Monday's Frosty Mug
by Kyle Lobner on Nov 28, 2011 10:15 AM CST
in Milwaukee Brewers News
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Some things to read while wondering if socks are still an option.
We're only 82 days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Maryvale, but it feels like it's been 82 days since we'd had any real Brewer news. Brewers in 11 has resorted to inserting the Brewers into various internet memes. Jaymes Langrehr of The Brewers Bar made a Brewer Spotify playlist.
If something doesn't happen soon, we're going to start spiraling into madness around here.
Ryan Braun is going to be a Brewer for a long time, so it'd be great if he kept getting better. Carson Cistulli of FanGraphs notes that Braun has improved his strikeout and walk rates every year since debuting in 2007, and has increased his offensive production about 25% over that time. The Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter, by the way, gave Braun an orchid for winning the 2011 NL MVP.
Here are today's Prince Fielder notes:
- Former MLB GM Jim Bowden (via FakeTeams) says the market for Prince Fielder hasn't developed as he expected, creating an increased possibility that he could decide to return to Milwaukee.
- Steve Dilbeck of the LA Times saw that note and wonders if Fielder could fall back into the Dodgers' price range.
This trivial note is surprisingly chock full of 2011 Brewers: Jacob Peterson of Beyond the Box Score has a look at the major leaguers that don't go by their actual first names. Corey Hart, Zack Greinke and Casey McGehee all make appearances.
McGehee, by the way, was one of three speakers at an event at Soquel High School in California (his alma mater) on Saturday.
Elsewhere in local coverage: The Glendale News Press has a note on Glendale Community College alum Marco Estrada's breakout season.
In the minors:
- Minor League Baseball Prospects has released their annual list of baseball's top 2000 prospects and Caleb Gindl is the biggest surprise, checking in at #12 overall. Wily Peralta (#65) joins him in the top 100, while Taylor Jungmann, Taylor Green, Jed Bradley and Dan Meadows cracked the top 200. The organiation has seven more players in the top 500, eleven between 501-1000 and 37 between 1001-2000.
- Brewer batters went a combined 1-for-14 in winter league play yesterday, but the only hit belonged to Carlos Gomez. You can read about that and more in today's Winter League Notes.
- Brewers Blast has an interview with 2011 18th round pick Chris McFarland.
- Kentrail Davis flashes good speed in a couple of Youtube videos from the Arizona Fall League: You can see him here legging out a triple on a defender's misplay and here stealing second base.
Our Brewer-by-Brewer look at the 2011 season continued over the weekend with this profile of Craig Counsell. Who will we discuss today? You'll have to check back to find out.
Elsewhere in self-promotion: Here's another reminder that the BCB Book Club will be meeting tomorrow night. Finish the first three chapters of The Extra 2% and meet us here at 7 pm Central time.
Around baseball:
Astros: Announced the firing of GM Ed Wade and the retirement of team president Tal Smith.
Athletics: Hired Chili Davis to be their new hitting coach.
Blue Jays: Acquired infielder Luis Valbuena from the Indians for cash.
Dodgers: Signed pitcher Wil Ledezma to a minor league deal.
Mariners: Acquired catcher John Jaso from the Rays for pitcher Josh Lueke and a PTBNL.
Rays: Signed catcher Jose Molina to a one year deal.
Now that Ed Wade is out, the Astros are likely to go into the winter meetings without a GM and Doug Melvin is the NL Central's longest-tenured general manager. Before you start feeling too bad for Wade, though, you should know that he's still getting paid through 2013.
November is wrapping up, so things are getting serious in The Outside Corner's MLB Mustache Madness tournament. John Axford is facing Rollie Fingers in the final four.
He's not actually a former Brewer, but he is a Wisconsin native: Bluebird Banter ranked Eric Hinske as the 49th greatest Blue Jay of all time.
The offseason is, among other things, the time of year when we must quantify everything. Carson Cistulli of FanGraphs has started a project to rate MLB broadcasters.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to wrap a basset hound.
Drink up.
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Can't you say that about a lot of these lists, though?
