SB Nation User Blog: marty22

Brewers sign Catalanotto

marty22 — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:44:59 -0000

Brewers sign Catalanotto

Should be a good bench bat, for once....someone to PH for Kendall

EDIT: From Rotoworld:

Catalanotto will report to extended spring training, get his legs under him then join the Brewers' Double- or Triple-A team. He could hit the majors around June 1 and give the Brewers the lefty bat they need. He figures to serve as a backup outfielder and pinch-hitter, possibly deposing Brad Nelson (0-20 on the season).

Evan Anundsen throws a no hitter for Brevard County

marty22 — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:04:38 -0000

Evan Anundsen throws a no hitter for Brevard County

As if it weren't good enough, he did it against the cubs! Lots of people over at BF.net think this kid is underrated, but now probably won't be for much longer

Lamb Sacrificed...McGehee Makes the Team

marty22 — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:01:12 -0000

Lamb Sacrificed...McGehee Makes the Team

Dillard to work as a starter again

marty22 — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:03:54 -0000

Dillard to work as a starter again

Interesting stuff. Wasn't he put in the 'pen within the last couple of years because of inconsistency as a starter?

Free Agent Compensation Re-mix

marty22 — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:20:42 -0000

If we've gained anything this offseason, it's that we can now be 100% absopositutelutely sure that the free agent compensation system used by MLB is flawed. Here's my idea on how to fix the system. It's not too far from the current system, I think it just fixes a few illogical steps in the process and makes it more fair.

Rank all free agents based on WAR (or something like that, I'm not great with all the new metrics for player value, but I thought WAR was a good one, anyways it doesn't matter too much). The FAs are then broken up into type A, B, and no comp, similarly to how they are done now, except they'd be based on WAR over the past 3 years instead of whatever stats are used now.

When a Type A FA signs with a team, if that team has a top 15 draft pick, it's still protected, but if that team's pick is not protected, their pick goes into a pool for compensation. Teams still don't have to surrender a pick for signing Type B Free Agents, but sandwich picks would still be given for both Type A and B. After all the free agents sign, or right before the Rule 4 Draft, the picks from the pool are distributed based on the rankings of the free agents. Here's an example that I hope will illustrate my point.

Without looking up WAR (I know, very lazy) say these free agents rank as follows:

1. Mark Teixeira, 2. CC Sabathia, 3. Brian Fuentes

There would obviously be many more in between, but I'm just simplifying it for the sake of this illustration.

Yankees sign Teixeira and Sabathia, Angels sign Fuentes. Yankees surrender their 1st and 2nd Round Picks, and Angels surrender 1st round pick. In the current system, the Brewers receive the Yankees 2nd rounder and a sandwich pick, the Angels receive the Yankees 1st rounder and a sandwich pick, and the Rockies receive the Angels 1st rounder. Now, how is it fair that, although the Brewers lost a better FA than the Rockies, they receive a lesser pick? I feel that teams should be compensated based on how much they lost, as they obviously don't have any impact on where they sign.

In my system, the picks would be distributed as follows. All the picks surrended would be in a pool, and they would be given out based on the rankings of the players lost by each team. So the Angels would get NYY 1st rounder (+ #1 sandwich pick), Brewers would get LAA 1st rounder (+ #2 sandwich pick), and Rockies get NYY 2nd rounder (+ #3 sandwich pick).

The major downfall with this is that the Yankees (or any team who signs multiple Type A's) have a diminishing draft pick cost to sign the next Type A, but I'm not sure how that could be avoided. Overall, however, I think this system would do a much better job of equitably distributing draft pick compensation. Now let's hope Bud Selig is reading this...what else is he getting paid $18 MM to do?

