brewcrewdue80

Here's the sad history of the franchise. Looking back 20years. I can come up with 4SPs who gave 2 or more quality pitching seasons for Milwaukee. That we brought up through our system. #1 Scott Karl #2 Cal Eldred #3 Ben Sheets #4 Yovani Gallardo That is it. Quality being throwing 170ip+ with respectable ERA. Scott Karl numbers don't jump out at you but pitching in the midst of steroid era baseball in the AL he was a workhorse. So in 20 years we haven't even brought up a full 5man rotation from within. This was probably hashed hard by Boras in to Mark A's ears on selling Lohse to him. And I get the argument of at least getting something from Lohse that likely we wouldn't get from the draft pick. History by our franchise dictates so right.

I was kinda hoping like 5 in a row with 10 of 12 being a nice thought.

Kinda got off subject on Gallardo trade away. Sigh. Gallardo, lost velocity, poor efficiency in pitches. At this point, any trade of Gallardo has to be an absolute selling at lowest value. If I'm any GM out there having the lost velocity alone puts me in power in the trade talks. There is zero chance Gallardo nets anything remotely like Shields, I thought before this season and now even moreso. I'm at a wonder if he can even fetch a top 100 SP at all. Why trade that prospect away? Now, trading a top 40-80 batter I think is within reason, but really? How does that help the Brewers? I think Gallardo has lost immense value thus far this season. This is like last season in that the team honestly has to ride a turnaround or just stand pat. Gallardo needs a couple 10+K outings to re-instill some faith he hasn't lost some of who he is. Lost velocity, less Ks, higher ERA nothing right now stands out to give a GM reason to offer a high-end prospect for Gallardo. All low-ball offers currently waiting for Melvin to crack. The ball isn't in our court with Gallardo anymore.

Hopefully Henderson just misses a couple days. Or is the DL very Imminent? Great to get a win when the top of the order was tamed. Marco with a very important 7ip start. How about a nice winning streak forthcoming?

Just knew Marco would pitch well tonight. I still have a lot of faith in him. Truly think he's a solid #3 at least in the NL.

I would rather they just let him be a starter in the minors as he will be get more opportunities to face batters there than he would be being a relief pitcher in the minors. Yes, as in more pitches thrown to digest and work on vs. 7-25pitch outings every couple few days.

That gif^^^^^^^ Amazing 6HRs with Maybe 1 pitch being a strike. Talk about Plate Coverage! As to the 2005 top 100 prospect argument. Here's a question. How many top 100 prospects graduated in 2004? A player like Jose Fernandez for Miami who was to be one of the Uber type prospects in a year or two already playing for the ML club? And I do get the argument against Prospects as today I believe, I read the 3Straight years, top 10 prospect Jesus Montero was just sent down to AAA due to his struggles. Another major disappointment future All-Star rated player playing below Replacement level.

Whoa, I had no knowledge Burgos was injured? What exactly is a shoulder impingment? Funny, but I thought the Brewers Organization was credited as being the Healthiest in the Majors in regards to Pitchers avoiding injuries. Where's that been this season?

Marco needs to step up and have a good outing vs. Pitt's lineup tonight. Top of the lineup Aoki/Segura batting .500 vs Burnett. Braun 1hit shy of .500. I'm thinking it's time for a win. Is anyone else amazed that it's Burnett leading the NL in Strikeouts? Not Kershaw, Not Strasburg, not even Harvey after his first month's of starts? And this kind of goes in to the, a team improving someone on their staff year to year. How is it the Brewers Pitching Coaches can't fix anyone on their staff? Burnett was fairly a joke in the AL and for Pitt he's more than improved coming over to their team.

My view on the state of the franchise. Lack of forward thinking. The Lohse signing was done way too late. If Melvin/Mark A didn't have faith in the group of Gallardo,Estrada,Peralta,Fiers,Narveson,Thornburg with Burgos within sight then: To me a forward thinking GM would have traded away 2-3 of the above in the beginning of the offseason and through the winter meetings. Then they would have had the space to sign 2 free agents SPs to address those concerns. But no, they laid the foundation that these were our guys, they had full faith in them, that Lohse wasn't going to be signed to save our draft pick, only to do a 180 freak out with what they had, sign Lohse, lose our pick, and think that an aging average pitcher was going to fix all those concerns? I don't get it. A better, creative mind would have sent Estrada,Fiers, hell even Peralta somewhere, attaining a better but in the minors arm, and then signed say Villanueva,Marquis,Slowey while still having 3 of those 6 above, the draft pick and a young arm to lament about in the minors. Or the original mindset our guys were good enough to have a look this year without signing a Lohse and standing Pat would have been a fine plan that backfired but not as bad as it backfiring with Lohse minus draft pick. Not a fan of the decision making of those leading our franchise.

