monty57

Also, I don't even think that Hunter Morris is a better hitter than Alex Gonzalez. Probably about the same in my mind. And he's 24 and considered by many to be our best, most polished hitting prospect. Speaks volumes for the farm system Melvin's built, doesn't it.

If the idea was that the in-house SP talent was good enough, then like I said initially, I think there's a problem in the current front office's ability to evaluate pitching talent. I think the original plan was to hold back on spending this offseason, to get through the payroll "hump" next year, after which we'd have a little payroll "breathing room." We could use this season as a testing ground for the MLB-inexperienced pitchers on their staff. If the stars aligned and everything went perfectly, they could squeak into the playoffs, but at least they'd be a fun team to watch with their exciting offense... the fans would buy into it. Unfortunately, like Pavlov and his dog, they have trained the Brewer fans that every offseason they'll get a "treat" (big, multi-year free agent signing) after which they go out and buy tickets. The same fans who drooled over Fielder, Weeks, etc coming up through the ranks now say "we can't trust a guy with no experience when we're going for it." This offseason, with no big money deals, tickets weren't selling as quickly as they'd like, so they panicked and guaranteed $20MM/year for the next few seasons for two non-star players. Immediately after signing Lohse, ticket sales jumped, so the move worked for the Brewers' main goal, it just cost them the "breathing room" in their payroll. The Brewers aren't about making moves that make the most "baseball sense," they're about making moves that the fans will percieve as "going for it," so they'll buy tickets. All other revenue streams are maxed, so they need to keep fans coming through the gates.

They gave him about four starts in the last week of February and the first week of March and he went 0-for-15 or something. He was interviewed saying he always starts that way before he locks in. He got a couple of hits in the final couple of games before he was demoted and Gonzalez started playing there nearly every day and was essentially christened the starter. Halton was brought back to the MLB camp late in ST to get some playing time, but Morris was out of camp early. I certainly wouldn't say he got "every chance to win the starting job." His start was similar Lucroy in the first four or five games this season. Anyone can go hitless for a few games, especially early in spring training, and even more especially when you've got some jitters playing with the MLB club for the first time. Making a judgement on the player based on a handful of PAs in February probably isn't the best way to rate the player. He certainly didn't "fail miserably." I've also read a few posts saying he's not hitting in Nashville (again a very small sample), but here's his line after a whopping five games: .200 avg / .400 OBP / .467 SLG / .867 OPS Just like the few spring training PA's, his AAA stat line after five games is not anything on which to judge a player, but I wouldn't call that line horrible. He's got five walks already, so (just a guess) it looks like maybe pitchers aren't giving him much to hit after he mashed the ball in his first game. endaround's post is really the only thing that puts any logic towards bringing Lalli up instead of Morris or Halton. The Brewers are going to need to free up a 40-man space, and they won't mind if they lose Lalli. Add him now and take him off when they need the spot. Lalli is a career minor leaguer (almost 30 years old with 15 MLB ABs) with a .772 OPS in 2,240 minor league ABs, so I can't believe that he's even an upgrade over Yuni Betancourt. He hit a little this spring, so of course Roenicke likes him, but really, he just gives the Brewers the option to play a platoon of two backup catchers at 1B.

Hart had the same injury he had the prior year. When he went in for a second opinion, the doctor said he should have a more invasive surgery, which would solve the problem, but would've cost him the whole season, so Hart went for the patchwork surgery he had the previous year. He's a timebomb waiting to explode, so whoever he plays for next year should expect him to miss a lot of time, and probably a full season at some point. I hope that team is not the Brewers. Braun always has injuries that take him out for a few days at a time. I don't expect that to change, and just hope that as he ages the "few days at a time" doesn't turn into "few weeks/months at a time." Ramirez was born on 6/25/1978. There are not many player in baseball that play into their mid-30's. The human body begins to wear down, so injuries become more likely. In the exact same situation, I highly doubt a 25-year-old Ramirez would've gotten injured on his slides. He's not 25 anymore. Segura was a bad situation, but was made worse by the poor throw by Betancourt (who should never have been our starting 1B). The throw made him extend into a defenseless position and we're very lucky he's just got a bruise. I thought he was out for the season when he went down. Rogers is wasting a 40-man space that should go to a useful player because they don't want to lose him, but didn't want to put him on the MLB team, so they put him on the DL with a "dead arm" when he couldn't throw a strike this spring. Who the heck knows what's going on with Bianchi and Green, other than the reports that they're not getting better. It's sad, but either one would be an upgrade to what we're throwing out at the corner IF spots right now.

