BOBBY HILL

4/3/78; '00 2nd (Chicago Cubs); Univ. of Miami
S/R; 5-10, 190

Level	BA	OBP	SA	AB	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	SB	CS
2000 IND	.326	.442	.491	481	22	9	13	101	57	81	15
2001 AA (ChiC)	.301	.396	.392	209	8	1	3	32	39	20	8
2001 R (ChiC)	.222	.364	.222	9	0	0	0	2	3	1	0
2002 NL (ChiC)	.253	.327	.374	190	7	2	4	17	42	6	1
2002 AAA (ChiC)	.280	.382	.429	354	23	3	8	49	66	29	5
2003 NL (ChiC)	.250	.400	.250	4	0	0	0	1	2	0	0
2003 NL	.333	.500	.333	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
2003 AAA (ChiC)	.288	.365	.424	361	23	4	6	37	65	8	7
2003 AAA	.167	.257	.273	66	2	1	1	8	8	1	2
2004 NL	.266	.353	.339	233	7	2	2	20	39	0	3

The Pirates acquired Hill from the Cubs as the player-to-be-named-later in the Aramis Ramirez salary dump trade. Hill was originally drafted by the White Sox, but could not agree on a bonus and went to play independent ball. He then re-entered the draft and signed with the Cubs. Hill went into spring training in 2003 expected to get the Cubs' 2B job, but he played poorly and the Cubs quickly soured on him. He was sent to the minors and hardly played at all during his one call-up. He's probably not going to be a star, as was once thought, but he could be a solid player at the top of the lineup. He has good speed, although his base stealing fell off badly in 2003, possibly due to some nagging injuries. His on-base skills have mostly been good, but his plate discipline has fallen off some as he's advanced in levels. He was originally thought to be capable of playing SS, but he probably does not have the arm. The Pirates do not consider him very good at 2B and his zone rating there in 2004 was very poor. After they acquired him, the Pirates called Hill up after the AAA playoffs, but he played in only one game and then was shut down with a back problem. It first surfaced in April 2003 and bothered Hill all year, which may account for the his weak showing in AAA. It eventually was discovered that Hill had a stress fracture in his back, which he chose to address with therapy rather than surgery. It's a problem that won't go away and may flare up again in the future. Hill was originally expected to compete for the 2B job with Freddy Sanchez, with Sanchez as the favorite, but Sanchez dropped from the competition due to his own injury. The Pirates seemed to be nervous about Hill's health and that may have played a role in Jose Castillo surprisingly making the team. The two started the season alternating at 2B, with Castillo playing more due to his superior defense, but eventually Castillo won the job. Hill seemed to settle in as a UT player. When Chris Stynes proved to be a disaster at 3B, the Pirates played Hill there a few games to get his bat in the lineup. He handled the position well defensively, considering his lack of experience, but the Pirates gave him only limited time there even before they acquired Ty Wigginton. Hill proved to be an excellent PH, hitting 276/348/448, with both his HRs, in the role. He's a patient hitter who tries to work the count, but he sometimes gets into bad counts, a tendency that may improve over time. Like Jason Kendall and Craig Wilson, he makes little effort to get out of the way of inside pitches; he got hit by pitches at an even higher rate than either of those two. Hill has always hit LHPs better than RHPs, but Lloyd McClendon seemed to be unaware of the fact, using him as if he was a LH batter: he got only 18 ABs against LHPs. It's likely that his hitting stats would have been better had he seen a representative amount of LH pitching. In fact, McClendon misused Hill in a number of respects. Hill is a top-of-the-order type of hitter whose best asset is on-base ability. Among Pirates with 100 or more ABs, Hill ranked 4th in OBP, well ahead of everybody else, yet, when he started, McClendon batted him 6th through 8th. He was a good base stealer in the minors prior to the back problem, but McClendon seldom called on him to steal. The Pirates have said they will look at Hill in the OF in 2005. The sensible thing to do would be to try him in CF, as he's a far better offensive player than Tike Redman and can hardly be any worse defensively. Unfortunately, he'll probably only be considered as a UT player. He'll serve as a UT player in 2005. With Freddy Sanchez available, Ty Wigginton expected to play most days at 3B, and Rob Mackowiak relegated to more of a UT role, Hill will have trouble finding playing time beyond PH appearances. At worse, he and Freddy Sanchez should provide the team with a much stronger and more versatile bench, now that the Pirates have finally turned loose of Abe Nunez.

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