danzig6767

Davis did have a really good year for Tampa in his last year there out of the pen, but KC tried him back in their rotation. After he struggled again though as a starter, they put him back in the bullpen. He is a strange case to me. I get that for many pitchers, it's easier to pitch single innings out of the bullpen where they can throw as hard as they can, but the difference in the numbers for Davis as a starter compared to as a reliever are just so dramatic. You'd think with his fabulous stuff that he'd have been a better starter.

Two more examples today of the importance of bullpens in today's playoff baseball. 1. The Giants pen covers six scoreless innings as a huge factor in winning 6-4. Their pen has been fabulous through the whole playoffs. 2. KC gets yet again four more dominating innings from their pen to hold on to a series sweeping 2-1 win. The so often stated mantra of teams needing at least one true ace, preferably a hard throwing beast and two other high quality starters to advance in the playoffs is looking more and more like a myth than a near absolute reality. Sure, it would be nice to have a true ace and two other high end starters, but it seems no longer essential at all. In fact, the four teams with the best high end starters all got bounced out early. This has been happening in previous playoffs. With days off in the playoffs and managers not having to worry about burning out their bullpens as they have to strongly consider in regular season games, they can simply yank a struggling starter only say 3-4 innings to a game and if their pen is really good, that manager often will have 3 to 5 guys with numbers near as good, as good, or better than the starter if he's not an ace. So to me in today's baseball, when trying to compare two teams facing each other in the playoffs, i'd look at their bullpens near as closely as their rotations. Granted, bullpens can be volatile from year to year when putting them together, but if you can get one with multiple high end stuff pitchers to throw 3-4 innings of close games, you can often cover for a less than stellar group of starters.

Attanasio says hi. Read the stories after signing Suppan, Loshe, Ramirez, and Garza. In each instance, stories included comments of Attanasio negotiating directly with the agents for all four players. Attanasio taking them out to dinner trying to sell them on signing with the Brewers. Now Melvin very well could have been in agreement with Attanasio about signing all four guys or maybe 2-3 of them. With Lohse though there were multiple stories/interviews with Melvin where he said he just wasn't interested, mainly because he didn't want to lose the first round pick. Then out of nowhere as starters struggled in spring training, Lohse gets signed and Attanasio talked about how he had been in contact with Boras for weeks, but only later could he come up with agreeable contract terms. Attanasio also mentioned about how he did a study on draft picks 20th or later for how often they panned out and that helped him decide that giving up a first in signing Lohse was worth it. FWIW, i'm not trying to imply that Melvin in general is against Attanasio's desire to try and be win first each year, but it sure is hard to believe that the owner hasn't been a key factor in those type of signings which bother you. He's definitely no Mark Murphy in Green Bay who allows Ted Thompson to do pretty much as he pleases. Instead, he seems to be closer to how Herb Kohl operated with the Bucks, only with more success and much better fan support for a variety of reasons. Dumping Melvin and bringing in a new GM would by no means be a strong likely-hood of a major change in team building philosophy. That said, even if Attanasio hired a new GM, demanded a win now approach each year, and Attansio stayed involved with roster construction regarding bigger name free agents,, i'd still prefer a change just to see if a new GM could do better in a win now mandate and with strong owner involvement. Edit---By the way, one huge huge bummer from the offseason was Jose Abreu. Reports came out that the Brewers bid 60 plus million for Abreu, only to be topped by Chicago at 68 million, probably only about 5 million more. After that fell through, Attanasio went after Garza. The team not only could have potentially made the playoffs had they landed Abreu instead, they'd also have him for another four years at a position they desperately need help at.

Pitching and defense certainly are important and have been key in this year's playoffs, but the previous two World Series winners Boston and St. Louis won their titles largely via scoring lots of runs throughout the playoffs and having a bullpen who were great. Each year in the playoffs are their own entity. When teams are playing in 5 and 7 game series, any number of things can happen which can be unexpected or expected. For example, as good as the Cardinals and Royals have pitched, both were among the worst home run hitting teams in baseball during the regular season, yet for both the long ball has been huge in a number of their wins. The Giants won yesterday on an error by the pitcher after a bunt. The Dodgers had Kershaw and Greinke, yet couldn't advance in back to back years. Lester and the A's good bullpen couldn't hold a 7-3 lead vs KC in the 8th inning, 7-6 lead in the 9th, and a one run lead in the 12th of the play in game. If those teams replayed that exact scenario 10 more times over, Oakland likely wins it all 10 times. Yost maybe gets fired for inserting Ventura. Lastly, scoring was down throughout baseball. Look at the lineups of all four teams left this year, no surprise that there are mostly low scoring games. You have good pitching facing very mediocre lineups.

