SB Nation - Jose Valentin

Tuesday's Frosty Mug

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

Craig Counsell slides right into the projected 2010 roster.

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.

Why Omar Minaya Failed And What It Means For The Future

Sam Page — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:00:22 -0000

On July 27, 2002, Omar Minaya, then General Manager of the Montreal Expos, traded Lee Steven, Brandon Phillips, Grady Sizemore, and Cliff Lee to Mark Shapiro's Indians for Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew.

In 2002, Major League Baseball owned the Expos. The offseason before, the Expos had narrowly avoided contraction, because the Twins, the other team in line for contraction, had another year on their lease of the Metrodome. In a month the league would agree to a new collective bargaining agreement that barred contraction, but at the time it still seemed a possibility. So MLB's proxy GM, Minaya, looked for a player to maybe help the Expos win a Wild Card berth, a parting gift for Montreal.

One of the many front-office personnel the Expos shed under their reorganization by MLB was Tony LaCava, their farm director. He jumped to the Indians as a cross-checker. When Omar Minaya called Mark Shapiro about Bartolo Colon, Tony LaCava handpicked the prospects the Indians would receive. When the trade was announced, Shapiro, like Bill Smith would be six years later, was denounced as a young GM over his head. It also marked the first time, Minaya got "his guy" in a trade.

I recall this point in baseball history because it has much to do with why both of these men are currently employed as general managers. Both of these general managers are also coming off 90-loss seasons in the wake of playoff aspirations. Omar Minaya and Mark Shapiro, however, couldn't be more different.

Omar Minaya is a former pro-baseball player, drafted out of high school. Early in Minaya's tenure with the Mets, his success was championed as an exemplar of old-fashioned roster construction. Before Minaya lost "his guys," the process entailed conference call between his scouts, Sandy Johnson and Tony Bernazard, and his paperwork guy, John Ricco. This franchise doesn't just contrast the careful calculation of other front offices, it advertises the fact: "Paperwork, that's false hustle. It takes away creativity. People who are into paperwork are into covering their asses, so if things go wrong they can point to all the work they did."

No team evidences false hustle better than the Indians. Mark Shapiro graduated from Princeton and has a reputation as one of the smartest GM's in baseball. Like Minaya, Shapiro surrounded himself with men of similar background--his sidekick Chris Antonetti is a Georgetown man. The Indians under Shapiro have developed a process, which involves a lot of "paperwork," most famously, the proprietary DiamondView system, supposed to quantify a players' holistic value. As Antonetti described the goal of DiamondView: "There's still this level of variability, but we've reduced it to the smallest level we can." The Indians, the front office, are the progressive group many Mets fans clamor for, but the Indians, the team, are the 90-game losers Mets fans are sick of watching.

Therein is an interesting point of comparison: how did these two seemingly polar-opposite executives, who launched each other's career with the most lopsided trade of the decade, end up at a similar point? Of course, there's no easy answer--'They both forgot to hit the win button!'--and the two situations are, to an extent, unique. Still, one would expect the American League's smartest GM and the National League's highest payroll to battle for the playoffs, not the sixth pick in the first-year player draft.

A recent post at Let's Go Tribe entitled "Fire Everyone! - Mark Shapiro" came up with an answer, thought not a completely comfortable one. The article was the last in a series of posts on why, obviously, everyone should be fired, so there's a sense the author is playing devil's advocate. Still, he raises an interesting point about the nature of the GM's job, and this article is largely an addendum to it, so give it a read too. The crux of his argument and the cliff notes version of the post is neatly summarized here:

For all that, however, the brilliant executive can't necessarily tell you whether it's better to overspend on Raul Ibañez or Kerry Wood. He can't necessarily devise a process to tell you that, and he can't necessarily hire the right person to tell you that, either. Nor can he devise a process to hire the right person to tell you that. It doesn't always come down to objective analysis or having a good process. Sometimes it comes down to talent: the talent to play, the talent to evaluate talent, the talent to develop talent, and the judgment to make decisions about talent.

Jay argues that evaluating talent, if not innate, is at least a skill in and of itself. The Colon-trade was Shapiro's signature move, but LaCava, the scout, handpicked the players he would receive. The laundry list of players Shapiro has acquired from horse-trading is impressive, but none match up to Lee-Sizemore-Phillips. In fact, with Huntington and LaCava long gone, is it coincidence that the returns on Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez were so underwhelming?

Maybe, but I am more interested in the way this situation runs counter to the assessment I constantly hear, and occasionally have given, of Omar Minaya: "He's a great scout and evaluator of talent, but is too sloppy with resources. The Mets would be better suited with a more statistically-inclined GM." Is this Shapiro/Minaya comparison a two parts to whole situation, where one lacks the scouting acumen, the other a supercomputer called DiamondView?

First, consider Minaya's scouting reputation. Starting out as an international scout with the Rangers, he signed Sammy Sosa. That's the kind of signing you can hang your hat on, and Minaya has, as the other players he signed include non-entities: Chris Colon, Ruben Mateo, Jorge Toca, and Timo Perez(!). He also signed Fernando Tatis and Joaquin Benoit, who became pretty good players. Still, including my performance-enhanced namesake, not exactly the greatest list in the world, but a good one.

This reputation comes equally from his supposed ability to "identify players who can help the Mets" and get them, irrespective of costs. It sounds basic, but seemingly describes whatever Shapiro lacked when deciding "whether it's better to overspend on Raul Ibañez or Kerry Wood," as Jay says. Call them Minaya's guys, as in "Omar got his guy" or Minaya's favorite synonym for person.

