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griffey9988
That Braun contract looks worse and worse every time I see it. Lucroy’s contract is a great deal for the Brewers though. He had a nice year.
LazerTown
I get the contract, and it was an extremely good price for them at the time. He has fallen off a lot though, and not good when you still have another 6 years of that.
griffey9988
Right. Braun was productive at the time of the extension and had great years in 2011 and 2012, but has regressed drastically the last 2 years.
Dynasty22
Braun was playing with a thumb injury for the majority of the year. 1 season isn’t enough to say that the contract will be bad.
DarthMurph
It’s a pretty severe thumb injury though.
Dynasty22
Similar to Pedroia’s?
DarthMurph
There haven’t been any reports about nerve damage in Pedroia’s thumb, so no.
bdpecore
Recent reports said the treatment he received after the season has made a difference. I believe they froze the nerves during the procedure and Braun hasn’t felt any pain during batting practice since.
toddcoffeytime
The problem for Braun wasn’t pain, but numbness–he couldn’t feel his grip on the bat. I’m hoping for the best with the surgery but I not too optimistic.
oh Hal
It could be an injury that basically ends his career as a productive player or it may no longer affect him in a significant way going forward.
Lee Foo Young
Well, he IS off of PEDs, so maybe it is that?
SumatranRatMonkey
Then explain Melky Cabrera, Nelson Cruz, and Jhonny Peralta. They were busted for PEDs as well. They had great seasons.
ChiefIlliniwek
I’m guessing they don’t non-tender Estrada, rolling the dice that his value will more closely resemble the previous two years. He’s not very expensive and, if his 2014 is the worst you can expect for 2015, is within about a million bucks of his value. If, on the other hand, he shows more of his 2012-13 form in 2015, then he’s a bargain by like four million dollars. That’s a gamble worth taking.
Chris Koch
Personally, I’d non-tender him. Unless they move a Starter in trade. The club has too many SP options going in to 2015 that Nelson’s Reliever role and price tag for it will be too high. Especially due to Broxton’s high price tag. Gotta shave money somewhere.
John W.
I think they should pick up the option for Ramirez and if he declines don’t offer him a QO(saave the 4mil off the option basically) and instead go after Chase Headley.
Headley would give them much better defense(something the team has lacked) and a long term option at the hot corner.
bdpecore
Offering Headley a 4 year/$48M deal like MLBTR suggests he will receive still allows the Brewers some flexibility while shoring up their biggest weakness/hole based on available internal options. a platoon of Clark/Rogers could be serviceable at 1B next season with the hope one stands out enough to takeover full time going forward.
Seamaholic
Lots of competition for Headley. Unlikely he decides to move to Milwaukee (one of my favorite cities, I would add, but not a glam location).
bdpecore
True, but many of his possible destinations are not sure things. The Yankees have to find room for him and A-Rod; Blue Jays might not be able to afford him and resign Cabrera or play Lawrie at 3B and sign a 2B; Washington could follow the Blue Jays lead and keep Rendon at third while signing a 2B; Royals likely will stick with Moustakas after his impressive postseason; Red Sox appear to be going after the Panda; leaving the Brewers, Giants and Astros (if he doesn’t mind losing for a few seasons). The Brewers could definitely be on Headley’s short list of preferred destinations once his market starts to form.
Yohan
Players hardly care what the city is like. They play half their games away from the home stadium and in the off-season almost all live elsewhere anyway.
It is a factor but pretty minor when all said and done. He wants money over anything imo.
bdpecore
Their rotation should be a strength. I would look to move either Lohse or Gallardo, start Nelson in his place freeing up money to sign LaRoche and Headley. If we do move either Lohse or Gallardo, Estrada can now be kept for depth.
Yohan
Moving such a reliable starter(as far as year to year numbers go) like Lohse or Gallardo would be extremely risky. The other problem I have with your idea is keeping a $6mil long reliever. That money could instead be used on real bullpen arms.