The first base situation was easily rectified, as we have the #3 & 4 options in AAA. The problem is that Roenicke/Melvin decided to name a backup SS (who couldn't find a starting job in all of baseball) as the starting 1B, prompting the "need" to sign someone to be the backup SS (Betancourt), filling up the 40-man. Then they decided that they couldn't afford to lose Bianchi or Rogers, so they placed them on the DL, so we're in a position that we don't want to lose any of the remaining healthy guys on the 40 man, menaing that we can't make a move to add Morris or Halton. But again, that is simply looking at the "micro" issue... what Melvin could do right now. My bigger issue is that Melvin could have implemented a strategy over the past few years that wouldn't have left us with an inordinant amount of 30-somethings eating up most of our payroll with no depth or financial flexibility to help out. The Cards had a lot of injuries this spring, but they have a farm system to replace the injured guys. They were even willing to go with young pitching and an unproven, mediocre prospect like Kozma rather than panicking and veering from their plan... the one that keeps them relevant at the MLB level while maintaining a strong farm. Melvin decided to scrap that plan a few years ago, in order to open a "window" to be as good as possible over a short time frame. The window is closing and now people are getting upset when things are going wrong. Having the injuries pile up all at once makes everyone stand up and take notice, but I think we should expect injuries when we have so many older guys (over 30) on the team. We should expect injuries when Hart and Weeks are ticking time bombs for injuries, Braun has always had nagging injuries throughout his career, and Ramirez is ancient for a professional athlete. We've depleted the farm, but done almost nothing to replenish the farm for quite some time, so it should not be a surprise when we don't have top-tier guys ready to replace the injured players. With all of our money tied into aging position players, it should not be a surprise that we have questionable pitching in both the rotation and the bullpen. To add salt to the wounds, Hart and Ramirez were probably two of the biggest names that could've been traded this season, and now both of them have the "bad knee" label attached to them, so they have greatly diminished any value they may have had on the market. So, while people ask "what could Melvin have done in this instance," I say that I'm not too interested in any particular move. Look at the system from top to bottom. That is what Melvin should be graded on. I think that compared to teams like the Cardinals, the Melvin-built Brewer system is not looking good.

Why in hell do we have 13 pitchers? Well, it was supposed to be to protect Lohse, because they "didn't know what they had with him." Which, in itself is an interesting thought, since they just guaranteed $33MM to him, but ironically, he was the only pitcher who didn't need excess bullpen help behind him. Having 13 pitchers was probably a bad call from the get-go, but it's criminally insane at this point... except for the fact that our team-builder (Melvin) has put together a 40-man roster where our only position player options are outfielders and a guy who can only play 2B. We're not willing to lose anyone from the 40-man who is not injured, and I don't believe we can dump someone who's on the DL (like Bianchi or Rogers). One could argue that it's the guys on the DL who are limiting the flexibility, but Bianchi, Green and Rogers all could've been waived prior to going on the DL, but were placed there so we wouldn't lose them. Therefore, we're going to field a lineup consisting of a catcher, three shortstops, a second baseman and three center fielders with a two-or-three-man bench. Don't worry, it's only for fifteen games or so... roughly 10% of the season. Right now, I think Nashville would probably win a best-of-ten series against Milwaukee, but at least the paying customers of the Milwaukee Brewers will get to see Yuni make half-hearted attempts at fielding throws in his direction, while Gonzalez bats clean-up. The most exciting thing about watching the Brewers right now is seeing pseudo-prospects get their first MLB hits, and seeing tape-measure HRs off our BP bullpen.

Also, how did Ramirez initially injure his knee in ST this year and what has he been doing to take care of it since then? Ramirez injured his knee in a similar fashion (sliding) this spring. My concern was that after this second injury, he said that he didn't think the knee ever fully healed. That, to me, is a problem. Why in the heck didn't they just let him rest/re-hab/whatever the knee this spring to make sure it was fully healthy instead of rushing him back so that he'd be on the opening day roster? There really seems to be a mantra of "tickets sold is more important than anything" going on with the Brewers, and it's going to bite them hard pretty soon, if it hasn't already.

