SoCalBrewfan

Maybe I should start speaking Chinese so you understand clearer. What you should do is start being nice. This sort of response is not acceptable.

In additon, even if they were going to have Koskie, why not have gone with Hall at 2nd and Rickie Weeks in the outfield? I think a lot of people here advocated keeping Hall in the infield...I know I supported that proposition. In fact I was in support of him over Hardy at shortstop. But I was surprised to see the suggested move of Weeks to the OF...that's been discussed, but there's some retroactive assumptions about Weeks that might not be warranted. I think this quote points out what my beef is, though perhaps splitter's original is more appropriate. As Splitter points out, the overwhelming consensus was that Weeks and especially Braun would not have the chops to play the IF at the major league level. It's fair to say that the Brewers were the just about the only ones who saw Braun as a major league 3b. However, I don't think there was the same 'overwhelming consensus' about Weeks. Weeks was a much less developed talent, coming from a small school (Southern U) without a big baseball profile, and having been barely recruited out of high school. He played SS and OF in college before ending up at 2B, and was viewed as very raw defensively, but I recall a sense that his tools were more than adequate for second. Most of the focus was on his bat, to be sure, and certainly there were those who saw him as a potential CF, but if there was an overwhelming consensus that he couldn't play the IF at the major league level, it escaped my notice. (And I followed the draft pretty heavily at the time.) Or we can look back to one of our own...colbyjack's summary after Weeks signed: http://www.brewerfan.net/ViewArticle.do?articleId=154 Colby's always had a good handle on scouting perspectives, and his writeup is consistent with my recollection that Weeks was viewed as having the tools to play 2B. Both Weeks and Braun were so accomplished with the bat that they advanced to the majors before their defense was ready. Both struggled in the IF, and it may be that they end up in the OF together at some point, because it's difficult to wait around for a guy to improve his defense when the games count and the team expects to win. There may be other reasons to advocate Weeks in CF as well; it may help him focus on his offense, for example, though the Bill Hall experiment suggests it may not be so simple. Weeks also has been somewhat brittle, and 2B is a position that gets banged around a bit. But I don't think that it's accurate to put him in the same category as Braun...that is, as a guy everyone else had pegged as an OF but the Brewers. (If someone can show me otherwise I'll be glad to recant, and I'll check old BA books when I get home.)

The Brewers chose in the Sexson deal to get multiple players who were major league ready and yet cost-controlled, rather than two or three hot prospects who carried more risk but also more potential reward. There are tradeoffs to the two approaches, and at the time I favored getting two or three prospects. As I recall, the main competition to the AZ offer was a Dodger package of some combination of Hanrahan, Jackson, or Miller. Those guys were close to scrap heap level value a year ago...Jackson has emerged in Tampa this year and is still very young, but it's an open question whether he would have had any success with the Brewers. In retrospect, that Dodger deal would probably have been a disaster. would you consider a career backup catcher, 2 mediocre infielders, a minor league pitcher with not much upside, a #3 starter and an average first baseman good value for [Prince Fielder] First off, Prince looks to be better than Sexson at comparable ages, so this is not a particularly valid comparison IMO. There are differences between the 03 Brewers and what is the likely fate of the current team that make the comparison even less apt. But beyond that, I think you are not valuing these players properly...or maybe you were overestimating the value of one year of Richie Sexson (plus the possibility of two draft picks). Overbay was only a little less productive than Sexson, under Brewers control for several years, and a lot cheaper. You could easily argue that Overbay alone was worth one year of Sexson. Of course O ultimately had a couple of good years then brought Bush, Gross, and Jackson in a trade. You dismissively point to a '#3 starter' as though that's of little value. Even an average starting pitcher has a lot of value (see the current Brewers if you doubt that claim), and Capuano was a legitimate all-star at one point, also under control for multiple years and at a bargain price. He has returned more value than all three of the Dodger pitchers combined thus far. Spivey was an adequate patch, and got us another average starter in Ohka. Counsell doesn't look like much at first glance, but was basically an average player due to his defense and OBP at short. De la Rosa we all saw up close...I don't think it's accurate to say that he didn't have much upside. Rather he was risky but with some upside...most thought he'd be at least a good reliever. He got us Graffanino for whatever that's worth. There is a very good reason that fancy baseball stats compare players to replacement level. For a team like the Brewers circa 03, lacking in talent and needing to fill many holes, an average player has value because he keeps someone truly crappy out of the starting lineup. Such a trade would not make sense for the current Brewers, as they have young major leaguers at numerous positions, and are a much better team overall.

