Thursday's Frosty Mug
by Kyle Lobner on Sep 3, 2009 9:32 AM CDT
in Milwaukee Brewers News
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PrintThe Brewers managed to get eleven baserunners in six innings off of Chris Carpenter last night, the second most he's allowed all season, but the pitching staff couldn't keep the Brewers in the game long enough to give the team an opportunity to win. There's no shame in being outpitched by the bionic arm of Chris Carpenter. Jeff Passan of Yahoo has a profile of the Cy Young candidate and his dozens of surgical scars.
Dave Bush couldn't beat Carpenter last night, so he plunked him instead. That HBP was the 50th of Bush's Brewer career, making him the new franchise leader. He also picked up his 51st later in the game. After the game, Bush brushed off the suggestion that he could have used more time in the minors to prepare for his return. With the Brewers now below a 1-in-1000 shot of making the playoffs, they've got plenty of time to give Bush a few more starts and see if he straightens himself out.
Mike Cameron might be back next season after all: He told reporters he would be willing to make a sacrifice to remain in Milwaukee for 2010. FanGraphs has Cameron at 3.9 WAR for the season, the third highest total on the team.
Corey Hart is ready for a rehab assignment, and will spend the weekend with Nashville to see if he's ready for a return to big league action. He won't exactly be bumping aside a whole lot of vaunted prospects in the outfield in AAA: Yesterday's Sounds outfield featured both Corey Patterson and recent independent leaguer Tike Redman, with Jon Knott, another recent indy leaguer, pinch hitting. The Sounds lost to Memphis for the second straight day, dropping a game and a half behind in the division.
The Brevard County Manatees are playoff bound, and after months of living in the dark, we finally have a site covering them. Space Coast Baseball will be doing live audio broadcasts from Manatees games over the weekend and in the playoffs. The site is still pretty new, but it's great to have resources like it out there.
J.J. Hardy has gone 1-for-4 each of the last two nights since returning to the major leagues. What do you expect the Brewers to get for him this offseason? The Blue Jay Hunter would like to see him in Toronto, and is willing to offer relievers Jeremy Accardo and Jason Frasor, who would do a lot to help solidify the Brewer bullpen for next season but would still leave a gap in the rotation.
Meanwhile, Chris Capuano pitched well in his first appearance in Helena, throwing two scoreless innings. His velocity is down a bit, but that's to be expected from someone who's undergone Tommy John surgery twice. It'll be interesting to see what happens with Cappy after the season: He probably owes something to the Brewers, who spent all season rehabbing him despite very faint hops he'd pitch in 2009, but he'll also be a free agent.
The Brewers are commissioning focus groups to discuss what fans liked and didn't like about this season's Brewer team and ballpark experience. I'm guessing "more winning," "lower concession prices" and "cheaper parking" will be the suggestions.
The Brewers are up two spots to #18 in MLB FanHouse's Power Rankings.
Around baseball:
A's: Claimed pitcher John Meloan off waivers from the Pirates.
Giants: Designated pitchers Ryan Sadowski and Jesse English for assignment.
Nationals: Acquired minor league reliever Victor Garate as the PTBNL in the Ronnie Belliard trade.
We've hit September, so it's time to start talking about mathematical eliminations. As Jon Heyman noted, the Nationals were eliminated from contention in the NL East last night. The Orioles have already been eliminated from the division race as well. A Nats loss or a Rockies win today would eliminate them from contention for the Wild Card as well.
As a rule, I typically skim over or skip most things written by athletes on the web: They rarely have anything interesting to say, and would get themselves in trouble if they did say something worth noting, for the most part. With that said, I'm glad I didn't skip over this post at Baseball Analysts by A's prospect and Harvard grad Shawn Haviland, discussing the statistics that minor league pitching coaches do and don't care about, and how fluctuation in BABIP can impact them.
Rob Neyer and Wezen-ball offer their insights on old time pitchers, and how hard they actually threw. Neyer's analysis seems about right to me: they threw hard enough to earn a living today, but wouldn't dominate as they did then.
Getaway days in San Diego are going to suck next season: The Padres are moving the start of weekday day games from 12:35 Pacific Time to 3:35, meaning East Coast and Central Time Zone teams probably won't get out of San Diego until 7 or later local time, then face a cross country flight where they'll lose several hours in the air.