The Royals also have arguably 3-4 starting pitchers that are better than anyone on the Brewers. So, there's that... Don't forget their bullpen, probably the best in baseball on the back end. In that Shields trade, many forget that Wade Davis also came in the trade and he's been as good as any relief pitcher in baseball. It's not just the playoffs this year. When i watch baseball playoffs the last 5-10 years, having a really lights out bullpen seems nearly as important or as important as having good starters. Look at the Royals and Giants, how important their bullpens have been in the playoffs. Besides Bumgarner, the Giants rotation is hardly a murders row of flame throwing aces. Hell, Jake Peavy who looked washed up in Boston and Vogelsong who is a crafty veteran type of pitcher are two of their starters. None of Baltimore's starters are what you'd consider ace material, but they scored runs and had a great bullpen. The Royals back end of their pen is ridiculously good and a huge reason both for them making the playoffs and for their playoff success so far. Detroit on the flip side had three proven aces, but their terrible bullpen sabotaged them vs the Orioles. Last year except for Lester, it was mostly the Boston bullpen and their offense which carried them in the playoffs to a title. The year prior the Cardinals rotation was far from stellar through much of the playoffs, but their bullpen and offense were great on the way to a title. As baseball as changed with pretty strict 100-110ish pitch counts and clearly defined roles for 7th-8th-9th inning bullpen guys, the impact of bullpens have increased in importance, even more so in the playoffs where so many games are close. Teams that can consistently protect 1-2 run leads from the 7th inning on, keep late tie games tied, and keep only 1-2 run deficits at that small margin for a chance to come back, that's so hugely important in 5 or 7 game series. On the flip side, playoff teams with a shaky bullpen are almost certain to at some point to be done in by that weakness, even if they have a quality rotation.

We'll see how he does though now that he has near unlimited funds to spend on whoever he wants. Sometimes guys like Friedman do better when having to make savvy moves under a tight budget than when being able to resign and/or sign pretty much anyone. Look at Theo in Boston. Yea he won rings there, but he really lucked out that a number of big money moves didn't work out as he tried like nearly trading for ARod. Trying to waive Manny. Tried hard to sign Contreras. He also made multiple bad big money free agent signings. Now with the Cubs, i think he enjoys more rebuilding their farm system than working with 200 million dollar payrolls in Boston where fans expect only championships. Same with Beane. It's not a given that he'd do great with a rich team instead of how he's had to do things with the A's. I'm not saying that Friedman won't do well with the Dodgers, but that's such a vastly different type of GM job compared to Tampa. Vastly different expectations. He could trade a Garza, Shields, and/or Price caliber starter in Tampa before their contracts were up to help keep the payroll manageable and also to keep young/cheap talent flowing in, but in LA, that won't fly if he makes trades like that and then the team misses the playoffs for whatever reason. Some GM's in baseball just may thrive better at working magic under financial constraints than having near unlimited funds.

Yea, i'd only trade Gomez if we got a big time haul in return, especially given his super cheap contract over the next two seasons. For all of the complaints over his free swinging ways, he was second on the team in OBP among regular players after Lucroy. His walk rate while still slightly below average, it's increased in back to back years. For a roster in need of guys who get on base better, getting rid of Carlos and replacing him with Parra won't help that cause, regardless if Gomez swings himself into the dirt often on first pitches. If he isn't the best defensive CF in the game, he's in the top 2 or 3. Baseball isn't like the NFL or NBA though where one superstar in basketball or an elite QB in football can almost by themselves will a team into the playoffs each year even if the roster around them is very mediocre. So IMO only a handful of players in baseball should be considered off limits in trade talks. It's all about the exact return.

