EXTENDED! Carlos Gomez

By the Brewers. Three years $28.3MM

After coming to the Milwaukee Brewers in the trade that sent J.J. Hardy to the Minnesota Twins, Carlos Gomez endured two seasons in a Brewer's uniform that saw his potential untapped.  He was identified by his flailing swing, low OBP and apparent insistence on swinging at everything in sight.  Then 2012 happened, and Gomez quietly put everything together.  Carlos Gomez was platooning in center field with Nyjer Morgan at the start of the 2012 season, but after Morgan's productivity fell off a cliff, the emerging Gomez was given essentially a full-time position and center.  Carlos Gomez awarded the Brewers for their faith by doubling many of his offense of numbers.  While he still has a way to go in terms of plate discipline, the still young Gomez finding his stroke at age 27 gives the Brewers a lot to be confident about.

There is obviously an implicit risk in extending a player after that player only puts up one year of notable production, but $28.3MM dollars could prove to be a bargain if the toolsy Carlos Gomez continues to improve.  The faith that he will in fact improve over the course of his deal is why the Brewers scrapped their initial one-year $4MM deal, opting instead to buy out three of his free agent years that will cover him over the ages that many players reach their peak.  B.J. Upton and Michael Bourn both signed enormous contracts this offseason that would have been unaffordable by Brewers' standards.  In terms of offense of productivity both of those players were about on par with what Gomez did in 2012.

Assuming Carlos Gomez can stay relatively healthy and avoid injuring himself on wild plays, this deal will be considered a very team-friendly.  It would help Gomez' next contract out substantially if you could learn how to get on base and utilize speed, but his power has become an attribute that can no longer be ignored.  If Carlos Gomez can maintain the arc of his productivity, it will not be a surprise whatsoever to see him as an All Star center fielder.  Using the logic that he can only improve over the course of his peak years, I wouldn't be surprised to see a 30/30 and Gold Glove season at least once over the course of this contract.

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Dark Horse: Carlos Gomez

Gamel Out for 2013 and the Brewers Without a Paddle

This poor guy...

There is "risky"; an adjective used to describe someone gambling something they rely on in order to attain a high reward, and then there is short-sighted, and that's what the Brewers front office is. Mat Gamel's re-torn ACL spells the end of his 2013 season, which hasn't even started yet. Most teams would be panicking if they lost their projected opening day first basemen about four and a half weeks before opening day, and Milwaukee has lost both of theirs, and still nothing.  

I can't understand where it's coming from, but some how the Brewers front office are keeping their cool in the face of their own ineptitude.  If you think I'm wrong, let's take a second to examine the alternatives to Gamel.

1). Corey Hart

Hart isn't technically a replacement considering Gamel was his backup, but since he's injured too let's start here. After spending the majority of his major career in right field, Hart took over first base in 2012 after Gamel's first ACL tear put him out for the remainder of the season. Hart was injured this offseason (something that's becoming an alarming theme for him) and needed arthroscopic surgery effectively disabling him for 3-4 months.  More alarming than Hart's less-than-durable reputation is the fact that second opinion Hart pursued in hopes of revealing a less serious injury actually resulted in a call for season-ending microfracture surgery.  While Hart appears ahead of schedule in terms of healing, he still runs the risk of carrying a hidden, serious injury; and the Brewers still don't have a legitimate first basemen in case that happens.

2.) Taylor Green

.184/.265/.340.  What else do I need to say? This guy has had plenty of opportunities (117 plate appearances in 2012) to flash what he could be in the majors the way that he did in the minors but it just didn't look put together at all.  Even at his best I don't see Green coming close to filling in 

Gamel's shoes, let alone Hart's.

3.) Bobby Crosby

The 2004 AL Rookie Of The Year hasn't played Major League Baseball since 2010. The reason? After his rookie campaign (which by ROY standards was a modest one) he declined steeply and was eventually deemed unworthy of a sign until the Brewers inked a minor league deal with him this offseason. Decent bench presence? Sure, but not an every day MLB player. If you're tempted to use the ROY accolade in his defense at all, I am gonna play the Chris Coghlan card.

4.) Hunter Morris

2012 Southern League MVP Hunter Morris has had approximately zero big league plate appearances.  While his development is impressive, it indicates next to nothing about his readiness to play in the bigs.  Even suggesting that Morris could substitute as an every day first basemen for as long as it takes for Hart to get healthy completely ignores the history of prospects who are rushed to the majors.  This doesn't take in to account the fact that it's pretty asinine of a team to start the arbitration clock before necessary. Best case scenario: Morris comes up and surprises everyone and we have a slightly more fun first basemen to watch for a month. The worst?  He rushes to be major league ready and we waste really good potential, all because we don't have a back up.

5.) Alex Gonzalez or Martin Maldonado

The reason I'm bracketing these two together is that they are both big league players who are ready to play on opening day, but not first basemen.  The argument could be made that Maldonado would be a good first basemen because he's had a very small history with that position at a big league level. It could also be argued that Gonzalez may be a good fit their because he's an aging shortstop with a big body who could quickly learn and even potentially thrive at first.  I'm going to go ahead and make the argument that either call is a totally stupid idea.  Building depth in one department creates a void in the other. Our lack of depth at short is exactly WHY we re-signed Gonzalez. 

