SB Nation - Bobby Korecky

Monday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:16:37 -0000

If you only read roughly a dozen blog posts about the Brewers today, make sure one of them is Miller Park Drunk's argument that the pitching staff wasn't as bad as you think, and Dave Bush might have been the key to the season.

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Some things to read while reconsidering your tuna melt strategies.

The Journal-Sentinel released their final grades for 2009's team and individual performances over the weekend, and as Miller Park Drunk predicted, they're a joke. Seth McClung also responded to his grade.

I'm not going to bother responding to any of the respective grades, because it's not worth the time. Instead, I'll point you to Wezen-ball's grades, which are both funnier and every bit as relevant.

Meanwhile, the Brewers could be close to announcing a deal with a new pitching coach, as Rick Peterson confirmed interest in the job over the weekend. (FanShot) He's been out of coaching for a year while he's worked with Dr. James Andrews, Al Leiter and Tom Glavine to develop a company devoted to assessing the biomechanics of little leaguers to prevent injury. This quote says volumes about what he might be looking to do in Milwaukee:

"I'm looking for a home that embraces this philosophy and wants to implement it throughout the organization," Peterson said.

Maybe I'm wrong and that's exactly what needs to be done. Certainly, if anyone is qualified to evaluate and adjust the mechanics of young pitchers, it's probably Peterson. With that said, the Brewers have a somewhat shaky track record of "adjusting" pitcher deliveries that ends with the opposite of the desired result: ineffectiveness and injury. So, Peterson's quote raised a red flag for me.

By the way, pitching is what doomed the 2009 Brewers, but Miller Park Drunk makes the argument that it wasn't the foregone conclusion that many argue it was.

Mark Attanasio issued an open letter to the fans over the weekend, reviewing the high points of 2009 and promising not to settle for the status quo in 2010. Regardless of how you feel about the 2009 Brewers and the effort that went into putting them together, I think this reminder of how far the Brewers have come is very important:

Only a few years ago, achieving a .500 record would have been acceptable, but posting 80 wins this year satisfied neither you nor the organization. This higher standard demonstrates how far we have come in raising our expectations and how much our performance has improved.

Casa de Machado has an open letter of their own regarding possible responses if the Brewers decide to trade Ryan Braun.

In the minors and winter leagues:

The list won't be available online until Wednesday, but Tom H. is reporting that Alcides Escobar will be sixth in Baseball America's rankings of the top 20 prospects in the Pacific Coast League this season. Mat Gamel will be 13th and Angel Salome will be 18th.
If you didn't stop by over the weekend, you might have missed my post sorting Brewer minor leaguers by position and MLE.
The Venezuelan Winter League opened play on Friday, and while MLB.com's stats page is still displaying last year's stats and the scoreboards also don't appear to work, I do have some box scores from yesterday. Adam Heether went 2-for-4 with a double and a home run in Caracas' 8-6 win over Aragua, and Hernan Iribarren batted leadoff and went 1-for-5 with a run scored in Lara's 7-5 loss to Magallanes. Iribarren also hit a home run over the weekend.

The Arizona Fall League opens this week, and I'm hoping there will be better stat tracking systems in place by then.

There's a strange symmetry in lumping a power ranking together with a tournament to determine who sucks the most:

Beyond the Box Score ranked the Brewers 21st in their final power rankings.
Brew City Sports has moved on to the second round in their tournament to determine 2009's worst Brewer.

Around baseball:

D-Backs: Acquired Tony Abreu from the Dodgers as the PTBNL in the Jon Garland trade, and designated pitcher Bobby Korecky for assignment.
Marlins: Released pitchers Scott Proctor and Dave Davidson.
White Sox: Outfielder Dewayne Wise declined an outright assignment to AAA and is now a free agent.

A quick side note on the Abreu deal mentioned above: The Dodgers and D-Backs have had an agreement regarding Abreu for some time now, but the deal had to wait until this weekend because of a grievance Abreu had filed against the Dodgers regarding some service time lost while on the DL in 2007. If/when the Brewers decide to deal J.J. Hardy this offseason, they could run into a similar problem.

Apparently all managerial searches this offseason must include at least one bad candidate. Last week I mentioned that Ned Yost was being reported as a candidate in both Cleveland and Houston, and this week we have news that Bob Brenly might be a candidate in Washington.

