1. Since drafting Joe Mauer 1st overall in 2001 the Minnesota Twins have had 16 1st round selections thanks to Type A and B compensation, and have whiffed on all but two of those: Only Denard Span (2002), Matt Garza (2005) and Glen Perkins (2004) have seen serious time in the Majors. Perkins turned out rather ordinary while Garza didn't hit his stride until he was traded to Tampa Bay and only now is Span paying dividends after a ton of time in the minors.
Even the woebegone Pirates, notorious for whiffing on high picks, managed to get six of their picks in the 2000's to the bigs, and once Brad Lincoln gets an expected callup sometime this year that will make it seven.
2. In back to back years, the Yankees drafted players in the 2nd round who didn't sign and went on to prominent football careers. In 1981 they burned their 2nd rounder on an OF named John Elway, and in 1982 they spent a 2nd round pick on a high school SS named Bo Jackson. The latter of course comes with an obvious caveat: Bo Jackson would become a two sport star at Auburn University and eventually get drafted in the 4th round of the 1986 draft by the Kansas City Royals, going on to a famous dual career with the Royals and football's Los Angeles Raiders.
3. You'd be hard pressed to find a team that drafted more MLB value in the 3rd round than the Texas Rangers, but sadly most of that value paid off for other teams.
Dean Palmer (1986) would go on to a solid career with the Detroit Tigers. Scott Podsednik (1994) would eventually break in with the Mariners, see his first regular action with the Brewers and go on to win a World Series with the White Sox. Ryan Dempster (1995) broke in with the Marlins and has since gone on to a productive career with the Cubs. And their biggest 3rd round prize, Barry Zito (1998), did most of his damage as a star for the rival Oakland Athletics.
The only 3rd rounder the Rangers picked who became a solid player under their watch? Darren Oliver (1988) became a productive pitcher for them during the 1990's, and at age 39 is coincidentally with them today as their top lefthanded reliever.
4. The 4th round is where the percentage of eventual MLBers really drops. But the Angels had the most prolific stretch of 4th rounders prior to 1996, producing 16 players that would eventually reach the bigs out of 30 4th round selections. Key regulars from this stretch included catcher Brian Harper, pitchers Mike Witt and Kirk McCaskill, and LF Garret Anderson. But since 1995, only one of their 4th round picks has reached the bigs, and the one that did got away: Brian Matusz passed on the Angels offer, went to college and eventually got drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in 2008.
Prolifically barren histories include the aforementioned Pirates, who of their 45 selections only produced 8 players who eventually saw MLB time, and of those eight only Jeff Keppinger (2001), Wes Chamberlain (1987) and pitcher Stew Cliburn (1977) would become MLB regulars for any real length of time. The Brewers only produced 7 major leaguers from 43 picks, and none of those picks produced more than 0.5 WAR over their careers. Granted, one of those MLBers was the late Josh Hancock, who died in a car wreck very early in his career with the Cardinals, and the jury's out on 2005 pick Mat Gamel.
The greatest 4th round pick of all time had to come from the Oakland A's in 1976, when they burned the 96th overall pick on a local outfielder from Technical HS named Rickey Henderson.
The Dodgers had the most interesting stretch of 4th rounders. After drafting eventual catcher Steve Yeager in 1967, the Dodgers had 19 consecutive 4th round picks between 1970-1989 that never played a game in the big leagues. Following that, 9 of their next 13 4th round selections would go on to play in the Majors, though none ever became a productive regular. Since 2003 none of their 4th rounders have reached the Majors.
