JohnBriggs12

You can't judge because unlike Melvin who's resting on his glorious accomplishment of bringing in Trever Hoffman and picking up a $10 million option on Cameron, Hendry isn't done yet. He's rumored to be close to bringing in Juan Uribe to address their IF depth issue. They have 2 key guys as far as I'm concerned. Marmol and Bradley. If Bradley plays 125 games and Marmol is healthy, there's no team in this division that's within a dozen games of the Cubs. Even if a starter or two go down, they will have more than enough offense with a healthy Bradley to bludgeon opponents. strawbossevil keeps bringing up that misleading and sometimes useless BABIP stat. The reason the Cub hitters are so "lucky" is because they are adept for using the entire field and putting good wood on the ball. It's called being good hitters and has little to do with luck. Good hitters are always going to exceed average BABIP because they are hard to defense.

I was just looking at Gulin's career. With teams needing pitching, it's incredible that a guy with 90-53 minor league record (not counting time spent in indy ball) including 46 wins at AA or higher, a career 3.51 ERA, nearly a K per inning in over 1,200 innings, has never gotten a cup of coffee in the majors. Maybe 2009 will be his year.

I was under the impression Pena had used up all his options. If he does indeed still have one, I'll amend my comment about his being released but he still won't make the Nashville roster, he'll be back in Huntsville.

Why? He's cheap and throws 96 mph. There's no reason to give up on him yet because he has time to figure things out.For the same reason they gave up on Turnbow. He can't get hitters out.

Rich Hill can't throw strikes anymore. He's basically got Steve Blass disease. For those of you too young to remember, Blass was one of the top pitchers in the NL in the late 60's and early 70's when suddenly, virtually overnight, he could not throw the ball over the plate. In 1972 he was 19-8 with a 2.49 ERA and 2nd in the Cy Young voting. The very next season he walked 84 and struck out 27 in 88 2/3 innings, hit 12 batters and threw 9 wild pitches and went 3-9 with a 9.85 ERA. He tried to come back in 1974 but only managed 5 innings over which he walked 7. He never made another major league appearence. Hill pitched earlier this winter in Venezuela and the results were not good: 23 Walks and 23 hits in 21 innings. That was before his team told him to go home. He'll get cut this spring unless the Cubs find someone foolish enough to trade for him. It shouldn't be the Brewers.

This comparison of Garland to Suppan baffles me. The only similarities are they are both righthanded, durable and not high strikeout pitchers. But Garland is 5 years younger, throws much harder and not at all like Suppan. He's also clearly better. Garland has recorded 106 wins before his 29th birthday. His career ERA is 4.47 and that's entirely in the AL. Suppan's AL career ERA is 4.96. You can't compare ERAs from different leagues. I think it's fair to say, on balance, that Garland is .50 ER better than Suppan. Ennder, how can you say their skillsets are identical? Have you ever seen Garland? No way are they close. Look up Gameday's from Garland's starts and compare them with Suppan. There's not a 1-2 mph difference in their fastballs it's 5-6 mph difference. Garland works consistently at 92-93 with heavy sink. Suppan works 86-87. Suppan has to stay down in the zone but he does it more with command than a lot of sink. Garland throws 75 % or more fastballs because it's his out pitch. He pounds the zone with it. If Suppan tried that, he'd have a 15 ERA. Soup has to be crafty, moving his pitches around, and setting up offspeed stuff. Garland has also gone deeper in games (6.22 IP per start) than Suppan (6.07). Over the last 5 seasons, Suppan's reached 200 innings once while Garland failed to reach 200 innings just once.

Why should Suppan's contract automatically assure him of a rotation spot? The answer is it shouldn't at least not if 5 other guys are clearly better. Now they aren't going to eat $25 million so he's going to pitch and he's pretty much assured of a rotation spot to start this season because as of now there aren't 5 guys who are clearly better options. But if he produces a season with an ERA well over 5, I think they have to look for someone better and let Suppan work out of the pen in 2010 likely as a very expensive long reliever/spot starter.

