Brewers GM Doug Melvin is scheduled to meet with principal owner Mark Attanasio and manager Ron Roenicke this week, so there should be some clarity on the status of the coaching staff in the next few days. There should also be some clarity on the health of Ryan Braun. Last Thursday, Braun underwent cryotherapy to freeze the nerve in his ailing right thumb and has a follow-up appointment with the doctor who performed the procedure on Monday. If there is no adverse reaction to the treatment, Braun will begin swinging a bat to determine its effect on his swing along with his pain tolerance.
Here’s more on the Brewers, courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt and Todd Rosiak:
- Haudricourt opines the biggest offensive boost the Brewers could receive this offseason is Braun’s cryotherapy being a success because the free-swinging ways of the rest of the lineup are likely to continue. As Haudricourt writes, “It would be easier to change a leopard’s spots than turn any of those hitters into a modern-day Wade Boggs.”
- Rosiak guesses Roenicke will return, but with a revamped coaching staff and approach.
- Rosiak would not be surprised if the Brewers pull out all the stops to try to fill their offensive void at first base noting the front office will have serious interest in Adam LaRoche, if he is open to a two-year deal. The Nationals hold a $15MM option on LaRoche, which is expected to be declined.
- Rosiak lists the odds as 50-50 for Aramis Ramirez returning to Milwaukee adding it will take some time for the situation to play itself out.
- Speaking of Ramirez, MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes penned a free agent profile of the Brewer third baseman yesterday.
Melvin said Overbay and Reynolds were the answer. He seems to have a lifetime appointment.
If he and Attanasio are going to meet with Roenicke, it probably means he’s coming back. He’s flawed, but I don’t have any faith in their ability to bring in someone better.
The LaRoche talk is depressing.
LaRoche talk is depressing? Why, because he’d be the best 1B we’ve had since Prince (with better defense)? I would love to see LaRoche in a Brewers uniform. We could definitely use a left handed bat with pop and a high OBP. LaRoche takes a lot of walks, which is sorely lacking in our lineup
Yeah, I agree. I mean, what could really get more depressing than a Mark Reynolds/Lyle Overbay platoon? LaRoche would be a huge improvement upon that. I just question if we’d be able to get him, in a thin market for first basemen.
I feel like Melvin has cultivated a fanbase that wants FAs and disdains using its farm system. LaRoche will cost North of 10 million a year and has a history of bad half seasons. Will he be better than Matt Clark and/or Jason Rogers?
Melvin is the one who brought back Overbay and part of his reasoning was that he was here before and had fans. Reynolds gave the team the veteran presence that was good for… whatever veteran presence is supposed to do. The answer to everything isn’t asking the owner to pony up for another old player.
Would I love the Brewers to be able to rely on their farm system to fix the first base issue? Absolutely. Do I think Matt Clark or Jason Rogers are the answer? No. I’m not some guy just clamoring for any and all FA signings, but if we want to be competitive (which I know Mark A does), a LaRoche deal makes sense. If we’re going rebuild (which I think might be our best option long term), I’d give Clark/Rogers a shot.
LaRoche put up an OPS in the 700s for much of his career. You can likely get the same thing from the multiple options that he has already. They’ll cost a half a million and he can shuffle them back and forth and try different ones. LaRoche will cost about 25 times that much and once he’s signed, he’ll play to the bitter end. If they want to be competitive, LaRoche would be yet another Melvin fail.
Melvin’s reasoning for Reynolds and Overbay was that there weren’t any other options. You can spin it however you’d like though. If I were GM of a team with a market like ours, I’d absolutely try to build thru my farm system, but Doug hasn’t (and has cleared our farm in trades), so this is what we’re stuck with.
I think the point is Melvin could have gotten as much production out of untested guys, of which the Brewers had a few in AAA (Morris, Halton, later Clark and Rogers), than he did out of the Reynolds/Overbay foolishness. None of the guys in the Brewer high minors project as average major league starting 1B, but we’ll likely never know as they won’t get that chance. LaRoche is a decent one or two year stopgap for the position. That’s an improvement at least.
No, that’s not true. Melvin stated that the team needed their veteran presence and leadership. He sounded teary talking about how Overbay came in to work out at the crack of dawn. Melvin will take an inferior player over someone he has in his farm and pay more for them because he thinks that their experience and age are hugely valuable. I’d guess that nostalgia is part of his decision making. Spin is creating an excuse for him that he never stated.
I would love to see links with these Melvin quotes, and audio of his teary-eyed Overbay love-fest. Do you really think Doug would’ve went with the Reynolds/Overbay platoon if there were better options in our farm/or in FA? Hint: no.
Has ICYMI always been a common abbreviation for In Case You Missed It…?
ICYMI? I thought mlbtr was a little more professional than that.
It’s a trade rumors site, I understand the questioning but I don’t care as much as others do if the info they bring to us is accurate, which it usually is
I’m not sure “it’s a trade rumors site” is a justification to be overly casual.
This is a private run site, it is not an official news website, which is where I believe the leeway sets in
I don’t agree with that reasoning, either.
What is there not to agree with? If Dierkes wants to run his site as a casual baseball rumors site, then how can you argue his vision for his own website, now if the writer did that and it is not cleared by the site owner, that’s a different story
The reasoning is what I don’t agree with — which is what I just typed. The owners of the site can do whatever they want, they own it. I don’t want to come across as overly negative or critical, but I don’t think the original point made by tesseract was a bad one.
