Adrian Houser 2019

[adambr2]

Any idea what to expect from Houser in 2019? He seems like a guy that the Brewers liked in a flexible role where they could freely rotate him between MLB and AAA to save wear and tear on the pitching staff.

 

Unfortunatelty, he is out of options so he most likely needs to either be traded or be on the 25.

 

My inclination is to believe, partially based on the fact that he wasn't even called up in September, that Houser is not part of our future plans and will likely be traded in the offseason.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Any idea what to expect from Houser in 2019? He seems like a guy that the Brewers liked in a flexible role where they could freely rotate him between MLB and AAA to save wear and tear on the pitching staff.

 

Unfortunatelty, he is out of options so he most likely needs to either be traded or be on the 25.

 

My inclination is to believe, partially based on the fact that he wasn't even called up in September, that Houser is not part of our future plans and will likely be traded in the offseason.

 

I disagree. You don't give away stuff like that. He was sitting at an easy 97-98 in his stints with the big club. He brings a similar body type and pitch types to what Woodruff brings. I think if they are serious about putting Woodruff and Burnes in the rotation, Houser is one of the top candidates to fill the role of multi-inning reliever.

[adambr2]

Any idea what to expect from Houser in 2019? He seems like a guy that the Brewers liked in a flexible role where they could freely rotate him between MLB and AAA to save wear and tear on the pitching staff.

 

Unfortunatelty, he is out of options so he most likely needs to either be traded or be on the 25.

 

My inclination is to believe, partially based on the fact that he wasn't even called up in September, that Houser is not part of our future plans and will likely be traded in the offseason.

 

I disagree. You don't give away stuff like that. He was sitting at an easy 97-98 in his stints with the big club. He brings a similar body type and pitch types to what Woodruff brings. I think if they are serious about putting Woodruff and Burnes in the rotation, Houser is one of the top candidates to fill the role of multi-inning reliever.

 

The problem is, we only have so many spots and they really like their guys with flexibility. If you are going to go into 2019 with Houser, there is no sending him down to work on anything, you just have to live with the growing pains.

 

It makes no sense to me if they intended on him being a part of the 2019 team, why he didn't at least get a long look in September.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Any idea what to expect from Houser in 2019? He seems like a guy that the Brewers liked in a flexible role where they could freely rotate him between MLB and AAA to save wear and tear on the pitching staff.

 

Unfortunatelty, he is out of options so he most likely needs to either be traded or be on the 25.

 

My inclination is to believe, partially based on the fact that he wasn't even called up in September, that Houser is not part of our future plans and will likely be traded in the offseason.

 

I disagree. You don't give away stuff like that. He was sitting at an easy 97-98 in his stints with the big club. He brings a similar body type and pitch types to what Woodruff brings. I think if they are serious about putting Woodruff and Burnes in the rotation, Houser is one of the top candidates to fill the role of multi-inning reliever.

 

The problem is, we only have so many spots and they really like their guys with flexibility. If you are going to go into 2019 with Houser, there is no sending him down to work on anything, you just have to live with the growing pains.

 

It makes no sense to me if they intended on him being a part of the 2019 team, why he didn't at least get a long look in September.

 

That I cannot answer ... it was one of the big mysteries in September. Houser was starting at Colorado Springs, though, so it could have been in an effort to keep him on a throwing program and keep track of his innings. Perhaps pitching once every week or week and a half isn't good for a guy coming off TJ surgery? But they left Woodruff down there all of August while the pitching was really struggling at the big league level, and he obviously has the stuff to get guys out, so it isn't like they haven't made odd or even wrong decisions before.

 

Houser will definitely be an interesting case. He has terrific stuff and multi-inning capability, so if they are serious about doing the bullpenning thing again in 2019, you hate to lose guys like that who fit so well into that plan. The same goes for Jordan Lyles.

[Roderick]

Any idea what to expect from Houser in 2019? He seems like a guy that the Brewers liked in a flexible role where they could freely rotate him between MLB and AAA to save wear and tear on the pitching staff.

 

Unfortunatelty, he is out of options so he most likely needs to either be traded or be on the 25.

 

My inclination is to believe, partially based on the fact that he wasn't even called up in September, that Houser is not part of our future plans and will likely be traded in the offseason.

 

I disagree. You don't give away stuff like that. He was sitting at an easy 97-98 in his stints with the big club. He brings a similar body type and pitch types to what Woodruff brings. I think if they are serious about putting Woodruff and Burnes in the rotation, Houser is one of the top candidates to fill the role of multi-inning reliever.

