What exactly is Austin Hedges contributions/strengths?

[Surgnbuck]

We all know the guy isn't hitting. When he puts a ball in play I'm usually somewhat surprised.



So we were told about his defense and his handling of pitchers. They were supposedly so superior, they named a lake after how good he is.



Yet, we've seen him launch throws into centerfield. There seems to be absolutely no fear running on him, granted I know part of that is on the pitcher.



What's really bothering me is this. The number of quality base hits the staff seems to allow when they have two strikes on the batter. I wonder if there is a site that lists that, hits allowed on two strikes. For all I know, the Pirates might be the best in the league. But it seemed practically every hit today came with two strikes, and I mean, the balls were hit HARD.



As if they knew what was coming. When Oviedo was getting rocked the other night, I was speculating he was tipping his pitches.



Hedges was behind the plate when Keller pitched his complete game. So maybe I'm just looking for something to pile on the guy. But it seems that maybe his pitch calling is too predictable. Keller had all 6 of his pitches working Monday night, so it was easy to keep them off balance.



Seems to me also the staff ends up walking a lot of guys after 0-2 or 1-2 counts. That happened today with Hill in the inning the Rockies scored 3 runs.



I guess the real problem is the lack of offensive production. I suppose giving up 4 runs isn't a bad day for a pitching staff.



Maybe I just dislike Hedges so much, I want to find more stuff to complain about.

[GreenWeenie]

He frames pitches well, whatever that means or supposedly does for us.



Ben has done his share of good things. There's no getting around it. I don't think that Hedges is one of them. Johnny Bench wasn't in our price range.

[Bobster21]

They overpaid foe Hedge. He should be a backup and he's not even as good as Delay. If he gets 400 ABs, that's a problem. But I think Davis and/or Rodriguez will be up later this season.

[SammyKhalifa]

For what it's worth, Mitch Keller seems to REALLY like pitching to him. I wish I could find the postgame interview from a few weeks ago. I know everyone should tend to credit their teammates first, but if you could hear this it sounded above that.