MNBrew

Finding out who Nick Leyva's successor will be is a mildly exciting or interesting prospect. And by the sound of it, many people on this site really like Frank Kremblas for the job. And I'm not saying he's not a good candidate for the job. On the other hand..... Wouldn't Don Money also make a good potential candidate? I'm a little surprised we really haven't anyone suggest his name for that position. His major league performance credits are quite respectable, he's certainly paid his dues in the minors, and he has a good history with many of the young Brewers. Just wondering out loud.

A few responses, to FTJ's comments in #20... #1 me: To connect the Brewers' going downhill and Braun's arrival in the majors is an example of selective, convenient, and misguided reasoning. FTJ: I wish you would elaborate more on this -- Upon Brauns arrival we had an injection of OPS. Why didn't we win more games? -- Lack of defense had a hand in it for certain. ME: I agree that sub-standard defense played a part. But I think shoddy pitching (3 starters w/ 5+ ERAs by season's end; many overworked & ineffective relievers over the 2nd half) and consistently poor clutch hitting played bigger parts. #2 me: The pitching went to heck not because of the defense but because the starters pitched generally poorly and inefficiently (high pitch count for low inning totals) FTJ: Perhaps the pitch count/inning rose because our D was making errors, or not making plays they should have? I don't know how a person can look at pitching results (in this case, runs scored) and not take a look at if a pitcher's D helped or hurt his cause. ME: What I'd want to know is the how the rate of change in the fielding percentage correlated to the decline in pitching and clutch hitting. They're all parts of the big picture. Defensive decline didn't help the other areas. However, I just can't imagine the rate of fielding error increase was even close to proportional to the rise in staff ERA (and decline in RISP), which if correct should then disprove all but a small bit of causality. #3 me: the bullpen was overused and became very inefficient FTJ: I agree Ned Yost sucks. ME: I talked about the bullpen's overuse, which is bigger than any blame you want to put toward Ned. The dislike of Ned is a very popular point of view on this site. However, in spite of his flaws that must improve, I'm not in that camp. #4 me: and because most of the hitters -- especially the veterans!!!!! -- didn't contribute for crap. FTJ: What veterans? -- our lineup and the core thereof, is anchored by our young studs. I certainly can concede some of our vets came up short -- but most of our vets were situational players. ME: What veterans? Jenkins & Mench in LF, Hall in CF, and Estrada at C. That's 3 of the 8 starting positions -- essentially half the vets who underperformed were nearly half the starting position players! That was all the more magnified by the the fact that the bench veterans generally stunk, too. #5 me: To blame the decline largely on the defense is absurd. FTJ: Really? -- "Largely" of course is your word, but if you watched the games, and walk away thinking our defense didn't leave games on the table, I guess we will have to agree to disagree. me: That said, I do completely agree that the defense MUST improve. FTJ: Really? -- It sounds like to me based on your previous statements, the defense wasn't a substantial hurdle this last season, why then MUST our defense improve? -- It looks to me that you want better vet production, and guys like Suppan/Bush/Cappy to decide to quit sucking. ME: I didn't say defense wasn't a substantial hurdle. In essence, though, I did say I didn't think it was the greatest hurdle. The defense still must improve -- yes, it definitely left a few on the table. In my opinion, the bullpen and poor clutch hitting completely blew far more games than the defense, which was my consistent assertion.

A couple fast comments: - Defense does come around: 1) Hall was a countless times worse defensive infielder than Braun when Hall first came up. Remember Royster teaching him fielding basics that first September? Now we talk about Hall like he's dependable defensively in the infield (although I'd contend he's really still only average). 2) Jenkins wasn't much better than Izzy Alcantara when he first came up -- his defense was not to be trusted at all. Weeks also has better tools than Hall and has already shown a greater improvement in a shorter amount of time. I seem to recall that Braun was a good defensive shortstop in college. I'll bet there's still some improvement to his fielding game, too. - Lending to the above first point, the Brewers' young hitters were brought up fast through the system for their offense, not their defense. Their defense just had to improve enough to be passable. It wasn't major-league-caliber "good" yet. Time should continue to help. - To connect the Brewers' going downhill and Braun's arrival in the majors is an example of selective, convenient, and misguided reasoning. The pitching went to heck not because of the defense but because the starters pitched generally poorly and inefficiently (high pitch count for low inning totals) for all of July & August, the bullpen was overused and became very inefficient, and because most of the hitters -- especially the veterans!!!!! -- didn't contribute for crap. To blame the decline largely on the defense is absurd. - That said, I do completely agree that the defense MUST improve. So must the pitching. And, frankly, so must the situational hitting -- as much as the first two areas. If all 3 areas improve markedly without a major offensive decline, the Brewers are serious contenders. If 2 or fewer improve, the odds wouldn't seem to be in their favor.

