Melvined! Julian Tavarez signed, ZachJack optioned to AAA (reply #90)

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

He's gone because DiFelice can go longer if needed, even spot start, albeit ineffectively, versus LH bats at least. He'll be gone soon too.

 

DiFelice was substantially better against LH hitters than RH ones in AAA this year (592 OPS against lefties, 736 against righties). It's just 22 innings, so it's hardly conclusive, but I'm guessing that you're basing the above on the whopping 3 AB he's had against lefties in the majors. minorleaguesplits.com doesn't currently have any data before '08, so unless you know somewhere else to get additional info, I'm pretty sure the '08 AAA data is the largest sample available to look at.

 

I do agree with you that they'll send DiFelice down soon (I was expecting it today) - probably whenever they remember that Mitch Stetter is a much better pitcher than the lunatic they just signed for no good reason, as Mr. Briggs pointed out a few posts ago.

 

No one in the thread seems to care very much what they do with DiFelice, and that's pretty perplexing to me. Nobody seems to realize just how dumb it will mean the Brewers are if at any point this season Julian Tavarez is on the roster and Mark DiFelice is in AAA.

 

DiFelice has demonstrated rather conclusively over the last 1 1/4 seasons that he's among the 12 best pitchers in the organization (and it's not like he didn't have any success in the minors before that). Who cares if he's 31 and throws 83 mph? Somehow or another he misses bats and hits his spots well enough to have a K/BB ratio around 10 over the aforementioned span in AAA. Doubtless that will drop a lot in the majors, but you've got to think he could keep it at least at 3 or 4 to 1, which is significantly better than anybody on the team other than Sheets.

 

I think Tavarez has to be considered clearly below replacement level at this point. Quite frankly, I find it insulting that Melvin would try to pass him off to Brewers fans as a "veteran closer". I don't even care that he's anything but a likable guy, I'm just angry that he's terrible and we're turning away from significantly better internal options to give him yet another chance to demonstrate how washed up he is.

[BrewCrewForever]

Game 1, looked pretty good. Good movement on his pitches.

[dadofandrew]

He looked like an all-star, good location, and incredible movement. No one hit the ball well at all, and several hitters looked foolish.

 

He may not be a guy I'd want babysitting my son, but tonight, he was a pitcher very capable of helping out an overworked late inning crew.

 

My neighbor's a very nice lady, and I wouldn't want her pitching in the 8th down one either. If it were all about bringing in nice guys, Jim Abbott's available, but he wasn't very good 5 years ago. Remember how Moneyball said, "We ain't selling jeans?"...we ain't starting up a role model agency either. I would not want some scumbag on the team that'd be doing time if he wasn't an athlete, but if he's a jerk, so be it...I worked in retail for 15 years, and I knew plenty of jerks.

[dadofandrew]

I am surprised DiFelice had good numbers vs. LH's in AAA, as his one pitch he throws almost every time moves right into their wheelhouse. He's fine AAA depth, and if pitches well in Nashville, he'll get another chance, in Milwaukee or elsewhere.

[TooLiveBrew]

Yeah, I was surprised to see that too. Small sample has to be in play... right?

[Brian the Automator]

Nice outing by The One Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken tonight.

[wcswimmer712]

I don't see what is so bad about Tavarez. I mean, in his seasons with the Cardinals he was almost lights out. Especially in 2004:

 

W L ERA G SV SVO IP H R ER HR BB K

 

2004

St. Louis Cardinals

7

4

2.38

77

4

6

64.1

57

21

17

1

6

19

48

 

Besides his age, he still can throw low nineties with insane movement on the fastball. That is one nasty sinker.

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

Yeah, I was surprised to see that too. Small sample has to be in play... right?

 

Maybe, maybe not. Like I said, I wouldn't trust that he's a true talent reverse platoon differential pitcher based on a sample that size, but he does throw a cutter, and switch hitters have been known to turn around and bat right handed against Rivera because of how tough that pitch makes him against lefties. Not saying DiFelice's 83 mph version is anything like Rivera's, just that it is possible that he is actually better against lefties than righties.

[MoneyballMan]

I agree that he looked pretty good tonight and I really hope it continues. However, I'm not very optimistic. He certainly had a couple of good years in 2004 and 2005, but his stats are not trending in the right direction. 2004 through 2008 stats:

WHIP: 1.18, 1.32, 1.56, 1.50, 2.13

K/BB: 2.53, 2.47, 1.27, 1.51, .67

K/9 IP: 6.72, 6.44, 5.11, 5.15, 4.26

H/IP: .89, 1.04, 1.11, 1.12, 1.42

ERA: 2.38, 3.43, 4.47, 5.15, 6.39

[TooLiveBrew]

Don't forget FIP --

 

2.92, 4.02. 4.86, 4.74, 4.48 (Bos)

[LouisEly]

Melvin will be dammed if he does and Dammed if he don"t make any moves.

No win Situation for Him right about now,but what other options does he have right now?

 

Ain't that the truth. If he makes a move and goes out and gets a player who is out of work, people complain about the quality he gets. Well, it's early in the season and anyone who is out of work right now is out of work for a reason. The only more talented players available for free right now come with even bigger baggage than Tavarez has (Clemens, Bonds). Also, everyone is still theoretically in the pennant race, so nobody's giving away any quality players for cheap, and if Melvin traded for anyone and gave up prospects half of this board would light up and crucify him for trading away the future.

 

As someone else said, he costs about $250K, and there's a difference between a jerk and a criminal. About the smallest risk you could possibly take right now. Bring him in for two weeks until they can sort out who is healthy, who is effective, and who is not.

[Baldkin]

He also apparently left his World Series Ring in Boston.

 

Amazing!