Where is Mat Gamel on Opening Day? Latest News: Optioned to Nashville

[topper09er]

I wouldnt be surprised if Hart totally bombed and is hitting .200 in May and Gamel starting platooning with him in RF for most of the year.

[Roderick]

As bad as Gamel has been at 3B, I don't seem him splitting time between the infield and outfield. The Brewers will either see if he can stick at 3B or make the transition to the outfield. My guess is that they've already decided that he is an outfielder, though.

Maybe playing multiple positions won't improve his defense at any one spot, but it isn't like he is going to backtrack because one day he plays 3rd and the next he plays RF. I hope they do this to get him starting two games a week. Get another lefty bat in there.

[JohnBriggs12]

Doesn't having Gamel learn to play 1B at AAA and then take over that position with the Brewers in 2012 make the most sense? I'd feel more comfortable slotting him into that spot in 2012 if he has a full season (or at least a few months) of experience actually playing that position.

Not really. I think at age 26 he gains more out of 250 major league AB's than he does getting twice that many at AAA. Besides I don't think it's a given he's Fielder's heir unless he shows some production at the major league level before hand. That won't happen in Nashville.

[DHonks]

I've stayed out of this so far, but I find it amusing that some are giving up on the guy. I compare him to a similar MLB player (and former Brewer) who was also considered a long-time AAA/MLB player that crushed the minors and struggled in the big leagues.

 

This will be Mat's age 25 season (til July), so he's still not old!

 

Gamel's MLB totals through last year:

145 at bats 35 hits 63 K's 19 BB .241/.335/.414

 

Overbay's MLB totals before his age 27 season in Milwaukee when he became a full-time regular:

266 at bats 72 hits 73 K's 35 BB .271/.357/..391

 

Their numbers are similar, but more importantly their usage was similar as well. I think we all view Overbay as a very solid hitter, and wouldn't be disappointed if that were the worst-case-scenario for Mat.

[TooLiveBrew]

Overbay's a pretty good comparison, DHonks. Imo the main difference is that Mat has more raw power in his swing than Lyle did.

[rluzinski]

As bad as Gamel has been at 3B, I don't seem him splitting time between the infield and outfield. The Brewers will either see if he can stick at 3B or make the transition to the outfield. My guess is that they've already decided that he is an outfielder, though.

Maybe playing multiple positions won't improve his defense at any one spot, but it isn't like he is going to backtrack because one day he plays 3rd and the next he plays RF. I hope they do this to get him starting two games a week. Get another lefty bat in there.

I don't think the Brewers think that Gamel's defense is good enough to play 3B at the majors right now, so the issue isn't whether he'll get worse there, splitting time. He has to get better. Just speculation, though.

[monty57]

TLB, I too remember that Gamel didn't like playing 1B. I don't think he likes fielding the throws from the other players, which is the single most important part of 1B. I think McGehee is our future 1B, so I hope Gamel gets full-time PT at 3B in Nashville. I'm much less worried about his ability to hit at the MLB level than I am at his ability to play 3B, so he will definitely benefit from a full year at Nashville (barring an injury at the MLB level).

 

His additional value to the Brewers in 2011 over some other player is probably pretty minimal, as most of the days off for Braun and Hart will probably go to someone who has some idea how to play corner OF (Dickerson or Boggs), so Mat would be limited to occasional starts at 3B, pinch hitting duties (where he was Macha's 3rd LH option in 2009) and DH duty, for which he could very easily be called up from AAA.

 

In an effort to "go for it" this year, he will probably make the MLB roster for the marginal improvement he'll bring. His couple hundred ABs could go either way. It's such a small sample he could be good, bad or average. He won't get any continuous reps in the field, where he needs to improve in order to help the Brewers in the future. We will also lose Luis Cruz, who isn't a great player, but would be sorely missed if Betancourt or Counsell had any meaningful injury.

[thebruce44]

TLB, I too remember that Gamel didn't like playing 1B. I don't think he likes fielding the throws from the other players, which is the single most important part of 1B.

