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JohnBriggs12

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Everything posted by JohnBriggs12

  1. JohnBriggs12
    That would still leave them with 26 by my count. Could see them wanting Swindle just for the Twin series though.
  2. JohnBriggs12
    Gerut is an upgrade over Duffy who's likely odd man out. He's off to a slow start this year, but he was really pretty good last year and he's batted leadoff before. Duffy needs to play in minors after sitting out most of 08 with injury. I think the recent slump by Hart prompted this deal. Gerut is at least a viable option to allow Macha to give Hart some days off. No doubt Gwynn's good start at Nashville rehabilitated his trade value.
  3. JohnBriggs12
    That's a pretty broad spectrum. A bench type could be a 25th man or a super utility guy. Seems the Brewers have infield bench but could use help in OF.
  4. JohnBriggs12
    Why am I getting the feeling the Braves are the other team? Just a hunch.
  5. JohnBriggs12
    A week ago Hall was hitting .278/.352/.485. He's had a bad week. He's also still owed about $13 million through 2010. Look I'm all for getting Gamel in there, but Hall needs to play somewhere and given a chance to bust out of his slump. The logical place is now 2B.
  6. JohnBriggs12
    One thing you can't do running a franchise is to get emotionally attached to players. Fans that follow the entire system naturally pick out players they like and hope to see succeed. It's laughable that some say Nelson didn't get a chance. He got 8 minor league seasons and over 3600 plate appearances. During that time, dozens of his teammates were released. Most if not all of those guys might have a better case that they didn't get a chance than Nelson has. If you don't realize going into professional baseball that it's a cut throat business, you learn pretty quick. Any chance you get, you have to take advantage of. Now Nelson is back at AAA which is where he belongs. He's playing baseball for a living. We should all be so fortunate. He should enjoy it while it lasts.
  7. JohnBriggs12
    He's in a slump right now. Just a week ago he homered off the ace of the Marlin staff (a righthander by the way) which was the key blow in that game. Last night he got behind in counts on some borderline pitches that just as easily could have been balls including that last AB. It's a long season. Everyone goes through slumps. Hart's hitting .188/.253/.275 this month in 69 AB's. Nobody's calling for him to be benched.
  8. JohnBriggs12
    What? The number one ph on this team right now is 38 year old Craig Counsell who's OPS the last 3 years are .657, .631, .674. Catalanotto's OPS the past 3 years: .741, .781, .815. His career OPS is more than 100 points better than Counsell. Now Counsell's done a great job this year so far and yes he's been particularly adept at getting on. But with the tying run on 2nd and 2 outs, give me the guy with the .292 career BA over the guy with the .255 BA. Catalanotto is a proven professional hitter. He was cut by the Rangers despite hitting over .300 this spring to make room for Andruw Jones who's nearly a shoe in for comeback player of the year. Catalanotto is going to be a key guy off the bench, especially if Hart continues slumping.
  9. JohnBriggs12
    I totally dismiss the idea that pitchers have no control over BABIP. If that was true, only high strikeout pitchers would be successful. There's guys in the Hall of Fame that didn't have great strikeout rates. Catfish Hunter never struck out 200 guys even in years when he exceeded 300 innings. Catfish wasn't lucky. It's a skill to miss bats, and it's just as much a skill to hit bats in places other than the sweet spot.
  10. JohnBriggs12
    I said he wasn't nearly as far advanced as Gallardo. How is that being unfair? It's factual. Both were high picks out of HS two years apart. Comparisons are natural.
  11. JohnBriggs12
    McGehee is no different than Nelson. If he gets more playing time, he'll have to produce fairly quickly or they will turn to outside the organization. Counsell turns 39 in August. The last 3 years he played semi-regularly, 04-06, he tailed off badly in August in September and he's older now. Assuming the new stance has helped, it's still likely he's been playing over his head so far. To maximize his contribution, he shouldn't play more than 2 or 3 times a week. The in-house solution requires near full time work by Gamel and a switch to 2B by Hall. I just don't see a Counsell/McGehee platoon being productive in the long run and I don't see them ready to committ to Iribarren either. If the plan is to keep Hall the nominal or even 50-50 starter at 3rd, they need to look outside for at least half of a 2B platoon. Too Live Brew: Catalanotto is going to be the 2nd lefty off the bench as soon as he has enough AB's to be ready not Iribarren. Grudzielanek is no more creaky than Counsell. Grudzielanek may not hit .395 off of lefties, but the guy has always been a productive hitter who gets on base at the top of the order. Hall's strengths vs lefties is that he drives the ball, but he doesn't fit at the top of the order. Grudzielanek does and he doesn't cost anything in players. Moving Hall is a fine idea if you believe Gamel can handle the everyday job at 3rd but you'd still likely get more production out of a 50-50 or 60-40 split that includes Grudz.
  12. JohnBriggs12
    Braun's better than average in LF. That doesn't make him a great OF but the standard in LF is pretty low. You can discount all you want that he's yet to make an error in a year and a quarter but that's a pretty impressive accomplishment. More and more he's taking better angles and making more than the routine play. Just last week I was at a game vs. the Marlins where he took a perfect angle to run down a ball on the track. I don't think he makes that play early last year.
  13. JohnBriggs12
    For the next couple weeks sure though one wonders why they didn't announce anything yesterday. Nashville to St. Louis is a very short flight. But this is a team that went out and got Durham when they had Weeks. I have to believe Melvin's already been on the phone with Grudzielanek's agent. Grudzielanek is available because he's been waiting for just such an opening somewhere with a contender. Where are you going to find another guy who hit .395/.459/.523 vs. lefthanders last year? Maybe McGehee can do the job in a platoon but I don't think he's going to get unlimited time to get untracked.
