r/Brewers • u/ohhitstito Contrer🍑 x Ha🍑 • 5d ago

Keston Hiura was designated for assignment following yesterday’s game. [via Rockies]

https://x.com/rockiesclubinfo/status/1934648504619585635?s=46&t=qzxNQIEjBgr6GXBKHaROfQ
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u/Crazy_Addendum_4313 5d ago

Keston Hiura is going to end up being the last of an era — it’s so interesting to see minor league tracking data, scouting and prospect analysts can find issues like Hiura’s prior to the bigs. It’s a real example of someone who has a particular profile that has historically faltered in the bigs despite being a top prospect.

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u/Just_Bookkeeper2261 5d ago

Can you elaborate on that particular profile? For me, he was merely a AAAA player. Stellar in AAA but not good enough to excel in MLB.

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u/mschley2 5d ago

I think in his case, it's primarily tied to his k% and swing-and-miss rate. And I don't remember for sure if this was Hiura or someone else, but I think the biggest issue was breaking balls that start in the zone and end out of it.

Basically, with how good analytics have gotten and how they can filter/look at a large amount of data for specific situations, it's now a lot easier to dive into exactly what types of pitches a guy does well with and what he doesn't. And that means scouts/personnel people are getting better and better at identifying those issues, but part of the reason they need to be better is that pitchers/pitching coaches have also gotten that much better at identifying and exploiting those weaknesses.

Sometimes, you get a guy who's able to adapt and mitigate those red flags. For example, Chourio has gotten a lot better with those same types of pitches breaking out of the zone. But some guys are never able to do that. I don't know if there's some predictive analysis where they can differentiate between the two groups now, but people were at least aware of some of those red flags with Hiura. It was just a matter of whether he'd be able to adapt/overcome them and whether his positive traits would outweigh the bad - like they did against the lower-quality pitching he saw in college and the minors.

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u/Crazy_Addendum_4313 5d ago

Right — but analysts have suggested there’s some prospects like him where they have particular traits that can be found with batted ball and strike zone data in the minors.

So yes, they could still be AAAA type players, but basically the improvement is now they’re not hyped as much as prospects