brewcrewdue80

They've also been a darn good franchise over the past decade+. They averaged 88 wins/season from 1999-2012. All while following the talent cycling franchise-building model that many on this site have been calling for. Sure, they've had stretches where they haven't contended -- and the fans that view/ed 'Moneyball' as some kind of ivory-tower nonsense make sure to crow loudly -- but they don't panic, they don't change the approach, and before too much longer a new run of contention arrives. Yup, I know they've been a very good team. I watch Moneyball every couple of weeks. Just making the point that success and the amount of money spent are not at all directly proportional. We've spent over $27 million more than the A's this year, and they're clearly the better team. The reason the A's have remained competitive without a lot of money is that they can draft and develop good players. And when those players move on, they find other pieces that fit their roster well. I guess it just really bothers me seeing teams with far lesser resources doing so much better than we are, only because they are better managed (from a financial and in-game perspective). I just looked up the A's draft history. It's Barren of anyone meaningful. Since 2007 AJ Griffin with a 2.8WAR is their best player drafted. Brewers at least drafted Lucroy,Lawrie,Odorizzi,Schafer to their credit since then. 2006 was a good year for the A's with Trevor Cahill and Andrew Miller and turned them in to Josh Reddick/Jarrod Parker,Colin Cowgill, and Ryan Cook.

Well, pitcher sits for what 20min? on the bench loses his sweat and isn't as sharp to start the next inning. Happens all the time. Weeks HR? Let all the Weeks Lovers rejoice! It wasn't a Clutch moment so of course he comes through with a dinger

Imagine if Donaldson wasn't caught stealing? Badenhop having an ERA/Whip killing line. 1.0 4hits 3ER 2bbs 1K allowed 2 inherited runners to score. Sigh, Not that I didn't expect any kind of major success this month.

How I see it in the situation. Weeks bats, strikes out,grounds out, and flies out. He's dropped dramatically in Fly Ball rate this season so the suggested power numbers everyone hopes for aren't as likely to happen. BREF has an AVG. Player in his PA to accumulate 21RBI. Weeks has 10. If both these players are looking to be .315-.325 OB guys, One via a walk or one via the hit. You tell me which one when batting 7th/8th in the order works better for the team? The Pitcher comes up and kills any rally behind you. With batting 7th this includes plenty of doubles hitters ahead of you. ARam,Lucroy,Gomez. 25% of their hits are Extra Base hits. That immediately puts them as RISP. Weeks continued inability to drive them in or just take a Walk does Nothing unless Yuni/8th/Pitcher drives them in. Scooter's Singles has more chance of driving runs across the board than Weeks Walks or 1 in 68 PA(Currently) HR does. My argument just stems from where Weeks now resides in the Batting Order 7th. Which has to be the worst place for him. Just for the fact of what I am arguing. #8 hitter and Pitchers batting after Rickie I can take a Walk but can't get a Base Hit with RISP Weeks. He's not providing the team with Runs in fact his stat on BREF sits at -Negative -10Runs offensively for what an average Batter would create. That's nearly .2runs per game played he is BELOW AVERAGE. Scooter Gennett is what the Average Player is supposedly based on. AAA Players. Carlos Gomez +14 runs/Lucroy 0Runs/ARam +5 runs is what bats ahead of Scooter/Weeks. I'll promise you if Gennett approaches a .260 avg or better he will provide a + number in that Runs Provided stat. I guess where it stands is that for Rickie to reach that Slg% he needs to hit HRs. Without them he's really not going to outslug Scooter as the 2bs/3bs are likely to be about the same. 1 in 22.44 2010 1 in 22.65 2011 1 in 28 2012 and 1 in 59.67 2013 are the HRs to ABs numbers Weeks has. See the Trend? The HRs are coming fewer and far between which is the one thing he's supposed to provide in value. W/O the HRs his projected SLG has to tumble. .468-.400-.279 shows it has. He's already spent more games with a season Slg below .300 (34) than all of last season at 25. His slg numbers just aren't there anymore. It's a Phantom number everyone is hoping for.

