Another Fanpost in less than an hour, BP's take on the Brewers off-season

by Hyatt on Nov 19, 2008 8:28 PM CST Comment 12 comments

sorry about that, but I just found Christina Kahrl's take on the Brewers' off season. Again, no link possible, so enjoy

What Do They Need? They need pitching, especially starting pitching. Despite pushing their way into the playoff picture the last two seasons, the Brewers' bid on future contention is highly contingent on their ability to retain or replace at least one of their free-agent aces, CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets. The despair creeping into GM Doug Melvin's public pronouncements on the subject of Sabathia betray a sense of how fragile their immediate odds on keeping up with the Cubs are.

What Do They Have? Even if last year's decision to go for broke didn't engender some fondness for Beertown in Sabathia, there's enough good stuff in-house or on the way up to nevertheless leave Brewers fans relatively optimistic about the picture over the next several seasons, if not so much over 2009. With shortstop Alcides Escobar, catcher Angel Salome, and slugger Mat Gamel all nearly ready, an outstanding young core in the lineup is about to become better still.

What Are They Likely To Do? They'll offer every cent they can to try and keep Sabathia, because Sheets won't fill the bill, nor will any of the other realistic alternatives on the market. Failing that, 2009 becomes a bit of a re-gearing year for the the franchise. Either way, they'll dangle Escobar because they already have a slick-fielding shortstop with some sock in J.J. Hardy, and offering either around would be their best tack in trade talks. Whatever the outcome on Sabathia, they'll wind up taking their chances on the lead-gloved Gamel as their third baseman, and await the arrival of Salome to provide an upgrade on Jason Kendall behind the plate.

What Should They Do? Signing Kerry Wood to make the rivalry with Wrigleyville's nine that much more of a grudge match would make things interesting. With the surplus of young talent in the organization, sneaking into the Peavy negotiations might be plausible, if only because the Padres need young talent. As far as additional action items, they need to make Mike Cameron a Yankee before the Bombers think the better of it. If they settle for young pitching and Melky Cabrera, they're still left to deal with the question of whether and when Rickie Weeks is ever going to settle in; if they put together a package to get Robinson Cano, they can solve that by making Weeks their center fielder. Whether they keep Sabathia or not, they need to take a risk on a journeyman starter from among Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, or Jon Lieber to help round out a rotation otherwise stocked with question marks.

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If we didn't have to give up very much in addition to Cameron

I would be in favor of trading for Robinson Cano and moving Rickie to center or trying to trade him or someone else for another center fielder (like dejesus as roguejim says in the fanpost that I am to lazy to link to.

Eric Gagne DL time: May 23-June 29 Brewers record in that span: 20-9

by NoahJ on Nov 19, 2008 8:43 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

the whole thing makes my head hurt

Sign Kerry Wood? He’s too expensive for the Chicago Yankees, but the Brewers should risk it. Is Melky Cabrera an upgrade over TGjr or Iribarren? I can’t believe how trivial people think it is to move from 2nd to CF. Is Rickie supposed to polish his skills in AAA for the first half of the year?

Robinson Cano won’t come cheap. Think how many teams could use a 2nd baseman right now.

And WHAT THE HELL, they need to take a risk… from among Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, or Jon Lieber to help round out a rotation otherwise stocked with question marks.

That is about the stupidest suggestion I’ve heard. Hey look the Brewers are coming to town. They’ve got Suppan, Bush, and Bartolo Colon pitching – oh wait, its Jon Lieber (isn’t he retired now?).

That’s from the managing editor of BP (a Chicago resident). If anyone wants to look at the rest of the division suggestions its up at the Sports Illustrated website.

by ol Pete on Nov 19, 2008 9:07 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Places like BP do this

They don’t have enough people to all focus on one team and really understand what’s going on. Sheehan predicted the Braves would win the wilcard at the all-star break, that didn’t work out too will. You can’t take it too seriously.

Am I the only one who thinks Cano is worse than Weeks? He had a .305 OBP this year and signed a huge contract, I think.

Yeah, I don’t really agree with anything they say.

And neck size to baby eating ratio.

by Jordan M on Nov 19, 2008 9:48 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Cano's last two years before this one were pretty impressive.