Showing posts with label Milwaukee Brewers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Milwaukee Brewers. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Net Runs Special, 4-22-2010: Pirate Massacre (Milwaukee 20, Pittsburgh 0)
Box score courtesy of Baseball Reference
| Team | Player | Net Runs | Hit | Pitch | Def | Base | EXERA | PitOuts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIL | Randy Wolf | 0.426 | 0.306 | -0.367 | 0.487 | 0.000 | 5.13 | 18 |
| MIL | George Kottaras | 0.540 | 0.446 | 0.000 | 0.094 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | Prince Fielder | 2.193 | 1.834 | 0.000 | 0.359 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | Rickie Weeks | 1.337 | 0.382 | 0.000 | 0.583 | 0.372 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | Casey McGehee | 0.361 | 0.112 | 0.000 | 0.249 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | Alcides Escobar | -0.025 | 0.046 | 0.000 | -0.071 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | Ryan Braun | 4.254 | 3.768 | 0.000 | 0.458 | 0.028 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | Carlos Gomez | -0.912 | -0.617 | 0.000 | -0.438 | 0.143 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | Jim Edmonds | 5.986 | 3.273 | 0.000 | 2.713 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | MIL Luckbox | 1.624 | 1.624 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | Ken Macha | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | Jody Gerut | 0.980 | 0.660 | 0.000 | 0.320 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | Craig Counsell | 0.893 | 0.893 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | Joe Inglett | 0.155 | 0.155 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| MIL | Claudio Vargas | -0.390 | -0.237 | -0.153 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 5.90 | 3 |
| MIL | Manny Parra | 1.932 | 1.000 | 0.932 | 0.000 | 0.000 | -3.15 | 3 |
| MIL | Trevor Hoffman | -0.180 | 0.000 | -0.180 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 6.12 | 3 |
| Team | Player | Net Runs | Hit | Pitch | Def | Base | EXERA | PitOuts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PIT | Daniel McCutchen | -1.469 | -0.629 | -1.240 | 0.400 | 0.000 | 7.44 | 11 |
| PIT | Ryan Doumit | -0.320 | -0.149 | 0.000 | -0.171 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | Garrett Jones | 0.812 | 0.951 | 0.000 | -0.282 | 0.143 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | Akinori Iwamura | -1.708 | -0.432 | 0.000 | -1.276 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | Delwyn Young | -0.769 | -0.769 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | Ronny Cedeno | -0.152 | -0.229 | 0.000 | 0.077 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | Lastings Milledge | -0.762 | -0.316 | 0.000 | -0.209 | -0.237 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | Andrew McCutchen | -2.536 | -0.817 | 0.000 | -1.719 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | Ryan Church | -1.178 | -0.393 | 0.000 | -0.785 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | PIT Luckbox | 0.113 | 0.113 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | John Russell | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | Argenis Diaz | -0.109 | -0.109 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | John Raynor | 0.154 | -0.340 | 0.000 | 0.494 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | Jason Jaramillo | -0.610 | -0.610 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0 |
| PIT | DJ Carrasco | -2.435 | -0.337 | -2.270 | 0.172 | 0.000 | 23.56 | 3 |
| PIT | Javier Lopez | 0.584 | 0.000 | 0.435 | 0.149 | 0.000 | 1.90 | 4 |
| PIT | Joel Hanrahan | -0.273 | 0.000 | -0.273 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 6.90 | 3 |
| PIT | Brendan Donnelly | 0.554 | 0.000 | 0.554 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 3 |
| PIT | Octavio Dotel | -1.608 | 0.000 | -1.608 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 18.04 | 3 |
Pirates starting pitcher Daniel McCutchen actually threw a decent 1st inning, going strikeout, flyout, groundout. Of course, things went far, far downhill from there, and John Russell had seen enough two outs into the 4th. Of course, with DJ Carrasco in relief things would get much, much worse. Neither Pittsburgh nor Milwaukee had any idea exactly how much worse.
Even while trying to show mercy once the lead stretched to double digits, the Brewers couldn't help but force in more runs as the Pirates defense, pitching and the friendly confines of their home PNC Park allowed more bloodletting despite themselves. Milwaukee received over a run and a half of help thanks to Pirates miscues... not that they needed it.
The Pirates weren't all bad in this 20-0 massacre. Garrett Jones erased a so-so defensive effort with a decent day at the plate. But he was the only one who did much of anything against a Brewers pitching staff that honestly didn't have much of a day. Randy Wolf finished with an EXERA of 5.13, Claudio Vargas had an ugly inning of work (5.90) and so did Trevor Hoffman in a rust-rid mop up 9th (6.12).