Speaking of Houston, they're once again going to use an open interview process to select their next manager. This seems like a great PR move and I don't know why more teams don't do it this way.

Thanks to Beyond the Box Score for directing my attention to both of the following links:

The Biz of Baseball has an in-depth look at the financial windfall involved in making the playoffs, both short and long term.
3-D Baseball has an exhaustive look at FIP, and its uses and misuses.

The Twins and Cardinals have both been sent home from the postseason, but at least we still know they have a great personality.

On this day in 1982, Paul Molitor set a new World Series record by picking up five hits in Game 1 as the Brewers beat the Cardinals 10-0.

Happy birthday today to Casey McGehee, who turns 27, Jose Valentin, who turns 40, and Garth Iorg, the roving instructor who briefly served as the third base coach of the 2008 Brewers, who turns 55.

Oh, and maybe it's worked in the past, but when you're trying to fend off elimination, starting off the day with 12 strips of bacon and a Red Bull seems like a bad idea.

Drink up.

Diamondbacks 5, Reds 13: False Dawn

Jim McLennan — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:10:50 -0000

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

And thanks to Eric Byrnes and Jerry Hairston for giving us this week's 'Provide your own caption' competition...

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Record: 13-20. Pace: 64-98. Change on last season: -9.

The sun appeared to be peeping its way over the horizon of the Diamondbacks' long, dark night after yesterday's offensive onslaught. However, the celestial orb clearly didn't like what it saw, and decided, like a large, thermonuclear groundhog, to go back to sleep for six more weeks. It was the turn of the Arizona pitching to stink like the dumpster behind Taco Bell, surrendering the most runs since June 17 last year, when - in a Brandon Webb start - we went down 15-1 to Oakland.

Jon Garland was dreadful, and not in a 'walking people' kind of way. He loaded the bases before retiring a Reds' batter in the first. A convenient double-play helped him get out of the inning with a single run allowed, and he retired Cincinnati 1-2-3 in the second, but from then on it was very ugly. Three runs scored in the second, not helped by a Reynolds throw to first plunking the batter in the middle of his back, and the Reds opened the fourth with back-to-back homers. Garland ended up surrendering hits to ten of the 21 opposing hitters he faced. This led to a total of seven runs, and Garland had to be yanked after just 3.2 innings - and that took him 77 pitches to get through.

This left our bullpen bracing themselves for another long night of work, the fourth time in five games they've been called on for more than three innings. Leo Rosales did well, retiring all four batters he faced, but then we brought in Bobby Korecky. I'm pretty sure this will be Korecky's only appearance before getting sent down on Wednesday, when we need the roster spot for Bryan Augenstein. I say this because allowing six runs on seven hits and a walk in two innings of work is not the sort of thing that keeps you hanging around in the majors. His season ERA is now up to 13.50, and I sense his name will not be high on the list, the next time we need a call-up.

Juan Gutierrez pitched a scoreless eighth, and we then turned the ball over to Josh Wilson. Yes: you read that right. Middle-infielder Josh Wilson. It's not the first time he has been called to duty - in June 2007, while playing for Florida, he was called upon for mop-up duty against Florida. There, he pitched a scoreless inning, and he repeated the process here, surrendering a one-out walk then inducing a nice double-play to escape with another zero, and keep his career ERA at 0.00. Frankly, having thrown only 12 pitches, I think he'd have been ready to go out there for the tenth, had we only scored the eight runs necessary... For his temerity, Wilson was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the ninth.

This was the fifth time a Diamondbacks position player had taken the mound for the team. Here are the other occurrences, along with the score when they entered the game, and the results:
   Aug. 30, 2001: Steve Finley (13-3) - flyball, walk, HBP, GIDP [0 runs]
   Sep. 2, 2002: Mark Grace (18-0) - flyball, flyball, HR, flyball [1 run]
   Aug 14, 2007: Augie Ojeda (14-5) - flyball, flyball, lineout [0 runs]
   Aug. 20, 2007: Jeff Cirillo (9-0) - K, walk, flyball, walk, lineout [0 runs]
   May 11, 2009: Josh Wilson (13-5), flyball, walk, GIDP [0 runs]
Mark Grace is the only one to allow a run: indeed, that's the only hit our position players have allowed in five innings of work, though the four walks is a little concerning. :-)

