Brewers sign Chris Carter to a 1-year, $2.5 mil deal

[DuWayne Steurer]

If he were lefthanded, I'd be hailing this as a nice pickup at the price. I just think it will be hard for all the RH hitters to maximize their performance (which still is important for potential trade purposes if not winning games) when there's no LH threat in the lineup. It just makes it way too easy on opposing pitchers to face a virtually all RH lineup many of whom are all or nothing types. Will there be some fun games where this team cracks 5-6 HR? Sure, but they'll be plenty of others when they fan 14-15 times and get shutout.

 

They deal Lind, who was the lone LH threat. Herrera was pretty good from the left side and he's gone. Villar too is a switch hitter, but he's tended to be better as a RH hitter. In CF they've added an athletic guy in Broxton with no major league experience, but he too hits RH. Only Gennett has any proven offensive talent from the left side and he's not a guy you stick in the middle of the order. Shane Peterson's still around and can probably be used a few times a week in various OF spots and 1B, but he's more a late inning PH and not a big power threat. Alex Presley is sort of the same guy as Peterson and he'll be in camp too. He may wind up playing CF if Broxton can't handle the job but I'm still hoping they reach out to a Venable who's got enough pop that he could be stuck in the 6th or 7th spot and break up the lineup a bit.

 

For those of you on here that say it doesn't really matter because the team's going nowhere that they aren't balanced. They still need for their players to maximize their performances. And being all RH won't help that occur.

 

 

The Blue Jays won 93 games last year (and totally mashed) with a mostly RH lineup. They had Ben Revere and Justin Smoak. Smoak and Revere both played half the year. Encarnacion, Bautista, Donaldson, Martin, Colabello, Tulo.....all their power.... all their mash, the entire middle of their order was all right handed. They did a-ok.

[Jenkins5]

Nice thing that most people overlook is that he is a guy who has ability to take walks. His OBP is usually .100 higher than his average. His issue is his contact/average. If he can mustard out .220-.240....that is a .320-.340 Obp. I will gladly take 35 HR 80 RBIs with a .320-.340 Obp. His K's will get annoying... He has no real splits difference between lefties and righties.

 

Overall all a good sign and he is cheap and still retainable for 3 years. There is no risk. We really had no one else to really slot into that position anytime soon. Stearns was with the Astros when they brought him over from the A's as the main piece for Jed Lowrie trade. He then watched him play there for all three seasons. Carter is what he is. He can really hit or make contact very much but when he does... he drills it. He is more like Domingo Santana in that he is a power hitter who can go to all fields, can take a good amount of walks, and struggles to make consistent contacted. Difference is that Santana is a more complete hitter who will hit for more average.

[Mass Haas]

McCalvy discusses the Carter signing here.

[pacopete4]

For those of you on here that say it doesn't really matter because the team's going nowhere that they aren't balanced. They still need for their players to maximize their performances. And being all RH won't help that occur.

 

 

Cecchini, Villar, Gennett, Peterson, Flores, Walsh, Wilkins, Nieuwenhuis are all on the 40 man roster and could be left handed options in the lineup. I think you're being dramatic to the situation considering it is January and there hasn't even been spring training game. Either way, there might be 2-3 guys in the lineup vs. right handed pitching next season.

[And That]

McCalvy discusses the Carter signing here.

Watching the video, it's amazing how apparently effortless his power can be - just a little weight shift and POW.

[rwa12]

I agree with the earlier poster who said that somebody has to play on the major league team. He was cheap, he's at least a MLB ball player, and he'll add some pop to a relatively slap hitting lineup. Everything can't be future oriented, still have to put a product on the field. I don't care about handedness, in this age of specialization, I think it's importance is lowered. Welcome to the team Chris, may you be a garbage time All-Star for us.

[502 to Right]

Since the Brewers are punting the season anyway I would have preferred an excellent fielding 1B to help the pitching--though I'm not sure who that would be.

 

But I don't dislike the deal.

[pitchleague]

Eh, it's like having Mark Reynolds back on the team. No big whoop. We've done that before and survived. I think the signing is mostly upside, with a little downside to it. And as someone else said, we needed a coffin, er, I mean a first baseman. Stearns traded away all our first basemen so he replaced them as best he could. Voila!

[3and2Fastball]

The MLB hitting coach's list is filled with people who think they can turn Chris Carter into a 40 HR/.250 BA player. Here's hoping that Darnell Coles can be that coach!

[EauClaireNWL]

Low risk, potential decent upside signing. The team will be lucky to win 70 games this year anyways and they need to throw some experienced major league level bodies out there regardless of what Stearns is doing to revamp the farm system.