It stinks that all the injuries happened at once, but when the plan is to rely on a team full of 30-somethings, you should expect more injuries than if you have a team full of 20-somethings. This is compounded by the fact that the 30-somethings cost more, so all the payroll is tied up into a few players leaving less money for the other positions (like pitching). If those aging, expensive players get hurt or underperform, you're screwed. It's early, but the pitching so far is showing why some of us were willing to make some trades and sacrifice a few wins this year in order to restock for the near future. There were just too many question marks to think we had a good shot at making the playoffs this year, so it was a perfect year to "restock" and let the pitchers get some MLB time to see who sinks and who swims. We didn't and here we are. We go on and on arguing the "micro" issues. Melvin (or whoever made the decision) deserves blame for the "macro" decision to play for a "window" where we would be as good as possible for a few years, as opposed to trying to build a sustainably good team. He decided to emulate the Cubs of the 2000's instead of emulating the Cardinals, Rangers, Rays models of today. So yes, we should've called up Morris or Halton instead of naming Gonzalez the 1B and signing Yuni. But, we should've traded Hart last season, so this shouldn't have have been a knee-jerk reaction move. Our pitching stinks and we have an injured third baseman. Well, we had the opportunity to trade the aging Ramirez for MLB-ready pitching from the Dodgers last year and didn't. There are lots and lots of "micro" issues that have been debated ad nauseum on this site, but the main issue is that in aggregate, these micro issues add up to the fact that we have an aging, expensive group at the MLB level and a bottom-tier farm system. That rests solely on the shoulders of the general manager, who is charged with putting the system together.

Still they sure could use Gennett's bat off the bench. I'd send down Fiers, insert Narveson in his spot and bring up Scooter. They're contemplating skipping Fiers' next start anyway, due to all the off days. It would probably help him to get sent down and get regular starts, and the Brewers could probably get by with a four-man staff until there aren't so many off days (maybe giving Narveson or someone one start). The other option is to try and get a guy like Manzanillo through waivers and off the 40 man and bring up either Halton or Morris. Whatever they need to do, they need to do it. Morris or Halton should be on the MLB team right now. If it's been 15 days, could they take Bianchi off the DL (even if he's not healthy) and DFA him? I'm willing to lose a mediocre player right now if it means bringing up an actual first baseman to take over first base.

Well, for a bit of optimism... we've got the Cubs for the next three games. That's about all I've got.

If our top 5 CF all got hurt it would probably be a valid move to bring Kotsay back. We have had a major injury stack and any time that happens you are mostly screwed. We are in as bad a spot as the Yankees are for injuries at this point. Yeah, I just wish we had a first baseman at AAA we could call up. The decision to name Gonzalez the first baseman, and then make that so irrefutable that you sign Yuni to be the backup SS (for some reason Gonzalez couldn't come off first to backup SS) was a horrible idea. We had Halton or Morris who could've been added to the 40 man to play 1B while Hart was out. Yuni never had to be signed, as Gonzalez would've remained the utility IF. The injuries stink, and losing Hart, Ramirez and Braun is a tough nut to swallow, but we'd be in much better shape if they had just made the simple decision to let Morris or Halton play first. Of course, this illustrates how tying most of your money into a few high-priced, aging guys, leaving yourself with no financial flexibility, less-than-adequate role players and a poor farm system which is incapable of backing up the MLB roster can backfire, but we've been down that road all offseason. 30-somethings' bodies break down. We should get used to that with the 30-somethings on our roster, and we absolutely should not even think of extending Hart past this season, or this scenarion will be the norm far more than the exception.

Look on the bright side... at least he's not batting cleanup. No, Gonzalez is. That's not a joke... Alex Gonzalez is our cleanup hitter and Yuni Betancourt is our first baseman.

it is indeed josh prince. hope it's short term, with ramirez to the disabled list. not official yet. So that means Yuni is our everyday 1B and Gonzalez is our everyday 3B for the foreseeable future.

From that link: Placing first-baseman Corey Hart on the 60-day disabled list may be the only option for the club. This would allow players not currently on the 40-man roster to be called up to help with the Brewers’ bench I would think that putting Bianchi or Green on the 60-day DL would also be options. Plus, bringing Morris up wouldn't be done to "help with the Brewers' bench," as I'd assume he'd be the starting 1B. At least, I'd hope they wouldn't bring him up to sit the bench while Yuni manned 1B every day. On a side note, it would be really nice if Gennett could play somewhere other than 2B.

Basically three cases: 1) It turns out to be "nothing," he's day to day and back in the lineup soon. 2) It's similar to what he did this spring, which was also classified as a "knee sprain," he hits the 15-day DL and will be back at 100% in two weeks. 3) He's out for the season. I'm hoping for #1, expecting #2 and praying it's not #3.

If we have to go with a lineup of: Aoki, Segura, Weeks, Gonzalez, Lucroy, Gomez, Davis, Betancourt, pitcher for any extended period, the name "Brewers" will be a whipping boy pretty soon. I'm waiting to hear the status of Braun and Ramirez, but injuries could kill us.

I'm not a big fan of Gomez's extension, but if he is going to be a good, everyday player, I think it's going to be because he's the player he always has been, with the addition of 20+ HR/year. I just believe that expecting him to start taking a lot of walks and becoming an OBP threat is expecting him to be something he is not, and could just take away from what could actually make him a valueable player. He's an exciting but frustrating player who will be a decent option at CF for the next few seasons. The reason I'm not a fan of the extension is because the only real "glut" of talent we have for position players in the high minors is in the OF.

