Brewers Sign Counsell. . . . why?

Today the Brewers signed Craig Counsell to a two year deal. He will get $2.8M per year, and there is a $400k buyout in 2009. I won't even bother to include the terms of the Brewers' option in 2009 because there is no chance in snowy hell that it will be exercised.

Let's start with what's good about Counsell: (1) He is probably a better defender at every infield position that we currently have. (2) He is from Wisconsin. That's about it.

Granted $6M for two years is not much money in this market, but I simply cannot understand what value Counsell will be. Though he can fill in nicely with the glove, his glove is really his only asset. His bat isn't good enough to play anywhere on the field. When Koskie misses 162 games this year, I don't want Counsell filling in for him. When Weeks gets hurt, I'd rather see T.Graff or Jeff Cirillo playing second. I don't understand why Hall would play any position other than third or shortstop. He would be valuable in center field, but I doubt his ability to play center. By moving him to left field, you're taking ABs away from Gabe Gross and Corey Hart and giving them to Hardy and Counsell. I don't want to see Counsell hitting. Ever. Period.

The organization seems to have lost all direction. From 2003-2005, the focus was on rebuilding. Doug Melvin & Co. did not deviate from this focus and, in so doing, made the Brewers' future bright. Last year, the rebuilding motivation was replaced with a "maybe we can win this year" approach. It was foolish. The Brewers fell into the all-to-common trap of being stuck in the middle; not good enough to win and not bad enough to pack it up and rebuild. But they weren't ready to compete, and the front office should have focused on strengthening the upper minors and getting rid of bad contracts. This offseason has seen even less guided direction. What the Brewers are doing with Craig Counsell is beyond me. They aren't trying to sign J.D. Drew or any other talented player, one that might give them a chance at competing for the playoffs. I understand that free agents are signing for insane money, but if you want to compete this year, then you have to take a shot with real talent. Claudio Vargas, Johnny Estrada, Greg Aquino and Craig Counsell are not going to turn the Brewers into a playoff team, so why bother with them?

This isn't rebuilding. Nor is it competing. It's getting stuck in the middle. It's the exact problem that each member of the Cerberus (i.e. Melvin, Ash, and O'Brien) faced as G.M. of their previous teams. Their solution then, which it seems to still be now, is what got them canned. Can someone tell me how a team without an above average player at any position on the field is going to make the playoffs? Either compete or rebuild! Dammit!

Blog Schedule

As it is now exam for me for most of us, I expect some decrease in the frequency of posts. I hope people don't stop checking the blog. The busiest posting period of the year usually begins immediately after exams. I want to get a feel of our schedule for posting during the upcoming month.

I plan on still getting some discussion about Marquette basketball going on the blog. MU will have several games in the next couple weeks, including a December 9th matchup against Wisconsin.

The next couple weeks will also feature a lot of baseball activity. Doug Melvin and the Brewers have demonstrated over the past few years that the majority of their personel moves will be made during and around the Winter Meetings that occur in early December. I expect some activity to occur, and I want to see some discussion.

Sometime after exams, I plan to start the MLB Team Audits. For those new to the blog, last year we reviewed about 20 of the 30 baseball organizations. The analysis for each was quite thorough and set the stage for some excellent sports betting and fantasy baseball analysis during the 2006 season. We will continue the Audits this year and hopefully finish one for all 30 teams. Last year, we started on December 24th. That should be a good date to start again this year. With a little bit more help we can get all 30 done before the end of February. So, who wants to contribute with the Audits? Do people want to review just their favorite team? And how should we divide the teams among those who want to review? Right now, I have a few ideas. (1) We pick teams in a typical draft format. This will work best if everyone agrees and can finish an equal amount of reviews. (2) We each review the teams that we reviewed last year and then distribute the remaining teams to those capable of finishing more. (3) We each pick a division to review and review all teams in each assigned division. (4) We each take a part of a team (i.e. pitching, hitting, prospects, future and management) and review that part of each team. We then combine our work into individual team reviews. This method may be the most efficient, but it will require the most teamwork. What are we thinking?