Manny Parra, meanwhile, had himself a ball at the Pirates' expense. He watched a grounder go for a base hit to lead off the 8th (his only inning), then quietly went strikeout, strikeout, groundout to finish the frame. Then he came to bat with the sacks loaded in the top 9th and poked a grounder past Aki Iwamura at 2B to knock in yet another run. Parra's not known for his sympathy, so go figure he didn't get the memo to let off the gas as he piled up 1.932 NRuns in garbage time.
As you'd expect, several other Brewers piled up massive numbers. Jim Edmonds had a great day in RF, and unloaded at the plate, totalling up 5.986 NRuns, while Ryan Braun added 4.254 of his own thanks in large part to his 3 run bomb early in the rout. Prince Fielder added 2.193 NR and Rickie Weeks added over a run combined on the bases, at that plate and in the field.
The Pirates left over 4 runs on the table at the plate as, save for Garrett Jones, every other Pirate finished in the red at the plate as the team combined for -4.066 NRuns hitting, -3.150 NRuns fielding and -4.402 NRuns pitching. And that's with decent relief performances by Javier Lopez and a very upset Brendan Donnelly.
Today was an embarrassment. We should all be embarrassed to have major-league baseball uniforms on our back today. It was an atrocity. We set a record. We should all be embarrassed about it. That's how I feel.
You'll notice the above totals, plus Pirates miscues, only account for about 13 runs of damage. So where did the other 7 runs go?
PNC Park's walls and otufield seats swallowed up about 7 runs, whether from home runs or unreachable flyballs off the wall. Given how terrible the outfield defense was for the Pirates, I'm not sure it would have mattered if the walls were 500 feet back.
The Brewers blasted off on Pirates pitching all day, and for the Pirates it took a team effort of failure, everything from the hitting to the pitching to the fielding to the hometown park itself, to produce the 2010 season's biggest blowout to date.
Friday, April 24, 2009
An educated guess about the NL Central for 2009
1. Chicago Cubs
2. Milwaukee Brewers
3. Cincinnati Reds
4. St Louis Cardinals
5. Houston Astros
6. Pittsburgh Pirates
The Cubs will have the easiest road to a division title of any division winner. No one in the Central has enough to play better than .500 ball, let alone challenge the Cubs. The Cubs have one of the NL’s best defenses, a solid pitching staff with upside (if Rich Harden stays healthy, he’s the best pitcher in baseball) and a top productive lineup. Everyone else in the Central has their liabilities, but the Cubs don’t have any.
Milwaukee had managed a slow climb to competitive respectability the last few years, but they will take a step backward this season. They should still finish at or above .500, but they cannot hang with the Cubs. The defense has talent (like JJ Hardy at SS) but also liabilities (like Ryan Braun in LF and Prince Fielder at 1B) and comes out about average overall. The pitching staff took a huge drop with the departure of CC Sabathia, and the developing Yovani Gallardo fronts a ho-hum group. The offense can definitely score runs with power bats Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun leading a loaded, powerful lineup, but they don’t pack enough of a punch in run prevention to do anything other than run in place.
They will be fortunate to post a winning record, but the Cincinnati Reds should take a big step forward this year: 75-80 wins is a likely possibility. Gone are defensive liabilities Ken Griffey Jr and Adam Dunn, and their replacements, Joey Votto and Jay Bruce, give the Reds at least as much production while playing better defense. The Reds should now have a decent defense in front of an average, consistent pitching staff. The young hitters should continue their progress, though they’ll continue to struggle with consistency.
The Cards see their undoing in a mediocre defense, thanks to weird position shifts to try and get the bats of Skip Schumacher and Rick Ankiel in the lineup, which leads to holes in the defense. Even then, the lineup isn’t much to crow about outside of superstar Albert Pujols and powerful Ryan Ludwick. This lineup is average overall. Dave Duncan’s patchwork pitching staff will do a decent job but there’s only so much they can do to prevent runs with a so-so defense. Below average run prevention with an average offense indicates 75 wins are on the horizon.
