anyone else seeing big changes ahead? Latest: Mark A says Melvin is going to be here a long time, Macha will not be fired Monday

[zzzmanwitz]

As a Brewer, Kevin Mench had 441 PAs and a line of .256/.288/.403/.691 with an OPS+ of 76.

 

Mench and Cruz were pretty much Identical players. Mench batted a little better and Cruz played a bit better in the field (going by Range Factor).

[sheethead]

Cruz would have been much cheaper, as Mench took the Brewers for $3.4M in 2007.

[zzzmanwitz]

Totally agree sheethead, I'm just making an observation.

 

I don't think Mench was the answer at all, but my point is that Cruz played as poorly as Mench did, and he was in a hitter friendly environment. To think that the Brewers would (or should) have waited around this long for him is asking a lot.

[MJLiverock]

Mench did what he was supposed to do, hit LHP. In 06 in 132 PA's vs. LHP he put up an OPS of .876, in 2007 in 166 PA's vs. LHP his OPS was .901. The problem was Yost insisting on playing him vs. RHP, in 2007 he had 142 PA's vs. RHP putting up a .564 OPS.

 

For all the hate Mench recieved he did what he was supposed to do but was misused by the manager. Kind of a weird hatred given the lamenting over the trading of guy like Gross who is basically the same player but from the left side. Gross was and is absolutely awful vs. LH pitching but was protected for the most part from LH'ers. Incidently verus the their platoon strengths Gross vs. RH'ers wasn't even as good as Mench vs. LH'ers, Mench was bascially a high .800's OPSer while Gross was only a high .700's OPSer. Neither was much defensively, Gross was probably a little better because of his arm and slightly better range but still couldnt' judge a fly ball very well.

[logan82]

We would probably have DFA's Cruz in 2008 as well if he had still been with us. We had a starting outfield of Braun, Cameron, Hart(coming off of a .295/.353/.5339/.892 year). I guess one could argue he would don't' go after Kapler if we have Cruz but I think we would still have gone after Kapler. Melvin seems to favor veteran bench players. I believe at the time I didn't like Cruz included in the deal.

[RockCoCougars]

You never know what would have happened had they kept Cruz. As others have said, he most likely would have fallen on his face and been gone anyway. That said, we will never know because he was never given the chance here. My guess is that Melvin settled for the deal that Texas offered because he didn't want the perception that he was giving up on the season, by taking Mench he theoretically got major league talent back, but absolutely no prospects for one of the best hitters in the league. I will give Melvin props that Cordero bounced back and solidified the bullpen the way that he did, that said, if Cordero bombs like he had done in Texas that season, the trade goes down as one of the worst in franchise history.

 

This trade is a perfect example of one of the problems that I have with the management of this team. Either go for it or rebuild, enough of this halfway stuff. I'm still trying to figure out what they were doing last July and August. They stood pat at the deadline when they still had a chance, then they tanked and started making moves like sending Hardy to the minors trading for Weathers, etc. I don't know if it's ownership or Melvin.

[logan82]

I don't know if it's ownership or Melvin.

 

Hard to say really. IO believe Melvin is really working for his job year to year no matter what Mark A. says. I also get the impression Mark A. wants a winner on the field so he may not accept a rebuild anytime soon even if it would be in the best interest of the franchise long term. This trade deadline and upcoming offseason will be very telling. I just threw up a little in my mouth for talking about the offseason already.

[DougJones43]

Enough is enough. MERCY.

 

What's it going to take for Jeff Suppan to get released? I don't respect somebody who is too prideful to admit their mistakes, and this is clearly the case when it comes to Doug Melvin with Suppan.

[crewcrazy]

BREWCREW5 started this thread by saying, "This isn't a thread about venting or complaining." There was some very good discussion going on early on, but sadly, we've gotten so far off the original topic that there's no reason to keep this thread open anymore.