Time to get Fier'd up?

[FVBrewerFan]

Mike Fiers is simply dominant in AAA. Remember when he was pitching like this in Milwaukee? He was the best starter in the rotation for a couple months, so he has proven he can do this at the MLB level.

 

We have Henderson with a sore shoulder, Kinzler who doesn't look like he has command with his sinker, Wooten who is just "ok", and Wang who will never be used unless the Brewers are down 10. Wouldn't Fiers be a better option in late innings than any of those guys?

 

I know, there is value in letting him start in Nashville in case he needs to start in Milwaukee. I do get that. But Fiers isn't a 22 year old kid, isn't there something to the notion of using his arm while he's pitching like this? You could always stretch him out to start if necessary at some point in the season, but if a long term solution is needed there they probably go to Nelson anyhow.

 

Bottom line, just seems like he's wasting away in Nashville while inferior pitchers are being trotted out in Milwaukee.

[torts]

keep him in nashville until one of the SP goes on the DL. no need to thornburg him

[bjkrautk]

keep him in nashville until one of the SP goes on the DL. no need to thornburg him

 

The interesting question if (knock on wood) one of the starters goes down is whether Thornburg gets first crack at the rotation, or if they go directly to one of the AAA starters for that spot.

 

I'm glad to see Fiers getting his command back, or a reversal of whatever his problem seemed to be in 2013. While I'd like to see him perform in the majors, I don't see any reason to upset a successful, quality rotation just to squeeze him in. It's crazy to me that this team is more than 5 starting pitchers deep.

[Outlander]

If the Brewers plan on using Thornburg as the emergency starter than they should bring Fiers up.

[Roderick]

keep him in nashville until one of the SP goes on the DL. no need to thornburg him

 

They could always bring up Nelson/Figaro/Pena (40 man guys, whoever is rested) as an emergency starter if Fiers is brought up to the bullpen. And if we aren't talking about one or two starts, then they could piggyback and stretch one of Fiers or Thornburg out.

[torts]

keep him in nashville until one of the SP goes on the DL. no need to thornburg him

 

The interesting question if (knock on wood) one of the starters goes down is whether Thornburg gets first crack at the rotation, or if they go directly to one of the AAA starters for that spot.

 

I'm glad to see Fiers getting his command back, or a reversal of whatever his problem seemed to be in 2013. While I'd like to see him perform in the majors, I don't see any reason to upset a successful, quality rotation just to squeeze him in. It's crazy to me that this team is more than 5 starting pitchers deep.

 

i'd rather take someone from Nashville who is stretched out to go 5 - 7 innings every 5th night vs. taking someone whose been pitching 1 - 2 innings every other night at most and is not in a rotation type schedule.

[FVBrewerFan]

As I said in my original post, why not use Nelson as a starter when one is needed? Essentially, what some of you are saying is we should have a worse bullpen so Fiers is ready to start when or even IF that is ever needed.

[torts]

As I said in my original post, why not use Nelson as a starter when one is needed? Essentially, what some of you are saying is we should have a worse bullpen so Fiers is ready to start when or even IF that is ever needed.

 

the bullpen becomes worse when you take Thornburg out of it to be a starter

[phnxcrew]

since we're on fiers (haha) what type of value does he have outside of milwaukee? He did have a solid major league season along with very good minor league numbers. He is also only 28 and very cheap... with all these injuries I would think he has value as a #5 starter to some teams.

[SRB]

Fiers should be in the major leagues. It was unfair in the first place that he got sent back down for a handful of bad starts. Unfortunately/fortunately there's no room for him in the rotation right now, and even when a SP gets injured it's not clear who will be first in line between Fiers/Nelson/Thornburg.

 

(This season so far is kind of suggesting that the Brewers should have passed on Garza on spent that money on offense instead, but oh well. Really wish we had landed Abreu...)