Well, moments after my post....Alex Gonzalez was Released. Now, I move my next Whipping boy Selection to Yovani Gallardo. You were meant to be our Ace bud. You've pitched in the 7th inning twice this season! 5 Quality Starts in 12 Starts. You had 25 in 33Starts last season. Do the math, you're next non-QS this season matches your total of non-Quality Starts for all of last Season! You drove with a .22BAC Clearly, your head isn't focused right for Baseball these days. What Gives?

Looking deeper at the numbers. No longer a Leadoff hitter this stat matters more now. RISP Weeks has batted .213/.200/and this season's .087. This is a span of near 1500 PAs in his 4220 career. Easily more than the last 1/3rd of his career. If he costs you runs defensively, costs you runs offensively, then what is the point playing him or keeping him? All signs point to worse not better. Age/previous seasons results. And the end result is Yes Monty, I would pay another team to take him off our 40Man Roster. Even if it cost 10mil. The 500k Scooter next season. That is 1mil gain in payroll. I don't care what the return is in trade as the return with that 1mil spent may make it worth it.

I wouldn't be surprised if you said the same thing around this time last year. As we all know, Weeks rebounded nicely from a terrible start and ended up hitting .260/.344/.445/.789 from June 1 on. While I don't expect him to repeat that kind of performance again this year, I certainly am expecting a significant rebound. Everyone should. Weeks has a rest of season ZiPS projection of .238/.332/.410, which sounds pretty reasonable if you ask me. So far, Gennett has proven that if he bats .300 he can match that line.... in the minors. Gennett is young and I won't pretend to know what he will develop into. That said, anyone who's convinced themselves that Gennett represents a clear offensive upgrade over Weeks for this season is fooling themselves. It's possible but not likely. .238/.332/.410 to dropping .025pts from AAA numbers.. .272/.317/.352. Okay, for bottom of the order numbers. The slugging isn't as important to me as the BA/OB is. Weeks has shown for 1+ season now almost next to nothing in Clutch situations. Your OPS gains in Weeks is in power 3HRs thus far and his Walks. The walks mean something more atop the order. At the bottom, I'll take a BA guy who can supply those occasional clutch hits. Weeks not batting atop the order and showing less ability at the plate, those Power numbers with chances aren't guaranteed. 10RBI in 205PAs. 1 the Entire Month of May on his Only HR! He really provides nothing near what ZiPS projects. I'll bet today that Scooter has more RBI than Weeks for June. The bats ahead of Scooter give him ample opportunities and a .270-.300 hitter will more than likely drive the likes of ARam/Lucroy/Gomez in more often than the I hope I can bat .220 Weeks. 0-23 3bbs 2out RISP 4-46 11bbs RISP overall. I'm thinking if Scooter gets enough opportunities he will suppass Weeks in number of RISP hits by the end of this month alone.

That's why I say a Perennial All-Star needs to come in return. Anthony Rendon. If ARam is indeed traded away as a short term rental piece to some other team. Rendon coming over to us in my scenario wouldn't result in the team having a negative impact on the Field. Move Gomez to LF. Schafer at CF. Aoki or the AAAers in RF. That right there plus an Impact arm would have to be a short-term sideways move with an immediate improvement the following season as the young guys gain experience. Rendon/Syndargaard I believe wouldn't keep fans turned off anywhere near as long as you think. As the one thing as a Fan I'm starving for is a Pitcher with Ace ability. The falloff in Braun to Rendon I'm going to believe isn't as much as the gain in the Starting Pitching. There's a lot of money gained in the deal in the long-term. BTW, I suggested the Mets in my hypothesis in that they are rumored in Stanton/Carlos Gonzalez acquisitions...Really wanting a stud OFer. Imagine Braun/Wright 3/4 signed through 2020 for that Organization? Let's go with this Sellers notion....Would you keep Lucroy or take the chance on Travis D'Arnaud? Meaning if you make a deal trading away Braun attaining TDA in it you can then make Lucroy Expendable for some Prospect profit. So let's say it's TDA/Syndargaard/Nimmo plus Rendon while Wash get Wheeler. And a PTBNL. Then you flip Lucroy for a Solid-high #3 upside to 2 SP? That would cover SP,SP,3b,C, future OF long term for 2players. You're saying you would lose being a fan of the team if it played out?

