Wily Peralta’s career has been wrought with inconsistency. After an encouraging first two years in Milwaukee, the electric righty has descended into discussions regarding possible assignment to the bullpen. And, even with his bounce-back 2.92 ERA in the final two months of 2016, 2017 is going to be a make or break year for his […]
Category: Articles
Villar and Creating Luck
Jonathan Villar’s 2016 breakout was one of the Brewers’ highlights of the year, if not the highlight for the rebuilding club. While the trade involving RHP Cy Sneed and Villar was a valuable move for the Brewers the moment it happened, Villar’s power/speed/discipline explosion exponentially increased the value of that deal. The resulting 4.8 WARP […]
Working With Intensity: Corbin Burnes
After going undrafted out of high school, RHP Corbin Burnes had a long way to go to fulfill his dreams of playing professional baseball. He was undersized and underdeveloped, but was given a chance to continue playing and starting at St. Mary’s College of California. Burnes, along with first year head coach Eric Valenzuela, struggled […]
Blindspots in Age Curves
Visit any player profile on the Internet and you will find a players birthdate right below his name. Age is everything when it comes to evaluating players. A 27-year-old in rookie ball is a bad sign. A 20-year-old in the big leagues is outstanding. Age is arguably the most important factor when it comes to contract […]
Caring About the Garza Tweet
A few weeks ago, Brewers starting pitcher Matt Garza made headlines with a tweet. In a response to actress Jessica Chastain lamenting the fact that birth control was no longer covered by health insurance, Garza both advocated abstinence and criticized an entire generation. It's called abstinence, a word that has been forgotten amongst this generation… […]
The Opportunity Cost of Harvesting ‘Wiet’
Sometimes, the offseason feels like one of those games that you want to leave early. We’ve all been to a boring snoozer of a game at some point that was well out of hand long before beer sales even stopped, where staying for the rest of the event is nothing but an exercise in stubbornness. […]
Diamonds in the Rough: Brewers Mine From Indy Leagues
One in ten: That’s the approximate number of players in the minor leagues who make it to the major leagues. And that includes plenty of players we commonly think of as “busts” – think Ángel Salomé or Ben Hendrickson, both of whom clawed their way to the major leagues before fizzling out. Their stories are […]
Improvement Isn’t A Given
Expectations remain tempered for the Brewers as spring training approaches in 2017. While there is plenty for devoted fans to get excited for, the national consensus is that Milwaukee will remain in rebuilding mode this season. After an exceptionally quiet offseason characterized by value plays like Eric Thames and Neftali Feliz, it’s hard to argue […]
Who is Hernan Perez?
When Hernan Perez began his 2015 campaign with the Detroit Tigers, he was thoroughly established as a utility option. The right-handed batting infielder was already playing in his fourth MLB season, although he was quite inexperienced: to that point, 71 plate appearances in 34 games during the 2013 season represented Perez’s largest set of playing […]
Pitching Week: Brewers Minor Leaguers
We have been celebrating “Pitching Week” all week long at Baseball Prospectus, including the introduction of a couple new statistics, Called Strike Probability (CSProb) and Called Strikes Above Average (CSAA), to quantify control and command. Earlier this week for Brew Crew Ball, I took a look at how the current big league pitchers in Milwaukee […]