[JohnBriggs12]

Why not add another name to the mix, Brad Mills? He'd need a roster spot but he's a lefty and like Fiers and Nelson he's putting up ridiculous AAA numbers.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

Nice problem to have. They are 8 deep in viable MLB starters with the 5 +Fiers, Nelson and Thornburg. At this point they probably do give Fiers first dibs if one goes down since he's stretched out. I'd probably leave him down there until they need him...which they will at some point.

[JohnBriggs12]

Fiers should be in the major leagues. It was unfair in the first place that he got sent back down for a handful of bad starts. Unfortunately/fortunately there's no room for him in the rotation right now, and even when a SP gets injured it's not clear who will be first in line between Fiers/Nelson/Thornburg.

 

(This season so far is kind of suggesting that the Brewers should have passed on Garza on spent that money on offense instead, but oh well. Really wish we had landed Abreu...)

 

I don't think there's any dispute that Abreu would have been worth sacrificing Garza.

[FVBrewerFan]

Nice problem to have. They are 8 deep in viable MLB starters with the 5 +Fiers, Nelson and Thornburg. At this point they probably do give Fiers first dibs if one goes down since he's stretched out. I'd probably leave him down there until they need him...which they will at some point.

 

Nelson is stretched out too, and is part of the long term plan. So why not bring up Fiers and use him out of the pen? I still don't see a downside here.

[LouisEly]

I'm glad to see Fiers getting his command back, or a reversal of whatever his problem seemed to be in 2013.

One of the problems, if not the main one, was that his mother was gravely ill. When Fiers was sent back to the minors he asked to be sent to Brevard so he could be closer to his mother, and the Brewers complied, thus the time spent at Brevard last year. I don't know how she is doing now.

 

I don't think that Lucroy really has understood how Fiers pitches; when Lucroy came back off the DL in late 2012 was around the time that Fiers started tailing off. I noticed that Fiers threw fewer changeups when he was pitching poorly; maybe he didn't feel comfortable shaking Lucroy off. Fiers has said this year that he is locating "all four" of his pitches; I don't recall seeing him throw four pitches when he was slumping.

 

I think the big question is, since they do have Nelson and Thornburg, do you deal Fiers for a LH-hitting 1B/3B if you get offered a good one? Are you selling high on Fiers, or is 2013 the abberation and you are shorting your depth and not selling high?

[jerichoholicninja]

I think the big question is, since they do have Nelson and Thornburg, do you deal Fiers for a LH-hitting 1B/3B if you get offered a good one? Are you selling high on Fiers, or is 2013 the abberation and you are shorting your depth and not selling high?

 

Not gonna happen. A 28 year old pitcher with little MLB success doesn't bring anything of value back.

[torts]

Nice problem to have. They are 8 deep in viable MLB starters with the 5 +Fiers, Nelson and Thornburg. At this point they probably do give Fiers first dibs if one goes down since he's stretched out. I'd probably leave him down there until they need him...which they will at some point.

 

Nelson is stretched out too, and is part of the long term plan. So why not bring up Fiers and use him out of the pen? I still don't see a downside here.

 

I dont understand why youre having a tough time understanding why you keep stretched out players in rotation spots. Fiers already has MLB experience, Nelson doesnt, if you're in a bind you go with the one who has had some success in the majors before the unknown. if they needed a second SP called up im sure Nelson would get the nod.

[FVBrewerFan]

Nice problem to have. They are 8 deep in viable MLB starters with the 5 +Fiers, Nelson and Thornburg. At this point they probably do give Fiers first dibs if one goes down since he's stretched out. I'd probably leave him down there until they need him...which they will at some point.

 

Nelson is stretched out too, and is part of the long term plan. So why not bring up Fiers and use him out of the pen? I still don't see a downside here.

 

I dont understand why youre having a tough time understanding why you keep stretched out players in rotation spots. Fiers already has MLB experience, Nelson doesnt, if you're in a bind you go with the one who has had some success in the majors before the unknown. if they needed a second SP called up im sure Nelson would get the nod.

 

Except Nelson does have mlb experience, so?