I’d much rather keep the rotation intact. Dropping Ramirez in favor of Headley makes a lot of sense and even if they did that they still would have enough money for a real 1st baseman.
I think the Brewers have enough money to retool without freeing up a starters contract.
Chris Koch
Are you forgetting about Nelson? IF the Brewers keep Lohse/Gallardo then Nelson is a Bullpen RP, he or else Fiers and I imagine Fiers is the #5 after his finish til otherwise he blows his spot or Nelson flat out dominates and earns one.
Or, you trade Lohse or Gallardo and there isn’t A who’s the #5 SP and who gets misused in the Bullpen? There is 10.5 to 12.5mil saved with such a trade to use towards the bullpen…Or a Platoon saving Middle INF.
It’s fairly dumb imo to stack your team 7 deep with rotation potentials and another 1 or 2 on the way in AAA wasting 2-4 roster spots now on SPs playing relievers. Especially when they all are virtually the same expectation-wise. None of them are #2 SPs. None of them are #5 SPs. They are all #3s/#4 Rotation arms. 3.3ERA with Luck to 4.25ERA when not lucky but basically in the 3.8ERA mid ground range.
Now, If Nelson/Fiers/Jungmann/Pena/Smith surge in to Elite RP status with the move from starter, then it opens up their new role vs Starter. It’s just I don’t know they have something elite in their pitching repertoire to be that kind of Reliever.
arthur3
The 2014 Brewers are a prime example of why a contending major league franchise should never retain a rule 5 pick that is not going to be an immediate benefit to their team. Wang is/was ill-prepared to to face major league hitters, and yet, the Brewer management opted to overuse an overworked bullpen rather than acknowledge their mistake of shielding Wang on their roster. It is no wonder that the strongest first-half team in baseball became a fatigued team during the second half- that’s what will happen when a team attempts to compete one major leaguer short of a full roster for half a season.
Novak
Not really. The reason for their second half collapse was their offense, as virtually everyone saw a clear decline in their numbers between pre-all star and post-all star production.
As for the bullpen specifically, the injuries to Henderson and Thornburg were the most damaging, as it limited the effective options Roenicke could rely upon (to K-Rod, Smith, Duke). Also, Henderson was hurt prior to the season and Thornburg has had questionable mechanics all throughout his career – if you plan on blaming their injuries on Wang’s presence.
oh Hal
He was the mop up guy. He was better than most mop up guys I’d guess. He also could have been better in my estimation if Roenicke didn’t bury him. The problems with the bullpen were due to Roenicke and not a lack of arms. I’d guess the bullpen was toward the bottom of the league in innings pitched the 2nd half.
arthur3
The Brewers played too much of their season short-handed- 24 major league players on their roster, and one warm body to throwing batting practice to the opposition’s hitters. “Mop up guy” wouldn’t describe Wang’s role on the team. How about “sacrificial lamb”?
SumatranRatMonkey
Tom Gorzelanny basically took over Wang’s role in the bullpen after Wang went on the DL. Gorzelanny then pitched roughly 25 innings. Didn’t matter who was in that spot in the bullpen, he wasn’t going to get used much. It’s mostly the same very year. Just look at Tim Dillard’s major league usage. Wei-Chung Wang was in on way responsible for the Brewers collapse or the injuries to Jim Henderson and Tyler Thornburg.
Vandals Took The Handles
I’m not aware of the details of the Brewers situation. But I find it hard to believe that the reason a team had a 2nd half collapse after leading their division for so long, was due to keeping a guy on the 25 man roster. Teams call up and send down players down to the minors literally daily. And in September the rosters are expanded.
Yohan
It had no effect at all. If they needed a long man to eat innings they just kept switching guys. For example if one pitchers came in for a blowout and pitched 3+ innings they sent him down and brought a new guy up.
They only had three reliable pitchers, that was the problem in the bullpen.