I disagree with the contention that he didn't have a plan, at least initially. The plan when he came in was to cash in the infield surplus to improve the pitching staff and bring in a defensive catcher (Henry Blanco) to 'stop the track meet on the basepaths.' Along with that they gave jobs to Loretta and Belliard and signed Jose Hernandez. In principle, dealing vets and giving jobs to talented youngsters isn't a bad idea, and they dealt from their strength to address the weakness on the pitching staff. As noted, however, they gutted the team OBP and brought in pitchers with terrible peripherals, and utterly failed to evaluate talent correctly. It was a plan, just horribly executed, and one that a bunch of stat nerds in their basements identified as flawed. They went from 8th in runs scored and 14th in runs allowed to 13th in runs scored and 10th in runs allowed...worse than merely treading water. They gutted a league average offense, falling to dead last in OBP, in order to save 60 runs, bringing in pitchers who were not much better than replacement level, and worse in some cases. Then after that plan failed, they had another plan, which involved bringing in someone to score more runs, because the offense was terrible. (Wonder why?) Cue J. Hammonds. [Ominous music plays.] The offense was better, mostly because they got Sexson in a major fleecing, assuredly the high point of the Taylor regime, and dumped Grissom for Devon White. White and Tyler Houston had last gasps of productivity but were clearly not long term solutions...those acquisitions represent clear failures to understand the success cycle. Either guy could have helped a contender, but who cares if you get a solid year from a 30-plus-year-old veteran on a 68-win team? They needed to bring in young talent, since there was none in the farm system, and recognize that they weren't a guy or two away from the playoffs. Thus a few years later the patches over the biggest holes had failed, and the guys with promise for a better future were almost gone. The Burnitz trade was more of the same, and Eric Young and John VanderWal surely weren't going to be the part of the future.

McClung has done ok in his current role, I guess...his 31 innings in Milwaukee at 115ish ERA+ is better than I ever expected. I don't have a lot of optimism about him as a starter though....I'd think you'd keep him in the one role where he's had anything like major league success in the hopes that he can become a valuable reliever. I guess they feel like they have to do something, but this looks like flailing around aimlessly to me...

Criminy, I forgot about the Burnitz trade and Eric Young. Now I need a drink.

Dean Taylor admitted he wasn't a talent evaluator when he took the job. Then he proved it. He turned Jeff Cirillo and Scott Karl into Jimmy Haynes, Jamey Wright, and Henry Blanco. He turned Jose Valentin and Cal Eldred into 175 innings of 6+ ERA, in the person of John Snyder and what was left of Jamie Navarro. He turned Fernando Vina into Juan Acevedo...that was the best of the three deals by far, as Acevedo later turned into DeJean, who then (sadly) turned into Crudale. The three infielders we dealt were 29, 29, and 30, and though their replacements had their merits (home grown players Belliard and Loretta, and free agent Jose Hernandez), each turned in some very good years after leaving Milwaukee. You should deal from strength to address weaknesses, so dealing infielders was wise. The talent that came back was not good, though, and that's not just speaking with the benefit of hindsight...Haynes and Wright were perfect illustrations of the value of peripheral numbers in assessing pitchers. Despite the occasional raves about their stuff, neither guy could strike out anybody. Wright had one year with ERA+ of 111, and as noted Acevedo had some value, but aside from that we got several hundred innings of replacement level pitching for three infielders that were good hitters and defenders. Oh, we did get Henry Blanco as well. Given the financial constrainst, giving up solid talent for a lot of crap in those deals sank the team for years to come, IMO. So yeah, he was that bad. In his defense, he wasn't Sal Bando bad.

He's just your classic 1b/CF guy. Just like....um....Darrin Erstad and Cesar Cedeno? Can't think of any others...but Prince could probably do it, too, perhaps you've seen the way he seems to glide to the ball. I know the corner guys would defer to him rather than risk collisions... I will be fascinated to see how Brantley turns out...and there's no way I'll try to guess any further because he's already defied my expectations.

I wonder what it says that I knew which one it was...Jake Arrieta, drafted out of a tiny JC, opted to go to TCU?

Sadly, this situation is just what I was worried about last offseason. It was clear that Yost would start off on a short leash, and seemed likely that any early struggles by the team would simply increase the pressure on Yost. While I am not sure what a manager can and cannot do, I have to think that the atmosphere in the clubhouse has to be pretty tense right now. Everybody watching this team is wondering about Yost and whether he'll be canned, and every loss, every bullpen meltdown, every throwing error just increases the hue and cry. At this point Yost has become a distraction, and he's got the look of a lame duck to me. (From afar, I should add...I've been too busy to follow very closely of late.) I don't pretend to have insider information about who on the team does or doesn't like him, but my gut feeling is that the team is letting him twist a bit and waiting for the axe to fall. Whatever else players have said, has any of them come forward to say they support Yost? The JS writers have been increasingly snide in their remarks about him, and so I suspect that TH jumped the gun because he felt this was the confirmation of what everybody close to the team suspects is coming sooner or later. Everybody thinks it is inevitable now, so let's get 'er done, to use a Nedly-like expression, and see whether the season can be salvaged. It might not be fair to Yost, but he's had more than his share of leash already, and sometimes these changes just get made for the sake of change. Since I think the team has been underperforming their talent level, there's a pretty good bet that Ned's replacement will preside over some improvement, almost regardless of what he does or doesn't do. Thus a potentially attractive gig, I'd think...young talent just waiting to bust loose.