  14. JohnBriggs12
    Counsell is not an everyday player anymore. If he played 5-6 days a week, his offense would suffer. To me, the best solution is to move Hall to 2B and have him split time there with Counsell like he is now at 3B. If Gamel is going to stay up beyond the Twin series, he needs to be in there against righthanders and even some lefthanders (Gamel is not going to be a platoon player after all anyway). That's why I'd have Gamel play third backed up by McGehee, and have Hall play second backed up by Counsell. That would leave Counsell or Hall available to be used defensively at 3rd late in games in place of Gamel. For the Twin series, I'd hope they'd have gotten Catalanotto enough AB's in ESP to come up to DH. What he's lacking in his timing might be made up in knowledge of Twin pitchers.
  15. JohnBriggs12
    Jeffress looked like a much better prospect to me as a 19 year old in West Virginia than he does now at 21 in Huntsville. He's now in his 4th professional season and isn't nearly as far advanced as Gallardo was at the same age. You just never know with HS pitchers, especially ones that feature power arms as their primary weapon.
  16. JohnBriggs12
    If Weeks were to go on DL, they have some options. They don't have to recall Iribarren necessarily. The current roster even without Weeks has 6 infielders and only 4 outfielders and they do have a 40 man spot available if they wanted to add someone. They could just add Catalanotto now. I presume he's been playing in extended spring and don't forget he was with Rangers all during spring training. Yes Durham is still out there and so is Mark Grudzielanek. I would think they'd look seriously at those two if Weeks' injury is more long term.
  17. JohnBriggs12
    That's a bad example. Burnett isn't a typical starting pitcher. Guys in his salary range get longer leashes. The vast majority of starters aren't going to get anywhere near 6 innings having walked 8 guys. Conversely that he did implies he pitched out of several jams and that's a sign of a quality pitcher too. I think the stat has value in the case of a guy who's ERA is high because of a few really bad starts. If that same guy records an average percentage of quality starts, then he's pretty much an average starter. It's not a perfect stat but no stats are perfect.
  18. JohnBriggs12
    That's a bad example. Burnett isn't a typical starting pitcher. Guys in his salary range get longer leashes. The vast majority of starters aren't going to get anywhere near 6 innings having walked 8 guys. Conversely that he did implies he pitched out of several jams and that's a sign of a quality pitcher too. I think the stat has value in the case of a guy who's ERA is high because of a few really bad starts. If that same guy records an average percentage of quality starts, then he's pretty much an average starter. It's not a perfect stat but no stats are perfect.
  19. JohnBriggs12
    That's a bad example. Burnett isn't a typical starting pitcher. Guys in his salary range get longer leashes. The vast majority of starters aren't going to get anywhere near 6 innings having walked 8 guys. Conversely that he did implies he pitched out of several jams and that's a sign of a quality pitcher too. I think the stat has value in the case of a guy who's ERA is high because of a few really bad starts. If that same guy records an average percentage of quality starts, then he's pretty much an average starter. It's not a perfect stat but no stats are perfect.
  20. JohnBriggs12
    My original post included "if they have a need come July". I was referring to an injury situation or one where one guy had completely fallen apart. It's nitpicking, but I'd give Washburn a slight edge over Looper for the simple fact he's compiled numbers in a league with a DH and he's lefthanded. That being said, I wouldn't deal to get him unless there's a hole in the current rotation.
  21. JohnBriggs12
    I was surprised to see Washburn is actually having a pretty good year so far. Wouldn't mind seeing him or Davis back in a Brewers uniform, either.Washburn wasn't nearly as bad as his record last year as he posted 14 quality starts. But the team was putrid. The team is better this year, but they won't likely be in contention for anything in July.
  22. JohnBriggs12
    Going in to spring training the odds were Nelson would be in the exact situation he's in right now. They lined up Trot Nixon to be the lefty corner OF/PH bat. They had signed Scott Thorman (who eventually was replaced by Koshansky) to replace Nelson at Nashville. They didn't expect Nelson to so clearly outplay Nixon that they had little choice but to keep Nelson and see if he could handle such a part time role. He couldn't. He's gone. This is no shock to anyone including Nelson and his agent. It is what happens after guys exhaust options without establishing themselves as major leaguers. It's as simple as that. Catalanotto will get that job once he's ready and Gamel will return to play everyday at Nashville. Nelson is a fine guy, but I've never seen such angst over a roster move on an unproven player.
  23. JohnBriggs12
    I'd rather not go for a high priced top notch guy this time around. Two guys on the last years of their contracts, Doug Davis and Jarrod Washburn, are very serviceable and likely to be available if the Brewers have a need come July.
  24. JohnBriggs12
    Here's what I would do. If Cardinals hit a Brewer hitter and the benches get warned, then I get McClung up in the pen. When Pujols comes up to hit, I move Gallardo to RF, and bring in Seth to pitch to Albert. Of course everyone in the park will think McClung is being brought in to plunk Albert, including Albert. But with Albert up there ready to duck, McClung throws him 3 straight fastballs and fans him, then leaves the game and Gallardo goes back to pitching.
  25. JohnBriggs12
    That's exactly what they did with Fielder in 2005. They brought him up on June 13th and he started 4 games as DH, 1 at 1B against the Cubs, and the rest of the time he was strictly a PH. He was sent down again after the July 3rd game. He came back for good on August 18th, but only made 2 starts the rest of the season.
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