Spurling: How long do we need to suffer?

[kmcasper23]

How long do we Brewer fans need to suffer through watching this guy pitch? We got rid of Capellan and now Spurling must be next. With all the productive guys pitching relief in Triple-A, why are we not summoning one of them and sending Spurling down. Ideally I would like to see Parra called up to add another lefty in the bullpen. We don't have room for Parra in the rotation for a long time anyway so why not move him to our bullpen?

 

 

(Unambiguified thread title --1992casey)

[Lil Dummy]

Spurling hasn't been as bad as most of us feel like he has, and the numbers bear that out. However, I agree that he's probably the one to go if Melvin calls up or trades for a bullpen arm, and as such I'd be pretty surprised if he was still on the roster a month from now. Patience is a virtue.

[1992casey]

Spurling can't be sent to Nashville without being exposed to waivers and probably lost to another organization.

 

Brian has reported that Parra has issues getting warmed up. That may make him tough to use in the bullpen at this point.

[kmcasper23]

He has had some decent outings. But watching him give up the walkoff homer to Morneau after the furious comeback. Then being in attendance to see him walk in the go ahead run to the Royals was the straw that broke the camels back on this guy. I have completely soured on him. Playoff caliber teams cannot have this many mediocre pitchers on their roster and we have two in Shouse and Spurling. I will give Shouse the benefit of the doubt though since he is a lefty and is effective as a situational lefty.

[Dmiles23]

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Then being in attendance to see him walk in the go ahead run to the Royals was the straw that broke the camels back on this guy.

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He came in with the bases loaded with no outs and gave up 1 run!! What do you expect from the guy?

 

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But watching him give up the walkoff homer to Morneau after the furious comeback.

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And Morneau is a pretty good hitter. I'm sure that HR could have come off any pither in our pen.

 

I'm not a Spurling fan, but he has been pretty effective. He is the first person to go, but his current ERA is under 3. I'm not sure how a pitcher who pitches as infrequently as Spurling and has an ERA under 3 is killing this team.

[1992casey]

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being in attendance

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You have to guard against being persuaded that way. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif Unfortunately, our memories tend to distort things and can only take us so far.

 

His 2007 stats, while admittedly a small sample, exude average. That's not bad for your last bullpen option.

 

What this boils down to is being able to ensure that Chris's replacement is better since Doug Melvin is unlikely to have the option of bringing Chris back.

[giffted1]

Chris Spurling has an ERA under 3. While most of his best work has been in garbage time, you have to give him some credit. I'd hardly say Brewers fans are suffering with him on the roster. If anything, he's been a pleasant surprise.

 

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Then being in attendance to see him walk in the go ahead run to the Royals was the straw that broke the camels back on this guy.

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In that game he was pretty much screwed. Capellan promptly loaded the bases leaving no margin for error. Giving up only one run was pretty good considering the situation.

[endaround]

Spurling's ERA being under 3 is luck. What is saving him is an unbelievable (ans unsustainable) LOB% of 83%. Major league average is 71%.

[kmcasper23]

He walked in a run on 4 pitches! When pitching with the bases loaded in a tie game walking a hitter is the one thing you cannot do! Throw a strike to give yourself a chance to get out of the inning. I would've rather seen him give up a hit at least he would be giving himself a chance!

[dadofandrew]

Playoff teams usually have 3-4 pitchers that are pretty plain, if not worse than that. Look at Boston's staff, or anyone's, and you'll find plenty of pitchers with far worse numbers than Spurling.

[kmcasper23]

My question is this: Would you trust him to pitch in a one-run game? If the answer is no and I am sure it is for all Brewer fans then it is time to replace him. We do need another lefty one way or another. Whether it is a trade or Parra or Thatcher it needs to happen.

[1992casey]

I can't see arguing to cut a player based one outing where he came in with the bases loaded and nobody out and limited the opponent to one run. Would a bloop hit that scored two runs have been better?

 

Actually, I can't see arguing to cut a player based on one outing at all.

[RightFieldCoder]

He walked in a run on 4 pitches! When pitching with the bases loaded in a tie game walking a hitter is the one thing you cannot do! Throw a strike to give yourself a chance to get out of the inning. I would've rather seen him give up a hit at least he would be giving himself a chance!

 

That's what we thought against Biggio earlier in the year and he hit his first grand slam. I think Spurling did fantastic in that game given the situation. Although I'm disappointed about the Twinkie walk off, the last guy in pen should not have been pitching in that situation imho. I would get rid of Spurling for quality reliever, but I don't think he's done that bad this year. And again, find one team that is satisfied with every one of their relief pitchers.

[Fatter than Joey]

My question is this: Would you trust him to pitch in a one-run game? If the answer is no and I am sure it is for all Brewer fans then it is time to replace him.

 

Really if this was the case, I would have to replace all of our BP except for Cordero and Villy.

 

This is like saying our 5th OF should be able to hit 35 HRs a year --- Spurling is our mop-up guy -- I think he has done very well considering the situations he has been brought into -- I would have cut Capellan before Spurling -- and I can guarentee you Spurling would not survive the waiver wire if we tried to send him to Nashville.

[giffted1]

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My question is this: Would you trust him to pitch in a one-run game? If the answer is no and I am sure it is for all Brewer fans then it is time to replace him. We do need another lefty one way or another. Whether it is a trade or Parra or Thatcher it needs to happen.

