I agree with all of that, scoop.  Good thing we have a manager who also does.

Good thing=Our manager sticks with Weeks

Bad Thing=Our manager is ned Yost

 

Now...back to that other email.  Weeks has to hit .250 or is traded. Gaurenteed?  What? Huh?  Explain to me why you care what a players batting average is.  It is a completly useless stat.  You'd take Randy Winn over Pat Burell or Adam Dunn?....or the greatest player ever.....

 

rob deer?

DUH, we are talking about our LEAD-OFF hitter, not a leanup hitter who hits 40HR's a year!  Maybe you've heard of LEAD-OFF hitters?  The good ones bat .280 or higher, have an OBP of .380 or better, a solid contact hitter who knows how to put the ball in play and has very low strikeout totals.  NOT exactly Weeks!  When you talk about a LEAD-OFF hitter, their batting average is FAR from a "completely useless stat."

Inside Pitch ):

DUH, we are talking about our LEAD-OFF hitter, not a leanup hitter who hits 40HR's a year!  Maybe you've heard of LEAD-OFF hitters?  The good ones bat .280 or higher, have an OBP of .380 or better, a solid contact hitter who knows how to put the ball in play and has very low strikeout totals.  NOT exactly Weeks!  When you talk about a LEAD-OFF hitter, their batting average is FAR from a "completely useless stat."

Exactly how many lead off hitters have ever hit to these standards?

scoop82:

Weeks was dominant in the 2nd half of last season.  This is a guy with sick tools.  Keep in mind....at his age 23,24 and 25 Robin Yount had OBP of .308,.321 and .312.

It wouldnt suprise me if in 5 years Weeks is widely considered to be more valuable than Fielder,Hart, Hardy, Gamel and maybe even Braun.

 

while i would agree weeks has ridiculous talent, and i also agree that he seems to work very hard and possess a great attitude, one must also play smart.  it does not look as though rickie is playing smart consistently.  to be deeked by a fellow infielder was a very poor, not very smart play.  pick up the third base coach and you're walking into third, and soon scoring.  do they start teaching runners to pickup the base coach in little league, absolutely unacceptable and inexcusable.  to deflect it any other way would be making light of an absolute essential on the bases.  getting picked off and the bobbles on easy grounders, that seems to be nerves as much as anything, but there comes a point when those plays have to be made.  rickie has worked hard to improve and his performance is coming around, but let's not use giant brush strokes and lose the details, there is still major room for improvement and it must come soon or you have a 3 time all-star, switch hitting second baseman on the bench with a .385 obp THIS year.  it would be absurd to invest all they have to get to the post-season and miss it by a game or two (again?) while sticking with weeks and having that kind of performance sitting.  so yes, he has done some nice things on this road trip, yet he has done a number of things that just make fans shake their heads.  i am not sure how fans that have criticized him owe him an apology, doesn't make sense??

radio silence:

Inside Pitch ):

DUH, we are talking about our LEAD-OFF hitter, not a leanup hitter who hits 40HR's a year!  Maybe you've heard of LEAD-OFF hitters?  The good ones bat .280 or higher, have an OBP of .380 or better, a solid contact hitter who knows how to put the ball in play and has very low strikeout totals.  NOT exactly Weeks!  When you talk about a LEAD-OFF hitter, their batting average is FAR from a "completely useless stat."

Exactly how many lead off hitters have ever hit to these standards?

not sure how many ever?? but the brewers have one sitting on their bench that has done it THIS year:  Ray Durham!

the reason ba is FAR from a completely useless stat for a leadoff guy, is that he is only assured of being the leadoff guy once.  after the 1st inning the "leadoff" hitter is plently likely to not bat as the leadoff hitter but as #2, #3, or #4 with runners on base.  it's rhetorical but is the often at the crux of what separates consistent winning teams and consistent losing teams:  clutch hits/ 2 out rbis.  with two out and a runner at second, is a base hit more valueable that a walk or hbp??  absolutely, without question.  so while maintaining an obp > .340 is key if one is not hitting, it is in noway replacement for a guy that can hit for average.  no way, never.  you will never see it in the numbers, it's not on the internet, it's in the game.  play baseball, watch baseball, don't over analyse it, by just observing you will begin to see,  key basehits with runners on is what separates teams.

 

the great thing about weeks and this team, nearly every guy has the ability to go deep thus getting that key hit and rbi/run all in one swing.  in close games, opposing teams and pitchers are going to feel the pressure as the brewers are almost always just one swing away from scoring.  weeks cannot afford another southern slide, he must keep improving this second half.  he is crucial to their success, there are very few players as dangerous as weeks on the bases, his percentage of times scoring after reaching base is super and easily leads the league, and as he gets on consistenlty this team rolls. but as he struggles pressure to score runs builds and the offense struggles.  so the brewers can't afford to wait on a struggling weeks with a healthy durham on the bench.

so we are completly ignoring the fact that last year Durham had an obp of .295?  And has a career obp no better than weeks?   

 "The good ones bat .280 or higher, have an OBP of .380"

So by that criteria, Johnny Damon and Hanley ramirez are the only "good ones" in all of mlb? 

scoop82:

 "The good ones bat .280 or higher, have an OBP of .380"

So by that criteria, Johnny Damon and Hanley ramirez are the only "good ones" in all of mlb? 

probably have to put pedroia in there too.  it's not like half the majors are going to have good leadoff hitters, it's a rare and valuable commidity.

Really, we should change the language from good to exceptional -- if only two, maybe three lead off hitters in the whole game exhibit a set of skills, those skills are pretty rare.

I would argue that a good lead off hitter gets on base at a .350 clip, has some speed and some power, and strikes out as much as they like (corresponding to power and walks).

More power, more walks, more strike outs -- again, always putting the ball in play and not striking out is not necessarily a good thing. It's only a good thing if you assume they get hits when they put the ball in play.

radio silence:

Really, we should change the language from good to exceptional -- if only two, maybe three lead off hitters in the whole game exhibit a set of skills, those skills are pretty rare.

I would argue that a good lead off hitter gets on base at a .350 clip, has some speed and some power, and strikes out as much as they like (corresponding to power and walks).

More power, more walks, more strike outs -- again, always putting the ball in play and not striking out is not necessarily a good thing. It's only a good thing if you assume they get hits when they put the ball in play.

wouldn't it also be good if you assumed they scored a run with a sac fly or a ground ball when they put the ball in play??

 or how about if they put the ball in play and a run scores on an error.  none of those things happen with a strikeout.

Sure, those are all good aspects of putting the ball in play. But there are also more ways to make outs by putting the ball in play than by not putting the ball in play -- of course, the only hit you can get by not putting the ball in play is a home run, so I guess you have a wider range of possibilities by putting the ball in play.

The trouble with that is that most players can be defended against for their in-play tendencies, and so what happens when you put the ball in play is as much a factor of luck as skill. In order to hit 'em where they ain't, they gotta be somewhere other than where you're hitting it.