Never Outhustled

While I agree Kendall has died offensively, everybody hits 200. Kendall will get there to, meaning he'll be close to tollerable the rest of the way.

Thats great news, and a big thanks to Chris for finding a way to get this done. We've gleened some of our best info from these pre-game interviews last year with Nichols, Ash, Money...

Its amazing someone can allow their life spiral so far out of control. This article is really beyond belief. I really hope Cutter can isolate himself from this. He'll definately have our support. He will also have the support of the Brewers employee assistance program, one of the best of many great idea's Melvin has had.

Yes, it is all about opinion, and I hope I'm wrong and Mat reals off 15 games in a row without an error. However, it was also their opinion that Braun could play 3B. I think its important to have a strong defensive team, and would like to put players in positions where they are above average, not at positions that we hope they can, over time, become average. If his OPS was 1.354 instead of 742 their probably would be. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Very true, but do you remember how powerless the Power offense was to start last year? They were awesome by years end, this group could do the same, but they do need Komatsu back.

Seattle is going to fall off. Endy Chavez won't keep hitting 370, and Jarod Washburn won't keep his ERA under 2. Seattle is an improved team, but improved from terrible to just bad. I'd have an interest in Bedard if he's healthy later in the year, but he's not my 1st choice. As Nate82 mentions, he's very fragile, and he won't gut it out for the team. Tim Dillard is very qualified to help this team. Chris Smith is also interesting. Julio is just the mop up guy anyway. He might get cut when Hoffman gets activated, as Swindle should be a useful pitcher. Hopefully thats just posturing by their owner, because Halladay is a perfect fit for us, and Toronto is a perfect trading partner for us. They need a SS, and they don't have a big need for young pitching.

Thats why were talking about a possible position change for Mat now. If a trade is made, and Mat is stilling playing 3B, he doesn't get to work at his new position in AAA. Like you said, thats a big mistake. So the reason Fielder was an instant hit, but Weeks has struggled is because Fielder got 175 more AAA ABs?

- You've thrown this out there a few times, and still havent explained it. While I realize minor league scorers might make more mistakes, are you saying they consistently give errors on plays that should be credited with hits? And if thats the case wouldn't Braun's Fielding % have gotten better in the Majors, instead of getting worse? I'm guessing they make more mistakes, but theres just as many hits that they give errors on as there is errors that they give hits on. Mat will be 24 later this year, thats a little bit older than most top prospects. Many top prospects never see AAA, though I agree that in many cases thats a big mistake. I believe an organization should want a player with there team in his best years. before steriods, players started to decline at 29, so I think by 23-24 is an age you really want to start pushing a guy up. The most important thing isn't age, but a players ability to carry high Value Wins. Braun was arguably the best rookie hitter of all time. The only mistake was the team didn't get him playing a position he could play by the time his bat was ready. Gamel is proving to be a similar hitter at the same age as Braun was when he debuted in the Majors. Weeks was maybe rushed with the bat because he didn't really hit that well in AA, then was promoted after dominating AAA for 7 weeks. Defensively, he's finally become an average 2B, but that endevor wasn't worth the wait. Fielder had just 175 more ABs in AAA than Weeks did. I agree that Gamel could eventually become average defensively, much like Russel Branyan did, but much like the Weeks case, the wait would cost the team dearly.

Thats incorrect. Gamel averaged an error every 4.1 games last year, Braun averaged an error every 4.3 games for Milwaukee in 2007. I do agree that Gamel is better defensively than Braun though. Chone Figgins OPS'd just 685 last year, yet had the more Value Wins than Edwin Encarnacion, who had an 807 OPS, and the major reason for this is because Figgins, while not a top defender, was 18 runs better defensively than Encarnacion. Yet Giambi was only worth 2.3 wins last year because he played some 1B, and his defense negated some of his offense. Joey Votto, a player I compare Gamel to, was worth 3.8 wins last year, even though his OPS was the same as Giambi's. Votto was 16 runs better defensively though. Many poor defensive 3Bs become high quality defensive 1Bs, like Pujols and Texeira. Fielder is another great example of a guy who's offense is negated by defense. Fielder was worth just 2.6 Value Wins last year as opposed to Votto's 3.8, despite a similar OPS. This one I agree with, which is why I want to originally shift Gamel to the OF. He could easily slide to 1B later in his career. Win Values takes into account the difference in offense expected at each position, and Gamel projects to about the same Value Wins at either position. The question is, do you want to be a good defensive team, or have stronger offense? With the high cost and difficulty to acquire pitching in today's game, I'd like to offset the problem by fielding a strong defensive team that converts outs efficiently and keep the pitch count lower for our best pitchers. Edit: Strawbossisevel, I mean no disrespect in systematically challenging your post. I thought you explained your view perfectly. I was just struggling to explain my stance, and yours lead me right into what I wanted to say.

Me too. Maybe it will happen. Washington was the only team that showed interest in Fielder this past offseason.

I think Macha should whatever he did in Oakland when they got off to a slow start every year, and then got hot the rest of the way.

