SB Nation - Chris Smith

Thursday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:09:33 -0000

More photos » by David J. Phillip - AP

LaTroy Hawkins and Glenn Robinson faced each other in high school. This is the kind of thing that passes for news in December.

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Some things to read while trying not to dance.

LaTroy Hawkins was in Milwaukee yesterday for his physical, making his deal official (FanShot). As mentioned previously, he's due $3.5 million in 2010 and $4 million in 2011, plus $550k available if he maximizes his incentives. One thing I didn't know until reading it afterwards: Hawkins grew up in Gary, Indiana and played basketball against former Buck Glenn Robinson.

I've mentioned previously that the bullpen situation is starting to fill up, but realized yesterday that I've been leaving Carlos Villanueva out of all of my projections. As Adam McCalvy noted in his story on Hawkins, the bullpen now has Trevor Hoffman, Hawkins, Todd Coffey, Mitch Stetter, Claudio Vargas, Carlos Villanueva and David Riske, and barring a trade or injury, it looks like Chris Smith, Chris Narveson, Chuck Lofgren and Zack Braddock, among others, are on the outside looking in.

While there may not be much competition for a spot in the bullpen, there will be an interesting race to see who opens the season as the backup catcher. View From Bernie's Chalet handicaps the candidates, and is hoping for George Kottoras to open the season in the majors, with Jonathan Lucroy in AAA and Angel Salome on the trading block. Two quick thoughts on that:

Kottoras is out of options, so unless one of the prospects blows him out of the water this spring, he'll likely make the team.
You can never have too many catchers, so don't be surprised if the Brewers hang onto both Lucroy and Salome and try to work out some kind of rotation in Nashville.

Speaking of competitions involving backup catchers, we need your vote to help select a backup catcher for the BCB All Decade Team. As of this writing, Mike Rivera leads Jason Kendall by 15 votes.

At Mike Cameron's press conference in Boston yesterday, we heard some insight for the first time into Ken Macha's feeling toward the running game last season. 2009 was the first time in Cameron's career he's had single-digit stolen bases, and he said he "ran into a little situation where I had to abide by the rules of the manager, even though I’ve been pretty successful, I mean, 80 percent of the time that I’ve ran." Macha has admitted he'll have to open up the running game a little more this season, but this is the first time I can recall hearing a player talk about restraints last season.

Every now and then the Mug provides me an "Ask and you shall receive" moment. Yesterday I asked about differences in attendance at Miller Park based on the starting pitcher, and Wisconsin Sports Tap did the research, discovering no correlation. Many, if not most, Brewer tickets are probably purchased too far in advance to predict starting pitching assignments, so that's likely what I should have expected.

In the minors: FanGraphs unveiled their Top Ten Brewer Prospects yesterday. Alcides Escobar sits atop the list, as he likely will in just about every set of rankings coming out this winter, but Brett Lawrie climbed in front of Mat Gamel for the #2 spot. We'll be doing our Community Prospect Rankings in January, and I'm curious to see where Lawrie will rank there.

Around baseball:

D-Backs: Signed pitcher Rodrigo Lopez to a minor league deal.
Dodgers: Signed infielder Jamey Carroll to a two year deal worth $3.85 million and signed reliever Luis Ayala to a minor league deal.
Orioles: Signed reliever Mike Gonzalez to a two year deal worth $12 million, and third baseman Garrett Atkins to a one year deal.
Rangers: Signed pitcher Geoff Geary and infielder Ray Olmedo to minor league deals.
Tigers: Re-signed infielder Ramon Santiago to a two year deal.

The Blue Jays, Phillies, Mariners and A's also finalized their four way deal involving Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. It's been a time for change in Toronto over the last few months: Jordan Bastian noted that the Rogers Centre features three-story images of Alex Rios, Scott Rolen, B.J. Ryan and Roy Halladay. All four will now need to be removed.

