jjfanec

Jed Bradley with another solid outing. Taylor Jungmann not so much.

Yep the only complaint with trading Lawrie was that we could have maybe received a younger pitcher with more upside but Lawrie has not looked like someone we will regret not having. I thought he would be a solid pro. There were some here who said we traded away a perennial all-star and one went as far as to compare him to Braun. His character was a question and now so is his bat. His OPS .435 right now. So far Michael Brantley has had the most success of the guys we have traded under Melvin. I guess that would actually be Nelson Cruz

Quit having a lot of close games, pitch Wang just a little more, and start losing a little more and the bullpen usage will look better.

I by no means believe that Doug is say a top 2 or 3 GM in baseball, but he's not the clueless idiot which some seem to think also. This is essentially the main point of this thread. We dont need to go all good or all bad on Melvin

I think the B grade is extremely fair. The A's and Rays comparisons are very interesting. Obviously the Rays are more impressive considering the division they are in and their overall success. One huge part of the Rays success is from 1999-2008 the Rays picked in the top 8 every year including top 3 6 times! That is a great way to build up a franchise. The Brewers have only pick in the top 3 once since 1985. The Rays even missed on a few of those picks but did a great job trading them once they got expensive. They are an extremely well run team who was able to build up a terrific farm system by being terrible for a decade up until 2008. The A's are more impressive to me because they havent had a pick in the top 9 since 1999 but have still built up a great team.

I completely agree. Weeks was a mistake but I am guessing the move was widely praised when it happened. It does boggle my mid that 1B is such a hard position for us to fill. But when you look at this team even in spite of some poor drafting recently and lets not let Jack Z off the hook for his struggles hitting on pitchers this team is set up pretty well. Even the pitching has good young potential with Peralta, Thornburg, and Nelson.

There are enough threads that will question his decisions and that is a good thing but i do think it is time to recognize the things Melvin has done right. We can question what he is doing at 1B, allowing Seid to oversee the farm system, or if the Lohse/Garza signings were good but right now we have a 15-5 team that is winning in different ways. 1. The Carlos Gomez trade and subsequent signing of Gomez to a very team friendly deal. 2. Signing Lucroy to a team friendly deal before he blew up 3. Building a solid bullpen. How nice is it to feel like we have a great chance of winning if we are tied late in a game. 4. He hasnt broken the bank to sign pitchers but was able to fill out a rotation nicely without having to rush guys. It is great having guys like Nelson, Thornburg and even Friers and Burgos available if a starter goes down. 5. Getting Smith for Aoki. This goes along with number 3 but Smith has been great and Aoki was a relatively old corner OF'er with a young guy ready to take his place. Which leads to number 6 6. I think he is getting better at trusting younger talent. He gave the starting job to Davis and let Gennett beat out Weeks. Davis started slow but he will be fine. 7. Getting Segura for Greinke. Sure Jean is starting slow this year but he is only 22 with plenty of time to grow as a player

I was going to post a similar thread for Melvin but I figured it would go south pretty quick. RR has his issues like his aggressive nature leading to the team making stupid outs on the base paths but overall I have liked him. I have really liked his handling of the bullpen this year and not being afraid to sit a guy who is struggling

He is over the top sometimes but whatever. I cant stand fans and players from Pittsburgh complaining about him watching his hit since the Pirates did that like 3 or 4 times this series. Reminds me of Cardinal or Cubs fans who complained about Braun doing it when they have had guys like Pujols and Sosa who love admiring their hits

Coulter has had a very nice start. OPS 1.190. I will take that. But you are right we havent had a ton of success outside those two

Bradley's last two starts. 11 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 11 K. Just when I had given up on Bradley he sucked me back in. http://i.imgur.com/awj0PYi.gif Exactly how I feel. He has the stuff to be a good pitcher. Not sure what his issue is

Bradley's last two starts. 11 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 11 K. Just when I had given up on Bradley he sucked me back in.

Another very strong start from Nelson. Jungmann has pitched well today tool but Huntsville has given him no run support

Wang gets his inning just like many in this thread said he soon would.

That would seem to make sense. I dont think we had the money for two 10 million plus per year deals. Abreu looks like he would have been a good sign but I am guessing we would have had to go a million or two per year more than Chicago to get him.

Kyle Lohse has the worst ERA of our starters at 3.05 which is also the second worst ERA of our pitchers as a whole. Only Zach Duke is worse at 4.9. Henderson is the only pitcher with a WHIP above 1.2.

Will Smith is on pace to pitch 95 games. K-Rod and Henderson 88. Thornburg's on pace for 103 innings. These guys are pitching fine now, but this kind of things catches up over 162 games. Part of the reason our good relievers are pitching is that we are winning and games are close. It's understandable you want your best guys out there. But the team is going to have to work in Wang simply to keep the other guys from getting overworked. I think the Braves a couple of years ago were criticized when they overworked their big three relievers. They were brilliant all year, but faltered in September as they all got tired. I understand what you are saying but we both know K-Rod, Thornburg and Henderson's games will go down once we start losing a few more games and when our starters struggle early. We are 10-2 and almost every one of our games has been close so K-Rod and Thornburg are getting a lot of use. Henderson got a lot of use because he needed work through his issues. Even with that K-Rod, Thornburg, and Henderson are 17th, 41st and 41st in games pitched by right handed relief pitchers. Thornburg is tied for 10th in IP which isnt out of line and he has been stretched out as a starter before so I am not nearly as worried. Smith's numbers might need to a come down but the sample size is so small and our start has been so improbable he has had a lot of opportunities in close games. 35 lefties pitched in 60-76 games last year. This year 11 lefties have pitched in as many or more games than Smith and another 17 have one less game. So if Lohse doesnt all that hit last night Smith would have pitched in the same amount or less games 28 lefties. He hasnt been pitching that much more than other relievers Another thing with the stats is relief pitchers usually pitch more in the start of the season because starters are not fully stretched out and/or coaches dont let them go as deep into games. As the season goes along and the weather warms up starters will pitch more and relievers numbers will go down. The numbers do not back up the perception that our bullpen is overworked. Comparatively our pitchers are not pitching more innings that others even though we have consistently been in close games.