The offense wasn't quite as dreadful - we reached double-digits again, the third time in four games we've done that, which is the best streak of the season. Speaking of streaks, Eric Byrnes continued his multi-hit run, getting three hits for his fourth consecutive game so doing, and Justin Upton had his seventh homer of the season, extending his hitting streak to 18 games. That's the best by a Diamondbacks since Danny Bautista hit in 21 straight during the first month of 2004. Felipe Lopez also had a three-knock night, and Mark Reynolds retook the team lead with his eighth homer, a solo shot, in the seventh. But we had no walks at all, and it seemed that every time we scored, the Reds would come right back and score three or four.

This game was definitely more a chore than a pleasure, and the loss sends the Diamondbacks into last place in the NL West. We bumped against it briefly on April 21st, but that was only a one-day stay. Hopefully, this one is equally brief - if not, the last time Arizona occupied the cellar for more than one day was back in July 2006.

[Click to enlarge, at fangraphs.com]
Master of his domain: Felipe Lopez, +13.1%
God-emperor of suck: Jon Garland, -41.0%
Dishonorable mention: Bobby Korecky, -12.8%

Given the nature of the game, I'm frankly surprised anyone stuck around for this, but we were properly rewarded for our diligence by the appearance of Wilson in the ninth. Pyromnc dominated the comments, his 130 more than twice as many as the next (snakecharmer). Also present were Muu, 4 Corners Fan, hotclaws, Snakebitten, SeanMillerSavior, luckycc, kishi, Sprankton, Scrbl, IndyDBack, Moozazan, mrssoco, TwinnerA, Azreous and Brendan Scolari. Onwards tomorrow, to the respite from misery we get every fifth day: a Dan Haren start...

Diamondbacks 1, Cardinals 2: Night of the Long Knives

Jim McLennan — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:13:04 -0000

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

Justin Upton attempts to tunnel his way to Reno.

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Record: 2-5. Pace: 46-116. Change on last season: -3

A pair of solo home-runs, by Albert Pujols and former Diamondback Brian Barden (the latter his first ever in the majors), were all the St. Louis Cardinals could manage against Doug Davis this evening. However, those two daggers to the heart proved sufficient to sent Arizona to our third straight defeat. The home offense once again failed to show up - in those three contests, we've scored a total of only four runs, and the team average is now down to 3.43 runs per game. The Diamondbacks were again hitless with runners in scoring position: we only have six such hits so far in the entire season, in 35 opportunities.

Davis became the latest member of the Arizona rotation to have a fine performance on the mound rewarded with a scarlet L. As hoped, his leftiness caused problems for St. Louis and he pitched eight innings, giving up seven hits and walking one, with five strikeouts. Davis was particularly effective with runners in scoring position [the Cardinals were equally as hitless as the Diamondbacks], and it's just unfortunate two balls left the park. Albert Pujols swatted his fourth of the season in the fourth inning, golfing a low change-up into the left-field seats: that's fair enough, since he's the best pure hitter in the National League for my money. What really stung was the game-winning run, Barden homering on a full-count pitch with one out in the eighth. Never mind it being his first in the big leagues, he had only one extra-base hit in 38 games before this.

We actually outhit the Cardinals, 9-8, but never quite seemed to get the knocks when we needed them. Arizona's best chance was probably in the third inning when Davis legged out an infield single with one down [anything Tony Clark can do...], and Felipe Lopez followed with a double to put men on second and third, still with only one away. However, Chris Young popped out and Stephen Drew grounded out, to waste the opportunity. Indeed, the words "popped out" and "fouled out" appear in the box-score for the Diamondbacks a remarkable number of times - especially since Eric Byrnes was on the bench.

