Riske Released

[jerichoholicninja]

According to mlbtraderumors.com via the Brewers twitter feed.

[wibadgers23]

And hello Carlos Gomez.

[RockCoCougars]

Good riddance to bad garbage.

[MNBrew]

Should've been a darn good signing. Everything pointed that way 3 winters ago. But it didn't turn out that way, and I'm glad the Brewers didn't wait 6 more unnecessary weeks before deciding to move ahead.

[crossface21]

Riske seems like a good guy and I hope he has success somewhere else, as long as it's not against the Brewers. The only reason I think this move sucks is because it means Gomez is coming back.

[logan82]

Not really a big deal either way. Not sure I would rather have Gomez playing for us right now instead of Riske though.

[patrickgpe]

well Riske wasn't playing so its a wash nor will he take time from Cain. This saves one of his options which may help his trade value (if he has any left) in the winter. If nothing else he can pinch run for us instead of forcing Bush to do it.

[Hate those Rodents]

Riske was a good signing that didn't pan out. Most here liked the signing at the time. We really needed good bullpen help and there was nothing in AAA. He was excellent in Kansas City.

[Ennder]

Should've been a darn good signing. Everything pointed that way 3 winters ago. But it didn't turn out that way, and I'm glad the Brewers didn't wait 6 more unnecessary weeks before deciding to move ahead.

I think it was a dubious signing even without the injuries. His ERA always looked really fluky so I think the $$ was way too much.

[logan82]

well Riske wasn't playing so its a wash nor will he take time from Cain. This saves one of his options which may help his trade value (if he has any left) in the winter. If nothing else he can pinch run for us instead of forcing Bush to do it.

Gomez(or Cain) would not have used an option. Cain already used an option this year. Gomez would not have spent enough time in the minors to use an option.

 

Here is a question, why the crap do you leave Parra in there to get his brains beat in if you have Riske available to pitch?

[Funketown]

Another bad signing that it will be nice to forget. Even if Riske had been projected as a 3.50 ERA guy, his contract would have been too large for him. Riske had one very good season (2003) but otherwise he has been a pretty average reliever. Why spend $4.5 per year on a guy like Riske when you can get that production off the scrap heap?

 

Hopefully Melvin has learned his lesson on mediocre relievers by now. Hawkins was an overpay, but not nearly as bad as Riske. With Trevor's struggles and the dominance of Axford/Braddock, maybe he'll decide to allocate some of his cash away from the bullpen, where it is almost always inefficiently used.

[BrewCrewForever]

Between Riske, Hawkins and Hoffman (2010 version) I think Doug Melvin should see it is never a good idea to give money to relief pitchers. Go young and/or cheap ala Axford, Braddock, Coffey, McClendon, Loe, etc.

[monty57]

I hope Melvin doesn't base his future decisions on whether couple of veteran signings didn't pan out or a couple of prospects did. The reason Melvin shouldn't spend a lot of money on the bullpen in the near future is that they should have a number of good arms coming up from the minors, allowing them to stay young, cheap and good for quite a while. Of the three, I'll take good. Having young, cheap and good is just added benefit.

 

The fact that we utterly failed in developing any pitching (rotation or bullpen) is what made the signings of players like Riske necessary. Thankfully it appears Melvin & Company have been working on correcting that for the past several years, and we're finally seeing the fruits of that labor. It will be a nice day when the only guys making over $1MM in our bullpen are guys we've brought up through our system who have performed well enough to merit the pay raise in arbitration.

[Baldkin]

Here is a question, why the crap do you leave Parra in there to get his brains beat in if you have Riske available to pitch?

Well, that's easy to answer, Riske really wasn't available. Neither was Mclendon or Capuano or Braddock (I mean, he can only get lefties out)... Coffee, Loe and Axford weren't available.... so... that's all we have in the bullpen. Gotta leave Parra in!

[monty57]

I'd guess the back-to-back 3 inning outings by Gallardo and Narveson in the previous two days had something to do with why Macha left Parra out there. I'm not a Macha fan, but someone in our rotation has to get out of the fourth inning every now and then.

[hawing]

The first time we saw David Riske pitch for the Brewers was at one of the 2008 exhibition games. My mother, who was with us, asked who that was when he took the mound. By the following Monday (opening day '08), she was emailing me about "good ol' Riske" coming in late in the game, like she'd known of him his whole career instead of for 48 hours. So he's always jokingly been "good ol' Riske" in the hawing household.

 

I'd call his signing unfortunate for both sides, due to the injury, and wish David well going forward.

[LouisEly]

Didn't someone here post that Riske said that the Brewers insisted that he throw a curveball (apparently he didn't prior), and that led to the elbow problems? If so, I'm wondering if that led to the firing of Bill Castro.

[razzzorsharp]

Riske was my favorite Brewer strictly because I really thought the signing was gonna be a good one.

[brewers4eric]

Based on what I can remember from some of articles that I read, Riske blamed Mike Maddux for some of the injury problems that he developed. Castro took the fall for other pitching woes, which extended well beyond Riske's injury problems. When he was signed, it seemed like Riske threw nothing but fastballs and admitted it.

Riske pitched in mostly high leverage situations right out of spring training that first year. Its kind of sad that he was throwing in nothing but lost games since he came back, taking Chris Smith's role from 2009. Following his injury problems, I had my doubts that he would appear in a Brewer uniform at all in 2010. Best of luck to him, but its obvious that he didn't fit into the team's plans for 2011.

The names on the pitching staff are going to be quite a bit different next year. September should be interersting, as the team puts a few new pitchers on the mound to see how they all fit in. Riske might find a spot somewhere, similar to what the Brewers discovered with Coffey a couple of years ago.

[crewcrazy]

There was this from McCalvy at the end of January this year:

 

The Brewers would love to get some production from Riske this season because so far his three-year contract has not paid off. Riske says his troubles began during his first Spring Training with the Brewers in 2007, when then-pitching coach Mike Maddux tried to introduce a curveball to his repertoire.

 

"I wish I would have never, ever tried to learn those breaking balls because that's really what triggered it," Riske said. "What do you do? You want to do what they want, and it gradually got worse and worse. ... My whole career, I threw 95 percent fastballs, and I've had a pretty good career up until last year. I wish I would have just said no."

 

Riske said he objected, but tried to pitch through the pain. He posted a 5.31 ERA in 45 appearances in 2008 and was shut down after Sept. 7.

[Thurston Fluff]

AT the time one of the things our pen lacked was a durable veteran reliever with a history of solid, if unspectacular, seasons. He fit the bill very well. Our team got another guy like that in Hawkins this season with similar results. While I agreed with both it might be time for me to reevaluate the value of such players. Good luck where ever you go and in what ever you do. No hard feelings no big loss.

 

By the following Monday (opening day '08), she was emailing me about "good ol' Riske" coming in late in the game, like she'd known of him his whole career instead of for 48 hours. So he's always jokingly been "good ol' Riske" in the hawing household.

 

Funny. One of the great things about sports is how people come to identify with players for such unusual, or sometimes no, real reason at all.

 

Here is a question, why the crap do you leave Parra in there to get his brains beat in if you have Riske available to pitch?

 

The season is lost and they just had a couple short starts before that and he's a guy with good stuff who has to learn how to get through games like that better. What better time than that to give him extra work?

[logan82]

Backupcatchers wrote:

Here is a question, why the crap do you leave Parra in there to get his brains beat in if you have Riske available to pitch?

 

The season is lost and they just had a couple short starts before that and he's a guy with good stuff who has to learn how to get through games like that better. What better time than that to give him extra work?

Why pull Narveson the previous day then?

[thablingster]

They are planning to limit Narveson's innings, so pulling Narveson made more sense with a long man (McClendon) available.

 

Back to Riske, thanks for playing, David. It is too bad things didn't work out. No hard feelings. This likely just means McNewGuy becomes the (we're down by more than 2 in the late innings) reliever Riske became for the next 8 days until rosters expand.

[Flood Pants]

I remember this article from a couple of years ago about Riske's relationship to Zack Grienke. Apparently, Riske helped him get past his social anxiety order and make it back to the starting rotation. A very big deal, considering how dominant Grienke has become.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2008-03-28-622764088_x.htm

 

Seems like a great guy who just ran into some bad luck. Best wishes to him.

[endaround]

well Riske wasn't playing so its a wash nor will he take time from Cain. This saves one of his options which may help his trade value (if he has any left) in the winter. If nothing else he can pinch run for us instead of forcing Bush to do it.

Gomez(or Cain) would not have used an option. Cain already used an option this year. Gomez would not have spent enough time in the minors to use an option.

 

Here is a question, why the crap do you leave Parra in there to get his brains beat in if you have Riske available to pitch?

I wonder if they didn't option Gomez down because he was already claimed on waivers at the beginning of the month and pulled back. I think he has enough service time now he needs to be placed on waivers to be optioned down and the second time the waivers are irrevocable.