By curious coincidence, this ragtag bunch of upstarts now known as the Milwaukee Brewers are winning. The rebuilding campaign looked terrible after the 2016 trade deadline, as a young team fell to 10-20 after the removal of Jonathan Lucroy and Will Smith. But the roster elements converged, forming an aggressive offensive identity and fortifying their […]
Author: Nicholas Zettel
Orlando Arcia and Elite Fielding
Going big picture, with as big a picture as possible, Baseball Prospectus has tracked approximately 95,480 Batter Seasons in MLB history. Through this lens, Orlando Arcia’s 2016 and 2017 Fielding Runs Above Average (FRAA) ranks of 5,858 and 5,733, respectively, do not seem particularly great. There are a lot of MLB players that have been […]
Testing Disparities
Eric Thames is ostensibly in the midst of a confidential PED testing process, which even includes the opportunity to appeal a positive test without public announcement of that fact; should a player win an appeal, they can do so without anyone else knowing. No one would know this by MLB’s behavior in the Thames case, as […]
Minor League Context: April 25
It seemed like only moments ago that the baseball season arrived, but now fans are approaching the end of April and analysts have more than ten percent of a season to consider. This is the time of year where performances creep into the territory where conclusions might be drawn, or at least interesting observations might […]
2013 Top 10 Lists 3: The Players
Following my overview of the 2013 Baseball Prospectus Top 10 lists, I am presenting a detailed set of lists to showcase the full prospect class. This class features some stunning debuts by elite prospects (such as Carlos Correa), elite prospects morphing into steady MLB regulars (Gerrit Cole, Christian Yelich, and Julio Tehran, for example), and […]
2013 Top 10 Lists 2: The Organizations
The Brewers rebuild, only insofar as it is interesting, is interesting for primarily two reasons: President Doug Melvin and GM David Stearns have rifled through the MLB roster in an astonishingly short amount of time, almost completely remaking the organization in 20 months thanks to the 2015 and 2016 Drafts, as well as through trades […]
2013 Top 10 Lists 1: Value and Risk
Lately, two separate research questions have converged in my mind: How do Overall Future Potential (OFP) valuations based on historical MLB performances compare to valuations drawn from actual scouting rankings? What is the short-term performance value that the Brewers can come to expect from their 2017 Baseball Prospectus Top 10? These are two crucial questions. […]
Game 10 Recap: Brewers 5 Reds 1
It took ten games to get there, but the Brewers are back to square one: 5-5, 40 runs scored / 39 runs allowed, perfectly even. Milwaukee made their way back to even against Curveballer Bronson Arroyo and the Cincinnati Reds, and thanks to Jimmy Nelson and Ryan Braun. After facing some tough customers at Miller […]
Minor League Opening Day
On Tuesday morning, the Brewers’ affiliated minor league rosters were announced, showcasing the roster decisions made by GM David Stearns and the player development staff in perhaps their most important rebuilding season. 2017 is the year that talent acquired in former President Doug Melvin’s 2015 trades, Stearns’s round of moves, and the first Ray Montgomery […]
How Close is A?
Yesterday, former Brewers prospect Miguel Diaz made his MLB debut for the San Diego Padres, pitching a fine scoreless outing in the midst of a lopsided defeat. In one-and-a-third innings, the young righty threw 15 pitches (10 strikes), and inherited a runner to close the bottom of the fifth inning. After the Rule 5 draft […]