The only thing I can figure is that they are bring up guys who can provide a lot of bullpen innings, which seems like a reasonable guess given how taxed the pen has been and the possibility of some blowouts at the hands of the Red Sox. DeFelice is stretched out as a starter, and Jackson hasn't been relieving for all that long, so can presumably go multiple innings as well if needed. That and he uses his left hand I guess, and Ned seems to want a lefty. Had Stetter not suddenly lost the strike zone I doubt Jackson would have been under consideration, but they couldn't exactly trust Stetter to put out fires in his current state. On the other hand, while Stetter obviously has some figuring to do, I do expect him to be back some day. I haven't had much regard for Jackson in the past, but he'll certainly be given a chance to prove us all wrong. Perhaps the switch to the pen will do him good?

Laporta's SLG is 700-something now...18 extra base hits vs. 11 singles on the year. Good heavens.

A 1976 Ford Granada. Two-door...not a lot of room in the back for passengers or what-have-you.

'd like to see him maybe adapt a few stories for a change. He'd be well suited to remaking the Quatermass series, for example. He is slated to directed the live-action adaptations of the Nick animated series Avatar: the Last Airbender...my son is a fan and I've become somewhat hooked myself. I think the first comes out in 2009 or 2010. The vision and writing of the animated series are very strong IMO, and the co-creators are apparently very involved with the cinematic adaptations. I am hopeful that having good source material to work from will free MNS to do what he does well. Because, yeah, his writing has become increasingly strained from what I can see, well beyond the point where it made any sense.

How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

Stetter for the old school 3 inning save? He's in line for the W...

Yeah, that'll do, Prince.

With respect to the lefty we lost in the Linebrink trade, Mitch Stetter says, with all due respect, Joe Who?

Alcides Escobar with his second home run? That's already more than last year, and ties his career high. Very interesting.

Forgive me, SeriesFinale...you have fallen into the sarchasm.

Well, who would pitch to Molina with first base open?

Hernan was converted to CF in the offseason, so presumably that's the plan.

I thought I had read somewhere that the game was over. Go figure.

First of all, please play nicely here. The error count by itself is not really a good indicator of his eventual promise as a shortstop, and it's premature to state without qualification that he won't be a shortstop. Young infielders often make a lot of errors in the low minors, where fields and first basemen are often not quite up to major league standards. A guy with good range and a strong arm will often make lot of throwing errors, but it is possible to improve upon that with time and repetitions. As noted, Derek Jeter made 56 errors in the Sally league as a nineteen-year-old (1993). Omar Vizquel, eventually a multiple gold glove winner, made 24 errors in 60 games his first two seasons. Bill Hall made 38 errors in 65 games in rookie-league Ogden, then 40 errors in low A ball...he even made 41 in AAA. Eric Chavez, eventually a gold glover at 3b, made 32 errors in 118 games at age 19. Adrian Beltre, another GG, 37 errors in 121 games at age 18. That's not to say that Brewers can or cannot eventually be a major league shortstop...just that high error totals are not the sole determinant of fielding promise. Some scouts have suggested moving him to CF, apparently, but the Brewers still feel he can stick at short. That will play itself out over time, but there's really little sense of urgency at this point, when he's so young and far from the majors. Yes, Brewer has a lot to learn...but that's what the minors are for.

I understand the minor league chances, but he had chances to establish himself in Milwaukee? He pitched 8 1/3 innings in 8 games. I suppose you're trying to pick apart the phrase 'chances in the majors and AAA to establish himself as a reliable reliever.' I will cheerfully concede that I could have worded that more clearly...but I stand behind the point. I'm not arguing that he had an extended major league shot, but that between the majors and the high minors, and even spring training, the team gave him ample opportunities to demonstrate that he could put things together. The team saw him up close for two years in AAA, after two years in AA, with the brief Milwaukee appearance plus spring training games, and obviously didn't like what it saw. It was clearly to everybody what Sarfate's weaknesses were. He had some success in his second season in AA, but overall he was walking five guys per nine innings in the minors...for the 2007 season, when the Brewers desperately needed relievers, his walk rate was almost 7 per 9 innings. While I rooted for the guy all along, there's no way I would claim that his '07 season indicated that he was ready to help a contending team in the bullpen. If that was because he was bored, or disillusioned, well, I gotta say that the mental game is important for baseball players...short relievers in particular. Also what Crew07 said.