Count me in on the Fire Kranitz group. Go ahead fight against the numbers. Go ahead talk about the talent he's handed but: We seem to get the least or average from our Starting pitchers. How many Wow games happen? Any Random "On Tonight" Complete Games? Because I'll tell you what, When the Brewers Bats are silenced by some other team's #4/5 Pitchers, that's what I read the next day. So and So was obviously "On" today. The inability to ever see anyone put Yovani in an "On" Game is sad. How is it possible he doesn't go 8innings Once a month? How? That leads me to this thought: Fire him or whoever is in charge of feeding Lucroy/Maldanado situational pitch calling! How many times do we have to watch 0-2 pitches get laced for hits? How about, how many times do we have to witness #7/8 in the order guys being nibbled around a low outside corner of the plate pitch calling? Only to end up walking them on 6-7pitches? So rather than help your pitcher be more economical by attacking these hitters and giving them a better pitch to put the ball in play, we have an extended at-bat making certain another 20+ pitch inning is at hand. I to wonder how Yo,Estrada,Fiers,Narveson,Axford, how is it all these pitchers(Last Year's bullpen), how is it all of them find themselves worse today than a year ago? Things that I look to see from a pitcher as progress, is one, Better overall. Anyone here see any of these pitchers with better stuff overall than a year ago? Two, a more mature approach. Attacking weak hitters, Getting 6ip+ on nights they don't have their best "Stuff" Three, the more experience you get out there, the better you become in game situations. Facing the best hitters in the game the first time around can be daunting, but over time, I'd hope to see them get them out more often with each season. Following a bad inning with a bunch of 0s. Again, how many times do the Brewers Bats put up 2-4runs on the board early only for that pitcher to make it 7ip with maybe 1 more run allowed? How about flashes of dominance? Show me that "On" game! 7/8ip 0ER I wanna see either that 8-11k 7-8ip 0ER game. Or that 7-8ip while scattering 9-11hits but still not allowing a run to cross. Show me one of those a month...One each would be Awesome but just 1 that you can get it done both ways. Peralta/Estrada/Yovani those three need to put together starts like that in a week at the same time. And I feel it needs to happen within their next 4starts a piece to salvage Kranitz/the pitching coaches.

I do agree to most extent on the Sit Weeks an entire game. But as a Bench bat, The Weeks of Old has to have one wonder/believe he's their best bat to call off the bench currently. It's also harder to do with our pitchers not going more than 6ip. We are interchanging Pitchers and Pinch hitters enought times in game that you just can't leave Rickie on the Bench in most situations w/o having a PA. Let's just say Bianchi right now has me at a point of waiting on Gennett until Mid-June comes at least to remove any Super 2 Status chances. I didn't realize Bianchi's flexibility within the Infield and he's clearly the right answer to Rickie Weeks. BTW, looking at the Schedule, I would think the Bench Rickie for an entire game, game would either be tomorrow with Thursday's Off Day, or Friday so to have 2 full days away. Keep up the good numbers Scooter in AAA! We'll take them in the Bigs further down the road

The reason Weeks has not been permanently benched has as much to do with WHY he is being paid as much money as he his. There are too many baseball fans who think that all a replacement for Weeks has to do is match his (poor this year) defense and hit better than .168/.283/.268 to justify the move. Unsurprisingly, those are the same fans that are going to constantly demand established players be benched for utility players (an epidemic among MLB fans). Weeks' updated ZiPS projection is .237/.333/.413/.746. We can certainly debate about how "right" that is but everyone should recognize that just like last year, we shouldn't expect Weeks to continue hitting terribly. Now if someone think Bianchi's projected offense and defense projects better than a reasonable projection for Weeks, so be it. I would strongly disagree but at least the question is being framed correctly. The ZiPS projection... I haven't found the post some maybe 3weeks ago when the Heat originally was on Weeks. But I seem to recall somewhere along the lines of .244/XXX/.765 ish projections. Believe in ZiPS all you want. What's Segura's the remainder of the season? What was it to start the season? Gomez's? ZiPS can disappear at any time if you ask me. How remotely accurate is ZiPS? My guess is in two weeks the updated ZiPS will have Weeks at .228/.331/.404/.735 But this is after Rickie batted .155/.266/.300/.566 in those 2 weeks. What number does the ZiPS have to get to before you jump off the bandwagon defending Weeks? My guess is when the OPS reaches under .700 right? ZiPS is slowly catching up to Weeks' downward hitting curve. Anway, just something that bugs me in arguing for a Weeks Resurgence to finish up the year. We're all hoping that happens. It's just meanwhile all those empty at bats leading up to that eventual turnaround are costing this opportunities to win. Bianchi starting tonight is showing that the team is addressing Weeks and that's all I ask for. He can't put up worse number than Weeks has thus far can he? And if given the chance and he does well at least it shows Weeks is the best option to play 2b. Given Rickie time off to get whatever bugs out of his system while not affecting the team is a win-win situation. When he shows signs of turning it around then give him the everyday starts again. That's at least a plan. The everyday starting saying Rickie is in a funk, he's working out pregames in the cage and he'll come around eventually wasn't.

