Klements Bratwurst

Doug Davis (Baseball-reference.com) splits by month below. ERA is the highest in April. Although his WHIP is only slightly higher (insignificant) than at other parts fo the year. I think he will bounce back with a few good starts. Back on topic, Narveson, should be in the rotation!!! Split W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF WHIP SO/9 SO/BB April/March 13 18 .419 5.00 42 41 1 1 1 0 232.0 246 139 129 32 123 6 170 7 2 5 1047 1.591 6.6 1.38 May 15 24 .385 4.40 50 49 0 2 1 0 286.2 307 157 140 29 123 3 172 6 2 16 1272 1.500 5.4 1.40 June 15 13 .536 3.92 44 43 0 0 0 0 255.0 269 120 111 23 117 2 203 12 1 9 1121 1.514 7.2 1.74 July 14 13 .519 4.30 52 41 3 0 0 0 272.1 272 140 130 30 131 7 226 3 1 12 1196 1.480 7.5 1.73 August 18 16 .529 4.39 54 50 0 2 0 0 309.2 310 162 151 32 132 6 225 4 4 10 1332 1.427 6.5 1.70 Sept/Oct 15 14 .517 4.13 49 47 0 2 1 0 283.1 308 139 130 29 115 2 221 7 0 10 1253 1.493 7.0 1.92 SHARESHARE [X] · CSV · PRE · LINK

Our old guys are not getting it done.....to say the least! I am surprised too, that Parra doesn't throw some of these innings? John Axford or Zach Braddock anyone??? I didn't think I would have to call for them until June....

"On that, we agree. I will be the first one shouting if he gets more than 3 suckish starts." I don't think we can afford 3 more suckish starts, we already have had two terrible ones from Doug Davis!!! Ugh.... Our pitching has been terrible in the early going.....and Suppan is coming soon!!!! Yipee!!!

Or perhaps, a trade or release is in the works with a signing of someone else? What a big fall for Mr. Hart if that happens. He did totally leave Hart out of the equation of who will start in the Outfield. "Braun, Gomez, and boy are we pretty lefthanded this year, so they will play a lot more than in past years....."

I was wondering if Melvin might release Hart in the next few days saving the $5 million and roll the dice with the free agent market or a trade for a righthanded outfielder. Jermaine Dye is still out there, correct? Could he be had for less than $5 million/ 1 year deal at this point? (Although his defense is pretty poor at this point in his career which would hurt) Anyone else that could be brought in and free up some money for a midseason trade? They don't have to pay Hart in this case, but Melvin has to make the decision fast. I am not saying that Hart is done, but considering the track record since late '08 and an average year in '09, it may make some financial sense to find someone else that could bring something more than Hart. Especially considering the drop off in offensive production from Cameron to Gomez, we don't need a hole in RF. It isn't my money, but I don't know that I would pay $5 million for the small side a "Gerut/Edmonds/Hart" platoon. He could certainly figure it out, but I just have a BAD feeling about him. Even in Hart's best days, his production can be replaced, I would assume that with the uncertainty that he is showing now, it might be worth the gamble to cut bait and run.

83-79 I think they will compete for a good part of the year, but ultimately will have to settle for battling out for 2nd place in the division. Their starting pitching will be much improved, and the depth will help us survive injuries. I do sense a bit of struggles in the back end of the bullpen this year with Stetter, Coffey, Hawkins, and Hoffman struggling this year with injury or ineffectiveness. Bullpen guys go up and down like a yo-yos. Hoffman was too good last year to repeat that again and Father Time always keeps ticking. Axford and Braddock will be called up to bolster the bullpen but after too much damage. The season will hinge though on the offense. Braun, Fielder, Weeks and Escobar will produce at All-Star Calibar levels. McGhee will unfortunately regress somewhat to just a "guy" like his minor league numbers suggest and we now don't have Gamel ready to jump up and help in May if we need immediate help or anytime soon after that. Hart will be average after a slow start, but not what we expected of him after his strong "20-20" 2007 season. Gomez will surprise a bit, and will get on base at a clip slightly over .325, but will never even come close to make up for Cameron's offense, which will hurt the offense tremedously. The bench should be good especially with Edmonds and Gerut on it. Counsell and Inglett should also help. Zaun and Kottaras will provide a nice catching situation over Kendall and Rivera. Lucroy or Salome in reserve if necessary. The key to this season is for McGhee and Hart to perform well enough to provide some right handed protection to Prince in the lineup so that bat isn't taken out of his hand too much. Also if Gomez produces better than we think we could well be in competition. Ultimately, we improved due to our pitching depth and quality (fact), and potentially weakened our offense with younger players, so not enough was done on offense to get us to 90+ wins. When you deal with young offensive players who don't have sustained MLB success yet and are projected to start (Escobar, Gomez, and McGhee) you probably will have the inconsistencies that will not get this team over the top in 2010. They will score runs, but not as much as 2008 and 2009 and will miss out on the playoffs......

