SB Nation User Blog: Infield Fly Rule

September Call-ups

Infield Fly Rule — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:30:36 -0000

As September 1st gets closer, I got to thinking about who may get added to the roster for the stretch run. The following is a brief list of players who may at least be in the discussion. The hitters...

From the DL: Branyan

From AAA: Rottino, Iribarren, Dillon, Nelson, Gwynn, Gibbons, Katin

From AA: Gamel, Escobar

From Elsewhere: Stocker

I am guessing Branyan is magically healed around the 1st (and if before than Nix gets added to the list). I would also assume that Rottino get added so that Rivera can get some rest and that Dillon and Gwynn are strong canidates. Maybe the AA guys get added to experience the pennet race. I also threw Stocker on the list since he was a surprise addition last year as a pinch runner. I also thought they may call him up again as a "reward" for going from AAA to A to fill an outfield spot when Darren Ford was traded.

Now the pitchers...

From AAA: Stetter, Dillard, DiFelice, Gulin, Erasmo Ramirez

I would think that the first two are almost automatic and that assumming DiFelice is healthy that he has a shot. Luis Pena may have been an option before he turned into Turnbow.

Winter League Update (II)

Infield Fly Rule — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:26:46 -0000

Also beginning action yesterday...

Mexican Winter League
Hermosillo 1-0

Steve Bray (started) 4.2 IP, 6H, 2 ER, 2 BB

Arizona Winter League
Mesa W 7-3

Matt LaPorta 1-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI, .200
Lou Palmisano 1-2, RBI, R
Adam Heather 0-3, RBI

Steve Hammond (started) 2 IP, 3H, 1R, 1 BB, 2 SO

Winter Leagues Update

Infield Fly Rule — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:13:38 -0000

The Hawaiian Winter League is a week into their season and here's what the Brewer's prospects there have done to date.

North Shore Honu 6-2, 1st place in West Division +4.0

Chris Errecart 3-5, .600, 1 HR, 3 RBI
Jonathon LuCroy 6-14, .429
Mat Gamel 10-29, .345, 3 2B, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 2 E
Stephen Chapman 2-10, .200

Omar Aguilar 1-0, 7.20 ERA, 3 BB, 2 SO, 5 IP
Kevin Roberts 1-0, 12.46 ERA, 1 SV, 3 BB, 3 SO, 4.1 IP

Gamel has a 2 HR game and a grand slam so far the first week. Mexican Winter League

Brewers Minor League Statistical Leaders

Infield Fly Rule — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:54:37 -0000

The following is the Brewers 2007 minor league leader board for batting statistics.

AB: Chuck Caufield 522
Brent Brewer 518
Darren Ford 499
Lorenzo Cain 482
Hernan Iribarren 479

R: Caufield 100
Ford 94
Andrew Lefave 90
Brewer 86
Calix Crabbe 84

H: Alicides Escobar 151
Caufield 149
Iribarren 147
Lefave 146
Mat Gamel 140

2B: Gamel 37
Drew Anderson 35
Caufield 32
Tyler Green 29
Joe Dillon 28

3B: Iribarren 12
Mel Stocker 10 (in 269 AB)
Crabbe 9
Gamel 8
Brewer 7

HR: Laynce Nix 25
Stephen Chapman 25
Brendan Katin 24
Dillon 20
Brad Nelson 20

RBI: Katin 94
Chapman 89
Green 86
Caufield 84
Nix 80

TB: Chapman 228
Lefave 222
Gamel 220
Caufield 214
Katin 212

BB: Cole Gillespe 72
Ken Holmberg 70
Crabbe 67
Steve Sollman 61
Michael Brantley 60

SO: Brewer 170
Katin 163
Chapman 137
Ford 123
Iribarren 109

SB: Ford 67
Brewer 42
Stocker 35
Brantley 35
Charles Iacono 30

BA: Caleb Gindl .371
Lefave .345
Green .327
Angel Salome .318
Dillon .317

SLG: Dillon .605
Gindl .577
Nix .545
Lefave .525
Green .516

OBP: Lefave .432
Gindl .422
Iacono .413 (despite hitting just .225, the Rickie Weeks of the minors)
Green .406
Dillon .405

A couple of quick thoughts, while not taking into account prospect status, age, etc., it seems like one could argue that Andrew Lefave had the best season of any of the Brewer minor league batters. (.345, 17 HR, 79 RBI, 12 SB)...who the Brewers dealt for Ray King. Also the noticable absence on the leaderboards for some of the Brewers prospects with high hopes (Cole Gillespe, Yohannis Perez, and Charlie Fermaint) and those who got off to fast starts (Lou Palmisano and Chris Errecart).

