TooLiveBrew

Those IGTs can really zoom along, too. It must be hard to stay on top of all those posts in such a short timespan.

Plus I don't think you don't want someone with Rickie's power or BB rate bunting.

Yeah, I thought it was kind of funny that we heard about the 'mechanical adjustment' for Villy... and then he told Trenni in his in-game interview that the adjustment was for him to work from the other side of the rubber from what he was using.

One thing to perhaps focus on in your Gagne discussion, Owen, is the troubling amount of pitches he's had to throw to this point. If you break it down as pitches/IP, he's at 395/(18 2/3) = 21.2/IP. Of course that's a bit off, since he didn't register an official IP April 20th @ CIN (1 BB, 2 H, 3 ER, BS & the loss), when he threw 14 pitches without recording a single out. That's a startling workload for a guy whose job description often includes pitching back-to-back days. For his most recent 4 appearances, Eric has thrown (results of outing parenthetical): 5/4 (@ HOU): 35... 17 balls to 18 strikes (BS, 1 IP, 3 BB/0 K, 2 ER) 5/10 (v. STL): 31... 11 balls to 20 strikes (L, 1 IP, 1 BB/0 K, 2 ER) 5/12 (v. STL): 37... 18 balls to 19 strikes (1 IP, 2 BB/1 K, 1 ER) 5/13 (v. LAD): 23... 7 balls to 16 strikes (S, 1 IP, 1 BB/0 K, 0 ER) Yes, that's cherrypicking, and yes... these most recent 4 skew his PT/IP ratio. However, combining his high workload thus far (20 or more pitches thrown in 10 of 19 appearances) with Yost's apparent desire to over-use Gagne, and the second half could be ugly. Gagne's baseball-reference.com 2008 game log & splits

It's not just his results, though, which can be greatly aided by luck. Just watching him pitch that 2d inning, Eric looked almost totally gassed, and endaround pointed out that his shoulder started to fly open, & that that's a sign of a pitcher being tired. He threw 37 pitches to get through 2 IP, after throwing 31 in 1 IP just back on Saturday. That's a ton of work on a RP's arm.

I love to see when trades work out that way. Of course, 2 or 3 seasons from now we all might be lauging at the notion that it's a "push". Gotta love the way MLB works!

Unbearable to bush-league. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Eric really struggled to get through those two innings. I don't see how anyone that watched them could say they weren't grueling (physically) for him.

Glad to see you've decided to check out Brewerfan.

Grueling innings?? They were up 8-1. That is about as far from grueling as you can get Gagne really struggled, especially in his 2nd inning. I made no reference to the the score.

Eveland's got a BABIP of .274 & a LOB% of 74.3 -- neither all that off, but a sign that he will likely regress at least a bit. Greg Smith -- .234 BABIP, 76.2% LOB For the A's, don't forget CF Carlos Gonzalez (Triple-A Sacramento): .303/.361/.424 (BABIP .355). That's probably below his projections, too -- so in spite of that BABIP, I'd be surprised if Gonzalez didn't finish the season with a better OPS. Haren's .263 BABIP will likely grow, but his 68.3% LOB is in line with (if not lower than) career norms. Also, his contract is ridiculously cheap -- probably the deal-breaker for me in assessing this trade: '08: $4M, '09: $5.5M, '10: $6.75M club option ($250k buyout). Escalators can increase '09 by up to $750k, & '10 by up to $1M. I think that, given the timing for ARI, they got what they felt they needed when they needed it. It was wise imo to snag a top-tier, in-his-prime SP to run out right when your young position-player prospects (Upton, Jackson, Drew, Reynolds, Young, etc.) are MLB-ready. It ensures that a solid SP rotation got even better, all while the DBacks can afford it due to their young guys still being 'cheap.' Once they have to pick & choose which young guys to keep around, they'll have gotten 2-3 seasons during Haren's prime already, & can flip him for prospects or re-sign him as they see fit. It's also fair to point out that Eveland & Smith have a pretty extreme pitcher's park as their homefield, whereas Chase Field has been known as a hitter's park. I feel that getting the proven elite performer in Haren (at lower than 'lg.avg. SP' cost), with ARI's timing, is the 'win' so far. Especially since the DBacks can use him to help re-stock their farm system down the road if need be. If he had a monstrous contract, I'd probably think of it as a push.

You're comparing apples to oranges, though -- imo. The issue at hand is that Gagne pitched two grueling innings on Monday, not that he deserves the same chance TBow got (with which I agree).

Why did you frame that as "for all the Yost bashers"?

