Axford, Braun, Gallardo, Lucroy, 8 others to play in 2013 WBC (Latest: Canada, Mexico eliminated)

[razzzorsharp]

It was fun to watch and have any active rooting interest in baseball again.

[DocLuna7]

That was a great game to watch. Team USA with a nice win and the Brewers get Axford, Henderson, Green, Gallardo, and Estrada back in camp.

[azcheesehead]

With all the complaining about the shadows at Miller Park, the shadows at Chase are horrible and they don't seem to move at all.

 

The shadows look much worse on TV than they do in person inside that stadium. I've seen quite a few games there i that setting and it isn't that bad.

[owbc]

When was the last time the roof was open at Chase Field for a regular season day game? It probably hasn't happened more than about 10 times in the park's history.

[brewcrewdue80]

Yeah, how does that make a Brewer fan feel with Henderson then Axford giving up runs in an important game?

[dlk9s]

Meh. It's one game, and essentially a Spring Training game at that.

[trwi7]

When was the last time the roof was open at Chase Field for a regular season day game? It probably hasn't happened more than about 10 times in the park's history.

 

Happened 4 times in their first 4 home games last year. Didn't look any further than that. Pretty sure the Brewers played there a couple years ago with the roof open during the day too.

[Patrick425]

With all the complaining about the shadows at Miller Park, the shadows at Chase are horrible and they don't seem to move at all.

 

The shadows look much worse on TV than they do in person inside that stadium. I've seen quite a few games there i that setting and it isn't that bad.

 

 

It seemed like the mound was in the sun and the plate was in the shade for about 3 or 4 innings.

[monty57]

The entire nation of Canada can now understand how Brewer fans feel watching the "late inning stoppers" come in and blow the game. I really wish Melvin would call Detroit and ship Axford out while he still has "proven closer" value. I don't have a whole lot of faith in him this season.

[Ennder]

The entire nation of Canada can now understand how Brewer fans feel watching the "late inning stoppers" come in and blow the game. I really wish Melvin would call Detroit and ship Axford out while he still has "proven closer" value. I don't have a whole lot of faith in him this season.

 

Melvin is too smart for this. Axford is the one guy on the roster who should rebound. The rest of the bullpen is pretty much awful. He should be trying to pick up arms, not trade the best arm.

[monty57]

Melvin is too smart for this. Axford is the one guy on the roster who should rebound. The rest of the bullpen is pretty much awful. He should be trying to pick up arms, not trade the best arm.

 

Melvin won't do it because he knows the move would look like he was giving up on the season, and this season is all about keeping up the image that they're still a contender so that fans continue to buy tickets. I'm just surprised that they haven't started offering three- or five-year season ticket "specials."

 

I know the season's still a couple of weeks away, but I don't think Axford has thrown one good inning yet, and this includes meaningful games in which he wasn't just working on a pitch. This coming off a bad 2012 season. He seems to be a long ways away from where he was a couple of seasons ago, and looks more apt to join Melvin's list of scrap-heap finds who dominate for a short period before returning to mediocrity.

 

Axford being the "proven guy" could actually be the Brewers' achilles heel this season, as he is going to get a long leash as closer. If he doesn't "find it" pretty soon, he could personally dig the Brewers into a deep hole early on. I hope he bounces back, as the Axford of 2011 could really help the 2013 Brewers. It's just that watching him has given me doubts as to whether he'll be that pitcher or if the 2012 version is more likely.

 

Right now, we could probably get the World Series hungry Tigers owner to pay handsomly for Axford. If he has another 2012-type season, we may not offer arby to him, as that would force us to pay around $7-8MM for him next year. A trade won't happen, but I won't be shocked if Axford loses the closer role this year.

[PrinceFielderx1]

I don't know how anybody can say the Brewers bullpen is awful right now prior to the season even starting. It doesn't make sense.

[jerichoholicninja]

I don't know how anybody can say the Brewers bullpen is awful right now prior to the season even starting. It doesn't make sense.

 

Those would be the same people who said before last season started that it was a strength. You just have no clue with a bullpen what's going to happen.

[monty57]

I don't know how anybody can say the Brewers bullpen is awful right now prior to the season even starting. It doesn't make sense.

 

I don't think the bullpen's going to be awful. I actually like most of the bullpen and like what Melvin did this offseason bringing in solid arms at almost no cost. Olmsted looks like a beast, Badenhop is a better version of Loe and we've got two lefties who aren't head-cases. I just think there is a big question mark hanging over Axford after last season, and the little bit he's thrown this spring (I know it's spring, but he was certainly trying with Team Canada) has looked like batting practice. If Detroit is desparate enough for a "proven closer" that they'd give us something good for Axford, I'd take it. Otherwise, while I hope Axford regains his dominance, I wouldn't be surprised if we're debating next offseason whether or not we should even offer Axford arby.

