Prospective future for Mat Gamel?

by attheoldballgame on Apr 23, 2009 4:31 PM CDT Comment 27 comments

I've been watching Mat Gamel (#6, 3B) play this season, many times in person. He's having a tremendous season so far offensively. He's arguably one of the strongest hitters in the PCL.

But his glove is sub-par. He's improved defensively the last couple years but I think for a 3B he's not even close to Major League material defensively.

Are the Brewers ever going to give him a chance to play 3rd or is he likely to become trade-bait in the near future?

Or other thoughts for his prospective future?

Thx

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If I had to guess...

If they’re way out of it around the deadline I think they flip Fielder, play Nelson at first for the rest of the season, and give the spot to Gamel from there on out.

If they’re in it I think he’s traded for pitching. I just don’t see a spot for him aside from first.

by warwick5s on Apr 23, 2009 4:59 PM CDT reply actions

with the market the way it is now

for low defense, high slugging players, we might be able to hang on to Fielder for a handful more years.

by Braunstalker on Apr 23, 2009 5:15 PM CDT up reply actions

I would be shocked

If Gamel is traded before he’s arbitration eligible. I’d call it unlikely if he’s traded before his last season or two pre-free agency.

The whole point of the small-market finance management is to keep someone like Gamel for as long as possible, or until his value on the market catches up to his talent. Trading Gamel the season after trading one of our LaPortas…I just can’t see it.

"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 Apr 23, 2009 7:27 PM CDT up reply actions

Right, and we only have the one Gamel

We still have eight of our LaPortas kicking around…somewhere…

"I didn't realize his velocity was that high," said Macha, noting that radar readings aren't flashed during exhibition games.

by battlekow on Apr 23, 2009 7:34 PM CDT up reply actions

Always wondered...

Where the heck did that eight LaPortas thing come from, anyway?

by Cheeseandcorn on Apr 23, 2009 7:37 PM CDT up reply actions

I'm not going to dig up the actual birth of it

But the gist is that he was the uber-prospect and that we didn’t even need the rest of the team; we’d just play nine LaPortas and beat everyone.

"I didn't realize his velocity was that high," said Macha, noting that radar readings aren't flashed during exhibition games.

by battlekow on Apr 23, 2009 7:53 PM CDT up reply actions

Actually

I’m pretty sure they came from a little BALCO offshoot company called BACLONE. The reason you don’t hear about these 8 other LaPortas is because D. Melvin is hiding them up in the Canadian arctic so he doesn’t lose any more to trades. It’s basically all a ploy so come September 2011 he can trade the entire team (except C.C. and Todd Coffey) to KC for Zack Greinke, who will then go on to pitch every game through the World Series with 8 LaPortas manning the field behind him.

BCB, the preferred above replacement level sarcasm supplier.

by MadJimiBrewha on Apr 23, 2009 8:27 PM CDT up reply actions 2 recs

Rec'd

for BACLONE

by tcyoung on Apr 23, 2009 9:27 PM CDT up reply actions

I couldn't help it...

here’s where it started.

Jeff’s left-righty lineup was good for a chuckle even a year later.

by Zeyes on Apr 24, 2009 8:59 AM CDT up reply actions

okay...

so where’d “Also, Cheese” start?

by PagsBrewCrew on Apr 24, 2009 11:10 AM CDT up reply actions

I owe it to a member, I forget who

but I think it originated in deadspin comments.

Also, cheese.

by Jeff Sackmann on Apr 24, 2009 12:41 PM CDT up reply actions

sounds like Dikembe on that one

"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."

by Hyatt on Apr 24, 2009 3:24 PM CDT up reply actions

Nope

http://www.brewcrewball.com/2008/3/26/93224/3145#4297438

Deadspin’s preview

1. Chicago Cubs. We’re not ready to go with the "they win the World Series in the 100th year" business, but the lineup is starting to scare us a little.

2. Milwaukee Brewers. These guys reek of slow starters, followed by the firing of Ned Yost, followed by a crazy run to the wild card.

3. Houston Astros. This franchise is absolutely dead in two years. Their last gasp will push them into third place. Congrats, guys.

4. St. Louis Cardinals. The lineup should surprise — watch Brian Barton, kids — but man, is that really Todd Wellemeyer in the rotation? Heavens.

5. Cincinnati Reds. No longer will these guys sucker us in. It’ll be fun to see who Griffey goes to, though.

6. Pittsburgh Pirates: Yes, yes, the Pirates are still around. Nice stadium too.

And the comment:

These guys reek of slow starters, followed by the firing of Ned Yost, followed by a crazy run to the wild card.

Also, cheese.

Scored three times and detonated an indisputable in four visits to the batting box.

by Jordan M on Apr 25, 2009 12:56 PM CDT up reply actions

so...you got your name officially changed?

i thought you just signed up for a new account jihad.

by PagsBrewCrew on Apr 25, 2009 8:15 PM CDT up reply actions

Nope, the user blog and everything is still there

I have 99 BCB posts now, it looks like.