Well, as it stands right now Rickie is only on pace for 603PAs. And Bianchi alone they could sit him just once a week to likely get him under 600PA. At 599 it doesn't matter anymore as he can't achieve 1200 without going over the 600PA kick in on 2014 alone. I hope whoever thinks somebody has an interest in Weeks is right. But really, who? and why? at this point. You would have to be sitting in a very ugly situation at 2b to want to trade for Rickie. Maybe Scooter Can/and Will Rake to a .300BA like he's done every climb of the ladder. He looks to K less than 15% of PAs and it would be telling if he's overmatched now that he's up if he Ks 20-25% or more. Really I'm thinking this is a good look at him to maybe get a clue to what kind of future player they have for 2b.

I guess another thing to put out there is he has OF experience too. You wonder if this allows Braun an added day off or two here and there. More than 2-4Starts a week by him. Saying Juan plays all 3 of 1b/3b/OF Maybe. 25 turning 26 is a whole lot better than 31&36 of Yuni/Gonzalez. And with some OF time he's certainly more flexible for them. Biachi and him two play all over the place guys. I like it.

I am thrilled with the move. And there's likely something else in store to coincide with it. Either way, Lefty/Righty Platoon with Weeks seems great to me. What more really does Gennett have to do in AAA? He's pretty much that High Floor-Low Ceiling Player you only work with defensively on improvements. With Rickie's defense how much more ability does he need to be better than him? Fiers for Scooter,Francisco for Gonzalez. The team is immediately better no? I guess what I'm happy with the most is no more Gonzalez, and less Weeks which is about all that I've been asking for. Francisco likely replaces Yuni honestly when Hart returns. And that is just a younger, better defensive player who at least provides some kind of upside. Gonzalez/Yuni had/have ZERO upside. I don't mind .250-.260 as expectations from Scooter but what if he's .280-.310? Being a slap to gap hitter vs. Power I'm thinking at least there's positive at bats in situational hitting. Sacrificing. Just a guy that with Rickie I don't think you can ask him to lay down a sacrifice bunt. And again, I said it in the other Scooter thread, Hit and Runs. Batting him behind Gomez at 7? Rickie's poor contact rate/RHB doesn't make that work as well.

Whatever production we get it is sure to be better than Alex Gonzalez whom the team now is getting rid of! And thinking ahead what this means to the team. A. They have a 1b for now til Hart arrives. B. they have a 3b if/when they trade away ARam. If Hart performs and is traded I'd expect Hunter to get called up. Way to Go with this move! It really provides flexibility in the likely future moves the club makes during the Trading Deadline time.

I am not sure why you are being short sighted in just looking at playoff contenders. The Dodgers would have Gallardo for two more seasons so it doesn't really matter if they are going to be making the playoffs this year or not as Gallardo wouldn't be a half year rental. If the Dodgers are interested in Cliff Lee there is no reason they would not be interested in Gallardo also. Again you are being very short sighted at looking at playoff contenders. Being a Playoff contender makes you a buyer at deadline. Dodgers would be a seller is what I'm getting at. Considering how Gallardo has performed thus far, it makes no sense for the Dodgers to grab him at the Deadline. Now, offseason it does and those 2years you're mentioning makes sense. As well as it making sense if Gallardo is showing a turnaround as the season progressed. It's not being short-sighted. I guess when I read this topic, I'm looking at the time to trade Gallardo meaning at this year's deadline.

He's released from his contract. That means we have to sign him, which also requires him to want to sign for us. Knowing the situation at hand, He plays for a couple-few weeks before being sent down or released. Is that something he'd sign for? I do agree he's better than Gonzalez or Yuni at 1b simply on the fact, he is a 1bman! It'd be nice to experience this season with our first day of having a 1b on the active roster.

