Minor league baseball players deserve higher pay. That is the first structural fact that must be recognized in discussing the organizational aspects of player development. Minor league players are professional baseball players who participate in the process of producing a $10.5 (and growing) billion industry. Stepping outside of the distributive justice of this question, there […]
Author: Nicholas Zettel
Jeremy Jeffress, Fireman
Brewers right-handed reliever Jeremy Jeffress has been the unsung hero of the bullpen while lefty Josh Hader gets (justifiable) national hype for his incredible strike out performance and prospect comparisons (some prospect sources are now writing about “Josh Hader-type roles”). But Jeffress…Brewers fans know Jeffress as the situationally flexible groundball mechanic who typically gets the […]
Grading Keston Hiura
Brewers second base / left field / designated hitter prospect Keston Hiura rocketed to the top of the farm system upon the completion of the Christian Yelich trade, and his 2018 minor league campaign has expanded the pure hitter’s fan favorite status. With previous hype favorite Corbin Burnes finding a tough Triple-A pitching atmosphere realigning […]
Recycle the Rebuild: The Great Non-Move
Last year, I criticized Brewers GM David Stearns for his lack of midseason moves to address a starting pitching rotation that became greatly diminished down the stretch. The criticism was a part of a general frustration that the club had not done enough to reach the playoffs. After executing a very swift rebuilding effort (that […]
Aces Don’t Exist: Third Time Charmers
The Brewers are gaining a reputation for becoming a bullpen squad, part of the MLB bullpen revolution, and rightfully so. Over the offseason, the Brewers lost out on all the major free agency starting pitchers, and never consummated a trade for one of the (presumably, oft-rumored) available aces, instead remaining satisfied with marginal moves involving […]
The Next Big Steps
The Brewers exited their month of May with a much deserved day off, winning 19 of 27 games on the strength of a 134 Runs Scored (RS) / 104 Runs Allowed (RA) run differential for the month. By allowing 3.85 runs per game, the pitchers remained significantly better than average (+14 RA), but the story […]
Fun With Pythagoras: Doubt
Entering Sunday, the Brewers bats had posted their best offensive output of the season, a runs scored total so large that a mediocre-to-bad offense suddenly had a much more positive season trend (or at least closer to average). Our Beloved Milwaukee Nine extended a four game lead over the nearest National League Central rivals w, […]
Who is Josh Hader?
Brewers left hander Josh Hader is causing quite a stir thanks to his strike out mania. The Milwaukee reliever began the season with a fascinating 15.3 IP performance in 10 appearances, striking out 31 of 53 batters faced. But the breakout arguably occurred on April 30, 2018, when Hader completed an eight out save (2.7 […]
Runs Prevented Rankings I
Over the last couple of months, some comments based on Runs Prevented have helped me to re-evaluate how I present the statistic on the website (and, by extension, on BPMilwaukee Twitter, where I publish the Brewers Daily Pythagorean (or Run Differential, RS / RA) record). Thus, in March I posted a basic explanation of how […]
The Call Up: Freddy Peralta
When Brewers GM David Stearns took over the reins of the club, his first move established a particular type of rebuilding approach: he traded reliever Francisco Rodriguez to Detroit for infield prospect Javier Betancourt and a player to be named later (catcher Manny Pina). This was a relatively solid trade for an established-but-not-necessarily-impact veteran reliever, […]