A little Casey McGehee Love!

[homer]

"Good to see that Lamb's contract was not a factor in the decision."

 

Brewers were only paying $400K of it. Twins covered the rest.

[Invader3K]

Looking forward to seeing more of the Mighty Casey this season.

[endaround]

And the Brewers might not even owe him $400K-never saw whether the Brewers part was guaranteed or not

[BrewCrewForever]

Very happy with the McGehee over Lamb decision. In Doug we trust.

[RobDeer 45]

Yep, I'm excited for him!

[3Putt]

I went to the games last Fri/Sat and watched McGehee play the games and interact with the fans. He seems like a down to earth kid that's done the work and is ready for the bigs. I think the Brewers made the right choice. There aren't 100 Mike Lambs out there but there generally are a few. Casey's upside is better and his defense looked solid. On Friday night he played 1st and Hall played 3rd. Hall made a couple throws that Casey had to scoop. Would have had the potential for some conspiracy theorists on this blog if he would have missed them.

[naivin]

This move also seems to signal that Rivera will get some AB's off the bench this year. Obviously he is the only RH hitter there, at the moment anyway, couple that with McGehee's ability to catch if necessary, and I think its safe to say Rivera will do some pinch hitting.

[CheezWizHed]

This move also seems to signal that Rivera will get some AB's off the bench this year. Obviously he is the only RH hitter there, at the moment anyway, couple that with McGehee's ability to catch if necessary, and I think its safe to say Rivera will do some pinch hitting.

Of course, would you prefer Rivera hitting and McGehee catching or McGehee hitting and Rivera catching?

 

I expect to see Rivera PHing more often, but not because they will sit McGehee as the emergency catcher, simply because Macha will take the chance, probably in a late inning situation.

[theavrock]

Anyone have splits for McGahee vs. RHP? Curious if this means that he will be getting some starts at 3B or if it will be more Counsell when Billy gets an off day.

[TooLiveBrew]

By season (& level) --

 

 [b]2005 (AA)[/b] .283/.343/.400/.743, 290 AB, 28 BB 42 K [b]2006 (AAA)[/b].279/.326/.391/.717, 373 AB, 24 BB 56 K [b]2007 (AAA)[/b].216/.250/.351/.601, 37 AB, 1 BB 9 K [b]2007 (AA)[/b] .259/.322/.404/.726, 270 AB, 28 BB 56 K [b]2008 (AAA)[/b].299/.343/.424/.767, 368 AB, 27 BB 73 K [b]Overall (1338 AB)[/b] .280/.332/.404/.736, 1338 AB, 108 BB 236 K 

 

Courtesy of the lovely Minorleaguesplits.com. McGehee's page

 

 

Seems reasonable to expect Casey to be able to hit RHP about like his minor-league career line. Might get on base a bit less than that, but probably close.

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

I hope McGehee does well against the Cubs so they can regret letting him go from their system. Next Friday would be a good time to start the trend!

[Hammer]

I must say, McGehee is really impressing right now. Will he keep this pace up? Probably not...but hitting in front of guys like Braun and Fielder can't hurt...

[mls4]

Yes, at this point with question marks at 2nd and 3rd he deserves to be in the lineup every day.

[logan82]

.396 BABIP. I hope he will continues to hit at a high level. I expect him to get worse at some point. My hope is that Macha doesn't keep him in the lineup when he regresses. He is a backup and probably a better option than Hall against RHP.

[JohnBriggs12]

.396 BABIP. I hope he will continues to hit at a high level. I expect him to get worse at some point. My hope is that Macha doesn't keep him in the lineup when he regresses. He is a backup and probably a better option than Hall against RHP.

The .396 BABIP is because he's hit the ball hard almost every time up. It's a stat that has no meaning. Have you watched the games? He hasn't lucked into his stats.

 

How can you possibly know he's strictly a backup? Because he doesn't have the pedigree of a first round pick in his background? Because one team released him? Sure he probably won't hit .350. How many guys do? But based on what we've seen, isn't it in the realm of possibility that McGehee is a .280-.290 hitter with 15-20 HR power over 600 ABs? Those are above average numbers at 2B. With Weeks out, the Brewers should find out what they have in McGehee. The Brewers did the exact same thing with Podsednik a few years ago and created a lot of value in the trade market out of a waiver claim. They have the potential to do just that with McGehee.