[StearnsFTW]

If he were lefthanded, I'd be hailing this as a nice pickup at the price. I just think it will be hard for all the RH hitters to maximize their performance (which still is important for potential trade purposes if not winning games) when there's no LH threat in the lineup. It just makes it way too easy on opposing pitchers to face a virtually all RH lineup many of whom are all or nothing types. Will there be some fun games where this team cracks 5-6 HR? Sure, but they'll be plenty of others when they fan 14-15 times and get shutout.

 

They deal Lind, who was the lone LH threat. Herrera was pretty good from the left side and he's gone. Villar too is a switch hitter, but he's tended to be better as a RH hitter. In CF they've added an athletic guy in Broxton with no major league experience, but he too hits RH. Only Gennett has any proven offensive talent from the left side and he's not a guy you stick in the middle of the order. Shane Peterson's still around and can probably be used a few times a week in various OF spots and 1B, but he's more a late inning PH and not a big power threat. Alex Presley is sort of the same guy as Peterson and he'll be in camp too. He may wind up playing CF if Broxton can't handle the job but I'm still hoping they reach out to a Venable who's got enough pop that he could be stuck in the 6th or 7th spot and break up the lineup a bit.

 

For those of you on here that say it doesn't really matter because the team's going nowhere that they aren't balanced. They still need for their players to maximize their performances. And being all RH won't help that occur.

 

 

The Blue Jays won 93 games last year (and totally mashed) with a mostly RH lineup. They had Ben Revere and Justin Smoak. Smoak and Revere both played half the year. Encarnacion, Bautista, Donaldson, Martin, Colabello, Tulo.....all their power.... all their mash, the entire middle of their order was all right handed. They did a-ok.

 

And the 2011 Brewers won 96 games with 2 LH bats. His arguments get goofier by the day.

[MrTPlush]

My bad with his incentives Carter will make $3mil(yes I expect him to hit them all). I haven't seen the amount till now. Regardless $3mil is a big difference than league minimum plus many more years of cheap control. Value wise Jason Rogers is more valuable, but when it comes to actual production I don't think it is a total given. Rogers had a nice run, but that was in just 150 ABs. Who knows how his production will be playing every day. I think Rogers is the better player...I think, but Carter is right up there with him if he hits like he did in 2014.

 

Bottom line as a Brewers fan I much prefer what we got for Rogers plus Carter than just Rogers. I just don't think Rogers will have much value as a 1B so he was expendable. Now we have a guy who may figure it out or more likely flipped for another prospect to throw Ito the mix. I will take that risk.

[TURBO]

If Carter was such a good trade piece, why wasn't he flipped in previous years? I'm not against this signing, I just don't think he is such a valuable trade piece, or he would have been traded before we got a chance to get him for nothing...

 

I think the odds of anyone giving us anything of value in return are slim to none. He is just a warm body to play a position that we had no one else to play, relatively cheap, with enough power to every once in a while make the fans oooh and ahhh.

[homer]

If Carter was such a good trade piece, why wasn't he flipped in previous years? I'm not against this signing, I just don't think he is such a valuable trade piece, or he would have been traded before we got a chance to get him for nothing...

 

I think the odds of anyone giving us anything of value in return are slim to none. He is just a warm body to play a position that we had no one else to play, relatively cheap, with enough power to every once in a while make the fans oooh and ahhh.

 

 

He was on a playoff team last year. He crushed in Sept and helped get them the wild card.

[DuWayne Steurer]

If Carter was such a good trade piece, why wasn't he flipped in previous years? I'm not against this signing, I just don't think he is such a valuable trade piece, or he would have been traded before we got a chance to get him for nothing...

 

 

I don't think he's a "valuable" trade piece. I think he's mostly "just a guy"

 

In order of importance

 

1) he's got some power

2) He plays 1st base

3) if he plays well, he may be able to be flipped for a prospect. Probably along the lines of what we got for Aram last year.

 

HOwever..... I don't think those types of guys should be overlooked either.

[MrTPlush]

I don't think anyone is calling him a major trade piece. We're probably aren't going to turn him into a Jake Arrieta. We aren't picking up a Jason Hammel to turn into something big. He could easily bring back an interesting prospect. Maybe it is only a power arm in the low minors, but that is something. I would be happy with that.

 

And there is always the dream he hits .250 and his value really increases. That would put him as something like a poor mans Chris Davis.

[pacopete4]

I honestly would've loved to hear people's better options that a guy like Chris Carter. Production isn't going to fall off very much from Lind to him, he's cheaper and we've obtained multiples pieces from Lind and Rogers. How is this not a great way to do business?

[3and2Fastball]

And the 2011 Brewers won 96 games with 2 LH bats. His arguments get goofier by the day.

 

Just my opinion but I like it when we have a bit more respect for each other here than labeling someone's ideas as "goofy". This is Brewerfan.net, not the JS Online comments section. I've noticed a lot of people lately ganging up on JohnBriggs12. I very much welcome opposing viewpoints. It gives me something to think about and adds to the level of discourse.