It started with his two biggest free-agent pick-ups: Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran. Pedro's talent was obvious, but the contract was a minor disaster as he was injured through most of it. Minaya claimed that Pedro "made the brand," i.e. made the Mets more attractive to international free agents, but the jury is still out on that one. His other big signing, Carlos Beltran, will undoubtedly go down as the biggest success of his tenure. Beltran, one of the few true five-tool players left in baseball, has been worth significantly more than his $18M/year. It's unclear to what extent Minaya predicted, or even knows, that to be true, as he likely just sought to get Beltran for the best price he could, without any precise estimation of his value. In fact, Beltran was supposedly someone Minaya didn't get the green light to sign in Texas. Carlos had been Minaya's guy for a while.

When the Mets were at their best, in 2006, his guys were nearly always coming through. In a 2006 article, Dave Studeman identified ten players that Minaya picked up on the cheap and became integral parts of the great '06 squad: Chad Bradford, Darren Oliver, Duaner Sanchez, Pedro Feliciano, Jose Valentin, John Maine, Endy Chavez, Roberto Hernandez, Guillermo Mota, and Oliver Perez. Players like Jose Valentin, a guy no one else would expect to be a starting-caliber second baseman, were making Minaya look like a genius, like he had that something Mark Shapiro lacked. Those were ten moves that get you on the cover of Sports Illustrated, that made people pay attention when you started talking about "false hustle," as if it were secret knowledge.

In the conclusion to that piece, Studeman writes, "It may be luck, it may be skill. It may be the result of a team with money taking good calculated risks." Here's a hint: six of those players were relievers, the most luck-dependent players in baseball. Ultimately, though, time revealed the truth: it was luck. Even from that original list, of the seven he retained, five fizzled out, either from injuries or ineffectiveness. Regarding the other two, Endy Chavez was replaced by the awful Jeremy Reed and Pedro Feliciano became the last man standing in several subsequent bullpen failures.

Then, Minaya started to display some bad tendencies. He became too loyal to his guys: if a reliever with poor skills floundered in the first-half, Minaya would trust him to right the ship. Similarly, as if to underscore that he had done something right, Minaya would pay ridiculously over-market contracts to previous buy-low pick-ups, like Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo, negating the value that made the moves good in the first place. He proved unable to manage injury risks, entrusting Moises Alou and John Maine with serious duties while keeping no reliable back-ups on hand. Minaya's front office overreacted to small sample sizes, see: Omir Santos, Marlon Anderson, and Daniel Murphy. He gave away Heath Bell, Brian Bannister, and Darren O'Day.

Yet, none of these miscues sticks out as a particularly strong indictment of his ability's as a scout, just as a talent evaluator. Moises Alou was a great player, when he played. He was a horrible pick-up for a team that needed a reliable, everyday left-fielder. On the major league level, talent evaluation involves using the most accurate objective measures to evaluate a player's track record, something observation can't do reliably, in any sport or field. These past few years, the Mets would have been better suited with a Mark Shapiro-type, with no particular scouting expertise, but an ability to objectively evaluate major-league talent and make sound business decisions. With a large payroll and the established core of Wright/Reyes, it seems the Mets badly needed some false hustle, some paperwork, some stability, not a huge gamble at 15 of the the 25 roster spots every season.

But maybe it is too late for that. As fielding stats get more widely accepted, it seems a glorified Moneyball scenario, where a few teams with superior objective analysis carry an edge, is becoming less likely. As more players, are signing long-term deals with the teams that drafted them, and fewer are hitting free agency, the statistical analysis the Mets have been so neglectful of becomes just the baseline. Indeed, as Jay wrote about some of the most successful teams around the league: "it's noteworthy that other organizations that have gone with the 'Ivy League whiz kid' GM model tend to have a 'wise old baseball man' figure hanging close by, advising the gifted non-scout executive. The Red Sox had Bill Lajoie attached to Theo Epstein; Allard Baird is in that role now, while Lajoie is now advising Huntington in Pittsburgh. The Rays put Gerry Hunsicker with Andrew Friedman, and down in Texas, Jon Daniels has access to no less than John Hart and Nolan Ryan." With that pattern in mind, I was encouraged to read that the Wilpons convinced Sandy Johnson to stay out of retirement, allegedly in preparation for a non-Minaya centric front office.

For similar reasons, these forces will also probably push forward the mythical symbiosis of scouting and statistics that everyone pays lip-service to but isn't quite sure what they're referring to. More than just pitchf/x and hitf/x, the observation of both amateur and professional talent will come down to hyper-specific scouting reports that use data and observation to spot trends of growth or deterioration in a player's skills. And maybe, even then, it will take some "wise old baseball man," with a special eye for talent, to build the best franchise.

On December 10, 2008, the Mets, Indians, and Mariners completed a three-way trade, in which the Mariners received Aaron Heilman, Endy Chavez, Jason Vargas, Mike Carp, Ezequiel Carrera, Maikel Cleto, and Franklin Gutierrez. The Mets received J.J. Putz, Jeremy Reed, and Sean Green, while the Indians received Joe Smith and Luis Valbuena.

This trade, for me, perfectly encapsulates two failed models for a front office and the future of a what it means to a successful one. Omar Minaya acquired a talented player with serious injury concerns, and severely downgraded two known major-league entities, presumably not knowing he did. Shapiro acquired a minor league infielder with good stats, but a "bad body" and mixed scouting reports. While there is plenty of time for him to improve, Valbuena was merely replacement level this season. Meanwhile, Jack Zduriencik, the long-time scouting director who understands and embraces statistical analysis, brought in a 6-WAR centerfielder and a boatload of interesting prospects.