Congratulations are due out to former Brewer farmhand Michael Brantley, who picked up his first major league hit last night.
On this day in 1901, the original Milwaukee Brewers (who would later become the St. Louis Browns and Baltimore Orioles) lost both ends of a doubleheader, 10-0 and 6-1, to the original Baltimore Orioles (who would later become the New York Yankees). Joe McGinnity pitched complete games in both games for the Orioles.
On this day in 1976, Mike Hegan hit for the cycle as the Brewers beat the Tigers, 11-2. On this day in 1991, Jim Gantner homered (ending a 1762 AB homerless streak) and the Brewers scored three runs in the ninth to beat the A's, 5-3.
Happy birthday today to two former Brewer bullpen arms: Chad Fox, who turns 39, and Eric Plunk, who turns 46.
Oh, and yesterday was probably the only time William Ernest Henley will come up in baseball conversation this season.
Drink up.
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Focus Group:
1) See KL’s suggestions
2) No kids under the age of 12 permitted below the terrace level
3) See 2, but for drunken imbeciles.
4) No reading graphic novels during the game
5) No more blasting the radio broadcast of the game throughout the concourses
6) No more retro uniforms, unless they’re updated for the current color scheme
7) No more Cubs fans at non-Cubs games
8) No more closing of the roof unless there’s rain/snow
9) Pre-game reminders as to which cupholder goes with which seat.
10) No more thundersticks. Ever (not a problem this year, but christ that was obnoxious)
Some real suggestions
1) Tint or darken the windows in the Loge and field level bathrooms. They get super hot and steamy and gross.
2) When you have a Trivia game on the board, don’t use letters to indicate the answer. It’s hard to indicate a “D”. That’s half the fun while watching crappy baseball is to play the Trivia games. And 1 – 5 is easy to indicate on the hands.
3) I loved the replacement of parts of the fencing/railings from metal to glass. Makes sight lines much better, if it’s possible expand it to the very high TR walkways. They make site lines horrible in the cheap seats.
4) Put a pedestrian walk way over the driveway area on the way form the stadium to giants lot. It makes paying for a preferred parking spot silly as it’s slower getting out of preferred then taking the 3 minute walk to regular old parking.
5) Get rid of the diamond dancers. They don’t fit into anything.
6) I’m a fan of the text the Brewers to report problems. That’s a great thing, keep that up!
7) Open other gates, when we lost a set of 6 doors to the new store, it makes lines rougher some times. More entrance area would be a plus.
8) For the love of god get rid of the “Are you ready?” crowd exciter before the game. It’s seriously lame, bring back “Bring em out’” or something not so lame.
9) More porta potties on weekends and high demand games. (Boy it’s rough, plus at 10 bucks a car they can afford it)
10) Power wash the venting, boy it’s nasty, doubt it’s been cleaned since it was put in.
Beyond that, I think they do a pretty damn good job minus the product on the field right now.
5 is bad.
It’s nice to be able to listen to the game when stuck in lines/bathrooms/dealing with children. Infact turn it up in the bathrooms.
Meh..
Then get better seats ;)
And I do agree with you on the Retros. Update the colors a bit and lets make it the real uni.
I can hear the game from midway back of the diamond level (along the lines). That's ridiculous.
Especially in less than well attended games.
Maybe your suggestion should be to correct the speakers placement?
Particularly behind home plate.
I’ve sat in almost all the other sections on the lower level… and haven’t heard the radio broadcast from my seat.
I like the old blue better than the current blue.
I sorta get (but don’t agree, cuz I’m old) the notion that they should banish the retro logo altogether, but what’s wrong with the colors?
by Ted Simmons Speed Camp on Sep 3, 2009 8:45 PM CDT up reply actions
alternate Retros
players wear names of former Brewers of same jersey number. Ugh, that would be confusing to a first time visitor.
RE: #9 on SgtClueLs' list of suggestions......
A few years ago we went to opening day and the porta-john situation was absolutely unacceptable. The line in the preferred lot to get into one was probably 30 people long at a minimum. People were going in between cars and cops were issuing tickets, and it all seemed completely avoidable.
Anyway, at the start of the 2008 season some friends in my 20 pack group and I were talking about how much that ruined a perfectly good day at the park. A handful of my friends and I emailed the Brewers (maybe 2 weeks before the home opener) and described our experience, and pretty politely asked them to consider a large increase in the number of facilities.
