Brewers sign Left-Handed RP Dan Jennings

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Just feels like one of those moves that's an afterthought and ends up paying big dividends over the course of the season. Really like it.

[BrewersAA]

To answer an earlier question, the reason he likely wasn’t traded is that this is the most difficult time of the year to trade a player. Basically every team is in a position of having to cut one of their own guys that they like, so it’s a tough spot to try to sell that your guy that you are going to have to cut is worth giving someone up and cutting 2 of your own guys. Other side of the coin is it’s a great time of the year if you have 40man flexibility because you might have your eye on someone likely to get cut, that’s what Stearns did :-) .

[OldSchoolSnapper]

To answer an earlier question, the reason he likely wasn’t traded is that this is the most difficult time of the year to trade a player. Basically every team is in a position of having to cut one of their own guys that they like, so it’s a tough spot to try to sell that your guy that you are going to have to cut is worth giving someone up and cutting 2 of your own guys. Other side of the coin is it’s a great time of the year if you have 40man flexibility because you might have your eye on someone likely to get cut, that’s what Stearns did :-) .

 

Not only that, but super niche players don't have a ton of trade value usually. A lot of teams have a specialist that already does his job so the number of suitors is whittled down quite a bit. So you're left with teams that need the job AND have a spot to clear.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

To answer an earlier question, the reason he likely wasn’t traded is that this is the most difficult time of the year to trade a player. Basically every team is in a position of having to cut one of their own guys that they like, so it’s a tough spot to try to sell that your guy that you are going to have to cut is worth giving someone up and cutting 2 of your own guys. Other side of the coin is it’s a great time of the year if you have 40man flexibility because you might have your eye on someone likely to get cut, that’s what Stearns did :-) .

 

Yep, this may be the only time all offseason that a move that made perfect sense on paper for this team was actually executed. And it happened at 10 p.m. the night before opening day.

[StearnsFTW]

Wow, I'm surprised at the reaction. Pretty 'meh' guy to me. He's better than Drake I guess?

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Wow, I'm surprised at the reaction. Pretty 'meh' guy to me. He's better than Drake I guess?

 

The team is dumpster diving the day before the opener to backfill its LOOGY spot (due to injury) with another team's castoff. What the heck are you looking for? Jennings has been a useful role player in his career, and is going to come cheap. I don't think anyone is implying that they just picked up Andrew Miller.

[MrTPlush]

Wow, I'm surprised at the reaction. Pretty 'meh' guy to me. He's better than Drake I guess?

 

I thought the same. We hate Oliver Drake, but let’s get excited about a guy who doesn’t strikeout many and likes to walk many. Yay? He will be a last guy in the pen at best. I guess maybe you can hope to catch lightning in a bottle(over perform drastically by luck).

 

Oliver Drake has more upside in my opinion and is better. Though I feel better with Jennings putting up better stats.

[pacopete4]

Wow, I'm surprised at the reaction. Pretty 'meh' guy to me. He's better than Drake I guess?

I see you changed your original post but even this one, umm... of course he’s better than Drake. It’s an upgrade. Why wouldn’t people be happy about that?

 

Oliver Drake has more upside in my opinion and is better. Though I feel better with Jennings putting up better stats.

So if a guy puts up better stats, isn’t that a good thing? And upside? Drake is 31 years old. These guys are what they are. Jennings has just made a career at the MLB level at getting guys out pretty consistently.

[KeithStone53151]

Two thumbs up. Three thumbs if it gets Drake out of here.

 

Drake must have some inside dirt on the front office or something, that's the only way I can explain him keeping his job.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Wow, I'm surprised at the reaction. Pretty 'meh' guy to me. He's better than Drake I guess?

 

I thought the same. We hate Oliver Drake, but let’s get excited about a guy who doesn’t strikeout many and likes to walk many. Yay? He will be a last guy in the pen at best. I guess maybe you can hope to catch lightning in a bottle(over perform drastically by luck).

