2011 Brewers Breakout and Disappointing Players of the Year

[craigharmann]

Is it just me, or does dedicating a thread (partially) to who will be disappointments before the season even starts seem unnecessarily pessimistic?

 

 

Yes. But old habits die hard. For many previous years, since we knew the team would be awful, the sport was to see who would be the best of the worst and the worst of the worst.

[brewmann04]

Breakout Lucroy

 

dissapoitment Prince

[JohnBriggs12]

Just a general question as I notice a lot of guys picking Betancourt to disappoint. If nothing is expected from a guy, then how can he disappoint?

[Invader3K]

Just a general question as I notice a lot of guys picking Betancourt to disappoint. If nothing is expected from a guy, then how can he disappoint?

I asked the same thing on Twitter yesterday. If you expect him to suck, and he sucks, it's not really a disappointment, is it?

[davemakovec]

Breakout: Parra and Narveson. Parra really seems to be settling into his role as a bullpen pitcher, and I think this year, in the BP the whole way through, he will end up being great. Narveson started to put it together toward the end of the season, and if he can just cut out a few of those first inning bloopers where he strikes out the side but gives up three runs in the mean time, he could be really good.

 

Disappointment: Gallardo. I think the world of this kid's talent, but something is just missing. He plays too fine when he should just put hitters away, and he tends to rack up huge pitch counts. Instead of trusting his overwhelming stuff and just blowing up hitters, he pitches like a guy depending on Jeff Suppan's stuff. I expect an ERA up around 4 again.

 

I would not be terrifically surprised to see Narveson end up with a better season than Gallardo.

 

I cannot list Betancourt as a disappointment because his production should match his talent level, which is abysmal.

[YoungGeezy]

Mark it down right now Carlos Gomez breaks out. I give him every chance possible because with the new aggressive style of baseball Gomez could eat teams alive. He is one of the most explosive guys in all of baseball, just have to have faith he can get on base. Even if it is at only a low .300 clip you have to factor how many more runs that could manufacture over the next guy. (Dickerson is athletic but nowhere near the threat Gomez is, he doesn't have the ability to steal 40+ bases or a threat to go 1st to home on any given hit.) I'm an optimistic individual lol

 

Disappointment: Axford, I like him but I'm not sure he can match his success of last season.

[RobDeer 45]

We can start a new topic if need be, I don't want to hijack this, but thought it was along the same lines.

 

Who do we need to break out and who do we need to not disapoint?

 

I'd say having Gomez breakout could help us the most. Even if he can get his BA up to 2.60 OBP up to .320 it could be huge. I love his defense and if he could bring the added offense....man. I can dream right?

 

I think the guy we can't have dissapoint is Grienke. I think our pitchers will all look to him to set the tone and if he doesn't I could see the whole thing crumbling down. Our pitching has been so bad for quite awhile that it's hard to imagine it otherwise. Let's hope they all step up, but I think it starts with him!

[Ennder]

Just a general question as I notice a lot of guys picking Betancourt to disappoint. If nothing is expected from a guy, then how can he disappoint?

I guess I'll be more disappointed that he plays as much as he does than anything else. I think at the end of the season we miss the playoffs by a couple games and you can point directly at the decision to play one of the worst players in baseball full time instead of getting a cheap upgrade as the reason.

[twobrewers]

Breakout: Shawn Marcum - I don't know that I expect his numbers to improve much over last year, but I expect a sub 3.50 ERA and for him to be our best pitcher in 2011.

 

Disappointing: Zack Greinke - I'm very concerned about the expectations on Zack. He has only had one stellar year as a pitcher. By many statistics, Shawn Marcum outpitched him last year. After watching a lot of video interviews of Zack in the past two days, his personality scares me. He just doesn't appear to have the attitude to dominate. I believe there is a legitimate chance that Greinke is our third best starter - and that would be a huge disappointment for most Brewer fans.

[brewerguy71]

Breakout: Not a lot of candidates here, but Lucroy becoming more solid at the plate should help as well as continuing to refine his defensive skills.

 

Disappointment(s): Four big ones I can think of. Expectations will be big for all 4 of these guys I and see them all falling very short....Axford walks too many and saves some games and strikes guys out, but in the end doesnt turn into a upper division closer....Weeks although playing solid baseball, his swing and miss rates continue to rise and he comes no where near his 6 WAR season last year. Hart falls back to earth and McGehee's clock strikes midnight and plays to the level of his skills.

[Funketown]

Breakout: Shaun Marcum will throw 180 innings of 3.50 ERA ball.

 

Disappointment: Zack Greinke will throw 180 innings of 3.50 ERA ball.

[8brewcrew]

Breakout: Fielder... I think he has a monster first half and would not be surprised at all if he's dealt at the deadline. He's in a contract year and came off a bad year by his standards. The NL Central is going to be very competitive this year and we'll need to restock our farm system after the trades we've made the past couple years. If we're able to get a decent first baseman in a trade for Prince we would by no means be out of the playoff race.

 

Disappointment: Carlos Gomez... I know he hasn't done much in his career and I know not much is expected of him this year, but I fully expect him to be riding the bench by the second half.

[jjfanec]

Breakout - Braun and Gallardo. I think he puts up numbers similarly to the start of last year through this year. Barring injury I am expecting top 3 in MVP voting for Braun. As for Gallardo I know some are down on him, but I think the strength of the rotation allows him to not have to try and be perfect and just go out there and pitch. He may not be an 8 inning an outing kind of guy but I think he has a very good year.

Honorable mention - Randy Wolf, Lucroy

 

Disappointment - Hart. He scares me. Reminds me of Hardy. When he is on watch out but when he gets in a prolonged slump you dont even need to pitch a strike and he will flail away.