mletto157

I agree with TBWS. ERA is pretty much the worst possible stat to look at in this case. I mean, the only way you get a run with the bases empty is if someone hits a homerun - so naturally a pitcher would have a better ERA with the bases empty than with, say a man on 3rd (who could score off a weak single). You have to look at BA, SLG, OBP, or better yet, OPS against him in these situations to really make a conclusion one way or the other.

I guess I don't think any on here expect him to be a stud. But a servicable 4th OF, and possible cantidate for the team next year. To me... best case scenario is he performs at his so-far career average stats. If he can do that, maybe moving Hart to 1B after Prince leaves becomes a little more enticing. But no matter what happens... I don't think anyone can argue it was a good value trade, and gives us more options for next years team. Plus, with Braun and Hart hurt, we don't have to keep playing someone like Escobar in RF (not that he was bad at it).

Most likely here’s what I see as our defensive positions next year. Lucroy, C Hart/Gamel, 1B Weeks, 2B McGehee, 3B Escobar, SS Braun, LF Cain, CF Gamel/Hart, RF Inglett & Dickerson as OF backups. Counsell type as IF backup. Kottaras as backup C. Gomez at AAA until he can prove he can get on base more than 30% of the time. Some type of shake-up when/if Lawrie is ready mid-year… my guess is McGehee moves. Although in my perfect world, I hope Gamel sticks at 3B (a buddy of mine that lives in Nashville says he’s been playing pretty good there as of late). His range would really help out our defense, which has been horrendously poor over the last couple years (which really makes our pitchers look worse than they are). I would like to see Hart moved to 1B after Prince leaves (hopefully via trade this offseason for a pitcher). I believe Hart played 1B, and we moved him to RF. His size would be ideal there and would make our team defense instantly better with how many more throws he should be able to scoop, not to mention his fielding should be much improved over Prince. I’m guessing Braun isn’t moving… so we’ll have to deal with his terrible fielding. The only bright spot is that he’s so darn athletic he should be able to get better over time as he learns to judge balls… but that just hasn’t been happening yet. So here’s what I would like to see… this puts us back to the norm of 13 position players, and 12 pitchers. Depending on our rotation, that might not be feasible. Lucroy, C Hart, 1B Weeks, 2B Gamel, 3B Escobar, SS Braun, LF Cain, CF Dickerson, RF Kottaras, C Backup McGehee, 1B/2B/3B Backup Counsell Type, 2B/3B/SS Backup Inglett, LH OF Backup Gomez, RH OF Backup Hopefully Lawrie comes up mid-year and either plays RF, or shifts Gamel to RF and plays 3B, depending on how they compare on defense. That shifts Dickerson to a backup role and one of Gomez/Inglett/Dickerson to AAA or released.

I'm just saying Paul DePodesta is the nuts and I'd really like to see him named the new GM of the Brewers. In that case, I can say I probably wouldn't mind that. There were also a few others I wouldn't mind. But I also don't mind DM, and since most likely if fired, we would get someone worse... I think we should just hold on to him for a while and see what this teams looks like in a few years.

Oh come on jack... that's a little harsh, don't you think? Although IMO, the point you're actually making is valid though. The problem is if MA did actually fire DM - how can we be sure the replacement he hires is actually better? We can dream about who we would all like to see him replaced with; but the fact of the matter is, with one of the better GM's in the game... we'd most likely (probably about 75% or more chances) hire someone worse than him. Also, thundercat, you never responded to my earlier post about the Rangers better starters this year actually being DM draftees. So IMO, your entire point of starting this thread gets rendered useless when you realize that. DM started off this re-building process drafting for offense. I can definitely argue he should have had more value on defense with that offense... but what does the common fan really come to a baseball game for? They want to see homeruns, they want to see offense. Once our first wave came in, and started producing, fans started filling the seats again, and baseball was back in Milwaukee. This is probably the most important thing to them from a business standpoint. After this happens you can focus more on the other things. Hence why the larger focus on pitching and even defense in the last few years. A re-build like the Brewers had to go through probably takes a good 10-15 years.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Melvin bring to Texas like half of the teams good starters this year? He was fired before he even had a chance to see his pitching draftees develop.

Well finishing above the Cubs is still something I can be happy about no matter what the final record ends up as. But overall on the season, unless they make the playoffs, it'll be hard to make it anything other than disappointing just because (as someone mentioned) the majority of the season was out of contention, which is disheartening.

