The Winter League Thread; Beresford Shines Down Under, Mates

[EdgarDiazRocks]

 GAME DATE: 11/02/04 OBR at NAV OBREGON 4 AT NAVOJOA 2 YTD YTD OBREGON AB R H BI AVG NAVOJOA AB R H BI AVG A.Amezaga 2B 2 0 0 0 .000 [b]D.Krynzel CF 4 1 1 0 .286 [/b] L.Arredondo RF 3 0 0 0 .333 O.Robles 2B 4 0 1 0 .250 C.Valencia PH 1 0 1 1 .254 M.Burkhart 1B 4 1 2 2 .302 L.Buelna PR 0 1 0 0 .000 J.Davis DH 3 0 0 0 .333 L.Buelna RF 0 0 0 0 .000 D.Clark LF 2 0 0 0 .318 L.Garcia LF 4 0 1 1 .247 J.Headley RF 3 0 0 0 .211 A.Tracy 1B 3 0 0 0 .364 I.Lara 3B 3 0 0 0 .231 J.Robles SS 3 1 1 1 .452 J.Aceves CAT 3 0 1 0 .227 C.Coste CAT 4 1 1 0 .324 L.Cruz SS 3 0 0 0 .260 R.Mendez DH 4 0 0 0 .220 V.Gonzalez PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 D.McDonald CF 3 1 0 0 .134 J.Valerio PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 M.Velez 3B 3 0 0 0 .229 D.Dominguez PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 C.Elizalde PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 A.Ramirez PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 O.Bustillos PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 A.Simpson PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 TOTALS 30 4 4 3 TOTALS 29 2 5 2 OBREGON 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 1- 4 4 0 NAVOJOA 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0- 2 5 1 E--L.Cruz. DP--OBREGON 1, NAVOJOA 1. LOB--OBREGON 5, NAVOJOA 2. 2B--C.Valencia (4), C.Coste (3), [b]D.Krynzel (2)[/b], M.Burkhart (5). HR--J.Robles (5), M.Burkhart (3). SB--A.Amezaga (1). CS--D.Clark. HBP--A.Tracy. SH--M.Velez, D.Clark. YTD IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA OBREGON C.Elizalde 5.0 2 2 2 0 3 1 2.89 A.Ramirez (W,1-0) 2.0 1 0 0 1 2 0 0.00 O.Bustillos 0.1 1 0 0 0 1 0 4.50 A.Simpson (S,4) 1.2 1 0 0 0 2 0 0.00 NAVOJOA V.Gonzalez 7.1 1 2 2 4 5 1 5.14 J.Valerio (L,1-1) 1.1 3 2 1 0 1 0 1.74 D.Dominguez 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.06 HB--V.Gonzalez. WP--V.Gonzalez. SO--A.Tracy 2, C.Coste 2, R.Mendez, D.McDonald, [b]D.Krynzel 2[/b], M.Burkhart, J.Davis 2, I.Lara 2, J.Aceves. BB--A.Amezaga 2, J.Robles, D.McDonald, J.Davis. T--2:38. A--4201 

[EdgarDiazRocks]

This appears to be Woolard's line from yesterday . . .

 

RHP Glenn WOOLARD (6.0IP, 3R, 3ER, 7H, 1BB, 2K)

[MassBrew]

No Dave Krynzel in a week or more -- still in Mexico?

[EdgarDiazRocks]

No Hurricane sightings in Venezuela yet either.

 

Still can't find good Puerto Rico info.

[lend d money]

I will try to work on the Krynzel "case" and get back to you.

[colbyjack]

As DHonks pointed out on the MLB forum, Kremblas has been fired from his managerial post, which could very well be the reason Krynzel has disappeared from the box scores. From the Journal Sentinel:

 

Change of plans

 

Kremblas was managing in the Mexican League at Navojoa, but Melvin said he was fired after a 6-13 start. That changes the Brewers' plan to send shortstop prospect J.J. Hardy to play for Navojoa after missing most of the 2004 season at Indianapolis because of shoulder surgery.