 

Oliver Drake has more upside in my opinion and is better. Though I feel better with Jennings putting up better stats.

 

I don't doubt that there may be some sort of advanced metric or projection somewhere that may indicate that Drake has more upside than Jennings, but I think this is a pretty clear upgrade. What did Drake do last year, or at any time in his career, that makes you think that he is anywhere close to better than Jennings? Besides a higher K rate, I can't find anything.

[coolhandluke121]

 

I don't doubt that there may be some sort of advanced metric or projection somewhere that may indicate that Drake has more upside than Jennings, but I think this is a pretty clear upgrade. What did Drake do last year, or at any time in his career, that makes you think that he is anywhere close to better than Jennings? Besides a higher K rate, I can't find anything.

 

I haven't looked at all the data, but I feel like Jennings has had the benefit of playing in slightly more pitcher-friendly ballparks overall. More importantly, I think he's been in some easier divisions. Drake has been in the AL East and NL Central, which is pretty brutal. A good ground-ball pitcher should play better in Miller Park, but I don't think Jennings is some kind of slam dunk.

 

Strikeout rate is usually a pretty big deal. Drake has less than a 100 innings, and his ability to miss bats is a pretty strong indication that his e.r.a. over the course of his career will improve due to regression to the mean. He's just not nearly as bad as people have made him out to be, and there was never any reason to DFA him until they got an upgrade. The angst here was completely out of proportion to his ability, and they absolutely did the right thing by keeping him as long as they did.

[markedman5]

Brewerfan.com clearly " hates The Drake"........

[82brewcrew82]

Strikeout rate is usually a pretty big deal. Drake has less than a 100 innings, and his ability to miss bats is a pretty strong indication that his e.r.a. over the course of his career will improve due to regression to the mean. He's just not nearly as bad as people have made him out to be, and there was never any reason to DFA him until they got an upgrade. The angst here was completely out of proportion to his ability, and they absolutely did the right thing by keeping him as long as they did.

I threw up a little in my mouth before typing this but I agree. I think Drake is pretty marginal but I'd take him over Jennings. I'm underwhelmed.

[Oldcity]

It's a no-risk move. If he's no good, they'll just release him. Don't see any reason to be disappointed.

[coolhandluke121]

I threw up a little in my mouth before typing this but I agree. I think Drake is pretty marginal but I'd take him over Jennings. I'm underwhelmed.

 

I probably give a slight edge to Jennings, but everyone has to remember that both of them are just stopgap lefty relievers until Boone is back and Suter hopefully moves to the pen to make room for Nelson and Burnes. Kudos to Stearns for doing as well as can be reasonably expected under the circumstances. For a team that was supposed to be rebuilding for a few more years, having guys like Drake and Jennings as your 6th/7th reliever due to injuries is actually pretty solid.

[StearnsFTW]

Wow, I'm surprised at the reaction. Pretty 'meh' guy to me. He's better than Drake I guess?

 

The team is dumpster diving the day before the opener to backfill its LOOGY spot (due to injury) with another team's castoff. What the heck are you looking for? Jennings has been a useful role player in his career, and is going to come cheap. I don't think anyone is implying that they just picked up Andrew Miller.

 

I'm not looking for anything. Simply pointing out that he really was quite bad last year and nothing special before that.

[StearnsFTW]

Wow, I'm surprised at the reaction. Pretty 'meh' guy to me. He's better than Drake I guess?

I see you changed your original post but even this one, umm... of course he’s better than Drake. It’s an upgrade. Why wouldn’t people be happy about that?

 

Oliver Drake has more upside in my opinion and is better. Though I feel better with Jennings putting up better stats.

So if a guy puts up better stats, isn’t that a good thing? And upside? Drake is 31 years old. These guys are what they are. Jennings has just made a career at the MLB level at getting guys out pretty consistently.

 

Original post was accurate as well. Guy isn't any good. I don't think it's all that clear that he's better than Drake either, but whatever. It's the 8th guy in the bullpen. Hopefully ousted by a young guy by Memorial day.