Oakland had a lot of guys who were patient and take walks, but they also had the 2nd worst batting average in the AL and 9th worst in all of baseball. Clearly the Brewers had to many free swingers on the roster, but it won't be easy to make big changes to that. When you consider that Davis, Scooter, and Segura are all really cheap, it won't be easy finding better cost/value replacements, regardless that all three aren't patient enough hitters to maximize their talent. For as gifted as a hitter as Braun has been his whole career, he's never been a high walks guy. Hell, Gomez drew five more walks than Braun and Overbay only had five fewer in 260 less at bats. Ramirez has never been a really high walks guy either for as good of a hitter as he's been, but his consistently high batting average kept his OBP pretty good to good over his career.

It won't matter who replaces Narron if most of the same hitters are brought back and Braun's surgery doesn't help his thumb.

Is there any serious evidence that hitting coaches really have much impact beyond maybe helping a single hitter or two a little bit at most? The only Brewers hitter in fairly recent memory i can recall being noticeably helped by a hitting coach was Sveum telling/allowing Gomez to swing for the fences all of the time instead of trying to be a singles hitter to use his speed more often. I'm fine with dumping Narron, but i'm very skeptical that any new hitting coach who gets hired will be able to change how guys currently on the roster approach their at bats. Usually that approach is already strongly ingrained in most hitters by the time they reach the majors.

I agree, even though he claims to hate being a DH. Father time catches up with all athletes and Aramis should realize that he would be better served in the AL splitting time between third and DH. I can live with bringing him back next year if the team stays veteran trying to get a playoff berth, but no way would i add a second year to his deal.

I'm much more concerned about changes to the roster than whoever is managing the team next year because i just don't think baseball managers generally impact the win/loss record as much as in other sports, but even with that, sometimes teams can simply use a fresh voice in the dugout. So i can't see why Attanasio/Melvin would bring Roenicke back and my gut feeling is he gets canned. It's the easiest way to shake things up and appease fans wanting some sort of change, at least temporarily. Then soon enough most of those fans will turn on that new manager and start ripping on any of his moves which backfire or moves those fans don't agree with. It was amusing a few different times this year reading a very active Cardinals forum. There would be one thread after another after another with posters totally bashing Matheny as either the worst manager in baseball right now, the worst Cardinals manager ever, and/or even the worst manager in the history of the game. Most posters replying would agree with the thread starter. Now all is good. Hilarious.

Washington had plenty of chances to win that series. An 18 inning game where scoring a single run from the 10th-17th innings would likely have won the game, followed by being one out away from winning game three. The Angels lost the first two games at home vs KC in extra innings.

Not even close, it's A's fans. First they make multiple major trades as the team was cruising. Then they collapse right after, but just barely making the playoffs. Lastly they are up 7-3 in the 8th inning with Lester in a real groove, only to see things start falling apart. They escape the 8th inning, stranding a Royal on third with one out. The 9th rolls around, Dyson steals third and a sac fly ties it. The final blow comes in extra innings. If i was an A's fan, i wouldn't be able to sleep tonight because my acid reflux would have even my back burning. That game would haunt me for days. The Brewers on the other hand were out of it 6-7 games before the season ended, much easier to get over.

Yea, his walk rate over his career is ok, but nothing special at all for a guy who has been such a feared hitter over his career and that includes quite a few intentional walks.

To me, it sure seems like any pricey 3-4-5 year contracts are mainly given out or passed on by Attanasio, more so than by Melvin. Of course it's fair to assume that Melvin has input, but ultimately the final decision looks to be in the hands of our owner. Nearly every time a sizable contract is given out, an article will hit the paper/net with stories of Attanasio negotiating with the agents involved.

Three letters for you-- DVR I record nearly everything i watch so that i can zip through excessive commercials. If say the Packers game is on at 3pm, i'll take my dog out for his walk at game time, get something else done, or watch something else for an hour. Same for Brewers games. If it starts at 7pm, i'll record it and either watch something else for an hour or take care of something needing to be done, then be able to skip through most commercials. In fact, here and there when i do watch something live, i often find myself grabbing the remote during commercials until it sets in that i'm not watching a recording and thus can't fast forward through commercials.

The NFL employs about 1800 players and it's been five involved in these recent violent instances which has brought on all of this drama. It's been the handling of those players by the league which has mostly lead to it becoming such a huge story, that and there being video of the Rice incident. Unfortunately, domestic violence is a big problem throughout all of society, but when it's just words in a media report, people can gloss over it easier. Seeing a video though of a grown man knocking out a girl absolutely changed everything. It no longer was just words in a newspaper or website statement. Same for the pictures of the 4 year old kid whipped by Peterson. Human beings tend to be very visually orientated, especially in the world today. Hearing about terrible things can still draw ire, but actually seeing it usually inflames things 10 fold or more. That likely explains why the league tried burying video evidence which i'm 100 percent certain they knew existed.