Using overly casual language, and text-speak acronyms, isn’t how a media outlet [or anyone, really] ought to be communicating. I think we can agree that the site is probably one of the top go-to sites for baseball information at this point.
Fair enough, and they fixed it so I guess the point is null now, but I just don’t get the point of everyone pointing out grammatical errors over looking at the legitimate content and basing an opinion off of that instead
A professional site shouldn’t have grammatical errors, and if they do, they should be fixed as soon as possible. This site is typically very good a that, so I’m not knocking them for it. But some people seem to think that on sports sites, because the content isn’t “serious” that grammar is somehow no big deal. Professional websites need to be professional in all aspects of their communication.
This is exactly what I was getting at. The compartmentalization of information and communication into that which has standards and that which does not.
I’ve seen this kind of discussion on other sites (ones that have regular issues) and I never understand those who defend errors. I know we are discussing baseball rather than something “important”, but a lot of these sites are full time jobs for the people who run them. It’s not like I’m critiquing the grammar in a text message from my friend. Professional sites should be held to standards of professionalism. I’m not sure why those standards would apply to some and not others based on content or subject matter.
That being said, typically this site does an excellent job. So I am not meaning to criticize it. I respect how responsive they are to feedback and how willing they are to fix errors when they occasionally pop up.
Also, I believe the use of text message style writing is frowned upon in the commenting policy.
Where is there better writing?
I do get a little thrown off at the mixing of news with oped within the same article. The site has made great strides. I enjoy it, certainly. It’d be different if it were a straight media source. I generally don’t feel that a writer should inject themselves into a story. That’s a journalistic faux pas. This is a good source being written by and for baseball fans who interact through comments. All in all we’re better as fans with this site
Where do I go that the writers aren’t doing what’s done here?
I’m not sure, because I think some media sources are commentators and some are straight sports reporters. This site reports from both sources. I’m not always sure why this sites writers need to add their oped to in the storyline. It’d be great for the comment section. It does drive page views and perhaps ad views.
I was a journalism major in college, and worked sports for a regional newspaper. I know that some writing…especially among blog sites can be technically sketchy at times…but I tend to look at the spirit in which something is written.
So, enough people complained about the usage of “ICYMI” for the last bullet point of this post that it actually got changed. Really people? What’s next, are we going to complain about their usage of contractions because it’s too casual? Jeez. And now for something completely different: an actual comment about the baseball content of the post!
I see a lot of people guessing that Roenicke will be back for 2015, but I just really don’t see it. He made his fair share of mistakes this year, and Mark Attanasio was NOT happy at the end of the season. I mean, his press conference and even his on-air interview were just dark and depressing. He’s ready to fire some people. This club is going to have a different look to it in 2015, from the coaching staff to the players on the field.
I think LaRoche would look nice in a Brewers uniform, but I doubt it happens. He’s in his age 34 season right now, and probably going to be looking for a three year deal at least, kind of as his last big contract of his career. I don’t think he’ll want a two-year deal, and I think he’ll be expensive. But, considering our dearth of options at first base, I wouldn’t be surprised to see us try to get him anyway.
The last time he was a free agent he was only able to get a two year contract, and he was two years younger coming off the second best season of his career.
He had a QO, which I doubt he has this time around since Zimmerman has to play first and Washington would need to trade him if he accepted the QO..
This is true, but who else is out there this offseason? The market at first is thin, and he’s still putting up consistent numbers. I think that could shoot him into a three year deal, personally. Certainly, if I were him, I’d be aiming for three years and only taking two if absolutely nobody is offering three.
I think LaRoche will shoot for a three year deal, and after an older Carlos Beltran received one, he probably should shoot for it.
I wonder if Washington would consider picking up his option and then shopping him, but they probably wouldn’t take the risk in case interested parties weren’t inclined to give up talent in return.
Yeah, I think picking up his option would be too much of a risk. Unless they wanted to shop around Ryan Zimmerman instead, but I doubt that. I think it’s safe to say they’ll be declining his option.
Do you think the whole giving Jason Rogers the player of the year or whatever its called was phony or indicates that there are no major league players in the upper minors? Do you think Matt Clark’s play in the minors and Japan were a product of inferior competition and he should go somewhere else? I’d rather have Sean Halton than LaRoche.
Do you think the whole 243 career Major League homers and .264/.340/.472 career slash line is phony? I truly feel like you do not actually know who Adam LaRoche is, if you are this insistent that we should not get him, to the point of saying you’d rather have Sean Halton.
Now, believe me, I like Jason Rogers and Matt Clark. Thing is, we moved Rogers to third in the minors because we needed a successor to Aramis due to our lack of depth at that position as well. Clark is an interesting bat with success at the highest level of Japan and lots of AAA success, as well. I think he should be on the team next year.
But really, look at it objectively. Our depth is very poor at the infield corners (and don’t bring up Hunter Morris, we all know that’s going nowhere fast). LaRoche is a lefty first basemen who has produced consistently for the last decade (excepting one injured season in 2011) at the major league level. The logic is obvious.
Yeah, that slash line includes some big years from long ago. He’s also not a big HR hitter. His consistency includes slashing 735 a season ago. What he did in his 20s isn’t hugely relevant. Yes, he’s reaching the age that seems to have some mystical attraction for Melvin. Maybe he likes the idea of having his favorite players on his team for one season.
Yeah, doing the Melvin thing with burying guys in the minors is foolish. Paying 25 times or so as much for the exact same thing is his M.O. and definitely not logical.
Not going to be surprised if the White Sox go after Pablo Sandoval..lefty hitting 3B..makes sense.