Thames to DL.....Woodruff recalled from AAA

[superfly]

The silence is deafening from those who inundated us with literally hundreds of posts how Stearns erred badly with "excess" depth and not breaking the bank for a starting pitcher. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here, but it sorta seems like the Brewers GM knows what he's doing.

 

Are you referring to MOAR Hernan Perez OF starts?

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

The silence is deafening from those who inundated us with literally hundreds of posts how Stearns erred badly with "excess" depth and not breaking the bank for a starting pitcher. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here, but it sorta seems like the Brewers GM knows what he's doing.

 

Yes! He's so good, he predicted these injuries!

 

Sheesh

[pacopete4]

The silence is deafening from those who inundated us with literally hundreds of posts how Stearns erred badly with "excess" depth and not breaking the bank for a starting pitcher. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here, but it sorta seems like the Brewers GM knows what he's doing.

 

Yes! He's so good, he predicted these injuries!

 

Sheesh

 

Expecting there to be some injuries isn’t too unrealistic considering the players we have. Banking on the depth is turning out to be a very, very good move (or non move) on his part.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

The silence is deafening from those who inundated us with literally hundreds of posts how Stearns erred badly with "excess" depth and not breaking the bank for a starting pitcher. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here, but it sorta seems like the Brewers GM knows what he's doing.

 

Yes! He's so good, he predicted these injuries!

 

Sheesh

 

Expecting there to be some injuries isn’t too unrealistic considering the players we have. Banking on the depth is turning out to be a very, very good move (or non move) on his part.

 

I can admit that it has worked out so far. The starting pitching has been better than expected, and when combined with the depth at AAA and AA, the pitching hasn't been near the problem many, including myself, expected it to be.

 

I have to admit that it would be nice to have been a fly on the wall to know what, if anything, was offered in trade for guys like Santana, Thames and Aguilar.

[Eye Black]

I am certainly glad the Brewers have 1B depth, but I still think Thames is going to be missed quite a bit. He has been a high stress batter for opposing pitchers to face this season. His xwOBA of .424 ranked 21st overall in MLB. He was making a lot of good contact in addition to the home runs. Even in games he didn’t start it was a luxury to have a left handed power bat off the bench (as was having Aguilar’s right handed power off the bench in games Thames started). Hopefully they plug the gap just fine during his absence, but it is disappointing to lose Thames for such a signicant portion of the season.

[topper09er]

The silence is deafening from those who inundated us with literally hundreds of posts how Stearns erred badly with "excess" depth and not breaking the bank for a starting pitcher. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here, but it sorta seems like the Brewers GM knows what he's doing.

 

Yes! He's so good, he predicted these injuries!

 

Sheesh

 

Expecting there to be some injuries isn’t too unrealistic considering the players we have. Banking on the depth is turning out to be a very, very good move (or non move) on his part.

 

Do people honestly think his plan all along was to have an all-star caliber player on the bench at all times? Something went wrong in his plan, we are benefiting in the short term, but last time I checked we are still trotting out Brent Suter in our starting rotation. We just happen to be lucky that some of our injuries happened to occur for players we have good depth behind. What if Shaw went out for 8 weeks instead of Thames? What is Stearns' genius plan for that? 8 weeks of Hernan I guess. If he was actually trying to acquire all-star backups, why didn't we sign Moustakis in reserve for Travis Shaw? What is Stearn's amazing backup plan for Manny Pina going down? Jett Bandy and his sub Uecker hitting line? Why didn't we sign Lucroy? What if Arcia is out for 8 weeks? Why didn't Stearns sign Zach Cozart...

 

point is our depth was not planned, it may be helping right now, but lets not give Stearns credit for luckily having the right guys hit the DL.

[Thurston Fluff]

I can admit that it has worked out so far. The starting pitching has been better than expected, and when combined with the depth at AAA and AA, the pitching hasn't been near the problem many, including myself, expected it to be.

 

I have to admit that it would be nice to have been a fly on the wall to know what, if anything, was offered in trade for guys like Santana, Thames and Aguilar.