There are prospects that are generally near or at the top of most of these lists, but for a lot of them, after so many of the top prospects are listed, you might as well pick the rest out of a hat.
Contributor on Brew Crew Ball, Commissioner of Prognostikeggers, Owner of a broken sarcasm detector
I may just draw a prospect list out of a hat
or just name the guys who played in the AFL and all the first-rounders, whatever
Lack of Brewer's News
You can always tell how slow of a news day it is for Brewer’s news by how early the Mug gets posted. 9am on Friday then 10:15 today. I am already going mad
by Saberilliterate on Nov 28, 2011 10:29 AM CST reply actions
I slept in this morning, or the Mug might have been done by about 8:30.
Now that's great tasting chicken!
by Kyle Lobner on Nov 28, 2011 10:35 AM CST up reply actions
If it's true that the Brewers are waiting on Prince Fielder before they decide how they want their team to look in 2012,
then we could be in for quite a few more days like this.
Unless Mark A is going over $100 million then they need to trade Wolf or somebody before they can entertain the thought of signing Fielder.
If Plush had to pick Wearwolf or Vampire, I'm a Wearwolf!
They can make trades to create payroll after signing Prince.
It’s not like their GoogleDocs payroll spreadsheet says, “Holy crap! payroll just reached $110 Million!” and explodes (like mine does). They still have the rest of the offseason to clear room before it starts hurting the bank account.
by tcyoung on Nov 28, 2011 12:47 PM CST up reply actions 3 recs
True
But these are also tens of millions of dollars we are talking about. I highly doubt Mark A signs off on taking on more guaranteed salary without first clearing room in what he can afford.
If Plush had to pick Wearwolf or Vampire, I'm a Wearwolf!
I would imagine that they have a plan in place.
A plan that is based off of shopping certain players around.
Passan's 10 degrees (yes, I dislike him, too) mentioned Fielder as well.
Said interest hasn’t even been there for Pujols yet, much less Fielder. One interesting note in that is that teams don’t mind paying for overweight (Fielder) guys as much as older (Pujols) players. Seems the rumors about Pujols lying about his age have pretty much accepted as fact by MLB reporters. How unclassy, Pujols.
I’m guessing someone will still pay them more than the Brewers can afford to, especially since several of the contracts given out so far this offseason were overpays. Either way, unless his contract this year is absurdly low and Mark A agrees to raise payroll, he isn’t coming back.
by kotsaythebuzzkill on Nov 28, 2011 10:31 AM CST reply actions
I think it's important that we continue to treat the Pujols age rumor as a rumor as long as we can't verify it.
But I think the fact that no one has really said anything to dispute it (that I’ve seen, anyway) is somewhat telling.
Now that's great tasting chicken!
by Kyle Lobner on Nov 28, 2011 10:36 AM CST up reply actions
I have a tough time buying it.
I think teams are just wanting to make sure they confirm his age before offering him an $200M contract. I can see how that can easily get twisted into teams being “skeptical about his age” or something else.
I wonder how enraged Pujols gets about that?
I mean, you don’t believe me? ME?!?
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
"Something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good."
~RRR
by Charlie Marlow on Nov 28, 2011 11:26 AM CST up reply actions
We should probably cut his leg off so we can count the rings.
I hate Yuni.
by BrewCrewBrian on Nov 28, 2011 11:18 AM CST up reply actions 5 recs
Ask him what he thinks of the Ewoks.
Pujols is the Barack Obama of baseball.
by sjlee on Nov 28, 2011 1:55 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
I think you'd have better luck with stratigraphy than Ewoks
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
"Something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good."
~RRR
by Charlie Marlow on Nov 28, 2011 2:17 PM CST up reply actions
I can't tell, but you didn't get my reference, did you?
Pujols is the Barack Obama of baseball.
by sjlee on Nov 28, 2011 2:27 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
That's a fallacious chart
since I was born in 1980 and I do not appreciate Ewoks
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
"Something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good."
~RRR
by Charlie Marlow on Nov 28, 2011 2:29 PM CST up reply actions
Far from true
But Ewoks are stupid.
