Thursday's Frosty Mug
by Kyle Lobner on Nov 12, 2009 8:47 AM CST
in Milwaukee Brewers News
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PrintRemember yesterday, when the Mug was late because I had so much to write about? Today's Mug is nothing like that. Adjust your schedules accordingly.
It sounds like Doug Melvin has been active at the GM meetings: Adam McCalvy noted that he's spoken to the agents for Randy Wolf and Doug Davis, and is expected to also speak to Scott Boras, who represents Jarrod Washburn. Al may have summed it up best:
If you have an arm and an agent, odds are Doug has talked to them at the GM meetings.Arn Tellem, who represents Randy Wolf, told the Brewers his client is seeking a multi-year deal. The Brewers, in turn, told Tellem not to expect $5 million for Jason Kendall. Neither of those are really shocking developments: Wolf was also seeking a multi-year deal last offseason before the market evaporated and he was forced to settle for less, and Kendall hasn't been worth $5 million for several years now.
Meanwhile, FanHuddle wonders if the Brewers are building for 2011, not 2010, with the coming season being spent as development/evaluation time for players like Carlos Gomez, Alcides Escobar and Jonathan Lucroy.
Speaking of Gomez: Fire Doug Melvin has some fan fiction that might explain the decision to acquire him.
Today's "Around Baseball" segment has been reserved for senior citizens:
Mariners: Signed Ken Griffey Jr. (who turns 40 in November) to a one year deal for 2010. The deal is worth $2 million plus incentives.
Red Sox: Signed Tim Wakefield (who is 43) to a two year deal worth $5 million.
Looking for more info on the Arizona Fall League? John Sickels of Minor League Ball just returned from a trip out to the desert and is answering your questions today.
Meanwhile, there might be trouble brewing in Venezuela: the threat of violence and war is once again coming up in the country, and the Mets are considering calling home one of their top prospects in the Venezuelan Winter League. Meanwhile, Adam Heether still hasn't been seen in a game since November 1...
The Gold Gloves were announced yesterday, and I checked to see if any Brewers were honored, then tuned the rest out. Over at The Book Blog, Tangotiger has a press release on the irrelevance of the awards.
Looks like money is getting tight for the Dodger organization, trapped in the middle of the McCourt divorce. As Cute Sports noted, they recently cut the salary of 87-year-old amateur scout George Genovese to $8000. We've had discussions in the comments before about the "plight" of scouts and how it's not always as bad as it sounds, but this is ridiculous.
Speaking of financial issues, I mentioned yesterday that the Reds are looking to cut payroll this offseason and, as Tyler Hissey of Dugout Central notes, that makes last season's decision to trade for Scott Rolen even more puzzling. Rolen is due to make $11 million this season.
While most players are spending their offseason in various warm places getting ready for 2010, I still think Ross Ohlendorf is having the most interesting offseason of all, and now he's blogging about his work with the US Department of Agriculture (h/t Jen Langosch).
Need a Trenni fix this offseason? She's the guest in the most recent Phillies Nation Podcast.
On this day in 2007, Ryan Braun was named the NL Rookie of the Year. Braun has posted a .937 OPS in his first three major league seasons: Among players with at least 1500 PAs as a Brewer only Braun, Prince Fielder (.931) and Richie Sexson (.902) are over .900.
I couldn't find any Brewer birthdays today, so we'll have to settle for wishing a posthumous happy birthday today to Moonlight Graham of "Field of Dreams" fame, who would have turned 132.
Drink up.
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FYI
According to Scout.com Brewers prospect Brent Brewer is contemplating quitting baseball to play college football. He was recruited by Florida State to play WR back in High School.
Brewer has a clause in his contract that calls for the Milwaukee Brewers to pick up the full costs of his college education if he decides to attend college.
I’d offer a link, but you need “Insider Subscription” to read it.
Lame
Is that college clause still good? Could he have accepted a deal with the Brewers out of the draft, retired the next day, and still get his education for free?
"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!"
I'm not positive
The article only talked to Brewer and that’s what he said. Not sure if Brewer is completely correct or not.
