You Call THIS Progress?
2-2 5.76 8 HR in 59 inn
2-4 5.47 7 HR in 52 inn
4-2 3.81
Those are the stats last year of Guillermo Mota, Solomon Torres and Eric Gagne. Three of the four pitchers Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin has picked up this off – season to “bolster” the bullpen. He also signed free agent David Riske who was 1-4 with a respectable 2.41 ERA.
Other than being warm breathing bodies, how Mota and Torres are going to help an already shaky bullpen is befuddling. Further, after the trade with the Pirates, Torres announced that he is considering retirement!
Gagne is another matter. Everyone knows how lights out he was with the Dodgers when he had an electric arm. Now after multiple surgeries that arm is merely holding a charge.
While he performed respectfully for a bad Rangers team, he was downright awful for the Red Sox. Now Melvin wants him to replace Coco Cordero as the closer, even though he has steadfastly said that Derrick Turnbow will return to that role. Yeah, and the Cubs will win the World Series next year!
So Doug, who is it going to be? Turnbow, who was so bad that he was booed in every appearance in September and then asked for a trade or Gagne who is one pitch away from another blown elbow? If he is so confident of Turn”blow” then why did he get Cordero in the first place and why is he taking a chance on Gagne?
The Brewers have a surfeit of starters. Why none was traded during the recent winter meetings means that 1.) He couldn’t get fair value or 2.) Nobody wants Capuano, Bush or Vargas.
Now, Melvin has said he will not offer free agent closers the kinds of multi million dollar multiple year deals they are seeking and he did make a fair offer for Cordero. No problem with that logic. So let’s pick up retread relievers instead. Convince me that any of them are better than Scott Linebrink who went south to the White Sox and you can be a racing sausage for a game next year. Melvin obviously is seeking quantity over quality so he went to baseball’s version of Wal-Mart for everyday low price pitchers. This is progress?
If this isn’t bad enough, he trades Johnny Estrada for Mota. Now the Mets feel he is sufficient enough to replace Paul LoDuca, but the Brewers felt that he didn’t handle the staff well and was bad at throwing out base stealers. So, let’s sign Jason Kendall instead who at 33 has seen his best days. A career .300 hitter, his stats last year were a combined 3/41/.242 for the Athletics and Cubs. He can’t throw anybody out either. This is progress?
He has yet to fill the vacancy in left field with the release of Geoff Jenkins and the soon to be released Kevin Mench. On top of that rumors say he’ll listen to offers for Bill Hall.
I say only if we can get a good everyday top of the order outfielder. How about trading for Brandon Inge to play third and moving Ryan Braun to left? But what do the Tigers need and who would they want? Probably prospects the Brewers are rightfully not willing to give up.
While the Brewers made significant progress in 2007, these off season moves are more of a regression.
You call this progress? So far, I’m not impressed.
It is making this season ticket holder re-consider.
Kenns Korner 
The Lee trade worked out far better for the Brewers than it has for the Rangers. Getting two years out of Cordero was better than nothing. The Rangers GM is no rocket scientist. Gagne’s a worthwhile gamble for one year rather than paying Cordero. Turnbow was good before, maybe he can regain his confidence, which may be the true problem. I’d forgotten about Torres. He’s always been a bit quirky. As for the lack of attention to certain blogs, I find it utterly amazing that if you scroll down the Blogosphere blog, the only time my name is mentioned is under book authors and the blog is never mentioned period—ever. This all stems from the administrator being vindictive towards me for several reasons. I’m not going to get into them now, nor am I going to get anywhere by complaining, but you should complain Kenn; I don’t see any reason for anyone to have a vendetta against you.