Doug Davis returning to Milwaukee, 1 yr. $5.25 with mutual option

[strawbossisevil]

And I might add, without adding Sabathia, we might be talking about NO playoff appearances in the Fielder/Braun era. One simply can not know, and acting as if the Brewers would be a perennial playoff/world series contender if we hadn't made that trade is mere opinion based on nothing.

 

It's just as possible that if we didn't make the trade we wouldn't sniff the playoffs at all, but that is an alternate reality that Crew07 refuses to recognize.

 

And on top of that it isn't like our team doesn't have the potential to compete for a playoff space this season. We do. I think a lot of it comes down to living up to potential/health.

 

It's a three horse race, and the team that stays the healthiest is likely the one that is going to win. If we have an injury plagued season like last year, we are going to struggle. If we stay relatively healthy, there is no reason why our team shouldn't be capable of competing as we did the first half of last season.

[logan82]

I think whether we make the playoffs depends a lot on Escobar and Gomez. Does Gomez continue to be the black hole he has been to this point or does he hit his CHONE projection(.329/.390/.719)? Not real great but still worlds better than his career numbers. If Escobar and Gomez can both put up an OPS in the .700 range with an OBP north of .320, our offense shouldn't take to much of a hit. Our pitching is better than we had going into 2009. We are still probably in the low 80's range for wins, but if things go our way we could easily win in the high 80's. Still might not be enough to make the playoffs though.

[RockCoCougars]

That's true. What it comes down to is we're faced with a strong possibility of getting one measly playoff appearance out of this heralded corps we'd been hearing about for years, and it's due to the lack of pitching.

That can largely be chalked up to Melvin's (or Attanasio's) ill-fated decision to give Suppan a four year deal which he did not deserve. This is exactly why the Suppan signing will go down as one of the greatest blunders in Brewers history.

[sheethead]

This is exactly why the Suppan signing will go down as one of the greatest blunders in Brewers history.

 

Its not often you see the blunder not completely play out before its already etched in the blunder HOF. But this one deserves its place way on top of the list, probably for good unless Wendy somehow gains control of the team again.

[battlekow]

Davis passed his physical, making the signing official.

[TheCrew07]

So on one hand this rotation isn't any good because there are no young pitchers to go along with our hitters. On the other hand, this rotation isn't any good because the two young pitchers haven't lived up to their potential.

 

If Yo and Parra came into the majors pitching to their talent level like Braun and Fielder came into the majors hitting to their talent level, no one would be complaining about the other pitchers we have on staff.

That's a pretty narrow view of what happened.... Weeks hasn't lived up to the hype thus far, but the team had other productive options out of the line up, injuries aside Weeks has been basically average., not the all-star 3 hole hitter we thought he'd be... Hart and Hardy struggled last season as well, however contrary to what's happened with the position players, we only had 2 starters of significant quality so there is/was no margin for error, we needed both players to ascend rapidly (Yo has been great, the injury set him back). The lack of options for the starting rotation is precisely the problem I've been beating to death the last 2 seasons, we've had too few options for the rotation. This is precisely why Melvin's comments about pitching injuries bothered me so much. Of course pitchers, especially young pitchers are going to get hurt and flame out, that's why the organization has always needed more top of the rotation pitching. To blame the pitching situation on Jones and Rogers getting hurt is ridiculous... what team hits on 100% of it's super prospect pitchers? Hell, what team hits on 100% of it's prospects period? Even the best organizations have numerous high ceiling arms flame out along the way.

 

I still think the Brewers are responsible for what happened to Neugy and Jeffress' issues with weed (personal politics aside) certainly haven't helped, but it's not like the organization wasn't aware of his issues and this 100 game suspension came out of the blue. Nuegy, Jones, Rogers, and Braddock got hurt, Jeffress got suspended but has always had control issues.... and what was done to address the situation in the last 5-6 years? We acquired Bush, Jackson, Villy, Cody, Capellan, and Butler... only 2 of those guys threw the ball over 90 mph and I still can't believe how bad Capellan actually was compared to his scouting reports on BA, that was just a horrible scouting job by the organization. Not a single player in that group has/had top of the rotation stuff, not one. The problem isn't Yo or more to the point Parra, the problem is a lack of viable options.