By the end of January, I also plan on finishing the Brewers Top 20 Prospect analysis that I did not finish earlier on account of the Hate-Off. Is there anything else people want to see covered in the next month?

Doug Davis to Arizona

The Brewers traded Davis, Eveland, and Krynzel to Arizona today for Johnny Estrada, Greg Aquino, and Claudio Vargas. My initial, off the cuff reaction is that this fills several needs for the crew in the upcoming season. I don't like Estrada very much (13 walks in 414 AB's in 06), but those relievers definitely fill a need for us. I think with all of the players that will be competing for spots in the pen next season - Wise, Turnbow, Capellan, Aquino, Shouse, Vargas - we should be able to find a good set-up man.

Further, we were clearly never going to do anyting with Krynzel, and probably lost patience with Eveland. Davis is a solid starter, but his insistence on nibbling the corners even when he was behind in the count was frustrating last season. The biggest question mark that remains is who will be the fifth starter next season? I feel like the Brewers may offer Ohka now, as they do have some money to spend, esp. with Davis' salary off the books. If not Ohka, they may scramble and sign somebody like Randy Wolf. Biggest winner in the deal? Carl Villanueva. Virtually guaranteed a starting spot next season. Lets hear what you guys think.

Davis to Arizona

Major League Baseball has lost its mind

Are you seeing this voting and these signings? I know money is a plenty, but Jesus!

Marquette B-Ball: CBE Classic

The Warriors take on Bobby Knight and his Texas Tech squad Monday at 8:30 and then on Tuesday will take on the winner or loser of the Air Force/Duke game.

This will be the first real challenge for the young Warriors. The Texas Tech game will not be televised (i.e. it is on ESPNU - the channel no one in the world gets). If they win, the second game will be on ESPN2.

Brewers Hate-Off (1998-2006) The Fuckshow Four

Chad Moeller versus Jeffrey Hammonds










Glendon Rusch versus Bud Selig

...And the winner is...

Dave Dombrowski! He wins my vote for 2007 AL Worst GM, and the season hasn't even started yet. Mistake #1 - Trading for Gary Sheffield and then subsequently signing him to a $14mil/year contract extension through 2009. Mistake #2 - Re-signing Goatlegs Casey to play first base again for 2007. Mistake #3 - soon to come (trading Wil Ledezma and unnamed young pitcher for Aubrey Huff). Just kill me...I knew it was too good to be true, damn you Baseball Gods!!!!

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing

We have agreed upon 2 of the 3 postseason awards given out by baseball writers, and it will be 3 of 4 as soon as they announce Santana winning the AL Cy Young. Are we as braindead as all of the baseball writers out there? Or are some of them starting to come to their senses? I hope, for my own sanity, that the latter is the case, but who knows. There's at least one more where we'll disagree (AL MV/OP T.Haf) but we could very well allign four of our six choices with baseball writers. I'm scared.

Who do you hate more

Bud Selig or Sal Bando. Go.

Introducing Marquette Basketball 2006-2007 Season

I figured there are at least 4 readers that love Marquette Basketball and maybe 4 or 5 more that care a bit about it. So I figured I would start a constant feature of discussing MU Basketball here on BrewCitySports. Expect reviews of each game and a preview of the season sometime before the CBE classic. At this point, I'm just gauging interest, so let me know if my posts are going to go unread. If anyone wants to do writeups of the Big East's 4th Ranked Warriors, feel free...I won't be offended. I and at least a few others are really excited to see this team play.

Too funny not to post!

Who were the editors on duty that day? You would think the anchor would at least LOOK at what he'll be brodcasting before going live.

Oh well, I hope they catch him.