In the interest of keeping conversation going and providing fresh content on the site each day, I occasionally post things that wouldn't be front page-worthy during the season, but keep things lively in December. Occasionally when I do that, someone stops by the comments to make sure I know I'm wasting their time, or ask why we're voting for bench players on the All Decade Team. Yes, I know those posts aren't hard-hitting news, but they beat spending a day ranking and discussing your favorite Pixar movies, like Keith Law and Rob Neyer did yesterday.

Earlier this week he celebrated a birthday, and today former Brewer Matt Kinney is the subject of Lookout Landing's Faces series.

Happy birthday today to 1986 and 1989 Brewer Bryan Clutterbuck, who turns 50.

Drink up.

Tuesday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:38:02 -0000

More photos » by Jeff Curry - AP

Craig Counsell slides right into the projected 2010 roster.

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Some things to read while she digs for her phone.

It's finally time to back off the comments about Randy Wolf not wanting to be here. Wolf said all the right things in his introductory press conference yesterday, and now actually appears happy to be a Brewer. Jen Lada was also at the press conference, and tweeted four quotes giving a nice feel for Wolf and the organization's excitement to have him.

The Brewers also announced Craig Counsell's new deal yesterday (FanShot). Counsell will earn $2.1 million next season along with some playing time incentives. The Bucky Channel says moves like this one are "crucial when trying to make a smaller market team a contender." Fire Doug Melvin is fine with the move, as long as Counsell doesn't take playing time away from Mat Gamel.

With Wolf and Counsell officially on board and LaTroy Hawkins (physical on Wednesday) and Claudio Vargas (physical on Friday) expected to be added by the end of the week, Adam McCalvy notes that the Brewer 40 man roster is about to be full, which might mark the end of any major Brewer moves in free agency. Two notes on that:

If you're still waiting for the Brewers to sign another starting pitcher, odds are you'll be waiting for a while. Adam McCalvy said Doug Melvin probably regrets comments he made months ago suggesting the Brewers were looking to sign two starters.
Secondly, the 40 man roster may be full, but it's a "soft" full. Room could almost certainly be made by outrighting new acquisition Luis Cruz or Tim Dillard, who would most likely go unclaimed at a time of year when no one has many 40 man spots to spare.

The roster crunch was one of the reasons cited for non-tendering Mike Rivera. Brewed Sports isn't too happy with the decision, and also notes that non-tendering the team's lone returning catcher pokes a hole in arguments used to support starting Jason Kendall last season.

Speaking of crowded situations, you can add David Riske to the list of pitchers to pencil into a bullpen spot to start the season. Doug Melvin said Riske expects to be ready for spring training (FanShot). That's bad news for Chris Smith, Chris Narveson, Zach Braddock and Chuck Lofgren, among others, who now may be fighting for one roster spot. If Mark DiFelice hadn't gone down, they'd all come to Maryvale on the outside looking in. A lot can happen between now and then, of course.

And speaking of Chris Smith, Brewerfan.net asked someone from the Brewer organization to verify some of their option info, and discovered that Smith doesn't have any options left. Obviously, Smith wouldn't be a major loss, but it's possible someone would claim him if he were available.

Meanwhile, we reached the final conclusion of the Mike Cameron era in Milwaukee yesterday, as he agreed to a two year deal with the Red Sox (FanShot). Cameron's strikeouts and one memorable dropped fly ball made him a polarizing talent as a Brewer, but most advanced metrics seem to agree on his significant value, and you'll rarely hear anything negative said about him as a teammate and clubhouse presence. If you missed it last night, Jordan has a goodbye post for him.

How lucky are the Brewers to have Ryan Braun? I think we occasionally forget how rare it is for a player to have an impact as immediate as his in the major leagues. Braun hit the second most home runs of any major leaguer in their first 162 games, and also collected the tenth most hits, making him the only player to appear on both lists.

Speaking of luck, Braden Looper's 14 wins last season made him the most unlikely winner in major league history.

Another day, another new poll for our BCB All Decade Team. You have until 4 pm today to select a catcher, and until 4 pm tomorrow to select our final starting outfielder. So far Damian Miller and Geoff Jenkins are leading those votes, respectively.

After looking at the candidates at catcher, I'm starting to wish I had gone this route instead: Camden Chat has an All-Awful lineup for the 2000-2009 Orioles.

