Big Hunter Renfroe news

[somebodyshotmypaw]

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/sd-sp-padres-hunter-renfroe-roberto-clemente-award-nominee-20170905-story.html

[SailingDawg]

Why was he recently demoted?

[somebodyshotmypaw]

Why was he recently demoted?

To work on plate discipline and pitch recognition. And to send him a signal that the coaches are serious when they say "quit swinging at balls 5 inches off the plate"

[Coach34]

Why was he recently demoted?

Because I said I didnt believe his bat could keep him on MLB for a full season

[Tbonewannabe]

Why was he recently demoted?

He had a streak of strike outs over a few games. Some people think it had more to do with his clock than anything else.

[msstate7]

Because I said I didnt believe his bat could keep him on MLB for a full season

Pat your back hard and often now bc hunter will prove you wrong for about 10 years straight starting next season

[Maroons]

Because I said I didnt believe his bat could keep him on MLB for a full season

Yep. Everything is about you. Always.

[The Federalist Engineer]

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/sd-sp-padres-hunter-renfroe-roberto-clemente-award-nominee-20170905-story.html

This is great news, good for him

[Coach34]

Pat your back hard and often now bc hunter will prove you wrong for about 10 years straight starting next season

I probably end up wrong in the end on this one. Hopefully he can become more consistent at the plate

[msstate7]

I probably end up wrong in the end on this one. Hopefully he can become more consistent at the plate

C34, you've been hacked**

[BrunswickDawg]

C34, you've been hacked**
He's been taking humility lessons from Buddy
Stephens***

[somebodyshotmypaw]

Regardless of what everyone thinks about Hunter's hitting ability, being the Padres' nominee for such a great award says a ton about his character and position in the clubhouse.

[Apoplectic]

I didn't believe he had the team's best interest in mind while here. In many clutch situations he would try to pull an obvious outside pitch over the wall instead of making contact for a single. I assume he's still doing this and pitchers know him.

[HSVDawg]

He had a streak of strike outs over a few games. Some people think it had more to do with his clock than anything else.

Had everything to do with the clock. He's hitting .509 with 4 bombs in 14 games since the demotion. Literally not even being challenged. When exactly he gets recalled will tell the whole story, and I suspect it will be the day after he gets another year in a Padres uniform guaranteed. It's technically against all sorts of rules in MLB, but small market clubs do stuff like that all the time and pass it off as something else like "working on plate discipline". Happens even more often in rebuilding years like the Padres are in now. Thats just one of the little things they have to do to stay competitive against teams with much larger payrolls. Not that Renfroe didn't need to learn more plate discipline (and maybe the confidence boost keeps him from pressing), but it still wasn't the reason he was sent down. It was merely a cover for the real reason.

[Tbonewannabe]

Had everything to do with the clock. He's hitting .509 with 4 bombs in 14 games since the demotion. Literally not even being challenged. When exactly he gets recalled will tell the whole story, and I suspect it will be the day after he gets another year in a Padres uniform guaranteed. It's technically against all sorts of rules in MLB, but small market clubs do stuff like that all the time and pass it off as something else like "working on plate discipline". Happens even more often in rebuilding years like the Padres are in now. Thats just one of the little things they have to do to stay competitive against teams with much larger payrolls. Not that Renfroe didn't need to learn more plate discipline (and maybe the confidence boost keeps him from pressing), but it still wasn't the reason he was sent down. It was merely a cover for the real reason.

You can see a couple of players on every team with worse stats than Hunter has for the year. Trumbo is just at the HR mark.

[louisvilledawg]

Had everything to do with the clock. He's hitting .509 with 4 bombs in 14 games since the demotion. Literally not even being challenged. When exactly he gets recalled will tell the whole story, and I suspect it will be the day after he gets another year in a Padres uniform guaranteed. It's technically against all sorts of rules in MLB, but small market clubs do stuff like that all the time and pass it off as something else like "working on plate discipline". Happens even more often in rebuilding years like the Padres are in now. Thats just one of the little things they have to do to stay competitive against teams with much larger payrolls. Not that Renfroe didn't need to learn more plate discipline (and maybe the confidence boost keeps him from pressing), but it still wasn't the reason he was sent down. It was merely a cover for the real reason.

