Thursday's Frosty Mug
by Kyle Lobner on Jan 14, 2010 9:29 AM CST
in News
62 comments
Some things to read while taking it too far.
According to Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi, the Brewers are one of four teams still interested in signing Doug Davis (h/t Tom Haudricourt). The Twins, Mets and Nationals are the other teams believed to be in the running, but the Mets reportedly are more interested in Joel Pineiro and the Nationals have prioritized second base first. Also, Jarrod Washburn is still on the market.
The more I think about it, the more I think the current situation is bad news for Dave Bush. Signing another starter would leave the Brewers with six for five slots (Gallardo, Wolf, Parra, Bush, Suppan and the new guy). Obviously, Suppan hasn't done much recently to prove he belongs in a major league rotation, but the Brewers don't gain anything financially by letting him go. Bush, on the other hand, could be kept around as injury insurance through spring training and then let go, with the Brewers only owing a fraction of his 2010 contract. It's the same hole Claudio Vargas fell into in 2008.
Today is also the day the Brewers are set to meet with Mark Mulder, and Rick Peterson says Mulder "feels great physically" and is "in tremendous shape." I know we've been saying a deal is imminent for months now, but I'd be surprised if it's not done by Monday.
The Brewers are firming up plans for their "Brewers On Deck" event at the end of the month, and have released a list of players expected to attend. With 29 players listed, it's actually easier to tell you who's not coming: Chuck Lofgren, Amaury Rivas, Mark Rogers, Cody Scarpetta, Angel Salome, Craig Counsell, Luis Cruz, Adam Heether and Lorenzo Cain are the only players on the 40 man roster not scheduled to appear. I'm wondering if Counsell was omitted by mistake: of all the players, he's the one I'd almost certainly expect to be there.
Speaking of Counsell, he's the subject of Baseball Musings' most recent Players A to Z post.
Ryan Braun's had a pretty good first three years as a major leaguer, but they'd be even more impressive if he had an MVP award to go with them: Brandon Isleib of The Hardball Times has a look at what might have happened if the AL's original rules regarding the award (no repeat winners) had remained in place, and Braun would have taken home the 2008 NL honor.
In the minors:
- If it's Thursday, it's time for a new episode of The Offseason starring the Timber Rattlers' front office staff.
- As of this writing, Angel Salome leads the trio of Lorenzo Cain, Kentrail Davis and Caleb Gindl by 48 votes in the race for the #8 spot in our BCB Community Prospect rankings. You have until 4 pm to vote.
Around baseball:
Astros: Designated Jason Bourgeois for assignment.
Blue Jays: Signed pitcher Willie Collazo, infielder Jesus Merchan and outfielders Jorge Padilla and Chris Lubanski to minor league deals.
Braves: Signed pitcher Chris Resop to a minor league deal.
Mariners: Re-signed Brad Nelson to a minor league deal.
Pirates: Signed pitcher D.J. Carrasco to a minor league deal.
Red Sox: Signed Brian Shouse to a minor league deal. (FanShot)
Tigers: Signed Joel Zumaya to a one year deal, avoiding arbitration.
The Shouse signing prompted Right Field Bleachers to note that the Red Sox have three recent former Brewers on their roster, with Mike Cameron, Bill Hall and Brian Shouse all having joined the team in the last few months. They also issued a reminder that Gabe Gross, Geoff Jenkins and Felipe Lopez are still available.
Elsewhere in former Brewer news:
- The Royals have hired Ned Yost to be a
gascan on the firespecial advisor to baseball operations (FanShot). - Derrick Turnbow is preparing to audition for 16 teams in the hopes of finding a job for next season. He hasn't pitched in the majors since his final outing as a Brewer in April of 2008, and made just eight appearances in AAA for the Rangers last season, posting an 8.53 ERA in 6.1 innings.
- Braden Looper is still on the free agent market as well, but the Dodgers reportedly have expressed interest. At this point, he'd probably come pretty cheap, and it's hard to imagine he'd be as bad as he was last year.
Meanwhile, as noted in the picture above, Mark Attanasio is in Paradise Valley, Arizona this week for a meeting with Bud Selig and the other owners, and a planned conversation about arbitration offers has Craig Calcaterra wondering if collusion is on the agenda. That post also includes the best roundup I've seen of news coming from the meetings.
