monty57

But Wilson's a gritty player who's paid his dues, so he can do anything the coach asks of him. Meanwhile, Green's experience with playing both 2B & 3B and his ability to actually hit have all been in in the minors and therefore mean nothing. [/blue] Green has more use for the Brewers today than Gamel, so if it's an either/or situation I'd rather see Green brought up. He has to be able to play 2B/3B at least as well as Lopez, who has never been known to be a good fielder, even when he was younger and faster. Therefore, I'd be fine with Lopez going away in place of Green. However, I don't see it as an eiter/or situation at this point. Other than laying down a sac bunt, Wilson has no value to this team, and even though the monumental hitless streak is over, Counsell still can't hit. Therefore, I would be happy to have Gamel replace one of these two. At this point, Counsell's probably going to stick around, and I guess at least he can play defense. If both Gamel & Green were brought up, we would still have three players who could play SS (Yuni, Hairston and Counsell/Wilson), three who could play 2B until Weeks returns (Hairston, Green, Counsell/Wilson) and four who play 3B (McGehee, Hairston, Green, Counsell/Wilson). Depth really isn't a concern, so having a couple of real bats on the bench and possibly limiting the damage McGehee's doing to the everyday lineup would be nice.

It's been a long time since I read it, but my recollection of the Fielder section read something along the lines of "a player so fat even Beane wouldn't draft him, and that's saying a lot." I believe the author ripped the Brewers as a team that always screws up drafts, so it made sense to him that the Brewers would be the ones to draft Prince. Just my opinion, but in the current market, it appears to me that the overvalued category would include "team control." I love prospects, and teams like the Brewers need to have "cheap" players, but when MLB MVP candidates aren't worth a top 10 prospect, they're probably overvalued. Team control seems to be worth more than talent in some cases. Melvin seems to be bucking this trend this year, so we'll see if it works. And seeing as how the A's dont even merit a blip on the radar, was his method of scouting rendered useless because of the books success or was the method an anomaly to begin with? To be able to field a competitive team on Oakland's budget is impressive, but I do wonder how much was methodology and how much was "luck" in getting Mulder, Hudson and Zito all through the system at the same time and how much was steroids with Giambi, Conseco, Tejada, McGwire, etc. Steroids add power, but they don't add plate discipline, so finding guys with good plate discipline played well in the steroids era. That said, the methodology certainly wasn't "rendered useless," as Moneyball exposed Beane's methodology and SABRmetrics to those who previously didn't want to hear it. Statistical study has been around a long time, but Moneyball made it so public that it's now pretty difficult for anyone in baseball to disregard it. I wouldn't say it revolutionized baseball, but it did speed up the revolution. It led to a lot of heated battles, but I believe most teams have now realized the value to utilizing both SABR studies and scouting. And, yes, it's probably caused a lot of GMs to go out of their way to find the market inefficiencies.

Props to Estrada. He did much better than I would have expected after not having started in a couple of months. He seems to be nice insurance as a SP, and has come up big in the few occasions he's been needed.

I agree theavrock. I just wonder if it's Melvin, Roenicke or both. Much of the Brewers' roster is home-grown, and most got starting gigs early on, so Melvin has shown in the past that he'd play rookies. The Green situation this season is just wierd, and I have to wonder if it's all Melvin or if he's staying down at the "request" of Roenicke.

Counsell now has two hits in the past week and Kotsay had an RBI in the first inning yesterday while filling in for Braun (and of course hitting #3), so they're all but cemented onto the roster. If we added a Morneau-type bat off the bench, he'd be our 3rd PH option. Kidding aside, I highly doubt we touch Overbay. God forbid something happen to Fielder, I'd rather have Gamel called up.

I never liked them putting Estrada in the 'pen after his decent start to the season, as he was our best choice as a "#6 starter." Now that he's been in the 'pen for months, I'd go with de la Cruz because he's stretched out and having a decent season. As for Green, I think he certainly would have helped the team, even if it were only as PT 3B and "Counsell replacement." I don't know about five wins, but he would probably have helped.

Any division win would be wonderful, but if I had the choice, I'd like to see them end the season with a 10+ game lead on everyone in the division. Seeing the Cardinals collapse would be great. Plus, my heart would thank me if I didn't add the stress of a down-to-the-wire race.

This is why I wanted to see them keep Carroll and dump Counsellor or Wilson. In Roenicke's eyes, Hairston has replaced Gomez, and no one else's roles have changed. While he should start every day at multiple positions, he will be relegated to being the small part of the CF platoon.

Hart is streaky, but his bad is .750 OPS and his good is .900+ OPS. Casey's bad is .600 OPS and his good is .800+ OPS. Rickie and Hart should be somewhere in the 1, 2 or 5 spots. If one is 1 and one is 5 (with CF 2), then Casey should be 6. Rickie may need a couple of games down in the order, but he should be moved back up pretty quickly.

Hart got hurt early in Spring Training, so he hadn't really seen much pitching since 2010. Rickie will have some rust, but he's had 469 PAs this season, so he should be able to shake it off pretty quickly. Throw him in the water and let him swim.

I don't think anyone can honestly say Green would have put up the 861 OPS McGehee has since the break. I don't think anyone can honestly say what anyone will do over a short period of time. Green could've had a 1.000+ OPS over a few weeks or a .600 OPS over the same period. Funny what one 3 HR night does to an OPS over a limited number of PAs. That he won't have good overall numbers even with a hot finish is something to be worried about in the off season not over the remainder of the playoff push. You're extrapolating that his .861 OPS over a few weeks means he'll be hot the rest of the year and into the playoffs. I hope he does stay hot. I'd still like to see Green on the roster. My wish a couple of months ago was that Green would come up to "soft platoon" with Casey. I was never in the camp that wanted Casey sent packing... I always wanted Green to replace Counsell or Wilson. Now all I care about is who will be most likely to give us the most production at third over the next three months. That today to me seems to be Casey. While McGehee has hit better, Green has continued to stay hot. I wouldn't say it's clear cut that McGehee would outperform Green. There seems to be no chance that Green will be called up, so all I can do is hope that you're right and that McGehee "found his swing" and will continue to produce better than his really, really pathetic first half.

The solution offered was that those guys needed to be replaced. To be fair, the solution offered was to replace Yuni before the season or as soon as a reasonable replacement presented itself, and to platoon McGehee about two months ago. This thread was started long after other threads with similar "solutions." Yuni & McGehee have helped offensively for the past couple weeks, but they're still bad on the year. McGehee's 3 HR day yesterday shot his OPS all the way up to the low-.600s. I certainly hope they're able to prove the nay-sayers wrong, as Yuni & McGehee obviously are as entrenched into their positions as Braun & Fielder. They won't learn to play defense, so at least if they can hit they'll provide some positive value to the 2011 Brewers.

I agree with you brwrsfan. I was surprised when they finally stopped carrying a 13-man staff. I'd be utterly shocked if they went to an 11-man staff, even though it may make sense. As you noted, there have been times when Dillard could have been used, so it's possible that he's just not one of "Roenicke's guys." If that's the case, maybe Dillard should be sent down in favor of another reliever. I'd guess that if they brought up a reliever somewhere around 35-40 years old who doesn't necessarily have good stuff and can't get hitters out, but has "veteran presence," he'd probably find a role in the pen.

That'd be 87-75, and it would mean that we'd play .500 ball the rest of the way, and the Cardinals would need to go 30-21 (.588) to get to 88 wins. Right now, we're on pace for about 90 wins. The Cards would need to go 33-18 (.647) to get to 91 wins. Only the Red Sox (.624), Yankees (.615) and Phillies (.645) are over .588, and none are over .647. Note: this is to beat us out, not to tie us Of course, we'd have to play .500 ball the rest of the way. Our schedule isn't that tough, but we do have nine more very important games against the Cards. If we are just able to split those 5/4 or 4/5, I think we have a really good shot. If we go .500 the rest of the way and take four of the nine against the Cards, they would have to go 25-17 (.595) in the rest of their games in order to beat us out. We also have 25 home games and 25 road games to go, so hopefully we'll learn how to play .500 ball on the road.

He could have been used in the 9th today with a 5 run lead, but we brought in Axford. So we clearly don't trust him in close games or blowouts. I agree that Dillard is unnecessary on the roster, but I think we brought in Axford because we have a day off today and we were playing the Cardinals. Roenicke wanted to give the team the best chance of winning, and Axford is 100% assured of a day of rest today, so he'll be ready to go tomorrow if needed. I was actually behind Roenicke on that move. Many managers won't use the closer until it's a save situation. As for Dillard, I hear he's a very funny guy. I also hear Kotsay is a funny guy. I hear Counsell has "veteran leadership qualities." I really think Roenicke/Melvin believe it's important to have those type guys on the roster.

