When is the Rickie Weeks experiment finally going to end?
>> Tuesday
Quick thoughts after attending tonight's game:
Is it safe to say that Rickie Weeks simply does not appear to be a promising ballplayer at this point? Or even a starter?
It seems like Rickie Weeks' career has resembled one of my other least favorite and most frustrating young talents of the last two decades: Corey Patterson. Is that a fair comparison?
How can a team put a guy with an OBP of .330 at the top of the line-up? Weeks must have lead off three innings tonight and was absolutely dismal.
He's fast, and he has a great baseball name. But name one more realm of baseball that Rickie Weeks is even adequate let alone above average. You can't.
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3 comments:
Soriano: OPB .328
Weeks has a lot of problems, but his on-base would be servicable on this team if he would be more patient at the plate. Hardy and Kendall are the only two Brewers who get on base more frequently and could even be considered lead-off hitters (Braun or Fielder...really?)
Personally I'd probably put Dillon or Durham there, but until next year (Hardy at 2, Iribarren at SS) the options are limited.
Actually, I'd say his patience is the least of his problems. Last year: 78 BB in 409 AB. That's pretty friggin' good. That rate has slipped this year, but if you can OBP .106 over your average despite being an average-at-best power threat, I'd say that's pretty good discipline. (Granted, it's a lot easier to OBP .106 over your BA when you're hitting .224, but still...)
From what I've watched--Matt or someone correct me if I'm wrong--is that his swing is way too long and violent, and he seems unwilling to cut it back. If he were belting out HRs at Soriano's rate (or even close to it), I'd tell him to hack away, as he long as he maintained his discriminating eye. But since he's not, he kind of sucks right now.
Keep in mind, however, that he only turns 26 later this year, and his career high in games and ABs thus far are 118 and 409. Granted, he's not exactly Mr. Surehands on defense, but his offensive production last year was overall pretty good for a 2B. (Also, I didn't realize how excellent his career SB% is.)
Weeks would be ideally suited to develop with a rebuilding team and not be under the spotlight of a contender. He has the raw tools, developed a nice batting eye, and athletic/fast enough that you can likely find somewhere he can succeed defensively (2B likely not the answer though). He's a great tool for the Brewers to make their final move and get a good reliever (I know that's it's not fun having to make that trade at deadline, but that bullpen really needs another quality arm).
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