Brewers Decline Option On Koskie; Brad Nelson Added to 40-Man Roster

[PrinceFielder28]

http://blogs.jsonline.com/brewers/archive/2007/10/19/brewers-bid-adieu-to-koskie.aspx

 

Not sure if this has been posted or not yet.

[LouisEly]

It would be fantastic to have a healthy Koskie to man 3B so they could move Braun to LF, but $6.5M for a guy who hasn't played in a year in a half is not a smart investment.

[hawing]

Not a huge surprise, I guess, but still a bummer on multiple levels.

 

TooLiveBrew's going to need a virtual hug. http://static.yuku.com//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/frown.gif

[clancyphile]

Probably won't ever play again. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

 

I just don't get it, either - it didn't even look like something that would cause a concussion, particularly one that caused post-traumatic concussion syndrome. I have watched the highlight again and again... he didn't seem to hit his head. It looked more like a slide on the basepaths.

[DuWayne Steurer]

A concussion isn't caused by hitting your head, rather by the whiplash effect a person gets. The whiplash causes the brain to strike the inside of the skull. Even though the injury didn't look bad, a head injury often doesn't have to look serious to be a bad one.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Well, whatever portion of Koskie's salary that Milwaukee had been paying (2-3 millionish?) is now available to improve the rest of their roster. Combine that with Jenkins' probable option decline, and the money saved by letting Graffanino go (I think that's what will happen), and there's about 12 million in player salary from last season that is suddenly available to spend elsewhere. This also opens up room on the 40 man to give Melvin some wiggle room for trades and FA signings.

 

The troubling trend that the Brewers are following is that while they've done well to increase their payroll, the players they've given the money to haven't done much on the field to contribute to Brewer success.

 

Here's a list of the 2007 Brewers' highest salaried players:

 

Sheets

Jenkins

Koskie (majority of the contract paid by Toronto)

Suppan

Cordero

Estrada

Mench

Graffanino

Capuano

Hall

Counsell

Vargas

Turnbow

Miller

Linebrink

 

While Sheets was the only player that made over 10 million in 2007, it's kind of disappointing to look at this list and see only a few players that had very good seasons, or at least appeared to perform well enough to "earn" their contract. Some, like Sheets, suffered injuries, while a good number of players on this list simply had poor seasons.

 

I wish nothing but the best for Koskie and hope he can recover enough from this probable career-ending injury to enjoy a normal quality of life down the road (last I heard was that he still couldn't do much of anything physically for a prolonged amount of time without getting nausea/dizziness)

[JJHardy7]

The highest paid players list isn't the best players on the team. That's the glory of having Braun, Fielder, Hart, Hardy, etc. under control very cheap compared to their play for now.

[dadofandrew]

It's hard to believe this even made the paper. Of course they declined his option, it's unlikely he'll ever play again.

[Fear The Chorizo]

The highest paid players list isn't the best players on the team. That's the glory of having Braun, Fielder, Hart, Hardy, etc. under control very cheap compared to their play for now.

 

It also tells you that if we thought that the Brewers' payroll increase has been good over the past few seasons, it will need to go up a whole lot more in order to afford the young players on this roster a few years from now.

 

If they were to play a game between the 15 highest salaried Brewers and the rest of the 40 man roster, it would be an ugly loss for the team with the nice houses!

[TooLiveBrew]

Since I've changed my sig, and am too lazy to change it back right now...

 

Corey Koskie - the force will be with you... always

 

http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/sports/brew/img/feb07/koskie222.jpg

 

And, lest we forget, Corey's come a long way so far. I just sincerely hope his day-to-day life can return to as close to normal as possible. Best of luck, Corey - and we'll miss you!

[bucksman4]

People act like this guy was Mike Schmitt out there or something. He wasn't that good when he was 100%. The case of someone being overhyped, that's about it.

[endaround]

He was the Brewers best player last year until his injury, hard to overhype him.

[pitchleague]

I'm not calling him Mike Schmidt, by any means, but this guy, when healthy, put up some fairly above average numbers. I'm not talking tons of extra base hits or lots of walks but he was a very respectable hitter. I can't post any stats here at work (office filter won't allow it) but I'm sure you could look it up on various sites.

 

Too bad, he couldn't stay all that healthy for his whole career. The concussion was the straw that broke the camel's back.

 

I'm mostly disappointed that we only got a 1/2 season out of him. Would have liked to see a full year (or both years) from him, as he hit very well in Miller Park in his career.

[brettac1]

Yeah, he when you include his defense, he was the Brewers best player at the time of his injury in '06.

[bucksman4]

Yeah, he when you include his defense, he was the Brewers best player at the time of his injury in '06.

 

If that's true, the state of the Brewers franchise was awfully bleak in the not-so-distant past.

[TooLiveBrew]

bucksman, people have said they miss him and wish him well. You overhyped him, not anyone else. Apparently hoping that a person recovers from a horrificly random injury = Corey Koskie is Mike Schmidt!WO!!OT!!!one

[RightFieldCoder]

The reason Koskie was hyped a bit was that his replacement was Counsell. 3B has been a hole for the Brewers for a good number of years. Koskie was at least above average, and we were only paying him $2M to do that. Then he goes down with an odd injury and we had a gapping hole at 3B again until the Hebrew Hammer came. That was why he held such a place in our collective minds. He also had the hit that caused Fielder to rudely introduce himself to a certain Giants catcher. I will always remember Koskie for that hit.

 

Get well soon.

[Roscoe Chill]

And of course he's finally feeling better and he thinks he'll probably be ready to go for someone else next year in Spring Training. Sucks for Koskie that he's had to go through this, but all year we've heard that he is done and wouldn't be able to play again etc. He would have helped this year, even in a part time role.

 

And I'm not saying they should have picked up his option, because I agree with Al that this isn't even news. What IS news is the blurb I read on Rotoworld about how he's improved dramatically over the last six weeks and is not retiring. Like I said...it figures.

[homer]

"If that's true, the state of the Brewers franchise was awfully bleak in the not-so-distant past. "

 

I guess you haven't been around the last 15 years or so.

[dadofandrew]

Koskie is still not even living a normal life. I'd say playing baseball at the highest levels is still a year plus away.

[MNBrew]

Koskie IS that good defensively at 3B. I've watched his entire career. Offensively he's average and reasonably solid, but was a real force in the early years of his career. In addition to his bat, he was also a 25 SB type of guy.

[Roscoe Chill]

Well according to this Al, his life is back to pretty much normal, and he expects to be ready to go for Spring Training if he keeps progressing, and chooses to play. To me, you'd think after what he has been through, he'd call it a career, but he's not.

 

 

http://www.startribune.com/509/story/1496748.html

[dadofandrew]

He can lift some weights and get some light exercise in.

 

That's from the link provided, and as I said, while possible, he has not even worked out in a year plus. He'll have to clear a dozen hurdles and if he suffers a setback at #3, 7, or 10, he won't be playing.

[Roscoe Chill]

Well, yeah, but he's shooting for Spring Training 2008. Not Spring Training 2009 as you said would be the earliest he would be able to come back. You may be right, he may never play again. But I think it's interesting that he thinks he'll be able to provided he keeps progressing as he has lately. Like I said, you'd think he'd have announced his retirement as soon as the Brewers declined his option.

 

He doesn't get dizziness or headaches anymore, he's able to lift weights and exercise, and he can play with his kids now. Sounds like a normal life to me.

[BCZF]

I wish him well, that was one stupid freaky injury..