And actually, speaking of awful: Rob Neyer has a ranking of the Top 100 players of the 2000's, and while former Brewers CC Sabathia (#25), Mike Cameron (#36), Ray Durham (#71), Jose Valentin (#88) and Corey Koskie (#92) are on it, Prince Fielder is nowhere to be found.

Around baseball:

Angels: Signed Hideki Matsui to a one year, $6.5 million deal.
Astros: Re-signed outfielder Jason Michaels to a one year deal.
Blue Jays: Signed catcher Ramon Castro to a one year, $1 million deal.
Mariners: Signed catcher Eliezer Alfonzo to a minor league deal.
Marlins: Signed pitcher Clay Hensley to a minor league deal.

Of course, the biggest transaction "announced" yesterday appears to be far from done, and may take several days to be made official: A three way deal would send Roy Halladay to the Phillies, Cliff Lee to the Mariners and prospects to the Blue Jays. You might recognize this trade as one several bloggers mocked Ken Rosenthal for suggesting over the weekend. I guess he knows something after all.

Happy birthday today to 2005-2006 Brewer Rick Helling, who turns 39.

Drink up.

Monday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:18:55 -0000

by Jim Prisching - AP

Craig Counsell is expected to re-sign today.

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Some things to read while John Tesh rocks the NBA on NBC theme (h/t Amy K. Nelson).

Randy Wolf is expected to undergo a physical this morning and once he does, expect his contract to become official sometime later today. That might not be today's only announcement, though: the Brewers are also expected to finalize a deal with Craig Counsell today. With Counsell, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, Alcides Escobar, Mat Gamel and Casey McGehee all on the roster, the Brewers' Opening Day infield is probably set, barring injury or trade.

Meanwhile, Mike Rivera is surprised to be looking for work after being non-tendered over the weekend. He thought the decision not to retain Jason Kendall would give him an edge as the only returning catcher familiar with the Brewer pitching staff.

As of this writing, roughly 4% of voters in the poll on your right listed the decision to offer Dave bush a 2010 contract as the one Brewer move from this weekend they would change. That's not exactly a large chunk of the fanbase, but In-Between Hops is taking on that vocal minority, making the case that the Brewers made the right move by giving Bush another shot.

If you missed Morineko's Weekend Mug, follow the link over to it for full coverage of the Brewers' arbitration decisions, and a link to this list of all the non-tenders leaguewide.

Looking back at last week, Jon Heyman ranked the Brewers among the Winter Meeting winners. Meanwhile, Marc Hulet of The Baseball Analysts listed Rule 5 selection Chuck Lofgren in the "Why Bother?" category.

The more I think about it, the more I think Lofgren will have a tough task ahead of him if he's going to make the team out of spring training. With Trevor Hoffman, LaTroy Hawkins, Todd Coffey, Claudio Vargas and Mitch Stetter back, there's only two bullpen spots left that are potentially available (barring injury), and Chris Smith, John Axford, Chris Narveson, Zach Braddock and now Lofgren fighting for them. I like Lofgren's potential and hope the Brewers will get an opportunity to realize it, but right now he might be the third or fourth best lefty in the bullpen competition.

If you have a vague interest in Brewer baseball, but wish there was less analysis and more profanity on this site, then Miller Park Drunk's RUNNING series might be just the ticket for you. Follow these links for bad Prince Fielder jokes, some fan fiction involving Ryan Braun trying to rap, and a vague musical reference to Rickie Weeks.

In the minors: Baseball Intellect has video footage of some at bats featuring Cameron Garfield, Cutter Dykstra and Josh Prince from a Pioneer League game back in July. They're pay-only, but there are worse ways to spend $2.95.

If you were gone this weekend, you didn't miss the opportunity to help select a center fielder and catcher for the BCB All Decade Team. Voting closes at 4 pm today for center fielders and 4 pm tomorrow for catchers. We'll open the voting for the final starting outfield spot later today.