 

"We probably won't send him down there now, if we don't have somebody from our staff to watch him," said Melvin. "We have some staff in the Dominican Republic (winter league) so we might look there."

[lend d money]

Krynzel has been in the US lately attending to a family matter. Nothing to be concerned about.

[MassBrew]

Former Brewer Adrian Hernandez with the rare complete game shutout in Venezuela, a three-hitter, 2 BB's, 10 K's. Where was that all year? That might give you a bit of a read on the level of play as well...

[hardytheman]

maybe huntsville will see how crappy Kremblas is and fire him too.

 

I know Im gonna take heat for that comment, but it seems that for two years now, his teams have underachieved bigtime.

[lend d money]

As banged up as that pitching staff was last year, I have a hard time dropping that all on Frank's doorstep. I have personally liked him since his HD days. He is very involved in the daily workouts and a hands-on teacher. Plus, as I cautioned people at the beginning of the season when everyone was dreaming about 100 wins, they played in a league with very good farm systems(Dodgers, D-Rays, Cubs to mention a few). It wasn't going to be the walk in the park that some suggested.

[MassBrew]

Props to 3B Chris Barnwell, who is playing for the Navojoa Mexican League team from which Frank Kremblas was fired; so even if Prince, J.J., etc., aren't there, Chris is still plugging away -- he reached base three times on Friday, no walks or extra-base hits after 30 AB's, though...

 

www.baseballamerica.com/t..._nav.shtml

 

RHP Matt Childers, now a free agent after an eight year Brewer career that included a cameo with Milwaukee, is pitching for Hermosillo in Mexico.

[MassBrew]

The Dominican Winter League season is underway -- while this may be a future home for J.J. Hardy, it appears only two current Brewer farmhands have made appearances thus far, each in their homeland.

 

SS Ozzie Chavez is with Azucareros:

 

www.licey.com/numeritos20...areros.asp

 

SS Enrique Cruz is with Escogido:

 

www.licey.com/numeritos20...cogido.asp

 

These rosters are always changing -- it's not uncommon for big-name Dominican big-leaguers to make appearances late in the winter season.

[DHonks]

Mass, I guess what happens is that the teams can have unlimited rosters, but each day they must submit a list of guys who will be elligible. I think it's like 27 or 32 per day

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Woolard is scheduled for Sunday.

 

Go Cardenales de Lara!!

[huntsvillefan]

maybe huntsville will see how crappy Kremblas is and fire him too.

 

Fortunately for Frank its not up to Huntsville - its up to the Brewers.

I have very mixed feelings on Kremblas as a manager, he reminds me of Corey Hart - there is an awful lot of potential there, but will he ever fulfill that potential?

The first thing to be said is that he is admired by his players and peers and by the local media. I sometimes worry that he is rather too well liked by his players to be totally effective, but that really is in the nature of a gut feeling and nothing I can substantiate.

HIs tactical style is very agressive. To paraphrase things he has said - He believes in putting constant pressure on the opposition, putting them in a position where they will start to make errors.

This is a style that I normally approve of and enjoy watching, but in my opinion Kremblas carries it to an extent where it becomes ridiculous. If you think back to T ball, it is worth sending the runner on every play, you can be sure the Defense will mess it up enough to let the kid steal a base. As the kids get older and defense gets better, you start to learn to pick your situations more carefully, though it is still worth running a lot of the time. The more experienced the players get, the better their Defense becomes - the harder it gets to successfully steal.

Kremblas manages in AA as if the defenders were still T ball standard. More importantly he doesn't seem to learn from experience - he still sends runners today in exactly the same situations he sent them in 3 years ago (and presumably in the same situations he sent them in at HD, where the defense was a lot weaker and the ploy a lot more successful). I like his ideas and I like his agressive style - I don't like his inability to adapt to the higher standard. My guess is that this flaw is exactly what caught him out in the Mexican League.