The Mets under Minaya were famed for embracing multiple perspectives, both of the scout and the statistician. Sadly, they failed to understand how those roles fit into a functioning front office. First, they need a reliable process for evaluating and valuing major league talent, a la the Indians. Then, they can get their "guys."

Monday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:46:19 -0000

More photos » by Al Behrman - AP

Keith Law says the Brewers spent too much on Trevor Hoffman.

Browse more photos »

Some things to read while the tables are turned.

View From Bernie's Chalet has the transcript of a recent chat with Keith Law over at ESPN where he touched on several Brewer-related topics, but the most notable was probably Trevor Hoffman. He thinks the Brewers made a mistake bringing Hoffman back at the price they're paying, and that it will handicap their efforts to improve the team elsewhere.

Admittedly, $8 million is a lot to pay a reliever, but it's possible there's a perception benefit from having an elite closer. When the Brewers announced the Hoffman signing, Doug Melvin suggested free agent pitchers may be more likely to sign with a club with an established closer. I have no idea if it's true, but I suppose it's possible. And if Hoffman pitches a full, effective season as a Brewer and notches his 600th save, it's possible he'll pay for himself in publicity and marketing.

Elsewhere on the pitching front, rumors continue to swirl around the possibility that the Brewers could have interest in Mark Mulder. Mulder probably can't be depended upon for significant innings, but bringing a pitcher of his caliber into the fold on a cheap deal to see what he can do is almost always a good idea.

Mulder, of course, pitched under Rick Peterson in Oakland. Mets Merized recently conducted an interview with Peterson, and has audio clips of some of Peterson's thoughts on developing prospects and pitch counts. (h/t Rob Neyer)

Although unlikely, it's still possible Peterson could spend 2010 helping Ben Sheets return to form. Sheets, who had his high school number retired this weekend, is throwing off flat ground and expects to pitch in the majors next season. Jorge Says No! wonders what he'll get on the open market.

If Jeff Suppan was on the market this offseason, he likely wouldn't command much at all. Suppan was the winner of Brew City Sports' Hendy Award, which will look great on his mantle next to a photocopy of the $12.5 million paycheck he'll take home next season.

Hopefully this will be the only career parallel between Suppan and Ryan Braun: Braun is opening a restaurant in Lake Geneva. Braun is also giving away autographed baseballs to the first 100 fans to spend at least $150 on Remetee clothing at Solis in Las Vegas. If you stop by in January, there might still be some left.

We won't know the actual results until sometime after the World Series, but Baseball Digest Daily had Prince Fielder third in their balloting for NL MVP, and Braun fifth.

The JS has a note on Jonathan Lucroy's early performance in the AFL, which has been pretty impressive. He's only racked up 19 at bats, though, so it's probably a little early to get too excited. Tom H. also mentions "poor starts" from both Lorenzo Cain and Taylor Green. Both are hitting under .250 but have OBPs of .364 and .400, respectively (in 50 combined ABs). We have more on all three prospects and the rest of the Brewer winter leaguers in today's Fall/Winter League Update.

Around baseball:

Cubs: Removed utilityman Bobby Scales from their 40-man roster.
Indians: Hired Manny Acta as their new manager.
Mets: Removed catcher Robinson Cancel, shortstops Wilson Valdez and Argenis Reyes and pitcher Carlos Muniz from their 40-man roster.
Padres: Are expected to name former Red Sox Assistant GM Jed Hoyer as their new GM.

After two searches and interviews involving over a dozen candidates, the Indians and Astros both settled on Acta as the best candidate to manage their teams next season. The Indians, however, were willing to offer a three-year deal with an option for a fourth, and the Astros were only willing to offer two years. Houston is reportedly considering Red Sox bench coach Brad Mills and former Astros and Brewers manager Phil Garner.

So, the World Series matchup is set. I guess I'll be rooting for the Phillies out of sheer anti-Yankee bias and some form of vague NL pride. Rob Neyer notes that it'd be nice if the games started earlier, so they won't drag on past midnight, but that seems unlikely. Meanwhile, the new Yankee Stadium didn't even make it through its first season without some structural concerns: cracks in pedestrian ramps have already started to appear. The concrete was poured by a local firm that had previously been banned from doing city work because of suspected ties to organized crime.

The ALCS wasn't actually decided until late last night, but apparently the result was already known, as MLB.com started selling AL Champion Yankees gear well before the final out was recorded. This has drawn a lot of backlash but maybe we're looking at it the wrong way: Maybe MLB should start selling World Series gear for every team in Spring Training.

The Florida Winter Baseball League opens play this week with teams in four cities, composed mainly of low-level minor leaguers. I haven't checked the rosters for Brewers yet, but a successful, competitive winter league based in Florida could be a huge development for American minor leaguers who want to play winter ball but either don't speak Spanish or simply don't want to spend the winter in Latin America.

If you'd like to read more about life in the Arizona Fall League but your attention span is really short, then you're the perfect candidate to follow Scottsdale Scorpions Clubhouse Manager Chad Chiffin on Twitter.

While some minor leaguers head off to winter ball, one major leaguer will spend the offseason in Washington: Pirates pitcher Ross Ohlendorf is spending the offseason on an internship with the Department of Agriculture.