Thanks for the insight TheCrew. Your original reply had me worried that you were suggesting he didn't appear to possess the bat to play the ML levels.

Yes, It is long past due for him to retire. Much less continue getting Plate Appearances for Milw. We are talking 3 total games his season numbers sat with an OPS in the .500s. It's at .433 on the season currently. .433 On Base PLUS Slugging! Joey Votto,Miguel Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo, And Chris Davis all have higher On Base% ALONE! Currently. It's embarrassing to see him still on the roster. What in God's Name can he even provide to the team anymore? What is his upside down the road to save him?

Well, no since you're talking a different sport where the success in draft picks are more frequent than the success in MLB draft picks. What do I think it would take to get Braun? 1 would be an immediate ML Player with at least 3 more years team control. Then you throw in 3 top 50 Prospects. And a Player to be named later. Probably another future top 50 Prospect that given an added two months or more to evaluate can be tabbed. So let's say the Mets: Wheeler,Syndergaard,Nimmo,Jennry Mejia and then the PTBNL. That would be the Prospects. There would still need to be another player involved from that 3rd team. Maybe it's Rendon from Washington. while swapping them one of those Wheeler/Syndergaard pitchers. I don't know, how to really make it work but that's probably an open line for discussion.

Well Homer Dave Nilson was an All-Star 1999. Favorite of mine back in the day. So wasn't 20years of Catcher Futility. I'm not educated on Coulter's Progress as a Catcher or how he projects as one. The Crew/3and2 leave the impression he's not going to make it as one. Which in the case leaves Maldanado as our lone Catcher of the future if Lucroy was traded. If indeed Coulter isn't a Catcher on the Horizon than Keeping Lucroy as a central piece is a must. If Coulter can't make it at Catcher. Then where does he move to? If his hit tool isn't up to snuff, then moving him to 3b doesn't sound like the answer. Is this a case where the team hopes they find a sucker to trade for him? Maybe keep him at Catcher and hope some team thinks what he does is worth enough to trade for to be their catcher? Coulter is still 19 to turn 20 in July, and that's 3years ahead of Lucroy playing at A Ball to develop before moving to AA. Is Coulter looking that poor that in 3years he can't be better and approaching a Level Lucroy was when finally being moved to AA? Someone said teaching Defense is the easiest thing you can improve a Prospect on. Hunter Morris went from a Defensive Liability as a 1b to winning a Gold Glove in 1 year? Can one accuse of rushing to judgment on a 19year old 82 games in to his professional career?

Yeah, you're looking at someone who's putting up Cooperstown numbers. The team hasn't had that player and ability to retain them since Robin Yount. I don't see any Prospect haul at this point convincing the homebase fans it's the right move to make. Now, getting a 1st year Players who's looking like a Future Perennial All-Star Plus Top Prospects then you can probably justify it. It goes with someone's mentioning in the Sellers thread Bryce Harper for Braun. Literally that's the kind of Player that fits the mold of that scenario. But Baseball teams have shifted to retaining these players and locking them up to long term extensions... In other words, what we are hoping from in Jean Segura soon. The team can be torn down some and built up again but Braun at this stage of his career for the money, shouldn't be in a class of trade discussion. It would have to be something historically epic for a Trade. Probably taking more than 1 team to do the deal. He doesn't jump in payroll to 19mil until 2016 season. So the earliest that would even make sense to consider trading Braun would be around Trade Deadline 2015 if not the 2015/6 Offseason when that occurs. That's why I think he's untouchable.

Seen a Elias Stat on ESPN. Brewers were .5 game out of 1st place to start the month and finished 15 games behind 1st place StL. I guess well here it is: Rough Month For Brewers From Elias: The Brewers opened the month of May one-half game behind first-place St. Louis, and they ended it 15 games in back of the division-leading Cardinals. Only one other major-league team was in first place or within a game of first place at the beginning of a calendar month and finished that month at least 15 games behind the league or division leader. In 1939, the Senators were in fourth place, one-half game behind three teams that were tied atop the American League (Yankees, Red Sox, and White Sox) and found themselves 15 games back and in sixth place on the morning of June 1.