 

I've been posting here for a longtime but was lurking/reading here for many years before that, and JohnBriggs12 has offered insight and perspective for nearly a decade (more than a decade?) that I personally find very valuable.

 

If I've overstepped my bounds bringing this up, my apologies. One of the things I value here is the level of discourse. JohnBriggs12 doesn't like the rebuild, or has a different viewpoint, there is nothing wrong with opposing viewpoints. Disagree with him factually, but let's not lower ourselves to just insulting people.

[DuWayne Steurer]

 

And there is always the dream he hits .250 and his value really increases. That would put him as something like a poor mans Chris Davis.

 

 

Chris Davis is 30, and one season removed from hitting .196 with a .704 OPS, and the Orioles offered him 150 million dollars. Chris Carter is what he is. He's going to hit .220, bash about 30 homers. OPS around .750 - .775, and hopefully be about league average. For 2.5 million, that's what you get.

[1992casey]

If I've overstepped my bounds bringing this up, my apologies.

 

What you said was perfect.

[superfly]

 

If he were lefthanded, I'd be hailing this as a nice pickup at the price. I just think it will be hard for all the RH hitters to maximize their performance (which still is important for potential trade purposes if not winning games) when there's no LH threat in the lineup. It just makes it way too easy on opposing pitchers to face a virtually all RH lineup many of whom are all or nothing types. Will there be some fun games where this team cracks 5-6 HR? Sure, but they'll be plenty of others when they fan 14-15 times and get shutout.

 

They deal Lind, who was the lone LH threat. Herrera was pretty good from the left side and he's gone. Villar too is a switch hitter, but he's tended to be better as a RH hitter. In CF they've added an athletic guy in Broxton with no major league experience, but he too hits RH. Only Gennett has any proven offensive talent from the left side and he's not a guy you stick in the middle of the order. Shane Peterson's still around and can probably be used a few times a week in various OF spots and 1B, but he's more a late inning PH and not a big power threat. Alex Presley is sort of the same guy as Peterson and he'll be in camp too. He may wind up playing CF if Broxton can't handle the job but I'm still hoping they reach out to a Venable who's got enough pop that he could be stuck in the 6th or 7th spot and break up the lineup a bit.

 

For those of you on here that say it doesn't really matter because the team's going nowhere that they aren't balanced. They still need for their players to maximize their performances. And being all RH won't help that occur.

 

Calling Elian Herrera who can't even stay on a MLB roster "pretty good" is quite the stretch.

 

I don't know about anyone else but I want TALENT in this organization right now. At this stage I don't care if they bat left handed, right handed, between their legs, or behind their back....if they are somewhat young, cheap, can hit HR, draw walks, or show any semblance of a .300+ OBP, lets bring them on board.

 

Not signing Chris Carter just because he's right handed would be like the Packers passing up on Michael Vick in the draft just because he was left handed, or the Bucks passing on Giannis Antetokounmpo just because he was a foreign born player. It's irrelevant to the discussion for this particular team.

 

Edit: I removed a portion of your post. Please avoid condescension.

[Invader3K]

Hey guys. I'm late to the party, but I agree with those who are OK with this signing. I'm glad we're not wasting tons of money on a more premier "name" 1B, like a Kendrys Morales type guy who won't be that great anyway. It's cheap, and maybe we can flip him at the deadline if he's hitting well for something with more long term value to the club.

[patrickgpe]

I honestly didn't care who they brought in to play 1st. No Matter if it was Alvarez, Carter, etc the player was a short term fix. I am glad that they brought in a competent player and we aren't hoping for Wilkins, Middlebrooks, etc to be able to play everyday. Unless the brewers brought in a young 1st via trade it doesn't matter. Next season will be about individual performances of players i think will be on the team in 3 years and I can't see Carter will be.

[Boomer5]

We traded Lind and Rogers for 4 low minor leaguers, Braxton, Carter and the difference between Lind's salary and $2.5M.

 

It is what it is, I guess. Overall, it still feels like a salary dump and continuation of the tanking strategy.

 

I cant fault the signing because we needed someone to play 1B and I guess you never know, but he is certainly not part of the future.

[danzig6767]

I think this is just the type of signing we need. He will be fun to watch, doesn't hurt us in anyway. We will be well below average for awhile, so grabbing a guy that has potential trade value for a year is a solid move. If he stinks, it's not going to hurt us....we aren't going anywhere for awhile.

 

I was kind of hoping we'd sign him after I read another poster on here mention him.

If he were lefthanded, I'd be hailing this as a nice pickup at the price.

His career splits vs

 

RH-- .757 OPS

LH-- .777 OPS

 

His batting average

 

RH-- .220

LH-- .216

 

The only thing he does quite a bit better vs lefties is walk more so his OBP is 35 points higher. That's not irrelevant, but it's not as if he has huge splits like some hitters do and thus has to be platooned.