Last week I mentioned the continuing debate on John Lannan, who has posted effective ERAs for two seasons without many of the peripheral stats one would expect from a successful pitcher. Nick Steiner of The Hardball Times has Part 2 of his look at Lannan, looking primarily at pitch sequencing. Steiner concludes that luck is the most likely option.

I'm going to be late for Gorman's vet appointment if I don't wrap this up asap, so here's what I have left:

Minor leaguer Shawn Haviland on the importance of throwing two of the first three pitches for strikes.
Recondite Baseball on hitters who hit .300 but had short careers anyway.

Happy birthday today to Rafael Novoa, who pitched 56 innings for the 1993 Brewers and turns 42 today, and to Mark Sweeney, who appeared in 119 games for the 2000-2001 Brewers and turns 40.

Also, a posthumous happy birthday to Gus Polidor, who would have turned 48 today.

That's all I've got for you today, unless you want to see a Jose Valentin autograph or win one from Miguel Tejada.

And if you'd like to win something autographed by Seth McClung, don't forget to enter the Bring Back Seth McClung contest.

Drink up.

Mets Birthdays, October 12th

Eric Simon — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:08:08 -0000

Happy Birthday to these former Mets:

Sid Fernandez (1962)

Year	IP	WAR
1984	90	1.1
1985	170.3	3.7
1986	204.3	2.7
1987	156	1.5
1988	187	3
1989	219.3	3.2
1990	179.3	2.3
1991	44	0.9
1992	214.7	5.5
1993	119.7	3

Jose Valentin (1969)

Year	PA	WAR
2006	421	3.4
2007	181	0.1

Monday's Frosty Mug

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

More photos » by Tom Mihalek - AP

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.

Browse more photos »

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.

Omar Minaya Has To Go

Sam Page — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:00:14 -0000

In his opening press conference with the Mets, Omar Minaya immediately expressed a desire to make the team "younger and more athletic." In his ad-hoc press conference with the Mets yesterday, Minaya said (and I'm paraphrasing) "Were' investigating it with an investigation...We're going to investigate it....investigaty investigations."

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. This season, as the Mets have fallen out of contention, calls for Omar Minaya's firing have expectantly increased. In fact, the rumblings were present before the team's slide, as the Oliver Perez contract looked like a bust from the get-go. The calls for Minaya's job, however, are hardly universal, as his defenders cite the bad luck with injuries. So the debate goes:

"Fire omAr!!"
"No, it's not his fault, too many injuries."
"He should have better backups."
"No team can lose three of their best hitters and win."

And that's where it ends. The Minaya-defenders often come out of this argument looking more rational, because the fire-Omar position boils down to "we're losing." The main argument defending Minaya, "no team can lose that many players and be good," often goes unchallenged. Which is a shame, since it's wrong. The Boston Red Sox play in the A.L. East and have a lower payroll than the Mets. They have a well above-average defense, offense, and pitching staff. If the Red Sox were to lose David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Tim Wakefield, and Hideki Okajima and be thrown into the N.L. East, they'd beat the Phillies by at least five games. Their pitching staff would still be about 80 runs better than the Phillies, while their offense would only be marginally downgraded by slotting Adam LaRoche, Lars Anderson, Rocco Baldelli, and Jed Lowrie in for the injured position players. They have so much pitching depth, they could lose Dice-K, Penny, and Wakefield and have a better rotation the next morning. The Mets, for the same payroll, have one of the the worst rotations in the league. The only (non-fictional) injury to that rotation this season has been John Maine, a player who could barely throw the ball before spring training opened.

That's why the injury responsibility debate is a red-herring. Yes, the Mets would be in contention without those injuries. I do not deny that. Still, they'd only be in contention because they have enough great players to outweigh otherwise shoddy roster construction in a weak division. This season has not changed my opinion of Omar Minaya, it's validated it. The same people who once crooned for the Oliver Perez signing are printing "Fire Omar" T-Shirts because a giant spotlight has been cast on the rest of the roster. The Mets have been successful because they have four of the best players in the National League all playing premium positions, half of whom Minaya acquired. As somewhat of a side note, that's why it's always hard to compare the Mets' injury situation to other teams. No single other team has their three best position players at premium defensive positions. If the Mets didn't dump their garbage at first and in left, they would run away with this division every year.

Which is the main problem: Omar Minaya simply has not put enough talent on the field to make the Mets a championship organization. They can make the playoffs. Every year, there's a good shot. But they don't, and that's because he's wasted too much money and left too many holes in the roster every year. The Phillies never acquired a Johan Santana, they didn't have to. They just sat there and waited for the Mets to get worse on their way to the title. It's funny, because I used to think finding complementary players was Minaya's strength, because he continually struck gold (mostly in the bullpen) with every little trade he made in 2006. From that article:

It may be luck, it may be skill. It may be the result of a team with money taking good calculated risks. Whatever it is, Minaya's had it this year.

Turns out it was luck. The strength of the 2006 Mets, their bullpen, was made of good, not great, relievers who had career years. Such is the nature of the bullpen; in such small sample sizes, it's basically a coin flip between Mota-2006 and Mota-2007. That's why smart teams fill their bullpen with players with skills, namely high strikeout rates, that avoid the luck element of balls in play. David Aardsma isn't some lucky fluke that has become a shutdown closer out of the blue. He's got great skills, and is a guy USSMariner identified as a potentially good reliever for the M's last year. The last two pitchers with such skills in the Mets organization? Heath Bell and Billy Wagner. One got a big contract, the other was given away. Instead of investing in pitchers like Bell, who miss bats, the Mets threw a bunch of money at the now-infamous Mota and Scott Schoeneweis, who's only skill is being left-handed. The Mets didn't realize how lucky they were on many counts that year, with Beltran's career year, LoDuca's fluky BABIP-inflated average, and Jose Valentin's existence. None of those things, including the performance of their entire bullpen, could be expected to return the next year, but they sat there like next season started with a re-do of Game 7.