In case I missed it, I apologize, but I have not seen much written here or by McCalvy/Witrado/Haudricourt concerning the Brewer brass and their thoughts on who will back up Greg Zaun this year. Greg Zaun will not catch 150 games this year like our former slugging catcher, Jason Kendall. With that said, from the offseason, Doug Melvin said he wasn't afraid to give one of the Brewers prospects (specifically Lucroy) a chance to be the back up catcher. It seemed to make sense that you could maybe have either Salome or Lucroy catch 2 out of every 5-6 games so they wouldn't exactly turn into the 2009 Mike Rivera. With Kottaras, Treanor, Lucroy, and Salome in the mix for the backup position, all I have read is that the backup spot from day one is either going to be Kottaras or Treanor. Is that pretty much the plan brewfan.netters? Salome has like 7AB's and Lucroy 4 AB's through action thus far. I would think that Lucroy playing 2 days a week would provide more upside than Matt Treanor or George Kottaras, but I suppose the arguement will be made to have Lucroy catch every game for 4-5 days in AAA. But, why not Salome playing 50-60 games in 2010 for the big club?

Agree 100%! Keep the 90-91 MPH throwing lefthander and former second round pick and dump Suppan if it comes down to these two.

What is with all the Reds love this year in the projections???

Has anyone seen or heard anything about Rickie's status for spring training? Is he a complete green light for all hitting drills, etc? He was close at the end of the season, so I assume the answer is yes, but I haven't seen anything since last fall. I remember after his other wrist injury which happened in mid season that he had a bit of trouble dealing with scar tissue in the wrist early in the next Spring and heck, midway through the next season. It basically screwed him up. Last year finally he was going to blow up the league and then it happened again to the other wrist. The only plus side is he knows what it is going to feel like and might be better to play with the scar tissue discomfort until it settles down. However, I concur with some of the sentiments, I just don't expect great things from him anymore. I just don't want him hitting a .220/.299/.375 line in 2010 while recovering from soreness in the wrist until July. I would be happy with league average this year, if possible.

Based on what? He's a LH with a 90 mph fastball who strikes people out. There are real skills there. I agree with End. Narveson looked real good down the stretch, and impressed me with the gas on his fastball. He is a former 2nd Round pick from the 2000 draft. He just had his share of injury problems before getting his career going. He may well be a late bloomer, and he did strike out 46 batters in just 47 Innings pitched last year for the Crew. Barring no other moves, If I were Macha, I would have to think good and hard about Narveson making the rotation over Suppan. He may well buy time in the rotation better than Suppan could until the Brewers go out and make a mid season move.

Latest: Doug Davis' Agent says Melvin keeps in contact with him regarding Davis. Nothing imminent.

My first reaction, why would he take the job considering Bobby Cox's upcoming retirement after 2010? I know he would love that job, considering his Georgia roots. I suppose a "special advisor" isn't a critical hire for the Royals, where they are not concerned as much with him staying around awhile.....

For the right money/years, I like it. It will solidify the rotation certainly especially adding Mulder as some have said. I also like it because then we don't have to trade Corey Hart or someone else and blow another hole in the team. The Brewers need guys like Hart to bounce back and surprise us all as he turns into a poor man's Jason Werth. If you trade Hart with his current value not being at its high point you might not do much better than the Davis/Garland/Washburn choice that we might have now and then all you have left is Braun/Gomez/Gerut and maybe an untested Gamel for the outfield. I would roll the dice and sign one of the three at the right amount/years and keep Hart.

"Brewers officials, however, think that the top starting pitching prize in this year's free agent class will want to play in a larger market. " I think Melvin saw Brian Cashman leave the GM Meetings in Chicago, jump on a plane, so that he could take Lackey out to a nice dinner and offer him 7/167. It will be dejavu all over again!

