Segura wins Dominican batting title

Segura wins Dominican batting title
By Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel
Dec. 23, 2012

Young Brewers shortstop Jean Segura won the Dominican Winter League batting title, finishing with a .324 average in 35 games for the Gigantes.

Segura, 22, was 48 for 148 with two homers and 21 RBI, and compiled a .379 on-base percentage. He tied for second in the Dominican Winter League with 11 stolen bases.

Acquired from the Los Angeles Angels on July 27 as one of three minor-league prospects in the Zack Greinke trade, Segura batted .264 in 44 games for the Brewers with no homers, 14 RBI and a .321 OBP.

As might be expected from a player bumped up from the Class AA level, Segura struggled at first for the Brewers, batting .209 over three weeks in August after his promotion. But Segura caught fire at the end and finished September/October with a .309 batting average, then carried that momentum into the Dominican Winter League.

The Brewers believe Segura has tremendous upside and his showing in the Dominican Republic will do nothing to temper that enthusiasm.

Nice to hear, hopefully his defense will be solid to. I'm not worried to much about him hitting. He will probably hit 8th so he needs to be patient and clutch. Eventually he should be a nice 2 spot hitter.

I don't know that he'll be that patient this year. From what I've heard, patience hasn't really ever been his calling card and plate discipline is usually one of the last things to develop for young guys. I just hope we don't try to make him too patient like we did with Weeks early in his career where it seems like he didn't swing until he had to strikes. I'd rather let him free swing and do what he wants at the plate. I think he can be a good hitter that way. He'll be inconsistent and will have to take the good with the bad, but I think it will do wonders for his confidence and long term development.

He will definitely be a great player. It is about time the Brewers finally get a shortstop that can be around for awhile. The stop gap at SS should be a thing of the past here on out. I am as much of a fan of Royce Clayton as the next guy, but hopefully we have found a guy that will give us 5+ years.