This inability to construct a good bullpen and bench has led to another conclusion I was previously averse to: it's nearly impossible for a General Manager that shuns sabremetrics to be successful in today's game. The emphasis on smart money management, coupled with the rise of young, underpaid superstars, has left extremely well-managed small-market teams like the Rays in too good a position. This point is NOT some trite stats vs. scouts argument, because obviously the Rays would be much worse off without the guys who take a radar gun down to Vanderbilt to watch David Price. Simply put, people who consider themselves scouts, and oppose sabremetrics, should not be put in charge of the asset management elements of a team (i.e. the position of General Manager). Besides Minaya, I would say Bill Smith of the Twins is a great example of this principle. The Twins are successful because they drafted a slew of good pitchers and Joe Mauer. Still, Bill Smith's tenure as GM has been mixed because he hasn't properly gotten maximum value for his money, trading Johan Santana, extending Jason Kubel, trading for Delmon Young, among other questionable moves.

I think Omar Minaya is a good scout, who knows how to get "his guy". That's proven by the acquisitions of Francisco Rodriguez, Carlos Beltran, and Johan Santana. Still, no one with a reasonable grip on advanced fielding metrics would throw $4 million this offseason at Alex Cora, Cory Sullivan, and Rob Mackowiak. That's Dayton Moore, "I can see who can field," territory of roster mismanagement. That's why people are right the Mets shouldn't be this bad with this amount of money, why the Buffalo Bisons are so freaking awful. The Mets build depth, useless, counterproductive depth. Ramon Martinez and Angel Berroa will only make your team worse, there are better players out there making league minimum. Good GMs simply don't employ these types of players, at the risk they somehow have to use them.

That being said, I don't blame Omar Minaya for not having enough prospects to fill in for this season's injuries. Few teams can just call up top prospects for a bunch of positions they actually had blocked anyway. The two players the Mets could have most used this season, Carlos Gomez and Mike Carp, were traded with the intention of making the big league roster better. I think Minaya's doing a good job with the farm, despite his foolish reluctance to bust slot in the draft. When he does get a first-round pick, he hits, and when he hands out a big bonus to an international free-agent, they more often than not work out. That's why I think it's ludicrous the Mets are looking to make the scouting department a scapegoat this season (really, no medical staff?). Sorry John Harper, you missed the whole point, Mejia and Holt are great.

Instead, I think the larger problem, and my second big criticism of Minaya, is that he lacks a coherent plan. I don't mean Minaya's plan is just to sign big free agents and trade the farm, despite what that one anonymous scout assigned to Buffalo has been telling all the Mets beat writers. No, Minaya lacks coherent plans to build a complete team, which relates to the idea of complementary players discussed above. If I could condense this entire critique down to one word it would be "myopic." In 2008, Minaya focused on starting pitching and got Santana, leaving the bullpen an open wound. This offseason, it was all-bullpen all-the time and the Mets fielded their worst starting rotation in recent memory. Tim Redding and Livan Hernandez are the Ramon Martinez and Angel Berroa of the starting rotation. They don't eat innings, they cancel out Johan's contributions. The Mets rotation, despite featuring Johan Santana, are 23.8 runs below the average staff, somehow worse than a team that has Joe Blanton, Chan Ho Park, and Jamie Moyer.

The most annoying part of this offseason, indeed, was Minaya's insistence that they couldn't pursue outfielders because "they were working on their pitching." Coming from a team that "brainstormed" Francoeur-for-Church, that excuse just rings pathetic. Hey Mr. Wilpon, there are 100,000 Mets fans on the internet everyday who fix your bullpen AND lineup during their lunchbreak, and they do it for free (albeit with varying levels of success).

Before this season, I thought the Mets could win, but only in spite of what Minaya had done. The most positive move he had made was signing Gary Sheffield, a guy who even Gary Sheffield thought would be a pinch-hitter. Alas, Sheffield became the one player holding the Mets together, not because he is really that good, but because the "plan" in left was one Daniel Murphy, who had modest success in AA and a fluky BABIP in the majors the year before. Just to prove hindsight isn't 20-20, I humbly submit that I had these same qualms before the season, including Oliver Perez possibly exploding, the core getting injured, Maine's arm falling off, and Murphy being bad. The difference between my optimism then and my apathy now is all that bad stuff happened, and everyone gets to watch those holes in the roster magnified times 100.

The in-season management has only exacerbated the problem. The Santos-trade, the Francoeur-trade, and the release of Darren O'Day (has a better tRA in the American League than K-Rod has on the Mets right now), have been plain stupid. If Minaya's saving grace is identifying talent, I'm worried.

Amidst all this Bernazard craziness, Peter Gammons said something interesting yesterday about Tony B. undermining Minaya by both having a stronger relationship with Wilpon and by being the architect of the laughable minor-league depth. I'm not sure whether that reflects better or worse on Omar, but either way it suggests he's losing control of the team. I'm starting a campaign. It's not "FIRE OMAR." It's "Fire Bernazard, demote Minaya." The biggest defense of Minaya is that he brought the team out of obscurity, which is partially true. But if this season has taught us anything, it's that Steve Phillips' baseball intellect can make anyone look good. The Mets need a Chris Antonini or a Neal Huntington, a young dynamic leader who understands the finer points of player value to finish off the job Minaya started.

