Stuck in Neutral

[Omar Little]

Several of those pitchers were acquired in trades, and not drafted by the teams you mention.

Thanks brains! I was a little overexcited when I wrote that post and realized I made those mistakes! I just edited my post to remove those errors.

 

 

[endaround]

Greg Zaun:.272 .346 .391

 

Kottaras:.243 .434 .595

 

Anyone complaining about the catching is just so wrong it isn't funny.

[PeaveyFury]

Gomez was actually out performing expectations as well in CF prior to the injury.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

Nice post endaround...considering Zaun's 0 for 20+ start, those numbers are solid. I mentioned in the IGT at some point a week or so ago he had passed Kendall in OPS...not that it's a high hurdle, but Kendall's start had a few pining for his slappy grit. Zaun has been an upgrade and will have Kendall by 100+ on OPS by year end. Kottaras is a nice upgrade over Rivera as well, although his defense makes me nervous.

[BrewCrewForever]

Zaun started terrible but has since settled in nicely. And when Kottaras plays he has done well, not the best BA, but his OPS is great.

[monty57]

I'm not worried about Zaun's bat, I'm worried about his arm. If I had to guess, Lucroy will be called up at some point and Zaun will either be traded or let go with Lucroy/Kottaras sharing starts. Of course, that may depend on Salome's situation and how we're looking in the standings, but I doubt we keep Zaun if it means hindering Lucroy / Salome by having them split time at AAA. That said, it is good to see production out of the catcher's spot in the lineup.

[Omar Little]

I'm not worried about Zaun's bat, I'm worried about his arm. If I had to guess, Lucroy will be called up at some point and Zaun will either be traded or let go with Lucroy/Kottaras sharing starts. Of course, that may depend on Salome's situation and how we're looking in the standings, but I doubt we keep Zaun if it means hindering Lucroy / Salome by having them split time at AAA. That said, it is good to see production out of the catcher's spot in the lineup.

So, when did this thread turn into a discussion about the catching situation??

[monty57]

So, when did this thread turn into a discussion about the catching situation??

 

For the posters ahead of me, I'd guess it was when you incorrectly stated "If you include pitching, RF, CF and catcher in your mix, there's not talent all over the field!" We have a surplus of talent at catcher, both at the major league level and even moreso at AAA. So much so, in fact, that we may jettison Zaun, who is the best MLB catcher we've had for a while. We also have a lot of OF in the minors, and our OF this season has been pretty productive at the major league level even with the injuries we've suffered. That said, every team has holes, so when I said that we have talent "all over the field," I didn't mean that we had All-Stars at every position... nobody does.

 

For me, the thread turned when you said that Melvin "...has stunted the grow of the franchise." I can't really grasp this, as I watched the Brewers from the mid-90's to the early 2000's, while our system got more and more devoid of talent. We now have a good franchise, from Rookie ball to the Major Leagues. How that possibly is stunting the grow[th] of the franchise is beyond me, so rather than respond to the post you directed at me, I thought I'd respond to the posts about the catching position.

[JohnBriggs12]

Gomez was actually out performing expectations as well in CF prior to the injury.

Gomez' absence has been felt. Edmonds' inability to cover much ground in CF is painfully evident. With this pitching staff, that's critical. Offensively, Gomez has been all right.

[joepepsi]

btw, Corey Hart is posting an .846OPS as of right now. 268/351/495. I'll take those number from him for the next 5 years and gladly pay for it.

 

Edmonds has an .824 OPS. Gomez, .768, Gerut, .695 with a bullet.

 

Offensively the only position that is struggling in 1B. And that sleeping giant appears to be yawning, stretching, and ready to move from his den.

[trwi7]

btw, Corey Hart is posting an .846OPS as of right now. 268/351/495. I'll take those number from him for the next 5 years and gladly pay for it.

Why? He's getting those numbers against lefties (.361/.429/.694/1.123) and he's getting owned against righties (.213/.304/.377/.681) and he's still playing terrible defense. You don't pay a right handed platoon outfielder who's an awful defender anything, at least you shouldn't.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

That makes Hart an upgraded Kevin Mench...that's fine for $1-2mm/year, not $4.5+. Hopefully he keeps this up and they may actually have someone to trade.

[Omar Little]

Monty...First off, I guess trying to be sarcastic and a smart alec doesn't come off too well in print, I was joking about the catching comments. It was funny to see things turn that way after almost 5 full pages of stuck in neutral talk.

 

"the thread turned when you said that Melvin "...has stunted the grow of the franchise."

 

How about the absolute lack of any advanced, top of the rotation starters other than Gallardo during his 7 years as GM (and you can include Jack Z's time before that as well)? That's the biggest reason why the growth of this franchise has been stunted or stuck in neutral, IMO. Pitching is SO hard to find and way too expensive(and risky) for a team like the Brewers to get via free agency so, as a franchise, you cannot afford to make mistakes and go 7-10 years without being able to develop good pitching internally. I mean, 1 or 2 young, hard throwing starters is all I'm asking for up to this point. I'm not asking for Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum or Tommy Hanson, I'm asking for a quality 3 and 4 starter who throws faster than 87mph. Really, in the last 10-12 years there's only been Sheets and Gallardo that have been stud home grown pitching talent at the ML level, right?

 

I guess I misunderstood what you said about the talent in the system. There is some good talent throughout the system but I don't see a lot of great talent that could produce another wave of high ceiling guys like we had with Weeks, Fielder, Braun, Yo, Hart, Hardy, Escobar and Gamel. Again, that's just my opinion.