TheCrew07

The point of this thread is about Gamel's role, not McGehee's hot streak. Gamel is not a bench player, he's not helping the team as a bench player, a very solid argument can be made he's not the best option for the bench at this juncture. What McGehee is doing irrelevent to the discussion, Hall is inferior offensively and continues to get ABs over Gamel as well. Either they give Mat consistent playing time or they don't, since they aren't and he's performing poorly in a limited role off of the bench (PH and DH) why not send him down for some consistent playing time and see if Heether is a better option off of the bench? How is Gamel riding the pine making the team better when he doesn't/hasn't performed in that role?

Hardy played in 124 games in 2005, more in the first half when he stunk than the second half when he was hitting very well, he had 6 PH appearances all season. Hall was actually playing well in 2005, and bounced between 3B, SS, 2B. I thought Yost did well getting all his young players ABs that season. In the first half of 2005 Hardy got 219 PAs in 67 games for a .187/.293/.267 line, it's very reasonable to say they rode him out. Weeks came up for good in 2005, I'm not sure how hitting below expectations for 3 seasons is similar to Gamel's situation, he had over 1000 PAs in his career when he was sent back down to AAA in 2007 and had over 1300 by the time Durham was acquired. Gamel has 103 or 106 (depeding on which section of baseball-reference I'm looking at) and only a little over 60% of those PAs have come in games where he played in the field. Weeks only made 1 appearance as a DH in his entire career, again they rode him out and he's had a longer leash than most.

If you seriously believe that McGehee is a 4 win player on a yearly basis I guess that's a valid comparison. Gamel is an impact bat, he has the potential to bat over .300 every year and hit over 30 HRs a year through his prime years, not to mention he's LH. He's highly touted for good reason, he could be special. I really don't see how he's best helping this team off of the bench, he hasn't hit well at all as a pinch hitter. If he's going to be with the team he should be starting in the field and getting his 3 ABs just about every game. If that's not his role, then send back him down to AAA now that he's got a taste and interleague is over. He's the 2nd LH option off the bench and his pinch hitting stats are abysmal, yes it's a small sample but that's all pinch hitting is a small sample. Mat didn't exactly thrive in the DH role either, but he's hit decent when he's actually played in the field. Heether gives more defensive flexibility off the bench and has been just as hot as Gamel was before his call-up. I realize he's RH and not on the 40 man, but I just don't see how Gamel is our best option for a bench spot. If an injury occurs they can always call him back up to play everyday. Until they are committed to Mat playing everyday in the field, he shouldn't be in Milwaukee. Imagine if Hardy or Weeks constantly got bounced out of the lineup for inferior talent or the hot hand, how would people have felt about that situation? You either stick with a player and ride him out till he gets it going, you send him back down, or you trade him... you don't make your top prospect a bench option until he proves he's not an everyday player. Gamel is: 15 for 54 for .278/.371/.481 which is a .852 OPS as a 3B 5 for 24 for .208/.296/.250 which is a .546 OPS as a DH 1 for 11 for .091/.286/.182 which is a .468 OPS as a PH What's his best role and how does he best help this team from the bench? A defensive replacement? Ha! A pinch hitter? Not really. How is he the best possible option we can come up with for his current role? edit. As for the pinch hitting scenario, say McGehee walked last night as K-Rod is prone to walking hitters... we're going to take our chances to score a run with Kendell who was on deck? I would have gone Gamel, McGehee, and then Cameron if it was necessary for the win. If you end the inning tied then you let McGehee catch or double switch in Rivera to move the pitcher spot in the order..