Omar Minaya is the scout who discovered Jose Reyes, not the General Manager who is going to put a ring on his finger.

Manny, Dodgers Return Home To Face Astros

Eric Stephen — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:00:13 -0000

More photos » by Morry Gash - AP

Manny Ramirez will don the home whites for the first time in 71 days tonight against the Astros.

Browse more photos »

The first home game for Manny Ramirez since May 6 is tonight, as the Dodgers host the Astros for the first game of a four-game set.

Here are a few streaks the Dodgers will take into the game:

The Dodgers are undefeated at home this season with Manny Ramirez, winning their first 13 home contests before his 50-game suspension. Since Manny became a Dodger last season, the Dodgers are 31-7 at home in the regular season.
James Loney has an 11-game hitting streak, during which time he's hitting .302/.400/.488.
Manny Ramirez has reached base in each of his last five plate appearances, and has reached base via hit or walk in each of his last 17 games started. He is hitting .393/.521/.804 during that span.
The Dodgers have won the opening game in each of their last six series

Randy Wolf changed his number to 43 before his last start, and won to bring his record to 4-3. I don't believe there are plans to temporarily un-retire Don Drysdale's number for Wolf tonight. Wandy Rodriguez, who threw a five-hit shutout in his last start eight days ago, striking out 11 Pirates, will toe the pitching rubber for the Astros.

Reliever Alberto Arias for the Astros has not allowed a run since May 25, a string of 19.1 consecutive scoreless innings.

Odd stat of the day, per the daily Dodger notes: "With a cycle April 13 vs. San Francisco and homers from both sides of the plate in the same game Sunday at Milwaukee , Orlando Hudson is the first player in modern Dodgers franchise history to accomplish both feats in the same season. In fact, he is just the fifth player in the Majors since the advent of divisional play in 1969 to turn the trick, joining Jose Reyes and Carlos Guillen in 2006, Mark Teixeira in 2004, and Jose Valentin in 2000."

Now that Manny is back home, the Dodgers have decided to revive the Mannywood section in left field. As Ken Gurnick reports:

"We welcome him back with open arms, but we aren't glorifying his return," Charles Steinberg, the team's executive vice president of communications, told The Associated Press. "The magic of the return is the embrace from the fans that will see him again. We're keeping the focus on the team, of which Manny is an integral part."

I can always trust Steinberg for a secret Journey reference!

Meanwhile, one of Manny's outfield roster substitutes, Jamie Hoffmann has started a blog now that he's back in Albuquerque. A quick look at some of his comments shows why he was a popular player with the Dodgers:

AB.com: Is the Mighty Ducks series the greatest hockey movies of all-time?

JH: No chance, not even close. I like Slap Shot. Slap Shot was my favorite hockey movie.

Excellent answer!

AB.com: What was the last karaoke song you sang?

JH: Good question. My go-to karaoke song is the song from Top Gun - "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin'."

You have to respect a man with a "go-to" karaoke song.

AB.com: Those ESPN afternoon shows with the reporters....why are they always yelling at each other?

JH: They have too much TV time. There are just so many hours in the day and they have to talk about something. We just watched NFL Live. The NFL doesn't start for how long - why do you need a half hour show right now?

Well said, Jamie. See you in September at Dodger Stadium!

Mark & Brian of KLOS radio will throw out the ceremonial first pitch tonight.

Get your guesses in for "Clogging The Bases" here.

Game Time: 7:10pm

TV: KCAL

Baseball Reference Preview

Milestone Monday, July 13

TheJay — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:00:19 -0000

It's All-Star Monday, which means there isn't much going on until tonight's Home Run Derby. I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the career and season milestones achieved by Brewers players recently. This will probably turn into a weekly feature, though having half of this week off doesn't leave much time for setting new marks. That's okay, though, as there's usually something out there.

Milestones Achieved This Week:

The Crew lost 5-0 last Tuesday, but Craig Counsell showed up to play. The plucky veteran singled to lead off the third inning and stole second base during Prince Fielder's at bat. The steal was Counsell's third of the season, and more notably, the 100th of his career.
This one belongs in the "Where Has The Time Gone?" file. When he took the field on Saturday night, Prince Fielder appeared in his 600th major league game. The big first baseman became only the 25th Brewer ever to appear in 600 games for the club. Bill Hall leads active Brewers with 820 games while Robin Yount played in a franchise record 2856 contests. Prince just seems too young to have played almost four full seasons.
Staying with Prince, he walked three times in Sunday's game. The first walk was the 300th of his career. That makes him seventeenth in Brewers history, between Johnny Briggs and Jose Valentin. If he keeps walking at anything resembling his current pace for the rest of the year, he'll vault up to 12th by October.
Last but not least, rookie Mat Gamel hit the first sacrifice fly of his career on Friday. He won't stay at one for long but while he's there, he's tied with Brewers luminaries like Jeff Liefer, Matt Stairs, Chuckie Carr, Ned Yost, and Phil Roof.

Things to Watch For:

Sometime in the next few weeks, Jason Kendall will pass Gary Carter for third all-time on the total chances accepted by a catcher list. He currently sits at 12964, 145 behind Carter's 13109. Kendall averages 7.5 chances per start.
Continuing with the Kendall theme, his next at bat will be the 7000th of his career. He'll be only the ninth catcher to reach that level.
Jody Gerut is 2 RBI away from 200 for his career. He might get there this year.
Corey Hart is only six walks away from his career high of 36. He hasn't walked since July 3, however.
Casey McGehee is one grand slam away from the Brewers rookie record for grand slams by a rookie. He's currently tied with six others, most recently JJ Hardy in 2005, at one.