 

I'm not singling you out for this since pretty much everybody thought the same thing. Looking at it now I wonder why it was such a conventional thought. Yes, we lost a huge part of the rotation with Nelson out but barring Nelson, this is essentially the same pitching staff that ranked number nine in all of baseball in ERA last season. It isn't a team that relied on health to get there either. It relied on depth which only got deeper in the offseason.

Seriously who could have known Stearns might know more about this team than all the pundits, talking heads and fans?

[shanedog19]

At what point does the franchise look at Jesus Aguilar as the long term solution at 1B? He's still only 27, has proven he can hit RH and LH pitching, and plays solid defense. He also has many years of team control left and is cheap. Just throwing this out there for discussion.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

I can admit that it has worked out so far. The starting pitching has been better than expected, and when combined with the depth at AAA and AA, the pitching hasn't been near the problem many, including myself, expected it to be.

 

I have to admit that it would be nice to have been a fly on the wall to know what, if anything, was offered in trade for guys like Santana, Thames and Aguilar.

 

I'm not singling you out for this since pretty much everybody thought the same thing. Looking at it now I wonder why it was such a conventional thought. Yes, we lost a huge part of the rotation with Nelson out but barring Nelson, this is essentially the same pitching staff that ranked number nine in all of baseball in ERA last season. It isn't a team that relied on health to get there either. It relied on depth which only got deeper in the offseason.

Seriously who could have known Stearns might know more about this team than all the pundits, talking heads and fans?

 

Well, it certainly helps the view on Stearns when the team is on an 8-game hot streak. There will be downs, though, too, and also points in the season where the roster holes are going to be more defined.

[Brewer Fever]

All anyone is saying is that Stearns correctly didn't force a trade just because we have more starting caliber, everyday players than we can field at once on any given day. Some here were very loudly saying that not trading excess depth was a huge mistake. Our GM understands that it takes around 50 players to get through a season. Any yes, in a very direct sense, that IS "predicting injuries". Those of you saying he missed the boat this offseason by not shipping off excess depth and also by not breaking the bank for a free agent SP are clearly being proven wrong.

 

Maybe next time those same people won't be so loud about it. Examples "we must sign Cobb", "we have to trade Santana for whatever we can get", "we can't waste roster spots on this many first baseman".

[MrTPlush]

At what point does the franchise look at Jesus Aguilar as the long term solution at 1B? He's still only 27, has proven he can hit RH and LH pitching, and plays solid defense. He also has many years of team control left and is cheap. Just throwing this out there for discussion.

 

We are about to find out honestly. He is going to get his chance to prove himself. So far it is a pretty small sample.

[pacopete4]

Do people honestly think his plan all along was to have an all-star caliber player on the bench at all times? Something went wrong in his plan, we are benefiting in the short term, but last time I checked we are still trotting out Brent Suter in our starting rotation. We just happen to be lucky that some of our injuries happened to occur for players we have good depth behind. What if Shaw went out for 8 weeks instead of Thames? What is Stearns' genius plan for that? 8 weeks of Hernan I guess. If he was actually trying to acquire all-star backups, why didn't we sign Moustakis in reserve for Travis Shaw? What is Stearn's amazing backup plan for Manny Pina going down? Jett Bandy and his sub Uecker hitting line? Why didn't we sign Lucroy? What if Arcia is out for 8 weeks? Why didn't Stearns sign Zach Cozart...

 

point is our depth was not planned, it may be helping right now, but lets not give Stearns credit for luckily having the right guys hit the DL.

 

I just love "what-aboutism's". The original plan may have been to ship off one of our depth pieces but instead of paniking when the market wasn't right, he stood pat. That is a smart move by a GM and it has paid off whether you want to give credit to him or not. You mention trotting out Suter as if he is the only pitcher we can try in that spot. It isn't and it sure as heck doesn't justify any pitching acquisition from this past offseason as just about every one of them have been terrible. He is just getting first opportunity to hold it down. If that doesn't work, Stearns will reach into his deep pocket of pitchers and try someone else. Smile, he is doing a good job. You mention a lot of other scenarios to try to make a point and whiffed. I'm really sorry that it upsets you that some want to give credit to Stearns for building a roster that has withstood some injuries already but hey, we can all have different opinions...