On the player development side of things, I have huge reservations. The guys like him a lot and seem to respond to him, but I see very litle evidence of players developing during the season (pitching excepted). In fact if you think of some of the recent prospects like Krynzel, Hardy & Nelson. The further the season went - the worse they got. I watched Hart leave Huntsville with the same hole in his swing that he arrived with and I watched Rickie Weeks get worse as they tampered with his swing and get better when they let him go back to his original stance. I watched two of the faster players I've seen , Krynzel & Weeks, leave Huntsville worse base runners than they were when they arrived.

I'm not suggesting that Kremblas is to blame for any or all of this, that is impossible to know from the outside. But the exterior evidence makes it hard to credit him with any great skills at player development.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

On the player development side of things, I have huge reservations. The guys like him a lot and seem to respond to him, but I see very little evidence of players developing during the season

 

Good stuff huntsvillefan. I don't think it ever entered my mind that the coaching staff of the Stars might be adding to the problems.

 

Player development is such a crap shoot.

 

anywhoo, all this was a lot more fun to ponder than Glenn Woolard's line from Venezuela which was universally bad . . . .

 

RHP Glenn WOOLARD (1.2IP, 7R, 7ER, 6H, 1BB, 0K, HBP)

[lend d money]

Personally, I could care less if a "manager trainee" is a very good base coach. Should he have better judgement? Yeah. Is it frustrating while watching your minor league team at the time? Yeah. But, if he were ever to don a Brewer uniform, I can assure you he would delegate that duty and not pull a Tommy LaSorda. Also, at the risk of sounding like Frank's personal apologist, I have been to Huntsville several times. It is an incredibly humid place. I can easily see why players seem to regress during the season. Remember, our past chain went from Beloit(mostly mild weather), to High Desert(somewhat high temps, but little humidity) to Huntsville(high temps & humidity). For the first-timers, a meltdown is understandable. I am certain Krynzel's second half dive last year had nothing to do with Kremblas. Basically, a "manager trainee" should be someone who can connect with the players, serve as a good teacher/leader, command player respect while at the same time getting them to perform to the best of their abilities. I think he grades out pretty well and evidently so do others based on being invited to the Futures Game and managing winter ball.

[huntsvillefan]

Personally, I could care less if a "manager trainee" is a very good base coach.

 

It must have been an entirely different lend d. money, who wrote scathingly of Cecil Coopers' tactical ineptitude after watching Indy this year.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

And IIRC you were pushing Frankie for the Indy job based on Coop's tactical deficiencies.

 

For the first-timers, a meltdown is understandable

 

None of Hardy, Krynzel or Nelson were Huntsville first timers when they suffered their slumps. I'm not attributing those slumps to Kremblas either, slumps happen, but I do find it a bit weak to blame them on the weather.

 

Basically, a "manager trainee" should be someone who can connect with the players, serve as a good teacher/leader, command player respect while at the same time getting them to perform to the best of their abilities

 

I concur. I pointed out that Frank is well liked by his players and other managers. But having watched his charges for at least half their games for three straight years, I'm pressed to think of any position player who has shown, great improvement under his tutelage.

I'm honestly not sure how much a manager /coach can do to improve players, my gut feeling is that they have very little effect one way or another, but I'm forced to repeat that I see very little evidence that Frank is 'getting the best out of his players'.

BA and the other SL managers obviously do rate Frank highly, but that only tells me that he is good at baseball politics.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

It would appear that the Puerto Rican League will be firing up Tuesday, including the Idios de Mayagüez taking on my beloved Charlie Fermaint and his Leones de Ponce!

 

The website has been slightly updated at www.ebaseballpr.com and the links to some of the teams work including Mayagüez ' so I hope for a boxscore or two.

[lend d money]

You are absolutely correct huntsville that I took Coop to task on tactical decisions(i.e. bunting CONSTANTLY as opposed to a hit and run, straight steal. Also, not walking a good hitter to set up a DP on a slow running catcher on deck with the game tied in the late innings,etc.). In my view, those are in-game decisions that greatly differ from base coaching, which is why I made the above-mentioned statements.