HTR, Villanueva didn't have a problem with stamina in 06 and 07 when he started. It's unfortunate for some of us that liked Villanueva as a starter that he's being labeled as a failure based on 9 2008 starts (3 of which qualified as quality starts I might point out) and not being judged on his good work starting in 06 and 07 when called upon. Ironically though his "failure" as a starter may end up being a blessing. Villanueva's success is almost completely dictated by his ability to command his fastball even though his fastball is no better than his 3rd best pitch (behind his change and slider). When he commands is fastball, it sets up all of his other pitches including his devastating changeup and a tight rotation slider. He also has a decent curveball that he uses effectively because he can get it over on the first pitch when hitters are looking fastball. I think all his trouble as a starter stemmed from inconsistent command of the fastball. He wasn't getting it where he needed consistently. Now part of that might be that it was early in the season and he hadn't settled in. But part of it could be he just needed more regular work that he ended up getting out of the pen. As far as being a "long reliever", he's well beyond that. Villanueva showed coolness late in tight games. He was also outstanding in the playoffs. Macha said publically if Hoffman hadn't been signed, Villanueva was number one option to close. Melvin compared him to former Royal Jeff Montgomery. I think the Brewer brain trust now sees Villanueva as the closer of the future, probably as soon as 2010. Because of that he's going to get the 8th inning this year. I think he'll learn a lot being around Hoffman and I think that's another reason the Brewers went hard after Hoffman as he's the perfect model for Villanueva to follow. I don't see Villanueva going back to starting any time soon. Not that he couldn't succeed there, but he's already been successful as a reliever.

C Salome 1B Nelson 2B Bourgeois SS Escobar 3B Gamel RF Iribarren CF Cain LF Gillespie Bench: Corporan, Duffy, Thorman, Heether, Katin Rotation: DiFelice Wright Welch Narron Gulin Bullpen Dillard Bateman Reith Swindle Aguilar Smith Narveson The guy I have (that nobody else has) is Carlos Corporan. Corporan has steadily but unspectacularly moved through every level in the Brewer system. He was listed in BA as being the best defensive catcher in the Brewer system. He's no doubt no more than an organizational soldier, but with his experience, he's the perfect guy to backup Salome. The Brewers will want a defensive minded catcher mentoring Salome. Corporan can hit a bit too, having improved every time he repeats a level. I believe Rottino will be released in spring training. His ship has sailed. I think either McGehee or Bourgeois is going to make the Brewer roster. I think they'll go north with just 11 pitchers so I'm giving the nod to McGehee. If they go north with 12 pitchers, I think Bougeois makes the roster over Gwynn. Right now it's 50-50 in my mind. In that case, I stick McGehee at 2B for Nashville. I'm assuming Nelson and Iribarren pass through waivers but not Gwynn who will be odd man out if Bourgeois makes the team. SD will claim him. I think they'll give up on Pena and he'll be released too.

It's just overkill now for the Yankees. I hope they sign 10 more guys because if they do, they'll have to release 10 and some of those guys can play.

To make room on their roster the Yankees designated lefty Chase Wright for assignment. Wright is a guy who might be worth a waiver claim. He's just turns 26 next month, and was a combined 10-3 with a 2.80 ERA between AA and AAA last year. Wright could provide some starter depth.

When did Suppan throw 92-94? From a random Gameday (7/31/08 vs. Yankees) here are Garland's fastball speeds in 1st 2 innings: 92, 93, 92, 94, 93, 93, 92, 93, 93, 93, 93, 92, 93, 94, 93, 93, 92, 92, 92, 92, 92, 93. Garland has 106 major league wins and just turned 29. He gives up a lot of hits, because he pounds the zone with sinkers. Suppan is completely different. He moves the ball around the zone with a fastball 5 mph slower and generally straighter than Garland but uses more off speed stuff as his out pitches. Suppan relies on craft and speed changes. Garland relies on movement on his fastball.

How was Oliver Perez below average last year? 10-7, 4.22 ERA, .234 BAA, .725 OPSA, 180K??? Those aren't "below average" numbers. At worst, their average. In 2007 he was well above average: 15-10, 3.56 ERA, .696 OPSA, .229BAA, 1.31 WHIP, 174 K's. Clearly his issues are too many walks and the fear he'd return to his 05-06 form at some point. But I'd take his 07-08 numbers any day. I can only hope Manny Parra pitches that well. He's not worth 8 figures in this market but he's certainly a quality arm who's tough to hit with some record of success and he's only a year older than Parra.

Actually his HR/AB was better in 08 than in 07 though like Hart, his power did disappear in August and September. I think Hall was in a tough spot last year and still is. The lineup last year was overloaded with RH bats. He was the guy playing the one position where there was a credible alternative at least in the short run in Branyan. I think it hurt Hall, who, as a couple years older than the core young group viewed himself as a team leader, to be benched so quickly. Especially after making so many position changes. Going forward, I'd like to see Hall get work in CF again. He was progressing the second half of 07 out there, and I see no reason he can't be in the mix when Cameron is gone. But for now Hall remains in a very tenuous position. Even if he gets off to a hot start, they're likely going to sit him against most right handers because they need another LH bat in there. But they can't give up on him because they have a big investment there. So many issues on this team could have been addressed if they just had not picked up Cameron's option. We're seeing now that $10 million in this market goes a long, long way. Hall could have factored in the OF had Cameron been let go and it wouldn't take much of a bounce back from Billy to match Cameron's offense.