MNBrew, You're probably right in that since I'm a bit burned on Melvin and some of the decisions that have either been or not been made, I'm hearing what I want to hear/and want to comment on it. Can you give me the solid/valid points you took from the interview? That find Discarded Pitching comment. Homer Bailey wasn't discarded I don't recall currently if that was attached in the same breath to struggling young pitchers and developing. I get the tactic to find these pitchers. But as to SPs I don't see him doing it. At least not this past offseason. They got Estrada in 2010. The easy find of this would have been Kevin Slowey a 2nd round pick attained by the Marlins for 750k. Who has a 3.59era in 11starts. Seeing as he played for the Twins the club should have had an idea who he was which was a former top 100 prospect with 3 straight double digit winning seasons before what must have been an elbow injury. He had some AAA starts to finish 2012. His signing would have fit that philosophy Melvin describes. And the tactic can work. But, what I was getting to in my comment is that it feels he's not sold on the concept of drafting young pitching to develop in to aces. Rather, he's looking to find failed developed pitching but will seek them for serviceable potential. That would fall in to the lines of drafting College Pitchers over the HS pitchers, skipping a long enduring developmental stage for more readily/polished College Pitchers.

Well, they traded for Morse and Morales this offseason who are in Free Agency seasons. Saying they aren't trying to win now would dictate they not have made those moves. Iwakuma/Felix and they were likely looking at one of Walker/Hultzen to be a trio to have for the Playoffs. Adding the missing piece at the Deadline if need be. After this season the team loses to FA:Morse,Morales,Saunders,Ryan,Ibanez,Bay,Perez, and Shoppach. With Harang and Gutierrez on team options or lose to Free Agency. Now, I mentioned this in some other Thread, Gallardo being sent over to Seattle after their offseason moves coinciding at the time with King Felix up to be a FA after 2014. But Yo's struggles change my opinion to Estrada being the piece they seek. Seattle can easily afford Ramirez's contract with only 50mil in payroll for next season guaranteed to this point. Estrada vs. Harang's 7mil option has to be appealing as Estrada probably falls in the 4mil pay next year. With the team losing Morales/Morse a Cleanup hitter will be needed and ARam just slides in. While grooming Zunino to become it in 2015. Your right about Weeks and his lack of value in the idea. But ARam with a Pitcher(Estrada being Payroll friendly) each under control through 2015. They appear to fill needs for Seattle IMO if they decide to push to win this season/next.

Just seen August's Schedule: 3vsWAS 4@SF 3@SEA 2@TEX 4vsCIN 3vsStL 3@CIN 3@PIT 2vsANA Yikes! After a selloff trade deadline the crew may be in danger of actually setting the worst Calendar month in history! If we thought May was bad.

