When is it time to worry about Keston Hiura?

[Warning Track Power]

At the risk of being called an alarmist, is it time to consider moving Hiura if you were offered something of value? The holes in his swing, the defensive liability in the field...dare I say he may be the Khris Davis of the IF? We were sold on his hitting acumen, but what good is hitting acumen if you’re striking out 35% of the time and hitting in the low .200s? I get that Yelich is doing the same but he’s had back-to-back batting titles prior to his knee injury and COVID season.

 

If the White Sox offered a high contact, low power Nick Madrigal and Andrew Vaughn for 1B for Hiura (for some reason)+ I would have to say I would take it. I’m personally tired of the 3TO baseball we’re playing.

[3and2Fastball]

Wait, why would the Sox offer Madrigal and Vaughan? Did I accidentally click on the Trade Rumors Forum?

 

Hiura has yet to play 162 games. Let’s slow our roll on judging him quite yet. The entire Brewers offense is in a nose dive this season. Are they all horrible? Is something else going on?

[Jopal78]

His value is already shot. Teams saw how he had no chance against Scherzer in the WC game last year and he’s proven he can’t/won’t lay off high heat nor hit it, plus he has poor overall strike zone judgment and is a butcher in the field.

 

Best hope now is he realizes he’s needs to become better and is capable of making the necessary adjustments to be a plus hitter. Otherwise with his D and alarming strike out rate, he’ll be non-tendered in two more years.

[brewers888]

Let’s see what a new hitting coach can do with him. Hiura was great last season and with his elite bat speed I am not ready to give up on him. Haines absolutely must go if we are to get the best out of Hiura.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Let’s see what a new hitting coach can do with him. Hiura was great last season and with his elite bat speed I am not ready to give up on him. Haines absolutely must go if we are to get the best out of Hiura.

 

Yes! We need to go get that hitting coach we had last year when Hiura was great!

[brewers888]

Let’s see what a new hitting coach can do with him. Hiura was great last season and with his elite bat speed I am not ready to give up on him. Haines absolutely must go if we are to get the best out of Hiura.

 

Yes! We need to go get that hitting coach we had last year when Hiura was great!

 

Haines has no responsibility for anyone in this lineup. Yelich, Hiura, and Narvaez all being terrible has nothing do with the hitting coach. Not only should we keep Haines but he should probably get a raise for the fine work he has done with Hiura.

[adambr2]

Let’s see what a new hitting coach can do with him. Hiura was great last season and with his elite bat speed I am not ready to give up on him. Haines absolutely must go if we are to get the best out of Hiura.

 

Yes! We need to go get that hitting coach we had last year when Hiura was great!

 

Devil's advocate -- most of Hiura's instruction last year likely came from Missions hitting coach Al LaBeouf, who has been in that position for quite a few years now. Don't know what if anything that Haines changed with him when he came up, but not likely anything. Something went wrong between the end of last season and this season for sure.

 

I don't know if Haines is at fault but it's incredibly frustrating seeing a hitter like Hiura continue to struggle this badly with no end in sight. You'd have to think that whatever is going on with him is correctable. He's far too talented of a hitter to be this bad for this long.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Let’s see what a new hitting coach can do with him. Hiura was great last season and with his elite bat speed I am not ready to give up on him. Haines absolutely must go if we are to get the best out of Hiura.

 

Yes! We need to go get that hitting coach we had last year when Hiura was great!

 

Haines has no responsibility for anyone in this lineup. Yelich, Hiura, and Narvaez all being terrible has nothing do with the hitting coach. Not only should we keep Haines but he should probably get a raise for the fine work he has done with Hiura.

 

I understand that argument, although I still believe that the role of the hitting coach is greatly overrated by many in a team's fanbase. My post was more to poke fun at the ridiculous notion that Haines needs to go this year because Hiura is terrible, when he was "great" last year, under the same exact hitting coach. If you are going to present a solid reason to change hitting coaches, that ain't it.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Let’s see what a new hitting coach can do with him. Hiura was great last season and with his elite bat speed I am not ready to give up on him. Haines absolutely must go if we are to get the best out of Hiura.

 

Yes! We need to go get that hitting coach we had last year when Hiura was great!

 

Devil's advocate -- most of Hiura's instruction last year likely came from Missions hitting coach Al LaBeouf, who has been in that position for quite a few years now. Don't know what if anything that Haines changed with him when he came up, but not likely anything. Something went wrong between the end of last season and this season for sure.

 

I don't know if Haines is at fault but it's incredibly frustrating seeing a hitter like Hiura continue to struggle this badly with no end in sight. You'd have to think that whatever is going on with him is correctable. He's far too talented of a hitter to be this bad for this long.

