monty57

Even if you don't want to reward all the players with good years, I think Gamel is the most important, especially if you're planning on him being a part of the future. Exactly. Who cares if Almonte and Boggs are upset with the Brewers. They can find another team to play AAA with. If Gamel is indeed part of the future, then we should care about his feelings toward the organization.

I think we still need to maintain continuity of what got us here. Putting Narveson in the bullpen and giving a bunch of kids a bunch of starts could backfire on us, either through complacency or just simply throwing players "off." However, I don't see the harm of bringing up Gamel, maybe another bullpen arm in case of extra inning games, and maybe a starter who could get one start to line up the playoff rotation.

If it's all about chemistry, then won't team chemistry matter next year? Would the negative effect of having one additional player sitting on the bench this year outweigh the negative effect of having your potential starting 2012 1B upset with the organization? I hope he is in the Brewers' future plans, and I hope this move doesn't make him do whatever he can to "demand" a trade (since he can't actually demand a trade). We heard how much it would hurt the chemistry to have Green anywhere near Milwaukee, but that doesn't seem to be much of a problem. I think a lot of this has to do with a comment I made in a different thread. Roenicke has a weird methodology of valuation, and part of it seems to be that he doesn't care about what a player does before he sees him. Roenicke didn't give a rat's behind about Taylor Green, and continually trotted McGehee out no matter how bad he was, because he was "his only option." He then didn't play Green for about a week. Then, Green got a couple of hits, and now he's getting starts and seems to be our #1 pinch hitter. Not because of his Fielder-esque AAA season, but because he went 3-for-3 in his first few MLB PAs. If he had gone 0-for-3 I have little doubt that he'd ride the pine the rest of the year. Now he could probably go 0-for-20 and he'd still get starts. Gamel also had a tremendous AAA season (and has continually proven he can hit in the minors), but he didn't hit well when Roenicke gave him a few PAs earlier this season. Therefore, he has no chance of helping this Brewers team. I know calling players up, etc should be on Melvin, but I think Roenicke has a lot of say on who's on the 25-man. There have been a lot of examples which would seem to illustrate this point, and even Bill and Brian have made numerous comments to the likes of "Roenicke doesn't want him sent down," "Roenicke wants him up."

Green got a hit in his first PA, so he moved ahead of Kotsay. He got a hit in his second PA, so he's moving up further. Gamel didn't hit well in a few PAs, so he's in the doghouse. Morgan has been better than Kotsay for years, but was behind him on the depth chart until he hit out of his mind for a week or two. Loe pitched well early on, and was cemented into the "8th inning guy" role, while Saito pitched bad in his first two outings and got hurt, so he was behind Loe on the depth chart. Nieves had a good spring, so he was on the roster for way longer than he ever should have been. It seems for Roenicke, what you do prior to him personally seeing you is irrelavent. What you do in your first week or two is extremely important. Once he has his mind set on you (from the initial few PAs), it is very hard to change that opinion.

Once Weeks gets back, bat him & Hart 1/2, let Hairston get a lot of starts at SS, and pepper in some starts for Green at 3B, and we'll have a pretty good offense going forward. Weeks will be a big boost to our team, and he can't get back quick enough. We should probably give Lucroy some rest as well. He starts 80% of the games and comes off the bench in the other 20% as soon as Wolf leaves the game. That's awful tough work for a catcher.

We're not debating whether it not it will but whether or not it should. And yes, it definitely should happen. I know this is just one incidence, but it's not an isolated incidence. Tonight, on a seemingly routine weak-hit grounder to the left side of second, the kind most SS make, Yuni wasn't within five feet of the ball. That's not news to most Brewers fans, but Hairston was able to get to the ball. I don't think there's a question that Hairston has far more range than Yuni, and he should certainly play some SS when Weeks is back, but I doubt he will. Roenicke's logic for not playing Green tonight was "we've lost three in a row, so I want to go with the starters." Prior to that, it was "we're playing well, so we don't want to rock the boat and destroy team chemistry." Basically, whatever the convenient excuse, Roenicke is going to play his guys, and Yuni and McGehee are his guys.