It actually had nothing to do with his clock. If it had something to do with the clock, why was Margot not sent down? A beat writer (i think) for the Padres disproved that theory when he was sent down. I also thought it was about the clock issue.

[Tbonewannabe]

It actually had nothing to do with his clock. If it had something to do with the clock, why was Margot not sent down? A beat writer (i think) for the Padres disproved that theory when he was sent down. I also thought it was about the clock issue.

So why hasn't he been brought back up? It isn't like the Padres are so great that he would ride the bench. Even after being sent down he is still 4th in runs scored, 4th in RBIs, 2nd in Total Bases, and 2nd in Homeruns. It very well could be to work on his plate discipline similar to Swanson this year but let's not think he isn't good enough to play MLB. He would probably start for about half the teams.

[HSVDawg]

So why hasn't he been brought back up? It isn't like the Padres are so great that he would ride the bench. Even after being sent down he is still 4th in runs scored, 4th in RBIs, 2nd in Total Bases, and 2nd in Homeruns. It very well could be to work on his plate discipline similar to Swanson this year but let's not think he isn't good enough to play MLB. He would probably start for about half the teams.

Exactly. They waiting on him to pull his Triple-A average up to .600?

[Tbonewannabe]

I probably end up wrong in the end on this one. Hopefully he can become more consistent at the plate

Hunter has made quite a few adjustments to his stance and swing. He will never hit .300 barring some kind of miracle but he will hit enough HRs to play for a while. I could see him as a regular .250 hitter with 30 - 40 HRs.

[Maroons]

I didn't believe he had the team's best interest in mind while here.

Sorry, but that's ridiculous.

[smootness]

I didn't believe he had the team's best interest in mind while here. In many clutch situations he would try to pull an obvious outside pitch over the wall instead of making contact for a single. I assume he's still doing this and pitchers know him.

Hoo boy

[LibraryDawg]

He had a streak of strike outs over a few games. Some people think it had more to do with his clock than anything else.

Forgive my ignorance, would someone explain the clock?

[Tbonewannabe]

Forgive my ignorance, would someone explain the clock?

I don't know all the ins and outs of it but essentially when a player has played a certain amount of games then that player is closer to being a free agent. There are levels of team control before someone finally gets to free agency. If a team like the Padres think they have someone that will be a good player in the future then it benefits them to send the player down to the minors to cut down on the "games played". The team can manipulate that to get an extra year of control of the player.

[smootness]

I don't know all the ins and outs of it but essentially when a player has played a certain amount of games then that player is closer to being a free agent. There are levels of team control before someone finally gets to free agency. If a team like the Padres think they have someone that will be a good player in the future then it benefits them to send the player down to the minors to cut down on the "games played". The team can manipulate that to get an extra year of control of the player.

Basically, yes. A team has 6 full years of control once a player is called up until that player becomes a FA. But a year of service time is 172 days. So if a player has at least 172 days of service in one season, that counts as 1 full year against the 6 the team has. But the player is not a FA until after the year in which they reach the 6 full years of service.

So if a player is called up mid-season their rookie year, they obviously won't reach the 172 days of service to receive a full year. That means the team still has 6 years of control after that season. The season is generally only 183 days long, so it doesn't take much to essentially get an extra year of control. If you keep a player down just a couple weeks into a season (see Kris Bryant), you in essence get 7 years for that player.

Calling a player up in September or for Opening Day is the least efficient way to handle service time because you start their clock close enough to the 172 days that you don't get much extra service time.

So in Hunter Renfroe's case, he was called up in September last year, so they were only looking to get the 6 years plus one month. But by sending him down early this year, if he ends up being down long enough, they can shorten the number of service days he will accrue this year, and if it ends up being a couple weeks longer than he was up for last year, he won't accrue the full 172 days since he was called up, and they will still control him for 6 more years. If he isn't down long enough, they will only have him for 5 more.

[BrunswickDawg]

Basically, yes. A team has 6 full years of control once a player is called up until that player becomes a FA. But a year of service time is 172 days. So if a player has at least 172 days of service in one season, that counts as 1 full year against the 6 the team has. But the player is not a FA until after the year in which they reach the 6 full years of service.