[DuWayne Steurer]

Knock it off. For real.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Do people honestly think his plan all along was to have an all-star caliber player on the bench at all times? Something went wrong in his plan, we are benefiting in the short term, but last time I checked we are still trotting out Brent Suter in our starting rotation. We just happen to be lucky that some of our injuries happened to occur for players we have good depth behind. What if Shaw went out for 8 weeks instead of Thames? What is Stearns' genius plan for that? 8 weeks of Hernan I guess. If he was actually trying to acquire all-star backups, why didn't we sign Moustakis in reserve for Travis Shaw? What is Stearn's amazing backup plan for Manny Pina going down? Jett Bandy and his sub Uecker hitting line? Why didn't we sign Lucroy? What if Arcia is out for 8 weeks? Why didn't Stearns sign Zach Cozart...

 

point is our depth was not planned, it may be helping right now, but lets not give Stearns credit for luckily having the right guys hit the DL.

 

I just love "what-aboutism's". The original plan may have been to ship off one of our depth pieces but instead of paniking when the market wasn't right, he stood pat. That is a smart move by a GM and it has paid off whether you want to give credit to him or not. You mention trotting out Suter as if he is the only pitcher we can try in that spot. It isn't and it sure as heck doesn't justify any pitching acquisition from this past offseason as just about every one of them have been terrible. He is just getting first opportunity to hold it down. If that doesn't work, Stearns will reach into his deep pocket of pitchers and try someone else. Smile, he is doing a good job. You mention a lot of other scenarios to try to make a point and whiffed. I'm really sorry that it upsets you that some want to give credit to Stearns for building a roster that has withstood some injuries already but hey, we can all have different opinions...

 

I'm first to admit that through the first 25 games, my concerns were misguided. And it's one of those times where I'm happy to be wrong.

 

But I caution that 25 games is a pretty small sample, and the potential negatives of the roster construction could still come up. About the only thing I can logically complain about right now is the failure to trade Santana, given how poor he's looked so far. But as you've pointed out, none of us really have any idea what, if anything, was offered via trade, so the argument is moot.

[topper09er]

"The original plan may have been to ship off one of our depth pieces but instead of paniking when the market wasn't right, he stood pat. That is a smart move by a GM and it has paid off whether you want to give credit to him or not."

 

You are objectively wrong about this. First of all, the original plan most certainly was to ship off one of our depth pieces, namely Domingo Santana. We do not know what the market was, and if he stood pat or not. He may have been actively trying to not stand pat all winter and had no takers. It may well have been the other 29 GMs standing pat. It has objectively NOT paid off so far, as Santana has contributed nothing to this team, is sporting a sub 600 OPS and has been worth negative WAR. I do expect this to change, but so far it has done the opposite of paying off.

 

"You mention trotting out Suter as if he is the only pitcher we can try in that spot. It isn't and it sure as heck doesn't justify any pitching acquisition from this past offseason as just about every one of them have been terrible."

 

Nowhere did I say anything about any free agent, we are talking about the OF/1B depth. It doesn't matter what we could do, right now we have been forced to start Brent Suter and he has been horrible because he is not a talented major league pitcher.

 

"Smile, he is doing a good job."

 

I didn't say he wasn't doing a good job, however I do not think he deserves any credit for how our depth has worked in our favor this month because I do not believe he actually planned for this.

 

"You mention a lot of other scenarios to try to make a point and whiffed."

 

I mentioned these other scenarios to illustrate the point that David Stearns did not set out this off season to build a team that had starter caliber players as backups on the team. If that was his plan then he would have actively made moves to do that. The fact that he just held onto Santana is not the same thing. If signing Cain was just a depth move, why didn't we make other such moves at other positions? My point was excellent.

 

"I'm really sorry that it upsets you that some want to give credit to Stearns for building a roster that has withstood some injuries"

 

Again, Stearns did not build this roster intentionally, he had some plan with Santana that did not work out. This roster was unable to sustain injuries by Pina (Bandy) Arcia (Sogard) and Yelich (Santana), and would be unable to sustain injuries to Shaw, Anderson or Davies. The only injury that has worked out to not significantly hurt us are Knebel, so Stearns gets credit for the strong bullpen, and Thames, who will now be replaced by the same guy who would have done it last year.

