First Base in 2014

[RockCoCougars]

Is it just me, or does it seem like it's Francisco's destiny to play in Japan?

[SoupTown]

I only have two guys I want to see as main starters at first next year... Hart or Braun. And I used to lean toward Hart, but now I lean toward Braun. Let Davis play left. He has shown he is a MLB player in my opinion. So, I am, from one to nine... pitch, Lucroy, Braun, Gennett/Weeks platoon, ARam, Segura, Davis, Gomez, Aoki. Bianchi and Franciso as backup infielders. Schafer as backup outfielder. Maldonado the backup catcher. 13 position... 12 pitchers.

 

Buit, I hope they trade Francisco to an American League team as a DH.

[yoshii8]

I hope Jason Rogers is rewarded for his great season w/ a September call up, and addition to the 40 man roster. . There are several guys they could just DFA like Blake Lalli or Yuni. I'd like to see how'd he do facing MLB pitchers. I think he could be a potential 1B platoon option next season vs. LHP's.

[JohnBriggs12]

Despite his power surge that temporarily boosted his OPS over .800, I just don't see the Brewers giving the 1B job back to "Fansisco". It's not just the strikeouts. He can't hit lefties at all, so he would need a RH platoon partner. His defense means that he'd be routinely taken out of games in the 7th or 8th innings. Whether he could be that LH power bat off the bench I'm not sure. I don't know if he needs regular AB's to be productive even to his level.

 

There's also the fact that there are many other options. Hart, Braun, maybe though doubtful Gamel, and a fairly decent 1B FA crop.

[homer]

Yeah, I think Francisco's best MLB options are as a power bat off the bench or a DH. And since he can pretty much only mimic a first baseman, I don't see a future for him in the NL.

[bork]

Davis is open to a switch to 1B now.

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130827&content_id=58630310&notebook_id=58630812&vkey=notebook_mil&c_id=mil

[bork]

Davis is open to a switch to 1B now.

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130827&content_id=58630310&notebook_id=58630812&vkey=notebook_mil&c_id=mil

[ewitkows]

That would mean they wouldn't have to bring Hart back. I wonder if they could have him play 1st in the fall league to get some reps

[Baldkin]

Davis was always open to a switch to 1B. The team said he couldn't hack it there after about 45 minutes of reps in spring training... and with 2 solid 1B in AAA I can't really blame them -- you can't split reps and PA's 3 ways.

[paul253]

This would solve a major dilemna. And this also happens to be the perfect time not only to try Davis out at 1st base but also in RF like Roenecke indicated he'd be open to trying. Whether or not it actually happens is another question.

 

Now if we could only find a taker for Weeks we could actually have a decent lineup next year.

 

1) Aoki

2) Segura

3) Braun

4) Ramirez

5) Lucroy

6) Gomez

7) Davis

8) Gennett

[JohnBriggs12]

Sean Halton says hello.

[brewtank34]

Can we please think higher than Halton and Davis? Hart coming back on the cheap is a better option than both of the guys while having one of them on the bench makes our team better. Melvin can make a trade for someone better than Davis and/or Halton. FA is not looking good for 1B, so either Hart of trade. We have to think higher standards than the guys we've been using this snake-bitten year.

[Baldkin]

Can we please think higher than Halton and Davis? Hart coming back on the cheap is a better option than both of the guys while having one of them on the bench makes our team better. Melvin can make a trade for someone better than Davis and/or Halton. FA is not looking good for 1B, so either Hart of trade. We have to think higher standards than the guys we've been using this snake-bitten year.

 

We haven't used either one of them there this snake bitten year.

[patrickgpe]

i want to see lucroy at 1st next season, Maldonado has proven he is a good defensive catcher and an average 8th batter. Lucroy has never been a great defensive catcher.

 

I wish Davis could play 1st but i think he has proven that he cannot. I think he is trade fodder since i can't see the brewers moving braun to right and benching aoki to put Davis at left everyday

[pogokat]

Maldonado has been terrible this season... Replacing our terrible first baseman with our good catcher and our good catcher with a terrible one would be a lateral move at best

 

The team should sign morneau, or resign hart, and hope for 400 ab's and give the rest of the ab's to whichever backup plan they keep arounf

[chadomac]

Pogo is right, Maldonado is such a terrible hitter that he offsets anything Lucroy does at 1st base. If anything it weakens our offense.

[MNBrew]

Maldonado was so good with the bat in '12, relatively speaking, that it can be easy to forget that there was very good reason that he was NOT considered to be much of a hitter for most of his time in the minors.

 

I think there are a good lot of 1B options for 2014. I don't think Lucroy should be one of them. And I sure hope Francisco doesn't remain one.

 

Moving Lucroy to 1B also majorly weakens the catching depth, and as of now, without scrutinizing every roster, I'd guess the Brewers are probably only one of a handful of teams who can be truly happy with their catching tandem at the big-league level.

[JimH5]

The Mets may be looking to move Lucas Duda or Ike Davis in the offseason. Either of those guys for Weeks + money could open up 2nd for Gennett, and serve as a short term solution at 1B.

 

I would think the worst case scenario is that it doesn't pan out, and they've got another Francisco/Betancourt-type year of performance.

 

Whether the Mets want Weeks is questionable, but Sandy Alderson has made it sound in interviews that it's time to move one or both of Duda & Ike.

[Outlander]

i want to see lucroy at 1st next season, Maldonado has proven he is a good defensive catcher and an average 8th batter. Lucroy has never been a great defensive catcher.

I sure as heck hope Lucroy doesn't move to first as he is a great catcher.