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Signed catcher John Buck to a one-year deal worth $2 million, signed Joey Gathright to a minor league deal,
Braves: Signed Matt Diaz to a one year, $2.55 million deal, avoiding arbitration.
D-Backs: Re-signed infielder Augie Ojeda to a one year deal, and avoided arbitration with Blaine Boyer.
Dodgers: Signed pitcher Josh Towers to a minor league deal.
Giants: Signed shortstop-turned-pitcher Tony Pena Jr. to a minor league deal.
Indians: Re-signed pitchers Adam Miller and Anthony Reyes to minor league deals.
Marlins: Signed catcher Ronny Paulino to a one-year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Nationals: Re-signed Scott Olsen to a one year deal. Also signed pitcher Ryan Speier to a minor league deal.
Padres: Signed pitcher Kevin Correia to a one year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Pirates: Signed Ronny Cedeno to a one year, $1.125 million deal, avoiding arbitration.
Rangers: Signed infielder Esteban German to a one year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Rays: Avoided arbitration with catcher Dioner Navarro and pitchers Grant Balfour, Rafael Soriano, Lance Cormier and Randy Choate.
Royals: Avoided arbitration with pitchers Brian Bannister and Kyle Davies. They also signed pitcher Bruce Chen and catcher Vance Wilson to minor league deals.
White Sox: Signed J.J. Putz to a one year deal.

Meanwhile, the market heated up immediately for Yankees non-tender Chien-Ming Wang, with Ken Rosenthal reporting that six teams have already expressed interest. He doesn't list the teams, but I wouldn't be surprised to discover the Brewers are one of them.

I promise, I'm not going to mention it every time someone says something new about Jason Kendall. In fact, I might try to go the rest of the week without mentioning him at all. With that said, I thought these three links about him were interesting:

Joe Posnanski has a look at the potential Opening Day lineup for the 2010 Royals, now including Kendall.
He also compares Kendall to a superball on the field at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
Reminding us all how far and how fast Kendall has fallen, Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? named Kendall the Pirate Catcher of the Decade.

Weeks ago I linked to a post from minor league veteran Garrett Broshuis, mentioning the challenges in finding quality, healthy food in minor league clubhouses. It looks like that problem may be on its way to being resolved: After discussing it at the Winter Meetings, several teams are making an effort to provide healthier options, and remove the constant flow of junk.

If you're a fan of sabermetrics, or just want to learn more about them, I've got two links for you today:

TangoTiger has a look at OPS+, and some minor adjustments that could be made to it to make it more useful than some other advanced metrics.
That post links to this one, Big League Stew's beginner's guide to wOBA. I learned a fair amount by reading that one.

Gorman Thomas celebrated a birthday over the weekend, and while this probably isn't what he had in mind for a gift, David Chalk of Seventh Inning 'Stache has inducted him into the MLB Mustache Hall of Fame.

On this day in 1998, the Brewers acquired Alex Ochoa from the Twins for a minor leaguer named Darrell Nicholas. Ochoa spent one season as a Brewer, hitting .300/.404/.466 before being traded to the Reds for Mark Sweeney after the season.

Happy birthday today to:

Former Seattle Pilot and 1970 Brewer Greg Goossen, who turns 64.
Dave Nilsson, who appeared in 837 games as a Brewer and turns 40.
Marcus Jensen, who appeared in 18 games over two tours as a Brewer and turns 37.

Sean Forman, founder of Baseball Reference, is also celebrating his birthday today. You can help him celebrate by sponsoring a page. I know someone around here will want this one.

Drink up.

Tuesday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:27:09 -0000

More photos » by Darren Hauck - AP

Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun celebrate Fielder's two appearances in The Hardball Times' postseason awards.

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Some things to read while frosting your zombie.

The Brewers are expected to hold a press conference later today to officially introduce Rick Peterson as their new pitching coach (FanShot). I'll give the Brewers at least this much credit: I'm still not sure how I feel about the move, but at least they acknowledged a problem and made one.

The Hardball Times has Part 2 of their 2009 awards up, this time focusing on the hitters, and Prince Fielder is acknowledged as both a champion of the three true outcomes and a runner up for the NL's Best Player Award.