 

In the end it's all just excuses to me, the situation could have been addressed numerous times and instead we end up with temporary FA patches which limit payroll flexibility and have declining skills. The only upside is that they didn't cost Melvin anything to acquire other than their contracts, as it appears that he's reluctant to trade for young pitching. The idea shouldn't be to try and slot pitching behind Yo, it should be to try and slot pitching in front him. Yo may never be more than a #2, I have no idea how good he will be, but I'd take 5 pitchers of #2 type quality in my rotation in any time, which is hopefully where we are headed as an organization in the next few years.

[monty57]

Weeks' injuries have cost the team. They had to trade de la Rosa to acquire Graffanino (and they lost Cirillo due to Graffy accepting arby). They traded Gillespie to acquire Lopez. However, even with that, Weeks has still been able to play some, as has Hart, Hardy, and most of the other position prospects we spent high draft picks on. It really has been a testament to these players that most if not all of our high position draft picks have made it to the majors and have not had career-threatening injuries.

 

However, on the pitching side it has been almost the exact opposite. Sure, pitchers do get injured and flame out, but usually not every single pitcher you draft. The Brewers under Jack Z probably used too few draft picks on pitchers, but the ones they did use have all been significantly injured. That isn't normal. If even one more of their pitchers had made it through the ranks, our rotation would be significantly better. However, that didn't happen, which causes management to have to react. It's not possible that he could've had excess first round pitchers and still have Fielder, Braun, Weeks, Hardy, etc.

 

Does it suck that our rotation is hampered because our top draft picks got hurt? Yes, probably equal to the benefit we've received from all our top position players making it to the majors. You listed a number of injuries. If any of those had worked out things would be much different today, but your response is that Melvin should have just "addressed the issue" in some miracle way. Apparently Melvin isn't supposed to acquire depth, but he is supposed to have a ready-made answer when injury occurs.

 

From what I read, you'd like to see a young, can't miss stud pitcher traded for using only expendable players and prospects (even if the trade doesn't exist), and if Melvin doesn't make that trade, he's an idiot. Forget all that he's done for this franchise, and the fact that we can all be proud to be Brewers fans for the first time in a generation, and forget that we actually have a good major league team, good AAA team, Great AA team, good high-A and A team. Melvin sucks and should be fired because he hasn't made a trade that never existed.

 

I'm sorry for the rant. I have enjoyed reading your posts in the past, but recently you've been traveling into speculation and demonizing Melvin over things that may or may not have happened, while glossing over some good (wins, playoffs) and bad (injuries) things which actually have happened.

[battlekow]

McCalvy has the details on the incentives:

$125K each for 180 IP, 185, 190 and 195 and $125K each for start No. 28, 29, 30 and 32.

[RobertR]

I think it is a fair point that the Brewers have struggled to develop pitching prospects. The first round isn't the only place that pitchers come from. And there was certainly more to the pitching problems last year than injuries.

 

OTOH, I think Melvin perhaps draws too much flak for that. Zduriencik can't take credit for only the good parts of his drafting and none of the blame for the pitching failures. And it's clear to me that the development program has had trouble for a long time developing pitching, especially high school pitchers.

 

Robert

[hawing]

Doug, don't even think of trying to mess with my #49 Gallardo jersey. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Your jersey appears to be safe. The active roster shows Sharpie as #25. (So I guess my #49 Davis jersey is now officially retro?)

[PrinceEatMeat]

#25 will look pretty weird to me, but I'm happy about it because I also have a Gallardo #49 jersey that I didn't want messed up.

[Menace II Sobriety]

I think it is a fair point that the Brewers have struggled to develop pitching prospects. The first round isn't the only place that pitchers come from. And

there was certainly more to the pitching problems last year than injuries.

 

OTOH, I think Melvin perhaps draws too much flak for that. Zduriencik can't take credit for only the good parts of his drafting and none of the blame for

the pitching failures. And it's clear to me that the development program has had trouble for a long time developing pitching, especially high school

pitchers.

 

Robert

You are correct but we also have to remember how few comp picks we had available during Z's tenure. I do not think we had a single comp pick until 2 years ago (too lazy to do the research). Also the extra spending on draft picks that fell (Del Howell) didn't start until after the draft and follow process was terminated. It is not like the crew could grad a Joba or a Bard with the extra comp pick. They had 1 pick per round and had to make it work. The Laporta pick was a stretch in my view and that turned into a huge gain for the team.