 

 

I would just like to point out that Gamel never said he didn't like playing 1B. He offered up a very vanilla answer in an interview saying something to the effect that 1B is harder than it looks and he has a lot of respect for the guys who play that position.

 

His humble answer was put into a blog post by Hardicourt that made it seem like he didn't want to play 1B. When asked about it, Hardicourt said his body language indicated he didn't like playing first, but Mat is a typical kid in that he doesn't get excited or show much emotion.

 

Personally, I think he would be thrilled to play any position if it meant he would finally get a real chance in the bigs.

[JohnBriggs12]

Can we just assume the reality is Gamel really doesn't like playing defensively anywhere because he's not been good at it and that his preference is 3B only because he's played there more? His major league calling card if he has one will be his bat. I'd compare him most to Adam LaRoche myself in that like LaRoche, he's very streaky.

[reillymcshane]

I guess a lot of things come down to this:

 

Is Gamel better off playing full time at AAA (at whatever position(s) the team envisions him playing), or is he better getting a couple of hundred at bats in the big leagues as a utility type guy?

 

Don't know that answer - just posing the question.

[monty57]

I guess a lot of things come down to this:

 

Is Gamel better off playing full time at AAA (at whatever position(s) the team envisions him playing), or is he better getting a couple of hundred at bats in the big leagues as a utility type guy?

 

Don't know that answer - just posing the question.

And... is it better for the Brewers' franchise to have him spend 2011 on the MLB bench with four subsequent years as a starter, or playing full-time in AAA with five subsequent years as a starter.

 

Personally, for 2011 I don't think he'd get enough PAs to add much more to the team then they would get be letting someone like Dickerson get the ABs, and his defense would regress rather than progress by spending his time on the MLB bench rather than getting full-time reps at AAA. Therefore, the Brewers would potentially be slightly better in 2011 with Gamel's bat on the bench, but would be significantly worse in 2012 since Gamel's defense would be one year removed from having played full time (and it wasn't good to begin with).

 

 

[logan82]

My hope is C-Dick gets the big half of the CF platoon so he won't be available to pinch hit much.

 

Gamel's defense might improve by having a different person to work with or it might not. He has been with Don Money for 3 years and they might not mesh well. It might be a case where they think of each other as a young punk and crotchety old geezer. I am not sure that is the problem but Money mentioned Gamel is doing the same thing wrong over and over again.

[yoshii8]

My hope is C-Dick gets the big half of the CF platoon so he won't be available to pinch hit much.

Worst nickname ever.

[Mass Haas]

Mat discusss his situation in the video on the right side of this linked page.

[RobDeer 45]

Nice link, nice video. Sounds like he's open to all the spots we talked about and just wants to help the club. It would be great if he was athletic enough to be avg at all 4 spots because then I say have him in the bigs and rotate him. He could get plenty of AB's that way. I'm just not confident he could handle all 4 spots.

[monty57]

I'm just not confident he could handle all 4 spots

 

Me either, and I worry that if his defense is below average it will be too easy for Roenicke to use Dickerson or Boggs for the backup corner OF and Counsell for the backup 3B. The last thing a manager wants is to have a replacement player boot a ball that costs the team a win.

[Invader3K]

Nice link, nice video. Sounds like he's open to all the spots we talked about and just wants to help the club. It would be great if he was athletic enough to be avg at all 4 spots because then I say have him in the bigs and rotate him. He could get plenty of AB's that way. I'm just not confident he could handle all 4 spots.

The problem with your plan is that if all four of the current starters play like they can, there just won't be that many days off for any of them. It's not like you're going to bench each of those guys one or two days a week so Gamel can start.

[Schlitz001]

Me either, and I worry that if his defense is below average it will be too easy for Roenicke to use Dickerson or Boggs for the backup corner OF and Counsell for the backup 3B. The last thing a manager wants is to have a replacement player boot a ball that costs the team a win.

Good point. He's not really a good option for a late game replacement because he is a bit of a defensive liability and all of the positions that he can "field" are currently occupied by guys that aren't going to be benched very often. So unless he can field shortstop better than our current option......let me rephrase that; and we know he's not a shortstop, so I think he is probably best cut out opening the season at 1B at AAA. I would love for him to get a full season of 1B in at Nashville and then starting next year takeover fulltime.