[HiAndTight]

I dont understand why youre having a tough time understanding why you keep stretched out players in rotation spots. Fiers already has MLB experience, Nelson doesnt, if you're in a bind you go with the one who has had some success in the majors before the unknown. if they needed a second SP called up im sure Nelson would get the nod.

 

It seems to me he understands just fine, he just doesn't agree with you despite the extremely condescending tone.

 

 

Nelson not only has pitched in the big leagues before(including a start in which he went 5 innings and allowed just 1 hit) but he has a much-much better arm than Fiers, but a higher upside. And it's not like Nelson is young for his league. He's 24 years old.

 

They're both pretty attractive options, so I'm not sure why you think it's so outrageous that someone would have the opinion that you bring up Fiers to help the pen but still cover yourself with Nelson ready to jump into the starting rotation.

[HiAndTight]

Fiers should be in the major leagues. It was unfair in the first place that he got sent back down for a handful of bad starts. Unfortunately/fortunately there's no room for him in the rotation right now, and even when a SP gets injured it's not clear who will be first in line between Fiers/Nelson/Thornburg.

 

(This season so far is kind of suggesting that the Brewers should have passed on Garza on spent that money on offense instead, but oh well. Really wish we had landed Abreu...)

 

 

It sounds like the Brewers were trying to do both as they offered Abreu a pretty healthy and competitive deal and at least the way the deal is structured with the White Sox, the Brewers would have easily been able to afford both of them.

 

 

I'm confident that Graza will go on a nice roll here at some point, but we definitely would be better off without the 50 million dollar contract and Nelson/Fiers or Thornburg in the rotation.

[torts]

Nelson is stretched out too, and is part of the long term plan. So why not bring up Fiers and use him out of the pen? I still don't see a downside here.

 

I dont understand why youre having a tough time understanding why you keep stretched out players in rotation spots. Fiers already has MLB experience, Nelson doesnt, if you're in a bind you go with the one who has had some success in the majors before the unknown. if they needed a second SP called up im sure Nelson would get the nod.

 

Except Nelson does have mlb experience, so?

 

10 innings vs 152 innings is not even comparable.

[SoupTown]

I would love the Brewers to do a AAA for AAA trade. The Brewers really do have a decision to make on their perceived value of Fiers. They may consider him the Estrada replacement (in that case you simply let him be a AAA superstar this year and deal with it in the off season (trade Marco)). Or similarly you trade another pitcher in the off season and have Fiers AND Estrada next year. But... what to do about Nelson.

 

If they consider Fiers a AAAA guy, they should do a minors for minors trade for us to get a prospect that 'fits' with our needs in the next couple of years.

 

Oh My. We have a problem. Too many decent starters.

[gregmag]

Almost every team needs seven starting pitchers in the course of the year. I think having Fiers and Nelson in our pocket is our secret weapon. We have no star let alone superstar SP, but we have seven guys whom I think we could comfortably throw at anybody.

 

As to whether Fiers is a AAAA guy . . . I'm resistant. Then again, I'm (more than) old enough to remember Ben Hendrickson. However, Fiers has shown that he can at least sometimes get MLB hitters out, and he's making AAA hitters cry in a hitters' league. Hendrickson wasn't *that* good. Has any AAAA guy ever put up numbers like Fiers? That's not a throwdown question; I'm really wondering.

[SRB]

I would love the Brewers to do a AAA for AAA trade. The Brewers really do have a decision to make on their perceived value of Fiers. They may consider him the Estrada replacement (in that case you simply let him be a AAA superstar this year and deal with it in the off season (trade Marco)). Or similarly you trade another pitcher in the off season and have Fiers AND Estrada next year. But... what to do about Nelson.

 

If they consider Fiers a AAAA guy, they should do a minors for minors trade for us to get a prospect that 'fits' with our needs in the next couple of years.

 

Oh My. We have a problem. Too many decent starters.

 

Mike Fiers (MIL) for Scott Van Slyke (LAD). Boom.

[SoupTown]

Actually Fiers would be a good fit for LA. I assume being a control guy he is a fly ball pitcher. LA or SanDiego would fit well for him. But LA rotation is really good and full... no?