After reading the majority of this thread, I thought I would reminisce on Brewerfan.net's thoughts on the big Santana trade in the winter of 2008. This thread in all six of its pages doesn't show much love for Gomez or general excitement for the Twins return package of Guerra, Gomez, Melvey, and Humber. Quite frankly, there wasn't much discussion about Carlos Gomez as stud prospect. Also, ignoring the other players, no one in that 2008 thread stated that Gomez is the centerpiece of the deal from the Twins perspective in their trade away of Johan Santana. Some people liked his AA and his AAA lines, as has been discussed in this thread. Others compared him to being a better player than Tony Gwynn, Jr, but less than Adam Jones (I agree). Here are some of the Gomez related quotes: "I don't think anyone is going to be mistaking TGJ for the 5-tool player that Gomez projects to be." "That is selling things a bit short, looking at minorleagueball.com. Gomez is still considered a B to B+ prospect where Gwynn is more of a C to C+." "And not to pile on too much, but comparing Gwynn to Gomez is really funny." "Instead of trying to figure out who the Mets prospects compare the best to Brewers prospects, just look at their rankings according to BA: #2 Guerra #3 Gomez #4 Melvey #7 Humber The Mets system isn't as deep as the Brewers, but taking ranking for ranking that's a package of Parra, Escobar, Jeffress and Brewer. The true equal value may lie somewhere in between, but it is worth noting that the Mets are giving up a pretty good dose of talent to acquire Santana. However, none of them are truly can't miss, and none of them have significant playing time at the MLB level. The four prospects are much better than a couple of draft picks, but if I were a Twins fan I would be on the cranky side today. " The last quote is from Colbyjack, and his quote about Gomez (and the other prospects) as players that are not "sure things" for the Twins seems to bear out in Gomez's 2008 and 2009 campaigns and I fear this is why they traded Gomez away realizing that he may never reach his potential. I hope this isn't the case, and JJ surely isn't a sure win for the Twins either in this trade, but I thought it would be fun to look back to see if Brewerfan.net was "excited" in any way for the Twins "haul" from the Santana trade, specifically as it related to Carlos Gomez. I give you all credit for your consistency, but you weren't enamored with Gomez then, and are not now http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

The writer mentioning Washburn is nothing. Sure the Brewers could have a connection because of his Wisconsin connection. But so could any other team needing a middle of the pack starter. At this point of the offseason, a writer is just writing something, anything. It does get us talking about baseball though. I wouldn't have minded Washburn for 10 starts in 2008 for a moderate cost, but if Washburn is our big splash, that would be disappointing considering the diminishing returns that we will surely get. I am not worked up yet over this one http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

"So the big question marks I have reside in the starting rotation, 3B, 2B, and maybe RF. I just don't see this team as playoff calibur minus Sabathia and a healthy Sheets. Gallardo is a plus for sure, but will he be a plus in late August and September? The way I see this 2009 team making the playoffs, is if they mash their way there, with Weeks finally realizing the potential he has, and Hall at least getting back to the midpoint of his 2005-2006 form. With that said, if these things happen we may score 850 plus runs and pummel the division and make the playoffs. I just don't see that happening. I would LOVE to be wrong!!! " This was part of my prediction of a potential 79-83 season. I had no belief that Gallardo was yet ready to shoulder the load of what Sabathia and Sheets did, and in effect even with his year of an ERA of 3.73 with a 1.31 WHIP he surely didn't match Sabathia's '08 (1.65 ERA/1.00 WHIP as a Brewer) or even Sabathia's '09 as a Yankee (3.21 ERA/1.10 WHIP). So that was a loss to last year's team and I haven't even yet mentioned who was to replace Sheets' performance. Bush was my hope due to his '08 stretch drive performance, (I still get excited by the Chris Carpenter comparisons of Dave Bush to the Cardinal Ace) but Hanley Ramirez changed that, but even before that injury happened, Bush was serving up too many gopher balls to the point where he was putting up average numbers. Suppan, has gotten worse every year, so I didn't expect much there for improvement and Looper looked like another Suppan. Parra, I saw as the the second linch pin (next to Dave Bush) to possibly holding out hope for a playoff calibur team, however, being very young and inexperienced, I couldn't overlook Parra's dreadful August and September 2008 and say, he will figure it out again fully to the point of putting up Ted Lilly '08 numbers. Mc Clung was in the bullpen waiting to step in as our #6 starter, but that 2008 starting expirement didn't work as well, nor should we have expected it to. As "Doug Jones" said the complete lack of any depth coupled with an average rotation at best doomed the team. The Brewers have scored 759 runs this season with three games to go which equals 4.77 runs per game, which is nothing to sneeze at, but the only way this team was going to make up for the pitching shortcomings was to score almost another run per game on average like the Yankees did 898 runs with three games to go (5.64 runs per game). I don't have the stat handy, but the Brewers led the league in lowest winning percentage when they scored 4 or 5 runs or more. Maybe even scoring at the Yankees pace wouldn't have mattered anyway given the average at best rotation and backup plans of Seth McClung, Mike Burns, Chase Wright, and Nick Green spelled disaster to me in terms of a playoff run. With that said, they are not that far away if they have some better luck obviously, and sign the right pitchers in the offseason. Couple that with the emergence of Josh Butler, Mike Jones, Zach Braddock and Mark Rodgers coming up the ladder closer to the top of the minor league ladder (crossing fingers), we could go down there in times of need for a dominating bullpen arm or a spot starter for a month and not be stuck with an under replacement level player like in 2009 stepping in. Let the hot stove league begin!!!