[Bombers]

I don't know how anybody can say the Brewers bullpen is awful right now prior to the season even starting. It doesn't make sense.

I have not heard anyone say our bullpen is awful. As I agree, that makes absolutely no sense with a staff that is bringing back 1 guy. Having said that, I have heard some express concern over Axford. Which is valid coming off of a career worst year. He has pitched in 3 ST games and 2 WBC games. He has given up runs in 3 of those outings. But the bad news for Axford is he doesn't have the luxury to be mediocre/bad in April. If he is, the fans will turn quickly on him. He needs to have some early success not a continuation of 2012.

[Ennder]

I don't know how anybody can say the Brewers bullpen is awful right now prior to the season even starting. It doesn't make sense.

 

Those would be the same people who said before last season started that it was a strength. You just have no clue with a bullpen what's going to happen.

 

No, it is the same guy who said the bullpen was going to be awful last year. There was reason to think it would be good going into last year. It was epically bad because the two guys who should have been at least decent were as bad as the rest who I knew would be bad.

 

Bradenhop showed a huge bump in ERA last year but no skills to support it, he is likely still the 4 ERA junk RP he has been for a while now.

Gozelanny is pretty much the same, still screams 4+ ERA guy.

Gonzalez at least has some skills though you never know what you are going to get from him year to year.

 

Jim Henderson is nothing to be excited about.

Olmstead is certainly intriguing I'll give you that.

 

Axford is the only real hope for the bullpen imo. He showed much much better skills than results last year especially late in the year. As long as 20% of his flyballs don't keep turning into HR he should be a decent closer. It isn't set in stone or anything but in a bullpen of retreads coming off most likely lucky career years he is the one guy I can at least have some hope for.

 

The lineup should be top notch. I think the rotation will surprise people as long as it stays healthy. The bullpen is still one of the worst in baseball.

[TooLiveBrew]

Axford's performance is tied almost 100% to his command of the curveball. When he can locate it, he's devastating. When he can't, he becomes almost exclusively a fastball pitcher (aside from trying to sneak a float-y CB in early in the count, up-ish in the zone). And, while he can run the FB in pretty fast, it's also pretty straight.

 

The PA against Hosmer in the top of the 9th inning of the US-Canada game -- US up 6-4, bases loaded & Hosmer wound up clearing them with an oppo-field 2B -- captured this perfectly. I can't recall the order in which he threw them, but Ax missed with a CB & threw a nice FB on the low-outside boundary of the zone & the count was 1-1. He then missed the zone with another errant CB (neither CB 'just missed', his command clearly wasn't there). On that 1-1 pitch, you could see Hosmer's hands were really twitchy early... just sitting dead red on the FB, chomping at the bit to let it fly. He didn't commit to swing, but you could just see it. Then, on 2-1, Ax was basically forced to throw a FB since he couldn't command the CB -- it was either throw the FB now, or on a 3-1 count. He kept the FB away, but it was a bit up, and Hosmer just went with it & mashed it into the left-center gap to clear the bags.

 

I realize this was just one PA in a relatively meaningless game, but like monty57 noted, Axford was certainly giving his all. And to me, that one exchange just perfectly captured what Ax is as a pitcher. If the CB isn't working, he's just too hittable. I completely agree that, if there's an opportunity to sell high on his Proven Closer™ label, Melvin should be jumping all over it.

[bthurley19]

With the limited resource that DM had I think he did a pretty good job of "throwing guys against the wall to see who sticks". A small market team cannot afford to give out big contracts to bullpen pitchers (see Riske, David).

 

Using one "game" in early March against some of the best bats in the game as a barometer on how someone is going to pitch the rest of the season is not a good practice.

 

I'm not convinced this bullpen will be great or even good, but I think they'll be much better than last year (which shouldn't be hard).

[monty57]

With the limited resource that DM had I think he did a pretty good job of "throwing guys against the wall to see who sticks". A small market team cannot afford to give out big contracts to bullpen pitchers (see Riske, David).

 

I agree, which is why I wonder if the Brewers will be willing to pay the escalating arby rewards for Axford if he pitches like he did in 2012. He's making $5MM this year, so next year will be around $7-9MM, year 3 probably $10-12MM and year 4 probably $13-15MM. Granted it's one year at a time, but I can see the possibility that Melvin simply doesn't offer him arby at some point.

 

Using one "game" in early March against some of the best bats in the game as a barometer on how someone is going to pitch the rest of the season is not a good practice.