Sage
Saying it had no effect is a little drastic. I mean, we played half the season with a guy who wasn’t ready to face major league hitters. That made us go to our other relievers more often. We rarely used a single guy for 3+ innings and sent him down. We did that maybe twice with Alfredo Figaro. But otherwise, we still used our important relievers. Will Smith was a big one who got overused early on. Now, placing the blame for an overworked bullpen solely on keeping Wang on the roster is not accurate, I will say that. The blame should be assigned to Ron Roenicke, who made the decision to not use Wang in blowouts, and to use his important relievers in blowouts. Wang came in more often than he should have in important games (I’m remembering a game against the Pirates where he came in in a 3-2 game in the 8th inning, and gave up something like 8 runs), and less often than he should have in blowouts. It was terrible mismanagement of the bullpen from Roenicke, which we have come to expect.
paqza
If I were the Brewers, I’d consider moving Will Smith back into the rotation. He showed glimpses of a solid mid-rotation guy when with the Royals, especially in AAA in 2013.
Yohan
And take out who?
paqza
It’s not like the Brewers have a stacked rotation – a lefty putting up a ~3.5 ERA/FIP/xFIP shouldn’t have a problem breaking into it.
SumatranRatMonkey
Smith has pronounced splits. Righties crushed him. Putting him in the rotation appears to be a non-option.
oh Hal
You can agree with it or not, but they won’t take Garza, Gallardo or Lohse out. Fiers and Peralta did pretty well. Estrada is in the mix. None of them other than maybe Estrada seem particularly well suited to relief and putting Smith in the rotation means a LH reliever has to be acquired.
Yohan
There is no chance Gallardo, Garza, Lohse, or Peralta get moved out of the rotation. So that leaves one spot and I’m not sure why a guy who has pretty bad stats as a starter(hitters bat .300+ against him), a 3.50ERA as a reliever, and has never thrown over 75 pitches is a good guy for that spot.
Actually I can’t think of one reason why I would pick him over Nelson, Fiers, or even Estrada.
paqza
I take it you haven’t looked at his AAA numbers as a starter?
Yohan
Should I care about his numbers as a starter in AAA? Sorry but I’m taking his major league numbers any day of the week. As a reliever or starter…doesn’t matter.
paqza
That’s not a good strategy when guys have limited sample sizes.
Chris Koch
I’m sorry but no way is Smith going to jump in to the rotation when the team has Fiers/Nelson to fill out their 5th spot. Plus they have Estrada to consider and there’s Jungmann who’s just wasting life on his arm if they continue him in AAA. He doesn’t have much more to prove. Smith was very, good vs. Leftys, and had a poor split vs. Righties. Needs to stay in the Bullpen.
oh Hal
The only way Kintzler is non-tendered is if he isn’t healthy.
Roenicke likes to load a lineup with opposite hand hitters if he can, but they likely won’t have a platoon partner for Gennett and it would probably not have much benefit.
If they don’t resign Krod, they’ll put Broxton in the closer role.
They should put Rogers and Clark on the roster and skip signing an old guy contract for someone at first, but I’d guess Melvin would go the opposite.
Saying they don’t have star level talent in the upper minors doesn’t mean much in my opinion. Fiers like Gennett wasn’t a major leaguer. Davis was a 4th OF. Peralta was a reliever. Nelson is a reliever. The experts would respond with “oh well, prospects…”
If they went with Rogers/Clark at 1st and gave Aramis a couple years to get the one good one, all that Melvin would have to do is find a LH reliever. It’d be great to get Duke back but he’s earned some good coin.
It’s a young team loaded with talent. Maybe I’m wrong, but I get the sense that Melvin won’t be able to overcome his desire to add a Mark Kotsay or two to the roster. Once they’re there, they’ll play no matter how bad they are.
SumatranRatMonkey
Gennett absolutely should be platooned. He’s never been able to hit lefties and that’s never going to change. No, not even with more practice. It’s been 5 years since he started professional ball and he’s only gotten worse.