It depends on what you're looking for though JB. I think it's pretty obvious that Parra has a higher upside and better stuff... Narveson might be more consistent right now, but this is about his ceiling. So if I'm management, I stick with Parra and give him the extra time under Peterson to get more consistant and 'figure it out.'

I agree RoCO, just because those two statements are true doesn't even have to mean they are directly related... And even if they are related, as I said above... it doesn't have to mean it's because other teams don't like them for some reason.

What do you mean monthly decline... he is raking in August.

especially when you combine that with the fact that they are leading the league in home runs. Makes sense to me... your goint to be a lot more careful against a team where 75% of the roster could make you pay for a mistake the way the Brewers do. So, since you are being more careful not throwing over the plate, you are more likely to hit someone. Plus, Rickie has always gotten hit at a crazy pace... take out his and we have to be about on par with most teams.

If Lawrie is ready mid-year; I could see the combination of Lawrie, Gamel, Cain outproducing (or at least equaling) the combination of Fielder, Mcgehee, Gomez. Add in that Escobar should be getting better; Braun should bounce back; Lucroy should be getting better; Hart could regress; Weeks is living up to his potential... Our pitchers should produce better than this year; etc... I think we could easily attain better results next year and the following year than we had this year.

If you think outside the box a little... I REALLY like this lineup! 1 - Cain 2 - Braun 3 - Gamel 4 - Weeks 5 - Hart 6 - Laurie 7 - Lucroy 8 - Pitcher 9 - Escobar

Not bad; I actually really like the players in that lineup. I think I might switch Gamel & Hart... and then if you switch Escobar and the pitcher I think you'd really have something! But seeing Gamel, Cain, Lawrie instead of McGehee, Gomez, Fielder looks pretty nice actually. Maybe you won't get anywhere near the production of Fielder, but those other two will be significantly higher. Actually, anything to get Gomez out of the lineup would probably look good to me no matter what at this point. That black hole kills me every time.

The craziest thing is 32BB!

I would have to agree with Backupcatchers... The Twins have always been a team that has been pretty good at knowing what they have in a player and getting the most out of their farm system. If they're making this trade one would think it's because they believe Ramos was overrated and wanted to get something before his stock fell off a cliff.

I don't see him as the long term 3B. I never did. Gamel has, by far, the most upside of our current system 3B-men. He should be the future, McGehee should be held until Gamel is ready. Then go into either a sub role, or be traded (preferrably traded since he realistically can only play 2 positions... and not very well). Plus, he does have some value, so we might be able to get some kind of return on him.

Trade Ryan Braun! He's worth way more than we're paying him! His value is way up there! On a more serious note... obviously if someone offers you a crazy deal; you would be a fool not to consider/take it. However, under normal circumstances, since most GM's aren't quite as stupid as they were 10 years ago, you keep him and hope he keeps this up. Having a closer or even a setup man who has been as good as Axford and is as cheap as Axford will go a long way in helping this team. The less free-agent relievers we have to being in, the better! Then as Axford approaches free-agency, if his value is still high... you start shopping; because we don't need to be paying closer money anymore. The money we threw at Gagne, or even Hoffman, is just plain better spend elsewhere. In short, unless someone puts up an offer we can't refuse, we keep him for the forseeable future.

That is a fantastic article by the way... and I can't say I ever thought that Braun would continue mashing LHP to the tune of a ~ 1.200 OPS... so in a way a regression was probably predictable... just no one would have thought this bad of a slump was coming.

I'm kind of surprised at how high Escobar is actually. He has great upside on defense... but I don't believe projects to be any more than a mediocre slap hitter on offense.

Braun will always be less valuable (according to WAR) than most people think he should be simply because of how awful he is on defense...

Unable to edit my post... meant to have the sentence starting with "W should" in blue. :-)

Not at all Backup, it just looked more like a fact in your post than an opinion - that's the only issue I had with it.

Although the ability to induce more ground balls is definitely a skill... so I guess to a point, skill is definitely incolved in giving up homeruns. If you're an extreme flyball pitcher, for example, you probably give up more homeruns than the majority of groundball pitchers.

There is a pretty large gap in runs scored in wins and runs score in losses. Brilliant! When teams score more, they generally win... when teams score less, then generally lose. We should just tell the Brewers to score 10 runs every game... don't they know they would win more?