Things continue to go from bad to worse for the Mets. Yesterday news broke that Carlos Beltran had microfracture knee surgery, and will be out at least 12 weeks. The surgery was reportedly conducted without the Mets permission, which could lead to an interesting situation. Twelve weeks would already cost Beltran most or all of spring training, but The Disabled List Informer says "May or June seems to be a more reasonable scenario."
On this day in 2000, the Brewers traded Alex Ochoa to the Reds for outfielder/pinch hitter Mark Sweeney and a minor leaguer. Sweeney hit .241/.343/.383 in 190 plate appearances over two seasons as a Brewer before being involved in a trade with Alex Ochoa again.
Happy birthday today to Adam Heether, who turns 28.
That's all I've got for you today, unless you wanted to see a picture of Pirates reliever Charlie Morton's new puppy.
Drink up.
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Great point KL
Dave Bush being cut, and paying a quarter of his salary, would be one way to save some money for a signing like Davis/Garland/Washburn, while still maintaining depth. It would still cost around $1.25 MM to cut him, but it could prove to be a shrewd move by DM and Co. The only thing I worry about is them making a knee-jerk decision based on spring training performance by Bush or one of the other starters
Where's the hold-up?
I know we’ve been saying a deal is imminent for months now, but I’d be surprised if it’s not done by Monday.
I wonder if it’s the Brewer that have been holding off to make sure they still have room for his arm or Mulder holding off to make sure the Brewers still have room for his arm. Maybe neither side is really in a hurry since they’ve got a handshake agreement already (and it’s not a big loss either way if one side breaks a handshake agreement).
A bit surprised to see Sheets and Turnbow holding pitching sessions. Turnbow, because who’s going to come out to see him pitch? Sheets, because I thought his agent was doing everything he could to shield teams from seeing exactly what they’d be getting in a play to get more money than he’s worth. Teams will actually be able to price him a bit more appropriately than a random stab-in-the-dark with a quality pitching session (good or poor).
My guess would be that its Mulder holding off
We’ve been hearing about signing Mulder for the entire off season and we probably wouldn’t be hearing these rumors for so long if it was the Brewers holding off. I remember reading that Mulder wouldn’t sign if he didn’t think that he could return to his old form. Maybe he’s still evaluating himself and his ability to return to old form.
"A D+ Grade? That must have been a Wittardo grade"- @73_MC
by BrewHaHeather on Jan 14, 2010 10:53 AM CST up reply actions
My guess is we asked to see him pitch, and he backed off a little to make sure he was in prime pitching condition.
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, "That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
I still blame Zeno on the Mulder thing
Why wouldn’t a team send an available guy to look at a former major leaguer who can throw as hard as Turnbow?
So...
It sounds like the Brewers are going to sign Mulder to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training. Question is… would they try him out as a starter or reliever?
My guess is that it’d be as a long reliever, as I don’t think he’d be a better option than Bush in the rotation.
Caption to photo:
Bud: “Mark, the Lost Dutchman goldmine is out there. If you find it, you can buy all the players you want!”
Applying Simpsons and Star Wars quotes to Brewers discussions since 2009.
That cactus looks like a middle finger.
Taking shallowness to new depths -- FtJ's blog
by Fatter than Joey on Jan 14, 2010 10:39 AM CST up reply actions 1 recs
dammit
how dare you log into this blog before me
by PagsBrewCrew on Jan 14, 2010 10:44 AM CST up reply actions
It's comforting to know at least someone sees what I do.
The meds are working.
Taking shallowness to new depths -- FtJ's blog
by Fatter than Joey on Jan 14, 2010 10:45 AM CST up reply actions
Chalk it up to living in Phoenix for 16 years.
But I guess I’ve just grown accustomed to nature flipping me off, to the point where I don’t even notice.
Applying Simpsons and Star Wars quotes to Brewers discussions since 2009.
Beltran
Without researching it, cant think of a player who was better all around that Beltran has been this decade. Wonder if he comes back…
define best all around
"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."