[JohnBriggs12]

Can we please think higher than Halton and Davis? Hart coming back on the cheap is a better option than both of the guys while having one of them on the bench makes our team better. Melvin can make a trade for someone better than Davis and/or Halton. FA is not looking good for 1B, so either Hart of trade. We have to think higher standards than the guys we've been using this snake-bitten year.

 

Of course we can, but if guys who haven't played in 2 years (Gamel), or strike out half of their ABs (Fancisco) or a guy who didn't hit well enough at AAA (Morris) to earn a September look, get mentioned as possibilities by the team's beat writer, then Halton, who's done nothing wrong in limited action at least deserves a mention as does Davis who needs a position when Braun returns.

 

I disagree with the statement that "FA is not looking good for 1B". Just the opposite is true. There are plenty of guys who won't be premier FA types (thus won't break the bank) but are far better than what the Brewers have used this year. In addition to Hart, there's Mike Napoli, James Loney, Kendrys Morales, Justin Morneau, and Mike Morse. Any one of those guys is an upgrade.

[FVBrewerFan]

It's been a long time since so many positions were up for grabs going into a new season. And 1B leads the pack. Just look at all the names listed in this thread, it's double digits!

 

I rule out Lucroy, Braun, and Davis. There are plenty of options available without converting someoneand living with poor defense there. Speaking of poor defense, add Francisco to the "no" list.

 

I also don't want to sign a "reasonable" FA. There are other options, and maybe more in 2015 and beyond. No need for another 3-4 year contract at $5MM+ per year.

 

Morris has to be kicking himself. With all the injuries at 1B he still never got a shot, and that could have even hurt him at the plate this year, who knows. But there's no way you can count on him jumping up and taking the job.

 

Halton is a viable option, hopefully he plays every day down the stretch so we'll know a little more.

 

That leaves Hart, Gamel, and to a lessor extent Green. We need to remember Hart's OPS last year was .841. It all depends on how cheap you can sign him for, but that would be a viable option. Not to mention he played great defensively at 1B. Gamel you can't count on, of course, but I haven't given up on him yet. A LH bat with some pop is something worth seeing through to the end. Same with Green for that matter. Not to mention one of those guys could transition over to 3rd in 2015 if they really come on next year.

 

So, I would go with some combination of Hart or Halton/Gamel, but hopefulkly that picture will get more clear by February.

[gregmag]

I agree with everything MNBrew said about the catchers angle. I think I'm on board with the "Sans Francisco" movement.

 

I understand the desire to sign Hart less every day. A lot of smart people seem to like the idea more every day, so maybe I'm just not so smart. But we have, under contract, for almost no money (except of course the first guy on the list):

 

Braun

Davis

Gindl

Aoki

Halton

Gamel

Green

Morris.

 

We have three corner starter positions to fill, plus a corner reserve. (Green could play 3b, and Gindl could back up in cf; otherwise, all those guys are limited to one or more non-3b corners.) I've listed those guys in approximate order of how much I value their bats, based on available evidence; your mileage may vary.

 

Of those guys, Morris is the only one who I don't think has established a substantial chance to be more valuable next year than an aging, oft-injured, one-dimensional, pretty expensive Corey Hart. I would happily put money on Davis' and Gindl's likelihood of outhitting Hart, assuming they stay healthy and get to play. Now, you may say, Davis and Gindl (and Braun) aren't 1bs. Well, so what? This isn't like asking Bill Hall to play a new skill position every year until he loses his mind and bat. This is plugging in bats at a position where Prince freakin' Fielder is a viable MLB starter. Also, Hart wasn't a good 1b; he was a tall 1b. That's actually worth a fair amount, but I think we may have overvalued it after watching Fielder out there for six years. Every name on my list above has more mobility than Hart (assuming, in Gamel's case, that he doesn't break something).

 

I'll admit that part of my position here stems from the fact that I don't think the Brewers are likely to contend next year; I know others disagree. But even if they're right, signing Hart doesn't move the needle much if at all. Good organizations develop young, cheap players. We're actually doing a decent job of that. But you have to play them. I like Hart, I think he's been underrated as a player, and I admire how hard he worked to revive and sustain his career. This isn't a dump on him. But in the best light of cold rationality that I can muster, signing him makes no sense for this team.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Without just quoting Greg's post and saying "yup"...... that's pretty much the reason I don't want to re-sign Hart. I've always liked the guy, and could never get on board with trading him when we had a cost controlled, .850 OPS guy who was pretty easy to plug into the 5 or 6 (or 2?) spot in the lineup. But now......we're on the other side of the contention window, and signing an aging, oft-injured guy with brutal knees just doesn't make sense when there's a lot of cheap in-house options that have varying degrees of "this guy could be just as good"

 

The Brewers MUST develop their own talent to make it back to contention. They simply MUST. By denying these guys one more spot in the lineup every day by bringing back a creaky, aging Hart to win 75-80 games next year, we're just spinning the wheels.

 

Davis, Morris, Gamel, Green.......it's very plausible that none of these guys are better than Hart. I get that. But I just don't think next year is a contention year, and denying the opportunity for one or two of those young guys to even show that they can stick and be productive at the big league level is counterproductive to what this team is going to have to do to get back to a contention window where going after guys like Kyle Lohse would actually make sense.

[homer]

I actually wouldn't have a problem signing Hart to a one year deal and then flipping him at the deadline.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I actually wouldn't have a problem signing Hart to a one year deal and then flipping him at the deadline.

 

 

So in the meantime, you'll pay him 3-4 mil for the first half of the year so you can flip him for .....what? If he was already under contract, I could see this scenario, but I can't see paying the guy what he'll likely get for the express stated purpose of turning him around for a prospect.