Salomon Torres to MIL, Kevin Roberts & Marino Salas to PIT / Latest: Torres WILL report.

[JohnBriggs12]

Wise at $1.2 millon>>>>Aquino or McClung at $450k

 

McClung was used in close games late in the year (and didn't do all that badly). He throws 95+. Brewers also control him beyond 2008.

 

Wise was MIA when needed down the stretch, will make more than $1.2 million in arby, and is a FA in 2009.

 

It's a no-brainer. You keep McClung, not Wise or Aquino.

[patrickgpe]

here was my point though, lets assume they have a 12 man staff, so a 7 man pen

 

1. Gagne

2. Turnbow

3. Shouse

4. Mota

5. Torres

6. Riske

7. Long man (Vargas, Bush, Villanueva or whoever)

 

I agree i'd rather have wise than those 2. Unless we are going back to the 13 man staff, i don't see room for him.

[And That]

In order to avoid convolution, Mench is getting his own thread here. Point Shrek discussion there, please.

[Fatter than Joey]

I'd put McClung back in Nashville.

[patrickgpe]

i agree, he wasn't horrible last year. It did seem that he tried to throw the ball as hard as he could and tired after facing a batter or two. He did well when Ned brought him situations where we had 2 outs and needed the 3rd.

[And That]

It's a no-brainer. You keep McClung, not Wise or Aquino.

Unless management can see into the future, none of them is a "no-brainer." You keep them all around as long as possible and evaluate until you need to make a decision. Well maybe not Aquino, but the mere fact that people disagree about who is better tells me that it is perhaps not in the Brewers' best interests to be making no-brain decisions in Decemeber for the upcoming season.

 

[Fear The Chorizo]

if the Brewers can manage to keep all the relievers they currently have on their roster for spring training, they mightaswell go to arizona with all of them. stocking the AAA roster with relievers that can be called up if there's a need is much better than dumping a few arms right now and scrambling to find a quick fix during the regular season.

 

what melvin's done is give his roster a ton of options and flexibility to be able to possibly make a trade from that pitching depth to address their remaining need - a 3b or combo of quality outfielders.

[dpapo]

I believe both Aquino and McClung are out of options. I can possible see Aquino making it through without being claimed, but with McClung's arm, I don't know if he could make it through without being claimed by another team if he doesn't make the opening day roster.

[brettac1]

Alright:

 

http://blogs.jsonline.com/brewers/archive/2007/12/10/torres-is-reporting.aspx

[TerraceReserved]

Well thats some good news to hear. I must say I'm pretty relieved.

[clancyphile]

Wise at $1.2 millon>>>>Aquino or McClung at $450k

McClung was used in close games late in the year (and didn't do all that badly). He throws 95+. Brewers also control him beyond 2008.

 

Wise was MIA when needed down the stretch, will make more than $1.2 million in arby, and is a FA in 2009.

 

It's a no-brainer. You keep McClung, not Wise or Aquino.

Aquino would be the first to go. With his past success, Wise is still worth a shot.

 

[TooLiveBrew]

Well thats some good news to hear. I must say I'm pretty relieved.

Bah-dum-bum! Is it just cruel irony that there's no good pun for "pun"? That makes me cry.

This is great news. I'm glad to hear he's reporting - can we get the thread title updated? Thanks in advance.

 

[splitterpfj]

This is great, this bullpen could be outstanding.

[Zycho32]

How 'bout that- we're trying to make the bullpen Yost-proof after all.

[tigerbrew]

Was there ever any doubt? Don't think Torres will walk away from $3.5M, that money could be very useful for his family.

[twobrewers]

Unless we are going back to the 13 man staff, i don't see room for him.

If Dillon starts the season on the bench (instead of starting at 3B), I am pretty certain we will have a 13 man staff. His ability to play LF, RF, 1B, 2B and 3B limits our bench needs. That, along with the implosion of our bullpen from overuse last year suggest a 13 man staff.

 

Don't forget, it is also possible that Rottino is our back-up catcher - giving us even more versatility.

[logan82]

A 13 man staff leaves you with not enough people on the bench to hit at the end of games. Especially when you give a guy a day off.

[Zycho32]

Relying on the collective Versatility of Dillon and Rottino to shorten the batting bench in order to boost the bullpen fails in one particular area.

 

Fallback options.

 

You see, we're not guaranteed our batters are going to remain healthy by any means. We're also not guaranteed they won't miss a bunch of days at the same time, either. The more injuries and days off accumulated, the thinner a bench is depleted. Then we're going to wind up throwing one of our bullpen arms on the field to play second base or right field or something like that- not a very appealing scenario.

 

More to the point, we're not guaranteed that Dillon or Rottino will stay healthy either, which means we'd be scrambling to replace one or both of them, and then suffering heavily if we couldn't backup a particular position.

 

By the way, Rottino as a backup catcher would pretty much limit him to just being a backup catcher- you probably wouldn't see him elsewhere. That's why people talk about him as a 3rd catcher- that's when he'd be allowed to be versatile.

[rluzinski]

Unless management can see into the future, none of them is a "no-brainer."

 

Mcclung has been terrible in the majors for all but 12 innings with the Brewers. I guess that's all it takes.

[Riebes24]

Mcclung has been terrible in the majors for all but 12 innings with the Brewers. I guess that's all it takes.

 

Although his one saving grace was that he came up in the AL East with a horrible team.

[Roscoe Chill]

Was there ever any doubt? Don't think Torres will walk away from $3.5M, that money could be very useful for his family.

 

Yeah, I agree. The mere mention of retiring at least had me puzzled. But you can spew out all the BS about how your family means too much for them to spend the summer in Milwaukee! But the bottom line is that money is going to help his family out a lot more than not having to leave the paradise of Pittsburgh for three months.

[Ennder]

Unless management can see into the future, none of them is a "no-brainer."

 

Mcclung has been terrible in the majors for all but 12 innings with the Brewers. I guess that's all it takes.

 

95% of all pitchers who have played in TB were terrible regardless of their talent. I think you are putting way too much into those numbers. I'd rather use his minor league numbers (which are just ok mind you) than his TB numbers for judging him.

[rluzinski]

95% of all pitchers who have played in TB were terrible regardless of their talent.

 

McClung has a 5.75 FIP because of the uniform he wore? You'll have to explain the logic behind that.

[Ennder]

If you wish to believe that the coaches, situations, usage patterns, division and and role on the team don't matter that is up to you.

 

He was on a losing team, a poor defensive team, a team that threw him into the closer role and kept swapping him from SP to RP, a team with a pretty good history of failure with pitching, one in the best hitting division in baseball in the AL. All of that honestly had an effect on his stats without a doubt. There is a reason that even highly touted guys had problems in TB.

 

I don't think McClung is going to be a super star or anything but he is a decent risk considering where he came from. There are only a few teams in baseball where I avoid a pitcher regardless of how good he looks and TB is the top of the list. I just think the opposite has to be true, if a pitcher leaves TB I give him a mulligan on his stats because that place is a nightmare to pitch in.

[rluzinski]

If you wish to believe that the coaches, situations, usage patterns, division and and role on the team don't matter that is up to you.

 

I didn't say it doesn't matter at all but when a guy has a career 5.75 FIP in 263 major league innings, his future prospects aren't looking good. And if you want to adjust for the division he had to play in, that might give him an NL FIP of 5.2 at best.

 

For a guy who's always willing to preach about sabermetric principles to people on this board , you seem to have a tendency to fudge them a bit when you are defending certain players.