Once resentment sets in it's really hard to overcome. Resentment comes when professional respect doesn't. I'm nearly 100% certain that Yost not pitching Gagne last night would not have led to this. Eric had just struggled to get through 2 IP the night before, and in general has not pitched that well of late. Gagne seems very in-tune to this (evidenced by his own comments), so I can't imagine a scenario where he would have been irate/irritated about not getting the 'go' last night. Saying that not pitching a player in a position in which he should not have been pitched (general baseball logic, not my own or just unfounded hatred of Yost) is going to lead to resentment is a bit sensational. You're assuming Gagne told Yost he not only was ready to pitch, but wanted to, and I see no reason to assume either. As mentioned, if a guy in Gagne's position (thrown 2 IP the night previous... struggled, no less) tells Yost 'Hey, I can go tonight', imho it's the manager's job to be able to excercise better judgment.

"Again like I said before the Boston Red Sox decision is going to prove to be a domino effect for numerous ballclubs." It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. It sounds like the Brewers might be pursuing this current location as a/the backup plan.

Well-said, Bwaz. However the last two games I got a little frustrated, and was genuinely baffled by his decision to pull Bush and CV. Both these guys have been struggling mightily, so he removes them in games they really have shown nicely. I think it was nice to see Yost be proactive, as opposed to crossing his fingers like he did with Gagne last night. Beyond pitch #75 (roughly) is when Bush -- and most SP -- begin run into trouble. Running Bush out there after his 6 wonderful innings would have been asking for trouble again, just like Bwaz's gasoline/campfire analogy. As for Parra, he started off terribly, seemingly unable to locate. Yes, he reigned himself in -- which was & is a very good sign -- but I was really happy that Yost decided to not push things. If Ned is supposed to put players in the right spot to succeed I don't understand why he gets called stupid when he does it and they do succeed. Buc, it was a position to fail, not succeed. Gagne labored to get through his 2nd inning Monday night, and did not look all that sharp last night. Yost (& Gagne) got very lucky, which I'm concerned that Ned will mistake for good judgment.

Yay! Jeffress is back! I got a chance to see this guy throw at Maryvale and he absolutely throws smoke Mmmust... resist urge... to make... smoking joke. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif I share everyone's enthusiasm. Certainly a 'yahoo!' kind of moment when the highest-ceiling young arm in the system gets to go back to work. Best of luck, Jeremy! Hope to see you in Milwaukee someday soon.

Or heck, have him play 1B & Fielder DH v. RHP. Nelson has to be better than/equal to Prince at 1B... no?

Would it be considered unprofessional, though, to say something like, "I spoke with several people with the Brewers, and they've told me the adjustment is simple -- there's concern that Eric has been tipping his pitches. For obvious reasons, I cannot name my sources"? Just curious.

C'mon Crew -- don't let fondyfan down! C'mon Parra... show that studly stuff.

Clearly you haven't seen Taxi! http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00074CBIS.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg Supermodel supervillains? Uh oh! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/eyes.gif

Is that just 'the thing that gets said', though, about a young team that collapses? -- iirc the young guys in Milwaukee were the ones carrying their weight last season down the stretch.

His K/9 is good but he's walking a lot of people so his BB/9 is well.. pretty bad. (and has nothing to do with Luck) Unless imperfect human beings dictate the strike zone. Then luck can factor in. The 2-2 change he threw with 2 outs last night (to the batter before Pierre) would've been strike 3 for many umpires imo. Some of the writers think Eric was tipping his pitches. That would certainly be a good reason not to talk a lot about the nature of any adjustment involved. And it might explain what could appear to be a lot of seemingly weak base hits. I mean no ill will to casey, but is this anything more than just popular gossip? I wonder about sportswriters' ability to identify when a guy's tipping his pitches. I heard this too, but nothing substantial to back it up -- I got the impression it was speculation.

Get better asap Robb!

Chicken or egg. He's now throwing a crushable 93 mph instead of 98 so he's lost confidence in throwing it for a strike, imo. He was confident in throwing it for strikes last night. His location wasn't perfect, but certainly not due to fear. I thought you were talking about his changeup, though, originally. It's still fine, as he made at least one hitter look foolish with the change last night.

The Gagne decision was risky, but imo not so much due to the matchups. I didn't mind seeing him at all in that sense, even v. Pierre. What was moronic was to try to show your balls to the world/faith in a player by pitching a RP who had not only thrown the night before, but had thrown 2 innings! Ned seems to have little concept of risk management... and it's as frustrating to me now as it has always been.