 

The smart move is to play him everyday at 2B and let Counsell return to his role as late inning defensive replacement, double switch guy, and backup to Hardy.

[Invader3K]

I kind of agree with Briggs. Even if Casey has an average-ish season for a 2B, he could have a lot of value. If we flip him for the next Carlos Lee or something, I wouldn't be too sad about that.

[The Heartbreak Yid]

Cubs fans all talk about missing Mark DeRosa, and hendry never should have given him up, which is all true, but Id take Casey McGhee back in a heartbeat over the carousel of trash that weve seen replace Ramirez sinec he went down. Then again, Id take Casey Stengel over them too.

[Hammer]

All McGehee does for the Brewers is create options. If he is above average value-wise for the entire year he could stay at 2b for the future. Cameron is getting to the end of his career and Weeks knows CF. Why not try to get them both in the lineup at 1-2 in the order ahead of Braun and Fielder?

 

Granted, small sample and all...but he is really centering on the ball right now...

[Diskono]

The .396 BABIP is because he's hit the ball hard almost every time up. It's a stat that has no meaning. Have you watched the games? He hasn't lucked into his stats.

I do believe that some guys will always have a higher BABIP than others, but .396 is ridiculous for anybody. He realistically could settle into a .310-.340 range (about where he was in the minors) and still have respectable numbers though, so I'll agree that he looks like a quality player until he proves otherwise.

[Ennder]

The .396 BABIP is because he's hit the ball hard almost every time up. It's a stat that has no meaning. Have you watched the games? He hasn't lucked into his stats.

 

This is actually true, he has a 26% LD% which suggests something like a .380 BABIP. Of course that LD% isn't sustainable either so you can expect some regression but I don't think anyone thinks he will hit .357 all year so I doubt anyone isn't expecting that to come down eventually.

[eanelson4]

All McGehee does for the Brewers is create options. If he is above average value-wise for the entire year he could stay at 2b for the future. Cameron is getting to the end of his career and Weeks knows CF. Why not try to get them both in the lineup at 1-2 in the order ahead of Braun and Fielder?

 

Granted, small sample and all...but he is really centering on the ball right now...

Our 1-2 in the future (next year and beyond) is going to be Alcides Escobar-X. That X could be McGehee, Weeks, Hart, or Hardy. It all depends on how the situation works out with Gamel, Hall, Hardy, Hart, Escobar, Weeks, and McGehee. My guess is that at least one of them will not be on the team next year, and best guesses are Hall, Hart, Hardy or McGehee.

 

I would love to see Ricky drop down to either 2 or 5 in the lineup (probably 5). If he could continue to rake like he was this year, that would be some awesome protection behind Prince.

[Invader3K]

That's the thing though...unfortunately we have no way of knowing if Rickie would have kept hitting like that, or if he would have regressed more toward his career norms. If it's the latter, he's definitely not a 5-hole hitter. It's just a shame he got injured so we couldn't find out one way or the other.

[FVBrewerFan]

All McGehee does for the Brewers is create options. If he is above average value-wise for the entire year he could stay at 2b for the future. Cameron is getting to the end of his career and Weeks knows CF. Why not try to get them both in the lineup at 1-2 in the order ahead of Braun and Fielder?

Another option would be to move Gamel to a corner OF position and let McGehee play his natural position-3rd base. I know, not the power numbers you want from 3B, but Weeks would make up for that by having higher than average power numbers at 2B. It will be interesting to see if McGehee is still over .300 at the end of this season. It will also be interesting to see who roams CF next year, could very well be Cameron again.

[joepepsi]

McGehee's best value is as a 2B, but he has caught almost 100 minor league games, the majority of those in the upper levels. He's sort of Vinnie Rottino two years ago. These guys have a very narrow window of opportunity to make a major league club. McGehee's making the best of what may be his only chance.

 

If he really is a plus defender at 3rd maybe he could develop in a sort of right handed Cirillo or Koskie type.

[Ennder]

plus/minus had him anywhere between 0 and +10 in the minors at 3B and the BPro write up I saw on him suggested he is an above average defensive 3B as well.