Five Fun Facts about Maxim St. Pierre

Infield Fly Rule — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:06:15 -0000

Coming up with 5 facts about a non-descript minor league catcher isn't easy, but here it goes...

St. Pierre was drafted by Detroit with the first pick in the 26th round in 1997. To give a little perspective on how long ago that was, the Brewers first pick that year way Kyle Peterson who has long since faded into the sunset.
Two players from the 26th round in 1997 have made it to the major leagues. Andy Dominique, a first baseman who played a total of 9 games and DJ Carrasco who has spent parts of three seasons with Kansas City.
The Brewers pick in the 26th round that year was a pitcher by the name of Trad Sokol (I'm not kidding) who lasted two years in the minors.
St. Pierre played for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic last year. He appeared in two of Canada's three games, and had two hitless at bats with one strikeout.
Detroit sent Max to the Arizona Fall League after the 2002 season (which was one of his best minor league seasons: .261, 7 HR, 55 RBI). St. Pierre proceeded to bat .170 in 53 at bats for Mesa in the AFL.

Five Fun Facts about Elmer Dessens

Infield Fly Rule — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:14:26 -0000

Here is 5 quick fun facts about the newest Brewer:

Dessens has pitched in three different professional leagues, MLB, the Mexican League and he also spent one year in Japan (1999).
Elmer has posted exactly one winning season in his 10 years in the major leagues (11-5 in 2000). In fact he ended that year on a pretty good run: 6-1, 2.85 ERA in 47 IP covering his last 7 games.
The last game of that run in 2000 was the last game ever in County Stadium where Dessens was the starter and winner for Cincinnati: 9 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 6 K, 0 BB that day.
Dessens has pitched more innings against the Brewers (111 IP) than any other club over his career. He is 8-6 with a 3.57 era against the Crew.
There is only one other person who has played in the major leagues with "Elmer" as part of his name since 1965. The other is James Elmer Ganter who had a pretty good career with the Brewers.

10 Year Review: The Closers

Infield Fly Rule — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 18:45:47 -0000

During the 10 year perior from 1987 thru 1996, four Brewer pitchers recorded 10 or more saves six times in a single season: Plesac, Crim, Henry and Fetters.

During the subsequent 10 year period from 1997 thru 2006 no fewer than seven pitchers accomplished the same feat 14 times. The following is the list of pitcher with 10 save seasons in the last 10 years ranked in order of Rolaids Relief points. These points are calculated by the previous scoring system which give 3 for a save, 2 for a win, -2 for a blown save and -2 for a loss.

Year Player Points (sv, ERA)
2005 Turnbow 121 (39 sv, 1.74)
1997 Jones 104 (36 sv, 2.02)
2004 Kolb 99 (39 sv, 2.98)
1999 Wickman 85 (37 sv, 3.39)
2002 DeJean 67 (27 sv, 3.12)
2003 Kolb 57 (21 sv, 1.98)
1998 Wickman 55 (25 sv, 3.72)
2006 Cordero 48 (16 sv, 1.69)
2006 Turnbow 46 (24 sv, 6.87)
2000 Leskanic 46 (12 sv, 2.56)
2000 Wickman 40 (16 sv, 2.93)
2003 DeJean 32 (18 sv, 4.87)
2001 Leskanic 29 (17 sv, 3.63)
1998 Jones 20 (12 sv, 5.17)

Also Mike Fetters deserves a special mention for getting 5 of his 6 saves in 1997 during a 9 day span in late July when Doug Jones was sidelined.

The closers have sort of been Milwaukee's biggest trade value over the years as well. Jones, Wickman, Leskanic, DeJean and Kolb all moved on via trade.

10 Year Review: The Starters

Infield Fly Rule — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 18:52:41 -0000

The Brewers starting pitchers have been the biggest difference between the last couple of years and the dark ages in the late '90's. No more Rafeal Roque opening day assignments here. The following is a summary of how many started the Brewers have used and their composite ERA the last 10 years.

Number of
Year Starters Used ERA
2006 12    4.73
2005 8    4.02
2004 12            4.21
2003 12            5.48
2002 13            5.18
2001 13            5.13
2000 12    5.09
1999 9            5.22
1998 10            5.01
1997 10            4.48

Looking at this we should expect about 10 pitchers to get starts for the Crew this year. By my estimation this would most likely include: Sheets, Capuano, Bush, Suppan, Vargas, Villanueva, Jackson, Gallardo, and two others.