 

The problem is, we only have so many spots and they really like their guys with flexibility. If you are going to go into 2019 with Houser, there is no sending him down to work on anything, you just have to live with the growing pains.

 

It makes no sense to me if they intended on him being a part of the 2019 team, why he didn't at least get a long look in September.

 

Seems to me we are just okay with room. I would plan on trading Anderson and letting Jennings (Cedeno) (QTC injured) go.

 

Then in a perfect world and everyone is healthy, I would send Peralta back to AAA to be the next man up (plus you can save some innings on his arm). So at this point you have two extra arms. And we know someone will get hurt in spring training, and Albers really has to show you can trust him. If run short, you can have Derby and Supak on the shuttle up and down. I don't think you need to have as much shuttling up and down from AAA, when you have Guerra, Houser and Lyles that can go 3 innings at a time if needed.

 

5: Burnes, Chacin, Davies, Nelson, Woodruff

10: Albers, Barnes (option?), Cedeno, Guerra (option?), Hader, JJ, Knebel, Lyles, Houser, T.Williams (option?)

 

Do we have a link with accurate options remaining still?

[OldSchoolSnapper]

You always need more arms than you think. Always. In the end of season news conference Counsell and Stearns kept getting peppered with rotation questions and at one point Counsell just said "Look, the reality is you need 9-10 starting pitchers to get through a season."

 

They won't just give a guy away because of space limitations. They will figure out what is best for the team.

[long ball]

I wouldn't be surprised if Houser is traded during the off season. Otherwise, he probably has a pretty good chance of making the opening day roster as we saw last year they like to maintain as much depth as possible.

[adambr2]

You always need more arms than you think. Always. In the end of season news conference Counsell and Stearns kept getting peppered with rotation questions and at one point Counsell just said "Look, the reality is you need 9-10 starting pitchers to get through a season."

 

They won't just give a guy away because of space limitations. They will figure out what is best for the team.

 

I don't think anyone is suggesting giving Houser away, but eventually space limitations do come into play no matter how much we don't want to lose guys.

 

Figure on a max of 13 open day pitchers. Figure Chacin, Burnes, Hader, Jeffress, Knebel are all locks, that leaves you with 8. Figure on just one of Anderson and Davies, and three of Jennings, Cedeno, Williams, Barnes or Albers, that leaves you with 5. Figure that 2 of Woodruff, Guerra and Peralta are going to make it leaves you with 3 spots, and way more candidates than that to fill them. And that's only 3 if they don't keep more of the aforementioned players, they don't bring back Soria, and they add nothing in free agency.

 

Yes, you do need 9 or 10 SPs to get through a season, but that's more of an argument against Houser, not for him, because he can't be optioned and they typically like to preserve flexibility with those last few spots.

 

How many young (0-3 year service time) pitchers with no options remaining made the roster last season?

[Fear The Chorizo]

I think the apparent glut of pitchers with starting capabilities will be somewhat thinned out during the hot stove - it's just difficult at this point to focus on the specific 2-3 pitchers who would be headed out in a trade because we simply don't know the caliber of targets that would be brought in.

 

If the Brewers go after a MLB blockbuster to dramatically upgrade a perceived position of need with impact talent (C, 1B, 2B), then I would guess that one of the arms like Woodruff, Burnes, Peralta, Brown might need to be a centerpiece. It's easy to forget that most people assumed Woodruff was on the outs and questioned his overall value to the organization as recently as the trade deadline - now many of us view him as untouchable given his postseason success...the reality is probably somewhere in the middle with him and a few other young arms that now have MLB experience (and a couple upper level prospects who had solid years in AA)

 

If the Brewers try to trade MLB pitching for minor league prospects to replenish talent across their system, then arms like Anderson and Davies might even be on the block to clear roster space for some of the youngsters that took their playoff roster spots.

 

Until all the player options and arbitration decisions are made and the dust settles with who the 2019 Brewer roster is heading into the Winter meetings, it's almost impossible to accurately speculate. The plus is that the Brewers seemingly have a ton of options with how to approach this offseason, which IMO is much better than obviously needing to hold a firesale, obviously needing to sign a FA or two at specific spots, or obviously swing a trade for a specific position.

 

Specific to Houser, his arm is too good to just give up on - he might be a trade candidate, but he could just as easily slide into a bullpen role for 2019.

[JohnBriggs12]

I wouldn't be surprised if Houser is traded during the off season. Otherwise, he probably has a pretty good chance of making the opening day roster as we saw last year they like to maintain as much depth as possible.