I hope and pray that Braun will be back in the lineup today. Even so, replacing Ramirez and Hart with Gonzalez and Yuni makes our offense pretty pedestrian.

Injuries may dictate otherwise. If Ramirez is "day-to-day" and doesn't go on the 15 day DL, I couldn't see them play with a three-man bench. Especially when that bench would be two OF and one C.

Davis looks overwhelmed right now. He's not major league ready. He certainly looked bad, but that may have been nerves, as he was jumping at pitches out of the zone. Hopefully with a start under his belt he'll calm down a little. I'd be surprised if Braun isn't in the starting lineup today, especially if Ramirez can't go.

Yeah, a lot probably rides on how close Green is to being ready. If he's only out another couple of days, they might go with Yuni at 1B, Gonzalez at 3B for a couple of games. Of course, you'd think Green would need at least a few games in the minors to get "up to speed," so maybe this isn't a really good option. I think you're onto something with Prince. He came up as a SS, so in this less-than-ideal situation, they may bring him up to fill in all over the infield. Again I'll reiterate how much I hope Ramirez is okay. We have to get some news prior to today's game, as they can't go into the game with potentially a two-man bench.

So, what do we do if Ramirez has to go to the DL? I'd imagine Yuni/Gonzalez would play 3rd, but who do we call up? It would make sense to bring up Halton or Morris, but then how do we free up a 40 man spot? The only non-injured position players on the 40 man are Gennett, Gindl and Prince. None of these guys fill our need, as they'd mean we'd be starting Yuni at first and Gonzalez at 3rd every night. I'd imagine either someone (Bianchi, Green or Hart) would get moved to the 60 day, or Bianchi would get taken off the 40-man. I really hope Ramirez is able to play. That's not an injury we can take at this time.

You had me at 'get rid of Yuni'. I agree. Honestly, he's a 24 year old 1B. If you don't preserve his option years, you'd have until his age-28 season to send him up and down. If you can't make the big leagues by 28, barring fluke, you're not valuable. I also think it could help his development out. He'd likely be exposed a little bit, but he would be able to see loud and clear that his plate discipline needs work. He can watch tape, go back to AAA where he'll be fine when Hart returns and work on getting better. Then in 2014 the learning curve shouldn't be as steep. Well put Rams. That's why I think it's borderline criminal that Morris isn't starting in Milwaukee right now. That said, it's good to see him (and many others) start the season strong. Here's to winning 2013 seasons for all teams in the Brewers' system.

More than anything, Rogers has to get his walks down. With the way he looked this spring, and the facts that he has no options remaining and we have a lot of near-MLB-ready starting pitchers, I doubt he'll ever get another chance as a starter with the Brewers. Since he may be destined for the pen, I hope they treat him like a reliever and don't make him the "long man." It would be good to see how he performs when he can go all-out in one inning. If he can stay heatlhy and if he gains some control, he could be looked at as a "high-leverage reliever" in the future. That's a lot of "ifs," but it's probably the best we can hope for.

Players like the "closer" tag because it gets them more money. If Axford was a "relief pitcher" and not a "closer," he would have made around $1MM instead of $5MM in his first year of arby. "Saves" may be hated by stat guys, but they're loved by agents, and I think teams are bullied by the union with threats of grievances if top relievers aren't given the opportunity to rack up saves. When I saw a shaky Axford this spring (with Canada and the Brewers), I hoped (but didn't expect) Melvin to try to trade him to Detroit when they were begging for a "closer." I've seen too many flash in the pan guys come from nowhere, put up a good season or two in the middle of their prime and then implode, to have a lot of faith that Axford would be at the top of his game for too much longer. Of course he wasn't traded, so now Roenicke's kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place... leave the high-priced closer in and look like a fool if he continues to stink, or replace the high priced closer and look like a fool if the next guy stinks. All along getting blamed that your decisions (leaving him in or taking him out) is what's causing the problems. But, as much as people say that closers aren't important and aren't worth the money, if Axford doesn't get it together or if we don't find someone to fill the role, we will not be in the playoffs in 2013. Because the Brewers know this, I'd guess he'll get another handful of chances before he gets "demoted" to mop-up duty for a while. I'd guess that if that happens, we'd go with a matchup-based "closer by committee" for a while, hoping Axford gets his "three great innings" as SoupTown puts it. If Axford still can't "find it" after a few outings, someone else will be named "closer." While we don't have "proven" arms in the 'pen, we do have some good arms in the 'pen, so we should be able to find someone who can stick.