Badger Brilliance

I don't know if you guys saw this on Saturday or have been hearing about it on sports talk radio this week, but this coaching move by the Badgers is sure genius. I was wondering how/when someone was going to exploit the rule changes, and this made me very pleased. I bet all of you guys that someone down the road will try this in a major game left on the schedule.

http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/?p=2796

JoPa getting hurt definitely took a back seat to this.

Brewers Hate-Off (1998-2006) The Excrement Eight

After a huge upset of Hate-Off favorite Ben Hendrickson, we are ready to move on and crown an underdog. There are still some wonderful challengers left, so don't worry Hendey backers. We'll take as long as needed to get enough votes in again.

(1) Sal Bando
(2) Bud Selig

(5) Glendon Rusch SP (2002-2003) 334 IP, 198 ER, 2003 Record 1-12, 2003 Salary $4.25M.
(3) Wayne Franklin SP (2002-2003) 218.2 IP, 126 ER, 111 BB, 123 K, 37 HR

(1) Derrick Turnbow RP (2005-2006) 123.2 IP, 56 ER, 63 BB
(2) Chad Moeller C (2004-2006) 614 AB, 125 H, 14 HR, 24 GIDP, 38 BB, 148 K

(4) Jeffrey Hammonds OF (2001-2003) $22.2M Salary, 660 AB, 164 H, 16 HR
(2) Alex Sanchez OF (2001-2003) No Stats Needed

The Official 2006 Post-Season Baseball Writer Voting Venting Thread

It's that time of year again. The time of year where baseball writers across the country cast their votes for their favorite players for awards that those players have no right winning. I'm going to come right out and set things straight: I will not be making any of this up. Last year, people laughed and didn't believe me when I informed them of where David Eckstein and Scott Podsednik finished in the MVP voting. I promise I won't joke about what these writers do to the game of baseball.

The first "awards" that fans are subjected to are easily the most time-tested meaningless garbage: the Gold Glove awards. While awards like the MVP go to the proper player about half the time, at most two or three of the gold gloves each year go to those that deserve it. Unlike other awards, people realize that the voters really have no clue about gold gloves. Most people still don't think there is any way to quantify defensive performance. Those that vote just vote for the guy who won it in the past or the guy with the best offensive season. That explains why Derek Jeter and Greg Maddux have won this year. It also explains Omar Vizquel's constant rewards despite the fact that players like Jack Wilson have been significantly better defensively over the past few years. So, we all recognize that gold gloves are absolutely foolish, and we'll ignore how people still use gold glove awards in evaluating a player's ability. That's fine. But every once in a while, someone wins a gold glove, and I am startled beyond belief. Who am I talking about? Brad Ausmus of course.

If there is one position where performance can be evaluated with statistics, it's catcher. Let's just get this right on out for everyone to see: Ausmus threw out 17 of 77 baserunners this year. Yep. And it's not like he had a pitching staff particularly susceptible to the stolen base. Even if he did, that's 22% Twenty-two fucking percent! Someone explain:
- Ausmus is a terrible hitter, unless you think a .583 OPS is acceptible.
- Ausmus is not like Vizquel or Maddux. He has only won twice before.
- Ausmus doesn't play in New York, Boston, or Chicago.
- 77 guys attempted steals, so it's not like only the fastest guys in the league would run on him.
- Writers have a hard on for just about every catcher in the league. Think players like Paul LoDuca, for example. Oh, wait, he had 9 passed balls and only threw out 27 of 111 runners. It's clear that voters went into this thinking between only LoDuca and Ausmus and were forced to choose Ausmus. I guess they forgot about Ya Molina, who threw out 44% of baserunners. Miguel Olivo threw out 39%. Okay, I could literally list every catcher in the NL. Okay, you're right, not Piazza. Still, come on. Fuck.

Brew City Sports presents the 06-07 Milwaukee Bucks Preview

Need More Votes!

Only six people have voted in the latest hate-off. We therefore have too many ties. Let's get some votes for Christ's sake!