense. I think I’d rather see him right now as he would provide some depth to Arcia as well.