Thoughts on a new bullpen coach?

[ORLANDOBREWER]

I know that Castro probably has been with the Brewers more years total than other player or coach in history (and has raises a family in Milwaukee) but what about a shakeup? You see it all the time where coaches get canned because there players do not perform and they end up the scapegoat. Does the pen need a new voice or different voice in the pen? Stan Kyles? Outsider coach? Thoughts?

[RockCoCougars]

Castro reminds me a lot of Larry Haney, another guy who was around forever. Probably a nice guy, and glad that he's shown loyalty to the Brewers, but it's also probably time for a change there. Yes I know the bullpen coach doesn't really do anything, but....

[Hart Of Milwaukee]

No way do you let Castro go! Talk to GM's around the league and they will tell you he could have been a pitching coach 5-10 yrs ago. Granted the bullpen has struggled, but firing one of the best bullpen coaches in the league will not change that!

[twobrewers]

Talk to GM's around the league and they will tell you he could have been a pitching coach 5-10 yrs ago. Granted the bullpen has struggled, but firing one of the best bullpen coaches in the league will not change that!

He is well respected. But another angle is that he is latino. I think he goes a long ways towards our organization being more latino friendly.

 

I know is shouldn't matter. But looking back at Yi and the Bucks - Yi didn't want to play here because of the lack of chinese-americans. So it does matter. So I do think he plays a role in attracting and keeping latino players. (Which is obviously a huge market)

[Fatter than Joey]

I don't think firing Castro does anything positive. Why not fire the BP catcher too?

 

I am pretty sure Castro does his job.

[JohnBriggs12]

I'd rather they fire the overrated Mike Maddux.

[Thurston Fluff]

It's remarkable how quickly some people want to fire someone. How many years has he taken a pen full of no names and wanna be's and made them into one of the strengths of the team? How many years of loyal service perfromed at a high level has he put in without complaint even when Ned hired someone else from outside to take the job he was more than capable of doing himself? Shouldn't that count for something? Especially if you want to get other qualified personell to come aboard in the future?

Personally I think part of it is because most people never had to fire someone. There's a lot more that goes into it than you might think. It's not that easy disrupting people's lives. You have to make sure the person you fire is the problem and that someone more competent is there to replace them. Nothing is more detrimental to any business than firing someone only to realize they had been doing such a good job that they actually masked a deeper problem. Now instead of one problem you have two. Then there is the reallity of how you, the person doing the firing, is actually effecting people's lives. If you want to get rid of someone do so with the realization you are hurting people in the process. If you are willing to hurt and disrupt families it darn well should be for a real reason not just a knee jerk reaction.

It doesn't accomplish anything to go around firing people at the drop of a hat. In fact constant change and getting rid of competent people, especially with someone who has shown great loyalty and competence in the past, at the first sign of trouble is a good way to make sure no one of any merit will be interested in the job. Why not go after the real problem instead? Get better players. Ones that throw strikes. Ones that can handle pressure. Ones that give predictably good perfromances day in and day out. That would go a lot further towards improving the bullpen than getting rid of someone just for the sake of it.

[Bucky Rules]

The Brewers don't need a scapegoat. They need better relief pitchers, and less need to use them. The latter is more important than the former. Firing a bullpen coach -- or virtually any coach does very little to help a baseball team. Do you really believe that a new hitting coach is the reason the Brewers hit better this year? If you think that the coach (especially the bullpen coach) makes the difference, I've got some rental property to sell you. It's in a terrible neighborhood with declining property values. Nobody wants to live there, but the unit manager is always prompt with maintenance and keeps the yard immaculately groomed.

[patrickgpe]

The pen has always been a strength for this team, so I do not think Castro is going anywhere. I think Maddux is going to get the axe. I know its easy to blame Castro for Turnbow, Wise's etc struggles. It is more how Ned uses them. I think the pitchers come in well prepared to face the batters they are facing which i believe is the biggest responsibility of the bullpen coach.

[RightFieldCoder]

I think Castro also did a good job with people like Vargas, Yo, and Villy simply because of the language. I like Castro and think he should stay.

[patrickgpe]

I felt he should of got the job instead of Maddux when Yost was hired. Maybe he will get it this time if Maddux is let go.

[JJHardy7]

I agree that the Brewers don't need a scapegoat. The thing that bothers me the most about any relief pitcher is walks. Castro can't really control that. He can only help so much -- especially with a guy like Turnbow. Turnbow has shown at times he can throw strikes, but at other times totally lacks control. Nobody can control that except Turnbow.

