SI says Brewers have had #1 offseason

[danzig6767]

logan3825][quote author=Warning Track Power wrote:

Really? As currently constituted you think we have "little chance to make the playoffs"? I think at worst we are co-favorites for the division right now with the Reds. At worst.

Oops, that should be 2012. I dont think we are favorites in our division. That still has to go to the Reds. They are young and could possibly get better with the same players. Of course all their players might have had their career year last year. We were really far behind the Reds last year and we really only added 2 players. 2 very good players replacing really bad players but still only 2 players.

 

Well, we are also replacing for the better hopefully what happened in the back of the bullpen the for roughly the first two months last year where Hawkins and Hoffman were absolute disasters late in close games we were either leading, tied, or only down a run.

 

Time will tell how the Brewers bullpen will end up performing this season, but there are very logical reasons to expect it to be more productive. Axford will be there from the start instead of the gas can Hoffman was to leads in April/May. Hawkins can't be worse. Saito if healthy could be an elite set-up man. Braddock hopefully builds off a good rookie season. Then maybe the best thing is we should get quite a few more innings and quality innings at that from the rotation which in turn should keep the bullpen guys fresher. A better bullpen would add wins compared to last season.

 

For example, we had 21 blown saves last year, 10 more than the Cardinals and only 1 more than the Reds. I understand the Reds won the division instead of the Cardinals and i don't know exactly how many of those 10 games we ended up losing, but the Cardinals also could be good this coming year and it goes to show how a poor back end of the pen can result in a multi-game difference in wins between two teams.

[logan82]

Blown saves don't mean the team lost.

[BCZF]

Same old same old

[monty57]

rluzinski]If I had to bet, all else will not remain equal and we are not going to field a team of AAAA players in 2013 waiting for some draft picks to develop... that's just not the Melvin/Attanasio m.o.

The Brewers are not destined to bad in 2013 but there is no escaping the fact that Melvin has weakened the future teams for the now. Melvin gained perhaps 7 wins for 2011 by trading away prospects that project to be worth maybe 7 wins in the seasons to come. It is what it is.

Now, one of the things I like about the trades was that Melvin will still have the opportunity to shift some of that talent back to the future if things don't go well. If the the Brewers find themselves 10 games out in late June, they could still cash in Fielder. If 2011 isn't going well, they could trade their new starting pitchers. It's like going "all in" but still being able to get some of your money back if you don't like your next card.

That's pretty much where I was going with that thought. First, we will probably extend some of Weeks, Marcum and Greinke. In addition to the possible moves you mentioned, depending on how players develop, we could end up trading Wolf, Hart or really any player. One of our current minor leaguers may take a big, unexpected step forward, or we may make that rare Braun or Pujols-type draft pick that is MLB superstar ready after only a short stint in the minors. Who knows, maybe someone like Gomez will even step up and live up to his potential, which is something no one would expect and would greatly help our future. That's the thing... there are so many unknowns that could occur, we really can't make a solid determination on where we will be in two seasons. We can see what the trade did to our system today, but we don't know what future actions will occur that will affect our system going forward.

 

It is, however, fun to speculate :-)

[MNBrew]

Who knows, maybe someone like Gomez will even step up and live up to his potential, which is something no one would expect and would greatly help our future. That's the thing... there are so many unknowns that could occur....

That Gomez point is a very interesting one. It's not a perfect comparison, but after his 1st 2 years in MN, NO ONE expected Delmon Young to have the year he did last year. Many astute Twins fans knew of the potential but only saw middle-of-the-road success. But seemingly out of nowhere, Delmon became the most consistent producer on the Twins all of last year. (Just don't get anyone going about his defense....)

 

It sure would be cool if Gomez finally started "putting it all together" and living up to his potential (or at least somewhere appreciably closer to it). I wouldn't bet on it, but it'd sure be nice and would sure help a lot.