 

Wouldn't it be pretty likely that they would have the same hitting philosophies up and down the organization, though? I'm sure LaBeouf and the other hitting coaches in the minors take a lot of their direction from Haines and the big club, especially with a blue chip fast-riser like Hiura.

[brewers888]

Yelich, Hiura, and Narvaez extreme regressions are the reasons why Haines has to go.

[brewers888]

I refuse to believe that Hiura is this bad. He was elite in college and hit a ton in the minors before being great for the Brewers with the bat last season.

[brewers888]

I believe in the bat but defense is always going to be an issue with Hiura.

[dlk9s]

Teams saw how he had no chance against Scherzer in the WC game last year

 

Oh no, he must really be terrible.

[Jopal78]

Teams saw how he had no chance against Scherzer in the WC game last year

 

Oh no, he must really be terrible.

 

All, I’m saying is the guy struck out 26% of the time in the minors where there aren’t pitchers like Scherzer, Bauer, Darvish etc. it’s no surprise he’s up to 36% in the majors. We’ll find out soon enough, he’ll either fix his approach or he won’t stick long term In the majors with anyone team being terrible in the field and struggling to get the bat on the ball

[MrTPlush]

Despite being as pitiful as you can imagine he still has an OPS near .750. With the DH coming to the NL soon I wouldn't really be in any rush to trade him. While he may not be the superstar people were touting, I still think he is a solid .800+ OPS bat.

 

Not sure what his value would be...he as struggled, but he has also shown quite a bit of promise. Even in 2020 he has had some bright spots.

 

One really weird thing about Hiura is his backwards splits. At face value he is much better against RHP than he is LHP. HOWEVER, when you only look against starters he crushes LHP to the tune of a .899 OPS vs. a .842 against RHP starters in his career...this year the gap has been huge.

[liveforoctober]

He just passed 500 at bats for his career... let's give him a little slack, no? I'm happy we didn't get rid of Burnes after his sophomore struggles...

[homer]

Changed title to match the one you created about Christian Yelich.

[wallus]

If you had superstar expectations for Keston, yes you are going to be worried. Forget that he is a first round pick and last season. I think most of us would have a little optimism for a young player putting up these stats in a season with awful offense.

[monty57]

Bellinger is hitting .239/.325/.454/.778 for the Dodgers, so he's obviously lost it as well. I'm sure the Dodgers are ready to give up on him, so maybe we can get him for a couple of A-ballers with upside.

 

Joking aside, people are putting way too much weight on this year's limited data in an upside-down world. In a normal season, we'd be ending May about now, with around two months to go before trade deadline. Throw in that no one got a spring training, the umpires look like they're closing their eyes and guessing, and everyone is concerned to varying degrees with what's going on in the world, and I'm pretty much ready to give a big mulligan to players this year.

 

I'm happy to have baseball to watch, but I'm not giving up on a talented player (or putting too much into a good season by a journeyman) based on what's going on this year. Hopefully things will be much more "normal" next season... and maybe we'll get automated strike zones, but maybe I'm asking for too much.

[pacopete4]

Bellinger is striking out 17% of the time. You know who doubles that? Keston at 34%. If he didn't pop a few out of the park this year, the numbers would be even more alarming as he's only walking 7% of time as well.

[Greenleaf1]

This is a garbage season with no real precedent. I'd have to see another full season of this before I'd even begin to worry about Hiura's hitting.

 

His fielding is....also garbage, he really needs to work on that.

 

He's still very young. I'd hate to go back and see what everyone here had to say about Burnes/Peralta over the last 2 seasons. Young players need time to develop at the Major League level too, guys.

[liveforoctober]

Changed title to match the one you created about Christian Yelich.

 

As a passive aggressive human myself, I appreciate this response. No sarcasm.

[wntrtxn21]

Bellinger is striking out 17% of the time. You know who doubles that? Keston at 34%. If he didn't pop a few out of the park this year, the numbers would be even more alarming as he's only walking 7% of time as well.

 

Yelich is at 32% whiff rate this year too. W/o both those guys, the offense is horrible.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Bellinger is striking out 17% of the time. You know who doubles that? Keston at 34%. If he didn't pop a few out of the park this year, the numbers would be even more alarming as he's only walking 7% of time as well.

 

Yelich is at 32% whiff rate this year too. W/o both those guys, the offense is horrible.

 

With them the offense is still various synonyms of horrible.

[tmwiese55]

Yes I expected better from Keston this year too. But let's pump the brakes, he hasn't even played a full season yet. He has clear room for improvement and it's generally off to just think someone is a finished product in their rookie season, especially when half of it has been this messed up weird year.