A rawbecht said, Gamel will get the call in a few days. However, don't expect him to get any playing time. On the positive side, it will be nice for Taylor Green to have someone to talk to on the bench.

Wouldn't that be something if Gamel & Green aren't even thought of enough to include them on the playoff roster over guys like Counsell, Wilson and Kotsay, but then they are {potentially} expected to be starting for the team in key offensive positions for a playoff run in 2012. Roenicke's a big "team chemistry" guy, so how is the team chemistry going to be next year when Gamel and Green think the organization stinks?

He was brought up before the deadline in case someone gets hurt for the playoffs. If someone got hurt, Green could have replaced them for the playoffs whether he was on the 25-man or not. this isn't a hard one to predict Sadly, you're right. If the Brewers weren't going to sit McGehee when he was hitting in the .400 - .500 OPS range, they certainly aren't going to sit him now, and if they played Lopez, Counsell and Wilson at 2B, they must not think Green's good enough at 2B to play in Weeks' absence "The last piece to a World Series" talk was highly exaggerated I certainly wouldn't say Green was the last piece to a World Series run, but I think he was put on the roster so that if they make the World Series, they would have a better option for DH. It's just a shame that if that occurs he will only have had a handful of PAs in a month and a half unless Roenicke shows more willingness to at least give him a pinch hit opportunity every now & then. So, while Green's banishment to the bench was easily predictable, I wish it weren't. He at least deserves some starts and to be above Counsell (and Kotsay, but I won't wish for too much) on the LH pinch hitting depth chart.

I'm not so sure anyone views him as a starting SS at this point I'm pretty sure there's no one in our organization who anyone considers a starting SS at this point. I'm sure Hairston would have more range than Yuni, so the big thing would be if he has the arm strength to play SS (and if he can play 3B, then he should have the arm to play SS). I'm with burnzy... if Hairston can at least match Yuni's low standard for SS defense, then I'd at least split starts between Hairston and Yuni at SS once Gomez and Weeks return.

but RR should be looking for offense options now before the playoffs begin. Any offensive option would now have to be someone who was on the 25-man or DL prior to Sept 1. We will be helped when Weeks and Gomez come back, and that help will be compounded if Roenicke decides to give Hairston starts at SS once he's no longer needed at 2B/CF. Outside of that, the only real chance of an upgrade we can now make is to start giving Taylor Green some starts. Well, either that or start playing Greinke or Yo at SS.

I've always liked Katin, but I think his best bet will be to look elsewhere. The Brewers have had opportunities to bring him up in the past and have passed. Now that we've got some younger OFs moving up in the system, I don't see Katin ever getting MLB time with the Crew. I could see them bringing Narron back if he'll sign another minor league deal, although 2011 may have been his best shot at getting in the MLB rotation, and they chose Estrada and de la Cruz instead. Next year, more of our young starters would pass him up, so he may want to go to a team that would get him a better chance at the bigs. Guys like Boggs and Mike Rivera are good to have at AAA just in case, but certainly not worth a 40-man spot. All in all, if we lost everyone on that list, I don't think we'd be hurt too badly.

but I would like to see Josh wilson DFA'd I would've liked that for most of the season, but now all it would do is limit the number of players we have available for the playoff roster. If we were going to get rid of him, we would've done it prior to Aug 31.

Maybe this Cardinals series will be a wake up call that the 2011 Brewers are not so good that they cannot be improved. There seems to be a belief that since they're winning we shouldn't do anything to rock the boat. Maybe we can get a positive out of a losing series... any time you can improve your starting roster, do it.

You could be right that is what they are thinking but it is utter nonsense. Yes it is. I can't find the article I read a week or so ago of Roenicke's musings on the call-ups, but he didn't want too many people called up. He said something along the lines of "maybe a base-stealer, a defensive replacement" and I swear I remember him saying something that insinuated that having too many kids in the clubhouse could ruin the team chemistry. (Which is funny because Gamel is almost as old as many of the core guys on our team) I agree with you that simply "being there" for a pennant race would be a good experience for some of our prospects, even if they don't play much. For guys like Green, he should be playing because he's a good option for 3B, and the extra bullpen arms could come in handy if we get into some extra-inning games. We don't need to bring fifteen guys up, but for a team that has complained in the past about being at a disadvantage because other teams have more players available, it seems odd that we wouldn't give ourselves the advantage this year.

