Brewers' Defense

[CheezWizHed]

There was an interesting take on the Brewers' defensive capability at JSOnline today.

 

Since YB vs. Gonzalez, McGehee vs. Ramirez, Morgan vs. Gomez, and Braun's and Hart's defense in general have been scrutinized in various places, might as well summarize it here:

Gonzalez is much better than YB

Ramirez is bad and getting worse at 3B (no word on McGehee actually)

Gomez is very good, Morgan is pretty good.

Braun is OK

Hart is average.

 

Looks like this was more of a "scouting" take rather than a metric analysis.

 

Edit: Grammar (owbc)

[Oldcity]

Another reason why the Ramirez contract sucked.

[3and2Fastball]

Gamel will likely be vastly better than Fielder at 1B

[Dragonbait]

Our pitchers are decent to good

 

And Luc should be improved as well.

[Ennder]

Another reason why the Ramirez contract sucked.

 

The defense is already accounted for, if he were an average defensive 3B the contract would be a huge steal. The contract is a pretty flat value, we payed about what he should be expected to do on paper, only he has a good bit of injury risk which probably outpaces any reward so it was a slight overpay.

[reillymcshane]

I really wasn't thrilled with the Ramirez contract. I had hoped they'd go with Green at 3B. But I understand the hesitation. I don't think anyone sees Green as a huge upside player. The team sees A-Ram smashing 25 HR, hitting .280-.300. What's hard not to like? Okay, the fielding will be bad. In Green, I could see a good batting average. I don't know if the power will translate to anything more than 12-15 HR. Average defense. That's not bad, but not great.

 

Still, I think a .280 BA and 10-15 HR would have been fine. Especially at the price of minimum wage.

 

You could have then brought back Jerry Hairston Jr. to be the righthanded hitting super sub.

 

I guess I'm not going to argue with having A-Ram, but I think we would have been okay. He brings certainty (I hope) - although his age worries me. Not to mention the price tag in coming years.

[Jaycruiser99]

Agreed... plus his bat is an upgrade to Casey... even though he is aging I think he will still rake if he stays healthy...

[RockCoCougars]

I don't think that there is any disputing that Aramis is a butcher afield. Cory Koskie he is not. Hopefully, he hits enough to justify the poor defense. With his advancing age, I can't imagine he will do anything but regress with the glove. He's probably better suited for 1B or DH at this point.

[Oldcity]

Another reason why the Ramirez contract sucked.

 

The defense is already accounted for, if he were an average defensive 3B the contract would be a huge steal.

No way. He really needs to be a first baseman at this point, and a first baseman at his age with his numbers would never have gotten 3 years/$36 million. That's when you're looking at one year/$7-10 million type deals, a la Carlos Pena.

[Ennder]

Another reason why the Ramirez contract sucked.

 

The defense is already accounted for, if he were an average defensive 3B the contract would be a huge steal.

No way. He really needs to be a first baseman at this point, and a first baseman at his age with his numbers would never have gotten 3 years/$36 million. That's when you're looking at one year/$7-10 million type deals, a la Carlos Pena.

 

 

Not even close, if we could be sure he were average defensively it would be a no brainer fist pump steal of a contract. The truth is he isn't good defensively so it is questionable. Pena's contract was a steal btw, it is an example of how a low AVG kills a players value on the market even if he does everything else well. Ramirez was the 7th best 3B in baseball last year by WAR and that includes a big negative for baserunning and defense already. The majority of the backlash with him is coming from the fact he got hurt in 2009 and didn't heal until mid 2010.

 

Over his past 225 games now he has put up an .872 OPS and outside of defense been pretty close to the same player he was pre injury. Age and injury are a real concern but they were already accounted for in this contract. If he were a 28 year old this contract would look like a steal, if he were good defensively we wouldn't be able to afford him with his offense, this is a pretty close to fair value contract albeit one with very little upside since he doesn't have any way to improve at this point.

[rluzinski]

I bad defender typically does not become more valuable by playing an easier position. He will play better defense at that position but he will be less valuable for playing there. It all basically evens itself out.

 

Now, we could argue whether he is more valuable at 3B or 1B to the Brewers in 2012 when you consider their other options... I still think he's more valuable at 3B but it's a complicated question.

[dlk9s]

Am I the only one who doesn't really care who good or bad Ramirez is in the field? We didn't get him for his mantle full of Gold Gloves. If he stays healthy and doesn't suddenly hit an age wall, he'll rake and all will be well with the world.

[MNBrew]

No, you're not the only one. Some folks are already making him out to be the 3B version so many believed Yuni B to be as a SS before he ever set foot on our diamond, which I believe, like Melvin, was something of an over-exaggeration on Yuni B., too. As long as he makes all the routine plays and the majority of the tougher ones, I'm not going to overanalyze or over-value Ramirez's glove. I liked Casey a lot in the field and thought some of his bad rap was overblown. But I still think Ramirez should be a good half-step or so at least above Casey defensively at 3B.

 

I still have way too many glaring memories of Dale Sveum and -- ugh -- Jose Valentin butchering routine play after routine play to think some of these guys are as atrocious as the bashers are making them out to be.

 

That said, there are many plays ruled as hits these days which, a couple decades ago & before, were consistently ruled as errors.