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JoeHova

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Everything posted by JoeHova

  1. but what I'm saying is that three Prince's (Gamel & LaPorta), one Braun, and one Hart will win 90 games no matter how bad their defense is. It makes little sense to trade a team's most valuable player when he is 24 and the team is planning on contending. If they are so desperate for pitching, move JJ or Rickie, not guys who can actually hit. They would bring back something. Concentrate on improving the middle infield defense and use the corners and the outfield for bats.
  2. Bizarre... BP has Zach projected as a 5.8 ERA, 1.7 WHIP guy, which doesn't inspire confidence especially when coupled with his atrocious start to the season and the ferocious Boston lineup. I don't see this ending well, though over a small sample anything is possible.
  3. Trade Prince in order to get Nelson in the lineup? I could see if someone was making a case for LaPorta or Gamel, but Nelson? Prince hit better in AAA as a 21 year old than Nelson is doing as a 25 year old in his 4th season in AAA. also, if we really feel that any of these guys is close to or the equal of Prince, why would the team trade any of them? Who cares if they're butchers in the field, 4-5 guys with a 150 OPS+ will win you a lot of games. I'm not sure any team has ever had 4 or more guys like that on a team. I would rather ride that out until Prince is a FA and hope that couple WS titles and a chance at one of the greatest dynasties of all-time would persuade him to stay.
  4. Wow, that's really funny. People acted like he was Piazza back there, but that hasn't been the case so far. I hope he can keep it up. I wonder what went so wrong for him last season. IIRC, Cubs fans said he only caught 1 guy stealing (vs. 52 successes) while he was with them last year. The other 4 CSs were supposedly actually pick-offs which got scored as CSs because the runner broke for 2nd. and just to throw another hat in the ring, I think I remember Anderson and Schroeder saying that Ted Simmons was helping Kendall with his throwing mechanics as well. just for fun, I'll calculate the career caught stealing percentages of all 4 interested parties (and might as well throw Schroeder in there as well) to see who Jason should listen to the most (these numbers will include the odd caught stealings that I referenced above because I don't know how to find and remove them or if that would even be possible): Jason Kendall- 28.8% CS Fred Kendall- 30.8% CS Ned Yost- 15.6% (!) CS Ted Simmons- 33.9% CS Bill Schroeder- 24.4% CS So, looks like Ted was the best of the group by a fair amount, while Ned was the worst by far. The two Kendalls are pretty close. Interesting that Simmons caught more than 1/3rd of base stealers because his defense seems to be what's keeping him out of the hall of fame. 1/3rd doesn't seem horrible at all.
  5. 1. LaPorta 2. Gamel 3. Branyan 4. Salome 5. Nelson 6. Dillon 7. Weeks would be my choices, in order. I like to see young guys get a shot. With Riske possibly hurt, they could call up a hitter for the Red Sox series, although that might not jibe with their reliever fetish.
  6. It's really not. Some have speculated that the deal was signed simply so that he'd be easier to deal. So that a team wasn't getting a 4 month rental. Instead they're getting a player for 3 and a half years....if they end up dealing him. but the problem with that is that Nathan is signed for a huge amount of money. If the Brewers are going to pay a huge amount of money for a closer, I'd rather they just sign one rather than have to give up talent and still pay a large salary. If they are going to trade LaPorta or Gamel for a closer (a move I would be wholeheartedly against, btw), it should be for a young one who still has a few (relatively) cheap years left.
  7. I think a better question is: why doesn't Weeks hit? His career contact rate is well below average and when you couple that with his penchant for taking strikes early in the count because he has no batting eye, you get someone who will be average at best using his current strategy. along those lines, I wish that Weeks would concentrate on only one thing. By trying to be Joe Morgan (power & discipline), he's not doing anything. I wish he would either swing more early in the count to try to take advantage of his supposed power (remember, Kremblas said Weeks has more power than Prince, though his slugging percentage has been below the league average every year of his career), or try to make contact/bunt more in order to take advantage of his speed and patience. as of now, Weeks is a very frustrating player who is trying to have it both ways.
  8. This is like the Mark Rogers thing recently- a shame, but not a surprise.
  9. the problem with judging "trade value" in MLB (or really any sport) is that there are too many factors that we don't know how teams value. I mean things like contract length, service time, etc. A large market team may give up more for a guy like Sheets than, say, the A's would, because the money to resign Sheets wouldn't be a problem for them. So, a small-market team might conceivably value an average player with 5 years until free agency much more highly than they would a superstar with 1 year until FA. A large market team wouldn't have to worry as much about dollars and can just want the better player. all that said, I have to think that despite his slow start and questionable defensive abilities, Fielder is one of the more valuable players in MLB right now. He's still got 4 years (counting this one) till FA and his career OPS+ is identical to Mark Teixiera's, who is supposedly in line for a $200 million dollar contract this offseason. I don't think a team would offer enough to make it worthwhile to get him because in order to pry him loose, they'd have to gut their franchise. Sheets is a tougher call because of his injury history and being in the last year of his contract. If he can stay healthy till June or July, he'd probably be the best pitcher available at the deadline since Randy Johnson in 1998. The Mariners got Freddy Garcia, Carlos Guillen, and John Halama for him. Obviously Randy had more of a track record than Ben, but (barring injury) I think a package of two top prospects and a useful older guy would be reasonable to expect, depending on which teams are interested.