A bare market for MelvinBy Anthony Witrado This is the 3rd or 4th time this has been in print. At some point people are going to have to accept that Hardy will be one to go if someone gets moved. Melvin also said; Does it make sense to give up 5 players for Harden? To try to trade for a bat before trading for an arm? What's the position of greatest need? The Indians wanted pitching for Derosa, the price only goes up for Lee... Whether you care about building for the future or not, what's the sense in sending 2 or more of our best pitching prospects for 1.5 years of Lee, when we don't have any top of the rotation SP at AA or better to start with? Not to mention our highest rated pitcher is 1 step from done for life and regressed this season anyway. I still hope Braddock is a rotation solution down the road, but he's currently a RP. The organization's strength is currently in it's position players, why wouldn't we deal from a position of strength to acquire a position need? Where's the sense in trading from an area where the team is already shorthanded to fill a position of need? Where's the net gain in that scenario? It's not hard to look 2 years ahead and see that Bush, Looper, and Suppan will be gone... and Parra's not a lock to turn his career around at this point. That's 3 spots that will certainly have to be filled, and maybe a 4th. Where are the pitchers going to come from? Free agency? Scrap heap pickups? Of all the names tossed around, if you sit down and consider all of the variables the 3 that make the most sense given the Brewer's current situation are Bedard, Guthrie, and maybe Vasquez. Honestly though, Bedard sort of scares me, he's frail... Baltimore has lots of young pitching on the way so they might be interested in some position players, but not a spare C as they already have Wieters. Atlanta already has McCann and Escobar, they don't really match up well either. Toronto would have been excellent fit but Marcum and McGowan had to go and get hurt... I just don't see many teams that match up well if at all.

Lucroy has walked for the 4th time! The Stars up 2-1 going to the 9th. Escobar 1 for 2 with a BB and a K, Heether, Katin, and Anderson with multi hit games, Heether with a HR. Nashville up 5 to 1 in the 6th.

Prince walks and steals 2nd and 3rd in 2 pitches... Brownstein flied out to RF and Prince beat the throw with a nice hook slide, talk about instant offense. That's 13 swipes out of 16 tries in his 9th game. BtW, the pre game audio was with Ellington, he had TJ surgery out of high school then went to a JuCo, which is why he was a 5th year senior. edit. Minigoon you didn't have to delete your post?

I guess this is a 2 part question. 1. Since the MiLB audio doesn't archive, if I were to capture it and put it up on the net so Mass could link it, would that be a copyright infringement? 2. Working off the assumption I'm not infringing on MiLB, is it possible to capture streaming audio? Some of the team feeds pop up in a separate FF window, some of the audio comes through Windows media player. I'd be looking for a one size fits all sort of thing if I could find it. I found a FF plugin via google that supposedly captures streaming audio, but I was hoping someone had experience with a particular plugin or tool and could share some insight.

It's a little bit difficult to tell the pitches from the video now that I watch it closer. He's a FB/Slider guy, with a change or curve as trwi7 pointed out. Pitchers duel in Tennessee, the Stars are down 1-0 moving into the later innings, and they only have 3 hits, Lucroy does have 3 BBs in the game though. Nashville down 1-0 going to the 3rd, Gulin gave up a solo HR.

Lame Yuku ate my first on this... I'm not sure what Gamel has to do with Yo at all, totally dissimilar situations in every way, except it appears that Macha isn't good at handling prospects. Yo is the one irreplaceable player on this team, without him the team is dead in the water, not only in 2009, but for years to come. He's the one significant talent we have in the rotation. I despise PAP even though it supports my argument in this case, because you're most healthy and effective pitchers will always have the highest PAP. My problem with this has everything to do with Yo only pitching 24 innings last season. The previous year in 2007 he pitched a career high 187 which was a significant jump from 155 the year before. I'm not going to rehash the pitching injury nexus in detail, there's plenty of information around the web on it. I would rather the team take a long-term approach with Yo, I don't see any good reason to push him past 200 IP this season even if his arm can take it. Again, the young man only pitched 24 innings last season... 24! We needed this season to let Yo get his feet back under him and see how Parra was going to develop. Instead we're riding Yo like a rented mule and the only other pitcher with significant talent pitched his way into the AAA rotation. What good is making the playoffs if Yo isn't available to pitch? How far are we going to go? If he suffers an injury it kills the future and then the team might as well sell off Hardy, Hart, and Fielder because the rotation won't be competitive for years otherwise. Melvin and Macha had better know what they doing because if they ruin Yo I will never forgive them. They can push Bush, Looper, and Suppan all they want but they haven't been effective enough to warrant it game and game out, unfortunately the only pitcher getting pushed is the one pitcher in the rotation whose innings pitched should be limited this season. If Gerut isn't going to play then DFA him (I know he played today), go with a shorter bench, and get an extra bullpen arm up so Macha isn't so concerned about saving the bullpen.