I didn't say they should claim Jenkins, Dhonks, I was just pointing out that if you wanted an over the hill outfielder, you can get them cheaper than having to clear salary to sign one. But since you mentioned it, how are Jenkins' numbers his last year in Milwaukee, (.255/.319/.471, 21 HR, 64 RBI) any worse than Griffey in 08 (.249/.353/.424, 18 HR, 71 RBI) or certainly aren't Jenkins' 07 numbers better than what Nixon put up that year (.251/.342/.336, 3 HR, 31 RBI) ?

"Nixon couldn't break into the bigs from AAA". Maybe so, but he had an OPS over 1.000 at AAA and he's already Brewer property. If you don't like Nixon, then claim Jenkins when he's waived. If you could clear payroll, there's a lot of guys out there I'd use that money on before Griffey. Griffey's numbers weren't all that bad, but if you watched him much, he doesn't have it any more.

Nixon, while not much, probably can give them as much as Griffey can at this point and maybe a little more.

The BABIP stat is flawed because it assumes hitters have zero control over how well they center the bat on the ball and where the ball is hit. Theriot is very skilled at shooting base hit after base hit to RF. That is a skill, not luck as strawbossisevil implies. In the old days it was referred to as ability to "handle the bat". Not all hitters have the bat control of a Theriot. In a lot of ways he's a throwback. Miles is a very similar type hitter. Piniella was that type of hitter himself. Those types don't luck into hitting .300.

I read the other day where Pudge says he's in his best shape in years. He could be blowing smoke but time will tell. Not sure why the Brewers have to stay married to Kendall as a starter if they could get Pudge that cheap. Kendall will be well paid whether he's starting or a backup. If Pudge plays for $1 million that's only $600,000 more than what Rivera figures to get and for that amount you have the potential for a significant upgrade at the position I think they could use one.

As a Law and Order fan, I always liked the Ameritrade commercials myself. They're certainly better than the Scottrade commercials where the CEO has his ego stroked by being in all of them. I'll think twice before opening an Ameritrade account though.

The Brewers might have more than 2 guys with extraordinary talent but only 2 of them have production to match and one of them is Fielder. That's not to say I don't get frustrated with him occasionally and won't bad mouth him once in a while. But he's a guy I pay to see play and want on my team as long as possible. I'd accept it if he were traded but only for another player in the special category, not a bunch of average talent.

His added weight affected his defense more than his offense. If he comes in 15-20 lbs lighter, which shouldn't be all that hard to do, it should improve his defense. At least now he can afford a personal trainer.

I'm searching up and down the Brewer roster, and on those days Hall plays 3B, I can't find one right handed bat who figures to make the team that would be available to PH against a lefty reliever other than Mike Rivera and teams don't use the backup catcher in those situations. Melvin, in his chat yesterday, mentioned Nixon, Gwynn, and Duffy as OF reserve candidates. All of those guys are lefthanded (and bad I might add). He also talked about bringing Counsell back who's another lefthanded bat. Of course with Hall playing third, that puts Lamb on the bench too. I've not even mentioned Nelson or Iribarren. So that's all 5 of your bench guys other than catcher who are lefthanded. Unless the plan is not to play Cameron, Hart, and Hall all on the same days (which doesn't make much sense against a lefthanded starter) the Brewers have no righthanded hitter on the bench. That's great news if your name is Casey McGehee or Vinny Rottino. Because as it stands right now, one of those two almost has to make the team instead of either Duffy or Gwynn. Since both McGehee and Rottino can catch too, their inclusion on the roster would be like adding 2 righthanded bench players as it frees up Macha to use Rivera to hit if he chose to. Bottom line, headed into spring the battle to watch is McGehee vs. Rottino and Duffy vs. Gwynn. One sleeper who's also righthanded is non-roster invite Jason Bourgeois. He has versatility and speed and he's also righthanded. He could figure in the mix too with the way this roster is constructed.

If you were alive then, sure.I was 13 and that never stopped hurting. My point is that announcers come and go. Back in the day, there was great commotion when Earl Gillespie stopped doing games but that was nothing compared to the team leaving 2 years later. Some guys are better than others. Most are fine though who wouldn't want to forget the Loren Brown/Dwayne Mosely era. It's unfortunate they were around for the best Brewer seasons. Boy were those guys bad. Brown used to be unable to discern between flyballs and home runs, and Mosely used to use 10 words to describe something where 2 were plenty.

Com'on guys, look Atlanta once took Aaron, Mathews, Torre, Jones, Alou, Carty, Clonginger, Menke, and the rest of the Milwaukee roster down to Atlanta. Now that was worth crying over. Gen. Sherman was far too easy on them down there if you ask me.