Now take a look at what the Crew has gotten out of its top 5 starters the last 10 years. The "top 5" is considered the five pitchers who started the most games each year.
Games Started ERA WHIP K/9 IP
2006 135    4.36    1.28    7.12 (Capuano, Davis, Bush, Ohka, Sheets)
2005 136    4.07    1.35    7.21 (Capuano, Davis, Santos, Sheets, Ohka)
2004 133    3.92    1.28    7.60 (Davis, Sheets, Santos, Obermueller, Capuano)
2003 129    5.39    1.49    6.22 (Franklin, Sheets, Kinney, Rusch, Obermueller)
2002 124    4.85    1.52    6.36 (Rusch, Sheets, Quevedo, Wright, Neugebauer)
2001 122    5.06    1.52    5.75 (Wright, Haynes, Sheets, Levrault, Rigdon)
2000 124    4.58    1.51    5.31 (Haynes, Wright, D'Amico, Snyder, Bere)
1999 121    5.07    1.52    5.35 (Karl, Woodard, Nomo, Pulsipher, Abbott)
1998 126    4.85    1.48    6.02 (Karl, Woodard, Juden, Eldred, Woodall)
1997 133    4.43    1.35    5.71 (Eldred, Karl, D'Amico, Mercedes, McDonald)

Two things that stand out here to me. First, every year about 30 starts are going to come from people other than the top 5. Second, look at the marked difference the last three years.

One other startling fact about the Brewers pitching the last 15 years...from 1990 thru 2002 exactly two Brewer pitchers struck out 150 batters in a single season (Eldred '93 and Nomo). The Brewers even had two seasons (albeit the strike shortened '94 & '95) where not a single pitcher broke 100 K's. In comparison since 2002 nine pitchers have had 150 K's in a season (Sheets three times, Capuano twice, Davis three times, and Bush)

10 Year Review: The Hitting Pitchers (a.ka. The Brooks Kieschnick Memorial Edition)

Infield Fly Rule — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 13:00:35 -0000

I thought I'd take a look at the hitting accomplishments of Brewer pitchers. Which of course first brings up Jeff's favorite (and proposed starting 3rd baseman) Brooks Kieschnick.

In two years and 133 AB, Brooks managed a .286 BA with 8 HR and 19 RBI. On a sidenote at the time I always thought the Brewers should acquire Rick Ankiel (a LHP) and instead of going through an entire bullpen for righty/lefty matchups they could play Kieschnick and Ankiel at P/LF and rotate between hitters. Neither would ever truely leave the game and both could pitch and hit. I know there are some issues with this stragety, mainly keeping two pitchers semi-warm and expecting them to be effective, but the Brewers of those days were pretty pathetic and a little out of the box thinking couldn't have hurt. Anyway, I digress....

The Brewer pitchers have been remarkable consistent over the years. Consider the following combined stats of all pitchers not named Kieschnick:
AB BA HR RBI SO SH
2006 310 .097 0 21 139 38
2005 321 .106 0 17 139 25
2004 294 .126 0 10 138 28
2003 299 .117 0 9 124 33
2002 296 .145 1 19 134 39
2001 304 .125 0 10 122 29
2000 306 .105 2 11 126 27
1999 304 .145 2 18 125 47
1998 315 .133 2 14 106 33
1997 18 .000 0 0 10 2 (the last year in the AL)

Sort of looks like you can pencil the Brewer batters in for a .120 BA, 15 RBI and 130 K...

Here are some single season "records":
BA (min 30 AB) Obermueller .385 (2004)
H Rusch 19 (2002, he hit .288)
HR Karl 2 (1999)
RBI Bush/Capuano 9 (2006/2005)
BB Woodard 6 (1999)
SH Rusch 14 (2002)

One other item of note is the batting line by Paul Rigdon in 1999: 16 AB, 1HR, 2 BB, 7 SH. 7 SH in 24 total plate appearances is sort of amazing...

10 Year Review Part Eight: The Rightfielders

Infield Fly Rule — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:01:17 -0000

The following is a list of the last 10 years of both opening day and "starting" rightfielders that the Brewers have employed: (Starting is considered playing the most games at the position for the year)

Season Opening Day Starter
2006 Jenkins Jenkins
2005 Jenkins Jenkins
2004 Grieve Clark
2003 Hammonds VanderWal
2002 Hammonds Hammonds
2001 Burnitz Burnitz
2000 Burnitz Burnitz
1999 Burnitz Burnitz
1998 Burnitz Burnitz
1997 Burnitz Burnitz
(4 different opening day RF'ers, 5 different starters)

Now for a comparison as to 2007...the following are the various projections for Mr. Hart.

Corey Hart:
AB HR SB AVG OBP SLG
PECOTA 379 18 16 .288 .353 .517
ZiPS 463 17 19 .263 .333 .462
CHONE 357 12 17 .272 .336 .450

Ave Brewer Starting RF'er:
'97-'06 485 24 6 .265 .362 .482

Best Single Season Starting RF'er 1997-2006:
Varies 609 38 20 .292 .402 .561

Worst Single Season Starting RF'er 1997-2006:
Varies 327 7 0 .232 .339 .397