I was a horrible student in high school. I rarely showed, rarely cared, rarely saw the benefits of an education. So, of course, now I work in minor league baseball and write a blog for the Nashville Sounds and I, YES I, I get to grade Doug Melvin on his offseason. Oh, the irony.
Not that he is going to much care what I write. I work as a broadcaster in AAA, he is the GM of a major league team. He is a member of the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame, I once threw a guy out of a bar in Dallas, TX. Like the Manchurian Candidate, he could speak a codeword in the clubhouse and five guys would come up to my booth with baseball bats and blank expressions and hit me repeatedly (unless they are pitchers. Everyone knows they can't hit anything). The point I'm trying to make is that he could give a rat's tookus what I say. I could write that he should have traded his entire team, the young infield included, for an empty BIC pen and a broken bat and it would not matter. None of these "organizational grades" matter.........But they're fun and I'm going to do one anyways.
Overall I have to agree with the experts in that the Brewers had a great offseason. The brightest thing Melvin probably did was realize that he didn't need a lot of pieces. He just needs to keep the pieces he has healthy. The Brewers had good players last year. A staff ace in Sheets, a good reclamation project in Ohka. One of the best young inflields in the game with Fielder, Weeks, Hardy and Koskie. A power closer in Derrick Turnbow (Franklin in the house!!!.....ahem.....sorry) and two franchise cornerstones in left and right with Lee and Jenkins. The Brewers were primed to have their first winning season since "Joanie Loves Chachi" was on the air.
Helmuth von Moltke once said "No plan survives contact with the enemy". He should have amended that quote to include, "And either do Hardy, Weeks, Sheets, Ohka and Koskie!" When you have your staff ace and 75% of your infield go down with injuries you have to wonder what you did wrong in a previous life. In Melvin's case I'm willing to bet in a former life he was Neville Chamberlin. Nobody had worse luck than the Brewers. First, Hardy injured his ankle on a slide at homeplate, then Koskie slid for a foul ball and suffered post-concussion symptoms that linger to this day. Weeks tore a ligament sheath in his wrist and Sheets and Ohka suffered long injuries as well. With the exception of Weeks, who has now had two straight years of nagging injuries, none of the injuries had past histories or are expected to repeat themselves. For Rickie Weeks, his strong wrists may be a concern, but that might be it. You don't go out and replace those guys, you get them back out on the field.
The Brewers addressed some needs. By dealing Doug Davis at the height of his trade value, the Brewers got a good hitting catcher in Johnny Estrada as well as a major league starter in Claudio Vargas and a major league reliever in Aquino. Melvin also managed to get a pair of backup infielders with Graffanino and Craig Counsell to deepen the bench and play third base until Ryan Braun is ready. Then of course there was Jeff Suppan. Apparently four years and 42 million dollars is the going rate for a pitcher barely over .500 who is expected to slot into the 4 hole in the brewers rotation. And in other news, while Jet Blue cancels more flights out of JFK, monkeys are flying out of my butt. Face it fans, that is the going rate for middle of the rotation starters. Not to mention starters with a record of throwing a bunch of innings and NLCS MVP's to boot. He couold go out and win 15-16 games with an ERA around 4.00 and help get this team over .500. If he gets this team six games over .500, it might be enough to get into the payoffs!
The Brewers are deeper than last year with addition of Graffanino and Counsell and the pitching staff looks a bit deeper as well. In 2006 when Sheets and Ohka went down with injury, the replacements went 6-18 with pitchers such as Hendrickson (who did perform well as a replacement reliever) and Eveland, who was dealt to Arizona as part of the Johnny Estrada deal. It wasn't until option three rolled around (Carlos Villanueva) that a suitable spot starter was found and he is ready to fill that same role again.
One of the most puzzling pieces of the Brewers 2006 pitching staff was Derrick Turnbow. He took over the closers role in 2005 and was well on his way to another fine season when he lost "it" whatever it was. It was like watching that guy on "Wide World of Sports" who epitomizes the "Agony of Defeat". Except in the Brewers case, they had to watch that Italian skiier go ass over tea kettle down that jump over and over again in the month of July. To remedy the problem Doug Melvin dealt his number one bat, Carlos Lee, to Texas for Francisco Cordero, who had lost HIS closers job in May. It worked out alright as Cordero performed very well, but the offense, without Lee, went south. Melvin had little choice. He had to get somebody who wasn't carrying nitroglycerine in his glove to finish games and Carlos Lee was going to be asking for a huge amount of money in free agency (And he got it too. 100 million six years from the Astros, a team that obviously ignored the outfield skills Lee displayed in Texas that will make him such a great DH)
The outfield is still the one area that is not firmed up for the Brewers. They did move Bill Hall to center, and promise him he could stay there, but they still have a glut of outfielders and only one spot to put them. Corey Hart is set in RF, Hall in Cf, and quite possibly a platoon of Mench, who crushes lefties and Jenkins, who doesn't, but does hit righties at a .360 clip. That still leaves Gross, Gwynn, Nix and Brady Clark and his 3 mil a year contract to find room for. And this is assuming that Jenkins will accept a platoon role. Remember, this is the guy who said the Brewers were premature in benching him even though he was in a 5 month slump. He also claimed he was a 'great' player. Apparently in French 'great' means 'Southpaws own me'. Jokes aside, Jenkins is in a contract year. He's a proud player who hopefully will make the adjustments to get him back to his former role as Brewers masher. Even in a platoon role he still hit .306 against righties during his wost season. But, that 'great' quote still cracks me up.
Those are just some of the moves Doug Melvin has made or will have to deal with this season. What should I give him as a grrade?...........Ahhhhhh! Why bother? He won't care anyways. And either will anybody else as long as they win. Which is what I think the Brewers will do.
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