The Astros still don’t have much of an offense, as they’re playing speedy but punchless KazMatsui and Michael Bourn everyday. Hunter Pence has emerged as a leader but only brings so much to the table alongside Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee. Miguel Tejada is fading and the arrival of Pudge Rodriguez immediately makes him one of their better power bats. That’s not good. The defense is solid, but the pitching is a mess. The reconstructed Mike Hampton, who has pitched a handful of innings over the last few years, immediately became their #3 starter. That’s all you need to know about the rotation: the bullpen has some solid front men but they can only undo so much damage. Still, they can do an okay job at preventing runs and can win 70-75 games, but that’s about it.
The Pirates have probably the worst offense in MLB, with no serious impact bat to speak of in the lineup (Adam LaRoche and Nate McLouth is as close as they get). Their pitching staff continues to develop in the rotation (watch Russ Ohlendorf) though they’re still some ways away, and the bullpen has glaring holes towards the back end. The Pirates will probably lose 100+ and have the top pick in the 2010 draft.
2. Milwaukee Brewers
3. Cincinnati Reds
4. St Louis Cardinals
5. Houston Astros
6. Pittsburgh Pirates
The Cubs will have the easiest road to a division title of any division winner. No one in the Central has enough to play better than .500 ball, let alone challenge the Cubs. The Cubs have one of the NL’s best defenses, a solid pitching staff with upside (if Rich Harden stays healthy, he’s the best pitcher in baseball) and a top productive lineup. Everyone else in the Central has their liabilities, but the Cubs don’t have any.
Milwaukee had managed a slow climb to competitive respectability the last few years, but they will take a step backward this season. They should still finish at or above .500, but they cannot hang with the Cubs. The defense has talent (like JJ Hardy at SS) but also liabilities (like Ryan Braun in LF and Prince Fielder at 1B) and comes out about average overall. The pitching staff took a huge drop with the departure of CC Sabathia, and the developing Yovani Gallardo fronts a ho-hum group. The offense can definitely score runs with power bats Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun leading a loaded, powerful lineup, but they don’t pack enough of a punch in run prevention to do anything other than run in place.
They will be fortunate to post a winning record, but the Cincinnati Reds should take a big step forward this year: 75-80 wins is a likely possibility. Gone are defensive liabilities Ken Griffey Jr and Adam Dunn, and their replacements, Joey Votto and Jay Bruce, give the Reds at least as much production while playing better defense. The Reds should now have a decent defense in front of an average, consistent pitching staff. The young hitters should continue their progress, though they’ll continue to struggle with consistency.
The Cards see their undoing in a mediocre defense, thanks to weird position shifts to try and get the bats of Skip Schumacher and Rick Ankiel in the lineup, which leads to holes in the defense. Even then, the lineup isn’t much to crow about outside of superstar Albert Pujols and powerful Ryan Ludwick. This lineup is average overall. Dave Duncan’s patchwork pitching staff will do a decent job but there’s only so much they can do to prevent runs with a so-so defense. Below average run prevention with an average offense indicates 75 wins are on the horizon.
The Astros still don’t have much of an offense, as they’re playing speedy but punchless KazMatsui and Michael Bourn everyday. Hunter Pence has emerged as a leader but only brings so much to the table alongside Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee. Miguel Tejada is fading and the arrival of Pudge Rodriguez immediately makes him one of their better power bats. That’s not good. The defense is solid, but the pitching is a mess. The reconstructed Mike Hampton, who has pitched a handful of innings over the last few years, immediately became their #3 starter. That’s all you need to know about the rotation: the bullpen has some solid front men but they can only undo so much damage. Still, they can do an okay job at preventing runs and can win 70-75 games, but that’s about it.
The Pirates have probably the worst offense in MLB, with no serious impact bat to speak of in the lineup (Adam LaRoche and Nate McLouth is as close as they get). Their pitching staff continues to develop in the rotation (watch Russ Ohlendorf) though they’re still some ways away, and the bullpen has glaring holes towards the back end. The Pirates will probably lose 100+ and have the top pick in the 2010 draft.
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