Pitching staff adjustments?

[Ennder]

I don't think you can lump Davies in with Anderson here. Davies is only 24 years old (same age as Woodruff and Lopez) and has shown the ability to pitch well for long stretches at a time in the majors already. Davies could see his way back to AAA for a stint but he is likely still in the teams long term plan. Chase Anderson is just filler until younger guys are ready.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

The only SP I have confidence in right now is Garza... I can't believe I said that.

[adambr2]

The only SP I have confidence in right now is Garza... I can't believe I said that.

 

Nelson has been solid this year. Not spectacular but solid.

 

Jimmy has the stuff to at least hold out hope that he can be a wild card and boost our rotation, but he has to avoid the big second half letdown after getting our hopes up last year.

 

Control Is key for him. Last year he led the league in both walks and HBP at 86 and 17 respectively for an astounding 103 free baserunners. That can't continue if he'll ever have any success. Cut down on those numbers and he could still be a middle of the rotation starter.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

 

Nelson has been solid this year. Not spectacular but solid.

 

Jimmy has the stuff to at least hold out hope that he can be a wild card and boost our rotation, but he has to avoid the big second half letdown after getting our hopes up last year.

 

Control Is key for him. Last year he led the league in both walks and HBP at 86 and 17 respectively for an astounding 103 free baserunners. That can't continue if he'll ever have any success. Cut down on those numbers and he could still be a middle of the rotation starter.

 

Nelson has been very inconsistent this year. Either he gives up 1 or 2 runs or is blown out. I don't know which Nelson will show up. Which is why I have no confidence in him. Garza has been more consistent.

 

Its still early yet.

[adambr2]

Every time I'm ready to throw in the towel on Chase Anderson, he starts getting it together again. He's a different pitcher when that change is working right. And since when does his fastball sit at 95? That's news to me.

[brewmann04]

Yes it seems the same with Nelson too.

[FVBrewerFan]

Every time I'm ready to throw in the towel on Chase Anderson, he starts getting it together again. He's a different pitcher when that change is working right. And since when does his fastball sit at 95? That's news to me.

 

New method for capturing pitch speeds. Every fastball is up a tick or two.

[MoreTrife]

Every time I'm ready to throw in the towel on Chase Anderson, he starts getting it together again. He's a different pitcher when that change is working right. And since when does his fastball sit at 95? That's news to me.

 

New method for capturing pitch speeds. Every fastball is up a tick or two.

 

I can swear I remember multiple starts earlier in the year, Cubs for sure, where he was sitting 90-91 tops.

[adambr2]

Every time I'm ready to throw in the towel on Chase Anderson, he starts getting it together again. He's a different pitcher when that change is working right. And since when does his fastball sit at 95? That's news to me.

 

New method for capturing pitch speeds. Every fastball is up a tick or two.

 

I can swear I remember multiple starts earlier in the year, Cubs for sure, where he was sitting 90-91 tops.

 

Yeah, that's what I mean. I've heard about the new method but Chase seems up a lot more than a tick or two.

[nate82]

During the Dbacks game their announcers were talking about Chase's off season workout where he said he added weight. His fastball was clocked at 97 during that game with an average of 95 I believe their stats said. They went on and on about this for a couple of innings. So I tuned some of that out.

 

Maybe that is the reason for the uptick in MPH on his fastball this year.

[monty57]

Every time I'm ready to throw in the towel on Chase Anderson, he starts getting it together again. He's a different pitcher when that change is working right. And since when does his fastball sit at 95? That's news to me.

 

I've always liked him as a #4/5 starter, and that's what you're going to get out of a #4/5 starter. He'll look really good for a while and then look bad for a while. We'll have more talented pitchers coming up shortly who will hopefully fit in the top of the rotation, but guys like Anderson are good to have to fill out the rotation. We have him for three more arby years (he's a 4 year arby guy), so hopefully he'll be a solid contributor for a couple more years, and by then we'll have enough prospects up that we'll be able to trade him for something valuable.