It is great to have a full inning of all the talented hitters performing at once. It's innings like these that has to put a scare in to opposing pitchers.

With this comment I am only wondering if are you watching the game? Burgos had 88 pitches through just 3 1/3 innings and was laboring in every single inning. Fiers came in and cleaned up. I am starting to wonder if it's time for Burgos to go back to AAA. I follow the game on Gamecast. Don't have Cable nor the luxury to sit at a bar and watch the game. I was in mid type when Fiers showed up as batting for the sacrifice.

I don't get taking Burgos out? His bat was due up in the bottom of the inning. And I was going to say, with Fiers now, does he bat him or take him out which with Fiers, I would think an outing through the 6th/7th inning was coming?

My hate on Lohse and the signing is simply put, he costs us the potential Future face of the franchise. The team had Narveson,Fiers,Thornburg pretty much geared to being at the bottom of the rotation. Burgos should have been in the thoughts of replacing one of them after his success. And we signed Gorzo who when we signed him, I was sure he was going to become that emergency starter, he could have been stretched out when Narveson went down. Someone stating this being one of the worst Starting Pitching ever assembled without Lohse.... Really? So from Worst Ever how much better does Lohse make us? Worst in Majors this season only? Did you see who Colorado had for a Staff last season? Can you name 1 SP on that team? They were so bad they tried a whole new 75pitch limit system no matter how they were doing. I hate the Lohse signing because honestly, no one was geared up to sign him. I'd have waited...and waited maybe until the draft when he was no longer tied to compensation. But let's face it, After Gallardo/Peralta/Estrada's struggles we're clearly out of consideration as a Playoff team aren't we? That's why I hate the signing the most. This season shouldn't be thought of as rebuild, but more of identity. Identifying the SPs who will stick on the ML team. Identifying if this assembled team sans Lohse are competitive to be Playoff contenders. And when the Trade Deadling approached maybe find a SP that can help the team in a playoff push at that moment in time. There's only what 4OFs stuck in Quad's A-ville? And theres 5SPs in Quad's A-ville? Khris Davis just may have had a nice home in Houston along with Fiers+ let's say for Lucas Harrell. But no, we have Lohse now, no 17th draft pick, and a non-contending team for all of it. Other problems: Hart/Gamel was out before Lohse was signed. No 1b on the roster. Still not solved. ARam was injured and recovering and he should have sat longer than he did. Yet we went ahead with the signing. There should have been more thought put in as to whether the team's current condition due to injuries warranted a Lohse signing because of competitiveness. We weren't a 1st/2nd pick in the Central before the injuries happened. Just saying.

After the top 4 in the lineup, statistically speaking Lucroy is the next best Run Producer on the team. Gomez has a lower BA RISP so far this season. Historically Lucroy is better than Gomez. And Lucroy comes through with a 2out knock to prove the point. While Gomez strikes out. Until Hart returns there isn't a better #5 option unless one of the top 4 in the lineup drops down in order.

We don't have a first round pick anymore, we gave it up to sign Lohse. Well that is this year's draft. Our record for this season goes towards next June's draft which we haven't lost our pick yet.

Out of 30 teams the Brewers are 13th (.255) in batting average, 14th (.341) in OBP, 11th (.419) in SLG% and 11th (.760) in OPS with RISP. So better than average in every category. If you shorten it to just the NL they are 6th in BA, 6th in OBP, 5th in SLG% and 5th in OPS. Where does the team rank upon removing say Braun alone. Or Aoki. Or Segura. I feel the mass success in that statline resides in those 3. It'd be great to really compare teams removing their top 3 in production in that category. My guess then is the Brewers would rank near the bottom. There are teams lucky enough to have 1 batter over .300 so our 5 above .300 will eschew stats a bit in our favor. I'm not a fan of why this team has Gonzalez still on it. What annoys me is how Roenicke uses him as a Pinch hitter in so many key situations it's sickening. He's actually 2 for 9 with a BB 2outs RISP but then that makes him 0-12 with 1 Sac fly at any other time 0BBs. Again this really falls on Weeks who has 3hits and 11BBs in 50 PA with RISP. No hits with 2outs and just 3BBs in 22PA RISP. Combined that is 5hits in 73PAs by 2 Veteran Players who should know how to get it done with RISP and aren't. Here's my other question which would be, how many GDPs does the team have with RISP? Braun and ARam both killed promising innings with runners on 1st/2nd by grounding in to Double Plays. There should be a stat listing number of DPs hit in to with RISP...I'm going to put the Brewers among the worst/leaders in that category. Lucroy/Weeks/ just soo many DPs I can recall with 2runners on. Looking it up:Weeks 4/Braun 3/Gomez 1/Segura 2/Aoki 0/Gonzalez 0/Lucroy 2/Yuni 1/Maldonado 1/ARam 1. Not as bad as I thought. Though shows you how awful Weeks has been. 3hits Risp 4DP. That's more outs made than hits in that situation! BTW. Looking at ARam on BREF: Did you know Pittsburgh signed him as a Free Agent out of Cuba at the age of 16? and he Debuted at 19? What a find by whoever scouted him huh?