Yuni (.646 OPS) has played in 129 games and McGehee (.644 OPS) 132. The only player with more games played is Fielder (.947 OPS) at 137. None of the three plays good defense, but one of those three deserves to start everyday, can you guess which?

Who were the other guys on the list, the Appleton bat boy and the Huntsville mascot? It's kind of hard to believe that it took the Mets months to decide on this haul.

I've been on Melvin for not "selling" the past couple of years, but it really seems like the trade deadline has become quite the buyer's market. I understand the Brewers took on risk in the K-Rod deal, but the Mets basically gave him to the Brewers just to save salary. Good trade Doug.

I agree with you JB, but I really think the Brewers are big on the team chemistry thing. They think playing young players over vets will ruin team chemistry and they believe having a bunch of young guys clogging up the clubhouse would be bad for team chemistry.

Schafer's moved up pretty quickly this year. It will be interesting to see what their plans are for CF in the future, with Gomez and Morgan both "Brewers property" as well. Having a 3rd catcher is pretty important for this team as well, since Roenicke has no problem subbing in the backup mid-game. I would have to imagine that Gamel will get called up, or else I'm really off on my belief that he's our starting 1B next year. Scarpetta is a good guess, since we need to see what he's got at the MLB level in case the 4th option isn't granted. The Brewers have stated that they aren't going to bring many players up, so maybe another pitcher in case they get in an extra inning game.

McGehee certainly seems to be a well-liked player, so there is some chance that his teammates would be upset if he were replaced. On the flip side, I'm sure everyone in the locker room know that Casey's not playing well, so there may be some players who are upset that he's not sitting more often. We will never know that, and as danzig said, "managing the egos" is a difficult thing and something to which the fans aren't privy. I've always been a proponent of starting Green slowly in some sort of a "soft platoon." I can't imagine the team would be in an uproar if Green got two starts a week for the struggling McGehee, as this is MLB baseball, and very few players deserve the "must play everyday" status. If Green gets a couple starts a week and plays well, helping the team to win, then I would guess that many of the other players would be glad Green is playing well. Really, this has seemed obvious for quite a while. In a soft platoon, if one of the players plays really well, then that player gets more playing time. If they both play well, then that's really great. If they both bomb, then we aren't any worse off than we would've been anyway. I think today would be an ideal time to start Green, as it's a day game, and he's riding high after getting his first MLB hit last night.

Well, they probably also wanted to get more talented players on their team to try to make the playoffs and did it now so that the better players would be on their playoff rosters. Interesting side: If a player is DFA'd after Sept 1, and the team makes the playoffs, who can they use on their playoff roster (assuming they didn't have a DL guy to add)?

I agree that he's worse than what we have, and even if we wanted him for the playoff roster, we would have to trade for him, which means we would end up having to pay the remainder of his salary (which was a 1 yr/$6.5MM deal).

Proof that some teams with playoff aspirations dump underperforming veteran players even when they owe them money. Interesting that this is done right before playoff rosters are set, so any playoff team would have to trade for them, and couldn't simply wait 10-days to pick them up. The Giants are obviously hoping someone will take the salary off their hands.

Why don't we worry about next year's roster ideas after this year? Enjoy it! I am enjoying it. However, I'm naturally wired to live in the present while looking to the future. The two aren't mutually exclusive. Plus, in a thread about Taylor Green, well, he's a big part of the future, and I hope he isn't relegated to a AAA/bench role when he's better than the MLB player in front of him for the rest of his career. The Yankees can bring in an Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixiera when they need 1B/3B. The Brewers have to rely on their farm to fill those roles, and Roenicke hasn't seemed like a manager who puts a lot of faith in guys withour MLB experience.