Wednesday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:44:59 -0000

Some things to read while acknowledging that the world would be better off without some people.

Another sigh of relief is in order this morning, as X-rays on Ryan Braun's thumb came back negative. Braun lost a fly ball in the lights in last night's 6-4 loss to the Padres and, as a baseball tends to do, it found a delicate place to hit him. He suffered a contusion and will likely be off today, but could play again as soon as tomorrow.

Braden Looper continues to work to catch up with his teammates in his preparations for the season. Looper gave up two earned runs (four total) in four innings last night, but gave up two home runs and was hit hard in general. He'll get one more minor league start before the home opener.

Tony Gwynn Jr. was given another opportunity to prove he belongs in the field last night, and was not impressive. In fact, "not impressive" might be understating it a bit, so Chuckie Hacks took it to the next level. Tuesday's JS Camp Report had this to say about Gwynn's chances of making the team:

Asked if Brad Nelson (.370, 3 HRs, 15 RBI) and Chris Duffy (.313, 8 doubles, 11 RBI) deserved to claim the reserve outfield jobs over Tony Gwynn Jr. (.167) for the same reason, Macha said, "I'd probably say that's the case but they're not on yet. We'll have to see. You'll have to ask me that question in a couple of days."

Brewed Sports has a familiar name in mind to fill Gwynn's roster spot. Geoff Jenkins was cut loose by the Phillies yesterday, and could be available for next to nothing. It's important to remember, though, that the Brewers would likely have to DFA Brad Nelson to make room for him. Nelson will likely produce at a similar level for the Brewers this season, and when he's done he'll still be under team control for five more years.

A side note on Jenkins: Gary Sheffield was also let go yesterday, but FanGraphs compared the two former Brewers and thinks Jenkins has more to offer a team at this point.

While nothing is official yet, it appears Casey McGehee has made the team, as Mike Lamb will not. Lamb has until 11 am today to decide if he would like to become a free agent or go to the minors. If he decides to stay with the Brewer organization, he'll have to clear waivers to be sent down. He'll make $3 million (from the Twins) to be a below average corner infielder this season anyway, so it's hard to feel too bad for him.

Ken Macha tried out a new lineup wrinkle yesterday, batting Corey Hart second and J.J. Hardy fifth. It's an interesting concept: putting Hart in front of Braun and Fielder could force pitchers to throw him more strikes. It will only work, though, if Hart learns to take a pitch from time to time. If pitchers know they can get him out with junk out of the zone, there's no reason to change their approach to him at all.

Barring something unforeseen, Mark DiFelice will be on an Opening Day roster for the first time in his 12 year professional career. Tom H. has a profile that talks about DiFelice's long road to the majors.

By the way, if you're headed out to Miller Park to catch DiFelice and the rest of the Brewers on Opening Day, Miller Park Drunk wants you to dress for success.

If you've already purchased tickets for a Brewer game this season, you're one of 1.75 million fans who have done so, which means you'll also probably be one of 1.75 million fans waiting in line at the new discount concession stand.

You probably won't see these guys, though: The Brewers are suing another suite holder for failure to pay. This time, it's Big League Promotions and Marketing of Waukesha. Apparently they weren't Big League enough.

Brian Anderson posted a new blog before last night's FS Wisconsin telecast and has a preview of some of the upcoming interviews Brewer fans can expect to see as part of the telecasts.

Peter Gammons says 2009 is the year for Rickie Weeks, but if you don't believe him, The Grand National Championships is making a case for it too.

On Rankings/Previews/Predictions and whatnot:

Bucs Dugout has the Brewers finishing second in the Central.
Sports Illustrated also has the Brewers second in the division, but says they could make a run at the Cubs by trading Prince Fielder for pitching and replacing him with Mat Gamel, who still has not played one inning at first base.
Lukekohler.com also has the Brewers finishing second.
Desipio.com predicts the Brewers will win 81 games and tie with the Reds for third place.
Sharapova's Thigh thinks the Brewers will finish right around .500.
Wheelhouse Radio has the Brewers finishing fifth.
Canada Free Press also has the Brewers fifth, along with a bandwidth-sucking website that made this morning's Mug five minutes later all by itself.
Sixty Feet, Six Inches has the Brewers fourth in the Central.
C70 at the Bat also has the Brewers fourth.
MLB Playoff Odds simulated the season 10,000 times using CHONE projections and predicts the Brewers will win about 79.8 games.
Stan Musial's Stance has the Brewers fourth in the division.
The Replacement Level Yankees Weblog simulated the season 6000 times, with 1000 simulations each for six projection systems. The Brewers averaged 81.9 wins and finished in second more often than any other position.
Vigilante Sports has the Brewers finishing second.
The Sports Guys rank the Brewers 26th in their preseason power rankings. I've started a petition to get them to become "The Fashion Guys."

Around the minors today, there are a couple of stories of note: Vinny Rottino is headed to Huntsville to play every day at third base. Also, Keith Law watched a Brewer minor league game this week and was impressed by the velocity of Brewer farmhand Pedro Lambertus, who could spend 2009 in Brevard County or Huntsville.

