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Another guy for the Brewers who can't get on base. Great.
But hey - he doesn't strike out though! That's the key to fixing this offense!
As a Brewer fan, I'm going to be ill. (Although some would say as a Brewer fan, I'm ill to begin with...)
Just for some additional context on this move, the Pirates hauled in Quilvio Veras and John Valentin (yeah, the perpetually-injured 3B) for workouts last week as candidates to fill the team's hole at second, but didn't give Young a call. Young has been pretty good for his whole career, but he's at the age where a decline would not be unexpected, so the year isn't as obvious an outlier as it might seem. If I ran the zoo, I'd rather have Veras, and I'd especially rather have Veras as an NRI than Young at 2 mil a year.
Sadly, the answer is - yes, the upper levels of the Brewer system ARE that awful. The Indianapolis outfield was patrolled last season by the likes of Micah Franklin, Chris Jones, the now-departed Mark Sweeney, and Alex Sanchez.
Pick your poison, I guess.
It provides some depth for the inevitable injury-caused shakeup in the outfield. Also, as I mentioned, Stairs certainly isn't blocking a promising prospect...
Looking at the multipositional list for the Brewers earlier, I noticed that they could possibly pull off the rare triple switch in a game, and not have anyone out of position (fielding "well" is another issue entirely). Start with Young in center, Belliard at second, and Hernandez at third, and rotate clockwise. Maybe if they did it before every pitch, whole opposing teams would die of boredom. The Brewers could use the threat of it to keep the game moving at a reasonable pace, like mutual assured destruction.
"I know what you're thinking, punk. You're thinking, does he play with six utility men or only five? Well to tell you the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being as this is the Milwaukee Brewers, the most god-awful baseball team in the world and will bore your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: do I feel lucky? Well do ya, punk?"
Actually in terms of a talent flip, trading D'Amico the expensive Burnitz, and getting back Rusch and Ochoa and then signing a player close to the equivalent of Burnitz on the cheap is a pretty nice move.
Of course, as has been mentioned, they need to be concerning themselves with players other than those in their mid 30s (Young, Stairs), but hey, compared to the initial flurry of Taylor moves, this could have been worse.
* He utters the 4-word clarion call of the "Free Durazo" wing of hardcore SDCNs. Do we want him in our cell?
* When he calls Shannon McNally a "definite bad girl", does he mean it in the Donna Summer sense? If so, is this yet another pro-Boston reference?
"He'll be needed to platoon with Stairs, becuase Ochoa will be forced to center when Hammonds goes on the DL."
You mean he's not on the DL yet?
That was a truly wonderful depiction of Don Baylor's shortcomings, which I believe cost the Cubs about 4 games last season.
Brett,
"The Brewers aren't devious enough to pull the minimal payroll/guaranteed profit trick; instead, they seem to spend money -- not much money, but some -- on superfluities like Eric Young and Jeffrey Hammonds."
This has long been a Milwaukee strategy, from say 1991-present. I just flipped over to Baseball-reference.com and gleaned the following tidbits.
1991 I remember that the signing of Franklin Stubbs was the "answer" for the Brewers the paid him $1.87 mil. in '91 and $2.26 mil. in '92 for an OPS of .495/.665.
1992,1993, and 1994 featured the gigantic contract bust that was Teddy Higuera. Teddy made $10.25 million over those three seasons while throwing 125 innings.
In 1993, Kevin Reimer was touted as the "answer." He had a .697 OPS that year, and the Brewers went 75-87.
In 1996 the Brewers signed Ben McDonald as the answer to their pitching problems. He made $2.2 million that season. He pitched well in '96 providing the Brewers with 221 innings pitched. His luck ran out in 1997 when he made $5.0 million (highest on the team), and pitched on 133 innings.
In 1998 Marquis Grissom joined the fold and was supposed to ignite Phil Garner's gritty offense. Grissom became the highest paid player on the team, making $5 million. Well Marquis stunk, and his .304 OBP failed to ignite much of anything in the leadoff spot.
In 1999 Grissom made another $5 million, and improved his OBP to .320. It didn't matter much to the Brewers who went 74-87.
Then in 2000 they signed Jamie Navaro, who made $5 million dollars to throw 18.7 innings and a 12.54 ERA (losing 5 times). Grissom again made $5 million and went promptly into Operation Shutdown, posting a horrific, .288 OBP and a .351 SLG.
The 2001 Brewers brought in Devon White to play center field. Devo made a $5 million salary and hit .343/.459 for an OPS of .802. Not too bad, but White only played one season. Were they thinking that they were just a veteran away from winning it all? They also anted up $6.5 million for Jeffrey Hammonds who got hurt (go figure), and played poorly in 49 games.
The more I look at this franchise the more it reminds me of Kansas City.
I got to thinking about the histories of the Royals and the Brewers and did a bit of analysis. In only a three year period did KC signifantly outplay Milwaukee. I'm not saying that KC was *not* a model franchise, because I whole-heartedly agree they were, and were definitely seen as an elite organization for a long time. I took the won loss records for Kansas City and Milwaukee going back to their beginnings in 1969. I have broken it down to three eras, beginning with the rise of the Royals in 1975, from 1975-77 they played at a .581 clip to Milwakee's dismal .414. It should be noted that KC won their division in '76 and '77.
The next era begins with the rise of Milwaukee in 1978, between 1978 and 1982. Between the two teams they won their divisons 7 times. Although KC won their division 5 times to Milwaukee's 2, Milwaukee actually had a better record in 4 of those seasons. Milwaukee's .574 was just a bit better than KC's .548.
