Brewers worst Free Agent signing of this past decade

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

It's Garza. He was a terrible player and probably terrible in the clubhouse. $50,000,000. Not sure how it could be anyone else.

No, it was said many times that he was a leader in the clubhouse especially with the young guys last year and was one of the biggest pranksters/practical jokers in all of MLB. He did a lot to keep a loose clubhouse. Whenever they interviewed guys on TV in the dugout and you saw sunflower seeds, Double Bubble, etc., being tossed on them, it was Garza.

 

Also Garza had a very good 2014 season, and it could be argued that he was league average his other three years. Yes we all remember his blow-up games, and the unfortunate bullpen refusal, but he was ok. Certainly not up to what his contract was, but not useless either.

[patrickgpe]

It's Garza. He was a terrible player and probably terrible in the clubhouse. $50,000,000. Not sure how it could be anyone else.

Matt Garza had a WAR of -0.8 in Milwaukee, He had a good first season and not much there after. Riske was a much worse signing. Its just that he never really played his last 2 years here and its not as recent. But its not close. I'd argue Soup was a worse FA signing over Garza. This is why I didn't want the brewers to sign Arietta, because he would end up in the Soup / Lohse / Garza category. Chacin, no matter what he does here will not.

[LouisEly]

Franklin Stubbs transcends decades.............

Game, set, match

[LouisEly]

It's Garza. He was a terrible player and probably terrible in the clubhouse. $50,000,000. Not sure how it could be anyone else.

Matt Garza had a WAR of -0.8 in Milwaukee, He had a good first season and not much there after. Riske was a much worse signing. Its just that he never really played his last 2 years here and its not as recent. But its not close. I'd argue Soup was a worse FA signing over Garza. This is why I didn't want the brewers to sign Arietta, because he would end up in the Soup / Lohse / Garza category. Chacin, no matter what he does here will not.

Fangraphs has Garza as a +5.5 WAR over his four seasons here. Not sure what the difference is in how it's calculated.

[patrickgpe]

Franklin Stubbs transcends decades.............

Game, set, match

Isn't Hammonds a much worse signing than Stubbs?

[JosephC]

Looper's numbers were bad but I always and still to this day, even when looking at the bad numbers, think this was a pretty good signing for the Brewers. CC Sabathia really carried the Brewers down the stretch the previous season and the Brewers were also losing Ben Sheets. Gallardo was coming off injury. By the point the Brewers had to already know they had completely blown it on Suppan as he had a high 4's ERA and 1.5+ WHIP over his first two seasons as a Brewer. Dave Bush seemed to be a decent enough back-end starter (but sure wasn't that season) and then they had Manny Parra but he was already showing signs of not be a solid member of the rotation that could be counted on. The rotation was a complete mess and then they were losing Salomon Torres, Guillermo Mota and Brian Shouse out the the bullpen. Basically they were in a situation where the entire pitching staff needed to be rebuilt. They threw a moderately sized one year deal at Looper and he lead the team in starts, innings pitched and wins. Like most I rarely pay attention to a pitcher's W/L record but in this case it demonstrates that Looper did keep the team in most of the games he started. And as ugly as his ERA was, it was better than every starter not named Gallardo that season. All said he was a decent bandage player to get the club through a season where the pitching staff looked like it was going to be a total mess and indeed it was. At least the Brewers did hit on Trevor Hoffman that year.

 

I'd still say the Suppan deal was the worst and still by a pretty wide margin. Sabremetrics weren't even needed back in those days to indicate Suppan was going to crash. He just allowed way, way, way too many baserunners and couldn't strike out anybody. He wasn't even a real innings eater. Back in those days 200 innings wasn't that big of a deal and he had missed that total for 3 consecutive seasons because he was so mediocre he generally didn't get that far into games. To think he got a 4 year deal is rather mind-boggling.

[StearnsFTW]

It's Garza. He was a terrible player and probably terrible in the clubhouse. $50,000,000. Not sure how it could be anyone else.

Matt Garza had a WAR of -0.8 in Milwaukee, He had a good first season and not much there after. Riske was a much worse signing. Its just that he never really played his last 2 years here and its not as recent. But its not close. I'd argue Soup was a worse FA signing over Garza. This is why I didn't want the brewers to sign Arietta, because he would end up in the Soup / Lohse / Garza category. Chacin, no matter what he does here will not.

 

Riske was definitely horrible, but he cost nothing. Garza was 50 flippin million dollars.

 

Edit: I just looked at Suppan. He's probably worse actually. Very similar contract and was somehow worse than Garza.

[StearnsFTW]

It's Garza. He was a terrible player and probably terrible in the clubhouse. $50,000,000. Not sure how it could be anyone else.

No, it was said many times that he was a leader in the clubhouse especially with the young guys last year and was one of the biggest pranksters/practical jokers in all of MLB. He did a lot to keep a loose clubhouse. Whenever they interviewed guys on TV in the dugout and you saw sunflower seeds, Double Bubble, etc., being tossed on them, it was Garza.