[MNBrew]

The Brewers have a very long history of picking guys off the scrap heap and turning them back into credible if not downright excellent relievers. And anyone who pays attention realizes that Bill Castro is the reason behind most of that success. David Weathers was released before the Brewers got him and look at what he's done the past 10 years. Chad Fox, injuries notwithstanding. No one used to want Ray King -- the Brewers got him for AA "prospect" Doug Johnston, who never came close to the majors. Derrick Turnbow, Dan Kolb, Matt Wise . . . more of the 10-years-ago examples aren't springing back to mind, but Castro's a fantastic coach and not the cause of the problems the bullpen had.

[Ennder]

The goat is Yost, either fire him or keep them all in my opinion.

[mark brouhard is number on]

everything always comes back to Yost doesn't it. Realize he's going to be the manager whether any fans like it or not and give it up all ready. does every topic eventually have to come back to bad mouthing him? man you'd think he was the antichrist or something. actually to some he may be.

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

The goat is Yost, either fire him or keep them all in my opinion.

I'll second this, unless (as I mentioned in an earlier thread), Dale Sveum is the primary culprit behind all the wacky defensive shifting. If so, I'd be ok with his dismissal independantly of whether Yost is retained or not.

Firing anybody else would seem to me to be firing somebody just to prove that you're not ok with the results this season, which doesn't seem like a good move to me.

The Brewers have a very long history of picking guys off the scrap heap and turning them back into credible if not downright excellent relievers.

I also think this was an excellent point, though I'd hesitate to give Castro the bulk of the credit. I think most non-major market major league teams could reasonably make a similar claim, though you could debate the relative strengths of these claims.

[MoneyballMan]

No way do you let Castro go! Talk to GM's around the league and they will tell you he could have been a pitching coach 5-10 yrs ago. Granted the bullpen has struggled, but firing one of the best bullpen coaches in the league will not change that!

If GM's around the league believe this, why haven't any of them hired him as their pitching coach? Maybe the managers around the league believe he's a good bullpen coach.

(And this does not indicate my endorsement of firing him. I think he's done just fine.)

 

[jwill535]

you guys are extremly over estimating the value of a bullpen catcher. Basically his job is to answer the phone, tell the pitcher to warm up, go over the scouting report with said pitcher and send him on his way, possibly give a manager a heads up about who is looking good or not. You may think i am joking but that is pretty much it.

[MoneyballMan]

you guys are extremly over estimating the value of a bullpen catcher. Basically his job is to answer the phone, tell the pitcher to warm up, go over the scouting report with said pitcher and send him on his way, possibly give a manager a heads up about who is looking good or not. You may think i am joking but that is pretty much it.

And to carry the candy bag out there when there's not a recent minor league call-up in the pen! But I think we're actually talking about the bullpen coach here, not the catcher.

[sweepscc]

Along these lines I just wanted to present these facts in light of our change in hitting coaches from Butch Wynegar to Jim Skaalen:

 

Milwaukee in 06:

 

24th in OPS

 

27th in runs scored

 

Milwaukee in 07:

 

6th in OPS

 

11th in runs scored

 

Now obviously we got a big bump from Braun and Fielder's emergence while only losing Carlos Lee, in the end we'll probably never know if the change had any effect.

[Bucky Rules]

I was waiting for the Wynegar/Skaalen reference.

 

I'll just say this... there is no way that replacing Wynegar with Skaalen is the reason for the improvement. Virtually all of the improvement came from young players progressing - which is likely to happen naturally. The vets, if anything, regressed (Hall, Jenkins, Mench, Estrada, Counsell, Graffy, etc.). It was an unnecessary move. Just like replacing Castro or Maddux or any other coach would be -- unless there is some sort of effort issue or other conflict that we're not privy to. It's all superficial crapola.

 

The only change that could potentially make a difference in the coaching staff is at the manager position. And I honestly don't believe that a managerial change would make a positive impact - though it conceivably could make a negative one. Barring dramatic roster changes (and of course dramatic injuries) in the division, I believe this team will win the division in '08 with Ned Yost -- and likely without him, as well.

[Hart Of Milwaukee]

"If GM's around the league believe this, why haven't any of them hired him as their pitching coach? Maybe the managers around the league believe he's a good bullpen coach."

(And this does not indicate my endorsement of firing him. I think he's done just fine.

I really believe he has, but for some reason he seems content being our bullpen coach. I know he took over as pitching coach when Lopes was fired, but I'm not sure if he turned down the job for the next season or Yost and Melvin really wanted Maddux to be the pitching coach. The only thing I know for sure is that Bill Castro is a good coach and has too much experience/talent to be fired for one bad season of bull-pen production!