September call-ups

[tmwiese55]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't Woodruff need to be up before Sept 1 to be post season eligible? I mean, if we're fancying making the playoffs we would go into expecting him as the #4 starter, which is needed if you make it past the WC round. So he'd need to be eligible

[Outlander]

No, just has to be on the 40 man.

[LouisEly]

djoctagone, I'm pretty sure that Yadiel Rivera somewhere has incriminating pictures of David Stearns.

 

Bandy, Phillips, one of Rivera/Dubon (unfortunately likely the former); Guerra, Woodruff, Jungmann, Wang, and Webb.

 

Darkhorse: if Biloxi isn't in the playoffs, keep Jungman/Guerra in CS, DFA Brooks and call up Wilkerson.

[JohnBriggs12]

I don't see any reason for either Dubon or Rivera with the crowded middle infield they have now.

 

Initially, it will just be Bandy (when he's healthy), Woodruff, Guerra, Phillips and Wang, After the playoffs, they'll likely add Jungmann and either Tyler Webb or Nick Ramirez from Biloxi. Maybe Wren, but I wouldn't hold my breath. If Ramirez isn't added to the 40 man, he becomes a minor league FA. He's been too good as a first year pitcher to let go so why not just bring him up?

[MrTPlush]

Mauricio Dubon could be brought up for speed. He isn't on the 40 man though so good luck with that one.

[JohnBriggs12]

Mauricio Dubon could be brought up for speed. He isn't on the 40 man though so good luck with that one.

 

The same could be said for Wren and he plays a position where they aren't as deep and he's a better hitter right now than Dubon. For that matter, they could opt to add Quinten Barry.

[djoctagone]

The same (speed) could be said for Wren and he plays a position where they aren't as deep and he's a better hitter right now than Dubon. For that matter, they could opt to add Quinten Barry [sic].

i thought about quintin berry also, but i'm a really big fan of kyle wren.

 

i really want the brewers to have a decent outfielder that makes the club out of spring training with three minor league options remaining. i'm sick of the kirk nieuwenhuis and ramon flores experiments. granted, the brewers could add berry, cut him in the offseason and then add wren to the 40-man, and i'd still be pleased with that.

[djoctagone]

djoctagone, I'm pretty sure that Yadiel Rivera somewhere has incriminating pictures of David Stearns.

he's the only optioned infielder on the 40-man roster. as mentioned in this thread, that's a severe lack of depth.

 

rivera's burning his final option this year, and the because the brewers have been inclined to carry a 13-man pitching staff for most of the season, there really hasn't been any room for a guy out of options to keep on the 25-man roster (i.e. ivan de jesus, jr.).

 

thus, any other infielder in the brewers organization added to the 40-man roster would most likely have be optioned, and if spending more than 20 days optioned, would burn that option. no reason to swap another guy now for yadiel rivera (although at this point, the brewers could outright rivera today, add dubon to the 40-man, option him, and recall dubon in september--well before the 20 days are up).

[adambr2]

djoctagone, I'm pretty sure that Yadiel Rivera somewhere has incriminating pictures of David Stearns.

he's the only optioned infielder on the 40-man roster. as mentioned in this thread, that's a severe lack of depth.

 

rivera's burning his final option this year, and the because the brewers have been inclined to carry a 13-man pitching staff for most of the season, there really hasn't been any room for a guy out of options to keep on the 25-man roster (i.e. ivan de jesus, jr.).

 

thus, any other infielder in the brewers organization added to the 40-man roster would most likely have be optioned, and if spending more than 20 days optioned, would burn that option. no reason to swap another guy now for yadiel rivera (although at this point, the brewers could outright rivera today, add dubon to the 40-man, option him, and recall dubon in september--well before the 20 days are up).

 

I've mentioned this in other threads but in my opinion, once you get that far down on the 40 and to that level of quality, depth is almost totally meaningless, and in most cases simply a matter of circumstance and subjectivity. Every team has depth at that level. It's simply in their minor league system or on the waiver wire .

 

Basically what I mean by that is, Rivera could be DFAed for a pitcher, or whoever, and if they ran into problems in the infield they could easily promote DeJesus, Orf, or Dubon. Or if they preferred they could scan the waiver wire for the Nick Franklins types out there (Trevor Plouffe is currently available, for instance).

 

All of these guys could be on the 40 today and it would really would make no difference between them or Rivera.

[jerichoholicninja]

The same (speed) could be said for Wren and he plays a position where they aren't as deep and he's a better hitter right now than Dubon. For that matter, they could opt to add Quinten Barry [sic].

i thought about quintin berry also, but i'm a really big fan of kyle wren.