Eric Gagne DL time: May 23-June 29 Brewers record in that span: 20-9

by NoahJ on Nov 19, 2008 10:13 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

the author went to school and lives in Chicago

Its the managing editor of BP. I don’t know that much about the structure of it, but in the newspaper business, that’s the number two editorial person. How can that person not have a general sense of the Brewers? I mean Bartolo Colon… or Jon Lieber? That’s just being mean.

by ol Pete on Nov 19, 2008 10:40 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

It’s also being sloppy. For example, I know exactly jack and squat about the Washington Nationals, but if by some sort of miracle someone asked me to write some hot stove notes for the team I could go and look up some stats and read some news articles and get a sense of what went on in 2008 and what they’d need for 2009. Sure, I’d probably be a bit off on stuff, but not to this point of off.

And I’d think that Villanueva or McClung would be worth more wins to a team than Bartolo Colon at this point. FAIL

by morineko on Nov 20, 2008 3:35 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I agree

Cano doesn’t bring a whole lot of marginal value to the lineup, whereas Cameron’s defense can contribute in a big way (even an average defender in CF is worth half a win above average over the season, and average is basically Cameron’s floor. There are probably better options available for much cheaper.

I’d like to see the Brewers sign a guy for cheap like a Chris Duffy or Ryan Langerhans (who may have been re-signed already, not sure on that) who plays good defense and could spell with slightly above replacement level hitting.

---
Juuuust a bit outside!!
http://balkingtraditionalism.blogspot.com/

by Jack Moore on Nov 19, 2008 11:29 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I can’t believe how trivial people think it is to move from 2nd to CF.

If they’re not contending anyways, they might as well. And, without CC, they won’t be.

by HRF on Nov 20, 2008 1:54 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

is Gamel the 3B going into the season?

did i miss something?

by baumann on Nov 20, 2008 2:06 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Probably not

Though I think he’s expected to make the team.

"I will agree that the attitude [at BCB] is ridiculous and they have done so much to instigate animosity and then block us from responding. Real mature!"

by roguejim on Nov 20, 2008 6:36 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I find it hard to fathom he will be a bench player for any large amount of time, though.

Unless when he gets a chance to start he averages two errors a game. In which case he should probably just be sent back to AAA for more glove-work anyway.

Eric Gagne DL time: May 23-June 29 Brewers record in that span: 20-9

by NoahJ on Nov 20, 2008 8:31 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

more from a recent "chat"

Same author:

I guess I didn’t save the question on this one – sorry

Christina Kahrl: I just don’t think Gamel can handle third convincingly enough long enough to be tolerated at the big-league level; there just isn’t enough Maalox in the world. A Gamel/Hart/Braun outfield would give life to way too many flying things (much as I enjoy the spectacle of seeing Hart in center, it doesn’t really work), and Fielder would have to fetch you top-shelf pitching talent and perhaps that third baseman to be remotely tolerable, setting aside whether you replace him with Gamel. Gamel to somebody else for a starting pitcher or starting third baseman is sort of like all the talk about Billy Butler: you’re limited to the DH-league teams, because everyone’s aware of the unglovely downside that goes with these cats and their limitations as fielders.

On Chicago talk radio and often on Chicago blogs/websites, Braun is still referred to as having a “lead glove” or similar and Hart isn’t a maestro with the glove but he ain’t that bad either (I agree about CF though) – pete

Rob (Alaska): Was the Rickie Weeks/Ray Durham platoon a good idea? Do you think they’ll do the same in 2009? Now that Cameron is in the fold, the option to move Rickie to CF is gone.

Christina Kahrl: OK, I know, it’s a bit of a run on Brewers questions, but I’ll deal with this one now too… yes, it was, but I’ve never been sold on Weeks’ ability to stick at second. Picking up Cameron’s option makes sense if you can deal him (for young, under-control pitching, perhaps), but I think the charade of calling Weeks a second baseman needs to come to an end if the Brewers really want to turn the corner.

Again, I’ve often been critical of Weeks but a charade?
– pete

by ol Pete on Nov 21, 2008 5:04 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

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