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
"Something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good."
~RRR
by Charlie Marlow on Nov 28, 2011 3:07 PM CST up reply actions
Spanning generations, here at BCB
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
"Something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good."
~RRR
by Charlie Marlow on Nov 28, 2011 8:19 PM CST up reply actions
Hey, screw you.
"fortunate, but also lucky"
by Ted Simmons Speed Camp on Nov 28, 2011 11:01 PM CST up reply actions
"Screw you." What are we, in a woodshop? Slang these days...
#kenmacha’d
If Plush had to pick Wearwolf or Vampire, I'm a Wearwolf!
Marco Estrada went to Glendale Community College?
That’s awesome. Wonder if he had a class with Pierce Hawhtorne.
Get a ife broseph
This moment right here is the most lost I've been all offseason.
Now that's great tasting chicken!
by Kyle Lobner on Nov 28, 2011 12:06 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
I also don't know what they're talking about
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
"Something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good."
~RRR
by Charlie Marlow on Nov 28, 2011 2:18 PM CST up reply actions
You asked for some news, and you are receiving some news.
Johnny Narron named as the Brewers new hitting coach.
Contributor on Brew Crew Ball, Commissioner of Prognostikeggers, Owner of a broken sarcasm detector
market for fielder
If the market for Fielder goes down. Maybe that would make sense for Prince to sign a one year $25 million with the brewers and they make another run for it. Still basically the same team as last year.
Tim Bring back the chalet,frank charles at the wurlitzer organ, bob betts at the mic, and the barrell man logo!!!!
I doubt he'd sign only a 1 year deal
Even with a down market, he’d still likely be able to get a 5 year deal that would pay about $15-$20M per year.
Pujols is the Barack Obama of baseball.
There is no way that Boras will get Fielder to sign a contract at $15million a year
That would only be $75million over 5 years and Prince would get alot more than that in 4 years of arbritration (ie signing 4 one year deal) It is very unlikely that Prince signs a deal that is less than $20 million a year
I doubt that much will happen until the winter meetings next week at the earliest when Boras can try and bounce several teams off each other to create a market for Fielder.
Oh good, another Narron to do nothing on the team
Hey, maybe Josh Hamilton will tell Texas he has to go where his ‘handler’ goes.
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
"Something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good."
~RRR
Its interesting to me that Carlos Gomez always plays winter ball
Can you imagine any of the other regulars saying they want to play winter ball? The organization wouldn’t let it happen. Maybe Carlos still thinks he has something to prove? Too bad he’ll be on the short end of a platoon next year.
I don’t know if its indicative of good work ethic (which, if that’s the case, why hasn’t his hitting ever improved? Perhaps he has no natural talent for it?), or ignorance.
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
"Something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good."
~RRR
I think Gomez knows he needs to improve
He still hasn’t hit .260 afterall.
Pujols is the Barack Obama of baseball.
by sjlee on Nov 28, 2011 3:12 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Well at least the Carlos Gomez hate has evolved into passive aggressive Carlos Gomez hate.
Progress I guess.
If Plush had to pick Wearwolf or Vampire, I'm a Wearwolf!
When your Mom keeps shoving brussel's sprouts in front of you
you have to learn to deal with it at some point.
However, I still maintain that the Gomez for Hardy trade was a terrible, terrible trade.
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
"Something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good."
~RRR
by Charlie Marlow on Nov 28, 2011 8:23 PM CST up reply actions
a lot of the MLBers from the Caribbean play winter ball
It’s a Local Pride Thing. Notice Gomez didn’t start playing until about 2 weeks ago. Also notice Martin Maldonado is playing in Puerto Rico, and he caught a ton of ballgames during the regular season. I don’t think teams really want worn-out minor league catchers, either. (I think he’s played winter ball for 4 straight seasons)
Sure
but it isn’t as Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, Albert Pujols, Carlos Santana, Miguel Cabrera and etc playing in Winter League ball.