I get what you're saying, and you'll notice that I didn't list Dysktra or Brewer above. The point that I feel is being missed here is that even the kids who are not really projectable are more talented than their counterparts were when I started following the system. Nelson was a name sure, but the talent around him just stunk. Looking at the position players on all of the teams AAA through A ball, each team has 2 or 3 position player prospects that have a realistic chance to be everyday MLB players, that's absolutely fantastic. In the past we were hoping that Nelson would catch fire, or Krenzyl would figure it out, now those players are players like Kemp and Wilson, players who have value, but don't really seem to have a home on the MLB team looking forward. Will Vass and Delaney be everyday MLB players? Possibly, but I doubt it, however they are excellent role players for a young A ball club. A guy like Farris who I've never even considered a prospect is actually leading the FSL in stolen bases (I realize Ford was a speedster as well). We've never had this much depth position wise top to bottom, and we've already traded off high ceiling and/or producing position talent in Brantley, LaPorta, and Fryer. The team needs to have a couple of ultra toolsy players like Brewer, McPhearson, and Richardson in the system... or latin players like Arias and Trejo... while those players are typically boom or bust type players, you just can't draft on stats alone. X harps on SD all the time, he makes an often overlooked point, teams that take a more sabermetric approach to drafting haven't faired well because they end up selecting too many players that have low ceilings, the players are mostly maxed out when they are drafted. To get extreme talent like Yo and Braun, you need to take your shots with kids that have room to grow, every pick or player in the system shouldn't be a "safe" pick. Isn't it worth the chance at a potential all-star talent to have 3-5 toolsy players in the system at any one time? I'll take 1 out of 5 on those kind of players because impact talent is very difficult for a team like Milwaukee to come by through other means, for us it's all about the system. Both Z and Sied have talked about trying to draft all-stars, not just average players, we have our fair share of safe and productive players, but we also have some exciting athletic talents, and I really like the mix in the system right now. For example, I love that we have a fairly safe thing at C in Lucroy, but also a toolsy player with high upside in Salome. I didn't like the Dykstra pick because Lenny got bye most on attitude (and PEDs), and I don't think that attitude translates well when drafting bloodlines, so I'm not one to anoint someone a prospect because of where they were drafted. The best case I can make is to look at the power 50 today, and compare it to like 7/10/2003... just look at the first 25-30 names on each list that should pretty much say it all. The levels and ages are off because they've continued to to go up as the players have advanced.

Shocking I know, but BC is postponed again.

Lawrie did have a great day at the plate, but getting picked off in 9th irked me a little. I listened to the last 3 innings and it occurred to me that the great thing about the minors is it gives me 6-8 games per day to be happy. If the big league club loses I'm disappointed, but there's usually a performance or three on the MiLB side that manages to pick up my spirits. If the big league club wins whatever happens on the MiLB side is gravy... with the farm system in great shape it's a win/win everyday. Sooner or later the organization will screw it up and put up a big 0 fer, but it sure is fun having talented teams and players top to bottom in the organization.

Excellent! Well except of the loss of velocity... I wonder if it's a mechanical thing? Axford added significant velocity through a change in his mechanics, it's just really strange that he dropped 5 MPH in one off-season. It seems like he's dedicated to his craft, and I appreciated his well thought out answers, he'll be easy to root for. The only problem is, I still don't know how to feel about him... he's obviously got good control, but without picking velocity back up can he make it as a starter?

I'm here to claim my magnet. I'll have an interview with him up tomorrow.Ahem!

If he ever breaks 30 I'll be surprised, the Brewers don't run much as a team.