Our only run came in the fourth, tying the game up at one. Conor Jackson singled to lead things off, and Chad Tracy drove him in with a double to right. The chance for any further scoring evaporated immediately, as Tracy's turn round second was too aggressive and he was nailed there on an intelligent play by cut-off man Pujols [killing Arizona dreams since 2001, any way he can, it would appear...] More damage on the base-paths took place in the seventh when Drew was caught stealing second to end the frame. The only Diamondback to get into scoring position after Tracy's brief stay there was Young with two outs in the eighth, taking second when the St. Louis left-fielder bobbled a single. But Drew grounded out, and our last chance at redemption was lost when pinch-hitter Tony Clark flew out with Mark Reynolds on first to end the ninth.

Clark was pinch-hitting for Justin Upton, who was hitless again to extend his fruitless start to the season to a dozen at-bats - it appears he was none too happy to be replaced by our veteran, either. Upton did almost go yard his first time up this evening, but the ballpark just held it in. Felipe Lopez and Drew each had a single and a double, but we showed precious little patience: no walks, and our 34 at-bats required only 111 pitches. The Cardinals were even less inclined to hang around, seeing 106 - Davis's eight frames required only 96 pitches, and the game was over in 2:22, which must be close to record pace for any game involving Doug! It's even ten minutes quicker than the 1-0 win he posted for us over the Dodgers in August 2007. [Dammit: found one of his starts that took only 2:21, back in August 2001]

[Click to enlarge, at fangraphs.com]
Master of his domain: Doug Davis, +13.7%
God-emperor of suck: Stephen Drew, -13.1%
Dishonorable mentions: Jackson, -12.4%; Clark -10.2%

Pretty frickin' miserable time, and even the most die-hard of fans - which would be most here - have to be wondering what happened to this team's offense. Because it has basically been AWOL in the opening week, undercutting some fine performances by our starting pitchers. In the six contests after Opening Day, our rotation's ERA has been 3.55, and that's without anything from Brandon Webb. I'd have taken that in a heart-beat, but the dark side of the deal is that the offense has averaged only 2.50 runs per game over the same time. While that level of production continues, it's hard to see us winning any games.

One of those Gameday threads where the word "grinding" is probably appropriate, hope being snuffed out as we gradually realized the hitters were wielding toothpicks rather than any more meaningful lumber. Still, getting over 500 comments for a game not available locally is credible, and I appreciate the effort: 'Skins led from the front with more than twice as many as anyone else, but also present were DKuon, Wimb, kishi, 4 Corners Fan, TwinnerA, snakecharmer, AF DBacks Fanatic, Muu, hotclaws, BleedingSedonaRed, cbspga, emilylovesthedbacks, jaydubsped, PinchHitLancePainter, AJforAZ, luckycc, singaporedbacksfan, unnamedDBacksfan, mrssoco, Snake Bitten, Pyromnc and soco.

We made a roster move before the game, Bobby Korecky coming down from Reno because Brandon Webb is on the disabled list. However, that mostly seemed to be in case Doug Davis had a short outing - which he very clearly did not - and we need to make another move to give the Diamondbacks room for Max Scherzer, who'll be starting tomorrow's game. Seems likely Korecky will thus be right back onto the Reno bus in the morning, though Nick Piecoro reckons that Billy Buckner may be the recipient of a trip to Nevada instead. I'm trying really hard to care, and not doing a very good job of it. Tom Gordon threw again in the bullpen tonight, and is now expected to go on a rehab stint before being activated.

Audio clippage will follow in the morning, since I just want to go to bed and pull the covers over my head. Three games in a row scoring two or less isn't unprecedented - hell, we had four such streaks last year - but we have never had one so early in the season. [The earliest previously is for games #6-9 in 2002] Tomorrow will bring, as noted, the return of Scherzer, so we'll see what a fresh arm can do to rejuvenate a team that is clearly in need of something to pep them up.

[Morning update] Melvin speaks. Nothing too unexpected here, talking about how Davis deserved better and how frustrating it is that we're missing opportunities. No kidding, Bob...

Audio courtesy of KTAR 620

Community Projection: Bobby Korecky

Jesse — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:00:10 -0000

Leading up to Sunday when pitchers and catchers report, we'll be running community projections on the 40-man roster. Projections will be basic to make them as accessible and easy to create as possible. Up next, Bobby Korecky.

2009 Age: 29
Years: 1

Games:
Games Started:
Innings Pitched:
ERA:
Record:
Saves:
Hits:
Home Runs:
Strikeouts:
Walks: