Melvin as GM

[Hammer715]

In light of the vote of confidence that Attanasio just gave Melvin, I thought it would be fun to list Melvins success and failures. I am going out on a limb that the failures out number the successes, especially all of the bad contracts.

[Hammer715]

Ok i'll start Jeff Suppans signing, took a gamble that never worked out, and ended up eating a chunk of the contract.

[trwi7]

Good: Sexson trade. Villanueva for Wayne Franklin. Koskie for Brian Wolfe. Shouse for Cruz. Lee for Pods and Vizcaino. Torres trade. Sabathia trade. Signing Cameron, Braun and Gallardo extensions.

 

Bad: De la Rosa for Graffanino. Davis, Eveland and Krynzel for Estrada, Aquino and Vargas. Lee and Cruz for Cordero, Mench and Nix. Mercedes and Gillespie for Lopez. Hardy for Gomez. Suppan, Riske, Hall, Kendall, Gagne, Hoffman, Hawkins and Wolf signings.

[DHarris34Phan]

Axford

[giffted1]

Melvin gave up little or nothing and got some solid production from these players:

 

McGehee

Coffey

Davis (The first time around)

DiFelice

Turnbow

Podsednik

Clark

Branyan

Wise

Kolb

Kapler

Edmonds

Narveson

[dlk9s]

I predict this thread will be the same as every thread that has been started in the past two years on BF.net.

[RockCoCougars]

I would break Melvin's tenure down briefly as follows:

 

Manager choices: 1 for 2

Trades: about 50/50 good to bad (probably slightly leaning towards the bad).... for every Carlos Lee to Milwaukee deal, there seems to be a Carlos Lee to Texas deal to balance it out.

Free Agent signings: Outstanding on the 'scrap heap' pickups, mostly terrible on any multi-year deal or contract valued at over a million for new acquisitions.

Drafting: I'd grade this close to an A solely based on the performance of Fielder, Braun and Weeks. That said, the failure to produce a solid core of young pitchers outside of Gallardo and a couple of the guys that we've seen this season (though the jury is still out on them) would lead me to give him a solid B.

 

Basically then, I would say that Melvin is slightly better than 50/50 for decision making. Not great but not terrible. Close to a .500 record, which is pretty much where the team has been since they rose from the stinkbomb that Selig Prieb, Bando and Taylor created (which you have to give Melvin credit for getting out of). All in all, I think that this buys him one more year.

[Ennder]

In light of the vote of confidence that Attanasio just gave Melvin, I thought it would be fun to list Melvins success and failures. I am going out on a limb that the failures out number the successes, especially all of the bad contracts.

I will take the under on this. He made a couple of terrible choices and the media suggests they were not under his control, but in general he has made ok choices.

[PrinceFielderx1]

Here is the link to the article where Mark A says that Doug Melvin will be back next season.

 

http://www.jsonline.com/s...s/brewers/104129198.html

 

 

(cleaned out double link --1992)

[bork]

Drafting: I'd grade this close to an A solely based on the performance of Fielder, Braun and Weeks.

Fielder, Parra and Hart were Taylor draft picks. Not directed at you specifically, but a lot of people seem to credit Melvin with turning around the minors, but the process really started with Taylor. He never got to see the fruits of his labor because he screwed up the big league club so badly.

 

[JohnBriggs12]

Melvin gave up little or nothing and got some solid production from these players:

 

McGehee

Coffey

Davis (The first time around)

DiFelice

Turnbow

Podsednik

Clark

Branyan

Wise

Kolb

Kapler

Edmonds

Narveson

You can't look at a list like this in a vacuum. If you went back 8 years for every team you would likely be able to compile an equally impressive list of productive players where little was given up. What's more important is that when he did spend money, was it spent wisely. In many cases, it wasn't

 

I also look at how Melvin manages his roster overall. Did he structure a roster that was capable of winning. Did he give himself roster flexibility to make changes on the run. Is there balance on the roster. Did he build a minor league system capable of providing players each year that can help at the major league level. Did he choose managers and coaches that fit the team he put on the field. Overall, I'd say in most of these areas, he comes up short.

 

Trades are just one aspect of his job. He's had hits and misses there too. After 8 years on the job, I think he's had ample time.

[giffted1]

What's more important is that when he did spend money, was it spent wisely. In many cases, it wasn't

I think you'll find that this is the case for most GM's as well. Even Christ himself (Andrew Friedman) missed on some Free Agent signings like Pat Burrell and Troy Percival.

[SenatorShriv]

trwi7[/b]]Good: Sexson trade. Villanueva for Wayne Franklin. Koskie for Brian Wolfe. Shouse for Cruz. Lee for Pods and Vizcaino. Torres trade. Sabathia trade. Signing Cameron, Braun and Gallardo extensions.

 

Bad: De la Rosa for Graffanino. Davis, Eveland and Krynzel for Estrada, Aquino and Vargas. Lee and Cruz for Cordero, Mench and Nix. Mercedes and Gillespie for Lopez. Hardy for Gomez. Suppan, Riske, Hall, Kendall, Gagne, Hoffman, Hawkins and Wolf signings.

When I look at the "bad" list I'm not so sure that any of those trades really hurt us that badly. By that I mean that we never traded away someone who would have been a key player on a playoff team. Hardy for Gomez is the only one that causes me any heart burn.

 

The free agent signings on the other hand have been absolutely awful. *I would actually remove Hoffman from that list he was great last year, which was probably the only year that they thought he would be around.

 

 

[DuWayne Steurer]

One thing he did in the past that I didn't care for was give multi year deals to pre-arby guys, or guys that simply didn't need to be bought out, after they had given exactly ONE year of decent production. (Helms, Podsednik, eg) I realize the multi years weren't financially crippling or anything, I just didn't see the point of needlessly rewarding these 'scrap heap' guys who came along and had one nice year with multi year deals when they were under team control anyways. If nothing else, reward them after they prove consistently year to year that they are a quality player.

[nate82]

One thing he did in the past that I didn't care for was give multi year deals to pre-arby guys.

So you wouldn't have given that contract to Braun or Gallardo? You would have gone year to year with them like Prince?

[logan82]

All I will say is that most trades can be argued either good or bad. This was gone over quite extensively earlier this year.

[dlk9s]

One thing he did in the past that I didn't care for was give multi year deals to pre-arby guys.

So you wouldn't have given that contract to Braun or Gallardo? You would have gone year to year with them like Prince?

He referred to the "scrap heap" guys getting those deals, not the superstars.

[RockCoCougars]

Drafting: I'd grade this close to an A solely based on the performance of Fielder, Braun and Weeks.

Fielder, Parra and Hart were Taylor draft picks. Not directed at you specifically, but a lot of people seem to credit Melvin with turning around the minors, but the process really started with Taylor. He never got to see the fruits of his labor because he screwed up the big league club so badly.

Not sure why I typed that, I had a few cocktails last night. At any rate, Taylor's drafting was much better than Bando's, but really he produced only 3 quality players in his three drafts (Fielder, Hart and Hardy). Three all-stars, so I will tip my hat to him for that, but I think some overrate his rebuilding the farm system. Outside of the three all-stars, there is little or nothing outside of Parra, with higher round flame outs left and right.

[jackalope02ca]

Overall I'd say pretty darn impressive. He's taken this franchise from a team where us fans were excited about a .500 team to a bunch of fans who can't stand finishing at .500 better yet below and demand change. That in itself is quite an accomplishment with this franchise. Sure he's made a few mistakes but less than anyone in the recent memory before him. Now when things don't work people notice. Not that long ago it was just another expected dissappointment. We didn't know how we were going lose at the beginning of every year just that the team would find a way. He's drafted solidly. Sure we could use some more pitchers but I think we have the depth to trade for one or two this winter. Overall I'd give him an A- in his tenure to date.

[owbc]

I believe there was a game this year when 8 out of the 9 players on the field were home grown. That speaks volumes about Melvin's ability to get home-grown talent to the majors.

 

His trades have been average and his free-agent signings have been below average. Overall I am fine giving him a few more years, but I am a little concerned about giving him another managerial hire.

[MNBrew]

I totally agree w/ jackalope. A-.

 

Hindsight's 20/20. And some people will just NEVER be happy with the GM. For every move folks want to rag on Melvin for making, there would be at least as many complaints about Melvin doing nothing -- and arguing that he's totally inept -- had he not made any moves. I think Mark A.'s comments yesterday are right on: Melvin's an excellent GM who just had an off year (at least in the FA dept.).

 

Wolf's a bad move? Wolf had 1.5 lousy months after a respectable April start and followed with 4 good-to-excellent months (with the bullpen-saving Pittsburgh disaster start mixed in). Since Peterson made his suggestion about pace, Wolf's been extremely solid. Given that, I'm sure glad we already have him under contract the next two years.

 

Ditto Hoffman. His 1st 2 months this year were terrible beyond belief. But all last year he was great. And the last 4 months of this year, his ERA's been 2.67.

 

De La Rosa was excellent the last 4 months of last year. He was terrible in KC after the trade and not worth much in Colorado 'til he got hot last year. This year he's been nothing special thanks mainly to injury. Graffanino performed very solidly here 'til he blew out his knee. Did you really want to wait out 2.5 more years of crap pitching? Everyone's bashing Parra (justifiably). But Jorge was 1.5x worse when we finally pulled the plug & dumped him for Graffy. That was a totally brilliant move! Roast Melvin for dumping JDLR but scream to get rid of Parra? Holy selective reasoning!

 

Melvin's dumpster-diving was about a 75% success rate for 3-4 years. Few if any GMs can claim such strong success over that same period of time. Several other low-grade signings have worked out extremely well as noted above.

 

Most trades weren't total failures. Some FA moves have been outstanding. Unfortunately, last year's batch of bigger-money ones didn't pan out well except Wolf, and it took getting through nearly 1.5 bad months after a respectable April for him to get back on track.

[logan82]

I believe there was a game this year when 8 out of the 9 players on the field were home grown. That speaks volumes about Melvin's ability to get home-grown talent to the majors.

The only one being McGehee who was a scrap heap guy.

 

I just want to add that I would give Melvin the next 2 years to see how the minor league pitchers develop to evaluate him. There was a big shift in drafting philosophy a few years back and we have yet to see how that will turn out. Just another rehashed argument by me from earlier in the year. I know some disagree.

[Never Outhustled]

You can't judge a GM bad his transactions only. What about the moves he didn't make? His biggest failure as a GM is the fact that he hasn't traded for a pitcher in over 2 years.

A GM with this much tenure should be judged by his record, not his moves. His record is bad.

[Ennder]

You can't judge a GM bad his transactions only. What about the moves he didn't make? His biggest failure as a GM is the fact that he hasn't traded for a pitcher in over 2 years.

 

A GM with this much tenure should be judged by his record, not his moves. His record is bad.

The Brewers have been a couple games over .500 over the last 6 years now. The last time we had a 6 year stretch this good was 87-92. Before that it was 78-83. I dunno, hard for me to call his record bad given our payroll, market size and the team he started with. I don't think joe average GM would have us in better shape that is for sure, some of the best GMs in the game probably would though... they all have other jobs though.

 

[ramssuperbowl99]

You can't judge a GM bad his transactions only. What about the moves he didn't make? His biggest failure as a GM is the fact that he hasn't traded for a pitcher in over 2 years.

 

A GM with this much tenure should be judged by his record, not his moves. His record is bad.

The Brewers have been a couple games over .500 over the last 6 years now. The last time we had a 6 year stretch this good was 87-92. Before that it was 78-83. I dunno, hard for me to call his record bad given our payroll, market size and the team he started with. I don't think joe average GM would have us in better shape that is for sure, some of the best GMs in the game probably would though... they all have other jobs though.

This is more or less what I think. Melvin has done, all in all, a pretty good job. Are there better GM's out there who would recognize we need to develop more elite high school talent on a yearly basis to make the playoffs? Yeah, probably. But what are the odds that we hire that guy and not the next Omar Minaya? I'll stick with Melvin.

Also, people can say what they want about the pitching, but we don't know the whole story. Everyone here is quick to knock Melvin's contracts, and I understand, some of them are bad. But he has come out and said many high priced free agents just don't want to come to Milwaukee. Maybe he went out and tried to get a John Lackey/AJ Burnett (thank god he didn't, but the point stands) that would have done the organization wonders. We don't know everything, so it's tough for us to make completely objective evaluations. Further, I have to give the guy my support as far as developing and scouting hitting. Casey McGehee was a waiver claim, Lawrie, Escobar, Braun, Cain (was he a Melvin guy?), Lucroy, Weeks (was he a Melvin pick?) all are a result of the Brewers' scouting department and Melvin's work. That's an impressive list, and that's why we are spoiled (and will continue to be, it appears, for the foreseeable future) on offense.

Finally, it looks like the pitching is coming around. Rogers started his career off with 9 IP, 0 H. I know that's a small sample size, but that does tell you something about the caliber of stuff he has. If he harnesses it, we finally have our cheap #3. Gallardo is becoming an ace, all he needs to do is throw more strikes. As bad as Wolf's contract is, he can be a #4 and Narveson can be a #5. All we need is Robin to Gallardo's Batman and our rotation is solid. That doesn't even address the improvements the bullpen is making. Looking at fangraphs' shutdowns/meltdowns stat for bullpens, we are among the worst this season. But with Axford, Jeffress, Braddock, and any of the arms we don't have room for in the rotation, we might actually have a mostly homegrown bullpen, lineup, and rotation.

Yeah, the Suppan and Doug Davis contracts are bad. However, Melvin looks like he has finally developed enough pitching that he won't have to go out and get any more #3 starters anymore. That's been his biggest weakness, and if he can cover that up with the farm system, we can expect better performance from him down the road.