Meanwhile, it's tough to find a pitcher who was less consequential in 2009 than Chris Smith. Smith had the third lowest average leverage in FanGraphs' list of 2009's top mop-up relievers.

At least Smith was pretty good in that role, though: Brew City Sports is down to four competitors in their tournament to determine who sucked the most in theirs.

At the moment he's probably the most likely candidate to open next season at third base, but The Junkball Blues makes the case for trading Casey McGehee this winter, and I still think that would be the best decision.

The Nashville Sounds' website has a look back at Josh Butler's unlikely season. In just a matter of months, Butler went from repeating Brevard County to earning a surprise September callup from the Brewers, and now is continuing to pitch in the AFL this fall.

Beyond the Box Score has a look back at the 2009 NL Central, and what went right and wrong for the Brewers and their divisional rivals.

There's only one transaction note to pass along today:

Mariners: Kenji Johjima has decided to forfeit the remaining years on his contract with the Mariners and return to Japan.

Speaking of catchers, The Crawfish Boxes noted a story glorifying the "game calling ability" and other unquantifiable attributes frequently attached to Brad Ausmus. At least Ausmus has a sense of humor about his offensive abilities, though:

Ausmus is hitting .293 this year. When asked to explain why he is hitting so much better this season, the Ivy League educated Ausmus replies, "Small Sample Size."

It's mean, but I'll admit I laughed when I learned Stubhub accidentally sent an ad for playoff tickets to Cub fans. Apparently the ad was unintentionally sent to fans of several teams, including the Mets.

Yesterday I mentioned a blog post from minor leaguer Garrett Broshuis, detailing some of the financial challenges minor leaguers face while trying to earn their way to the minor leaguers. Today he details what he'd like teams to do about it, and I think his requests seem pretty reasonable.

I've brought it up before, but I'll mention it again because I've got a new great read on it: Aaron Gleeman has a link to a story on the 35th anniversary of Tommy John's ligament replacement surgery.

Apparently I missed the story when it was unveiled in June (I was in the middle of wedding/honeymoon/move month), but Seamheads has a nice look at a monument built to honor the original Milwaukee Brewers, who spent one season playing at the corner of Lloyd and 16th St. before moving to St. Louis to become the Browns, and eventually the Baltimore Orioles. On this day in 1901, seven players, including future Hall of Famer Jesse Burkett, left the Cardinals to join the Browns, who went 78-58 in their first year in St. Louis, finishing second in the American League.

And, of course, on this day in 1982 the Cardinals came from behind to beat the Brewers, 6-3, in Game 7 of the World Series.

That's all I have for you today, unless you wanted to read a joke about Yankees fans or hear about Joe Posnanski's rough day.

Drink up.

Brewers 9, Cardinals 7

KLSnow — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:08:45 -0000

More photos » by Jeff Curry - AP

Chris Narveson throws during the fourth inning Sunday.

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W: Trevor Hoffman (3-2)
L: Todd Wellemeyer (7-10)
S: John Axford (1)

HR: Prince Fielder 2 (46)

MVP: Prince Fielder (+.482)
LVP: Chris Smith (-.329)

Win Expectancy Graph
SBNation Coverage

They certainly made the last one interesting.

Powered by Prince Fielder's two home runs, including a go-ahead shot in the ninth, the Brewers appeared to be ready to complete a three game sweep of the Cardinals in St. Louis, and untuck one final time for 2009. Fielder's three hits in the game left him with a 2009 batting average of .2994, but also in sole possession of second place on the franchise list for most home runs in a season, with 46.

Alas, it was almost all for naught, as the Cardinals rallied to tie the game on Chris Smith in the eighth and again on Trevor Hoffman in the bottom of the ninth, costing him his 38th save and sending the game to extra innings. Then, in the tenth, Jody Gerut drove in the winning run on an infield single, scoring Alcides Escobar with the winning run. Ryan Braun's RBI double drove in another run as the Cardinals imploded defensively,

Jeff Suppan started today's game and went just two innings, allowing one run on two hits, but Chris Narveson picked things up from there, allowing just one additional run over 4.1 innings of work, giving the Brewers an opportunity to run out to a 6-1 lead. With Hoffman already having pitched, John Axford pitched a scoreless tenth to pick up his first major league save.

