FanPost

Unusually Good Production out of Hicks?

I just noticed this today while leafing through the Twins' box score and seeing Aaron Hicks had yet again gone 0-4 at the plate. I then proceeded to click on his player page so I could see just how sad his season has been thus far. Then looking at his season stats I noticed one unusual stat, he has scored 12 runs.... while only collecting 10 hits so far this year. Clearly this is possibly through walks, which he has 13 of, and errors; but that also leads me to believe that Hicks himself has to be adding more value on the base-paths than his three steals imply.

Although he is still hitting a terrible .118 from the plate with an OBP of .232, he is making the most out of his opportunities on base which has his surprisingly leading the Twins in runs scored. Realizing this of course has me then thinking of the potential Hicks has as a lead-off hitter down the road when he actually starts hitting the ball and getting on base. Hicks has still been swinging and missing a bunch, with 10 strikeouts in his past 10 games and 31 through 25 games. It's hard to keep him at this level if he consistently is striking out, but is he maybe bringing more to the table than his stats show.

Personally I am fine with keeping Hicks in the majors for awhile longer to see if he can figure out major league pitchers, but at some point the Twins will be forced to send him down if he doesn't start hitting and I understand that. Really I'm just wandering what other Twins fans are thinking as far as Hicks' lack of performance, and if he should be kept in the majors to tough it out.

Check out more of my writing at my Minnesota Twins Blog.