Ones that got away?

[hauser42]

Gabe Gross is the one for me he was under the radar and never got kudos from fans. Being a lefthanded hitter and play all OF spots is being missed right now by the team. Funny thing is there were a lot of people thinking Tony JR was the better player, when it has not looked that way for some time.

[TooLiveBrew]

Nelson was a guy who after 4 or so years of time in AAA put up decent not spectacular numbers. As a 1b his numbers are pretty pedestrian, as a below average defensive corner outfielder his numbers aren't that special either. My prediction is the guy is going to be a career bench or platoon player if he can stick in the majors at all for more than a year or two

 

I believe my point was that I valued Nelson as a LHB off the bench that projects (MLEs) to OPS around .800 against RHP. Instead of having to comb the waiver wire or find an unemployed vet (a la Catalanatto) each season, having that role filled cheaply over the next few seasons would have been nice. I'm not sure if Nelson needed more regular ABs or not to find success... he had some success in the same role in 2008. I just think we cut him loose for nothing... and for no real reason. The only reason I can think of is that Melvin wanted Brad to have a shot at more PT, which obviously isn't a move made with the Brewers' best interest in mind (not that I really find anything wrong with that if that's how it happened).

[JJHardy7]

I believe my point was that I valued Nelson as a LHB off the bench that projects (MLEs) to OPS around .800 against RHP. Instead of having to comb the waiver wire or find an unemployed vet (a la Catalanatto) each season, having that role filled cheaply over the next few seasons would have been nice. I'm not sure if Nelson needed more regular ABs or not to find success... he had some success in the same role in 2008. I just think we cut him loose for nothing... and for no real reason. The only reason I can think of is that Melvin wanted Brad to have a shot at more PT, which obviously isn't a move made with the Brewers best interest in mind (not that I really find anything wrong with that if that's how it happened).

 

Agreed. Usually the Brewers operate like they have a plan...this wasn't one of those moves. There's nothing wrong with Nelson if he's a bench player in the MLB. He's cheap and IMO would produce. The team will for sure have a few bench openings this off-season.

[Ennder]

None of the players mentioned in this thread have put up back to back full time seasons in the majors that were worth anything yet, so hard to say any of them really got away. Nelson Cruz is the closest and in his last 90 PA or so he has an OPS under .700 with a ton of strike outs and almost no walks so we'll just have to wait and see if he can make an adjustment.

[brewers4eric]

The Bichette for Reimer trade gets my vote for the worst in Brewers history.

 

The Bando administration made some poor choices on the players to protect in the expansion drafts. I always thought that Darren Holmes had some nasty breaking stuff and I couldn't understand why that protected James Austin and lost Holmes.

 

Troy O'Leary was cut loose at a time when the Brewers didn't have much outfield talent. He developed some power with other teams and usually torched the Brewers during his short career.

[joepepsi]

I think the only one we're really going to regret getting away is Matt LaPorta. No doubt you do that trade every time, but La Porta could be a monster bat for the next 8-10 years. Long after Prince is gone he could still be playing 1B for Cleveland, hitting 35-40 homers a year.

 

I don't know if I agree that he'll be that good, but that's my opinion. I think it will turn out to be a pretty good move by the Brewers (selling high). Regardless of my opinion I think the real interesting thing to watch will be LaPorta vs. Gamel. IIRC the Brewers chose to give up LaPorta and not Gamel. I think that was the right move, but I guess we'll find out the next few years.

I agree keeping Gamel was the right move. Even if he's not a great defensive player it seems he'll have more defensive value than LaPorta. Let me add I didn't mean to insinuate LaPorta will be a better player than Prince. I think he can be a lefty Burrell type though. That probably means he doesn't hit 35-40 homers a year, more like low 30's in his peak seasons.

[wallus]

Russell Branyan.... twice

[Brily0204]

I remember when Belliard got hurt in August 2001, and I thought that at least Taylor and Lopes would finally take the opportunity to see what Scutaro could do in the bigs. Instead they promoted Luis Lopez to full-time second baseman. It was then I realized they were not the materminds I had been led to believe.

[TheCrew07]

I'm not sure LaPorta is going to be counted as one that got away, we needed to move surplus bats for pitching, it was extremely predictable and logical, I'm just bummed they went a different way than I wanted them to. If my choices were Escobar, Gamel, and LaPorta to headline a deal, I'm sending LaPorta packing every single time.

 

I would think Eveland and Sarfate may one day qualify, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over losing them either. Neither has put it together yet and I'd take Bush over Eveland right now... actually it's funny that Jackson was supposed to be the best pitcher in the Overbay deal, Bush just kept getting better. Sarfate landed back on the DL recently if I remember correctly, and he never threw enough strikes when he was here to get a serious look.

 

I'm still bummed about Pena's lack of success, including Seattle... it's disappointing when a guy isn't able to harness stuff that good.

 

I hope Nelson does well and has a solid career, he's just not special in any way, but he has decent chance to be productive for someone.

 

Gross didn't come up through system so like Cruz I'm not sure how he qualifies as one that got away. I'm not a big fan of that trade either, but at least Butler is pitching well this season. That trade looked much worse coming into the season than it does now.