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I wouldn't trust him, but I'd trust Parra and Thatcher less. It's already been mentioned that Parra doesn't warm up fast, and with Shouse, Wise, and Villanueva who all get lefties out pretty well there's no real need for another lefty.

[igor67]

End's argument is the much better one with regards to Spurling. Keeping in mind that using your criteria Cordero has lost us more games than Spurling. I don't have any problem with the notion that we could go to the playoffs with Spurling on the team. The only reason I am for moving on is that I believe we have many options that are likely to out perform Spurling going forward because he isn't a 3 ERA pitcher. Balfour seems like the most appealing option with concerns over Parra's ability to get warmed up properly.

[kmcasper23]

Its not just one outing. You can't put him into a close game. The guy lets too many runners on base. If you can't trust to pitch him in a close game why keep him? A bloop hit would at least give a chance for Hall or someone else to make a spectacular play. What does a walk do besides give them a free run!

[areacodes]

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Its not just one outing. You can't put him into a close game. The guy lets too many runners on base. If you can't trust to pitch him in a close game why keep him?

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If we were talking about somebody who was our closer or main set-up man then I think you'd have a point. However, we are talking about the man who may be the last guy in the pen.

 

Not to mention, have you looked at bullpens of other teams in contention and see who they have as their last man in the pen? No team has a lights out stopper as the 12th or 13th man in the pen.

 

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A bloop hit would at least give a chance for Hall or someone else to make a spectacular play. What does a walk do besides give them a free run!

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Are you truly saying that you would have been happier had he gave up a grand slam or a bases clearing double? I have a feeling you'd be up in arms over that. While the walk wasn't ideal, he still only allowed 1 run when coming in with the bases loaded. That is pretty good. I'm not trying to say I love Spurling or I think he is great... he is what he is, the 25th man on our team and he still manages to contribute.

[Fatter than Joey]

As a reliever -- in the NL (20 or more IP) -- Spurling ranks 69th out of 105 in OBP (66th in OPS), just about every (if not every) team has a couple of relievers below Spurling.

 

He really is not bad for a 12th pitcher.

[jazzytrav]

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If you can't trust to pitch him in a close game why keep him?

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Basically the same response that's been given here...he's the 25th man on the roster, and given that status I think he's done fairly well. I'm not the biggest fan of Spurling, and I think that at some point there may be better options out there, but for right now he's doing fairly well in a mop-up role.

 

I don't want this to turn into a Yost-bashing thread, so please bear with me because I really do like Yost...but there have been a couple times where I just questioned why Spurling was sent in in the first place. If I recall, in the Royals game we called him in the 11th inning of a game that had been moving very slowly. I also think Villanueva hadn't pitched in 3 or 4 days (I could very well be wrong on that), but really I don't understand why you wouldn't bring in a highly-successful long man when you're not sure how many innings you'll have to go.

 

As for Parra, I really like him and I think/hope that he'll be able to contribute at the major league level sometime relatively soon, but relatively soon probably isn't after such a short stint at Nashville. Calling for Parra over Spurling, in all respect, seems to be a bit of a knee-jerk reaction based on Parra's perfect game and Spurling giving up a couple games that in my opinion he shouldn't have pitched in the first place.

[Fatter than Joey]

I don't want this to turn into a Yost-bashing thread, so please bear with me because I really do like Yost...but there have been a couple times where I just questioned why Spurling was sent in in the first place.

 

This is a good point -- If Yost misues (potentially) in a sucky fashion, that doesn't mean Spurling is sucky

[UeckerAddict]

I complained more than most when Dessens was our 25th man, and I meant it. But I think Spurling has been fine. The numbers support that, he's cheap, has no options, and I can't believe this topic came up after 2 scoreless yesterday, and one scoreless against the Cubs.

[jazzytrav]

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I complained more than most when Dessens was our 25th man, and I meant it. But I think Spurling has been fine.

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This really drives it home I think. We've been calling for a bullpen upgrade all year long, and look what's happened. Dessens goes on the DL, and we get Spurling. Maybe it didn't happen exactly like that, but looking at the bottom line, we upgraded our last bullpen arm. Gallardo gets called up, and since Cappy came back, Cappy 2 got traded, and Gallardo stayed, this immediately upgrades the pen. I think the Brewers have done a better job than most teams at systematically improving their bullpen.

[mothershipconnection]

Another feel-good "the times they are a-changin'" thread in my eyes. A few years ago, we'd have been questioning whether he should be our #1 setup option.

 

Spurling is an acceptable bullpen arm, even on a playoff team. Look at playoff rosters recently and you won't find many teams that don't have to make it through with a Spurling or two. The problem is that he's not that great and shouldn't have a prominent role, but if you get everything in order, he should shake out to be a fixture in the mediocre back of the pen role. I think the bullpen has already taken better form by having Spurling instead of Dessens as our "worst" reliever.

 

His ERA, of course, is deceiving, as his FIP is 4.44, but that's still what you're gonna need to accept when you have limited resources.

[dadofandrew]

Find me a team with 12 pitchers better than Spurling, that's a heckuva staff. It's really a silly argument, he's pitched nicely, and has a sub 3 ERA. If you put him on waivers tomorrow, he'd probably be claimed by 10-15 teams. He has value, and is inexpensive.