While Hall has potential, Hunter has delivered several times over. His offense has only gotten better, especially the past two years. And his defense is nothing short of exceptional. With the possible exception of his arm strength (only because I haven't looked it up), Hunter is an established 4- if not 5-tool player and a bona fide All-Star. Maybe someday Bill Hall will have those credentials & plaudits under his belt. But until that occurs, Hunter would be a huge upgrade over Hall and Bill Hall is not close to the same class of players as Torii Hunter is. (And I am a die hard Brewers fan, hands down, not to mention an eternal optimist. These aren't Twins goggles I have on.) Dollar figures are debatable, but Hunter's basically said outright that he's after a 5-year contract. He turned down the 3 yr./$45M contract the Twins offered this summer for its years, not average salary. (EDIT: For what it's worth, as much as I like Hunter, I don't think he's the guy the Brewers should target first. I'm in the Bobby Abreu camp.)

Is this a conspiracy theory, or is there bona fide evidence that that's why Yount left? Yount resisted overtures from almost every team for years for family reasons. The only reason he felt he could say yes to the Diamondbacks when he did was because he already lived in the town. After one season of living back in Milwaukee, away from his family, he realized he didn't want to be away. He already had a 20-year major league career of living away from his family. I don't blame the guy at all. I totally love my job and can't really envision doing anything else. But I still don't like the part about how much time it takes me away from home. It's a normal reaction. Why does Yount's reasoning for the past 15 years suddenly become invalid and a cover up?

kgbaseball, I often agree with your perpsectives. But in this case, I disagree. When it comes to following the team, they're certainly "our team." But when it comes to the business/personnel side of things, unless you're in on the ownership or an employee in some fashion, it's not "our team" at all. They have an obligation to do what they think is best for the team and the organization. We can disagree -- that's totally our right, because that's merely an opinion. Furthermore, really, really, really wanting to know what's going on with the team still does not entitle us to know anything. Interest does not inherently equate to or entitle anyone to knowledge no matter how hard you want to justify it. If you read further down in the brewers.com article, Leyva himself talked of having to do the same thing when he was a manager, and thus he completely understands that it's the manager's prerogative. And in that context, he doesn't question the move at all. He's just moving on and looking for the next job. He's leaving with his head held high and not crying foul. I think that tells us something about class, both on his part and on the part of the Brewers. . . . It's just too bad we've become so accustomed to NY Yankee-style coverage, where every ounce of laundry, dirty or otherwise, HAS to be put into print.

Funny, but for most of his time in Milwaukee, Brady Clark was known in general (though not on this board) as a serviceable if not solid defensive outfielder. Watching him in the field the other night was like watching, well, Enrique Cruz or Chris Barnwell at the plate.

I think some teams will view Turnbow as an asset, and if he's lucky, he'll get traded to one them. And for his sake, hopefully that team has enough depth that he can pitch more often in situations more conducive to success for him. This season has taught us that to be in a place both to contend in September and to play well throughout all of September, the bullpen cannot be populated with an array of players who can only be sufficiently productive for half a season. I like this discussion and I'll add my proposed/ideal '08 pitching roster a bit later.

This return of powder blue as an allegedly hip baseball fashion trend blows me away. Maybe it's because I'm old enough to have gotten so sick and tired of the ugly powder blues as they lasted well into and through most of the '80s, and I'll never get over the fact that they were a worn-out, ugly look that should never return. Maybe that's why I had a similar feeling of revulsion when bell bottoms made a return to "cool" status about 10 years ago -- because I remember when they were on their way out and most folks were so thankful because they were a bad look that needed to go away. I still wish the Brewers would ditch the '82 look after this year and come up with a new alternate uniform (in anything but powder blue!) that blends a look of the current color scheme with the MB/glove logo and maybe even the pinstripes of that era -- something forward-looking yet at the same time "tipping its cap" to the Brewers' look of the past. Then again, there was a hefty thread I'll never figure out how to find that dissected all this in great depth from a couple years ago before the retro uniforms were unveiled that included some neat attempts at the design. Can any of you moderator/founder types bring that thread out of the mothballs in the form of a link? Who was the BF.net staffer who did such a great job with so many of those graphics? Anyway, a continued "boo! hiss!" at these new Tampa Bay uniforms.

And geez, is that light blue trim ever painful to look at! Looks like a bad hybrid of the Padres' current uniforms and the Angels' nauseating Disney era (Angels in the Outfield vintage) periwinkle-trimmed fashion insults. I missed what was wrong about the current ones. Is it because they blend in too well with the field turf in Tropicana Field? I sure hope this whole design is just someone's guesswork and nothing official. At least their present uniforms look like baseball uniforms and not panzy outfits. And their fans can have nightmares of people dressed like a real baseball team. Now their play AND image will induce sleep deprivation.

Good thought, Matt. Hart in RF, Jones in CF, Hall in LF with Gross & maybe Gwynn in the wings? Not a bad way to look at it. I'm not sure it's the best idea. However, both Jones & Hall are in positions where huge turnarounds are not out of the question.

Catcher - While Estrada hasn't been perfect, I think at least some of the deficiency at C comes from having an increasingly fragile, declining, aging veteran as the backup -- especially given that the backup would typically start day games after night games, meaning 1-2 starts per week. Miller was a good signing when they got him, but he's more like a placeholder now. I wish they could find someone more along the lines of a Mike Redmond: good bat, some good clutch hits, solid defensively, and a HUGE team leader type, and yet still comfortable that he's the #2 guy. Bullpen - I think between Cordero, Turnbow, & Linebrink, they need to bring 2 of the 3 back so we're not filling in with an army of can't-break-or-stay-in-the-rotation starters or organizational soldiers. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think they have to bring back Cordero. Looking at that FA list above, bringing back Linebrink may not be the most ridiculous option (some of those options from that list ARE ridiculous) because it would still render Turnbow as an affordable, attractive trade asset. And goodness knows they're going to need to have a few good "bullets" to be able to bring back good quality in a trade. I like Ray King and he loved Milwaukee before, so I wonder if he might want (and hopefully earn a shot) to come back. And Shouse is almost my age, but he should still have plenty of innings left in his arm if he's not overused and if his health is good. Who knows? Maybe Stetter has a good future in a King/Shouse-type role (a little early to tell). I think the bottom line with the bullpen is this: We're past the days of trying much of the scrap-heap approach to bullpen building. Fortunately, most of Doug Melvin's attempts have worked out better than not. But as the team grows stronger and stronger through the years, it'd seem you'd want fewer & fewer spots open for journeymen & injury-recovery project guys. Fortunately, there are still a decent number of good arms coming up through the system.

Any trade of an All-Star catcher highly regarded for both his offense and defense for a backup/prospect OF with debatable Major League ceiling would kick butt. And that's why it's a pipe dream. Mauer is the only one of 4 cornerstone players signed long-term (Morneau is arby-eligible, though; Santana like Sheets is a FA after '08, and Hunter's a FA at season's end), and the Twins know trading him would be totally catastrophic.

LF really is the biggest conundrum on the roster as we look ahead to '08 . . . while enjoying this contending thing in September. I like the Aaron Rowand suggestion, and I'm intrigued by the Bobby Abreu idea. Not quite sure what it'd take to bring either about, though.

Capellan had an option this year. That's why they could send him down at the end of spring training. But dadofandrew, you're right, we've lost several. Let's not forget the Linebrink trade, which cost 3 more. Incidentally, I firmly believe it'll be a good couple years before we can begin to judge the quality of that deal in its totality. However, I wish Mr. Linebrink would be a bit more consistent (or consistently good).

According to the ESPN transactions page, Dennis Sarfate was traded to Houston today for cash considerations.

Or is it possible that since Sarfate's being DFA, assuming he clears waivers, once he's outrighted, that they could still trade him? Maybe not the most likely scenario, but still possible?

According to the Transactions column in this morning's Minneapolis StarTribune, the Brewers designated Dennis Sarfate for assignment. Haven't seen it anywhere else, but stuff that shows up that spot in print I've never seen turn out to be incorrect. Personally, I don't think Dennis was ever a great prospect, so even if he's only plateaued (sp?), I do see it as a good sign that we have that much more talent now ahead of him on the organizational depth chart. Who knows? Maybe he'll turn out to be the PTBNL.

I think Ray King cannot be added to the playoff roster through the DL loophole. If memory serves, the injury replacement guys still have to have been in your own organization as of Aug. 31st. If that's the case, no Ray King for the playoffs. I like this move. For the last 2-3 years I haven't figured out why they didn't go get him when he was available. Like the pic with Weathers. Wish we'd gotten him back, too.

I may have my Brewer goggles on, but I've been thinking/wondering/hoping for a while that Capuano & Jenkins package might give us a shot at Bobby Abreu. The dollars would only be off by a couple million, I think, which could be forgiveable. An interesting thought, nonetheless, DHonks... Jenkins would give the Yankees a bat (or another chip to move in some other deal) and Capuano certainly would give them a younger arm with a mostly-decent track record (the last 3 months excepting). Abreu would give the Crew a higher level of production & speed from a corner OF spot. Then again, it's stretches like he's having now that keep Mench in the mix. And I'm not sure whether to think that's good or bad. I really just hope Capuano puts together a great September. That way, if they're entertaining trade offers for him, a month of redemption in the big picture of his career can make the past 3 months look that much more like a blip, thus increasing his potential trade value.

I should also add that I think that offer you propose for Crawford would at least give Tampa Bay's GM something to think about to the point where he wouldn't hang up on Melvin upon hearing the offer.