 

TGJ might have a productive career yet, but I doubt that's happening with the Brewers, he may get a shot in 2010 if he's still around and Cain isn't ready, but I hope not. I don't have anything against him personally, he's just too slappy a hitter for me.

 

I hated the Cirillo move, it was another in a long string of horrible moves by former FOs... Haynes, Blanco, and Wright... yuck.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

Bichette for Reimer...epic fail, even if it was high altitude and roids. We should have gotten more for Shef, but he was such a cancer I'm not sure that trade was out there. I will forever hate that guy.

 

The El Caballo trade doesn't irk me that much since we weren't going to re-sign him anyway. Coco was pretty good when he was here. I'm glad we missed out on re-signing Coco...although by the end of his 4 years it will be interesting to add up how much we've spent on one year deals for closers and how that stacks up versus 4 years of Coco. Gagne - uggh, Hoffman - good.

 

I didn't like the Gross deal either since we needed a LH bat and he was ok in the field, but he's hardly irreplaceable.

[JJHardy7]

I didn't like the Gross deal either since we needed a LH bat and he was ok in the field, but he's hardly irreplaceable.

 

I agree in part with what you're saying. Gross can be replaced as a player, but it's difficult to find guys as good as he is that are fine being bench players. That's why I think letting a guy like Nelson go was somewhat dumb. He's not a starter. I understand that. How many starters are you going to find though that will want to sit on the bench? Sure a guy like Nelson can be replaced as a player...the problem is finding a player with his talent to take his spot and to keep that spot filled. I think that's the same case for Gross. Is he a starter? Probably not, but for his role on the team he's pretty talented...if that makes sense. You can't expect a guy as talented as say Cam to be on your bench. That's why they're bench players. A perfect example is Counsell. I know at times he's not all that well liked and some were against signing him, but he's almost perfect for his role.

[TooLiveBrew]

I didn't like the Gross deal either since we needed a LH bat and he was ok in the field, but he's hardly irreplaceable.

 

I still feel like he's enough of a step above guys like Duffy/TGJ that he's also not as easy to find as some may have thought. I didn't like the deal then, and I don't like it now. I thought there was some talk at the time about Gross being able to get more PT in Tampa, but I might just be making that up.

 

To me, if you want Gross-caliber or better at the 4th OF, you have to mine guys like Gross, Nelson, Gillespie, etc. until one or some of them fit. If the flip-side of this discussion is that they need regular PAs to hit normally, then it becomes that much harder to keep around 4th OF that aren't basically replacement-level at the plate.

 

I just think Nelson & Gross are two examples of guys that clearly aren't starters on the top teams in the league, but can actually do some damage at the plate. If that's not the kind of player you have to keep for the 4th OF spot, who is? Do you throw money at a FA patch? Gillespie sounds similar to Nelson at the plate (with perhaps a better BB rate), but maybe superior in the field. If he's the reason why the org. saw fit to let Brad leave, so be it. I'll just have to trust that.

[TheCrew07]

Actually I would compare Gillespie to Gross and have in the past... he's a similar hitter, but he's RH instead of LH, and he doesn't have Gabe's arm, but I really like Gillespie as OF depth.

[twobrewers]

Russell Branyan.... twice

Jeff Cirillo....twice

[Diskono]

I still wish we would have given Chris Coste a shot instead of Gary the Glove.

[Postseason2006]

Vaughn for Newfield and a box of balls was awful....

[Weirdos19]

Gamel could easily be our first base replacement for Prince in 3 years. Most of his errors are throwing errors, right?

[UeckerAddict]

If we're just talking about "ones that got away" and not necessarily via the trade, then number one is the easiest answer in the world. Paul Molitor.

[EbbaStClaire]

The Brewers did have control of Hunter Pence.

[Invader3K]

If we're just talking about "ones that got away" and not necessarily via the trade, then number one is the easiest answer in the world. Paul Molitor.

My all time angriest moment as a Brewers fan. As a 12 year old kid who idolized The Ignitor, that was a huge kick in the groin. At least he got a World Series ring out of it.

[MillerParkSouth]

Molitor leaving combined with the strike the following year ruined baseball for a good number of years for me.

[The Heartbreak Yid]

The Brewers did have control of Hunter Pence.

Was he ever in the organization, or was it in the same sense that the Cubs once has control over Tim Lincecum, as a late round draft pick who never signed?

[Invader3K]

Yeah...back in the day the Brewers also drafted Jason Giambi and Nomar Garciaparra. I'm not sure they ever had a realistic chance to sign either one.

[joepepsi]

This probably doesn't qualify, but I still think it's a shame they didn't get more than a half season out of Corey Koskie. He was a fine left handed bat that played a good first base. It was one of Doug's best trades. I suppose you can argue if Koskie hadn't missed 2007 then Braun wouldn't have been called up. On the other hand last year they could have really used his bat and defense as the strong side of a platoon with Hall.

[Invader3K]

Koskie's injury, along with Melvin basically being forced to trade Carlos Lee, really derailed what could have been a much more successful '06. Just one of those freak things no one could have predicted, though. Then again the Brewers had a ton of injuries that year aside from Koskie (Sheets, Ohka, Weeks...).