 

I don't know how I didn't know this. Garza was fairly well-known for being a jerk at previous stops.

 

There weren't any incidents here? I feel like there was.

[AKCheesehead]

Sticking with the past decade parameters, I'll give an honorable mention to catchers Johnny Estrada and Gregg Zaun. Estrada because he was not good and he got paid 3.4 million 2007 dollars. Zaun was less expensive, not bad and of course got hurt which isn't his fault. However, signing a 39 year old mediocre catcher is not a good offseason move to follow up the first playoff appearance in 26 years.

[Devinep]

It's Garza. He was a terrible player and probably terrible in the clubhouse. $50,000,000. Not sure how it could be anyone else.

No, it was said many times that he was a leader in the clubhouse especially with the young guys last year and was one of the biggest pranksters/practical jokers in all of MLB. He did a lot to keep a loose clubhouse. Whenever they interviewed guys on TV in the dugout and you saw sunflower seeds, Double Bubble, etc., being tossed on them, it was Garza.

 

I don't know how I didn't know this. Garza was fairly well-known for being a jerk at previous stops.

 

There weren't any incidents here? I feel like there was.

 

A student of mine has CP and through something (make-a-wish?) got to meet some players. Garza and Lohse spent the most time with him, though his favorite player Brain was too busy to come see him. I’m Brains defense it was his first game playing off an injury.

 

That same kid got to another game months later and go on the field again. Not only did Garza hang out with him, but he remembered the kid from his first time there.

[StearnsFTW]

Excellent Devine. Good for Matt. I take it all back.

[Devinep]

Excellent Devine. Good for Matt. I take it all back.

 

I still dont love how he handled his demotion from the rotation a couple years ago though

[RockCoCougars]

Was going to suggest Riske as a dark horse, but that was more than 10 years ago... Where has the time went? With Soup and Hammonds both predating this analysis, I think you have to go with Garza.

[SomewhereInTime]

It's Garza. He was a terrible player and probably terrible in the clubhouse. $50,000,000. Not sure how it could be anyone else.

Matt Garza had a WAR of -0.8 in Milwaukee, He had a good first season and not much there after. Riske was a much worse signing. Its just that he never really played his last 2 years here and its not as recent. But its not close. I'd argue Soup was a worse FA signing over Garza. This is why I didn't want the brewers to sign Arietta, because he would end up in the Soup / Lohse / Garza category. Chacin, no matter what he does here will not.

Fangraphs has Garza as a +5.5 WAR over his four seasons here. Not sure what the difference is in how it's calculated.

 

I feel like people throw WAR out there as an end all stat, but often times there is a big difference between fWAR and bWAR. I usually favor fWAR. Garza was actually pretty good in 2014 and not bad in 2016.

[adambr2]

Was going to suggest Riske as a dark horse, but that was more than 10 years ago... Where has the time went? With Soup and Hammonds both predating this analysis, I think you have to go with Garza.

 

Yeah, that's downright depressing to think the Jeff Suppan signing wasn't even in the last 10 years.

[adambr2]

It wasn't the worst signing of the last 10 years, but it was the most expensive -- extending Ryan Braun for his post-30 seasons for $105M when he still had 5 seasons remaining on his contract made very little sense to me.

[homer]

Ben McDonald was a pretty bad signing.

[MrTPlush]

It wasn't the worst signing of the last 10 years, but it was the most expensive -- extending Ryan Braun for his post-30 seasons for $105M when he still had 5 seasons remaining on his contract made very little sense to me.

 

That was one of those deals motivated by making him a franchise player and all the perks/revenue that come with having a “Brewer for life” guy. Obviously we could argue all day if the value of that makes up for the overpay in older years...but that’s besides the point.

 

As we know Ryan Braun quickly destroyed the “Brewers for life/Yount type fandom” value destroying the main motivation for that deal. Diminished play and injuries has made it pretty close to a disaster.

 

At least Ryan Braun still plays decent when he is only the field vs. a Jeff Suppan who was utter trash from the start to end.

[reillymcshane]

Last decade is the what the article discusses. So the Stubbs and Hammonds stuff if not really I relevant.

 

Although as noted - the Stubbs deal transcends time.

[MNBrew]

Garza & Suppan are the obvious low-hanging fruit on this topic, more for how they ended than how they started. But I'll pick a different one that still bothers me far, far worse than those two:

 

Craig Counsell, 2006-07 offseason

 

Why? They'd gotten two excellent years from Jeff Cirillo in his return to MIL as a good-hitting, good-glove, team-first role player (occasional starter & bench bat), and they wanted him back and he wanted to return. The variable was Tony Graffanino, who produced well after being acquired in '06, too, and was also an FA that winter. But Graffanino was playing hard-to-get with the Brewers -- and even though they'd been in touch with Cirillo, they were going curiously slowly with him, too -- so to apply some pressure to Graffanino, the Brewers signed Counsell absolutely out of nowhere. Counsell didn't fit the roster except defensively and his assured place on the roster was a clear offensive step backwards on a very blah bench. It was a signing that made ZERO baseball sense. When Graffanino finally said yes, too, that left Cirillo without a place on the team -- a decision made all the worse when Graffanino, after a disappointing start to 2007, got injured and was out for a long chunk of the year. All they had left to show for their FA decision-making brilliance on their non-descript bench was the banjo-hitting Counsell (.220 BA).