5 Tool
Power, Speed, Hit for average, defense, throwing arm
Not only that, but he is a switch hitter
You could make a pretty good case for A-rod before he moved to 3rd
but that statement is pretty defensible.
"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."
Good Point
Ive always hated “The Cooler” with a passion, so he wasnt one of the guys I thought of. But then throw in the steroids issue
Mauer has to be one of the guys going forward. Jimmy Rollins should also be in the conversation, Curtis Granderson too, except they have both fallen off a bit. And Mauer doesnt have the speed.
Cameron Maybin, Michael Taylor, Jason Heyward all guys to keep an eye on going forward as far as prospects go.
The big problem with the 5 tool prospects is their power doesn't develop.
Carl Crawford is a great example of this. The guy has 4 out of 5 of the things down, but could never get the consistent power going. Same with the Uptons. You combine the two of them, and you have a great 5 tool guy. Beltran seems to have all the tools to get it done.
On the other hand, Hanley is another 4 outta 5 tool guy that just can’t get the defense thing down.
"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."
The More I look at it
He has 41 Career WAR. I think the average HOF CF is around 53 or so.
If he were to come back and put in 2 WAR seasons for the next 5, that makes him a fringe HOF. I dont know the recovery time on this operation he had, but if were to move to RF or LF and still hit, he could easily be considered for the Hall.
Technically I think Shouse is not on the Sox Roster
I think he is a NRI or MRE.
Taking shallowness to new depths -- FtJ's blog
by Fatter than Joey on Jan 14, 2010 10:42 AM CST reply actions
Exactly
Its the Sox’s option.
Taking shallowness to new depths -- FtJ's blog
by Fatter than Joey on Jan 14, 2010 10:46 AM CST up reply actions
he is an NRI
as said in the post, it’s a minor league deal.
I’m endlessly amused that the Globe picked up on this deal via reading OTM. I really need to go through the transactions more, although that doesn’t catch them all, only the “major league” ones (assuming it’s those who played in the majors last year or who are signing minor league contracts with nonroster invites.) Is there anywhere that we mere non-press mortals can find strictly minor-league transactions before the Baseball America bloggers get around to collating them every week or two?
to correct
I didn’t find the transaction myself, only noticed recently that interesting things are hitting there before they hit anywhere else (like Bobby Keppel being released)
Selig and Mark A
Are getting flipped off by nature there.
Royals/Yost
Am I the only one who thinks that might work out favorably for both teams? Hell, why not make him manager? It seems Yost’s talent is taking subpar teams to being slightly outside of the playoffs, but that did take some intervention by the front office to make happen too. So now that he’s in the front office…
both teams = both parties (yost and royals)
by PagsBrewCrew on Jan 14, 2010 11:09 AM CST up reply actions
Well, it works out well for both teams too.
The Royals could conceivably experience some benefit, if Yost is used correctly.
The Brewers, meanwhile, experience some benefit by eliminating any possibility of hiring Yost.
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 Jan 14, 2010 11:34 AM CST up reply actions
I agree that its a decent move
Yost has been around the game his whole life. He worked under Bobby Cox all those years, he played, he has managed. I felt that he did an outstanding job as Brewer manager in his time here, taking the team from being a laughinstock to respectability. Also reunites him with another former Brave guy, Dean Taylor.
This is the type of job a guy like him gets. Every team has a bunch of guys like this that get that Special Assistant to the GM tag. I dont believe the Brewers have any of them though.
I wouldn't say Yost did an outstanding job as manager.
A lot of the success has to do with good drafting and smart moves from the FO. The best thing Yost did was consistently put the young players in the lineup. As a manager, he’s probably best for a young team that is far away from contending and isn’t as affected as much by his completely inept handling of the bullpen.
"A D+ Grade? That must have been a Wittardo grade"- @73_MC
by BrewHaHeather on Jan 14, 2010 11:44 AM CST up reply actions
it depends on the timeframe
when the brewers were particularly miserable, yost’s affiliation with the braves and relationship with the players were the most important thing – he was there to help change the mindset and develop more of an amiable culture in the clubhouse and a winning mindset.
in later years, that wasn’t the priority, and his skillset isn’t such to adapt. i actually think he could be good for another team that has a decent farm and is trying to develop them into major leaguers. kansas city doesn’t fit that mold.
but, yeah, depends on his role in the FO. could work. i’m happy as long as he’s away from the brewers for now.
by Capt Science on Jan 14, 2010 3:53 PM CST up reply actions
Not to mention Gord Ash.
