12:34pm: Hiura’s promotion is official, along with the corresponding moves to open roster space.
9:33am: The Brewers will promote exciting second base prospect Keston Hiura, according to Robert Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link). Precise timing and corresponding roster moves aren’t yet clear.
Hiura, 22, entered the present season as a consensus top-twenty prospect leaguewide. Baseball Prospectus was particularly bullish, ranking him sixth. If the promotion occurs in advance of today’s game, Hiura can accrue as many as 139 days of service this year, setting him up for potential future Super Two qualification.
The ninth overall pick of the 2017 draft, Hiura has done nothing but hit since becoming a professional. That’s more or less what was expected out of the UC-Irvine product, who was seen as a highly advanced college batter. But he has perhaps exceeded expectations with a breakout start to the 2019 season.
Through 147 plate appearances this year at the highest level of the minors, Hiura carries a hefty .333/.408/.698 slash line with 11 long balls. It’s not entirely surprising to see the power emerging, though this is certainly whole new level of pop for a player who tallied 13 homers in 535 total plate appearances last year. That power surge comes as part of a PCL-wide jump, though Hiura still owns an impressive 164 wRC+.
That’s not to say that there aren’t any concerns at all. Hiura has boosted his walk rate a bit, topping ten percent for the first time, but doesn’t draw a notable number of free passes. And he’s carrying a 27.2% strikeout rate this year, a significant step up from his prior levels and a potential area of concern as he adapts to MLB pitching.
Hiura isn’t seen as a particularly impressive defender, and does have a history of elbow woes, though he’s generally expected to provide solid-enough glovework at second base. Just how the Brewers will allocate playing time will be interesting to observe. Mike Moustakas will presumably continue to see more time at third base, creating added uncertainty for the struggling Travis Shaw.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Awesome news for Keston and the Brewers, bad news for Travis Shaw…
The citizens of ding dong city deserve better.
thank goodness Shaw has been tragic this year
Haha Brewers grasping at straws. Desperate to catch up to the Cubs lol.
Those cubbies haven’t won anything yet. They got plenty of holes and I fully expect them to collapse as the season progresses.
They are 2.5 games behind the Cubs in mid May lol. Was it last year the Brewers made up 5 games in September?
Based on hwat?
BrewCrew, once again, if your going to talk smack at least try to get your facts straight. Milwaukee was 1 game ahead of the Cubs on May 15,2018; 2 games ahead on May 16, 2018; and 2.5 games ahead in May 17, 2018. When your facts are wrong, your argument falls flat on its face, even if your on the right side of the discussion. Maybe you should keep your comments to yourself until you can get your facts straight.
brewcrew is correct. They are currently 2.5 back and last year went on an epic tear to pass the Cubs at the end of the season. Reading comprehension is essential.
La Verdad you wrote an awful lot to look really bad. Maybe you should read and comprehend a comment before you fire back?
Hahahaha….you’re an idiot
Brewers already in desperation mode
Are you Derek? You get this if you follow lots of posts on this site.
I’m Canada Derek
Nice response! Blue Jay fan or still holding out hope for the Expos?
Hey Canada Derek, you promised my class you’d pay our college tuition.
Well you don’t need to go to college to go to college online college is a great alternative to standard college all you need is a laptop and what good is a laptop without the battery so I am pleased to offer your whole class laptop batteries
your mom goes to college
Thanks Mr. Scott.
:,]
Spot on sir. I
I get it. Hi Derek
calling up a stud hitter is desperation mode? Desperation mode is overpaying a player who is past his prime Walter
Calling up your top prospect is desperation?
In today’s game, isnt a 30% SO rate fairly normal?
Boom this is what they needed. move moose to third and have Shaw and Aguilar take turns not hitting at first base
Is it a “whole new level of pop” or is it just playing in the PCL with a juiced ball? I’d guess the latter has more to do with his power numbers. Either way, the kid flat out rakes. Happy to see him get his shot.
He’s good.
I remember rounding up a game online when he was at Irvine. He was the second hitter in the inning.
It was a liner up the RCF gap. It happened to go about 425.
With that, I quit draft-tracking him, because he wasn’t falling to where I wanted him to fall.
I know he’s good. As I said, the kid flat out rakes. I also know the PCL is a hitter’s paradise, and the ball in AAA is juiced this year. What I don’t know is how much that affects a player’s overall numbers. I’d imagine the effect would be pretty significant in the power department.
Think this is absolutely the right thing for the Brewers to do. Shaw will probably start platooning more with Aguilar at first. I got to believe Perez or Thames gets traded . Think they now start giving Braun more time off too.
Ben gamel has been surprisingly pretty good. I think this leaves thames without a job
Wrong! It leaves Shaw without a job. Thames has produced. Aguilar has not and Shaw has been completely useless. Huira starts at 2nd. Moose moves back to 3rd. Thames and Aguilar have a soft platoon at 1st. Same with Braun and Gamel in left. My guess is Shaw gets his walking papers. He’s been given more than 6 weeks and has done zero!!
Thames will go to DL after leaving last nights game.
Aguilar has been hitting the past two weeks and if he keeps it up there will be no need to platoon him
There’s no way they give Shaw his walking papers. Thames is in the last year of his contract
Shaw has options… send him down and get him right. he will be needed later in the year. guessing spangenburg gets released to make room for Keston on the 40 man rostser
he does? keep hearing hes out of them
2 options left
made sure to look it up before I posted
Doesn’t Shaw have options left?
He does, yes. But, I also believe, for some reason, he has some trade value left. Get what you can get right now. Huira isn’t being brought up to sit on the bench. He’s here to start, and he’s here to stay.
what trade value. Hes almost hitting under .100 with 8 rbis and has looked awful at 3rd.