 

 

I don't see it. They have guys in the system they can go to as the revolving mop up reliever in 2019. Derby, Olczak, and Ponce come to mind. They'll need Houser's roster spot to fit one of those guys in and find room to fit the other two.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

If I had to guess, I would guess the Brewers sell on some established veterans like Davies, Anderson, Guerra, guys who can contribute to a major league roster right away. The Brewers don't seem to value SP at a premium and seem confident in their own pipeline of prospects but also being able to find value guys that fit what they are doing. They had several luxuries on the pitching staff this year, and my total guess is that they deal some of the veterans to add bats. They could be part of a deal with prospects too, but that is my estimate of what we add in the offseason. A contact bat that can hit LHP.

[FVBrewerFan]

Wow, shocked he has no options remaining. Pretty simple, either he's traded alone/package or he's in camp competing for a spot.

[buckybrewer232]

If I had to guess, I would guess the Brewers sell on some established veterans like Davies, Anderson, Guerra, guys who can contribute to a major league roster right away. The Brewers don't seem to value SP at a premium and seem confident in their own pipeline of prospects but also being able to find value guys that fit what they are doing. They had several luxuries on the pitching staff this year, and my total guess is that they deal some of the veterans to add bats. They could be part of a deal with prospects too, but that is my estimate of what we add in the offseason. A contact bat that can hit LHP.

 

IMO, Guerra should be sent straight to the bullpen for 2019. He looked really good there and could be a guy that gives you multiple innings. I think he holds too much potential value for the Brewer's pen, so it doesn't make much sense to trade him.

 

I would be hesitant to deal Davies, too. He will only be 26 and has shown he can be a good, mid rotation starter. They would be selling him at an all time low value, too.

 

Anderson is really the only one that makes much sense to move this offseason, IMO.

 

If they feel they need to move more SP's because of a possible surplus, the other guy I would look at moving is Peralta. I'm sure that is unpopular to many, but I guess I'm a Peralta skeptic. His control is still pretty erratic and he seems like one of those guys that could start to struggle once opponents start seeing him more. I understand his fastball is good, but it's tough to get by on one pitch in the long run, especially when the control isn't that good. Just my opinion, maybe I'm way off!

[FVBrewerFan]

IMO, Guerra should be sent straight to the bullpen for 2019. He looked really good there and could be a guy that gives you multiple innings. I think he holds too much potential value for the Brewer's pen, so it doesn't make much sense to trade him.

 

I would be hesitant to deal Davies, too. He will only be 26 and has shown he can be a good, mid rotation starter. They would be selling him at an all time low value, too.

 

Anderson is really the only one that makes much sense to move this offseason, IMO.

 

I don't think Stearns will be actively trying to trade any of these guys. But if someone offers a deal that values one of them more than he does, sure he'll do that deal.

 

You know, it's interesting to me that rebuilding teams don't take advantage of these types of players. Davies, Anderson, Guerra, Santana, Broxton, etc. They always want younger talent, but as Stearns has proven you can really speed up the rebuild by adding MLB ready players to the mix. Players like this don't cost too much in terms of prospects or money, yet they rather have a couple A ball studs.

[LouisEly]

My inclination is to believe, partially based on the fact that he wasn't even called up in September, that Houser is not part of our future plans and will likely be traded in the offseason.

This was his first full season after missing almost all of 2017 and most of 2016 due to injury. He was showing signs of fatigue late in the year. This year was about building up his arm strength so I wouldn't read anything into his lack of callup in September.

[MNBrew]

My inclination is to believe, partially based on the fact that he wasn't even called up in September, that Houser is not part of our future plans and will likely be traded in the offseason.

This was his first full season after missing almost all of 2017 and most of 2016 due to injury. He was showing signs of fatigue late in the year. This year was about building up his arm strength so I wouldn't read anything into his lack of callup in September.

I don't take Houser's absence in September as a negative. I remember Haudricourt noting that the only 40-man guys not up in September were Diplan, Houser, Wilkerson, and Dubon, and prior to that had been stating that the Brewers didn't want to call up nearly everyone (even though they came close to having the full 40-man on the active roster in September). Realistically they didn't need him. Some of the guys on the active roster didn't play that much anyway (for varying reasons: Williams, Albers, Nottingham). Stearns hasn't been one to call up guys but not use them.

[MNBrew]

I think the apparent glut of pitchers with starting capabilities will be somewhat thinned out during the hot stove - it's just difficult at this point to focus on the specific 2-3 pitchers who would be headed out in a trade because we simply don't know the caliber of targets that would be brought in.