Yowsas. Melvin points out the Screwover on CC compensation and not getting Trout. He says he doesn't recall Carlos Rodon's name which I don't get how a GM doesn't know potential #1 picks. Much less a player's name who you drafted and didn't sign who I'd think would still remain on your radar no? And listening to the interview TLB's comment: But the main point is that Melvin's trading m.o. was clearly to trade for short-term solutions. My hypothesis as to 'why?' is that he was uncomfortable trying to project which young arms would develop into top-of-rotation-caliber players, and instead felt more comforted by getting three pitchers for whom there wasn't much question as to how they would perform. That's all well and good for a half season here, or two seasons there, but then you're left with the same holes in your rotation & much less trade capital. He could have addressed the pitching rotation issues with better long-term planning, but that would have required more confidence from Melvin and/or scouting personnel in terms of identifying young pitching talent. Yeah I absolutely agree with that. I feel he's pretty much saying his philosophy is to find discarded pitchers other teams wouldn't wait to develop to perform. He makes mention of the number of teams that only have 2-3SPs on their rosters from developing and we have 2 so we're in line with League. I come away with that he doesn't have a grasp of how to implement a program to develop Pitching. And other things bothered me in the interview. Mentioning StL.'s ability to retain Molina/Wainwright/and another name I'm forgeting rather than losing them to Free Agency. Well hello? You've signed how many StL SPs now? Talking about Bailey/Arroya on Cincy and throwing their 5+ERAs a few years back to now being under 4. That He believes NO PITCHER can have a 2ERa in MP. Yet Sheets did so in 2004? I just didn't like it. I felt like it was excuses/misdirecting information to answer the questions giving random examples for 1 team Stl/Tampa/Baltimore/Cincy to put what our current state is as exceptable with just an underperforming Big League Club. Oh, and then the comment. In response to when does he begin thinking if he's a buyer/seller for the July 31st deadline? I tell my players to go out there and give me a reason to trade for helping the team. In other words, His philosophy is to Band-Aid Year to Year to win today and not to think ahead long term. Gomez isn't going to be traded after listening to this. And how about the mention of the Texas Rangers Prospect everyone looked at us getting but we identified Segura while this prospect is batting .150 in AAA. In Other Words, Mike Olt everyone. Just say it rather than obscure with suggestion of whom with a statline. And he dissed Profar! Saying Segura is better than him and our scouts identified his potential to be so. I think Melvin feels being on the Hot Seat with some responses. The Free Agency part, talking about 2011/end of 2012 team, leading up to this year's performance that he's won the last 5years. Competed with StL./beaten Cincy it's like defending himself out loud to Mark A. While giving the excuses if fired as to maybe a future position to other teams. I don't know, I haven't really listened to Melvin Talk before. Listening to him, it felt like he had a computer in front of him to pull up numbers/stats like we here at BF do for our topics/discussions and not somebody with a whole lot more Baseball Knowledge that a GM should just have.

I absolutely beg to differ on Marco Estrada not being worth much. 11 Games started this season. You take away STLouis starts he's thrown 50.1 or 6.25IP per start at 3.75ERA 7BBs to 44Ks. He's a Flyball Pitcher in a Hitters BallPark but only given up 2HRs in May out of the 12 overall this season. I already found the team to use him to take advantage of a Hitters Ballpark....Seattle. And I'd package him with Either Weeks or ARam to fill a hole the team has in the lineup at 2b. How does ARam fill a 2b hole you ask? Kyle Seager has and can play 2b. ARam takes over 3b Kyle Seager plays 2b. Or just Weeks at 2b. And/or with Nick Franklin up in Seattle, Seager plays SS and ARam plays 3b Franklin 2b. Either way helping remove a hole from the middle IF of Brendan Ryan/Dustin Ackley while adding a SP to supplant the likes of Aaron Harang/Joe Saunders. I deem value in that trade for Seattle. I'd think Paxton would come over in that trade and we would ask for Stefan Romero for 3b with some other High Ceiling young talent. Seattle can handle ARam's salary and the occasional day off well, Ryan/Seager/Franklin would fill in. I think Estrada's peripherals in a Pitchers Ballpark he falls in to the 3.4ERA type pitcher a team like Seattle needs currently. Now, others aren't as high on Estrada as I am and may laugh this off. But I think Estrada's framework Low BBs/Higher K per 9 moved in to a Pitchers ballpark helps what he is as a Flyball Pitcher. 8HRs allowed at MP 4HRs allowed on the Road. 1.7HR/9 overall this season but .92HR/9 on the road. 6.5ip avg start on the Road. 3.7ERA. Everything reads positive for Estrada moving away from MP. And that's why I'm high on him overall, He is a decent pitcher just gives up a Gopher Ball too many. and again only 2 in May. What does he do in June? I said it in Preseason I think he's the most consistent Starter the team has and I feel he's a 3.6ERA guy. If his June reflects that I see him having a bit of value in trade. Of course in trying to improve a SP staff giving up your most consistent starter is taking a step back. But if the club gets a younger higher talented version of Estrada in return I think it's worth it down the road. And really, this is more in lines with I think Estrada is the best piece with player in trading away Weeks/ARam/or Hart to offset the cost in those 3. Gallardo/Lohse don't fit that.