Loretta is like Cirillo minus a year or two and with better knees. Proven .300 hitter. Above average defensively (Cirillo was a Gold Glove caliber 3B but the love kept going to stronger offensive players in bigger markets on winning teams, and Loretta was solid and no slouch, though not a Gold Glover). Loretta also has been a regular starting ML shortstop. Saying Tampa Bay would part with Crawford for the right offer is like saying the Brewers would do the same with Prince. You can offer whatever you want. But if they're not interested in considering trading him, it doesn't matter what you offer. Crawford is a very solid ML outfielder with youth and plenty of upside in his favor. And although he'd be a great asset on any team's roster, and I'd love to have him, I think the same reasons that we'd want him are exactly why Tampa's probably not interested in moving him.

Sounds like Graffanino likely won't play at all next year, so 1 yr. @ $3M is not realistic. Maybe $500K or $1M just to hang onto his rights. But I'd much rather see them go after Cirillo AND Loretta. I like Counsell's experience but I hate his production. Totally banjo hitter. He's not much better than Luis Rodriguez, who the Twins finally sent down to AAA after 4.5 months of his .170s BA. I think the main spot to target for improving in next year's lineup as far as position players go is clearly LF. Can't at all understand why Melvin would want to hang onto Mench. Good friend who actually sees lots of games says the guy consistently looks terrible. Underproduction has been a problem at 2B (Weeks) and CF (Hall), but the Brewers are committed to them so they'll likely be given the chance to turn things around. With the entire roster, the goal is to upgrade the overall talent and ML production as much as possible.

I think those folks who've pointed to the pitching are right. Offenses will have their ups and downs. You can weather those storms, so to speak, if you get good pitching and defense. You can get 4 hits and still eke out a win if the pitchers give you a chance to win. It's tough to eke out a win when the pitchers give up 7-8 runs before the game is half over. If the pitchers don't give you a realistic chance to win, it doesn't usually matter how good the offense is. And if you aren't catching and throwing the ball well, the hole simply gets deeper. Putting it in overly simple terms, Arizona has been playing like a first place team. The Brewers have spent the last 2 months by and large playing like a last place team. Thank goodness for the excellent start or the Brewers could well be a last place team. Looking at a very narrow picture, they've won 2 of their last 3 and could've won the 3rd with a little better pitching. There are plenty of realistic reasons for hope. It just depends on how you want to look at them. And of course, it also depends on if they can continue showing those signs AND if the Cubs and Cardinals play like they were playing before July. The division's still there for the taking. If they can somehow manage to pull it out and win the division, then this largely young roster then all gets at least one post-season series to add to their experiences going into next year, which theoretically will only make them better. I'm a half-full guy, not half-empty, so I keep trying to see how they could still do it. Then again, the half-empty folks sure do have a large sample of poor play on which to base a negative forecast. Back to AZ. If they win the west, games like tonight's should at least give the Crew a sense that they again CAN beat up some of the league's "big kids." Confidence is such a funny thing!

Granted, I couldn't watch Capuano's start on Sunday, but I got to listen to most all of it on the radio (long driving day). Based on Powell's & Uecker's descriptions, it sure sounded like Cappy had most of his act together. The bad-location pitches hit for homers came back and bit him, and the killer instinct in the form of hardly shakeable composure that he showed such a knack for his first couple years is clearly not there like it needs to be. But Sunday he sure pitched a lot closer to how they need him to pitch, putting several guys away via the K when he needed to. I'm not convinced he's over the hump. But I think this time coming up in the bullpen could well help him regain more of that confidence. I think Cappy could net a decent return this off-season, especially if paired with someone like Mench . . . and all the more so if he returns to form for the last 6 weeks. If he does that, however, I also don't think he's necessarily so likely to be prime trade fodder because the Crew will see the potential re-surfacing via some results again, too. The problem also is that everyone knows how he hasn't pulled it together and often has fallen apart this year. In short, I don't think this would turn out to be the best possible off-season to try to trade Cappy. What I do like, especially if Cappy can get it back together, is the fact that the Brewers have 8 potentially average-or-better starting pitchers at this point as they look ahead to next year. And there doesn't have to be a rush to move the young guys into the rotation because they can still contribute well out of the bullpen (btw, nice work tonight, CV jr.). Not that anything's a given, but it is worth noting that it wasn't until halfway through Johan Santana's 4th season that he became a permanent starting pitcher. The more strong arms we have in the bullpen, the better for this team! All that said, Gallardo has acquitted himself very well in all but 2 of his starts this year. So it well could be that he pretty much forces his way into the rotation, which would be great for the team, and would also mean someone would have to leave the rotation. Crappy as Cappy has been the past 3 months, in the long run I'm not sure he's the best candidate to be moved, whether to the bullpen or another team.