 

If the Brewers go after a MLB blockbuster to dramatically upgrade a perceived position of need with impact talent (C, 1B, 2B), then I would guess that one of the arms like Woodruff, Burnes, Peralta, Brown might need to be a centerpiece....

Not to sidetrack the thread, but I have to ask: Where in the world did this notion of a perceived need to upgrade 1B come from? Granted, his 1st half was nearly otherworldly, but it was still real, and Aguilar basically was one of the best-producing 1B in all of MLB. And he's cheap. So exactly how (and/or why) upgrade 1B?

 

Okay, sorry, back to the thread topic...

[pacopete4]

I think the apparent glut of pitchers with starting capabilities will be somewhat thinned out during the hot stove - it's just difficult at this point to focus on the specific 2-3 pitchers who would be headed out in a trade because we simply don't know the caliber of targets that would be brought in.

 

If the Brewers go after a MLB blockbuster to dramatically upgrade a perceived position of need with impact talent (C, 1B, 2B), then I would guess that one of the arms like Woodruff, Burnes, Peralta, Brown might need to be a centerpiece....

Not to sidetrack the thread, but I have to ask: Where in the world did this notion of a perceived need to upgrade 1B come from? Granted, his 1st half was nearly otherworldly, but it was still real, and Aguilar basically was one of the best-producing 1B in all of MLB. And he's cheap. So exactly how (and/or why) upgrade 1B?

 

Okay, sorry, back to the thread topic...

 

Some, including myself, feel that Aguilar was more flukey than real and that if the right deal came along, Stearns should make it and sell high. Then try to upgrade the position if it is possible. Chances are it won’t happen but that’s where it comes from.

[JohnBriggs12]

If I had to guess, I would guess the Brewers sell on some established veterans like Davies, Anderson, Guerra, guys who can contribute to a major league roster right away. The Brewers don't seem to value SP at a premium and seem confident in their own pipeline of prospects but also being able to find value guys that fit what they are doing. They had several luxuries on the pitching staff this year, and my total guess is that they deal some of the veterans to add bats. They could be part of a deal with prospects too, but that is my estimate of what we add in the offseason. A contact bat that can hit LHP.

 

IMO, Guerra should be sent straight to the bullpen for 2019. He looked really good there and could be a guy that gives you multiple innings. I think he holds too much potential value for the Brewer's pen, so it doesn't make much sense to trade him.

 

I would be hesitant to deal Davies, too. He will only be 26 and has shown he can be a good, mid rotation starter. They would be selling him at an all time low value, too.

 

Anderson is really the only one that makes much sense to move this offseason, IMO.

 

If they feel they need to move more SP's because of a possible surplus, the other guy I would look at moving is Peralta. I'm sure that is unpopular to many, but I guess I'm a Peralta skeptic. His control is still pretty erratic and he seems like one of those guys that could start to struggle once opponents start seeing him more. I understand his fastball is good, but it's tough to get by on one pitch in the long run, especially when the control isn't that good. Just my opinion, maybe I'm way off!

 

 

I'm with you on Davies. It would make no sense to sell low after an injury plagued season. Look he's getting stronger. His fastball was touching 92 fairly frequently when he returned in September. In prior years, he sat at 89 and topped at 90. Personally, I think it was mistake not to have used him as a starter in the postseason as he had the freshest arm on the staff. I didn't buy Counsell's reasoning about guys who aren't big strikeout guys being subject to bad luck. A lot of that bad luck has do to over shifting in my opinion. Davies looked really solid in September getting a ton of weak contact. Yeah some of those fell in for hits, but I'm not sure trying to turn hard hit balls into outs rather than ensuring soft contact turns into outs makes all that much sense.

 

As for Peralta, there's no need to move him at this point. His remaining options enable them to park him in AAA if the rotation is too crowded. Fact is he allowed just 49 hits in 78 innings. If he lowers his walk rate by one walk per 9, they have something very special. Anderson and maybe even Chacin are the guys to consider trading. Chacin's value is at an all time high. Anderson is at worst a solid 4 or 5 for most teams.

[OnaBadger58]

My inclination is to believe, partially based on the fact that he wasn't even called up in September, that Houser is not part of our future plans and will likely be traded in the offseason.

This was his first full season after missing almost all of 2017 and most of 2016 due to injury. He was showing signs of fatigue late in the year. This year was about building up his arm strength so I wouldn't read anything into his lack of callup in September.

This exactly. Houser has an injury history and pitched 17 innings last year. He also pitched in the AFL, so it may be good to just kind of shut him down until next year. I would be very surprised if Houser isn't in the bullpen next year. I would read very little into him not being a September call up.

[brewmann04]

Houser will be in the pen for 2019