CL: Axford
SU: K-Rod
6th/7th: Veras
ROOGY/Groundball specialist: Loe
RP: Parra
RP: Estrada

Not sure who the 7th guy will be but there's plenty of options. Braddock, Fiers, Peralta, Dillard, De La Cruz, McClendon, maybe even DiFelice, McClung, or Manzanillo? So much depth there, they've got the luxury of a very open spring training competition.

My personal preference is to find a LOOGY out there somewhere in spring training for some low/mid prospect. It's the one thing really missing from the pen the last couple years and with solid starters, a luxury they can afford in the pen IMO. A healthy Parra definitely has value pitching in relief, but he just doesn't profile as a LOOGY, nor does Braddock.

Veras can bring it with the fastball, kind of profiles like Hawkins when he had a fastball, and at his best he was a very solid setup man. Coming off a nice 2011 we will see if that continues -- if it does he's a great option to have setting the table for K-Rod/Axford. Estrada is your inning-eater out of the pen and Loe should be used almost exclusively in groundball situations or when facing a slew of right-handed hitters.

Considering we have K-Rod for the whole year this time I actually think we are looking quite good in the pen assuming guys are used in roles where they are most likely to succeed.

Its nice having 2 guys who can fill in when a starter goes down as well.

Manny Parra (if healthy) could work his way into being the 7th inning guy. His stuff was that good and has been a K machine as a reliever.

RetardRon wrote:Its nice having 2 guys who can fill in when a starter goes down as well.

For the first time in a long time, the Brewers have a lot more guys who can fill in if someone goes down, and I'd place Parra and Estrada below a long line of guys if someone goes on the DL. If it's a situation where a guy is going to miss one start, then yes, it'll be them, but we have 4-5 LEGIT options.

1-Wily Peralta
The guy is one of the top prospects in all of baseball right now. He made a huge jump last year. He's a guy who strikes out over 1 per IP, but he also has very-very good GB/FO ratio. That's very rare in a pitcher. Roy Halladay is the type of pitcher who does both well. Few others do. Just to be clear, Peralta's got a chance to be on that level just because he throws 97-98, and he's durable, but Halladay is establishing himself as one of the top 10-15 pitchers of all time, so I'm not expecting a poor mans Halladay, that's still a great pitcher. But the point is he can strike a guy out, and induce a lot of GB's. With Agon now manning Shortstop, that's big(not to mention Gamel at 1st).
Big time fastball, and a NASTY slider at times to go with a change that can be a plus pitch, he has the upside of an ace, and sure looks to be a #2/3 starter soon in the bigs.

2-Michael Fiers.
The guy doesn't throw hard, doesn't have great stuff, but he just keeps dominating.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/minor ... ers-001mic
I've heard him compared to that Collemeter from AZ. We shall see. The guy is a savvy fucking pitcher though.

3-Cody Scarpetta
At A+ he posted an ERA of 3.87 with 142 K's in 128 IP. He also walked 4.7 per 9 IP.
At AA he posted an ERA of 3.85, but his K's dropped a great deal, and his walks stayed the same.

Bottom line, he's a similar pitcher to Ben Sheets. Big time fastball. 2 seemer, 4 seemer, can run it up to 96 MPH and has that big Sheets curveball. Doesn't have Sheets command or control though. We love to forget about Sheets doninance here because of how it ended, but he was a legit ace for the Brewers and a legit ace around baseball. Scarpetta's a lesser version, but he's big and durable, and if he can take a Peralta type step in AAA, he'd be caclled upon pretty quickly in case of injury.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/minor ... arpe001cod
4-Tyler Thornburg
Thornburg gets the Timmy Lincecum comp. Well, like Halladay, chances that he'll ever be as good at about 3 in 100. But he does posses some of the same ability. A upper 90's fastall, and his secondary stuff can dominate at times. He's done nothing but absolutely dominate at every level.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/minor ... ornb001tyl

The Brewers have said they'll start him out in AA, and it's getting very common for pitchers who dominate AA to skip AAA and just jump straight to the big leagues. Next year will determine if he's a top 15 prsopect in baseball or a top 100. If he was 6'5 235 with his stuff though, he'd be a top 15 prospect already.

I could easily see the Brewers getting him 10 starts in AA and re-evaluating. Last year when he moved up a level, he had one really bad outing that inflated his ERA a little bit, but he struck out 84 in 68 IP. He REALLY should be getting more love on here. 10 starts at AA, and if they're like his 10 starts at any other level, he'll be ready for spot starts in the big league. More likely he'll move up to AAA and if he continues on the path he's on, and I see no reason why he wouldn't based on his stuff, he'll end up in our BP and could be one of those arms that joins the team in August and is an absolutely dominant reliever for us before moving back into a starting role in the future.




Now for the first time in a long time, we've got depth on the mount.

A year from now we'll have Jungman and Bradley if they progress as expected in the same situations. knocking on the doors. The upside is that the Brewers have the luxury of taking their time with ALL of these guys. Peralta's as ready as he's gonna be, and baring a big time set back, he should be in AAA ready for anyone who may miss a couple starts.

But as the season goes on, these guys could all play big roles.