I hear what you're saying, and a few years ago with this team I might have agreed. Now, however, there really aren't any young players other than Lucroy on the roster. Pretty much everyone on the team would be able to provide "veteran leadership" on other teams.

I know I shouldn't read the chat, but I did anyway. Haudricort is full in on "McGehee is hitting better lately". Even if McGehee is entrenched as the starting 3B, the team has to realize that Green is better than Counsell. I don't like prospects "rotting on the bench," but we're in August, so I don't think Green would be hurt by being the primary LH bat off the bench / part-time 2B/3B. Yuni is bad, McGehee is bad, but Counsell is so bad at this point, it's laughable that he's on the team.

Well, since Dillard hasn't played in weeks, he certainly won't be missed. The problem will be that even if he does completely stink, if he's on the roster Roenicke will still trot him out in every LOOGY situation, because that's his role. At least Dillard isn't hurting the team other than taking up a roster spot.

Now it seems like everyone just wants him to break the record so he will retire and he can be replaced. Now that he's 0-for-45 I hope he retires today. He probably never thought it would get to this point, but he can't want to go down in history for this record. The Brewers for some reason won't cut him, so the only way we can get someone who could help the team onto the roster would be for Counsell to retire.

The good news is that normal baseball movements are much less likely to injure ankles than a sport like basketball, where it's very easy to land on another foot. True, but 2B is probably the position where a player has to pivot/stop quickly more than any other in baseball. He just needs to make sure that it's healed to the point that it won't inhibit his lateral movement and won't easily turn on him every time he moves in any direction other than a straight line. It is great news that he's out of the cast. I'm sure the Brewers' training staff has a program in place to determine the strength of the ankle and when it's ready to play, as sprained ankles are pretty common in sports.

Blue font? The Phillies are 9 games ahead of us. We're not catching them. Just a little positive thinking. People say we're too negative around here :-)

I was hesitant to write my last post, as I don't want to get this to morph further into the 50-page Yuni thread. JHJ is now a Brewer, so he should be more than the small half of the CF platoon. If that's all he's going to be, then I wish we hadn't given up Komatsu to get him. If he is allowed to start on most days, playing all over the field (which he has proven he can do), then he will probably have been worth giving up last year's Minor League Player of the Year. It would have been really easy to cut Counsell and keep Carroll up to play CF once a week or so, while Hairston spends time at SS/2B/3B/CF (all positions where he's an upgrade). Instead, it seems Melvin wants to see if Counsell can go down in history as having the worst offensive season in the history of baseball. When your futility is breaking records set in the "dead ball era," it's time to hang 'em up. Once Weeks and Gomez are back, I like our lineup (if it's used correctly). Yuni, Hairston and Lopez can play SS to some degree, which make Counsell and Wilson useless. However, Roenicke will make sure to keep putting Counsell on the field as long as he's on the roster. We need to dump them to increase the talent on our roster, and then maximize that talent by playing our best players.

The Brewers are now on pace for 90 wins. If they can keep winning, maybe this title could change to "How critical is the #1 seed?"

To be fair, I don't really know if Melvin pays attention to defensive metrics to begin with, considering many think they are flawed. Considering how poorly the Brewers have played defense in Melvin's tenure, your statement may be the biggest arguement in favor of defensive metrics I've seen :-) Melvin commented before the season that he'd heard everyone calling Yuni the worst player in baseball. Of course he had to defend his player, but he knew he was bad. In the massive Yuni thread, it has been argued that there were not really many options prior to the season, and it appears most options at the deadline were pricier than Melvin wanted to pay. Would anyone be happy if we landed Jamey Carroll or Furcal, but it cost us Thornberg or Gamel? He picked up an upgrade at SS (and 2B & 3B) in Hairston, but unfortunately it looks like he's going to be relegated to the small half of a CF platoon at least until (if) Gomez comes back from his injury. As far as picking up players, I think Melvin did fine. It's dealing with call-ups and send-downs that he's made some questionable decisions.

Roenicke seems to like Lopez. When Rickie's back, will Lopez be our everyday 3B?