 

While it's wonderful that we're playing well overall, this is still a year to separate the wheat from the chaff. Peralta got his last shot, and is out of the rotation. Nelson and Anderson are showing that they may belong. Guerra lost some time, but is looking pretty good so far, which will make for good discussion as to whether we should trade him or keep him. Davies lived at the bottom of the strike zone. MLB raising the zone probably hurt him, so we'll have to see if he can adapt. At this point, he's probably the guy that could spend some time in the minors when the Brewers are ready to start promoting prospects. Garza is short-term no matter what. Had he pitched poorly, he'd already be gone, but his pitching well can only help the Brewers, whether that's by increasing his trade value or by helping us win more games.

 

Long term, the good thing is that we have prospects who have higher upside then the guys on the MLB team, so hopefully we will be able to start slotting those guys in the top spots in the rotation. If the current guys can continue to prove that they are solid MLB starters, they will help us win for a while and then make for some really nice trade chips over the next couple of years.

[Never Outhustled]

During the Dbacks game their announcers were talking about Chase's off season workout where he said he added weight. His fastball was clocked at 97 during that game with an average of 95 I believe their stats said. They went on and on about this for a couple of innings. So I tuned some of that out.

 

Maybe that is the reason for the uptick in MPH on his fastball this year.

 

The uptick started last season after a mechanical tweak by Dereck Johnson. So it's really a combination of factors driving his newfound velocity. It definately changes the outlook on him.

[NYChez]

Directly or indirectly, Feliz's failure as a closer has cost the Brewers what, about 4 games so far?

[JohnBriggs12]

Directly or indirectly, Feliz's failure as a closer has cost the Brewers what, about 4 games so far?

 

If they had the level of success provided by Jeffress and Thornburg closing games last year they'd be 5-6 games in front.

[adambr2]

Well Thornburg hasn't pitched a game for the Red Sox and Jeffress has been horrible this year. Smith had TJ and is out for the year.

 

While we can't assume all these circumstances would be the same we can't assume they'd all be different either.

 

People complain about the pen and the plan for the pen this year, but I think most of us agree on 2 things:

 

1) We would rather have Shaw + the prospects we got for Jeffress, Thornburg and Smith than have those 3 back now, and

 

2) This was always intended to be more of an evaluation season rather than one of expected contention.

 

So with that said, I don't understand how anyone can complain about the bullpen prep heading into the season. We gave Barnes a shot despite a rough spring, that was the right call. We signed Feliz, who was a worthy flyer, and it hasn't worked out. What moves would you have expected of Stearns this off-season in a pricey bullpen market? My vote was Greg Holland, who would look good right now, but with a possible 16M player option next year, no way would I have wanted them to do that.

 

Drake's peripherals made him a worthy flyer, and while I wasn't crazy about Hughes, I understand the desire for a GB sprcialist.

 

So I just ask, what should Stearns have done differently to assemble this pen specifically that he didn't do? Spending $15-$20M a year on a top end closer wasn't a good option, I think we can all agree on that.

[BrewCrewBlueDevil]

Barnes and Knebel have been decent but over used in situations that they haven't had time to grow into. The Brewers are at a point where changes need to be made. Peralta, Feliz and Drake could be upgraded with Wang, Blazek, Fereri, Dyson, Suter...... Just do something, even if a new face gives similar results. Peralta for Dyson, DFA/option Feliz for Suter or Wang..... Just do something!

[adambr2]

The Peralta for Dyson proposal mentioned here and in another thread both makes sense to me. Both underachieving guys that could use a change of scenery. Peralta wouldn't be my first choice to give up but I'd probably do it.

[JohnBriggs12]

The blown saves are one thing but guys like Hughes and his 1.69 WHIP and Drake who can't get out RH hitters are a big part of the problem too. Time to look at other options.

 

Cravy, Wang, Archer, Blazek? Matt Ramsey? They can't be worse can they?

[pogokat]

The blown saves are one thing but guys like Hughes and his 1.69 WHIP and Drake who can't get out RH hitters are a big part of the problem too. Time to look at other options.

 

Cravy, Wang, Archer, Blazek? Matt Ramsey? They can't be worse can they?

