This year’s iteration of the Arizona Fall League (AFL) wrapped up recently, and it concluded with a championship celebration for the Peoria Javelinas. The club, populated by farmhands from the Brewers, Braves, Padres, Rays, and Mariners, finished the regular season with a league-best 21-9 record. That earned them a date in the AFL title game […]
Aces Don’t Exist: Fluctuations
The 2018 Brewers pitching staff out-played their expected Deserve Run Average performance by approximately 16 runs. On the whole, this is not quite that bad, as RHP Chase Anderson stands as an obvious outlier; Anderson outplayed his expected DRA performance by approximately 24 runs, which explains much of the difference between team DRA Runs Prevented […]
Projecting the Protected: Trey Supak
Trey Supak is having a great 2018. He started the season pitching for the Carolina Mudcats, obliterated Carolina League hitters for a couple of months, and was granted a promotion to Biloxi, where he pretty much did more of the same. As a reward for the young righty’s efforts, he was added to Milwaukee’s 40-man […]
Pricing and Projecting Schoop’s Profile
The Brewers front office has a difficult decision to make regarding second baseman Jonathan Schoop. The powerful right-handed bat was the subject of what may be GM David Stearns’s most controversial trade yet, as the GM swapped MLB roster asset Jonathan Villar, RHP Luis Ortiz, and (at the time) rookie ball flyer SS Jean Carmona […]
Aces Don’t Exist: Flexible Elites
In 2018, MLB teams employed 799 distinct pitchers to fill 892 spots, which is quite a few hurlers. That’s an increase for 2017, when 754 distinct pitchers filled 839 roles. The 30,000 foot overview of this progression suggests that each MLB team had room for at least one additional pitcher in 2018 (it could have […]
Assessing Market Catchers
Coming into the 2018 season, catcher did not seem to be a strong position for the Brewers. However, according to BWARP, Milwaukee had two of the top nineteen catchers in MLB in Manny Pina and Erik Kratz. The majority of their contributions came on the defensive side as Kratz was a top 10 catcher according […]
Meet Aaron Ashby
The Milwaukee Brewers have avoided taking pitchers at the top of the draft under the David Stearns regime. In 2016, the club waited until the 3rd round before drafting hurler Braden Webb. In 2017, they used their round one and Competitive Balance Round A picks on position players prior to selecting Caden Lemons in the […]
Do Brewers Bats Need to Improve?
In terms of run production, the Brewers offense surged in the second half of the season. While the trade acquisition of Jonathan Schoop did not boost the offense as expected, GM David Stearns hit on Mike Moustakas and Curtis Granderson, which induced benefits at second base with Travis Shaw (who posted a .223 average / […]
Murky Up the Middle: Weighing Middle Infield Options
After coming within one win of the World Series, expectations in Milwaukee will no doubt be high for the 2019 Brewers. But the franchise enters the offseason in a peculiar place: they “arrived” slightly ahead of schedule, and will now defend their NL Central championship with a roster that, on paper, still looks a piece […]