These leagues aren’t for major league players, they’re essentially still development leagues for minor league players. There’s not a team in baseball that signs off on a full time player going to Winter Ball.
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
"Something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good."
~RRR
by Charlie Marlow on Nov 28, 2011 8:29 PM CST up reply actions
One player.
One.
ANd I’ll bet you after this year the team will never let him play there again.
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
"Something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good."
~RRR
by Charlie Marlow on Nov 29, 2011 12:46 PM CST up reply actions
I'm not sure if any of the players you listed live in the Caribbean in the offseason
I think a lot of the players who do live there in the off-season will play occasionally. I believe Adrian Gonzalez played in the Mexican League up until a couple years ago.
There also is probably something involved in the CBA that allows guys to play if they are in the team control/first 6 years thing, and guys forfeit that right once they sign deals after that. Interesting question.
Get a ife broseph
I said "MLB players", not "superstars"
Gomez missed a chunk of the regular season anyway. You’re right as I am seeing less guys do it than they did in previous years. I’m also seeing some of the Anglo players who either missed time due to injury or who split the year between AAA and the majors down there.
Its essentially an extended AFL
players who have something to prove play there. Or players who won’t ever play in MLB.
"If we want to sign a Type A free agent, we would lose a second-round pick, but we don't have a way to get picks back. Our whole Draft process needs to be redone."
~Doug Melvin
"Something always good seems to happen when he's in there. Numbers matched up good."
~RRR
by Charlie Marlow on Nov 29, 2011 12:47 PM CST up reply actions
Nationals showing "serious interest" in Fielder
First team I’ve seen credibly linked to him this offseason (other than the Brewers). This is excellent news because I believe the first round pick is protect for the first fifteen teams, but we get the first round pick for any team after that. Washington is slotted to pick sixteenth. i.e. we would be getting the best pick(s) possible if they signed him.
If Plush had to pick Wearwolf or Vampire, I'm a Wearwolf!
Aholesecond.
Definition: The length of time ti took Boras to speed dial the first reporter after the Nationals called him to say they were interested.
"fortunate, but also lucky"
by Ted Simmons Speed Camp on Nov 28, 2011 11:08 PM CST up reply actions
Rumor: Brewers one of several teams interested in Matt Thornton.
Contract is $6 million/year, but the dude is really good. Better than K-Rod. If they could re-sign Saito on the cheap and Braddock gets healthy, that’s the best bullpen in the majors. Axford/Thornton/Saito/Braddock/et al.
Though the money is an issue as always…
If Plush had to pick Wearwolf or Vampire, I'm a Wearwolf!
2009-2011 RP fWAR
1. Matt Thornton (62.0 RAR)
2. Mariano Rivera (61.3 RAR)
3. Jonathan Papelbon (60.7 RAR)
If Plush had to pick Wearwolf or Vampire, I'm a Wearwolf!
He's old enough to fit with recent Brewer bullpen signings
At age 35. 6 mil is an awful lot to pay for an RP when you still have a major hole at SS, though.
The Brewers bullpen doesn't have to be that good
The bullpen was pretty fantastic once everyone was healthy. They were almost too good, in the sense that they could’ve spent less money to get a bullpen that was still pretty good. As cwolf20 said above, that’s a lot of money to spend to improve a bullpen that probably doesn’t actually need a whole lot of improvement to stay at the level of “pretty good.”
Nakajima-Train ahoy!
Posting window is open and will last until Friday at 4pm.
Do something creative, Doug.
If Plush had to pick Wearwolf or Vampire, I'm a Wearwolf!
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NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cincinnati
|
25 | 20 | .555 | 0 | Lost 1 |
|
St. Louis
|
25 | 21 | .543 | 0.5 | Lost 2 |
|
Houston
|
22 | 23 | .488 | 3 | Won 4 |
|
Pittsburgh
|
21 | 24 | .466 | 4 | Won 1 |
|
Milwaukee
|
19 | 26 | .422 | 6 | Won 2 |
|
Chicago
|
15 | 30 | .333 | 10 | Lost 10 |
(updated 5.26.2012 at 6:00 PM CDT)
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