Awesome jinxing ability. You no sooner posted that and Lucroy breaks it up with a single.

Its kind of fitting that Chris Cody is pitching another gem on a night the Brewers face Jamie Moyer, the guy Cody aspires to be. I think its time I start taking Cody seriously. Edit: Cody finishes with 6IP 4 hits 0ER 3K, of the 4 hits only 2 left the infield, both by top prospect Todd Frazier. 9 groundouts to 6 flyouts, and 4 of the flyouts were infield popouts.

I've seen those too. It was one of the untalked about positives to the CC trade. Even though he wasn't re-signed, he put us in position to raise our payroll, which could put us in position to do the same next year.

I completely agree with all of this. I think some who want him to stay at 3B don't believe he is a dominant hitter. Players don't dominate the Southern League like Gamel did. The last prospect to put up a similar line is a guy Gamel compares very well to, Joey Votto, who put up a 957 OPS in 2006. Votto was already more valuable than Fielder by 2008. Gamel might even be a better hitter, if you consider his offense was derailed by injury the 2nd half of last year. Gamel is an All-Star caliber player at 1B or the OF.

I think thats an excellent comparison Briggs. Kolb had an ERA under 5 in 68 games with the Rangers. Thats very similar to Coffey pre-Brewers, Kolb's is just a little smaller sample size. Like you mention, they have similar sinkers, along with very good heat on their 4-seamer, and battle conditioning issues. Kolb eventually lost some of his velocity and became less effective, likely due to his long history of injury. Coffey has always been healthy, hopefully he can continue his awesomeness.

Thanks, I missed that. Interesting stuff.

I love that BCB article, but unfortunatly what we don't have is a UZR/150 stat for Gamel's performance last season. The worst starting MLB 3B defender last season was Edwin Encarnoncion. We know he committed 23 errors in 143 games, but we can't accurately contrast his range versus Gamel. Encarnacion's UZR/150 was -12.1 Its difficult to find someone to compare Gamel defensively to, because no MLB 3B has had 32 errors in 132 games since the UZR stat was invented. The only 3B with a similar rate of games per error is Braun, and Braun UZR/150 was -35, but I'm guessing Gamel has better range than Braun showed, possibly significantly better.

If Brewer takes off, wouldn't it make more sense to deal them Escobar, since he's closer to the majors making him a more valuable trade chip, and keep Brewer, since we don't need a SS until 2011?

Fixed it for ya. Jeffress has terrible luck. Last year it seemed to rain every time he pitched, Tonight it rains errors while he pitches.

Thanks for the work, I was wondering. As we posted our reasons why this team could be a contender this year, our improved pitcher hitting wasn't brought up, but maybe it should have. We would be talking to no end about a player transaction that made us 1-2 wins different.

If the pitcher we aquired in your proposed Hardy deal was replacing Ruben Quevedo, I'd agree, but that pitcher would likely be replacing Braden Looper. Lets say, for example, that Hardy was traded for Matt Cain (even though I don't think SF would do that). Cain was a quality pitcher last year and carried 3.7 value wins. Looper, however, carried 1.7 value wins. Thats only 2 wins differense, and Hardy is at least 2 wins better than what Escobar will be next year, and likely more. We have not gotten any better with this deal, and possibly worse.

Escobar also committed a fair amount of errors last year to, and yet every scouting report we read, which include comments of scouts lauds his defensive abilities becuase of his superior range. I agree, and thats why we constantly post scouting reports of players written from writers who talk directly to scouts here at Brewerfan.net, and many of them contain direct quotes from scouts. In the past, we've seen scouts consistently comment that Weeks and Fielder were horrible defensively when they were in the minors, and they were right. The scouts loved hardy defensively, and they were right. I find it interesting that you routinely talk to scouts that are willing to comment positively to you about Gamel's defense, yet every scout comment we read in print is negative. Is that really just random chance? Is a scouts comment to you hold more weight than a scouts comment to a professional writer? I would love to hear these comments from scouts your hearing, and would appreciate if you shared them. If you were to share what you here, we could change our views. Also, are you really suggesting that the reason Gamel has had huge error totals each season is simply because of bad scoring, wouldn't other players have huge unjust error totals too. Is there really a massive scorer bias across America that singles out only certain minor leaguers and works to discredit them defensively year after year?

He was doing fielding drills in spring before he wasn't cleared to throw. Bill Hall had a short spring too, but he's been awesome so far defensively, and Hall hasn't been playing 3B nearly as long as Gamel. Gamel isn't a position switch to 3B like Hall or Braun was, he's been playing it, in his words "I've been a third baseman since I can remember." I started this thread to discuss our best and closest prospect, and how he would best be utilized by the organization, especially since, IMO, his bat is ready to be a force in the majors right now. I will update it periodically, and hope for a change in outcome (defensively, of course, keep the raking going). It also clear your thoughts on Gamel's defense, even though the results don't match.

And his 5th error in ten games, pushing him further from the majors. His error rate isn't nearly as good as last year, and it wasn't good enough last year. I do, however, hope he gets recalled to DH in interleague play. He's definately better than our others options to do that.