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JohnBriggs12

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Everything posted by JohnBriggs12

  1. JohnBriggs12
    Or they could just grab some random reliever that throws hard and ride them till they suck like they've done before with Torres, Kolb, Coffey, Turnbow, Vizcaino, Leskanic, DeJean, etc. I don't think Axford is in the category of any of those guys and his numbers are far and away superior. Of that group, only Turnbow came close to having the stuff Axford has, and he didn't have the level head that Axford has. Plus after his one good year where he topped out at 98, Turnbow was losing velocity and command. Ax man is still topping out at 98.
  2. JohnBriggs12
    On the bright side, as little offense as Izturis provides, at least the Brewers aren't stuck with Clint Barmes and his .165/.190/.281 for $10.5 million over 2 years. Maybe those numbers will pick up with a few AB's against Randy Wolf, but the Brewers dodged a bullet there.
  3. JohnBriggs12
    I'm not getting carried away because Lucroy looked like a sure fire All Star last year at this time too. To refresh everyone's memory on May 24th last year he was hitting .333/.381/.528. He's got plenty of competition at the position too. Carlos Ruiz has even better numbers to this point. Then there's Molina, McCann and Posey, all top catchers and proven performers. It's a very deep position in the NL. It will be difficult for Lucroy to make the team, much less get more votes than those more familiar names.
  4. JohnBriggs12
    The fact is the entire division is awful and the reality is somebody is going to win it. That certainly gives the Brewers hope but losing 2 of 3 at home to the woeful Twins doesn't bode well.
  5. JohnBriggs12
    "Losing Gamel and Gonzalez from our positions of least depth really killed our lineup". Well Gonzalez was off to a hot start and definitely showed pop, but he's not a great offensive player by any means. Gamel was hitting .246 and slugging .348. We really don't know what we are missing with him gone. Losing Fielder killed the lineup. Trading Lawrie and Escobar for one run at it killed the lineup too. They are missing Gomez too. He had been a bright spot this year. Pitchers under and over perform at various points in the season. The key underperformer has been Veras, who had big shoes to fill in Saito and Hawkins. Weeks should be better as its hard to be that bad. What you see in Ramirez, might be what you get.
  6. JohnBriggs12
    They'll look to Sacramento if they can't get in San Jose. Sacramento is the 22nd largest metro area in the US, just ahead of Portland, but it's also where Oakland's AAA affiliate is and it's not all that far from Oakland. In the short term, they'd need to expand Raley Field, which has a capacity of 15,000, according to the facility's website but that's been done before.
  7. JohnBriggs12
    "Dime a dozen"? His streak of saves that ended is top 5 all time. He's extremely level headed which separates him from other hard throwers. Speaking of that he tops out at 98. That isn't as common as you suggest either. If his talent is so common, then his trade value can't be all that high either. He's still cheap and the Brewers have nothing close to an heir apparent and would have to overpay to get one. They've done that before, but it didn't work out too well.
  8. JohnBriggs12
    He can't face the Brewers every day.
  9. JohnBriggs12
    The Brewers liked Escobar and what was not to like? He's a plus defender at a key position and they figured he would hit enough. It's taken a little time for his bat to come around, but he's progressed every year. Apparently the talk about Escobar got in Hardy's head that year. All's not lost. Carlos Gomez has progressed too. So it's not like Hardy was given away.
  10. JohnBriggs12
    The Jays still can't believe anyone claimed Rios with $60 million left on his deal. But Rios was hitting .264/.317/.427 at the time. So it wasn't like he was 2012 Weeks bad. Luckily for Kenny Williams, his WS title gave him job security because the Rios claim hasn't exactly worked out. By August, Weeks will be down to $34 million or so left (assuming he reaches 600 PA in 14). If there's a big market team desperate for a 2B, and Weeks has picked it up some, it's certainly worth a try. Even in what will go down as Weeks' career year of 2010, there were red flags. That year he fanned once every 3.53 AB. That was worse than his rookie year of 2005 when he fanned once every 3.75 AB. This season he's fanning at a rate that would make Branyan blush, once every 2.76 AB. Yes his pitch selection is atrocious but more than that, he's got holes in his swing that are growing.
  11. JohnBriggs12
    You say Bill Hall was never a really good player. So Weeks career playing at Southern that resulted in his being the 2nd overall pick trumps Hall's back to back seasons in 05 and 06 in the major leagues? I think if somehow a draft of all amateur players were held following the 06 season, and Bill Hall was declared eligible to be included in that draft, it's likely that Hall would have been selected very high up. You don't luck into an .899 OPS in 608 plate appearances in the big leagues. He clearly possessed the talent to do that. That he couldn't sustain it speaks not to his ability necessarily but the difficulty of sustaining success at the highest level of a sport. Lets look at Ian Kinsler. He was drafted the same year as Weeks. Apparently the scouts didn't think he was very good either because he lasted until the 17th round. Who would you have rather had, Weeks or Kinsler?
  12. JohnBriggs12
    The fact is Weeks, as talented and as much power and swing speed as he has, has always found making consistent contact challenging. He's never hit .300 at any level in more than 250 plate appearances. The walks he's accumulated are great, but a certain number of them are the result of him either choosing not to swing or swinging and missing and getting deep into counts by failing to put balls into play. Gorman Thomas used to walk a lot too, but part of that was that he too had trouble putting balls in play and that resulted in a lot of deep counts. Adam Dunn went through an entire season last year mired in a slump of epic proportions. That slump combined with another not quite as ghastly season by Alex Rios, killed the White Sox last year. Nobody saw that coming with Dunn either. Weeks still has plenty of time to get going and he'll get that opportunity. But slumps of this magnitude can get into guys heads. We're nearly a quarter of the way into the season. That's a significant amount of time and he's hitting .154.