In the article he says he wants to pick a school where he can be a starter right away. "I really don’t want to come in where I would have to fight for a job. "
I think those pay for college clauses are pretty standard
I’d imagine he has to at least play in the system a little while before it kicks in. Whether it’s a game, a week, a month, I don’t know.
Sign Corky Miller
Two quick thoughts:
1. I’d be nervous cutting the salary of anyone named Genovese.
2. Forty year olds are NOT senior citizens. And to prove it, watch me lift this….
ow. my back.
What begins in fear usually ends in folly.
by Ted Simmons Speed Camp on Nov 12, 2009 9:49 AM CST reply actions
If he tried negotiating his wage
Why didn’t he at least check with the other organizations if they’d offer better terms than $8000 and $2000 travel expenses? Wouldn’t some owner somewhere go, “you mean it’ll only cost me $21,001 to get good PR for me and make the Dodgers look like asses? Where do I sign?”
Would it be worse to cut his compensation to $10k or cut him entirely?
Dude's 87 years old, and has been a Dodger for decades.
I’m guessing he’d rather quit than change teams, and it’s hard to blame him.
That's all I've got for you today, unless you're interested in some Chris Capuano/Tom Haudricourt Fan Fiction.
When he dies, will Witrado replace him?
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, "That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
One can hope.
That's all I've got for you today, unless you're interested in some Chris Capuano/Tom Haudricourt Fan Fiction.
Dude was 72 when he moved from the Giants to the Dodgers.
72 isn’t exactly a spring chicken. I’d think the kind of man willing to work for a new team at 72 when cut by his old team is the kind of man that would still have the gas in the tank to move to a new team at 87.
I missed that note in the article.
Ok, you win.
That's all I've got for you today, unless you're interested in some Chris Capuano/Tom Haudricourt Fan Fiction.
Fielder
Finished 4th in the SB Nation MVP vote. Posted over on Pirates Board.
Pujols, Ramirez, Utley
I’m a huge fan of Tulowitzki, he was 5th, Ryan Howard was 9th I think. Braun 12th.
Now also published on the front page.
That's all I've got for you today, unless you're interested in some Chris Capuano/Tom Haudricourt Fan Fiction.
by Kyle Lobner on Nov 12, 2009 12:00 PM CST up reply actions
"If you have an arm and an agent, odds are Doug has talked to them at the GM meetings."
Pitchers don’t like it when you speak directly to their arm. I wonder if that’s what effed up the Sabathia thing last year.
Shut up, kid, I wasn't talking to you.
"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!"
Why must he treat them as if they were pieces of meat?
They have feelings and brains you know
"That's not a weird stat. Rickie is a run-scorer," Yost said. "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter," Yost told reporters. "See, you guys have no concept. He's a run-scorer. So there's nothing weird about it. That's what he does."
I wonder if Randy Wolf has played on the same team as Mike Lamb
That could be awkward.
"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 12, 2009 10:23 AM CST reply actions 5 recs
And Round 1 goes to RJ
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, "That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
Jim, your marked improvement in your comedy stylings is impressive. You, sir, get a rec.
"That's not a weird stat. Rickie is a run-scorer," Yost said. "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter," Yost told reporters. "See, you guys have no concept. He's a run-scorer. So there's nothing weird about it. That's what he does."
If free agency doesn't start til, what, the 20th?
Why are teams able to meet with other player’s agents and talk about those players? So much for having exclusive negotiating rights with your own free agents..
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, "That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
I don't think you can offer specific amounts
But you can say, “Hey, it just so happens we need someone at your position [wink wink]” and hear back, “I don’t want to play for Mudville [glare glare].”
Sign Corky Miller
Plus, it'd be relatively hard to police.
Say, for example, Doug Melvin meets with Arn Tellem, who represents Jason Kendall and also happens to represent Randy Wolf.
That's all I've got for you today, unless you're interested in some Chris Capuano/Tom Haudricourt Fan Fiction.
by Kyle Lobner on Nov 12, 2009 12:02 PM CST up reply actions
you're also not supposed to negotiate with potential picks before the draft
but that happens with some frequency.
by Capt Science on Nov 12, 2009 4:17 PM CST up reply actions
"You know, the other day, I was so hungry I thought I could eat 20 MILLION HAMBURGERS an HOUR for 4 HOURS. That's 80 MILLION HAMBURGERS.
