Brewers Sign Zaun to 1-year deal plus option; Latest: Audio Interview

[Patrick425]

At least we know what his at bat song will be

Finally, another song (other than Suppan and Counsell - who's gone now probably) that I'll recognize.

[ewizabeff]

TH's blog quotes the 4 out of 5 starts. He caught 90 last year and 86 in 2008. 4 out of 5 starts is 128, and the last time he got close to that was in 2005 (132 starts). My guess is the 4/5 starts doesn't pan out. edit: 132 starts, not 133

[Patrick425]

TH's blog quotes the 4 out of 5 starts. He caught 90 last year and 86 in 2008. 4 out of 5 starts is 128, and the last time he got close to that was in 2005 (133 starts). My guess is the 4/5 starts doesn't pan out.

I'm not seeing where it states this?

 

edit: Nevermind, I see it now.

[RockCoCougars]

I don't have a problem with this. Hopefully they pair him to split time with the young guy who has the most potential, be it the new guy from Boston, Lucroy or Salome. Guess we've went full circle, since his uncle Rick Dempsey played with the Crew at the end of his career as well.

[joepepsi]

You have to think that this is a Jake Taylor type signing. Brought in to mentor the rookie catcher and show him the ropes. I have no problem with this at all. You would have to think that to attract veteran pitchers that they would like to know that there is a veteran catcher back there.

Well this is why the Orioles signed him last year; to mentor Matt Wieters. Zaun was the starting catcher until Wieters was brought up in late May. Zaun was gone the first week of August.

 

I guess the justification is if Kottaras is terrible, Lucroy and Salome aren't ready, then you're in a pickle. So you go into Spring with the veteran as the "starting" catcher and you see if any of the youngsters can step up. Rivera is arby eligible and could get $1 million through that process. So cutting him in effect lowers Zaun's contract by several hundred thousands.

[44Fishy]

He was the best story the Rays had going when they brought him down here to St Pete last summer-

Everybody loved him, brought lots of life to the team-

 

I seem to remember seeing several late innings 'clutch' hits, too-

[craigharmann]

Is he gritty? Gotta have grittiness in your catcher!

[JohnBriggs12]

Oh I don't think there is any doubt Rivera is a goner. He makes more money than Kottaras I'd imagine...

Not to take this off topic but Rivera will probably cost about $1-2m and I'm not sure the Brewers are willing to pay that for a backup catcher.

Rivera wouldn't get more than $650,000 in arbitration if that. He won't get anything close to $1 million, much less 2. He's a 1st year arby guy who's hardly played. Augie Ojeda, who played a lot more than Rivera, was a first year arby guy last year and got $715,000. That's not to say they won't non-tender him to save $200K, but it's more likely that since Zaun plays mostly against right handers, that his backup would be a right handed hitter and even if non-tendered, there's nothing stopping them from bringing back Rivera at near minumum again after non-tendering him.

 

The real shame of this is that it likely means Lucroy spends all or most of 2010 in the minors. No way they keep him up now. The only bright spot is we won't see Kendall around.

[JoeHova]

I'm glad that this means the end of Kendall but I hope it doesn't mean the end of Rivera. I can't say I expecially like this move but anything is better than Kendall. I'm so glad I won't have to watch him play every single freaking game for no particular reason. Hopefully Macha doesn't do that with Zaun too, but surely he will.

[dadofandrew]

He's had a >750 OPS 3 of the last 4 years. Calling him a 700 OPS player is factually incorrect.

 

He is old, and may decline some, but if he plays 81-100 games, I think he'll be fine. He may well be paired with Lucroy to mentor him, as he did with Weiters for a bit. The lefty/righty match makes sense.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

After looking at that website, I think Zaun signed with the Brewers for enhanced access to Remetee shirts.

[fondybrewfan]

I like the signing. Our catching position will now likely cost about $3 Million less than it did last year and out #1 catcher will have an OPS probably around 100 points higher than Kendall had last year. Plus Zaun is somewhat of a proven commodity, the same can't be said for Rivera (On a full time basis) Kottaras, LuCroy or Salome.

 

Sure Melvin could have gone with a combination of Kottaras/Salome/Rivera/LuCroy but that would have been a pretty big risk especially when you consider that Melvin is already taking considerable risk (offensively) by starting Escobar and Gomez.

 

Besides a 1 year deal at $2 Million is not going to keep the Brewers from getting the pitching they want. If they want someone bad enough they will go over budget by $2 Million if they have to. $2 Million for one year is a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things

[Patrick425]

Not sure I ever understood all the love for Rivera.

[Funketown]

I think it would be hard to criticize the signing for what it is. Now, obviously Macha could go ahead and have Zaun catch 150 games, but the actual deal looks like a very solid signing for the Crew. I've said before that what I'd like them to do is give Zaun about 3/4 of the playing time for 2-3 months, with Rivera getting the other 1/4, and then bring up Lucroy to avoid spending a season of his service time. As for 2011, the $2.25 million option looks pretty good. Even if he catches only 50 games or so, I would be pretty confident he would earn every penny of that paycheck. I often feel like fans don't realize how much having somebody like Corky Miller or Wil Nieves getting even 150 plate appearances or 40 starts can hurt the production of the offense. I'd be hard pressed to believe that Zaun isn't likely to provide value in excess of the $4.5 million he receives (assuming the option is exercised) over Mike Rivera over the 500 or so plate appearances he will receive.

[Invader3K]

I don't mind the signing. I just hope that if he ends up hitting below average, Macha doesn't keep trotting him out ala Jason Kendall.

[crewcrazy]

Not sure I ever understood all the love for Rivera.

 

I think not being Jason Kendall had a lot to do with it.

 

As for Zaun, sort of a "meh" signing but like others have said, at the very least he's a little better than Kendall while also being a little cheaper. Between this and the reports of Counsell being offered a deal today, at least it looks like Doug's not sitting on his hands waiting for pitching to get back to him. I can get behind doing the small fixes early so you know exactly what you have to address during the winter meetings.

[JohnBriggs12]

Not sure I ever understood all the love for Rivera.

A. He wasn't Kendall and B. On the rare occasions he did play, he got a lot of big hits as attested by the fact that Rivera in 08 and 09 drove in a run every 6.3 AB's compared to Kendall's one RBI for every 10.5 AB.

 

That's amazing for a guy who spent the better part of two years sitting with his feet up in the bullpen

[Oldcity]

The shine wore off Rivera's offense last year, though. He was big in 2008, but that was way too small of a sample size from which to draw any conclusion other than he helped win a few big games.

[djoctagone]

if rivera is non-tendered, who on the current roster backs up at first?

[ewizabeff]

Gamel?

[trwi7]

if rivera is non-tendered, who on the current roster backs up at first?

 

Zaun probably. It's not that hard to find a backup 1B.

[dlk9s]

You have to think that this is a Jake Taylor type signing.

If this means we run the "Major League play" at some point, he will be worth every penny.

[JoeHova]

The love for Rivera way predates Kendall. It's because he got signed out of the Independent Leagues in 2005 and hit 16 home runs for Nashville in just 60 games (.895 OPS). Meanwhile, Chad Moeller was playing 1/3rd of the time and had a .624 OPS. Moeller still makes me want to vomit with rage and disgust any time I think of him so I will always love Rivera for forcing the Brewers to finally end the Moeller era (that didn't happen until '06 though).

[joepepsi]

Chad Moeller made $800K with the Orioles last year.

[BREWCREW5]

greggzaun.com is awesome.

 

This is a big upgrade over Kendall. Solid veteran and leader willing to assist the young guys. I'm all for it.