Comments on: Depth Beats Attrition

By: Kent

Kent — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 02:36:09 +0000

I will sure remember to look at his season stats after it is over. Top 25? I hope so.

By: Nicholas Zettel

Nicholas Zettel — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 13:39:44 +0000

It’s completely false that Davies works with “smoke and mirrors.” He’s one of the best command pitchers in baseball. By WARP, here are the only pitchers that have matched (or surpassed) Davies’ production in 2016-2017: Corey Kluber, Chris Sale, Max Scherzer, Zack Greinke, Justin Verlander, Stephen Strasburg, Chris Archer, Gio Gonzalez, Carlos Carrasco, Dallas Keuchel, Clayton Kershaw, Julio Teheran, Masahiro Tanaka, Jose Quintana, and Kyle Hendricks.

The next group that compares to Davies in 2016-2017 is Jacob deGrom, Aaron Nola, Yu Darvish, Jeff Samardzija, Marcus Stroman, Ervin Santana, Carlos Martinez, Michael Fulmer, James Paxton, Robbie Ray.

Is that a good enough list of pitchers? Davies is a top-25 pitcher in baseball right now. He’s an example of what you can do when you have fantastic command and a good mix of pitchers.

By: Kent

Kent — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 03:28:05 +0000

I would say Anderson is a good starting pitcher. But the rest of the guys are really average. Davies did it with smoke and mirrors so don’t tell me about 17 wins. The rest are low level free agents or rookies. I hope Nicholas is right but just don’t think our guys can win the ultimate prize.

By: Nicholas Zettel

Nicholas Zettel — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 22:53:15 +0000

Define “good” in this case.

By: matt

matt — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 22:28:45 +0000

This is a good article. When you look at the list of pitchers though I don’t see a team built for attrition i see a team that looks like it has no good starting pitchers.

By: Robin's Home Town

Robin's Home Town — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 16:51:21 +0000

I agree with Nicholas. Stearns and Counsell are going to battle with a 40 man team against others who are banking on their 25 man teams. Check out the pitching depth behind between the Brewers and the Cubs. What happens if both squads have 3 injuries to their starting rotation simultaneously. Whose 40 man pitching staff would you rather have? I vote for the Brewers.

In the playoffs, it is truly getting 27 outs. Don’t worry about next week…get outs today. Anderson, Davies, Hader, Knebel, Barnes, Albers, Logan, Jeffress, Suter, Chacin, Nelson (hopefully). I can get 27 outs each day with those guys.

By: Nicholas Zettel

Nicholas Zettel — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 15:36:00 +0000

I get this in theory, but again would like to push back: look at 2017, for instance, where the 162 game Astros were below average in terms of pitching. Did they have a World Series rotation? What do you do with rotations like Strasburg / Scherzer / Gonzalez, who don’t have rings or even WS appearances? What do you do with the below average Giants, Cardinals, even 2015 Royals who won? Is Volquez / Cueto / Ventura / Young a “World Series rotation”?

By: Kent

Kent — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 14:51:12 +0000

Good points but……..while you have to win the 162 game grind and make the playoffs I think the angst come from the fact that the Brewers rotation does not match up in the playoffs. That is the ultimate goal, winning the World Series and I don’t think the rotation we have gets us there.