  13. JohnBriggs12
    And 48 K's. To repeat, he's fanned more times than he's reached via hit or walk combined. Awful.
  14. JohnBriggs12
    Weeks needs an extended hot streak to get to the level McGehee was at last year. Just speculating, but Weeks and Fielder were pretty close. It could be Fielder's presence was a factor in keeping him in the right frame of mind to perform. This is definitely the downside to long term contracts even if they seem fairly reasonable at the time. It's Bill Hall all over again.
  15. JohnBriggs12
    Melvin never sees things as flukes or opportunities to sell high. He always operates under assumptions guys will repeat their prior seasons. Its hard to say how much value Wolf might have had, but it's likely they could have dumped his salary. Wolf is a lefthanded version of Suppan. He's not as far removed from success as Suppan was when they finally pulled that plug so I suspect we're stuck with him for a while. I'm sure he'll stick a decent start in there occasionally. But I suspect his days of sub 4.50 pitching are over.
  16. JohnBriggs12
    I'll tell you what, Carlos Lee can still play.
  17. JohnBriggs12
    This year they've failed to carry any momentum from one game to the next. Of course when the top 2 hitters in your lineup are both hitting as bad as Morgan and Weeks, that's never good.
  18. JohnBriggs12
    Don't worry, Weeks and Morgan will have a couple more chances.
  19. JohnBriggs12
    You are right about Baker and McClung. Hopefully one will be replaced by Thornburg before too long. But I'm sure they'd like to get better results from the veterans filling out the staff.
  20. JohnBriggs12
    Peralta, Peralta, Peralta. What about Fiers? After a rough April, he's been dealing in May. My own opinion is that Fiers is more major league ready than Peralta. Peralta has a little higher ceiling perhaps, but Fiers is the more finished product. His ceiling may only be a 4 or 5 starter, but he's likely capable of being that guy now. Peralta on the other hand may project to a #3 starter, but he's more likely to get results of a #5 right now so he'd benefit with a bit more seasoning.
  21. JohnBriggs12
    Are you really suggesting that talking walks is more a result of your stance than your ability to take pitches outside the zone and have a good eye at the plate? And it has nothing to do with how he starts his stance. It's about where he is when he's ready to make contact with the ball. Otherwise wouldn't everyone come out and get into some type of yoga stance? I mean, I don't think I've ever heard a more ridiculous idea for dismissing a players ability to draw walks, especially one of the greatest in the history of the games at doing so. I'm not dismissing his ability to take walks. I'm explaining some of what made him exceptional at it. You ask pitchers that faced him and they'll say how hard it was to get a strike called on him. He was such a threat on the bases, that a walk was equivalent to a double. He certainly knew this and made an art out of taking walks. He was a very good hitter too, of course, but not an all time great when actually swinging the bat. I think as a all time offensive player, he certainly ranks up there with the all time greats. Just pure hitting ability is a little different skill set though.
  22. JohnBriggs12
    The title of this thread is misleading. The list is of "All Time Greats". It doesn't specifiy hitting. Taking walks obviously adds to offensive value but it's not purely hitting. When I think of greatest hitters, I don't consider the ability to crouch under pitches and make your strike zone miniscule as Henderson did, as hitting. Stat wise a case can be made for him certainly as an all time great, but his skill wasn't purely hitting. Still there is no way Santo for instance was a better offensive player than Billy Williams, but he's ranked higher on this list. So obviously the rankings include not only other offensive skills than hitting, but defensive value as well.
  23. JohnBriggs12
    So does Hank Greenberg. Seriously Greenberg is #54? He belongs in the top 10. He doesn't have the accumulated numbers because he missed 3 and a half years in WW2 and another to injury, but not counting 1936 where he only played 12 games, from 1934 to 1940, he averaged 39 HR and 150 RBI, and had didn't have an OPS under 1.000. Of course it didn't hurt that he had HOFer Charlie Gehringer (No 30 on the list) batting in front of him. Honestly, I can't take any list seriously that has Ron Santo as the 75th greatest hitter of all time or has Sal Bando ahead of Cecil Cooper (who is really hosed on this list).
  24. JohnBriggs12
    I hope Roenicke gives Greinke a shot at a complete game shutout. 104 pitches isn't that extreme.
  25. JohnBriggs12
    Except Ishikawa is what he is at this point and Green probably has more potential. Ishikawa will hit more home runs but Green will hit for a higher average and probably get on base more. Ish will have games like this every once in awhile but thats about it. I disagree. Green finally registered his first major league walk last night, more than 50 AB's into his career. I don't see him being all that patient. Ishikawa's only regular playing time at the big league level was in the NL West's pitchers havens He's got a pretty good stroke for a guy noted for his glove work. He could be a late bloomer with the bat. Don't get me wrong, I like Green. But he's not a first baseman. Yes he can play there, and given the contract status of Weeks and Ramirez, they are forced to find a place if he's going to play, but he's really got to hit to stay there and I'd give Ishikawa a shot there first. The next best option is to move ARAM to first and Green to third.
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