Jimmy Nelson to Start on Sunday [Corresponding roster move: Bianchi outrighted to AAA]

[wildcat83]

Irving Falu has been called up to replace Jimmy Nelson.

 

Article on the Brewers website. They say a "flurry" of moves followed the game. Apparently 1 guy up and 1 guy down is a flurry.

[Pugger]

Welcome to the big club, Jimmy. Too bad Nashville scores more runs for you than the Brewers will.

 

You spoke too soon.

[lcbj68c]

Falu had a nice line in about 100 PA's for KC to end 2012. .341/.371/.435

 

Playing pretty well at Nashville, most notably 14 BB to 8K over 150 PA's.

 

I didn't think Falu was on the 40man, so I guess he takes Bianchi's 40man slot?

[HiAndTight]

They should just leave Nelson up and go with a six-man rotation until the Brewers sign Morales in the second week of June.

 

Morales? They can find a better 1B man than that with the farm system they have. Agree about keeping Nelson up. Release Weeks and trade for a good 2B/SS backup player. Start Gennett full time. The more he sees LHP the better he will get. Weeks is hurting his development. It's time to improve the bench and Melvin needs to wake up an do it and realize he doesn't have good backup options in the Brewers system.

 

 

Rickie Weeks is swinging the bat REALLY well right now. Even when he's not getting hits, he's hitting the ball very hard. He's hit a couple ropes right at the CF'er. The Brewers at the very least should hold onto him while he's hot if you're best idea is to just waive Weeks.

Second, we're trying to win this year. I'm more concerned with the fact that Gennett has a .330 OPS vs left handed pitchers. Not OBP, OPS. Weeks on the other hand has a .782 OPS vs left handers(though he's hit right handers better than Gennett as well) this year and last year even when Weeks was awful he had an OPS of .705 vs lefties. He's so much better vs lefties than Gennett, based on his career thus far, he's basically another pitcher out there vs lefties. If we're stunting his growth this year, so be it. He's young enough to improve. Though I suspect he's probably going to be a guy who always needs to be platooned. Being a lefty, that's not a big deal if we can find a competent right handed utility IF'er.

 

But if anything, Weeks should be starting and Gennett should be sent down...at least for right now.

 

 

And who do we possibly have that has proven they can be better than Morales? Hunter Morris hasn't put up as good of an OPS the last two years and he's been in the minors while Morales has been playing in the AL West. He's good for a .270/.340 line and a ~.770-800 OPS and 20-25 HR's over a full season. We do not have anyone else in our system that can do that.

 

Finally, if they want to leave Nelson up, I'm all for it. But not with a 6 man rotation. Sent Yo to the DL. Make sure his ankle heals. When he comes off of it, send another starter to the DL to keep them fresh. Boston tried it a few years ago with mixed results(and it wasn't totally by choice). But better to keep these guys fresh. And I think Nelson is a significantly better pitcher than Estrada right now(FIP up to 5.42 and leading the league in HR's).

[HiAndTight]

They should just leave Nelson up and go with a six-man rotation until the Brewers sign Morales in the second week of June.

 

 

I love Yo and everything he's done for the Brewers, but I'd love it even more if they could swing a trade for a team in need of a starting pitcher and trade Yo while his value is still pretty high....however unlikely it is to happen.

[torts]

They should just leave Nelson up and go with a six-man rotation until the Brewers sign Morales in the second week of June.

 

 

I love Yo and everything he's done for the Brewers, but I'd love it even more if they could swing a trade for a team in need of a starting pitcher and trade Yo while his value is still pretty high....however unlikely it is to happen.

 

when has a team, leading their division, traded off their "franchise" starting pitcher? Or any starting pitcher for that matter? Granted, if the team falls in the standings closer to the trade deadline, or falls "out of contention", i wouldn't be surprised if it happened, but not when they're leading the division.

[fondybrewfan]

Just thought I would chime in on how odd it was to hear the radio announcers going on and on about Nelson struggling on Sunday. I hadn't been following the game and started listening in the 4th inning I think and I could have swore that the Brewers must have been losing 6-0. If your young pitcher sucks and still manages to go 5 2/3rds score less with only a couple hits that can't be that bad. Cut the kid some slack already; it was his first start.

 

If Nelson is going to replace anyone it will be Estrada. That would likely not happen any time soon though. Gallardo, Lohse, Garza, and Peralta are just not going anywhere in the middle of a pennant race. Estrada is a solid pitcher but definitely replaceable if he can help you get some much needed help at 1st.

[monty57]

Fondy, Nelson was obviously jittery due to the situation. He seemed to be most comfortable with his slider, which looked wicked. He also had good velocity on his fastball. However, he was erratic, with some pitches that missed very, very badly. I'm not worried, and overall he looked good, but that's probably what the radio announcers were talking about.

 

This will probably help Nelson's development. He's pitched well at AAA, got a start in the majors and pitched pretty well there, and now he can go back down with that experience under his belt. If he wasn't already there, this outing has to position him as the #1 guy to take over when someone hits the DL, so he will be back in the majors this season, and this one game should build up his confidence for when he's back up.

 

While it's fun to talk about, no one from our MLB rotation will be traded this season unless the team completely bombs over the next month and a half. That trade will probably happen this offseason. Until then, it's been our rotation that has us in first place, and we've now seen our "#6 starter" get some MLB action. Starting pitching is one area where we have some depth, and it's likely we'll need to see that depth as someone is probably going to hit the DL at some point in the season.

 

As a side note, this probably solidifies the notion that Thornburg is at best the third option to fill a spot in the rotation. He'll probably spend at least this year and next in the bullpen. I see the Brewers grooming him as a future closer rather than a future starter, so I think his chance at being a starting pitcher for the Brewers is looking pretty slim. That's one big "ripple effect" of the Garza signing, as Thornburg likely would've been the #5 starter had that signing not occurred. It has probably helped us this year, but I sure wanted to see what Thornburg could've done as a starter.

[JohnBriggs12]

Nelson served notice to Estrada that he can't follow up his May performance 5.16 ERA in 5 starts with similar numbers in June. That just won't cut it when the teams' number one prospect is ready. Garza and Gallardo are on long leashes but not Marco. Estrada has 4-5 starts to get it back together or he's either in the bullpen or another city. I don't think if the right deal came along they'd hesitate dealing Estrada either.

[TooLiveBrew]

At this point, I'm not necessarily even sure I'd want to move Marco. I think he could be a valuable asset in the bullpen, especially given the amount of injuries/dings & burnout that's occurred there. I mean, if the right deal comes along of course I'd pull the trigger & I guess just call up a Fiers... but for now we could simply use the quality depth with Estrada in the 'pen.

[torts]

At this point, I'm not necessarily even sure I'd want to move Marco. I think he could be a valuable asset in the bullpen, especially given the amount of injuries/dings & burnout that's occurred there. I mean, if the right deal comes along of course I'd pull the trigger & I guess just call up a Fiers... but for now we could simply use the quality depth with Estrada in the 'pen.

 

agree with this, too. Estrada serving as a long arm/middle reliever could really assist with keeping Thornburg/Kintzler/Smith from getting too many mid-game innings and keep them sharp for late inning use down the stretch. I get the feeling that this is whats going to happen later this summer

[JohnBriggs12]

Estrada is on pace to threaten the all time single season HR allowed record of 50 set by Bert Blyleven in 1986 in about 80 fewer innings. Blyleven logged 271 innings that year. Yeah he'd be of some use eating some innings out of the pen, but unless he starts keeping it in the park, not sure of his value either in trade or bullpen. He can be cruising along and then boom, without warning he'll give up one usually followed closely by another.