Gamel should be included in that list someplace... We have a huge internal upgrade at C, an impact bat in Gamel, and exciting toolsy players in Escobar and Cain. I personally like Green's bat very much, he's a patient/productive hitter. He may have limited upside, but he'll be a solid player if he can stay healthy. Beyond the guys that will likely start we have solid depth at AAA in Heether, Gillespie, and Katin. I don't see Katin being a bench player with his high K totals, but if someone got hurt he could be an above replacement level every day type guy for someone. I've beat the pitching to death all the way down the system. Schafer and Gindl in A+ could be good enough to start, Wilson as previously mentioned is intriguing. In A ball we have 2 more potential impact bats in Dennis and Lawrie, I like Sanchez as depth on that team and Kemp has a nice bat, but I'm not sure where he fits. R and R+ are loaded with intriguing athletes and arms, as well as players with Power potential. I've said it many times before but I like the system better now than when it was the #1 system being headlined by Weeks and Fielder. We have more than enough position players to fill all of our holes and the pitching is as exciting as it's been since I've been following the minors. For the record, the only 2 position players that didn't do what I thought they would were Nelson and Krenzyl, which isn't bad. On the pitching side I learned a valuable lesson rooting for Little Ben on stuff and peripherals... I was never that high on Sarfate, and Eveland disappointed me a bit but he's now on his 3rd organization. JDLR was an enigma and was disappointing as well. Some of the kids will certainly disappoint but we have enough high ceiling depth with nice role payer talent sprinkled in that I'm very pleased with where the system is at. It's only major flaw is the lack of top of the rotation talent at AA or AAA, but that will not be an issue next season or going forward for the next couple of years.

This hateful retort brought to you by Billy Madison

Helena has closed the gap to 6-3. Arias has walked twice today, his plate discipline appears to be much better this season. Nashville goes down quietly, 5-1, only 3 hits. A budding 9th inning rally in WI, 1st and 2nd with no outs. edit. I lied, it was 1st and 2nd with 1 out, Vass flied out to deep Right Center and then Sanchez K'd to end it.. WI loses 4-2

How do you arrive at that conclusion? Arnett has 2 plus pitches and an adequate 3rd today... he actually throws harder than any starting pitcher in our current starting rotation, McClung throws harder in relief but not when he pitches in the rotation. edit. Well actually McClung tops out around 94 as a SP as well, I won't take that away from him.

No Cain for the AZ Brewers tonight, but Komatsu is in the lineup. WI just gives up 2 runs on a single to RF, Vass' throw to home goes up the line, Kemp tries to get the runner advancing to 2nd and promptly throws the ball to Sanchez in CF... boo. WI down 4-2 with runners at the corner. Ritchie is hitting 92 on the stadium gun, but if memory serves the stadium gun likes his delivery and usually is pretty close to stalker. He doesn't get enough love around here, he's having an excellent season.

Lucroy's pop times were much better, apparently Salome had a hitch in his delivery to second in the past (maybe corrected over the winter?), but Angel has the better arm. Lucroy had many defensive questions when he was drafted and made pretty decent improvement last season, but he's regressed a little bit this season. The biggest difference is the way they handle pitchers at this moment in time, but I still feel Lucroy is superior defensively and just had a rough start to the season. Our opinions are probably more positive towards Lucroy's defense given the reports about him from MLB camp, and Macha specifically.

Steve checks the forum, if you're listening in he may well answer the question, he did for me last night.

Helena Bottom 2nd * Edgar Trejo singles on a ground ball to right fielder Sean Conner. * Shawn Zarraga singles on a ground ball to right fielder Sean Conner. Edgar Trejo to 2nd. * Hitaniel Arias walks. Edgar Trejo to 3rd. Shawn Zarraga to 2nd. * Joshua Prince grounds out, shortstop Shane Carlson to first baseman Christopher Richburg. Edgar Trejo scores. Shawn Zarraga to 3rd. Hitaniel Arias to 2nd. * Mike Brownstein lines out to second baseman Mauricio Pimentel. * Scott Krieger flies out to center fielder Alexis Oliveras. RF Edgar? It must be a typo!

Juan Sanchez makes a diving catch and nearly doubles the runner off of 2B... I like that kid even though his BA is low. He's versatile defensively, I've seen him play 3 positions CF, SS, and 2B, he's also played LF and 3B on the season... he just plays hard and doesn't make mistakes.