My, what a guy, that Kest-on

[Samurai Bucky]

Sorry, but I have had this tune in my head for a few weeks and I have been encouraged to write something down. A few lyrics set to the tune of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. You need to pronounce Keston as Kest-ON...

 

No one hits like Keston

No one runs like Keston

No one comes up and wins in the clutch like Keston

For there's no man in town half as manly

Except for the league MVP

You can ask any Cain, Braun or Yeli

And they'll tell you whose team they prefer to be on

 

No one smiles like Keston

A big kid like Keston

No one has some peach fuzz on his face like Keston

As a young rookie, yes, he's intimidating

My, what a guy, that Keston!

 

Give five hurrahs

Give twelve hip-hips

Keston is the best

And the rest is all drips

 

No one fields like Keston

Turns DPs like Keston

Late in games no one beats on the Cubs like Keston

There are many much larger and brawny

As you see he still hits the ball hard

Some may call him scraggly or scrawny

But it's baseballs that he will step up and bombard...

 

Sorry... that is all I got...

 

Go Crew!

[trwi7]

Tale as old as time

True as it can be

The Cubs still suck

[SRB]

Tale as old as time

True as it can be

The Cubs still suck

 

Fly the bel(L)e flag!

[clancyphile]

Real Men pitch to Christian Yelich and Keston Hiura, just as Real Men would kick to Devin Hester back in the day.

 

Those who intentionally walk them should feel shame...

[Eye Black]

So should this be the official Keston Hiura appreciation thread?... because I do think we need one of those.

 

If so, here is my wow moment of the day...

 

Among balls he is putting in play, Keston Hiura is Slugging .729 against breaking pitches (i.e. slider, curve) and he is Slugging .786 against off-speed pitches (i.e. change-up, splitter). He is also hitting fastballs just fine (.564 Slugging percentage). His only real weakness so far seems to be swinging through high fastballs, but even when he gets down in the count 0-2 he remains a big threat to hammer any breaking or off-speed pitch in the zone. As MLB Network put it, he is the rare young hitter who can actually hunt for breaking pitches and crush them.

[BruisedCrew]

Thumbs up to the OP.

 

I find most attempts at this kind of parody to be pretty lame and forced, but this one really hit home for me.

[jerichoholicninja]

Seems like he could be a decent player.

[Eye Black]

Keston Hiura’s MLB hitting spray chart thus far (link):

 

[MillerParkSouth]

Bravo OP. We watch Beauty and the Beast quite a bit so this song is also constantly in my head so this is fantastic.

[monkeyman343434]

we should probably trade him for a SP rental

[jerichoholicninja]

Keston Hiura’s MLB hitting spray chart thus far (link):

 

 

At what park did he hit that double that went further than all but 2 of his homeruns?

[ReverendBrewmeister]

Keston Hiura’s MLB hitting spray chart thus far (link):

 

 

At what park did he hit that double that went further than all but 2 of his homeruns?

 

I think that it's the double Hiura hit to center field on July 21 in Arizona. That huge wall in center takes away a number of home runs. Based on where that double hit around 3/4 high on the wall, I'm guessing that the spray chart may have put in an estimated distance that the ball would have traveled.

[pacopete4]

Hiura 1 for 11 with 5 K’s and a walk since this song emerged.

[trwi7]

Hiura 1 for 11 with 5 K’s and a walk since this song emerged.

 

But I binged the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack on YouTube so it's not all bad.

[The stache]

Keston Hiura’s MLB hitting spray chart thus far (link):

 

 

At what park did he hit that double that went further than all but 2 of his homeruns?

 

No kidding. I didn't know the Polo Grounds got rebuilt.

[Samurai Bucky]

Hiura 1 for 11 with 5 K’s and a walk since this song emerged.

What happens if we play it backwards?

[pacopete4]

Hiura 1 for 11 with 5 K’s and a walk since this song emerged.

What happens if we play it backwards?

 

Worth a try.

[pacopete4]

Now 3 for 28 with 10 K’s and 2BB with 4 errors since the song debut.

[Eye Black]

Now 3 for 28 with 10 K’s and 2BB with 4 errors since the song debut.

I wouldn’t read too much into it. He is going to strikeout plenty and the defense isn’t likely ever going to be great, but even Yelich had an offensive stretch towards the end of June where he was was 3 for 26 with 9 K’s. I guess let’s at least give it another week before we declare the song a curse and lock it down.

[pacopete4]

Now 3 for 28 with 10 K’s and 2BB with 4 errors since the song debut.

 

4 for 32 with 12 K’s, 2BB, 4 errors and a noodle arm to the plate tonight. Is he going to have to learn 1B? Such a weak arm. Not a good fielder either.

[wildcat2237]

Now 3 for 28 with 10 K’s and 2BB with 4 errors since the song debut.

 

4 for 32 with 12 K’s, 2BB, 4 errors and a noodle arm to the plate tonight. Is he going to have to learn 1B? Such a weak arm. Not a good fielder either.

 

I complained about Keston's arm on here about a year ago and was tarred and feathered.

 

He is going to be a weak defender and is going to need to hit consistently to overcome the bad defense.

[sveumrules]

Keston is currently at 51 games/208 PAs, so about one third of a season.

 

He has hit 298/365/553 (134 wRC+) so far. I think if he hits at that level throughout his Brewer career that would be pretty cool. For reference Braun is at 297/359/532 (135 wRC+) career.

 

His defense has come in around -3 (DRS) or -4.4 (UZR). Now obviously defense stats in a sample this small are noisy, but Keston being a -10 to -15 fielder over the course of a season was always a possibility.

 

Add it all up & bWAR has him at 1.1 vs 1.4 over at FanGraphs (with the difference coming in the base running numbers). Over a full season that's a 3-4 WAR guy.

 

In the future I would guess Hiura settles in slightly below his current level of offense (more of a 125-130 wRC+ guy) & slightly above his current level of defense (more of a -5 to -10 guy), which still gets him to the same spot 3-4 WAR range.

 

Now if he somehow manages to exceed his current offensive output & get his defense to even average, you're looking at a 5+ WAR guy.

[pacopete4]

Song slump is slowing with his bat. Still has some voodoo going on his fielding though.

[Eye Black]

Song slump is slowing with his bat. Still has some voodoo going on his fielding though.

“Slowing”

 

Unfortunately the defense probably isn’t voodoo, but I think it can get a little better with more playing time. The arm strength likely is what it is at this point.

[adambr2]

I remember Villar's early games as a full time 2B in 2017. There was mass rioting, and the general consensus is that he was never going to be able to man the position fulltime.

 

We've survived some pretty weak defensive 2B over recent years with Weeks and Gennett. I'm not overly concerned about Hiura. I don't expect him to be a strong 2B defender but I would guess he'll eventually be in the passable range and his bat will be more than good enough to compensate.

 

This is not a Braun at 3rd in 2007 type disaster. Hiura will be able to stay at 2nd.