Looking at Organization depth my start to a 5year play would be: Braun/Gomez/Aoki are stalworths at OF. Taylor/Roache/Haniger are the future. This makes every OF in-between expendable. Gindl,Shafer,Davis both,Prince are all on the trade blocks and I'm looking to flip them with a ML player or two to get weakness in the organization depth. The ML players to eye for trade: Weeks Hart(think Hart+Davis for some kind of higher Prospect in return at pitching/3b especially) A-Ram at a point when a capable 3b is attained in any prior trade. Again pairing with an OF prospect may net a better return. Gallardo is available today because all the signs are showing worsening and I'm afraid some kind of return a year from now may be next to nil. Lohse is expendable and that's another pair with OF type deal I can see working out to help justify trading away a higher prospect for the 2+years return Lohse gives. Alex Gonzalez/Yuni/Axford are trade aways to DFA at any time to me. I'd even entertain ideas of trading away Peralta for say some other team's high SP prospect that is another year away from ML with this team needing SP today. Maybe that team can work with him and make him dominant with his velocity. I still have imaginations of Seattle being worthwhile to trade with. One of those SPs or Franklin to acquire. At this point, I've seen enough to commit to Gomez's contract as the timing suits well with Taylor/Haniger growth. Aoki's option would be picked up and the Arb process that proceeds after would be done as well so long as til he no longer provides effectiveness for the team. Removing Hart/Weeks/ARam/Gallardo/Lohse's contracts provides room to sign at least 2 strong FAs. That is if they are there if not then don't spend the money. A top 10 pick is protected and if the moves are made that I'm suggesting I'm going to think a top 10 pick is forthcoming. This opens the ability to sign a QO FA or 2 for that matter at a 2nd&3rd round cost. So, should the team dump all that salary and then sign 2 FA(like Cleveland with Bourn/Swisher) there would be those 2 plus Segura/Braun/Gomez/Lucroy/Aoki instilled on the team for at least the next 3seasons. The players of Morris/Gennett would be apart of the team's future then. I'd do my best at drafting highest upside players and use what money to sign them. Face it outside of the first couple rounds the odds of players drafted making the Majors is reduced and I'd fully commit my money to my top 2/3 draft picks and let my other picks suffer to lack of money available. If theres any chance of drafting a College Player with my pick, that player had better been the consensus Best at his position or else he's off my radar. My picks would almost strictly come from HS to Juco players only. I'd let Roenicke go with this change of mine and look to a fire em up type manager that's is out there/becomes available. I'd remove just about every Pitching manager within the organization and start fresh. Maybe these fresh eyes can work out some of the wrongs of the 1st round picks we see as busts thusfar. Scouting internationally. Everyone wants to harp on Latin players. I'd go the other route with the Japanese/Chinese players and scout more there. We lucked in to Aoki but I'd really like to just find another Yu Darvish or even a Hiroki Kuroda type that comes because of successful scouting there. It's really frustrating to learn of all the age questions with Latin Players and I'd rather avoid that issue thinking of having an 18-20year old to develop and bring up at 23-25 only for them to be 4years older and really spend your time with a 27-29year old rookie. who you pay when they are passing their prime. vs being in it. Craig Counsell would be in my management future as would a number of former ballplayers who thrived in the game on their smarts more than on talent. Scouts included if possible. Any former player who knows what the ML experience was about and seen players at their best to me are probably more likely to find that talent just on a vibe feeling alone vs. numbers. I would not spend my time making these players future bench coaches it would either be Scouts or manager.

In the years I've followed Baseball, what Bianchi did, is supposed to be rewarded with another Start, going with the hot bat. I will have a lot more faith in Roenicke if that happens tomorrow. If Weeks is in the Starting Lineup, forget it!

Nice Start. Top 4 on day 11-18...Everyone else 1-16 :/

I think Roenicke has it planned for him to only be out another .1 IP. The game will be over then.

Considering how the Brewers are trending. We are looking at everyday players Batting above .300 at: CF,RF,LF,3b,SS And Everyday players batting under .200 at 2b,1b,C, and of Course Pitchers. Is there any chance that has ever occured before in MLB history to be that extreme one way or another?