 

If he had pitched well last year, no one would be worried. However, other than K/9, his stats last year all took a big turn for the worse. TLB was just using one game as an example of what could be the big problem. Players across the league have figured out that you need to sit on Axford's fastball and don't offer at anything else. Hopefully he's able to adjust, but following up a down year, he hasn't shown anything so far this spring to give me hope. Again, I'm not advocating cutting him or even taking him out of the closer's role. I'm just saying that if Detroit is desparate enough to "overpay" and give us something really good for him, I'd take it and let his issues be someone else's concern. I'll stop discussing this now, because Melvin isn't going to trade Axford.

 

To the rest of the topic, other than what's previously noted, the Brewers had a pretty good showing in the WBC. Even though it was tough having to somewhat root against Gallardo when he pitched against Team USA, I've had fun watching games that actually mattered in March.

[RightFieldCoder]

I'm just surprised that they haven't started offering three- or five-year season ticket "specials."

Because then they will miss their opportunity to jack up prices if they have a surprisingly good year. They never seem to lower prices again after a disaster year. They just cut payroll and claim they'll take a loss with less butts in the seats.

[brewcrewdue80]

 

Using one "game" in early March against some of the best bats in the game as a barometer on how someone is going to pitch the rest of the season is not a good practice.

[/quote}

 

The At Bat described above your post, vs Hosmer who to that point was disappointing, coming off a depressing, disappointing sophomore year for Kansas City....That isn't a sign of failing against best bat in the game, that's losing Head to Head vs. a troubled batter struggling in his "Spring" to that point. This isn't like Milwaukee is some Triple A team never facing the best players in all of Baseball. They will face lineups with more talent(Wash,LAD,ATL,COL,) to close out the games 1,2,3 than what they did trying to close out vs. team USA.

 

It's just voicing a concern of continued troubles lying ahead with the closing out games with our 8th/9th inning pitchers. If there is an opportunity to get anything of a young MLB Replacement level player or better talent in return for Axford, I'd definitely consider it. We're not talking about a player who's 23-26 years old owning in arby years. He's turning 30 at a premium position where his salary will jump on just an ok or better year.

 

The cost is okay this year, but the rise in salary next year I fear the Rodriguez problem, paying him too much to sit him, forced to run him out there regardless of success or failure, the attempt to show signs to some other team for trade and in the end costing the team in the Playoff picture. I hope Axford figures out his control and makes all this concern seem foolish. But clearly, like TooLiveBrew said, if he can't pitch his secondary pitches for strikes, batters are sitting on Fastball. Having to only worry about swinging at 1 pitch when it's there or holding the bat and taking a Walk, it's just too comforting batting vs. Axford. Last season because of that batters went "Yard" twice as often as he had allowed in 1/2 the innings pitched. It really shouldn't take more than 1month this season to see if Axford will remain closing or turning elsewhere. He shouldn't have a long leash this year unless he's losing games while throwing all his pitches for strikes.

[Polish Falcons]

Just want to say I found the WBC games surprisingly entertaining and am looking forward to USA vs Puerto Rico. I like USA's changes with Gio pitching. But the D.R. has a pretty solid team. I watched WBC this past weekend and found the games to be pretty intense, much more so than "just another spring training game"

[PrinceFielderx1]

Hey! So the majority of posters in this thread who have commented (except 1) on the Brewers bullpen have issues with mainly Axford? That must mean many feel our bullpen is in pretty good shape heading into the season. That must be a good sign.

[Ennder]

Hey! So the majority of posters in this thread who have commented (except 1) on the Brewers bullpen have issues with mainly Axford? That must mean many feel our bullpen is in pretty good shape heading into the season. That must be a good sign.

 

They believed the same thing last year and how did that turn out? There is no reason to think the bullpen is in good shape.

[PrinceFielderx1]

Hey! So the majority of posters in this thread who have commented (except 1) on the Brewers bullpen have issues with mainly Axford? That must mean many feel our bullpen is in pretty good shape heading into the season. That must be a good sign.

 

They believed the same thing last year and how did that turn out? There is no reason to think the bullpen is in good shape.

 

To the contrary there's no reason to believe the bullpen is in bad shape heading into the season, either. The Brewers got rid of practically everybody except Axford, and added pitchers that are better than the pitchers they were replacing, and who have more experience to boot. If anything it's likely they will be better, but how much better is up for debate. Plus, you just never know what you are going to get in a bullpen, because player performances very quite a bit year to year. Instead of declaring it a good or bad bullpen which you and me really have no clue, because the season hasn't even started yet, it's wiser to take the wait and see approach. Let this "new" bullpen prove itself. That's what I do every year.