Friday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:14:50 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

Chris Smith holds a towel to his face after getting hit by a ground ball as head trainer Roger Caplinger guides him to the dugout in the eighth inning Thursday. Seth McClung said Smith will be ok.

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Some things to read while working on your Halloween costume.

I'll be honest here: When I woke up this morning, I was most excited about reading what Plunk Everyone had to say about Jason Kendall's 248th career HBP yesterday. Now that I know that yesterday's plunking was Kendall's first ever in October, I can continue my day.

I certainly wasn't excited about having to discuss another awful outing from Manny Parra. With that said, Parra did manage to strike out five batters in his brief outing, making him just the fourth pitcher ever to allow five hits, five walks and strike out five batters in less than three innings pitched. You're forgiven if you can't remember the careers of the other three: Jose Antonio Nunez did it in 2001, Chris Clemons did it in 1997, and Chris Short did it in 1961. Short later went on to win 20 games - the other two were out of the majors for good within a year.

Parra was in the clubhouse and turned off the TV instead of watching the Rockies celebrate clinching a postseason berth yesterday. Fielder stayed in the dugout to watch it.

No one else has said anything about it (that I've seen) at this point, but Seth McClung said Chris Smith had some soreness and a busted lip but was otherwise ok after taking a ground ball of his face in the eighth inning yesterday. Glad to hear he's ok after a scary moment.

Meanwhile, McClung's recent comments on Twitter have drawn the attention of Adam McCalvy and other members of the media, who asked him about them before yesterday's game. At least McClung finally got to pitch yesterday, and struck out all four batters he retired.

Corey Hart is still not expected to play this weekend after suffering compression fractures in his fingers on Tuesday. Looking back, Ken Macha wondered if the emphasis on Hart's plate discipline negatively impacted his power, but Evan Brunell of The Hardball Times disagrees with that notion.

Macha and the Brewers are in St. Louis today, where Macha is expected to meet with Doug Melvin to discuss his potential return for next season. I guess one can hope for an Eric Wedge-esque "he's finishing the season, but then we're moving on" announcement, but it seems more than likely he'll be retained.

If nothing else, the conversation about managerial decisions provided the seed for what might possibly be the worst column I've ever read. If you need an excuse to bang your head against your desk today, feel free to read this atrocity from Emmert Dose of the Racine Journal-Times, which recaps the 2008 season complete with use of all caps, devolves into "I told you so," and eventually leads to a call for the return of Ned Yost. More worthless words have never been written.

The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers had a disappointing season on the field, but still finished with three of the Midwest League's top prospects, according to Baseball America. That link will take you to the non-subscriber version of the article, but Rattler Radio has the scouting reports from the full version.

In power rankings:

Yahoo dropped the Brewers one spot to 18th.
Beyond the Box Score moved the Brewers up one spot to 21st.

As the Cardinals prepare for the postseason, it's easy to pinpoint one thing that got them there: Chris Carpenter went 11-0 with a 1.58 ERA against the NL Central this season.

The Pirates might have caught a break yesterday, when their game with the Cubs was postponed. The game won't be made up, meaning the Pirates will only need one more win to avoid a 100 loss season.

We'll never know for sure what, if anything, Mike Maddux could have done to right the sinking ship that was the Brewer pitching staff this season. With that said, the Rangers are reaping the benefits of having Maddux around this season, and it's hard not to wonder what could have been. (FanShot)

Joe Mauer has gathered some attention this week based on the accusation that he may have been stealing signs against the Tigers this week. Mauer has since denied the allegation, but Babes Love Baseball has a video you should watch if you're wondering what sign stealing might look like.

It seems like every offseason there's talk about changing the dimensions of ballparks, moving the fences in here or out there to adjust the homer-friendliness of the park. Since a construction project of that magnitude would presumably be pretty expensive, I'm surprised this doesn't come up as an option more often: The Mets are being urged to consider moving home plate forward ten feet at Citi Field. I can honestly say I've never thought of that, though I feel like an idiot admitting it.