That’s a lot of hamburgers. So, anyway, see you on the 20th.
What begins in fear usually ends in folly.
by Ted Simmons Speed Camp on Nov 12, 2009 7:12 PM CST up reply actions 3 recs
[wink wink]
[nudge nudge]
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, "That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
Hideki
Matsui… Should Milwaukee consider him to be a PH?
by Drew C on Nov 12, 2009 4:44 PM CST via mobile reply actions
This is an interesting concept
Not one that I would endorse, but its… interesting.
E: George 4 (5, throw, throw, throw, throw).
Assuming, of course, that Matsui would be open to such a role
Using him as a pinch hit specialist in a high leverage situation in every close game would get him what…roughly 95-100 high leverage PA’s, plus another 30-40 as a DH in interleague play?
Matsui made $13 million last season. If you assume he’s not willing to take more than a 20% pay cut, then he’s looking for roughly $10.4 million for those 140 PAs…
That's all I've got for you today, unless you're interested in some Chris Capuano/Tom Haudricourt Fan Fiction.
Also, Matsui's agent is Arn Tellem
Of “I represent Jason Kendall” fame.
That's all I've got for you today, unless you're interested in some Chris Capuano/Tom Haudricourt Fan Fiction.
It works out to being less than that, though the logic seems sound
Situational matchups, pulling pitchers, blowouts. I basically was saying interesting in the sense that I had never thought of it before because it would be a pretty big waste of money on something that would limit Matsui’s value to at most a half a win or so above a replacement-level pinch hitter.
E: George 4 (5, throw, throw, throw, throw).
I guess I assumed that, if you're spending $10 million or more on a pinch hitting specialist
You wouldn’t be picky about matchups – he’s better be able to hit both righties and lefties. And if that’s the case, I’d be surprised if there’s less than 80 games where you could use him.
The question then becomes: If you picked and chose just the highest-leverage pinch hitting opportunities in every game and put the same guy in therewhat’s the most value you could possibly cram into roughly 150 PAs?
That's all I've got for you today, unless you're interested in some Chris Capuano/Tom Haudricourt Fan Fiction.
.367 wOBA
pinch-hitting penalty is about .20 points. We’ll say the Brewer pinch hitter pool is around .300 wOBA. Matsui .347 wOBA over 150 plate appearances is only about 1.8 runs above average. A .300 wOBA is about negative 4 runs over the same time period. So you’re gaining 6 runs if everything breaks right, and leveraged that could be a max of about 10. Either way it’s not a wise investment at all. It’s also terribly impractical— he has a lot more value to a team as a DH. You could afford to pay $2 million to a guy who projects with a .370 wOBA to pinch-hit full time, but an AL team can afford to pay him about $10 million.
E: George 4 (5, throw, throw, throw, throw).
Maybe he can DH for us.
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, "That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
Why are we even talking about this?
With our SP woes, our salary problems… we won’t have any money to put into PH/Backups. We’ll be rolling the league min way.
Agreed
It’s a terrible idea. I’m just intrigued by the hypothetical, trying to figure out the max value one could get from a high-leverage pinch hitter.
That's all I've got for you today, unless you're interested in some Chris Capuano/Tom Haudricourt Fan Fiction.
With that said, in response to your "Why are we even talking about this?" question:
It’s a really, really long offseason. Did you have a significantly more pressing use of your time?
That's all I've got for you today, unless you're interested in some Chris Capuano/Tom Haudricourt Fan Fiction.
NL teams
Have been successful recently going out to get veteran proven hitters to PH in critical situations…
He’s the only Yankee I actually like…
by Drew C on Nov 12, 2009 7:09 PM CST via mobile reply actions
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NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chicago
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0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Cincinnati
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0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Houston
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0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Milwaukee
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0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Pittsburgh
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0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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St. Louis
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0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
(updated 2.8.2012 at 12:59 PM CST)
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