Your biggest reward for winning the division is not having to play in a one game move on wild card face off, but resting players certainly is a deserved benefit. Speaking of the A's, as frustrating as the Brewers collapse has been, being an A's fan has to be worse. That team was not only cruising with what looked like a near lock for a playoff berth, they also made two major trades to add front line starters. Their fans had to think this might finally be their year to reach the World Series, then the team suddenly starts playing like its roster is made up of scrubs and can't win games. Beane is a really good GM, but this year has to be a massive gut punch if the A's miss the playoffs given the overall circumstances.

I don't agree with that. If that was true, you really don't need coaches or a manager at all. GOOD coaches find a way to get through to a player. I'll agree no coach can change every player, but I would hope a good coach could help some of them. With that said, I do agree it's more on the players themselves than anything else. It's why I wanted to trade Braun before this season. Gomez too if the price is right. I'm sick of watching almost our entire line-up swing at fastballs at their eyebrows and sliders a foot off the plate. We caught lightning in a bottle with Gomez, but there's just no way he could maintain the OBP/OPS he's had for about a year with his approach to hitting. Gomez hit .284 in his breakout season last year and is hitting .284 this year. Last year his OBP was .338 and this year he improved it to .354, easily second best on the team among regular players. His SLG is down slightly, but it's down across baseball. He's also hitting .331 with RISP so far this year. No question that Gomez can be frustrating to watch at the plate sometimes, but he's proven that last year wasn't a fluke. For all of his flaws, if more guys in the lineup were as productive as Carlos, the Brewers wouldn't be sitting out of the playoffs.

I don't agree with this. You can win with great hitting so long as your pitching is at least solid. Look at the Angels this year. They have the best record in baseball even though their pitching is only solid, but they lead the league in runs scored. Two years ago the Cardinals won a World Series even though in the playoffs their rotation struggled a lot, but their offense was fabulous. Last year the Red Sox lead the league in runs scored, but their pitching was only solid. On the flip side, Seattle, Oakland, and Tampa have the best three ERA numbers in the AL, yet none of them could end up in the playoffs. FWIW, i'm not dismissing the importance of pitching, but scoring runs wins games as preventing runs does. You need both, not mainly just one of the two. If Melvin were to be replaced, the Brewers simply need to hire a smart overall GM, not a pitching centric GM.

The NFL is a completely different sport from baseball though. In football, if you have an elite QB, that team has a near free ride to the playoffs almost every year so long as that QB stays healthy. Go look through the Packers history with Favre and now Rodgers, they only missed the playoffs a few times over two decades and only finished under .500 i believe twice. Same for guys like Peyton Manning and Brady. It's like having a major superstar in the NBA, those teams with one make the playoffs most of the time. Baseball is a very different animal. You need a good 25 man roster to win. When Texas got A-Rod in his prime, he was the LeBron of baseball, yet the Rangers never made the playoffs with Rodriguez because the roster around him was not good enough. Melvin is a solid GM and not someone who i think has to go like some terrible GM's needed to, but i am at the point where i'd like to see a change. Sure, a new GM could end up doing worse than Doug has, but a new GM could also end up doing better. Sometimes a sports franchise needs to try reaching higher than just solid performance, even if there is a chance that the replacement ends up being a bad hire. Small market teams in baseball generally need an upper tier GM to consistently win and i wouldn't put Melvin at that level.

My thoughts also. I already am really leery of paying Broxton 9 million next year, so the thought of sending the Reds any prospect of decent to good quality would really bug me unless Broxton ends up being really good for us on a team that does win the Central this year. I don't know if he was available, but i'd rather have gotten Benoit from SD than Broxton, with both having a similar contract.

Unless a player is in his early 20's like say Mike Trout is, signing guys to 8-10 year contracts at big money is being shown to be much more likely to end poorly than work out well for the teams doing so. The risk factor is so high. The scary thing about Braun is whether it's the thumb sucking his power, no longer using PED's, or maybe a combination of both, this has the potential of the Brewers never seeing elite Braun again.

It is frustrating that they keep squeezing out one run late inning victories after another. Turn around just two of them and we are up around 4 games.