Happy birthday today to Bob Collucio, who appeared in 284 games as a Brewer between 1971 and 1973 and turns 58 today, Ernest Riles, who appeared in 385 games between 1985 and 1988 and turns 49, and Victor Santos, who posted a 4.78 ERA in 295.2 innings as a Brewer between 2004 and 2005 and turns 33.

Oh, and if you go out in public today, remember to turn down your iPod.

Drink up.

What about THIS guy? The Chris Smith edition

KLSnow — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:48:25 -0000

More photos » by AARON J. LATHAM - AP

Chris Smith and his unbent cap have made a solid, if unexpected, contribution to the Brewers this season. Should he be back next season?

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During spring training and the early portion of the 2009 season, Chris Smith wasn't even mentioned as a possible contributor to this team. He went down to AAA and earned a shot, though, posting a 1.27 ERA in 28 appearances for Nashville, picking up 17 saves with a 0.867 WHIP in the process.

And, as a Brewer, he's been pretty good. He's also been used in a bunch of different roles. He's thrown two or more innings in nine of his 32 outings, and posted a 2.61 ERA in that role. He's also been called upon to pitch an inning or less in 20 outings, and posted a 2.89 ERA in that role. He's been called into games as early as the fourth inning, and has finished 12 games.

Opposing batters are hitting .196/.284/.405 off of him this season, and he's shown acceptable control (3.5 BB/9) while striking out enough batters (6.8 K/9, not as many as Todd Coffey's 7.1 but more than Seth McClung's 5.4), but the home run ball has been the one chink in his armor: He's allowed 9 long balls in 44 major league innings: That's 1.8 HR/9, higher than everyone on the team not named Braden Looper. Because of his tendency to allow home runs his FIP is 5.62, suggesting he's been exceptionally lucky.

Smith is 28 years old and will finish 2009 with less than a full season of service time, meaning he's under team control for at least five more seasons and can be paid the league minimum or close for both 2010 and 2011. He's also significantly outperforming his career numbers (he has a 4.33 career ERA in AAA, compared to 1.27 this season), making him a candidate to regress.

So, to sum up:

Pros:

Smith is very flexible, can pitch multiple innings and early or late in games.
He's been very effective in AAA and the pros this season.
He's under team control for five more seasons and available really cheap for two of them.

Cons:

His numbers this season are much better than his career numbers, suggesting he may regress to the mean.
He's allowed an inordinately high number of home runs in the majors, and FIP suggests he's been very lucky.
Even combining AAA and the majors, he's only thrown 86.2 innings this season, and it's tough to get a full evaluation with a sample size that small.

So, what should the Brewers do with him?

Poll

What should the Brewers do with Chris Smith?

Bring him back for 2010 to compete for a late inning spot in the bullpen.

42 votes

Bring him back for 2010 as a middle/long reliever.

140 votes

Let him leave: His 40-man roster spot is too valuable to burn on a career minor leaguer.

22 votes

204 votes | Poll has closed

Brewers 6, Astros 0

KLSnow — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:58:53 -0000

More photos » by Darren Hauck - AP

Yovani Gallardo pitches during the first inning Sunday. Gallardo and three relievers combined to shut out the Astros.

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W: Yovani Gallardo (13-12)
L: Felipe Paulino (2-10)

HR: Corey Hart (12), Prince Fielder (40), Jody Gerut (8)

MVP: Yovani Gallardo (+.216)
LVP: Casey McGehee (-.036)

Win Expectancy Graph
SBNation Coverage

If you missed today's game to watch some other sport, you missed a bunch of milestones at Miller Park:

Yovani Gallardo, making his final start of the 2009 season, struck out seven batters in five innings. That leaves him with a season total of 204. He's just the fourth Brewer ever to record 200 strikeouts in a season.
Prince Fielder hit his 40th home run in the first inning, making him just the second Brewer in franchise history to reach 40 home runs twice. He also drew a walk in the fifth inning, becoming the first Brewer ever to reach 100 in a season. He drew his 101st in the eighth.
Ryan Braun picked up two hits today, and his fifth inning single was the 500th hit of his career.
Corey Patterson also singled in the fifth, picking up his first Brewer hit. He was later picked off.