 

We might differ on the weather issue simply because you are accustomed to the heat. If I am wrong, so be it. Also, if I'm not mistaken, didn't the three guys mentioned above play only one FULL season in the SL? Being there an entire season is what I think takes the "steam" out of these guys. I know in Nelson's case he was only given a cup of coffee in the SL the year prior due to his hamate injury. I know Krynzel had a hard time maintaining his weight there. I can only guess the weather had something(?) to do with it. Maybe not. I'm not typically the type to provide apologies for these guys, but I know I personally can only hack it for so long. But then again, I am twice their age.http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/grin.gif

[huntsvillefan]

Bottom of the 9th, 4 runs down, one out, one on first, middle of the order coming up and a pitcher who is having trouble throwing strikes. So you send the guy on first to steal and gift them the second out.

That is just one example of the tactical genius that is Frankie. Frank isn't just a bad base coach - he simply makes bad tactical in game decisions including the type you complain about with Coop.

 

I'm quite prepared to believe that if he adapted some of his tactics slightly to suit the level he is managing at - that he might have a lot of success. It is his seeming inability to adapt that makes me think that he will have more problems the higher the level. At the minute he is a manager with only one tactical idea (steal, double steal, steal home). I'd like to see him extend his repertoire a little before I"m convinced of his ability.

 

As for the development aspect, lets say that the humidity is a major factor, every manager and player in the SL has to cope with it - not just Frankie and his charges.

I can accept that all or most of the slumps, poor baserunning, failure to address batting and defensive flaws etc. are down to the player or even the weather.

My point is that the body of evidence is against him being a whiz at player development and there don't seem to be any huge success stories to counter balance that body of evidence.

 

I'd personally like to see him get the Nashville Job. I think it would do him a lot of good to have to work with slightly older, more formed players. It would take a lot of the fundamentals coaching away from him and give him a chance to hone his tactics against good D. Despite my obvious reservations about him as a manager, I think that Milwaukee owes him the chance to sink or swim.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Fermaint didn't get into Ponce's first game, but former Brewer, Raul Casanova went 2-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI as the DH

 

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/brew/image/2000/july/casa72600.jpg

[Clemente21]

Today Ponce play in Mayaguez. Last night I see Fermait and Joel Alvarado in the pre game. A couple of Brewers that Play in Mayaguez last Year:

 

1-Hart, Corey G-7 AB-28 AVG-.179

 

2-Childers, Jason 1-1 SV-2 ERA- 4.40

 

3-Childers, Matt 0-0 SV-0 ERA- 16.20

 

www.ebaseballpr.com/

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Ahh!!!

 

A Chuck sighting.

 

It feels so good

 

 POS AB R H RBI BB K [b]CFermaint CF 1 0 1 1 0 0[/b]

 

It would also appear that Woolard had a better outing this time in Venezueala and came away with a W, 'tho I haven't been able to chase down a line score yet.

[MassBrew]

Pretty bold of Glenn Woolard to be toiling on his own (in terms of Brewers) in Venezuela. He's up over 160 innings for the year now, with his 30.1 IP down south thus far. And unlike duty in let's say, the Dominican League, he's making "regular" starts in Venezuela, like this latest effort, bouncing back from his one real dud of the winter season:

 IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA LARA [b]G.Woolard (W,3-2) 6.0 3 1 1 2 3 0 4.40[/b] L.Urdaneta 2.0 2 1 1 1 2 0 3.45 R.Guttormson 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00

Looks like that 40-man roster snub didn't bother him a bit -- don't worry, Glenn, it bothers plenty of us. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/embarassed.gif

 

By the way, since the Brewers botched their attempt of being a large part of that Mexican League team, just where and when is J.J. Hardy supposed to start getting all these AB's he needs to get a head start on 2005? We heard the Domincan, but finding regular playing time in that league is tough, as everybody and his brother takes a turn at some point during the winter....