 

I would imagine those moves are coming pretty soon

[NievesNoNO]

............

People complain about the pen and the plan for the pen this year, but I think most of us agree on 2 things:

 

1) We would rather have Shaw + the prospects we got for Jeffress, Thornburg and Smith than have those 3 back now, and

 

2) This was always intended to be more of an evaluation season rather than one of expected contention.

 

So with that said, I don't understand how anyone can complain about the bullpen prep heading into the season. We gave Barnes a shot despite a rough spring, that was the right call. We signed Feliz, who was a worthy flyer, and it hasn't worked out. What moves would you have expected of Stearns this off-season in a pricey bullpen market? My vote was Greg Holland, who would look good right now, but with a possible 16M player option next year, no way would I have wanted them to do that.

 

Drake's peripherals made him a worthy flyer, and while I wasn't crazy about Hughes, I understand the desire for a GB sprcialist.

 

So I just ask, what should Stearns have done differently to assemble this pen specifically that he didn't do? Spending $15-$20M a year on a top end closer wasn't a good option, I think we can all agree on that.

 

I agree. It's a good thing that we care so much about the bullpen at this point, as that means other things are going well.

 

I liked the Feliz signing. It obviously hasn't worked out. The pen as a whole walks too many. I think Drake and Peralta still have something to offer. I'd be in favor of removing Feliz, Hughes, and Torres, although I think Torres would still have a fair shot to work things out to be decent. I'd really like to see what Hader can provide and one of the other guys mentioned previous, maybe Archer or Ramsey.

[adambr2]

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/andrew-miller-doesnt-have-any-saves-and-hes-the-best-reliever-in-baseball/amp/

 

Good argument for non-conventional bullpen roles. Maybe we're looking at this wrong and need to do a better job putting our guys in a position where they can be successful.

[Lathund]

I'm very much in favour of the non-conventional roles, and very much against the traditional closer role, and the focus it has on saves. If you're facing the top of their order in a tied game heading into the 8th (Or even the 7th), that's when your "closer" should come in. Rather than facing the bottom of the order in the 9th with a 2-run lead. If you even get to that point not using your best relievers. So the Cleveland situation is a good example of the "fireman", using your your best reliever in the highest leverage situations even if they're not in the 9th inning with a lead. You can still have your "closer"; just don't use your best guy for that role. The problem with this though is that saves are what gets you the big money, so making these cahnges can be hard. I think the Andrew Miller experiment has helped though.

 

The other thing I'd like to see us do more is multi-inning relief appearances, and not just in the typical "long relief" scenarios. Perhaps that's what we're trying to do with Peralta, but I'd like to see it done more. Needs a certain type of player though. Your prototypical fireballer late-inning reliever (Like Barnes) might not be suited for that.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

Using Drake as a lefty specialist is definitely a non-conventional role.

 

Taylor Williams has slowly gotten his BB/9 to below 4. Still has a way to go but he may make for a good setup man for this year. The Brewers are trying to keep his innings down this year after missing the last two to injury. Come late July/August, it might be worth a try to put him on MLB bullpen to keep the innings down. He has the stuff to be a great setup man. He can then go into 2018 with a chance to make the rotation.

[adambr2]

I wouldn't be opposed to both Williams and Hader being in the pen at some point this year.

 

I'm not opposed to multi inning relief, but some guys are only suited to work an inning. Peralta may be one of those guys. He's struggled in that second inning of relief. I'd limit him to one for the time being.

 

I'm surprised to see Drake still has a 3.48 FIP and 11 K/9. Maybe there's still hope for him, I don't know. He's got very strange splits despite being a right, he dominates lefty hitting and can't get righties out. For the time being, he's our LOOGY.

 

I'm all about using Knebel and even Barnes wherever necessary in high leverage situations whether it be the 7th or 9th. You don't need to put in your closer for a save with a 3 run lead in the 9th and the bottom of the order coming up, Scahill or Peralta will do just fine, just be ready to warm up Knebel if they start getting in trouble .

 

I can't blame them for doing it today though after the circumstances of this series.

[adambr2]

Sounds highly likely that Garza is headed to the DL.