Yovani Gallardo and three Brewer relievers didn't need much run support today, but the Brewer bats got them enough. The Brewers scored four runs off Felipe Paulino in the game, all on home runs, and added two more in the eighth while the Brewers combined to shut out the Astros. Remarkably, it's the ninth time the Astros have scored one run or less in 15 Paulino starts this season. Gallardo's final line: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K.

Carlos Villanueva (sixth inning), Chris Smith (seventh and eighth innings) and Mike Burns (ninth inning) combined to complete the shutout. With the win, the Brewers have won eight of their last ten games to inch back to within one game of .500.

Brewers 5, D-Backs 3

KLSnow — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:27:38 -0000

More photos » by AARON J. LATHAM - AP

Prince Fielder hits a solo home run in the fourth inning Sunday.

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W: Carlos Villanueva (3-10)
L: Daniel Schlereth (0-4)
S: Trevor Hoffman (32)

HR: Prince Fielder (39), Chris Young (13)

MVP: Claudio Vargas (+.288)
LVP: Mitch Stetter (-.203)

Win Expectancy Graph
SBNation Coverage

Hey look, a sweep!

Seven Brewer pitchers combined to hold the D-Backs to three runs today, and the Brewer bats came together to make it stand up. Chris Narveson started and pitched very well through three innings, but allowed the first three batters he faced in the fourth to reach, forcing Ken Macha to go to the bullpen early, and the problem got worse when Mark DiFelice left with a shoulder strain.

After that, though, the bullpen held the D-Backs in place the rest of the way. Chris Smith and Carlos Villanueva combined to pitch 2.2 scoreless innings, and after Mitch Stetter allowed three hits in the seventh, Claudio Vargas came in and pitched out of a bases loaded, one out jam. Trevor Hoffman pitched a scoreless ninth for his 32nd save.

At the plate, Prince Fielder gave the Brewers an early 1-0 lead with a solo home run, tying Cecil Cooper's franchise record with 126 RBI. That was all the offense the Brewers could muster until the seventh, when Alcides Escobar hit a two run single to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead. The Brewers went on to score four in the seventh and the game was decided.

The Brewers had eight hits in the game today, but Fielder, Escobar and Felipe Lopez accounted for six of them. Ryan Braun went 0-for-5, going hitless for just the second time in eleven September contests.

Cardinals 5, Brewers 1

KLSnow — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:32:07 -0000

by Morry Gash - AP

Craig Counsell slides into third during the first inning Wednesday. He was out (or called out, anyway) trying to stretch a double into a triple.

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W: Adam Wainwright (18-7)
L: Jeff Suppan (6-9)

HR: Felipe Lopez (9) Albert Pujols 2 (47)

MVP: Jody Gerut (+.028)
LVP: Jeff Suppan (-.140)

Win Expectancy Graph
SBNation Coverage

Maybe the whole "no TV" thing wasn't as bad as we thought. Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals shut down the Brewers today, finishing off a 1-5 homestand for the Crew.

Meanwhile, Jeff Suppan was Jeff Suppan, allowing nine baserunners and four earned runs in five innings of work and pushing his season ERA back over 5.00. Albert Pujols hit a two run shot off of him in the fifth inning, then hit another solo shot off of Chris Narveson in the seventh. Narveson saved the bullpen by pitching three innings in relief and allowing just two hits, including Pujols' home run.

Three of the Brewers' six hits went for extra bases, including two doubles, one of which was immediately negated when Craig Counsell was thrown out trying to extend his to a triple in the first inning. Felipe Lopez hit a solo home run in the eighth to break the shutout. Of the eleven Brewers who came to the plate in the game, only Jody Gerut (1-for-3 with a walk) had a positive WPA contribution. Chris Smith, who pitched a scoreless ninth, was the only other Brewer in positive numbers, at +.004.