Article: It's All Right: Hicks Gives Up Switch-Hitting

[TheLeviathan]

You'd trade a 3 run HR for a single out? I sure wouldn't. You clearly just don't like Hicks being in CF for the Twins, otherwise you wouldn't try so hard to criticize a HR-robbing catch.

 

He's robbed 3 homeruns. He's made figure 8's in the outfield dozens of times. Several times more this season than he's robbed homeruns.

 

His catch was spectacular. This play was pretty good too (or this one). I'm certainly not using that one play to base my judgement off of that player either. Small sample sizes please, cmon.

[LaBombo]

I read he has 3 over the wall catches since last year. Only Carlos Gomez has more and Hicks has only played in 120 games over that time period. It seems odd that he has that many given every night his routes are criticized on this site.

 

It's also odd that a supposedly good, let alone excellent, defensive CF should have bad to awful advanced defensive metrics pretty much across the board. Apparently three or four home run robberies in over 1000 defensive innings doesn't have much effect. Coincidentally, his Defensive Runs Saved is -3.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I'd give up every flashy play this season just to avoid one of these. And those happen far too often.

 

Wasn't the wind insane that day? I may be thinking of a different game but I seem to recall the wind was blowing insanely hard in the outfield that day.

 

Hicks hasn't been a great - or even good - defender in center but I think some are railing on him far too hard. Yeah, he's been inconsistent in the outfield but almost every play I've seen him botch has him going back, an obvious deficiency in his game right now.

[TheLeviathan]

Yeah, he's been inconsistent in the outfield but almost every play I've seen him botch has him going back, an obvious deficiency in his game right now.

 

I would totally agree. It's going back on a ball that he has to take his eyes off of. Unfortunately for a CF, that's pretty important.

 

I still think with his athleticism there is a good CF in him. It's just not even close to happening at this point, isolated spectacular catches or not.