 

i really want the brewers to have a decent outfielder that makes the club out of spring training with three minor league options remaining. i'm sick of the kirk nieuwenhuis and ramon flores experiments. granted, the brewers could add berry, cut him in the offseason and then add wren to the 40-man, and i'd still be pleased with that.

 

The only reason I could see for signing Berry when it happened was as a September MLB pinch runner.

[bill hAll Star]

I'm not here to throw a ton of cold water on the Kyle Wren situation, because I wouldn't hate to give him a chance, but even if you ignore the Colorado Springs batting average steroids, you can look at Zack Granite as an example of why these guys aren't too coveted.

 

Now, it's a small sample so far on Granite who is struggling to get on base, but if you take a guy that is more of a slap/speed hitter and put him in the majors, there is a solid chance that that batting average/OBP takes a gigantic fall. Teams move their outfielders way in, the guys are facing MLB-caliber pitching, and there are MLB-caliber fielders to take hits away.

 

Suddenly that .300/.380/.450 AAA slash line becomes .250/.310/.350 and you've got a glorified pinch runner. And now you see why teams are more willing to try to get Kirk Nieuwenhuis as their last guy off the bench...because he can provide that average/OBP with some pop.

 

If there is a 40-man spot for Wren then he's fine as a pinch runner or guy if you are looking for somebody to not strike out in a late-game AB but if we haven't already fast-tracked Wren on the 40 it is likely because we have the concern that his skillset doesn't translate to the majors.

 

Is Wren a good fielder? That might help frame this.

[LouisEly]

No one has ever advocated Wren as a starting-caliber OF. Everyone who has been advocating for him, such as myself, has always framed him as a good 4th OF - he can play all three positions (including CF adequately) and has good OBP. This season his OBP is .370 and last season, split between AA and AAA, was .412 (.383 at AA, .425 at AAA), and in 2015 put up a .370 OBP at AA.

 

Sure, he doesn't have the power of a Nieuwenhuis or a Hernan Perez, but he doesn't strike out like those guys do either.

 

Basically what I mean by that is, Rivera could be DFAed for a pitcher, or whoever, and if they ran into problems in the infield they could easily promote DeJesus, Orf, or Dubon. Or if they preferred they could scan the waiver wire for the Nick Franklins types out there (Trevor Plouffe is currently available, for instance).

This, this, and this. Nick Franklin, Trevor Plouffe, Eric Sogard, Ehire Adrianza... the Riveras of the world are a dime a dozen, or could be purchased for a small amount of cash if needed.

[bill hAll Star]

No one has ever advocated Wren as a starting-caliber OF. Everyone who has been advocating for him, such as myself, has always framed him as a good 4th OF - he can play all three positions (including CF adequately) and has good OBP. This season his OBP is .370 and last season, split between AA and AAA, was .412 (.383 at AA, .425 at AAA), and in 2015 put up a .370 OBP at AA.

 

Sure, he doesn't have the power of a Nieuwenhuis or a Hernan Perez, but he doesn't strike out like those guys do either.

 

That .370 OBP at AA was only a 60-game sample where he slugged .326. Most of his good numbers have come at Colorado Springs.

 

The problem is that when you put guys like Wren into the majors they end up having Nieuwenhius batting lines without the power. Guys like Dee Gordon are the extreme exception (and even he was way better in the minors at getting on base). Almost all of these other guys will hit .310 with a .380 OBP in the minors and then fail to hit .250 or .260 in the majors because MLB pitchers will come right at them with better stuff and MLB fielders and scouting reports will take a way a ton of base hits.

 

 

In which case, give me a guy like Nieuwenhius on the bench (though we can do better than that).

[harrydalton]

I wouldn't bring up anyone not on the 40-man. A third catcher, to free up the 1-2 catchers for pinch hitting. Left-handed reliever-Wang. LH bat- Phillips. Not much more.

[SandyTolan]

Watch for Quintin Berry to be called up and used almost exclusively as a pinch runner in September. They'd have to add him to the 40-man, but I think Stearns acquired him with that in mind.

[KeithStone53151]

I wouldn't bring up anyone not on the 40-man. A third catcher, to free up the 1-2 catchers for pinch hitting. Left-handed reliever-Wang. LH bat- Phillips. Not much more.

