Where are the Brewers now?

[aracko]

I hate being dissapointed around the deadline. I really wanted a shakeup.

 

All that said, we are better today then we were a week ago with the addition of Linebrink. I consider him a major addition.

 

Sheets is another week closer to coming back, at which point we will have Yo in the Pen.

 

It would have been hard to hold Turnbow out of this next series, trading away a piece would have made us short handed for a few days while we wait for players to report, etc. The Race has only just begun. Just maybe no more deals is the best deal for us.

 

In the last few days we have added Bill Hall, Scott Linebrink, Seth McClung, and soon Ben Sheets. Thats not too bad right there.

[dadofandrew]

They really did not have much to deal, as they have many players who they are not thinking of dealing...6 starters in the field, and a ton of pitchers. Doug is not going to deal a cog for the future; Bush, Hart, and so on, for 2 months of a rental. That would have to be a part of a future deal, like maybe Bush could go if Chad Cordero was available, but that was not going to happen today.

[shelmark]

The fantasy baseball player in me was hoping for a deal, but I'm glad DM did not mortgage the future for another 2 month rental. Makes me wonder if we couldn't have had Gagne instead of Linebrink if we had combined our offers a bit. Maybe Inman, Garrison, and Gwynn would've gotten us Gagne, who I think is head shoulders above Linebrink. Oh well, coulda shoulda....let's hope Coco and T-Bow get some rest and come out of it.

[Dogger192003]

The way I look at it is we have added a SP in Gallardo and a big bat in Braun since the beginning of the year to go along with the addition of Linebrink. That makes us a much better through those additions than arguably any other team in baseball save maybe what the Braves have done. The only thing DM was not able to address was the extra bat off the bench and that may still come after the waiver period.

[pretendastronaut]

It was good to see us in the hunt, but I'm glad Melvin wasn't willing to sell out the future. I trust he knew what he's sacrafice, and didn't exceed that.

 

As for where we are now, I still think we have a really solid team, that collectively hasn't been playing to well for awhile. We don't much have the "best" of any one certain area, but we have a lot of great pieces. I have confidence in this team as it is, as long as they get their act together.

 

Personally I think the biggest thing we lost by not scoring a big trade today is a moral boost. I think that could have been a really good shot in the arm for the team and fans alike.

[JoeHova]

Linebrink has been pretty bad this year, I'm not sure I really consider him a big move (although the Brewers gave up a lot). I think that trade is especially inexplicable now that we know what Gagne got traded for.

 

Here's what Keith Law said about Linebrink:

 

Quote:

---

...the Brewers got a struggling reliever who has been very homer-prone this year despite pitching in a terrible home run park.

 

The Padres may have waited too long to deal Scott Linebrink, because his stuff and performance have been dropping and he's about to become a free agent. Linebrink was an early example of the type of reliever the Padres have now made a specialty of acquiring: average stuff, great control, flat fastballs. Since it's so hard to hit a ball out of Petco Park, pitchers whose stuff might lead to a lot of home runs in a normal park can throw their fastballs with a lot more confidence in San Diego. However, in 2007, Linebrink has had trouble replicating his success of the last few years. His fastball has solid-average velocity, but it's straight and he can't keep the ball down, giving up nine home runs in just 45 innings pitched. Neither of his secondary pitches is a plus, and he's had trouble missing bats this year. It's hard to see how he's going to help Milwaukee's bullpen, especially without the protection of Petco to bolster his confidence in his fastball.

 

(Incidentally, reports that Linebrink is a Type A free agent after the season are not quite accurate. Those rankings aren't determined until after the season ends because they're based on the statistics from the current season and the season that preceded it -- 2007 and 2006, in this case. So we don't know whether Linebrink will be a Type A free agent, and we won't know until October. And if his ERA keeps rising, he'll hurt the Brewers' chances of getting two picks for him.)

---

 

He doesn't even think the picks are a gimme.

[dadofandrew]

The comp picks are based on 2006-7, so 80% of it is in...very unlikely he's not an A.

[shelmark]

I doubt we will get the quality of Garrison, Inman, and Thatcher in those draft picks. I wish we would've just trusted Thatcher enough to allow him to occupy the spot Linebrink has. The guy looks very ordinary, and his numbers LAST year weren't even that great. ERA on the road this year is terrible and Petco is just a graveyard for batters.

[UWRyan428]

I think their pursuit of Gagne proves that they need to have the starters take some pressure off of the bullpen. That said, I think Parra and Yo out of the 'pen could be just the ticket. In the end, I think the end of the game is well-secure as long as they don't have Wise warm up, sit down, and then warm up again an hour later. It just might be detrimental to an arm that has many times stated he can't pitch on back to back days.....

[hauser42]

I doubt we will get the quality of Garrison, Inman, and Thatcher in those draft picks. I wish we would've just trusted Thatcher enough to allow him to occupy the spot Linebrink has. The guy looks very ordinary, and his numbers LAST year weren't even that great. ERA on the road this year is terrible and Petco is just a graveyard for batters.

All three of those guys had a long road to go before they would have helped the Brewers. The rotation has a lot of guys already on the major league club that can be starters and also fill in for bullpen help. I had no faith in Thatcher coming up and filling a spot in the pen unless it was Sept.

 

This is called playoff baseball and you have to give a little of the future to improve the team. Linebrink has always done a solid job in the setup job, a couple of bad outings will always skew his stats because of the lack of innings pitched.

[igor67]

In many ways that is the essential question of this trade do Linebrink's stats reflect a good reliever having one of those rare bad streaks and causing people to write him off or is it really the sign that his day in the sun is coming to an end? I don't see why the drafts picks would be a worse bet than the group of players. Inman was a 3rd rounder and the rest all lower. None has really advanced so far through the minors that you can just point out that they have beat the odds. A 1st rounder in the second half of round 1 and a supplemental pick are some pretty good spots to pick up real talent.

[BillScottCanRake]

This is called playoff baseball and you have to give a little of the future to improve the team. Linebrink has always done a solid job in the setup job, a couple of bad outings will always skew his stats because of the lack of innings pitched.

 

I posted an article on the Linebrink trade. I touched on the point you made above in that article:

The third, and perhaps most important, is that Linebrink has been even less impressive this season [than in 2006], to the point where he has been pretty average. His home run rate is way up and his strike out rate is way down. When looking at his 2007 numbers, it should be pointed out that Linebrink's wife is due to delivery a baby. His number over his last three outings in San Diego covering 2 2/3 innings, Linebrink has allowed five hits, two home runs, seven earned runs while walking three and striking out two, for an ERA of 27.00. That said, those two poor outings don't explain why he is only striking out 5/9 innings or why his home run rate (excluding those two hit near the end of July) is 1.48/9 innings. Those numbers could well be the sign of a pitcher on the decline or a pitcher just having a rough year.

While I understand it is important to note that a few of Linebrink's poor outings could well be related to his wife's pregnancy, that doesn't explain why, for the whole season, his strike out rate is lower than Spurling's, or why he is giving up home runs at a rate higher than any current Brewer reliever (well, as of when the article was written over the weekend). Even 1.5 home runs per nine innings is high for a guy that pitched so much at PETCO.

 

I think the addition of Linebrink does make the team better, but mostly because it adds depth. At the very least he is very unlikely to have too many outings like Balfour had. I don't believe he is really any better than anyone they have on the roster right now unless he reverts back to his 2004-5 form. And if that's the case, I fear he is going to be of less help than we might have initially thought.

[JoeHova]

Those are some real nice points you bring up Chris. Interesting stuff, and I have to say that I share the same general feelings about Linebrink that you seem to have.