I like Clark and Rogers but they could very easily be awful at the major league level. They should, and very probably will, sign a veteran that can handle the position. It won’t be a superstar, but they don’t him to be.
oh Hal
I’ve seen 2 sets of numbers on Gennett’s minor league years. One set says he did hit lefties. Using numbers in the majors from PH appearances for a rookie or 2nd year guy isn’t illustrative of much in my opinion either. He wasn’t able to play defense or even hit in the major leagues according to experts. He absolutely should be tried full time.
A veteran could very easily be awful at 1st. If Clark or Rogers struggle they can be sent down or released. The veteran will cost many times what they will and with Melvin, the contract plays. He never admits mistakes either. Morris might be an option later. If they sign LaRoche or some other guy at the end of his career, they’re likely going to want a couple years and Clark will be long gone and Rogers will get the hose job of having a couple spot starts and some PH appearances in a September call up and that’ll be it for him.
If Clark, Rogers or Morris succeed it will be a huge value going forward as well rather than having a failed FA plays or Melvin does the whole song and dance again with some other old, should be retired retread.
Yohan
Thinking Gennett can hit lefties is a total pipe dream at this point. I don’t need an expert to tell me he can’t hit lefties…it is pretty brutal to watch him swing vs. Lefties. Even with vast improvements he will still be well below average.
oh Hal
Do you think they should trade him for a reliever or something and bring back Weeks?
Chris Koch
11Ks in 42 PAs. He still puts the ball in play vs. Lefties. I’d agree with you he’s a lost cause vs Lefties, if he had something like 27 or more Ks in those 42PAs. But it was just 11. Far more RH Starting PItchers than Leftys so it’s pointless to waste a Roster spot on a 2b Platoon partner. Someone mentions how Wang’s roster spot taking cost this team. How about Weeks? 2 Players on a team that can Only play 2b?
If there’s going to be a Platoon situation find a Lefty SS for Segura to platoon him with and play Segura at 2b. It’d work better if this Lefty SS could also play 3b or say LF for Davis.
ezrider
Not a Brewers fan here but two FA coming off the Crews books would fit nice in Flushing with the Mets. Zach Duke and Mark Reynolds. Fills two needs for us in the pen and to platoon with Duda at 1st.
ezrider
i’d like to see the Mets try and sign Duke and Reynolds.
No Soup For Yu!
Why would the Brewers non-tender Kintzler? He was one of their best relievers after the All-Star Break and was solid against lefties and (to a lesser extent) righties. Sure, he wasn’t as good as he was last year but I’d say it’s worth rolling the dice on him hoping he can recapture his 2013 form, especially when it only costs $900K to retain him.
Chris Koch
Kinztler wasn’t as good as his numbers appear. He was saved numerous times from inherited runners of his coming around to show what his true ERA would have been. Around 5. Nothing is impressive about Kinztler. His pitches aren’t special. He’s declining as a Pitcher, you don’t shove him back out there when there are going to be far, far better options to acquire or use in his roster spot.
Lee Foo Young
The Pirates will be more than happy to trade 1bman Ike Davis to the Brewers!!!1
daveineg
Dierkes is way off on his speculation for Ramirez. No way he gets a 2 year deal from the Brewers. He was very unproductive from the time in late June the Brewers reached their high water mark of 19 games over .500. From then on he hit a grand total of 4 HR and drove in a paltry 26 runs. I’d say the chances of the Brewers picking up his 2015 option are 50-50 at best. No way they go two years. Ramirez is very similar offensively to Paul Konerko. Once Konerko reached 37, his production fell dramatically. Ramirez turns 37 next June.
davE 36
while i agree with you, there isn’t too much supply to the demand the brewers provide…
A-A-RON22
Ramirez hit .380 in August….
A-A-RON22
I could see them offering him a 2 year 16 Mil deal with incentives for games played.
davE 36
i don’t really like parra’s bat in right field, but i like it better than braun’s glove out there … especially if brauny can play first base