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Looks exactly the same at the plate as he did last year. Pop up after pop up. Hes trying to pull everything. At least he hit some home runs last year, this year he'll be lucky to get to 15.

Time to get Hechavarria to start playing 2nd base in the minors.

He's looked bad. But it's 11 games.

what is this the raptors board?

I would imagine that it would be Yuni moving to second, not Hech, but that's a couple years away; barring a miracle, Hech's bat won't be major league-ready until 2013, if at all.

I deleted this post from the series thread:

Hill hits too many pop flies. On the other hand I heard this story where a student answered every single multiple choice question wrong and got perfect on an exam. The professor said it was highly improbable to guess every single answer wrong and therefore the student must be a genius.

Maybe Hill is a batting genius?

When he first came in, I thought he was the next Paul Molitor. His quick swing. I thought for sure he would never go into droughts, being able to wait on pitches.

this is just too hard to watch. you know he's working his ass off, yet the results aren't showing. the guy seems very genuine and cares for the team & the city.. i just knew he was going to pop-out in the 9th last night, and he did so.

I remember when Hill first came up pundits around the team and elsewhere in the majors were saying Hill would be a perennial .300 hitter and challenge for multiple batting titles in his career. And early in his career, he was a .290 hitter.

Since then he's turned into a swing for the fences type player, and it obviously isn't working for him. I'd gladly take 5-10 HRs from Hill a year if it meant he could get back to his .340 OBP days, which would allow him to bat second in the lineup after Escobar.

Sure it's early in the year, but Hill deserves a shorter string because his performance last year was also horrible. If he's still hitting in and around the Mendoza line come the end of the month, I would send him down to rediscover his swing (if it's even possible to send him down).

Need to give him at least another 15 games minimum before we can start to judge him, however his IFFB rate is 35% right now which is just crazy and will not stay that high his BABIP is also stupidly low at .200. I am worried about him for sure but lets hold off on a full scale panic for at least 2 more weeks. Besides if he really sucks we can just let him go doesn't cost us anything.

Regardless if he turns it around or not, at 29 I always considered him a stop gap. I like Hill too but I never thought he would be our 2Bman two years from now.

I vaguely remember a few years ago watching him on tv saying that he used a heavy bat (36oz?).

I wonder if he still does.

Lateral Quicks wrote:I remember when Hill first came up pundits around the team and elsewhere in the majors were saying Hill would be a perennial .300 hitter and challenge for multiple batting titles in his career. And early in his career, he was a .290 hitter.

Since then he's turned into a swing for the fences type player, and it obviously isn't working for him. I'd gladly take 5-10 HRs from Hill a year if it meant he could get back to his .340 OBP days, which would allow him to bat second in the lineup after Escobar.

Sure it's early in the year, but Hill deserves a shorter string because his performance last year was also horrible. If he's still hitting in and around the Mendoza line come the end of the month, I would send him down to rediscover his swing (if it's even possible to send him down).

I worry about his power from last season. It's a fake sort of success, and now he might be taking the wrong swings.

He needs to change his approach at the plate. It seems like he's always swinging for the fences but with his fluent smooth swing he should be just trying to get base hits and get on base. I'd rather see him hitting for a higher average and getting on base rather then seeing him hit 20+ homers.

One thing about BABIP is that it doesn't necessarily account for what kind of balls are being put in play. Hill's pop-ups aren't going to be any less likely to be caught as the year wears on and he hits them a lot. They aren't sharp liners or anything, just easy to field pop ups.

tsherkin wrote:One thing about BABIP is that it doesn't necessarily account for what kind of balls are being put in play. Hill's pop-ups aren't going to be any less likely to be caught as the year wears on and he hits them a lot. They aren't sharp liners or anything, just easy to field pop ups.

Yup. If a guy is just putting horrible contact on the ball that isn't "bad luck", it is straight inability.

-MetA4- wrote:

tsherkin wrote:One thing about BABIP is that it doesn't necessarily account for what kind of balls are being put in play. Hill's pop-ups aren't going to be any less likely to be caught as the year wears on and he hits them a lot. They aren't sharp liners or anything, just easy to field pop ups.

Yup. If a guy is just putting horrible contact on the ball that isn't "bad luck", it is straight inability.

Hence why I mentioned his high IFFB% all other batted ball types are pretty normal his LD% is actually quite high for him.

evilRyu wrote:this is just too hard to watch. you know he's working his ass off, yet the results aren't showing. the guy seems very genuine and cares for the team & the city.. i just knew he was going to pop-out in the 9th last night, and he did so.

He was one of the ring leaders along with Kevin Millar in the clubhouse revolt against Cito in '09. Frankly, I think that shows a lack of respect for the team at all. The fact that Cito stood behind him despite his miserable '10 hopefully made him feel like shyte about himself for what he tried to do to Cito the year before.

It's so frustrating to watch because it's not his ability that has changed. Hill still has a very level swing that is really quick through the zone. Seriously, what a sweat stroke it is. He's just reacting late to pitches and is guessing a lot. Even when he works deep into counts he's seems to be guessing the 3-2 will be a fastball and ends up grounding out on the off-speed or popping up on the fastball up in the zone. He isn't seeing the pitches the same way he did pre-injury.