Brewers acquire Felipe Lopez from Arizona for Cole Gillespie/Roque Mercedes, Gamel back to Nashville

[logan82]

Gamel at third and Counsell/ McGehee at second is not the best option today. It is Lopez at second and McCounsell at third.

 

I disagree. I think Gamel is the best option right now. Gamel was showing signs of improving and was much better when given regular playing time at 3B and should be expected to hit even better.

[monty57]

lcbj68c, Signing an elite FA and then going young could be an option. However, players only stay at league minimum for three years, and then the good ones start getting more expensive through arbitration. To sign a player like CC, or even Lowe last offseason required a long term deal. One elite pitcher can push a good team over the top, but standing alone doesn't do much. The Brewers are likely a $70MM-$90MM payroll team (I know that's a wide range, but I'd think $90MM is the "special case when they're going for it mid-season."). Putting $20+MM into one player eats up a lot of that payroll for 5-7 years, so there won't be much chance of adding anyone around him, and probably means trading away some good players early in the arbitration process to keep under budget. Plus, there's always the possibility that the one player the team is banking their entire future around gets hurt or underperforms, severely crippling their franchise for 5-7 years (ouch!). The closest to this the Brewers have come is probably Higuera.

 

I agree that we don't want to have the highest paid player on our team be our fifth starter, and hopefully our young pitchers in Rookie/A/A+ will allow us the ability to not have to overpay for mediocrity in the FA market for years to come. Until they're here, I'd probably like to take our chances on one-year deals like the one for Looper, which has worked so far for Looper and Hoffman, but not so much with Gagne, or by trading a highly tradeable, but redundant piece, such as JJ Hardy for a good-and-still-cheap pitcher this offseason. Hopefully, we only have one more offseason to worry about this (fingers crossed while knocking on wood).

[Thurston Fluff]

I disagree. I think Gamel is the best option right now. Gamel was showing signs of improving and was much better when given regular playing time at 3B and should be expected to hit even better.

 

I guess this is where we have to agree to disagree. More playing time would have likely exposed why he wasn't getting more. It is hard to believe his defense magically turned around nor did I see him hitting the inside pitches and he was still striking out at an alarming rate. Out of curiosity what signs of improvement are you talking about? Is it more or less a feeling you have or is there some sort of tangible thing you can put your finger on? In one of his last games Uecker said lets see if they throw and inside pitch to him because that is where he has trouble. They did and he struck out looking. I don't see that type of predictable outcome as improvement. Just more of the same.

[zzzmanwitz]

Is it more or less a feeling you have or is there some sort of tangible thing you can put your finger on?

 

He seemed to perform very well when he started in the field and his extreme inability to get a hit coming off the bench brought down his overall numbers due his small sample size.

[logan82]

I don't think he was getting enough at bats to adjust to how pitchers were pitching him. It is hard to adjust when only given sporadic playing time. It was very obvious that he was being pitched a certain way. If he had been playing regularly and not making adjustments I would agree he wasn't ready yet and might not ever be.

[davego]

He didn't sign Jeff Hammonds or trade for Glendon, The Weapon and kill Nick N...

[Thurston Fluff]

He seemed to perform very well when he started in the field and his extreme inability to get a hit coming off the bench brought down his overall numbers due his small sample size.

 

I counted 23 plate appearances where he only had one or two appearances that night. Of those he got on base 9 times with one extra base hit. That hardly qualifies as bringing his numbers down. His pinch hitting actually brought his OBP up.

 

I don't think he was getting enough at bats to adjust to how pitchers were pitching him.

 

That is very possible. It is also equally possible he would continue to struggle with it for more than a couple weeks of regular playing time. All of which would be done while the Brewers are trying to win a division. Prove you can hit the pitch and you will get more time. I fyou can't in the amount of time allotted in the majors then go to the minors and prove it there. Until he can show he can hit those pitches he shouldn't be taking away playing time form players like McGehee who have outplayed him in roughly the same amount of AB's.

[zzzmanwitz]

Gamel's Splits

 

As 3B

23 G, 85 PAs, .267/.341/.493/.835

 

As DH

6 G, 27 PAs, .208/.296/.250/.546

 

As PH

19 G, 19 PAs, .143/.368/.214/.583

[Thurston Fluff]

I counted some games where he was replaced for defense. That would make some of his hits as a starter but only got a couple plate appearances count differently. If the arguemnt is he needs more plate appearances per game to improve I don't see how staring vs PH makes a difference if he only gets a couple at most.

IF you go through the game logs and count games where he only had a couple PA's I think it gives you a better account of how he handles playing with limited plate appearances.

[ELCABALLO45]

I just wanted to bump this.

 

Sure we are outta of it but Lopez has been nothing short but amazing since coming over to Milwaukee. He is hitting .358 now I belive since coming over from Arizona.

 

So much for being a "meh" trade.