Realistically, that's it, that's what Milwaukee's working with.  Why didn't the Brewers make moves to provide legitimate depth? I can't answer that question. It would be one thing if Adam Dunn and Prince Fielder were the only two free agent first basemen on the market, then the logic would lay in finance. That is not the case here. Casey Kotchman just signed a minor league deal with the Marlins, Lyle Overbay was wooed by the Red Sox after Milwaukee put in a weak offer for him, and perhaps most ridiculously is that the Brewers let Travis Ishikawa walk after being a reliable guy off the bench last year. These are NOT moves that would break the bank, but they are moves that allow a team to stay afloat in case the inevitable happens and a player gets hurt.  This is a very rough way to start a season.

Exonerated

MVP

I tried to come up with some dignified sounding introductory sentence to this post but it's not happening, so I'm just going to be inflammatory. This fucking rules.

Offseason Review: Detroit Tigers

The new one-two punch

I want to preface this post by saying that, despite the fact that my loyalties lie in Milwaukee, I'm not bitter about Prince's move across the lake. I think it was beneficial for both Milwaukee and Detroit that Prince move on. Loyalty is loyalty but its 2011 and free agency is a lot different than it was in Stan Musial's day. On a personal note, as my love affair with baseball goes on, my sense of loyalty towards one team diminishes. I'm a Brewers fan, without question, but my sun doesn't rise and set on what they do. Fielder is an excellent athlete and has earned his check. I'm still going to make fat guy jokes.

Mike Cameron Retires

Mike Cameron first put on a Brewers uniform in 2008, the most exciting year of Brewers baseball in my life. He had come to the team on a one year contract, but was immediately endeared to his fans as a clubhouse leader and committed athlete who was excited to be in Milwaukee. After one additional season in Milwaukee he signed a two year contract with Boston, who eventually released him in the middle of his second season with them. After a very brief stint in the Florida Marlins franchise he was again released, signed a minor league contract with the Nationals, and decided to hang it up after 17 MLB seasons.

Contract Corner: Bill Hall, Clayton Kershaw

Bill Hall

Usually I'd be full of snark about an aging, declining utility man (ex-Brewer nonetheless) but the Bill Hall to the Yankees contract seems pretty agreeable on both sides.  $600K base salary with $50K paid incentives for each 50 at bats from 100-250 and 100K payouts for each 50 at bats after that. Hall looked totally shitty last year splitting time with Houston and San Francisco with a .211/.261/.314 line, and two home runs.

So why invest at all? Here's my guess. The guy who looked forgettable to Houston last year is the same guy who had 85 hits and 18 HRs while playing in the AL East in 2010. Not a bad gamble at $600K for a vet who may be craving a ring.

2011 NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw

I love this gawky Cy Young award winning monster. I also almost don't even care what his contract is so long as it satisfies him and baits in an owner interested in keeping him around and winning championships. At the age of 23, Clayton Kershaw has already been in the majors for four seasons. In 2011 he earned the distinction of being voted the best pitcher in the National League. In a franchise where the pressure of pseudo-ownership of the psychotic McCourt family dissolved in to non-ownership, and the lack of incentive that comes with a losing team, Kershaw came up huge. The contract details are as follows: $500K signing bonus, $7.5 million in 2012 and $11 million in 2013. Not bad for either side. If you're inspired by horrible camera filters and HIGH OCTANE SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS!!! the video below is worth watching.

Kamikaze

In three days, a rematch between the New York Giants and New England Patriots of Homeric proportions will be staged in Indianapolis. Super Bowl Sunday, and no matter who wins, tales will be forged in the mouths of the fans of both teams that will be told until they die. The Super Bowl, an ultimately arbitrary happening, contends with and probably more often blights major disasters and war in overall new coverage. And I couldn't care less.

That's not accurate, I care. I care about the visceral experiences of snack eating, excessive drinking and yelling that elite athletes in their prime attempting feats on the biggest possible stage that would kill me if ever attempted by me... suck. I care about it because its fun, but the investment is non-existent.  Today a friend of mine asked who I wanted to win, and I came up short by half-assedly giving some forgettable bullshit about rooting for underdogs. Frankly, the pedantic grooming attributed to Super Bowl marketing irritates the shit out of me, and only serves to water itself down.

This a sports blog, and only kind of. I am a grumpy, impatient baseball fan who has thus far only written objective analysis in an attempt to seem professional. That got exhausting so now I'm going to write flailing opinion pieces ranting about what I think is so goddamn wrong all the time or how awesome something is. I'm not going to be too intellectual about it, I'm not going to go to deep. I figured I'd start by undermining any notion of integrity someone may have in me as a writer about sports by talking about how dumb The Super Bowl is. 

Take note: this is a clumsily written intro about what I'm going to attempt to do with this blog. Usually I won't start writing an hour before I have to go to work, but inspiration sparked me and I decided to not take it for granted. Spring training is just around the corner. I can't wait.