Lesser Brewers: Kameron Loe

MVBrewers is a player-by-player look at the most valuable members of the 2012 Brewers, as voted on by you. Here's our top ten:

1. Ryan Braun
2. Aramis Ramirez
3. Yovani Gallardo
4. Corey Hart
5. Norichika Aoki
6. Jonathan Lucroy
7. Carlos Gomez
8. Zack Greinke
9. Marco Estrada
10: Mike Fiers

Honorable Mentions: Martin Maldonado, Rickie Weeks, Jim Henderson, Mark Rogers, Shaun Marcum, Wily Peralta, Jean Segura, Jose Veras, John Axford,Francisco Rodriguez

Lesser Brewers: Nyjer Morgan, Travis Ishikawa, George Kottaras, Randy Wolf, Logan Schafer, Kameron Loe

The series now continues with Lesser Brewers, to cover some of the remaining Brewers that we have not covered so far. This is the sixth installment in that segment. You can see all the player profiles in the Most Valuable Brewers 2012 section.

The history of Brewer baseball is loaded with relievers who had meteoric rises...but unfortunately, most of them also came back to Earth just as fast.

Kameron Loe is no exception: After a disastrous run in Japan he came to the Brewers on a minor league deal in 2010 and quickly earned a call to the big leagues, where he appeared in 53 games and posted a 2.78 ERA in his first full time opportunity to work as a reliever in the majors. Loe was pretty good and pitched very often again in 2011, appearing in 72 more games with a 3.50 ERA. He demonstrated a real knack for getting right handed hitters out and getting ground balls to get out of jams.

Unfortunately, most of the goodwill generated over two strong seasons evaporated for Loe when he struggled mightily in 2012. Consider the difference between some of his numbers in 2010-11 and this season:

Loe still pitched in 70 games this season and avoided walks better than most Brewer relievers (allowing just 20, his most in an MLB season since 2007), but his meltdowns were highly visible and many fans will be happy to see him move on this winter.

Best Game

Loe was a notable figure in several Brewer losses this season, but their 5-4, 15 inning loss to the Twins on June 17 was not his fault. He pitched two shutout innings in the 10th and 11th to extend the game and keep the Crew's hopes alive.

Sadly, MLB.com doesn't have any highlights from Loe's outing.

Contract Status

Loe would have been arbitration eligible this winter, but the Brewers decided to outright him off the 40-man roster instead. He's now a free agent.