It seems odd to me that people are so worked up over how little time our last reliever has received. It isnt unprecedented to have your 13 pitcher not pitch many innings. Just a quick look. I am guessing Wang is getting coaching right now. Would I like to see him pitch an inning or something - sure - but Henderson seemed to be getting the low-leverage innings so he could figure things out. Now that he looks better lets see if Wang can get an inning The Card's last reliever has 1 IP. The Red's last reliever has 0.2 IP.

I don't know how I'd feel about that and not just because I like Estrada, which I admittedly do. Pitching, especially starting pitching, has been such a sore spot for so long that I'd be almost afraid to deal any capable starter. I'm pretty sure that too many capable starters would be a good problem to have, although I'm not 100% sure about that, because I can't remember the last time we were faced with such a dilemma... if ever. If Jimmy Nelson has a solid year in AAA I would be inclined to move Estrada for a 1B or 3B prospect. A capable starter is also worth something on the trade market right? Nelson, Pena, Fiers, Burgos could all help make Estrada "expendable." Wooten could help replace Thornburg

The question for me is is he better than Estrada. His peripherals are pretty similar although Estrada actually struck out more guys per 9 when Thornburg started last year. If they are similar pitchers right now and Thornburg is better out of the bullpen then leave him there. He should be next in light to start for the team and I would love for them to look at moving Estrada in the off-season to make room for Thornburg. It isnt like Tyler is wasting away at the end of the bench. He is playing an important role but you are right it isnt as important as being a starter

I completely agree and think this is something people do way too often. Sometimes people take an internet rumor like the one a while back with a Matt Cain for so and so Brewer swap and act like it was definitely on the table. We never know those things. Also on the trades we could have made idea maybe other teams scouts saw the flaws in players like Escobar, Lawrie, LaPorta, etc and thus we couldn't get the value some here thought we should. The Melvin bashing gets a little much for me and is part of the reason I dont post here as much as I used to do. I am not a huge Melvin fan but he is the same guy who smartly extended Lucroy to a very team friendly deal, made the Segura trade, made the Gomez trade, traded Aoki so Davis had a spot in the lineup, etc. The JJ Hardy for Carlos Gomez trade is looking like one of the most lopsided trades we have made. Gomez is an All-Star and Minnesota moved Hardy for bad relief pitchers. Also Estrada is really underrated by some. The last three years he has 3.8 or so ERA with a WHIP around 1.14 and 8.7 K/9. What is not to like for a number 5 starter making 3.3 million. Thornburg is being treated very similar to Cardinal pitchers, and guys like Johan Santana when he was coming up. Sometimes I feel like people think relievers are not important and you can just throw anyone out there to pitch an inning or two. Thornburg is playing a very important role on this team right now

I am glad Thornburg is on the team in the bullpen right now because he is helping the team. He is not wasting service time. He is helping the team win games. At the same time if a starter struggles or gets hurt he is the guy I want making starts.

The reason I can see this not just being a fluke is our offense has plus bats at CF, RF, SS, 3B, C and potentially LF. Only 1B and 2B are not above average. Our rotation is very solid 1-5. We dont have your typical ace but I think we have the best 1-5 I can remember in Milwaukee and some very good depth. And I love our bullpen. Now K-Rod scares me (even though he has been great) but I love the arms we have. Thornburg, Smith, Kintzler, and hopefully Henderson with his regular velocity make quite the bullpen.

I agree. I wouldnt have Lawrie rated that high just because his debut seems like a fluke. He was a guy whose OPS was much closer to .800 in the minors and now has been closer to .700 in the majors minus that one year. Heck Scooter's first year in the majors was better than Lawrie's last two full seasons. Right now their results look very similar even though they are very different players. Lawrie has all those tools and Scooter seems like a guy who gets the most out of what he has.

I was bored so I thought I would look at how some of the guys we traded are doing in the majors. Former top Brewer farmhands Alcides Escobar and Brett Lawrie are following up poor 2013 campaigns with really slow starts. Escobar has an OPS of .436 and Lawrie is at .383. Obviously the season is young but after their down years last year it is a troubling trend. Lorenzo Cain is also starting a little slowly at the plate. Former top pitcher Jake Odorizzi had a very nice first start and got rocked in his second. Jeremy Jeffress was just designated for assignment. It seemed like we crippled our farm system in those trades but maybe our system was even worse that we thought. Right now Brantley might be the best guy we traded. You can argue we couldnt have gotten more or at least younger more controllable pitching but I am really surprised how poorly Lawrie and others are doing in the big leagues