We kind of thought that would be the end of it, but within 24 hours all of the people that had sent in an email received a telephone call from a gentelman who worked with the organization. He mentioned that they only had 16 porta-johns for the entire crowd on opening day (16!…for like 60K people!), they realized that was unacceptable, and going forward they were making an effort to increase that amount. When we got to opening day, sure enough, there was a pretty obvious increase.
Point being, like my grandma always used to say, “Write your congressman.” It sure does seem to me like the Brewers respond to fan suggestions, and it should work even better if you can get a large group of people to submit suggestions on the same topic. At the bottom of the Brewers.com there is a Help/Contact us tab, and you can follow that to this. Minus the influx of “Trade Suppan!” emails, hopefully this helps if there are realistic changes the fans out there want to see.
Suppan, who has seen his ERA rise from 4.12 in his final year in St. Louis to 4.62 in 2007 and 4.96 last year, isn't an option in fantasy leagues - Rotoworld
Free Customer Feedback
Companies spend a decent amount of money trying ot figure out how pleased people are with their products, and to gather suggestions. They certainly appreciate getting that feedback for free. And writing a letter/email is a great way to express your concerns.
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, ""That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
SgtClueLs #8
I miss the “Bring em out” song. And I really hate the dramatic country song they play now.
"my goodness"
by BrewHaHeather on Sep 3, 2009 1:31 PM CDT up reply actions
Definitely a need for MOP's Ante Up
nothing gets me more pumped
"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."
hallelujah on thundersticks
“Ever” is right.
I loved hanging out at the WBC this spring, but thousands of Japanese, Korean, and Mexican fans with thundersticks almost cancelled out the overall awesomeness.
Also, cheese.
by Jeff Sackmann on Sep 3, 2009 10:10 AM CDT up reply actions
Korea giveth, Korea taketh away
You were nearly Ko-Jacked
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, ""That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
Chatting up baseball fans
Capuano doesn’t owe the Brewers anything. They signed him to a minor league deal and could have cut him any time if the rehab didn’t go well. He’ll get another minor league deal next year and if some other team is willing to guarantee him more, good for him.
Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.
If you tell him that, he might do it.
He owes us another season for sticking with him!
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, ""That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
Man the dodgers are blessed
I would love to just sit back and listen to Scully read the phone book with a story on every other name.
"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."
Completely agree on Scully...
… which is why I acted like an ass for days after BK referred to him as “just a guy” a couple of years back.
I love listening to him call ballgames.
by Ted Simmons Speed Camp on Sep 3, 2009 8:49 PM CDT up reply actions
That's not really true, though.
It was clear already in May that he wasn’t going to pitch much, if at all, in the majors this season. The Brewers could have cut him then and saved his salary and the time of all the training staff that have worked on rehab with him.
Instead, they’re letting him eat innings in the minors despite the fact that he won’t help them this season.
"The reports are that he is getting better. The definition of better is nebulous."
Right
But that doesn’t mean he owes the team anything.
Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.
But might it make him slightly grateful?
I mean, wasn’t it easier for him to rehab inside of an organization than it would have been on his own?
by Ted Simmons Speed Camp on Sep 3, 2009 8:50 PM CDT up reply actions
Yeah, I would imagine he was glad for the opportunity
Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.
that explains why I watch the Giants so much
now if they’d only let Kuiper do it on his own… ;)
(is that his brother doing PBP for the A’s? I don’t usually watch AL games)
cheaper parking
I haven’t paid for parking more than twice this year. I just park next to Badger Railing. It’s fun watching people pay 8 bucks to park 100 feet closer. Of course, if we’re tailgating in a big group, we’ll park one of the cars in the stadium, but everybody else will park for free and just meet us.
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, ""That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
So you're the jackasses
Who have one car and 20 people that leak into our tailgate spot of 3 cars and make it hard to play bags :)
do you mean cornhole?
"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."
20? naw, we've had 10 at the most, i think.
The groups with 20+ at 1 car are the idiots that still payed to park elsewhere in the lot and walked to one car.