So if a player is called up mid-season their rookie year, they obviously won't reach the 172 days of service to receive a full year. That means the team still has 6 years of control after that season. The season is generally only 183 days long, so it doesn't take much to essentially get an extra year of control. If you keep a player down just a couple weeks into a season (see Kris Bryant), you in essence get 7 years for that player.

Calling a player up in September or for Opening Day is the least efficient way to handle service time because you start their clock close enough to the 172 days that you don't get much extra service time.

So in Hunter Renfroe's case, he was called up in September last year, so they were only looking to get the 6 years plus one month. But by sending him down early this year, if he ends up being down long enough, they can shorten the number of service days he will accrue this year, and if it ends up being a couple weeks longer than he was up for last year, he won't accrue the full 172 days since he was called up, and they will still control him for 6 more years. If he isn't down long enough, they will only have him for 5 more.

Hunter has 122 games of service time over the 2 seasons - so even if that includes off days and gets him to 150 - they totally did it for clock reasons.

[smootness]

Hunter has 122 games of service time over the 2 seasons - so even if that includes off days and gets him to 150 - they totally did it for clock reasons.

Yes, it includes every day you are on a major league roster, not just games played. Otherwise you'd never get to 172.

But he was called up last year on Sep. 21 and was sent down this year on Aug. 19. So unless they call him back up with at least a couple weeks left in the season, he will avoid losing the year of service time.

[Homedawg]

Anyone who says service time has nothing to do with this is either completely lost or doesn't know anything about it and the padres. Did they have another excuse(plate discipline) sure. But if that was that important they would have sent his ass down two months ago. And have brought him back up. Not hard to follow really. SA Diego beat writer be damned.

[Tbonewannabe]

Anyone who says service time has nothing to do with this is either completely lost or doesn't know anything about it and the padres. Did they have another excuse(plate discipline) sure. But if that was that important they would have sent his ass down two months ago. And have brought him back up. Not hard to follow really. SA Diego beat writer be damned.

He was far from their worst hitter and his defensive war might not be great but there is something to be said about having a cannon of an arm in right field keeping runners at 3rd.

[dawgs]

You can see a couple of players on every team with worse stats than Hunter has for the year. Trumbo is just at the HR mark.

Well someone like trumbo can't be demoted unless he agrees to it because he's a veteran and not on his rookie contract. Renfroe is under team control and has options to be sent down a few times before it becomes an issue. Trumbo also has a longer track record of success in the bigs who is having a down year, whereas renfroe might be a quad-A type player that feasts on minor league pitching but can't consistently handle MLB quality pitching well enough to maximize their raw physical talents. Every MLB system has guys like that. Hope he gets to the point that he's walking 10+% of the time, because with his contact issues, he's never gonna be a low K guy, so he has to offset the Ks with an above average OBP.

[Tbonewannabe]

Well someone like trumbo can't be demoted unless he agrees to it because he's a veteran and not on his rookie contract. Renfroe is under team control and has options to be sent down a few times before it becomes an issue. Trumbo also has a longer track record of success in the bigs who is having a down year, whereas renfroe might be a quad-A type player that feasts on minor league pitching but can't consistently handle MLB quality pitching well enough to maximize their raw physical talents. Every MLB system has guys like that. Hope he gets to the point that he's walking 10+% of the time, because with his contact issues, he's never gonna be a low K guy, so he has to offset the Ks with an above average OBP.

I just used Trumbo as an example. Playing fantasy baseball this year has made me realize that there are a lot of players with worse stats than .230 with 20 HRs.

[BoomBoom]

So why hasn't he been brought back up? It isn't like the Padres are so great that he would ride the bench. Even after being sent down he is still 4th in runs scored, 4th in RBIs, 2nd in Total Bases, and 2nd in Homeruns. It very well could be to work on his plate discipline similar to Swanson this year but let's not think he isn't good enough to play MLB. He would probably start for about half the teams.

he's still a few weeks away from it mattering. it doesn't make sense that he wasn't immediately called up as soon as the MiLB season ended.