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 Jan 14, 2010 12:01 PM CST up reply actions
So, I was at work the other day, and I took my 15 minute break.
The store that I work at always has a newspaper in the breakroom for the employees to peruse, and I oftentimes will read the classified sections just to see if there is any cool stuff out there (I saw a cherry picker for sale once, pretty cheap).
Anyway, on this occasion I was looking through the “Deals and Steals” (Under $75!!) section of the newspaper and saw a nigh unsellable item within. Some poor woman was trying to sell a Milwaukee Brewers Jason Kendall bobblehead.
For $20.
A steal
Thats going to be worth a lot of money some day.
After the nuclear apocalypse and Kendall becomes the leader of a new generation. He is just the type of guy we will need at that time.
that or the mutant love child between
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mel Gibson
by PagsBrewCrew on Jan 14, 2010 11:46 AM CST up reply actions
great mustache
"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."
Rec'd.
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 Jan 14, 2010 11:35 AM CST up reply actions
how long did this take you?
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, "That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
15 minutes well spent.
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, "That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
I'll rec that. Just to see if we can set a new rec record.
Applying Simpsons and Star Wars quotes to Brewers discussions since 2009.
Do these count?
It’s also drawn three recs over at Royals Review.
That's all I've got for you today, unless you're interested in some Chris Capuano/Tom Haudricourt Fan Fiction.
KL, that link made me re-read the play. It's just as funny the second time around.
However, I did notice something:
Mustache: Andy! It’s great to see you! We’re excited to have you on board. How do you feel about wearing a Brewer uniform for the next three years?
Why would the Cream City Crusher GM ask Andy about wearing a Brewer uniform?
Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, "That’s all they need is another home run hitter".
Oops.
That's all I've got for you today, unless you're interested in some Chris Capuano/Tom Haudricourt Fan Fiction.
I thought it may turn a different color once it hit double digits.
I haven’t seen a lot of double digit recs… This is the most I have seen.
Taking shallowness to new depths -- FtJ's blog
by Fatter than Joey on Jan 14, 2010 2:02 PM CST up reply actions
I swear on the cubs BCB
First! posts get rec’d 80 times.
by PagsBrewCrew on Jan 14, 2010 3:27 PM CST up reply actions
The DAYTON System
Probably one of the best posts in the history of the internets.
The DAYTON System. If only those losers over at FDM.com thought of something this epic.
that's the most recs i've ever seen.
well deserved, too.
by Capt Science on Jan 14, 2010 3:58 PM CST up reply actions
Would someone please educate these poor fellows at Royals Review.
With Jason Kendall, they need to know the formulas.
There is no metric for grit.
Applying Simpsons and Star Wars quotes to Brewers discussions since 2009.
Is it me?
Or is Attanasio giving off a Joe Pesci circa Goodfellas vibe in that photo? Maybe Bud’s gesturing wildly in a panicked attempt to explain why he didn’t mean to insult Attanasio when he said he was a funny guy…
What begins in fear usually ends in folly.
by Ted Simmons Speed Camp on Jan 14, 2010 4:19 PM CST reply actions
Like the Mug photo of the day?
Make your own caption at Big League Stew. And sorry, the cactus joke is out, they cropped the shot.
Applying Simpsons and Star Wars quotes to Brewers discussions since 2009.
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NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cincinnati
|
57 | 46 | .553 | 0 | Won 2 |
|
St. Louis
|
56 | 46 | .549 | 0.5 | Lost 1 |
|
Milwaukee
|
48 | 55 | .466 | 9 | Lost 2 |
|
Chicago
|
46 | 56 | .450 | 10.5 | Lost 2 |
|
Houston
|
42 | 59 | .415 | 14 | Won 2 |
|
Pittsburgh
|
36 | 65 | .356 | 20 | Lost 1 |
(updated 7.30.2010 at 4:51 AM CDT)
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