Scored three times and detonated an indisputable in four visits to the batting box.

by Jordan M on Apr 25, 2009 11:16 PM CDT up reply actions

Worse than Braun?

If have a feeling Gamel will be up either after Bill Hall’s contract is up after next year or earlier in the year next year if they can unload Hall. They weren’t shy about living with Braun’s defense when he clearly wasn’t major league ready either. If Gamel’s even that bad at defense we’ll probably live with him. If we had a legitimate left fielder before Braun (and Jenkins in no way counts considering his last couple years here), we’d still be living with Braun at third now. Think about it this way, if we had an offensive left fielder when Braun was a rookie, we would have been that much better in spite of his poor defense at third. Now we have one in Braun so we’ll probably live with Gamel and they’ll try and let him learn at the major league level. I think they’re going to try and unload Hardy after this year (assuming he ever starts hitting and has any trade value) to make room for Escobar. Gamel will be minimized a little bit by Escobar too, just as he probably is now. Besides, if you think of Weeks now, no one would have been really complaining too much about his defense the last couple years if he had been batting .290 or .300.

by Brewcityhoya13 on Apr 23, 2009 8:32 PM CDT reply actions

Maybe Someone has done it and I just don't recall

But I would love to see a comparison of where Gamel is now to where Braun was at the same time in his career path. Essentially, was Braun better than, equal to, or worse than Gamel is now in terms of defense. Seeing as we saw what Braun was able to do defensively at 3rd in the majors, this might give us a landmark of what to expect from Gamel if he were to get called up this year.

BCB, the preferred above replacement level sarcasm supplier.

by MadJimiBrewha on Apr 23, 2009 8:47 PM CDT up reply actions

It's easy to write off Gamel as Braun II: Electric Boogaloo

But from all accounts, he has better range and is a more natural third baseman than Braun.

Going by the TotalZone numbers on MLS, Gamel was worse at BC in 2007 than Braun was there in 2006, but Gamel improved a lot last year, becoming better than Braun was at any level. As Jeff pointed out in a comment at Beyond the Boxscore, the plethora of throwing errors that Gamel makes subtract more value than is accounted for by TZ, but then again, Braun made plenty of throwing errors, too.

"I didn't realize his velocity was that high," said Macha, noting that radar readings aren't flashed during exhibition games.

by battlekow on Apr 23, 2009 10:08 PM CDT up reply actions

He made his 6th error tonight

At least it was a fielding error?

"I didn't realize his velocity was that high," said Macha, noting that radar readings aren't flashed during exhibition games.

by battlekow on Apr 23, 2009 10:18 PM CDT up reply actions

6 errors in 14 games

Ouch. At least he went 2 for 4 at the plate. I would prefer that his batting average (.423) be higher than his error per game average (.429) before he gets the call up.

BCB, the preferred above replacement level sarcasm supplier.

by MadJimiBrewha on Apr 23, 2009 10:47 PM CDT up reply actions 2 recs

+1

Yes

by Saberilliterate on Apr 24, 2009 5:38 AM CDT up reply actions

It's hard to imagine

anyone having played baseball as long as him and yet developing only rudimentary fielding skills.

by ecocd on Apr 24, 2009 9:54 AM CDT up reply actions

at this level

who knows.

by Hyatt on Apr 24, 2009 10:23 AM CDT up reply actions

I tend to think it's something more along the lines of this

BCB, the preferred above replacement level sarcasm supplier.

by MadJimiBrewha on Apr 24, 2009 12:33 PM CDT up reply actions

one quibble

obviously you’re right about the throwing/fielding thing (and obviously I agree with you, since you’re citing me), but it also depends just how bad the throwing errors are.

If he’s throwing off line, pulling the first baseman off the bag, that’s the same as not making the play. In a manner of speaking, that’s getting “counted” in TZ: TZ recognizes that he didn’t make that play.

If he’s throwing into the dugout and one or more runners are taking extra bases, that’s beyond the scope of TZ. It probably wouldn’t be that hard for me or Sean to figure out the cost of the extra bases relative to average, but we haven’t done it.

Also, cheese.

by Jeff Sackmann on Apr 24, 2009 12:45 PM CDT up reply actions

So, as I sorta mentioned a few days ago...

should we be encouraged by the fact that Money is (apparently) working with Gamel specifically on his throwing and that only one of this year’s 7 errors have been throwing errors?

by Zeyes on Apr 24, 2009 2:48 PM CDT up reply actions

apparently we need Ron Washington to turn him into a Pickin Machine

From what it sounds like around here, he’ll be available shortly.

by Hyatt on Apr 24, 2009 3:26 PM CDT up reply actions

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