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, ""That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
Well yeah
Havent you ever seen that crazy guy driving around the warning track during the game? :)
"You have no honor!" - McClung to Fukudome
It's free if you drive a Chevy
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, ""That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
The implied topical shift from "Miller Park" to "ballparks in general" needed a disclaimer for you, I presume?
by Zeyes on Sep 3, 2009 6:17 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
it was relevant
and also clearly spelled out in the link title;)
Since when do we ever stick to a narrow topic around here anyway?
Yes, I was also struck by the slight absurdity that...
an off-topic diversion of the original subject ought to be narrowly limited to the original off-topic. (Off-topic topic?)
Actually if you drive a Toyota Tundra, you get your own spot...
but good luck getting it into it. :)
by sjlee on Sep 3, 2009 1:18 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
On Cam
depending on how big of a sacrafice (say reducing by 4 mil) I would love to have cam back
"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 guess he has enough money?
I remember a quote early in the offseason that he was surprised the Brewers ponied up $10 million to keep him. That probably played really well with him and shows the Brewers value him very highly. And even at $10 million, he’s a pretty good value this year, right?
American workforce surveys consistently show that the number one influence on employee retention is liking the other people you work with. I guess that applies in baseball, too. Some laymen are willing to take a little less money to work at a place they like or work at a place in the suburbs. Maybe Cam likes the area, likes his teammates and has made enough money at this point in his career.
It would be nice to see him back, especially to give the Brewers the chance to find a center field prospect inside or outside the organization that would only be a little green when the club needs him in 2011.
I’d have to think a sweet heart deal couldn’t be any less than $8 million / year. He’d probably also insist on at least a partial no-trade clause in return. It might even be the same $10 million he got this year. Maybe $18 million over 2? I’m not saying the Brewers should pick him up for that, but he’s gotta be worth more than $10 million on the FA market.
According to FanGraphs
He’s been worth $17 million so far this year, and in fact, since 2002 (when they start doing the values), he’s only been worth under $10 million twice, in 2005, when he had the concussion (and was worth $7 million), and in 2007, when he had a down year for whatever reason and was still worth $8.9 million.
Brewers Baseball and other assorted nonsense (mostly the assorted nonsense) at my blog, What's a Tararrel?
I'm not familiar with FanGraphs...
What formula are they using to determine “worth”?
Also, seems to me that if they say Cameron is worth $17M, there are guys worth even more who make less than Cameron.
My offter:
One year, $11 million. Mutual option for 2012 at another $11 million, with no buyout if he declines and $1 mil buyout if Brewers decline. Option vests if he reaches 550 PAs next season.
"The reports are that he is getting better. The definition of better is nebulous."
Seems a bit high...
Particularly since he’s going to be 37 next season.
Cameron has been pretty consistent and durable while with the Brewers. He’s definitely a team leader. If they can resign him, it wouldn’t be the worse thing in the world.
BTW, I noticed that Podsednik is going to be a free agent next season… what do you think about picking him up? If nothing else, he’d be a great utility OF option.
No, he wouldn't.
At least not any better than what we’ve got.
and you claim the offer is too high because of his age, then say that he’s been consistent, durable, and a team leader. Is there any reason to anticipate any of those things changing? Age ain’t nothing but a number ;)
I like Podzilla
So I wouldn’t mind seeing him back. But it’s mildly irrational (especially since SimPodsednik helped me win the BCB Sim League), so reading off stats to me won’t make a lick of difference. I also have an irrational love for Aaron Boone, but since he’s not a Brewer, I’ll spare you that (although a year or two ago he almost signed here).
But Cameron would probably be the best option for one more year. Not sure about two.
by Capt Science on Sep 3, 2009 11:52 AM CDT up reply actions
My two statements aren't contradictory.
$11M for a 37 yo career .250 BA/25 HR per season CF is a bit much. Age is much more than a “just” a number when it comes to professional athletes. I think it would be naive for anyone to not anticipate a drop in his production at some point in the near future.
My point about him being consistent, durable and a leader is related to my opinion that he does have some value to the team.
I'm not a huge Cam fan
The Brewers don’t appear to have developed (and kept) any players that could conceivably come up and play center, so it probably is the best option to sign Cam for a big chunk of money. Melvin’s going to have to get his small-market woe-is-me story started early.
by Marty McSuperFly on Sep 3, 2009 10:58 AM CDT up reply actions
They could still keep Cam and trim elsewhere,
like the catcher situation you mentioned the other day or Hardy.
