Monday- Evaluations and grades

 
Some things to read while cleaning up.

Today is the eighth day of the Milwaukee Brewers’ offseason, and it leads off a week in which we should learn a lot about the organization’s short- and long-term direction. Doug Melvin is headed out to Los Angeles to meet with Mark Attanasio to review the season and make decisions on Ron Roenicke and the Brewers’ coaching staff, who find themselves on the hot seat after one of the largest collapses in MLB history. Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a look at the events that brought the team to this point.

Many of the Brewers’ starting pitchers actually performed pretty well during the team’s struggles down the stretch, but the starting rotation still finished with a 3.69 ERA as a group. That’s the ninth-best mark in the National League, and Jordan Mader of Brew Crew Ball notes that Yovani Gallardo, Matt Garza and Kyle Lohse all had pretty average seasons in 2014. Here’s a stat to drive that point home: Stephen Loftus of Beyond the Box Score adjusted the 2014 pitching leaderboards by quality of opponent, and the new top Brewer, Garza, is 46th in all of baseball.

Those average performances, however, were enough to earn the starting rotation a B-minus in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s annual team report card by Tom Haudricourt and Todd Rosiak. That’s tied for the highest grade for any positional group, and it’s significantly better than the D-plus the team received overall.

Haudricourt and Rosiak also gave out individual grades. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights:

I’m not sure what Jonathan Lucroy could have done to improve his A-minus grade, but perhaps winning some postseason awards will earn him a bit of extra credit. John Dewan of Bill James Online has Lucroy as the favorite to win both a Fielding Bible Award and the National League Gold Glove at catcher (h/t BBTF).

Lyle Overbay received a C for his final MLB campaign, the end of his 14-year MLB career. Brew Crew Ball user nullacct has a tribute to Overbay’s contributions.

Overbay is one of at least two 2014 Brewers first basemen who are unlikely to man that position again in 2015. Edward Creech of MLB Trade Rumors spotted Todd Rosiak saying something I’ve mentioned here before: The Brewers are likely to be interested in Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche if Washington doesn’t pick up his contract option for 2015.

Speaking of players who could be free agents this winter, Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors has a preview of the possibility that Aramis Ramirez could hit the open market. Ramirez has a mutual option with the Brewers for 2015.

In the minors:

• Teddy Cahill of MLB.com has a story on Wisconsin catcher/designated hitter Clint Coulter, who is working to learn to play right field in instructional ball this fall.
• Meanwhile, we’re slightly more than 24 hours away from the first pitch of the 2014 Arizona Fall League, which will open on Tuesday when the Mesa Solar Sox travel to Glendale to take on the Desert Dogs, a team featuring Brewers minor leaguers. A couple of the Brewers’ representatives will be familiar to fans who have been following the big league team: Wei-Chung Wang and Hector Gomez are among the eight players from Milwaukee’s organization. 
• Looking further ahead, Chris Mehring of Rattler Radio spotted some Baseball America chat questions about 2014 AZL and Helena Brewers that could be members of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in 2015.
• 2014 Nashville Sounds outfielder Jeremy Hermida did not reach the big leagues with the Brewers this season, but he did make Jason Mast of Grading on the Curve’s roster of the best minor leaguers over age 30.

Around baseball:

Braves: Hired former Astros manager Bo Porter as their new third base coach.
Pirates: Acquired pitcher Preston Guilmet from the Orioles for cash and designated outfielder Jose Tabata for assignment.
Red Sox: Hitting coach Greg Colbrunn has resigned.

Postseason play continues this week, of course, and if you’ve waited until now to tune in, you’ve missed the entire American League Division Series round. The Orioles beat the Tigers 2-1 to finish a three-game sweep of their first playoff series on Sunday, and the Royals pounded the Angels to also finish a perfect round. The American League’s World Series representative will be either Baltimore or Kansas City for the first time since 1983 or 1985, respectively. 

There are a fair number of things I expected to be able to say about Ned Yost this week, but “undefeated postseason manager” was not one of them. Yost has the support of several NASCAR drivers as he looks to lead the Royals to a title, including Dale Earnhardt Jr.

His season may have ended on Sunday, but Tigers outfielder J.D. Martinez opened some eyes by hitting .315 with a .358 slugging percentage and .553 slugging in 2014 after being released by the Astros during spring training. Beisbol’s Org has a look at what’s changed for the fringe MVP candidate.

Despite having been eliminated in the playoffs’ first week, Tigers players will take home a nice check for their share of baseball’s postseason revenues. David Waldstein of the New York Times has a nice look at the process and history of awarding playoff shares to players on winning teams (h/t Hardball Talk).

The Tigers may face a real challenge, however, if they’re going to earn a playoff share again in 2015. Matthew Pouliot of Hardball Talk notes that both starting pitcher Max Scherzer and first baseman/designated hitter Victor Martinez will be free agents this winter.

Today in former Brewers:

• Nelson Cruz homered for Baltimore on Sunday and now has the ninth-most postseason home runs in MLB history, passing Babe Ruth.
• The Blue Jays have outrighted George Kottaras off of their 40-man roster, meaning the veteran catcher will be a minor league free agent this winter.
• David Schoenfield of ESPN has a look at some nice defensive plays from Lorenzo Cain that helped the Royals advance to the ALCS.
• Cain isn’t the only Royals outfielder drawing attention this month, as Cy Brown of Sports on Earth has a look at why everyone loves Norichika Aoki.
• Chris Capuano and the Yankees did not make the postseason, but Andrew Mearns of Yankees blog Pinstripe Alley still gave the lefty a C for his time in New York this season.
• Bill Berg of Reviewing the Brew has a look at the trade that sent J.J. Hardy to Minnesota and the reasons why it should have worked out for both teams.
• Also at Reviewing the Brew, Michael Trzinski rates the 1980 Stockton Ports as the fifth-best farm team in Brewers franchise history. That team featured catcher Bill Schroeder and pitchers Jaime Cocanower and Bob Gibson.
• Bradley Woodrum of NotGraphs has created a wallpaper featuring Don Sutton’s 1981 appearance on The Match Game.

No less than 21 pitchers took the mound for the Brewers this season, and the shortest among them was Brandon Kintzler, who was listed at 5-foot-10. Jeff Zimmerman of The Hardball Times asks if baseball is undervaluing shorter pitchers.

Finally, with help from Brewerfan.net and the Baseball Reference Play Index, we’d like to wish a happy birthday today to:

• 2014 Wisconsin Timber Rattler Victor Diaz, who turns 21.
• 1998-2003 Brewer Valerio De Los Santos, who turns 42.
• 1971-74 Brewer Jerry Bell, who turns 67 (Today In Brewer History).
• Seattle Pilot Jerry Stephenson, who would have turned 71.

Today is also the 47th anniversary of the Atlanta Braves releasing Bob Uecker in 1967, ending his major league playing career. Follow the link for that event’s entry in Today In Brewer History at Brew Crew Ball.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I hit something.

Drink up.

Don’t forget to follow Kyle on Twitter @BrewFrostyMug, and check out and “like” the Mug’s Facebook page. The Frosty Mug runs mornings Monday-Friday and is brought to you by Legends of the Field, a sports memorabilia company you can trust.