Why Do Some Want to Fire Melvin?

[MJLiverock]

It was questionable if Nelson Cruz would ever amount to anything and it took him one and a half years after we traded him for him to amount to anything at the MLB level including being passed through waivers at the end of spring training in 2008.

Baseball America moved Cruz up to eighth overall in their organizational rankings, but stated that despite his "well above-average raw power" and "aggressive swing, strong wrists…quick hands" and "violent bat speed," he suffered from the holes in his swing caused by his aggressive nature at the plate. Pitchers could get him with off-speed stuff, a problem that can only get worse as you progress towards the majors and smarter, more talented opposition. Cruz biggest issue besides that was the Brewers' depth chart: Geoff Jenkins and Carlos Lee were still around, and Corey Hart was ahead of him as well.

They leave out that Lee was traded. At the time of the trade it may not have look very good to trade Cruz but he was somewhat redundant.

With Lee gone, Cruz wasn't redundant, especially looking at the aging Jenkins.

 

But besides that the main reason for my post is the citing of BA as justification or excuse for Melvin's deals that went against him. Melvin has to be better than BA at scouting and making deals. BA's opininon is interesting, they know more than I do about most players but they aren't the GM of the Brewers or any team, in the end I don't care what they would do or grade a draft or player. They are like Mel Kiper with this stuff, great at talking about players but in the end not charged with being right or paid to run a team.

 

I get paid to pick stocks for people, it is interesting to me that Goldman or Merrill have a buy rating or sell rating but they don't make my decsions for me. I can't tell a client,"Sure that stock bombed but Goldman had a buy rating and said it was worth 2x where it is now." I get paid to be right and if I'm wrong too much and the performance is bad I get fired. That is how I view the GM of a sports team, they get paid to be right about players, not just follow the pack all the time or read someone third party's opinion and go along with it. The measuring stick is the wins/losses/playoffs of the team not that well all these deals built a bad team but at the time they looked good so it doesn't matter that they didn't work. If the team is bad it is because of bad decisions, being wrong about players, and spending money poorly.

 

Looking at the Sexson deal and thinking it over last night it struck me as a great example of the criticism that Melvin now faces. The team was awful he traded a relatively big name younger power hitting 1b for a basket of players. These players, were sorely needed to fill a talentless void on the team, almost anything would be better than what they had. The players were, however, relatively void of upside and were pretty low risk. Overbay, was not expected to be a great 1B, didn't have enough power, but was a decent hitter who would be OK, Counsell, Spivey, were veteran players who again, weren't going wow anyone but wouldn't be terrible. Moeller was backup catcher. Cappy was a soft tossing lefty who was coming back from TJ surgery. The one guy who may have been a player viewed as having upside was JDLR but there were questions about him just because two teams had already been willing to trade him away that quickly. I believe when a young highly rated projectable player starts getting bounced around that teams are finding questions about his toolsy love received, a la Lastings Milledge, Carlos Gomez, sort of playing into why I don't just fall into the BA loves the guy even though 2 or 3 teams had no problem flipping him to someone else once they got a close look.

 

All that being said, I don't think the Sexson deal was bad, it was needed at the time by a woeful team that could use improvement anywhere off the bottom. But it was a fairly low risk deal, a huge basket of players including some vets and a guys that could be servicable. Melvin is good at finding servicable, but can he find true undervalued players in a trade with upside? I know I wouldnt' be happy if he traded Prince today for a couple slap hitting middle infielders, a back up catcher, an injury recovering minor league soft tosser, and a 1B who projects to be serviceable at best.

 

 

[hawing]

LOL, I remember that game very well, Ohka was channeling his inner Ichiro and Uke was hilarious. That game was also the first time Ohka batted left handed.

Not to get further off track, but I was at that game and enjoyed it immensely.

I'm not sure I would have called the last hit in that clip a "bullet" as Bob did. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Roderick]

I'm really having a hard time wrapping my head around how making a trade for one of the best pitchers in baseball, for 2 unproven prospects, to put the Brewers in the play-offs qualifies as a bad move.

I agree it wasn't a bad move, CC and 2 future comp picks for LaPorta, Brantley, Bryson, and Jackson. I don't know how any of them are doing other than LaPorta, but I was okay (not thrilled) with the trade at the time and I am even more happy now. Just look to see how this team has performed in 2009 and 2010 so far. It may be awhile before we sniff the postseason again.

 

I sure hope if Melvin peddles Fielder midseason, he uses the same tactic Cleveland took. Agree to a list of prospects and let them continue their seasons at the other team's risk. After the minor league season, Melvin can pick the player that still looks to be on a MLB track. Quite a bit can happen in half a season regarding injuries and performance for these prospects.

[Postseason2006]

Bad salaries currently on Milwaukee's payroll include Suppan, Hall, Hoffman, Riske, and Davis alone. One could argue with Wolf but the Brewers did need a decent starter. This alone should be the final nail in the coffin which includes two bad coaching moves.

 

 

-----------------------------------------

Moderator note:

 

Given the age of the lead and given that similar discussion is occuring in "anyone else seeing big changes

ahead?," I'm closing this and directing further discussion over there.

 

--1992casey

-----------------------------------------