I am all for putting Suppan and his 14 million dollars in the bullpen to eat innings and be the sixth/seventh starter type. Who knows maybe by not starting he can extend his career (somewhere else) and find an extra mile on his fastball or something and become a serviceable multi inning reliever. Anything is better than being put in the rotation. Our "fifth starter" next year hopefully will be Parra or Narveson, meaning that the Brewers signed two starters this offseason and store some of these guys in AAA for call ups for when Hanley Ramirez hits a line drive off of one of our pitcher's throwing arm...... Of course.....if you could find a taker for that contract, I would listen!

Crossing my fingers, I think the Brewers are warming up just in time to play the Cubs down there despite what seems to be an unfavorable pitching match up on paper. JJ is on fire, Corey Hart is swinging the bat better. Braun and Fielder are both hitting well right now. McGhee continues to surprise. Counsell has been outstanding this year. Even Kendall has picked it up lately at the plate. The Cubs have been scratching for runs lately, and the Brewers have been beating some decent pitching lately in Matt Cain and Johan Santana. Of course they could get shutout the next day by a rookie making his major league debut, but I do feel much better about playing the Cubs now certainly than I did after the Tigers series.

I read on Mlbtraderumors yesterday that as you suggest, the Jays will not trade Halladay, but may consider dumping Rios or Wells to free up money to resign Halladay. However, "dumping" is what they suggest, I find that very hard to believe. Rios or Wells would look good in a Milwaukee uniform, but respecting the good board moderation here, that discussion is for another thread.

Adam Heether at this point should be clearly better than Bill Hall. Fear of eating the contract has to be the least of Melvin's worries. Maybe he will see the light that an AAA assignment might do him some wonders...... Free Adam Heether!

Also well said, Bob Skube. We are going on two years of no hit Hall. At 3B, we cannot have that hole in the lineup. He looks like a beer league softball player. Upper cutting on everything, and when he hits one, he stands in the box watching everything he hits. Drives me nuts! Signing Hall long term might have been Melvin's worse move as our GM.

So who do we all have? Erik Bedard Jeremy Guthrie Jarrod Washburn Brad Penney Cliff Lee Gil Meche John Lannon Zach Duke John Garland Doug Davis Dan Haren That list isn't real pretty, or in some cases real pipe dreams in Haren and Lee. These are just the teams that are struggling right now and closer to "selling" or have an extra pitcher or two (Boston -but maybe not with the Dice-K injury). Am I missing anyone? Any difference makers other than Haren and Lee?

At what point does Melvin cut his losses, swallow his pride, and DFA Bill Hall? I know he is due $6-$8 Million next year, but really can they really afford to keep him on the roster??? I just don't know what you can do with this guy anymore. He is useless, and a contending team cannot afford to have him on the roster. I say this in anger. Maybe tomorrow I will feel better about Bill Hall and his usefulness to the club. Probably not though....and I am an owner of a Bill Hall t-shirt......