[brewerswinNLcentral]

i would say 90% of the people posting here thought it was a given that aguilar would be gone by april 10th. i said all along how much i liked him and it would be tuff to see him go. i am so glad stearns kept him. i hope he is a brewer for the next 5 years

[istanbultaye]

"This roster was unable to sustain injuries by Pina (Bandy) Arcia (Sogard) and Yelich (Santana)..."

 

I would have to disagree with the first 2.

 

1. Manny Pina has not been all that great offensively so far this year, and Bandy has matched that production, and the defensive dropoff wasn't really that noticeable over the course of the 10 or 11 days Pina was on the DL.

 

2. Again, Arcia has not been very good offensively, though Sogard has been attrocious, him covering SS for 3 games really didn't hurt the Brewers.

 

3. Clearly, you have a point, since as has been noted in other threads, the Brewers record with and without Yelich are drastically different so far this year. However, it was also not a very long DL stint (12 or 13 games that he missed?), and it happens that Santana has been terribly cold to start the year. I think most would expect Santana to heat up at some point, and cover the absence of Yelich or Braun to an injury better than the first time around. Frankly, Braun should also take some blame for not covering that DL stint as he was also pretty cold to start the year outside of a couple clutch homers those first 2 weeks.

 

"... and would be unable to sustain injuries to Shaw, Anderson or Davies."

 

If, like the above injuries, these guys had minimum/near minimum DL stints, it wouldn't be as crippling as you insinuate. However, a month plus would certainly be tough to cover for with the players available on the roster.

 

"The only injury that has worked out to not significantly hurt us are Knebel, so Stearns gets credit for the strong bullpen, and Thames, who will now be replaced by the same guy who would have done it last year."

 

I'm not going to dive into how much credit Stearns does or doesn't deserve.

[homer]

I think everyone thought Santana or Aguilar or someone would get traded. The thing I give Stearns credit for is he didn't just make a trade just for the sake of making a trade. He didn't sign a free agent pitcher just for the sake of signing of free agent pitcher. He was either going to get good value or he wasn't pulling the trigger.

[Tbadder]

Clearly some GMs have built their rosters with depth in mind. It is just as clear that for very good reasons rosters with depths are occasionally thrust upon said GMs because trades could not be worked out. I’m glad Stearns for whatever reason has a deep, interchangeable roster that is keeping the Brewers afloat. In a sport where injuries are abundant and inevitable we have options. Oh joyous day...oh, and yes sometimes GMs get lucky and sometimes fans hold that against those GMs. What a wacky game we weave when it is dumb luck that we perceive.

[djoctagone]

in the first of what may be only five days of minor league rehab, eric thames had two hits in four at-bats for colorado springs last night. he played first base, but is expected to see some time in the outfield as well.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

This is good news, and the Brewers performed well while he was away. Adding a good lefty bat will help.

 

Hope he is ready in time for the Cubs series. Sounds like he should be...

[bork]

I saw the outfield comment in an article, too. He should really be 5th or 6th on the OF depth chart.

 

And good timing, since Aguilar is coming back down to Earth.

[reillymcshane]

I look forward to Thames left handed power bat coming back to the lineup.

 

Personally, I don't want him in the outfield. Let him start against right handers. Aguilar will start against lefties. Defensively, I don't want to force square pegs into round holes.

[FVBrewerFan]

I look forward to Thames left handed power bat coming back to the lineup.

 

Personally, I don't want him in the outfield. Let him start against right handers. Aguilar will start against lefties. Defensively, I don't want to force square pegs into round holes.

 

I don't either, and thought with all the OF depth Thames in LF is something we would never see this year. The only way I see it happening is if Aguilar heats up again, and Braun/Santana don't. When they get into these offensive slumps as a team, the bats play.

[young guns]

Santana is having a hard enough time finding playing time. The last thing he needs is thames thrown into the mix.