[lukevan]

Late to the party but I like the signing. It's not getting me all antsy in the pantsy but it at least gives us a good chance of having a league average rotation and I think a good chance at 85-90 wins.

 

As for the young pitching/signing FA pitchers debate goes, I think it's easy to be reminiscent of "what could've been". Melvin had to think about getting butts in seats, not just fielding a WS competitor. Of course, fielding a competitor puts the butts in seats, but I think we as Brewer fans became victims of the whole "Brewers have the best farm system and will be World Series contenders by 2008" epidemic that plagued message board and websites in the early 2000's. It always seemed expectations were that we were going to be a dominant team for a quite a few years, which was unfair. Trying to scapegoat Doug Melvin IMHO is unfair. IMHO no other GM could've had the success that Melvin has had. The Brewers have turned around so much; fans are coming out in droves, the team is competitive and in the upper half in payroll. Enjoy it.

[crewcrazy]

#25 will look pretty weird to me, but I'm happy about it because I also have a Gallardo #49 jersey that I didn't want messed up.

Personally, I was hoping for Davis to pull a McClung and just flip the numbers of his usual jersey number. Sharpie wearing #94 would've been cool, but I'm a geek when it comes to unusual number choices.

[hawing]

I was silently rooting for #94 too (since with my seam ripper, needle and thread I could have reversed my jersey numerals and had a fully relevant jersey for the first time ever).

Imagine what The Maniac might have had to say about that, though. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif Note that I didn't put that in blue.

[liveforoctober]

Take it for what it's worth. Stats are weird. Some people can point out that Doug Davis led the National League in walks last year ... others can point out that only Randy Wolf and Wandy Rodriguez had more quality starts (I don't want to get into a debate over whether that stat is viable).

 

He isn't breaking the bank and he is an upgrade over Suppan. We now have a little depth to cover a short injury ... I approve.

[logan82]

Hopefully this gets Suppan out of the rotation. I have a bad feeling that won't be the case. I think we should hold onto Suppan till mid-season and see how our guys in AAA do. If they do well, dump him and get a better reliever. We wouldn't need him fror SP depth if the guys in AAA step up.

[TooLiveBrew]

Didn't Melvin recently make a comment to the effect of 'salary will not determine rotation status'? I thought he did, and at the time I read that to mean precisely that Suppan is as likely to drop out of the rotation as anyone.

[logan82]

Macha is still in charge of the team on a daily basis and I have little faith in Macha. I think Suppan is probably better than Vargas, but not much. If I see Suppan in the rotation I will be very disappointed.

[TooLiveBrew]

To me it's simple. If Melvin has a problem with who the manager is putting in the rotation, he has a very blunt conversation with his manager, and erases any gray area as to who will be in & out. While I personally loathed how Gamel was handled last season, Melvin never seemed to think anything was wrong (at least in his quotes to the media).

[logan82]

He thought things were wrong at the end of the season. I get the feeling Melvin gives his manager lots of latitude. Hopefully we don't see Gamel sitting the bench again this year.

[RockCoCougars]

He thought things were wrong at the end of the season. I get the feeling Melvin gives his manager lots of latitude. Hopefully we don't see Gamel sitting the bench again this year.

Given what I saw from Macha last season, I will not be surprised at all if Gamel is not playing and Suppan is in the rotation instead of Parra.

[Hate those Rodents]

Has anyone asked Doug what the plan is for Gamel going into this season?

 

Is he looked at as a bench guy, with Casey starting?

Are they going to platoon at third?

Is Gamel going to start in AAA?

Is Gamel going to try another position in AAA?

Is Gamel going to be starting at 3B for the big league team?

 

I have not heard anything of what our intention is with him going into spring training...

[Invader3K]

With as bad as he's been at the plate since his stint in the majors, I expect Gamel will be starting at AAA this season.

[JohnBriggs12]

I don't think Gamel will be on the bench and he doesn't have a starting job in Milwaukee unless someone plays his way out of one in ST or gets hurt. I see Gamel in Nashville to start the season.