 

Cirillo was a professional hitter, a class act, a strong bench player, and should've remained a Brewer in 2007. Thanks to the really stupid signing of Craig Counsell, Cirillo's MIL playing days ended too soon.

 

It would be an interesting conversation to open the "Brewers worst FA NON-signing" topic (no time-period limits). Two come to mind:

 

1. Paul Molitor, after 1992 (Bando's "only a DH" quote that will forever -- and rightly -- live in Brewer infamy)

2. Nolan Ryan. I think it was after 1988, his last year in Houston. I distinctly remember that he was quite interested in Milwaukee but was turned aside. The by-then-no-longer-wise Harry Dalton publicly eschewed Ryan's publicly expressed interest. Instead Ryan signed w/ Texas and immediately went 16-10 with a 3.20 ERA and 301 Ks. Good thing the Brewers didn't waste money on that! Overall in his 5 years in Texas -- his age 42-46 seasons -- only went 51-39 w/ a 3.53 ERA in 129 starts, 840 IP, 939 Ks, a 1.126 WHIP (593 hits, 353 BB), etc., etc., etc. (not to mention a nice pounding of young mound-charging Robin Ventura).

[kalle8]

Cirillo was a professional hitter, a class act, a strong bench player, and should've remained a Brewer in 2007. Thanks to the really stupid signing of Craig Counsell, Cirillo's MIL playing days ended too soon.

 

Cirillo had his revenge, if my memory is not wrong, by striking out CC pitching for the Dbacks.

 

edit: found on wiki : He made the first pitching appearance of his career on August 20, 2007, against Milwaukee. He pitched one inning and gave up two walks and no runs while striking out one player, former Diamondback Craig Counsell. "He's way nastier than I thought he would be," said Bill Hall, who worked one of the walks. "I was shocked when I got up there. He's got a knuckleball, a slider, he was throwing some changeups. Those pitches make 84, 83 [mph fastballs] look pretty hard. I heard he was a better pitcher in college than he was a hitter."

[LouisEly]

2. Nolan Ryan. I think it was after 1988, his last year in Houston. I distinctly remember that he was quite interested in Milwaukee but was turned aside. The by-then-no-longer-wise Harry Dalton publicly eschewed Ryan's publicly expressed interest. Instead Ryan signed w/ Texas and immediately went 16-10 with a 3.20 ERA and 301 Ks. Good thing the Brewers didn't waste money on that! Overall in his 5 years in Texas -- his age 42-46 seasons -- only went 51-39 w/ a 3.53 ERA in 129 starts, 840 IP, 939 Ks, a 1.126 WHIP (593 hits, 353 BB), etc., etc., etc. (not to mention a nice pounding of young mound-charging Robin Ventura).

This is interesting, and something I do not remember at all. Probably because I was in high school and there was no internet.

 

Although, could you imagine the conniption that people on this board would have if the Brewers signed a 40-year-old pitcher?

[RockCoCougars]

Interesting on the Ryan thing. The Brewers basically didn't sign free agents from other teams back in the 80s. I can't think of any non scrap pile fa acquisition between Roy Howell and Dave Parker.

[homer]

Just for argument's sake, the Ryan Braun 5 year $100 million extension probably won't look so good.

[MNBrew]

2. Nolan Ryan. I think it was after 1988, his last year in Houston. I distinctly remember that he was quite interested in Milwaukee but was turned aside. The by-then-no-longer-wise Harry Dalton publicly eschewed Ryan's publicly expressed interest. Instead Ryan signed w/ Texas and immediately went 16-10 with a 3.20 ERA and 301 Ks. Good thing the Brewers didn't waste money on that! Overall in his 5 years in Texas -- his age 42-46 seasons -- only went 51-39 w/ a 3.53 ERA in 129 starts, 840 IP, 939 Ks, a 1.126 WHIP (593 hits, 353 BB), etc., etc., etc. (not to mention a nice pounding of young mound-charging Robin Ventura).

This is interesting, and something I do not remember at all. Probably because I was in high school and there was no internet.

 

Although, could you imagine the conniption that people on this board would have if the Brewers signed a 40-year-old pitcher?

I distinctly remember reading the article in the paper and I was floored, both that future HOF'er NOLAN RYAN was sincerely interested in coming to Milwaukee and even more so that Harry Dalton wasn't interested. I was in college in MN, so it was likely either the Mpls StarTribune, which I got daily, or USA Today, which would've been available somewhere on campus (in the library if nothing else).