[adambr2]

I think the career ERA gets people excited, but yeah, he's basically the equivalent of the Jared Hughes pickup last year other than being LHP. Which is fine for the back end of your pen.

[pacopete4]

I think the career ERA gets people excited, but yeah, he's basically the equivalent of the Jared Hughes pickup last year other than being LHP. Which is fine for the back end of your pen.

Hughes did a nice job for us. Hopefully Jennings can do the same. He’s not a guy that has a bunch of blow up innings. That keeps you in games and gives you a chance to win.

[reillymcshane]

I think the career ERA gets people excited, but yeah, he's basically the equivalent of the Jared Hughes pickup last year other than being LHP. Which is fine for the back end of your pen.

Hughes did a nice job for us. Hopefully Jennings can do the same. He’s not a guy that has a bunch of blow up innings. That keeps you in games and gives you a chance to win.

Exactly. No one should expect to pick up a great player at this juncture. You're just looking for a guy who can throw average baseball for the year. There's value in that.

[Never Outhustled]

Wow, I'm surprised at the reaction. Pretty 'meh' guy to me. He's better than Drake I guess?

 

The team is dumpster diving the day before the opener to backfill its LOOGY spot (due to injury) with another team's castoff. What the heck are you looking for? Jennings has been a useful role player in his career, and is going to come cheap. I don't think anyone is implying that they just picked up Andrew Miller.

 

I'm not looking for anything. Simply pointing out that he really was quite bad last year and nothing special before that.

 

I think you looked up the wrong player. Jennings has always been an above average reliever. He's an upgrade from Boone Logan.

[homer]

Wow, I'm surprised at the reaction. Pretty 'meh' guy to me. He's better than Drake I guess?

 

I thought the same. We hate Oliver Drake, but let’s get excited about a guy who doesn’t strikeout many and likes to walk many. Yay? He will be a last guy in the pen at best. I guess maybe you can hope to catch lightning in a bottle(over perform drastically by luck).

 

Oliver Drake has more upside in my opinion and is better. Though I feel better with Jennings putting up better stats.

 

 

Elite at inducing ground balls.

[Greenleaf1]

Drake/Jennings are really just a stopgap until Logan gets back (assuming he does recover), and this deal is probably for like $1M at the most, so I'm not really sweating it that much and we needed another bullpen arm anyways.

 

I don't see us holding onto Drake for long if we have Jennings though. A couple bad outings and my guess is we'll be seeing Taylor Williams.

[JohnBriggs12]

Drake/Jennings are really just a stopgap until Logan gets back (assuming he does recover), and this deal is probably for like $1M at the most, so I'm not really sweating it that much and we needed another bullpen arm anyways.

 

I don't see us holding onto Drake for long if we have Jennings though. A couple bad outings and my guess is we'll be seeing Taylor Williams.

 

They won't keep Drake once Jennings is activated. That way they can hold on to both Choi and Aguilar until Woodruff leaves pen duty at which time they can add Hoover to the roster.

[Thurston Fluff]

Wow, I'm surprised at the reaction. Pretty 'meh' guy to me. He's better than Drake I guess?

I see you changed your original post but even this one, umm... of course he’s better than Drake. It’s an upgrade. Why wouldn’t people be happy about that?

 

Oliver Drake has more upside in my opinion and is better. Though I feel better with Jennings putting up better stats.

So if a guy puts up better stats, isn’t that a good thing? And upside? Drake is 31 years old. These guys are what they are. Jennings has just made a career at the MLB level at getting guys out pretty consistently.

 

Pena and Swarzak shows that guys are not always what they are by age 31. That was just last season on one team. Every season in baseball there are multiple players around the league who come on like that. Relievers are the most likely spot for that to happen.

That does not mean I am in favor or keeping Drake over someone who is doing better. I just think sometimes people are to quick to write off players.