Heston Kjerstad 2024

[terpoh]

10 minutes ago, LookitsPuck said:

PHing Eloy for Kjerstad was so inane.

The treatment of Kjerstad and Mayo (both top 25 prospects in baseball) has been mind boggling. Mayo's struggles aside, we all agree hes been bad. But they wont ever let Kjerstad face a lefty and will sub these guys out after half a game and play them once every 4 game in that manner. If there is no room to play them, then dont bring them up. Both of these guys are legitimate national prospects- rated higher than Norby was, than Stowers was, than Ortiz was, than even Westburg was. Doesnt mean theyre all gonna pan out, but its just hard to get anything going. I can see not playing them when the alternative is just better, but when the alternative is the offense we're watching on a daily basis, I cant agree with it. Looks like Holliday could be moving into that role here as well with Soto getting a couple hits over the weekend. 

[Sports Guy]

You need Kjerstad to get at bats…pinch hitting him in a no one on situation with a 650 OPS type hitter is such a puzzling move…especially since Kjerstad hits lefties well.

[terpoh]

2 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

You need Kjerstad to get at bats…pinch hitting him in a no one on situation with a 650 OPS type hitter is such a puzzling move…especially since Kjerstad hits lefties well.

Yup, he should be the full time DH moving forward, and even given RF at bats with Tony at 1B/DH other games. 

[LookitsPuck]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

You need Kjerstad to get at bats…pinch hitting him in a no one on situation with a 650 OPS type hitter is such a puzzling move…especially since Kjerstad hits lefties well.

Hyde makes no damn sense sometimes. Unless there was some AB limit for Kjerstad given by the medical staff, it’s indefensible. Eloy doesn’t even hit lefties well!

Edited Sunday at 20:34 by LookitsPuck

[Fiver6565]

Has Santander played first for even a single inning this year?  I don’t see why he isn’t playing there a little bit lately given how bad O’Hearn has been. Would allow them to play Slater in RF vs lefties, maybe Kjerstad out there vs righties. Anything is better than what they’re doing. 
 

This is the kind of thing a decent media presence might inquire about. 
 

And FFS lets end the Eloy experiment. If we can afford to see if he can work out his crap in games that matter, then we can afford to see if Mayo can. 

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Fiver6565 said:

Has Santander played first for even a single inning this year?  I don’t see why he isn’t playing there a little bit lately given how bad O’Hearn has been. Would allow them to play Slater in RF vs lefties, maybe Kjerstad out there vs righties. Anything is better than what they’re doing. 
 

This is the kind of thing a decent media presence might inquire about. 
 

And FFS lets end the Eloy experiment. If we can afford to see if he can work out his crap in games that matter, then we can afford to see if Mayo can. 

No.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/santaan02.shtml

[Fiver6565]

Just now, Can_of_corn said:

No.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/santaan02.shtml

Thanks. I was pretty sure that was the case, and even if it wasn’t literally, it was close enough that it wouldn’t change my point. He played several games there last year, and it didn’t seem like he was any worse than O’Hearn over there. There have been multiple occasions when even moving him there mid-game after a PH or two would have made sense. I don’t get it. 

[Fiver6565]

Doesn’t matter anyway though. Just deck chairs on the Titanic at this point. The only drama left is to see which team will get the privilege of knocking us out of the playoffs by beating us 3-2 and 2-0 in consecutive games. 
 

And to see if that will happen at home or on the road. 

[Sammy Seagull]

Kjerstad hasn't played in 60 days and is still the teams best hitter since July 12th.till the teams best hitter since July 12th.

Edited Monday at 11:25 by Sammy Seagull

[Moose Milligan]

For months I've read whining on here about how our top prospects have always failed to come up and produce right away.

So here we have Kjerstad who's coming off a concussion and has been a mixed bag (at best) in his limited playing time so far.  

And we think he's going to help turn this offense around?  Does anyone here learn?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for playing him because he can't be much worse than what we've got going on right now but I don't believe he's an answer.  

 

[Safelykept]

17 hours ago, LookitsPuck said:

Hyde makes no damn sense sometimes. Unless there was some AB limit for Kjerstad given by the medical staff, it’s indefensible. Eloy doesn’t even hit lefties well!

It could be Medical related is a good point. Just last week many on this board, skewered Hyde for not pitching Cano a second inning after throwing 2 pitches. Now given time we find out there was something wrong. Many times narrative is made W/O benefit of all the information.

[Aristotelian]

7 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

For months I've read whining on here about how our top prospects have always failed to come up and produce right away.

So here we have Kjerstad who's coming off a concussion and has been a mixed bag (at best) in his limited playing time so far.  

And we think he's going to help turn this offense around?  Does anyone here learn?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for playing him because he can't be much worse than what we've got going on right now but I don't believe he's an answer.  

 

He has a .779 OPS (123 OPS+) in 41 games. I'm not expecting him to hit 1.000 right away but he is one of the few young guys who hasn't had an extended "adjustment period" to at least produce average offense. And .779 would be a big improvement over what we've been getting lately.

The big question is how he is affected by the concussion but he did well in his rehab games.

[Bahama O's Fan]

12 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

For months I've read whining on here about how our top prospects have always failed to come up and produce right away.

So here we have Kjerstad who's coming off a concussion and has been a mixed bag (at best) in his limited playing time so far.  

And we think he's going to help turn this offense around?  Does anyone here learn?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for playing him because he can't be much worse than what we've got going on right now but I don't believe he's an answer.  

 

He can't do much worse than the other guys. I said this offseason that we were one great pitcher and one consistent hitter away from a championship caliber team. We got the pitcher, but of course the rest of the pitching staff went on the IL. I advocated for J. D. Martinez, but if we had just one hitter that could get us through the lean stretches. 

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, Aristotelian said:

He has a .779 OPS (123 OPS+) in 41 games. I'm not expecting him to hit 1.000 right away but he is one of the few young guys who hasn't had an extended "adjustment period" to at least produce average offense. And .779 would be a big improvement over what we've been getting lately.

The big question is how he is affected by the concussion but he did well in his rehab games.

That's fair, he's been better than the rest.  I just think the issues are deeper than what Kjerstad can bring to the table but we'll see.

I'm skeptical, but he better be in the lineup tomorrow.

[Aristotelian]

17 hours ago, LookitsPuck said:

Hyde makes no damn sense sometimes. Unless there was some AB limit for Kjerstad given by the medical staff, it’s indefensible. Eloy doesn’t even hit lefties well!

I am guessing it was just a matter of it being a big ask of Kjerstad to hit vs a LHP when he is just coming back from a seriously bad concussion and he only has 11 career AB's vs LHP. Also evaluating Jimenez for inclusion on the postseason roster. Hopefully he is playing himself off it assuming we get Westburg and Urias back.