Finally, I defined the final era from 1983 to the last time either team was relevant, which was 1992. In that span, they played to nearly identical winning percentages. KC's .506 narrowly edged Milwaukee's .501. It should be noted here, that KC did go to the World Series in 1985 and that should not be disregarded.
Any comments on any of that?
Schuerholz took charge in the early 1980s ... his moves defined the standard for the let's-get-some-proven-veteran-free-agents type of GM we lampoon today. He won one divisional title in 1984 and one championship in 1985, but that's it.
All three men have won Exec of the year awards for their work in KC:
http://baseball-almanac.com/awards/aw_sney.shtml
And here's the exact James passage from a Ron Johnson post to Usenet.
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1bo7ODUykgb8bRz0Aol8ISkqy5Af@4ax.com
I mean, I remember his playing days well, but that's because I was in Atlanta while he was playing second base for the Braves in the late 70s and early 80s.
I am, though, hoping to see your Brewers get stomped and swept this week...
Sure hope Jenkins is okay. I broke my ankle back in high school; needless to say, it wasn't much fun.
These are not numbers that warrant a starting job in 2003, if there is a more consistent option available.
I've seen Rushford play. He's a pure hitter a la Tony Gwynn; he doesn't get cheated when he swings and usually hits the ball hard. I think the MLE's are probably a good representation of what he could do given major league time.
-- MWE
-- MWE
That's why they're the Brewers. If they could figure these things out, we'd probably be calling them the A's. But since they can't, we call them crap.
What hope is there for the Brewers if they gain Manny Alexander, but don't make a concerted effort to resign Raul Casanova, if, for nothing else, as a mop-up pitcher for blowouts? (I think "Raul Casanova" might be Spanish for "Hal Newhouser").
http://www.baseball-reference.com/n/newhoha01.shtml
Gary Woods, you still out there? The Brew Crew needs some bench depth.
So that's what, twice in two months? A month and a half maybe?
What's the record on that anyways?
I don't know, but it probably involves Johnny LeMaster.
* Signed catcher Cody McKay as a 6-year minor league free agent and added him to their 40-man roster.
* Signed pitcher Brooks Kieschnick and infielder Scott Seabol as non-roster invitees.
Slowly but surely the Brewers are taking advantage of the new MLB economic order....
Brooks Kieschnick at AAA Charlotte in 2002:
189 ABs
The AP article implies Kieschnick is being looked at strictly as a pitcher.
I share your skepticism, but it's a new management team in Milwaukee with Melvin and Yost... I think there's a chance they may see 106 losses and realize it's very unlikely to get any worse. They have at least two years to do something.
Kieschnick is a classic high-risk, high-reward guy, and I think signing him is exactly the sort of move the Brewers need to make. As far as how he is used, I think Yost will probably make use of him if he makes the team. It's just too tempting, when you have a guy hurt and a short bench, to give Kieschnick the opportunity to pinch-hit... and once that works out successfully, the temptation to keep going back to the well is going to be considerable.
To give some idea, Kieschnick's .259 MLEqA at Charlotte was within six points of the EqA the Brewers got from Eric Young, Jeffrey Hammonds, Alex Sanchez, Mark Loretta, Alex Ochoa, and Geoff Jenkins. He outhit Ronnie Belliard and all of the Brew Crew's 113,000 catchers by a huge amount. Basically, most days he'll be one of their two or three best pinch-hitters.
This is not a big deal or anything, but I think the Brewers did well here.
Why would the Twins trade for a guy (Oakes) who had this line in the Midwest League:
Hart will obviously need more time at AA to start, but he doesn't turn 21 until next March...
(Of course, if Hart's error totals at third reflect his defensive ability, he might have the ability to make, say, Keith Moreland look like Brooks Robinson)
-- minor league fields are horrible (grooming and lighting both)
You taught me not to lie, Mom.....so I stopped using it :)
Doug Melvin: "Last year he got off to a horrible start that we don't want to talk about. But from June on he hit over .300. . . . I have confidence in Royce's ability overall, both offensively and defensively."
Royce Clayton: "I think this organization is heading in the right direction. They have a number of young players who are capable of throwing up tremendous seasons."
I was at the game in 1997 when Mlicki shut out the Yanks in what was (and no doubt always will be) the highlight of his career. Every time someone else signs him I wonder whether there was a GM's convention in NYC that night and everyone got the idea that he was a pitcher.
But if you just intend to pay the guy a million dollars to be the Glendon Rusch we all know and mock, I don't see it.
2003 - .381
Two off-seasons ago I figured H% & Hit Deltas for every pitcher who'd throw 150 or more innings in a season from 1986-onward. If Rusch isn't an outlier, then there is no such thing as an outlier. He's the anti-Charlie Hough. He always gives up more hits than his Voros-stuff would suggest. Two of the three worst Hit Deltas I know of come from this one pitcher - in 2001 & 2003. (Jaime Navarro had the other one). Those are the only seasons I know of where a pitcher's given up +30 more hits than the team's H% would indicate. Granted, he usually doesn't do that bad, but he'll generally (IIRC, I don't have any of the info in front of me) allow +10 or more hits than one would figure. In the context of his career, 2002 is actually the outlier in that he wasn't too far off his team's H%. IIRC, it was the best hit delta of his career. The point is, though I'm a big fan of DIPS & DIPS ERA, I wouldn't trust it too much with Rusch. In other words, what 8 ball said.
FB: 132 (32.3%)
1996..14..170...0.74
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