Road to a Rebound: Brooks Lee

[Trov]

Hopefully with a new voice in his head about hitting may give him a little approach at the plate.  He does not need to be patient, he needs to have a better plan at the plate.  Can he do it, yes.  Look at Buxton, he is one that some pitchers could just throw 3 sliders off the plate and he would swing at each one not even close to the pitch. He still will chase that pitch from time to time, but he will not do it as often. 

If Lee can do more thinking how the pitcher is trying to work him and have an idea when there are pitcher pitches coming or waste pitches and stay off them. I personally hate when guys go into seasons saying I want to take more walks or be more patient.  All that can mean is you will take more pitches, that could be good pitches to hit.  I point to Jacque Jones years ago.  He was lead off guy and loved to attack first pitch fastballs.  He was great when putting the first pitch in play.  But he was not great when he worked counts.  He took more walks but his numbers were worse overall.

It is not about being patient, it is about reducing chase and recognizing pitcher pitches.  I know some call it patient, but I read that and think taking pitches, just to do it. Sometimes the first pitch is the best you will get.  If you are not good at recognizing pitcher pitches, then you need to have more of a plan at the plate, and not just "see ball hit ball", but how does this guy work people, and how will he pitch to me. 

Guys that chance a ton normally have not plan, they play the see ball hit ball plan. They generally say this might be the fastball every time.  They do not sit on pitches or locations.  

[ashbury]

On 10/21/2025 at 8:32 PM, mnfireman said:

My eye test of Lee's PAs tells me he is a horrible 2-strike hitter, swinging at some horrible pitcher's pitches and pitches just off the plate, just trying to make contact. If he can somehow improve upon this he becomes a serviceable MLB player.

First, nobody hits well once they reach two strikes; across the majors the OPS was .512 in that situation this season.

A quick look at Lee's splits confirms that he was worse than league average in the same situation, putting together a .454 OPS.

Trouble is, he was also worse than league average when NOT getting to two strikes.  It's a little harder to find that split, but just eyeballing it suggests MLB hitters OPS around .915 while Lee was around .880.  Maybe someone has more precise numbers.

He was simply worse than average with the bat, in most every dimension I can think of. (He did pretty well with the bases loaded, in a small sample size of 14 PA. That amounts to "faint praise".) He could work on improving at not swinging at pitchers' pitches, whatever the count. Not reaching two strikes is a worthy goal by itself.

[Bodie]

At least he looks like a baseball player. 

 

That, in itself, beats the socks off 90% of our "prospects" in the last decade...  Take that for what it's worth!

[stringer bell]

Some of Lee’s assets aren’t easily measured. He has pretty good hand-eye coordination, his internal clock is good, he has a quick release and decent reactions to batted balls. We have beaten the negatives to death early this off-season. I think he can have a bit better approach—swinging at strikes, getting ahead in the count—and I think he needs to be able to grind through a full season better. He has slumped noticeably in September in both ‘24 and ‘25.

I think he needs to be in better shape to maximize his athleticism and he needs to be mentally tougher and not let his offense affect his defense and vice versa. It doesn’t look like he has the tools to be a star, but he has enough skills to be a decent regular.