Meanwhile, in other camps:

Astros: Acquired Jeff Keppinger from the Reds for a player to be named later.
Braves: Signed Chipper Jones to a three year extension, keeping him in Atlanta through 2012.
Giants: Jonathan Sanchez will miss his final Cactus League start and could miss his first start of the regular season after burning his right index finger "cooking."
Marlins: Released Dallas McPherson.
Mets: Released Jose Valentin, Tony Armas Jr. and Junior Spivey.
Nationals: Released Wily Mo Pena.
Padres: The team is still looking to add relievers and could make a move for a player who's out of options.
Rays: Jason Isringhausen may not make the team and is not willing to accept a minor league assignment.
Tigers: Jeremy Bonderman will open the season on the DL with tightness in his shoulder.

Another day, another economic story: An AP poll showed 45% of baseball fans think baseball's biggest problem is its price tag. To a point they're right. Take another look at the note above about the Brewers reducing concession prices: the reduced price for soft serve ice cream is $3.50. That's after you spend $10 to park your car and pay "convenience fees" for the right to pay $30-$100 to watch a game.

With that said, the wording of the poll is problematic for me. The poll asked baseball fans for their opinion on the biggest problem facing the game, and they named a problem. If I handed you a $100 bill and asked you to name the biggest problem with it, you'd probably be able to find one. But all the game's problems put together weren't enough to keep participants from telling a pollster they were "interested" or "very interested" in baseball.

Of course, cool giveaways can help raise fan morale too. Giving a cardboard model of your team's new stadium to season ticket holders, however, may be too small of a gesture.

Are the rules somehow different in spring training? Dusty Baker was ejected from yesterday's Reds game, but instead of leaving the field, he remained in the dugout.

Statheads rejoice, you're about to have another new toy: two sources are going to start measuring the hang time of fly balls.

Oh, and if you'd like to make the trip to Davenport, Iowa this season, you could watch the Timber Rattlers play the Quad Cities River Bandits from a van down by the river.

Drink up.

Brewer WAR Lords: Shortstop

KLSnow — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:00:10 -0000

Today, we finish off the infield with shortstop.

Earlier in the series:

Catcher
First Base/DH
Second Base
Third Base

1. Robin Yount

Career WAR: 47.9 (1st)
Top three seasons: 25.5 (1st)
Top five seasons: 37 (1st)

If you didn't see this one coming, I'm going to go ahead and question your Brewer fanhood. Robin Yount and Cecil Cooper are the only Brewers ever to exceed 30 WAR at one position: Cooper had 31.2 at first base, and Yount had over sixteen more in eleven seasons at shortstop. Yount's 1982 MVP season was easily the greatest by a position player in Brewer history: Not only was he the AL MVP, he started the All Star game at shortstop, won a Gold Glove and a Sliver Slugger, led the AL in hits, doubles, slugging and OPS, finished second in batting average and runs scored, hit .331/.379/.578 and was worth 11.4 wins above replacement. That season was the centerpiece of a five year stretch from 1980-1984 where Yount was worth 37 wins above replacement, more than any other Brewer has ever posted at one position in their entire career.

2. Jose Valentin

Career WAR: 12.1 (2nd)
Top three seasons: 8.7 (2nd)
Top five seasons: 11.5 (2nd)

Before we start talking about Valentin, take another moment to consider how incredible Robin Yount was: The second best shortstop in Brewer history posted slightly more than 25% of Yount's career WAR.

Valentin was the Brewer shortstop of the 90's, making his Brewer debut in 1992 and departing following the 1999 season. During that stretch, Valentin posted an OPS+ below 100 in every season. WAR has 1996 as Valentin's best season: he hit .259/.336/.475 in 618 plate appearances and was worth 4.2 wins above replacement.

3. J.J. Hardy

Career WAR: 8 (3rd)
Top three seasons: 7.8 (3rd)
Top five seasons: 8 (3rd)

With a solid 2008 season, Hardy passed four players on the Brewer all-time list at shortstop. Total Zone rankings estimated Hardy's value at 19 runs defensively in 2008, which combined with a .283/.343/.478 line offensively and a premium defensive position made Hardy worth 4.6 wins above replacement. Again, though, a note on Yount's greatness: Hardy's career is off to a promising start, but he'd have to average 3.4 WAR for each of the next nine seasons to match what Robin Yount did in his eleven seasons at the position.

4. Bill Hall

Career WAR: 6.6 (4th)
Top three seasons: 6.6 (4th)
Top five seasons: 6.6 (4th)

Hall has played one season at third base, one in center field, two at second base and three at shortstop, but the three shortstop seasons represent most of Hall's career value. Obviously, the majority of Hall's career WAR were accumulated in 2006, when he hit .270/.345/.553 with 35 home runs and was worth 4.1 wins.

5. Pat Listach

Career WAR: 6.3 (5th)
Top three seasons: 6.3 (5th)
Top five seasons: 6.3 (5th)

Listach was the 1992 Rookie of the Year, finishing in the top 5 in the AL in both singles and stolen bases, hitting .290/.352/.340 and posting 4.6 WAR. He only played 354 games over the five seasons that followed, and only 149 more at shortstop.

Rounding out the top ten:

Pos.	Player	Career WAR	Rank	Top 3	Rank	Top 5	Rank
6.	Jose Hernandez	6.1	6	6.1	6	6.1	6
7.	Bill Spiers	4.3	7	4	7	4.3	7
8.	Mark Loretta	2	8	2	8	2	8
9.	Ernest Riles	1.3	9	1.3	9	1.3	9
10.	Dale Sveum	.9	10	.9	10	.9	10

Friday: Outfield