(By the way Marty, I am a Cam fan but I just thought I’d mention that I’ve found myself nodding in agreement at many of your comments lately. FWIW.)
Suppan, who has seen his ERA rise from 4.12 in his final year in St. Louis to 4.62 in 2007 and 4.96 last year, isn't an option in fantasy leagues - Rotoworld
A quick look at what the Brewers have to spend
I decided to look up the committed money in 2010, and who is arb-eligible and free agents. Double-check anything you think looks wrong – I just grabbed all this quick from rotoworld.
Committed money
David Riske $4.5 million
Jeff Suppan $12.5 million
Ryan Braun $1 million
Prince Fielder $10.50 million
Alcides Escobar minimum
McGehee minimum
Bourgeois minimum
Parra minimum
Gallardo minimum
Stetter minimum
Arbitration-eligible
Carlos Villanueva (first time)
Rickie Weeks 2.8 million in 2009
JJ Hardy 4.65 million in 2009
Corey Hart 3.25 million in 2009
David Bush 4 million in 2009
Mike Rivera (first time)
Todd Coffey .8 million in 2009
Free agents and options
Claudio Vargas .9 million in 2009
Seth McClung 1.6 million in 2009
Braden Looper 6 million in 2009 (mutual option for 2010)
Mike Cameron 10 million in 2009
Jason Kendall 4.5 million in 2009
Trevor Hoffman 6 million in 2009
David Weathers 3.9 million in 2009 (3.7 million team option)
Jody Gerut 1.775 million in 2009
Craig Counsell 1 million in 2009
Felipe Lopez 3.5 million in 2009
Catalanotto (rangers paid him through 2009, I think)
It looks to me like Melvin has gotten himself into a situation where he’s going to need to paid free agent prices at a lot of positions.
by Marty McSuperFly on Sep 3, 2009 11:29 AM CDT reply actions
I did a piece on this a few weeks ago
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, ""That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
Nice, I missed that
Based on your projected roster, and the whole list of free agents we’d have to re-sign, it sure doesn’t look like paying $11 million to Cameron is going to be much of an option. Of course, moving Hardy for a couple sub-million bullpen arms could help easy that damage, but who know how likely that is.
Another year of Hoffman at 6 would be a decent deal. The Brewers don’t have any likely closer candidates, and he has shown that he can still go the whole season (helped by a lack of save opportunities, but who’s complaining?).
No matter which way you cut it, there’s going to be a non-trivial percentage of scrap heap free agents next year.
by Marty McSuperFly on Sep 3, 2009 11:54 AM CDT up reply actions
McClung's not eligible for FA until after 2010
He’s got some weird crud going on with his service time due to ’04.
Corrections...
Suppan – $12.75M ($250K comes from his signing bonus spread out over the term of the contract)
Braun – $1.288M (signing bonus)
Fielder – $11M (signing bonus)
Weeks – $2.45M in 2009
Vargas – $400K (although he did have performance bonuses, so your number might be right)
McClung – $1.66M
Looper – $5.5M ($4.75M+750K in bonus); option will be worth $6.5M after two more starts
Kendall – $5M
Weathers – $3.5M
Catalanotto – minor league deal
Also, don’t forget that if the Brewers don’t pick up Looper’s or Weathers’ options, they’ll be on the hook for their buyouts… $1M for Looper (after 2 more starts) and $400K for Weathers.
Can the Brewers pick up Ryan Sadowski?
He pitched at least one good game this season, as I recall.
Yeah, I was thinking that too.
With a spot open on the 40 man, he seems like a decent option to fill it.
"The reports are that he is getting better. The definition of better is nebulous."
Escobar, Counsell, Rivera in, Lopez getting rest.
Craig Counsell 2B
Frank Catalanotto RF
Ryan Braun LF
Prince Fielder 1B
Casey McGehee 3B
Mike Cameron CF
Mike Rivera C
Alcised Escobar SS
Manny Parra LHP
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, ""That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
Am I being Alcised for McCalvy’s typo?
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, ""That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
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NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chicago
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
Cincinnati
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
Houston
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
Milwaukee
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
Pittsburgh
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
St. Louis
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
(updated 2.4.2012 at 3:41 PM CST)
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