Prospect Comparisons

marty22 — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:45:41 -0000

The combination of an enormous amount of top prospect lists being published over the last few weeks and a similarly large amount of free time on my hands led me to creating a Fanpost about MLB Comparisons for our top prospects. I used to follow Red Sox prospects quite a bit, and soxprospects.com always had a MLB comp for each of the prospects listed. I always found them quite interesting and somewhat useful, so I decided to see some comps for our guys generated by the informed readers of BCB. I'm going to list my prospects for the first 10, according to BA's rankings, and a few others for whom I can come up with a good comp.

These are really more just for fun and to pass time until ST, so I won't be basing mine solely off stats, more off of scouting reports I've seen. And also, I realize that our list will probably end up having 15 or so prospects with All-Star MLB comps, but they're just for fun, and these comps usually end up being best case scenarios anyways.

Alcides Escobar - Derek Jeter - JUST KIDDING! I think a good comp is tough to determine, because he's got so much more offensive development, but I'll go with Yunel Escobar with much more speed.

Mat Gamel - Here's one where I'll use stats: Nick Markakis. Go look at their ML stats. Same ages at same levels, and slash lines are eerily similar. Gamel might end up in RF anyway.

Brett Lawrie - I can't think of one for him yet, all the reports I've read are pretty general: A great, polished hitter.

Jeremy Jeffress - Ervin Santana

Angel Salome - Pudge Rodriguez, only comp I could come up with since Angel's so unique.

Lorenzo Cain - Matt Kemp. I like this one a lot

Cutter Dykstra - Couldn't think of a good one. Maybe Brian Roberts minus some SBs.

Taylor Green - Stephen Drew with obvious position difference

Cole Gillespie -Corey Hart, though I really think Cole will max out as 4th OF, so a lesser version of Corey Hart

Jonathan Lucroy - Ramon Hernandez

Zach Braddock - Scott Kazmir. Obviously, a long way to go, but his stuff sounds very similar with the low 90s fastball and sharp slider.

Omar Aguilar - Juan Cruz, but bigger.

Caleb Gindl - Pretty obvious - Brian Giles, I can't take credit for that one, I've seen it all over.

Remember, these are best-case scenario, because just as I suspected, this would be a team full of All-Stars, oh well.

Rickie Weeks Future

marty22 — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:50:49 -0000

This arbitration talk and the 2nd base projections have got me thinking about Rickie Weeks more and more. I guess I didn't really realize that he is already in his 2nd arbitration year, and will be a FA after next.

I got to thinking about his future with the Brewers and came to the conclusion that I think I'd really be in favor of signing Rickie to a 4 year or so deal. I just see a possibility of tremendous value in such a deal. His struggles have been well-chronicled, but the more advanced metrics show that he is, at worst, around league average. We all have seen his flashes of brilliance, and the underlying potential that may or may not ever show itself, but I think if we could lock him up at league average price, there is fairly low risk involved, especially with his age still below the magical 27 (I think).

Below are a few fangraph stats:

Weeks 6th in WPA for 2B in 2008

.334 wOBA, with .333 about average (I believe) for all positions

Sorry if these are cherry-picked, I don't yet have the stat-savvy experience of KLSnow, Sackmann, jihad, or the likes....

Skankees Sign Teixeira

marty22 — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:35:14 -0000

Skankees Sign Teixeira

Sucks for us, as we no longer get their first rounder.

Brewers signing Looper?

marty22 — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:42:41 -0000

Brewers signing Looper?

If true, it's not an earth-shattering signing, but it will definitely help the team.

Eduardo Morlan

marty22 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:31:33 -0000

Eduardo Morlan

Anyone else think the Stache should take a long look at this guy in the Rule V draft? Seems like a classic Stache bullpen guy, a cheap, power arm. Above link sends you to his minor league stats. He was regarded as a guy who was far more than a throw-in in the Young-Garza trade, and after a full year at AA, he seems like he could handle the bigs enough for us to keep him on the ML roster all year. I'd say at the least, pick him in the Rule V, bring him to ST, and if he doesn't stick, we're out 50K or whatever it is. I also wouldn't mind seeing the brewers picking Donnie Veal, but after picking up swindle, I don't think he would fit in the pen for the whole season.