[TooLiveBrew]

"[Gamel's] going to bounce around," said Roenicke. "The guy can hit. If he makes us believe he can play a lot of positions, it helps him make the team. If I were in his shoes, I'd be open to anything."

 

Roenicke conceded that another factor is if it's better for Gamel to play every day at Class AAA Nashville rather than see sporadic action off the Brewers' bench. That call will come at the end of camp.

That's Runnin' Ron talking about Mat's role(s) in Spring Training in TH's most recent blog post. It's encouraging to hear that he's a believer in Mat's bat, but I think the Gamel 25-man roster role was already given to Mark Kotsay. I think the answer to the thread title's question is pretty clearly Nashville at this point.

[pete]

"if I were in his shoes, I'd be open to anything." That seems like an odd comment. It makes you wonder if there is some friction somewhere. If Macha said those exact words I can imagine the furor.

 

Maybe I'm reading things wrong, but I would be absolutely shocked if Cruz makes the lineup even if he has an absolutely great Spring. His job is emergency backup if Yuni breaks a leg and Melvin can't trade for anyone.

 

"Money mentioned Gamel is doing the same thing wrong over and over again." I'll leave it to more diligent posters like TLB to dig around the archives, but my recollection of Money in an audio interview was that Mat would use proper mechanics several times in a row and then blow a play. I guess you could call that doing it wrong over and over, but I think its different than what Money described.

[TooLiveBrew]

"if I were in his shoes, I'd be open to anything." That seems like an odd comment. It makes you wonder if there is some friction somewhere.

 

Yeah, I wondered about that, too. But it could be as simple as just responding to the way the question was framed. Who knows?

[logan82]

"if I were in his shoes, I'd be open to anything." That seems like an odd comment. It makes you wonder if there is some friction somewhere.

 

Yeah, I wondered about that, too. But it could be as simple as just responding to the way the question was framed. Who knows?

With Macha there were more negative comments and history. There isn't that negative history with RRR and Gamel right now.

[greeg35]

Well, the club and Gamel have had issues in the past and I'm sure someone would have told the history to Roenicke. Hopefully Roenicke has a more effective "get your stuff together" approach with Gamel rather than just alienating him.

[TooLiveBrew]

And TH's relatively extreme anti-Gamel bias is once again exposed. This time, by Adam McCalvy NOT manipulating RRR's words.

 

Onetime top Brewers prospect Mat Gamel was among the first Spring Training arrivals this year, and that's a good thing He's going to be busy.

 

Manager Ron Roenicke said Gamel would see spring action at the corner outfield spots and first base in addition to his usual duties at third base. He'll be among the players considered for an Opening Day spot on the Brewers' bench.

 

"The guy can hit," Roenicke said. "So if he can make us believe he can play a lot of positions, it helps him in making teams."

 

Is he open to embracing that role?

"I haven't have enough conversations to really know that answer," Roenicke said, "but you would think that if you're in his shoes, you would be open to anything."

I know I've been too harsh on TH in the past, but I don't mind saying that his understated smear tactics on Gamel are really unprofessional.

[hurricanecrush]

Is he open to embracing that role?

"I haven't have enough conversations to really know that answer," Roenicke said, "but you would think that if you're in his shoes, you would be open to anything."

I know I've been too harsh on TH in the past, but I don't mind saying that his understated smear tactics on Gamel are really unprofessional.

I guess I don't see any smear tactics; he asked him a legitimate question. It's a new role and not everyone will embrace it, especially a former "can't miss" prospect. When I read between the lines, I see a manager saying, "He hasn't said he embraces it, even though we've had some conversations. If I was an unproven prospect that can't play defense, I would do whatever I had to do to fight my way into the lineup."

 

If the answer had been, "I've talked to Mat and he is willing to do

whatever he has to do to help the team", would you still be critical of

the TH? IMO, the problem is the answer, not the question.