  10. It ain't necessarily so (to quote from Porgy & Bess). Jack McKeon wasn't on the staff in Florida when he was brought in in 2003 (plus, he's free now). IIRC, the Reds brought up their AAA manager a couple years ago (Miley?). Phil Garner wasn't with Houston when they brought him in in 2004. The only reason teams tend to hire guys on their staff is because most people have jobs in-season (like Jimy Williams, Tony Pena, Mattingly, and other recent managers/candidates). However, if there are good unemployed candidates, there is no reason a team couldn't bring one in. How about Davey Johnson? He had a lot of success and his players loved him. He would be a great fit. Cito Gaston is still around. Larry Dierker is free. Any of them would be worth a shot.
  11. First of all, what do you mean by "moneymaker"? I thought that usually referred to the butt, but that doesn't seem to be what you are going for here. 2nd, his contract is hardly exorbitant and I think he deserves a bit of a break on defense because he hadn't played the infield in a year. I think his D will come around and be average or so.
  12. When Bush was sent down, it was because he was the team's 6th best starter at the time. Things have now changed due to Gallardo's injury. I'm not a huge Bush fan but to argue that Weaver is better than him is overly optimistic, imo. and for everyone so in love with Weaver's 1 serviceable AAA start, Bush's AAA ERA this year is 1.50 and he has better than a K per inning and a 3.5/1 K/BB ratio.
  13. but who would they give up? Trading TGJ to the Pads makes sense, but only if the Brewers get something worthwhile and I'm not sure the Padres would give anything that fits that description up for him.
  14. There is no reason to believe that Parra, Villy, and Bush are actually as bad as they've pitched this year. Taking them out of the rotation now would be shortsighted, imo. Just like Cliff Lee and Edison Volquez aren't really 1.0 ERA guys, the Brewers guys are not 6-7 ERA guys. Removing them now would mean missing out on their regression to the mean.
  15. Eight Belles dying is sad, but the way the media is ignoring it is shameful. They have numerous articles on ESPN.com about the Derby but none about the 2nd place finisher dying on the track. NBC also didn't seem to talk much about it and only one of the winners even mentioned the dead horse. A heroic performance by the filly, too bad Big Brown just had a little more kick at the end (possibly because Eight Belles may have had 2 broken legs at the time). My sister was at Churchill Downs today, I wonder if they mentioned the death of Eight Belles to the crowd. She hasn't texted me back yet.
  16. The funny thing is that those umpires were idiots. Replacing an injured player with a pinch runner after a home run is allowed. This story should never have had to happen. Those umps should be disciplined for risking that woman's health with their ignorance. Otherwise, it is a very nice story.
  17. I feel bad for Turnbow, but pro sports is about results. He hasn't been getting it done, so this can't come as a huge surprise to him. On the plus side, good to see Dillon back, but I thought Nelson or Branyan might get the call to give the Brewers a lefty with some pop.
  18. So you're saying he could turn into Eddie Yost, but with a bit more batting average. How about Yost's 1950? .440 OBP/.405 SLG. Or his 1956? .412 OBP/.336 SLG. Those kinds of numbers would be cool, but the lack of a player who had long-term success with an OBP much higher than his SLG in the last 50 years is a bit worrisome in trying to project Brantley. Brett Butler may be the closest a guy has been to Yost lately, but even his SLG was basically equal to his OBP. (1991 excepted: .401 OBP/.343 SLG). Anyway, Yost was a 3rd baseman and Butler a CF, so they were able to carve out careers with no power despite not being middle infielders. If Brantley can stick in CF, he could end up a valuable player. If he can't play there regularly, I think a 4th outfielder is more likely his upside. Also, I have no idea why they're playing him at first, even Kevin Youkilis had far more power in the minors. Of course, he was older, but I don't know that I would count on Brantley developing enough power to play 1st.
  19. He has had one bad year, certainly not "several". 5 of his last 7 years have been average or worse but I don't want to go over the argument of whether he's good or not again. My point is that he is old and declining, no matter how much we want to debate what "average" means. Old and declining catchers would seem to benefit from a day off now and then, imo. I don't see what good can come from Kendall playing 145 games. The odds of him playing well all year are low to begin with, so a rest day to keep his legs fresh now and then would seem to be smart. If JJ, a 25 year old shortstop, needs a day off per week, why wouldn't a 34 year old catcher?
  20. In the last 7 years, Kendall has been above average offensively for a catcher twice. He's 34 and has caught 14,000+ innings in his career so far, which is as many as Johnny Bench caught before the Reds moved him to save his legs. It's more than Mike Piazza, Bill Freehan, Elston Howard, or Del Crandall caught in their careers. Ted Simmons was done catching by the time he was as old as Kendall. Gary Carter was totally washed up offensively at 33. Even great catchers tend to decline in their mid-30s. I just think it would be smart to try to save Kendall's legs as much as possible. I don't think having Rivera start 3 times every 2 weeks would be a bad thing at all.
  21. The problem with starting Kendall as much as he wants is that the team is the Milwaukee Brewers, not the Milwaukee Kendalls. Kendall is old and has had several bad years in a row. It makes sense that an old guy would need more time off than a young guy if he's going to stay effective. I just fear that Kendall will spend most of the summer hitting .220/.300/.280 and we'll all be saying "oh, how did this happen?"
  22. I assume it's because they move everyone they have any hopes for to another position because 1st base is not open until 2012 at the earliest. I actually think the system is pretty strong at first with Fielder, Hart, and LaPorta all able to play there and Gamel probably best off there.
  23. I'm afraid of this. Their numbers are eerily similar even down to the Stolen Base percentages. Rexrode even played a tougher defensive position. He reached AA at the same age Brantley did (20), yet was relegated to Independent ball by the time he was 23.
  24. even if you want Kendall next year, I think he only has to play 110 games to trigger the option, so it's not like it would be hard for him to get there even if Rivera played a little more often. I personally like Rivera, so I have no problem with him being around next year.
  25. Karl is a redneck. It's like Jerry Lee Lewis, I can't say I'm surprised.
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