Our BP could be exceptionally deep, ESPECIALLY later in the season.

Start of the year;
CL-Axford
SU-K-Rod
7th-Veras
RH 7th-Loe
MRP/LH'er-Braddock(really the wild card here. As much or more talent than anyone in this pen, gotta get it together, but if he does, he could give us a 7th/8th/9th inning trio that's as good as any in baseball, allowing Veras and Loe to come in earlier.
MRP-Parra
People hate Parra. Not sure why. But either way, he was very good out of the pen.
Long Man-I think Fiers gets the job out of spring, or should, but itll be between he and Estrada.


Later in the year you could see
Peralta, Thornburg, Scarpetta,Manzanillo all guys with fastballs in the upper 90's as reliever, with at least ONE plus pitch in addition to their fastballs who could fill in for any number of relievers and be dominant. Every team that contends has players like these guys. players you expected little from who come out of nowhere and make huge contributions.


Now all of these guys obviously won't. Peralta could get hurt, Thornburg could struggle in the next step, Scarpetta still has his walk issues, and Fiers...well, maybe his average stuff doesn't dominate the way it always has been from day 1.

But he sure looks like the type of guy who is just going to continue to get guys out and allow him to carve out a nice little niche for himself in the big leagues.


Imagine a September BP of
Axford
K-Rod
Peralta
Braddock
Veras
Scarpetta
Parra
Fiers
Thornburg
With still more guys like Wooten, Kintzler, McClendon, Stetter and a handful of others who have the ability to be very good relievers.


The Brewers are finally in a position in which they SHOULD be able to make it through the year without having to supplement their BP with a significant upgrade. Fuck, unless one of our big guys gets hurt, I don't see a lot of changes to our roster.




Just allow the talent that's been coming up in the farm system to fill in when injury strikes.

Aram goes down, let Taylor Green take his starts.
Weeks goes down, same thing.
Gamel, move Hart and callup Gindl to back up Aoki.
Relief arms go down, bring up one the dozen guys we have who are capable of providing depth in the farm system.

If Braun, Greinke, Gallardo go down for the long term, it's all over anyway.



The ONLY position I'd look to add someone is a utility IF'er around the AS Break that gives us a guy who can play Shortstop. Someone cheap, like a Jeff Keppinger, though ideally one who can play a better shortstop.

Perhaps Marco Scutaro if the Rockies don't contend this year like I don't expect them to.



The ONLY move I'd make that'd be of a blockbuster nature would be to give up one of our top pitchers, as well as a couple second tier propsects for a guy like Stephen Drew if he is willing to sign a long term extnsion.

Mitch Stetter recently signed a minor league deal with Texas.

Scoots0303 wrote:Mitch Stetter recently signed a minor league deal with Texas.

He was part of that group that could have made up our 3rd BP, so no biggie.


Thanks for the info though.

With the depth we have going into camp I would not be surprised to see a trade for a LOOGY. Always a team out there willing to take a flier on a mid level prospect for a LOOGY arm. If Braddock doesn't win it this year we will trade for some 35+ year old LOOGY,

I'm fine with that if we're talking about strictly a LOOGY, sub .200 BA vs. Left handers type. We have every other role in the pen filled and a couple guys who can eat up multiple innings if need be so why not? it would be nice to have that guy for those particular situations next year as last year we didn't and it was pretty much just a roll of the dice every time we had to face a string of lefties.

tonyei31 wrote:With the depth we have going into camp I would not be surprised to see a trade for a LOOGY. Always a team out there willing to take a flier on a mid level prospect for a LOOGY arm. If Braddock doesn't win it this year we will trade for some 35+ year old LOOGY,

But Braddock shouldn't be a loogy.

Again a guy like Damaso Marte is a guy who's put up great numbers vs lefties. If he is healthy, he'd be an ideal candidate to bring on.


But yes, we need a loogy this year, and we need another left hander(Braddock) who can also serve inthis role).

And I'll go ahead and say it, any bullpen additions that cuts down on the amount of thinking that Ron Roenicke has to do are good additions.

Axford - Closer
KRod - Setup
LOOGY - Key situation with lefty up, string of lefties up
Loe - Situational groundball/ROOGY

Hard to fuck that up. Then fill in the blanks with the rest.

The more you let the bullpen personnel dictate the decisions rather than his gut/brain, the better.

adambr2 wrote:And I'll go ahead and say it, any bullpen additions that cuts down on the amount of thinking that Ron Roenicke has to do are good additions.

Axford - Closer
KRod - Setup
LOOGY - Key situation with lefty up, string of lefties up
Loe - Situational groundball/ROOGY

Hard to fuck that up. Then fill in the blanks with the rest.

The more you let the bullpen personnel dictate the decisions rather than his gut/brain, the better.

I think he got a really raw deal last year. Loe was our best reliever outside of Axford and we didn't have many options with Saito and Hawkins injured. So he had to go with his best guy.


I think RRR will be much better next time around.

Maybethough we end up with Para and Braddock, but no true loogy.

I would love to see Mike Gonzalez brought in on a small end contract. Would allow Parra to be Narveson's emergency plan if Chris falters.