“some” trade value. A team like the Yankees, who have lost half of their roster, including Andujar, their third baseman, could look at his power numbers each of the previous 2 seasons, and make an offer.
IDK what is wrong with him. It has to be mental at this point. Im no hitting coach, but i do not see any change in his mechanics, but its super hard to tell without being on the field and not being a coach lol
Could be a case of needing a change of scenery to get things going. I think we’ve seen the last of him here in Milwaukee.
how is .163 almost under .100? Its actually closer to being “almost over .200”. Plus he has 2 errors, but still a positive rWAR according to BR.
He has been absolutely horrendous, but you are way over exaggerating.
Which is unfortunate because of the character he has. Great person on and off the field, and i know his baby has had some medical issues in the past which makes it harder for him to be away from his family, which im sure is very tough on his mental state.
^^sorry thought it was closer to .130 but still….
Oh, completely miserable. Hopefully he can figure it out. Headed to IL now. Maybe some time off and maybe a trip to AAA will help.
was just thinking the same thing. maybe a couple AAs with some upside?
yanks could def use him.
very excited to see him play. All he does is hit everytime we see him in spring. Hes gonna be a good one
What happens if Hiura struggles in the big leagues and lowers his trade value? The Brewers are better off moving trading him for a SP than they are having another good hitter in the lineup. Their lineup will be fine but their rotation isn’t going to cut it
Their lineup will be fine, continuing to throw Shaw and Aguilar out there every day? No, not at all. They’re trying to fix a problem. Hopefully, they’ll focus on the rotation in the not-so-distant future.
How will they be able to make a significant upgrade to the rotation without trading Hiura though? They don’t have any other impact prospects and I believe their payroll is about as high as ownership is willing to take it.
Who is going to be available that’s worth giving up KH? Probably no one.
The assumption that Hiura will be better than even Shaw is foolish. See Vladimir Guerrero and Eloy Jimenez. Hiura isn’t in their league and wil struggle just the same.
If Hiura played for the Cubs he would be the second coming of Ryan Sandberg.
the Brewers are better off keeping him because of his upside and their lack of a clear 2B option going forward.
Let’s see how KH does before declaring a lack of options at 2B.
right!? Everyone thinks because he is young he cant do much. Im glad there is not a lot of hype around him like there is around Vlad Jr. Let him ease into it, maybe play 4/7 days and get his feet wet
I think you two are severely misunderstanding what DarkSide is saying… He’s saying they shouldn’t trade Hiura because they don’t have any legit 2B options outside of him. I’m fairly certain he sees Hiura as the 2B of the future for the Brewers, just like you two appear to believe. I’m pretty positive you three are on the same page…
This. Everyone’s arguing about agreeing. It’s pretty clear that hiura needs to be the 2b for the future. moose is fine but one year deal and he’s a pretty good glove to have at third anyways. I think the lineup and defense got better today.
Crewbrew are you comparing this guy to Vlad Jr? I’m sure he’s good but his entire minor league career stats are like one year of Vlad. He was the number 1 prospect. That’s why there was hype for him, albeit way over done
I’m pretty sure he’s not comparing him to Vlad. The hype surrounding Hiura is nowhere near Vlad. Which is obviously good for Hiura. I think we all recognize that Hiura’s bat, though good in its own right, isn’t on Vlad’s level.
I was literally looking for a replaced for Shaw on my fantasy team when this got announced.
Are they putting him in the starting rotation? I’ve never seen a poorer rotation from a contending team.
Agreed! And for 3 seasons now? Beyond ridiculous!
Shaw was a great pick up and he’s a good player now I also know him and his wife are going through a lot with their child maybe he does need a break to recuperate I mean these are still human beings and in all honesty what we gave up to get Shaw was a steel
Yes, he’s a human being, but this is a business. If you go a quarter of the season and produce next to nothing, personal issues or not, changes have to be made. And yes, what we gave up for him was a steal, but we got 2 years out of him. Be thankful for that and move on.
Ok so they trade him for peanuts right now, then lose moose at the end of the year. who plays third next year?
The Brewers still have a couple of guys in the minors that will be good major leaguers at AAA like Nottingham, Dubon, Erceg, Taylor, Freitas, Henry, Lutz so the cubbords are from being bare
Freitas, the 30 year old minor league catcher?
Nottingham is a nothing I’m afraid. what about Nate orf come on stubby
Ok so I was wrong on Orf last year but you cant deny he worked very hard and earned that promotion at the time. People dont realize how high this club is on Erceg. His number is 17 and dont say that doesn’t matter cause No One has had that number since Jim Gantner.
looks like Shaw is faking an injury for 10 days à la Derek Holland.
What goes up is likely to go down. As Hiura goes up to the bigs, his performance is likely to go down, along with his reputation as a premier prospect. Of course, some play up to the hype, but most of them do not. Chances are against him.
You must be a lot of fun at parties. “why celebrate a birthday when you’re closer to dying”
Ehhhh every where he’s gone, he’s hit. He’s not the kind of prospect. His spray chart, look it up, paints the whole field. Both for average and power. That’s pretty rare.
This kids about to be an annual contender for the batting title. Never for a second did his bat cast much doubt
So is it possible that the Brewers now can trade Dubon, Wilkerson and Derby to San Francisco for Will Smith now please
Oakland, Arizona, and Philadelphia all messed up badly not taking this guy.
A lot of teams messed up with in that first round. It’s just really hard to predict who will pan out in the MLB draft.
I like the first five picks pretty good though. They all look like they can be studs.
Welcome to the bigs Keston!
Shows how desperate the brewers are.