2012 defense has improved

[dlk9s]

Yes, let's crap all over Morgan for losing track of the fly ball, because that's something he clearly always does and shows he's a terrible outfielder.

[CheezWizHed]

Was that low throw by Gonzalez tonight Gamel's first attempt at a scoop this year?

 

There was one this weekend where the Ueck (obviously, I didn't see it) was very excited over a Gonzalez->Gamel play. Gonzalez ranged quite a ways to get the ball and threw low where Gamel scooped it out. Bob was pretty impressed and said, "Great play! ... on both ends".

[monty57]

Living in Illinois, I've seen a lot of Ramirez's play over the years. He got to be okay with the glove (he was horrid early in his career), but has always had an erratic arm. If he didn't have D Lee and his long frame and good defense at 1B, he would have had a lot of errors in his career. The only way Ramirez at this point in his career could be considered adequate defensively is in relation to Casey McGehee. Ramirez's value this season will come from his bat.

 

However, we did upgrade significantly at SS, and it is very nice to see someone with range playing there. Yuni had an accurate arm and turned the double play well, but his range was putrid. We'll have to give Gamel some time to see how he plays at 1B, but his comp (Fielder) was such a bad defender that I'd guess we'll get a big defensive upgrade there.

[Funketown]

The defense has obviously struggled out of the gate a bit, but I don't think there's any reason to expect this team to be worse defensively than last year's team. There are three new starters. Gonzalez will be markedly better than Yuni, Gamel should be better (perhaps by a fair margin) than Prince, and the pessimist in me views A-Ram as a moderate downgrade from McGehee. Replacing a few hundred innings of Kotsay with Aoki/Morgan/Gomez/NotKotsay will also be a moderate improvement. I haven't seen much out of Izszzsturis, but I don't think there's any reason to expect he'd be significantly worse than Counsell.

 

Gamel will have growing pains, but he's a good athlete and built much more like a traditional 1B than Fielder. Gonzalez has built a reputation as a very good defensive SS over the past decade, so I'm not going to let a couple of early mistakes change my view of him.

[brewtank34]

Yes, let's crap all over Morgan for losing track of the fly ball, because that's something he clearly always does and shows he's a terrible outfielder.

 

I was inferring (not crapping on him) that Morgan has some trade value and that's the reason why he needs to go. Gomez is a much better defender than Morgan, and while he's shown to not be consistent with the stick, I'm seeing signs of improvement. Aoki I feel can provide the same level of defense/offense as Morgan, maybe better. So why not trade Morgan? Morgan has proven to be a decent defender, but he has also proven to be a liability when dealing with balls over his head and taking bad routes to balls. This is not just a one time instance from last night game as he has a track record of misplaying balls that should be routine catches. Gomez is not perfect, but considerably better.

[3and2Fastball]

Was that low throw by Gonzalez tonight Gamel's first attempt at a scoop this year? I'm in no way trying to draw a conclusion from it obviously, just that I hadn't seen a full game until tonight and was just curious.

 

 

No, he's scooped a few others. One was on opening day. That play last night was indeed one he should have had. Its a learning process, I'm confident he'll get there

[jerichoholicninja]

Yes, let's crap all over Morgan for losing track of the fly ball, because that's something he clearly always does and shows he's a terrible outfielder.

 

I was inferring (not crapping on him) that Morgan has some trade value and that's the reason why he needs to go. Gomez is a much better defender than Morgan, and while he's shown to not be consistent with the stick, I'm seeing signs of improvement. Aoki I feel can provide the same level of defense/offense as Morgan, maybe better. So why not trade Morgan? Morgan has proven to be a decent defender, but he has also proven to be a liability when dealing with balls over his head and taking bad routes to balls. This is not just a one time instance from last night game as he has a track record of misplaying balls that should be routine catches. Gomez is not perfect, but considerably better.

 

I don't think Morgan has the trade value many think he has. Maybe once a couple of outfielders get hurt he might, but this early in the season I doubt he would bring much back.

[3and2Fastball]

Morgan needs to go. Gomez/Aoki need to splitting time and trade Morgan for a AA SS

 

I'd be in full support of that, but not during this season, I'd make that trade in the off-season. Not because of any specific play but because it would be a good use of team resources. And Schaeffer/Gindl will be more than ready by then.

 

Aoki isn't an ideal platoon partner with Gomez because strangely he's better vs LHP than RHP. And Aoki's lack of an arm scares me in CF. Small sample but his arm looks to be Johnny Damon bad

[xisxisxis]

Actually I think it's too early to be having this discussion as we don't have anywhere near enough reps to have a good idea, but that won't stop me.....

 

Nice try guys. Talking yourselves into how much better having A-Ram, A-Gon and Gamel over Casey, Yuni and Prince doesn't make them better. Those 3 had 4 hits between them in a 3 game series. Casey, Yuni and Prince combined for 9 and Yuni and Casey only played 2 games.

 

So you are upset because in less than a handful of games the old players had more hits than the new players. Did the Cardinals poo on your weekend by taking 2 of 3 from the crew so you are in bad mood? I think you're looking at the wrong culprit for the weekends losing series. For the Brewers to take 1 of the 2 games they lost they would to have had to have scored 10 runs or 12 runs to outscore the opponent. Last year (with the great triumvirate whose passing you mourn) the Brewers only scored 10 or more runs in 8 games (once every 20 games) and only once did they score 10 or more when the opponents scored at least 9 runs. So you are complaining that this years version isn't as good as last years version because they didn't do in 3 games what last years team could only do once in 162 games. Funny, after watching the games this weekend I thought the pitching let the Brewers down, but clearly my view was distorted and the real culprits were ARam, AGon and MattG. Silly me......

 

 

Gonzalez blew a double play ball Saturday and got extremely fortunate the umpire called it a transition drop (it wasn't).

 

The first play of the season when Furcal hit one deep in the hole and Gonzalez got to it (Yuni would have been watching for Braun's throw because he wouldn't have moved), I knew that our new SS was in a different league for defense than stone feet Batternineyusucki. In a month or 2 we'll have some idea of just how much better AGon is....

[Jaycruiser99]

So far just about every error this year has led to a run or runs.... and thats a bad trend.

 

Gonzo has so much more range then Yuni and I am liking him thus far despite his bobble tonight... ARam had the bad "look at the throw before your field" error that came at a bad time yesterday but I am not super concerned at this point as we are only 4 games in