 

Guys like Guerra, Suter, Wang(who you referenced), Webb, Woodruff and Jungmann are all on the 40 man and all are very likely to come up and off long relief in case a starter struggles. Even Lopez might come up. I feel like Garza has been more successful when he gets extra rest, I could see him having a start skipped to try and find some of the smoke and mirrors he used successfully most of the year. They also might bring Rivera up for potential late inning infield defense. Bandy/Susac will come up as backup catching options for the reasons you stated, and Phillips will surely make it up at some point as LH back and potentially late inning defense. Whoever that speed guy is that Stearns recently signed will also come up, that seems to be the only reason we signed the guy was to run for us in September.

[tmwiese55]

I wouldn't be surprised if they give Phillips a lot of starts right when he comes up vs righties to try and ride his hot bat from AAA. Assuming anyway he's still been hitting well like all reports have said since he went down. Maybe it won't translate but sitting him right away could break his rhythm.

[KeithStone53151]

I wouldn't be surprised if they give Phillips a lot of starts right when he comes up vs righties to try and ride his hot bat from AAA. Assuming anyway he's still been hitting well like all reports have said since he went down. Maybe it won't translate but sitting him right away could break his rhythm.

 

He's actually cooled off considerably lately, hitting 222 in his last 10 and only 3 hits in his last 5 starts. He's also sporting 15 k in 41 AB.

[markedman5]

This to me looks like Woodruff will be coming back up right away

 

[djoctagone]

This to me looks like Woodruff will be coming back up right away

 

nine consecutive games starting tuesday, so a fifth starter will be needed over the weekend--which fortunately, is in september.

[markedman5]

Looks like they are lining up Woodruff to pitch Saturday against Scherzer

[bill hAll Star]

I wouldn't be surprised if they give Phillips a lot of starts right when he comes up vs righties to try and ride his hot bat from AAA. Assuming anyway he's still been hitting well like all reports have said since he went down. Maybe it won't translate but sitting him right away could break his rhythm.

 

Just another reminder that literally every player we have that steps on the field at Colorado Springs swings a red hot bat there and it doesn't translate to the majors unless you want to believe that it helped Sogard (there are about 6 or 7 counter-examples that suggest Sogard was random).

[tmwiese55]

Sure, it's not guarantee but with Broxton cooled off it would have made sense to see if you could catch lightning in a bottle. And your best bet would be to do it right away rather than allowing to get rusty. And we all know how much Craiger loves to play the L/R matchups. That said, someone just posted that he's no longer 'hot' in CS so the point is moot.

[KeithStone53151]

I wouldn't be surprised if they give Phillips a lot of starts right when he comes up vs righties to try and ride his hot bat from AAA. Assuming anyway he's still been hitting well like all reports have said since he went down. Maybe it won't translate but sitting him right away could break his rhythm.

 

Just another reminder that literally every player we have that steps on the field at Colorado Springs swings a red hot bat there and it doesn't translate to the majors unless you want to believe that it helped Sogard (there are about 6 or 7 counter-examples that suggest Sogard was random).

 

Well it might translate, and it might not. I can assure you that struggling hitting at AAA Colorado means with absolute certainty that you will struggle at the MLB level...see Susac. All things can be in your favor, you still have to hit and perform.

[bill hAll Star]

I wouldn't be surprised if they give Phillips a lot of starts right when he comes up vs righties to try and ride his hot bat from AAA. Assuming anyway he's still been hitting well like all reports have said since he went down. Maybe it won't translate but sitting him right away could break his rhythm.

 

Just another reminder that literally every player we have that steps on the field at Colorado Springs swings a red hot bat there and it doesn't translate to the majors unless you want to believe that it helped Sogard (there are about 6 or 7 counter-examples that suggest Sogard was random).

Sure, it's not guarantee but with Broxton cooled off it would have made sense to see if you could catch lightning in a bottle. And your best bet would be to do it right away rather than allowing to get rusty. And we all know how much Craiger loves to play the L/R matchups. That said, someone just posted that he's no longer 'hot' in CS so the point is moot.

 

Well it might translate, and it might not. I can assure you that struggling hitting at AAA Colorado means with absolute certainty that you will struggle at the MLB level...see Susac. All things can be in your favor, you still have to hit and perform.

 

It's very likely that it will not matter and the actual ability of the hitter will actually matter. Just look at the Rockies' home/road batting average splits to see why it isn't worth trying to play these "hot streaks."

 

As a team, the Rockies are batting .301 with an .869 OPS at home.

 

On the road they're hitting .249 with a .698 OPS.

 

For context, the Brewers' splits are .248/.249 H/A and .765/.745

 

Why do the Rockies' hitters always go ice cold on the road?

 

Also, Broxton was on fire when he came up because he faced lefties, terrible pitchers, and went to Coors Field for a series.