Some things to read while consulting your friends.
The 2014 Major League Baseball regular season wrapped up on Sunday and, with the Milwaukee Brewers one of 20 teams eliminated from the postseason, there are decisions looming about the team’s long-term direction. All we know this morning is that we still don’t know much: Manager Ron Roenicke and the coaching staff’s fate is unlikely to be decided until after Doug Melvin and Mark Attanasio meet to discuss the matter in Los Angeles next week. Adam McCalvy of MLB.com has a preview of the personnel decisions ahead, but it’s unlikely many of those will be decided before the organization announces a decision regarding the coaching staff.
While we wait to see what’s next for the Brewers, though, we have plenty of season recaps from around the Web:
- Adam McCalvy has a look at what went right, what went wrong and the season’s top performers.
- Derek Harvey of Brew Crew Ball says the season was “disappointing, but not a total loss.”
- Scott Lindholm of Beyond the Box Score has another look back at the Brewers’ unlikely collapse.
- Tim Muma of Brewers Mix said the collapse will lead to more fans lacking faith in the team going forward.
- Enrique Bakemeyer of The Brewers Bar ranked the 10 best Brewer wins of the season.
- Andy Baggot of the Wisconsin State Journal has three lingering questions he’d like answered.
Meanwhile, one of the Brewers’ top performers from 2014 received another honor on Monday. Jonathan Lucroy is the team’s nominee for the Hank Aaron Award, given annually to the outstanding offensive performer in each league. Follow this link to vote for a winner.
Fans who watched Lucroy play all season likely won’t be surprised to discover he was among baseball’s most improved hitters. David G. Temple of Fangraphs notes that his wRC+, an advanced hitting metric, went up 17 points this season. Conversely, Jean Segura’s dropped by 38 points.
By the advanced metric Win Percentage Added, Lucroy made a positive offensive contribution to the Brewers in about 20 percent of his appearances this season. Brew Crew Ball user nullacct has a pretty remarkable graphic showing whether each position player had a positive, neutral or negative effect on the team’s chances of winning in each game this season.
Lucroy will likely be back behind the plate the majority of the time in 2015, but the Brewers’ crowded outfield situation may create some questions regarding long-term roles out there. Khris Davis lost some playing time to Gerardo Parra down the stretch, but @AlecDopp notes that he led all NL hitters with a .289 “hard-hit average.”
Ryan Braun had a disappointing season in 2014, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at this measure: Mike Petriello of FanGraphs crunched the numbers and listed Braun as baseball’s second-best hitter with runners on base, trailing only Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers. Fascinatingly, Lyle Overbay also made the top 11.
Elsewhere in statistical oddities, we have this note. August Fagerstrom of FanGraphs collected baseball’s most “extreme” home runs from the last year and noted that a ball Pablo Sandoval hit off Tom Gorzelanny at Miller Park was the lowest pitch taken deep this season.
The Brewers’ season didn’t end the way many of us had hoped, but at least it was fun at times. Ben Lindbergh of Grantland used daily playoff probabilities to determine baseball’s “most exciting” teams, and has the Brewers fourth behind the Mariners, Braves and Cardinals.
Despite falling out of the playoff chase in August and September, Brewers fans still showed up to Miller Park in impressive numbers this season. Noah Jarosh of Brew Crew Ball noted a report saying the Brewers had the National League’s largest attendance increase this season, drawing over 260,000 more fans than they did in 2013. Overall, 2014 was the seventh-best attended season in MLB history.
The Brewers likely needed most of that ticket money to pay their $102 million Opening Day payroll. Cory DiBenedetto of Gammons Daily notes that the Crew spent approximately $1.25 million per win in 2014, which ranked them 17th in all of baseball. The Athletics and Pirates both reached the postseason despite spending less than $900,000 per win.
The organization is likely to receive some good financial news this week, as it appears unlikely any of their players will qualify for arbitration early under baseball’s “Super 2” rule. Notable Brewers with 2-plus years of service time who fall short of two years, 133 days include Jean Segura and Wily Peralta. If Will Smith spends the entire season on the MLB roster in 2015 he’ll likely qualify as a Super 2 next winter.
In the minors: Congratulations are due out this morning to 2014 Wisconsin Timber Rattlers outfielder Michael Ratterree, who was announced on Monday as a winner of the Minor League Rawlings Gold Glove Award. The award goes out to just one player per position across all of minor league baseball, so it’s a pretty exclusive honor. Ratterree was also the Pioneer League MVP with the Helena Brewers in 2013.
And again, we’re working our way through the season’s final block of power rankings: This week, Jonah Keri of Grantland has the Brewers as baseball’s 15th-best team, down two spots. ESPN also has the Crew 15th, also down two spots.
If you’d like more Brewers coverage today but you’re sick of reading, I have a pair of options for you:
- I’ll be making my weekly appearance on The Talking Cheeseheads this afternoon, with our friend Justin Hull filling in for Ben Larson this week. Listen in live on Sports Fan 100.5 in Wausau or Sports Talk AM 1090 WAQE in Rice Lake, or follow the link above to listen in to the archived audio later.
- From there, I’ll jump over to The Big One with Marques Pfaff on 95.3 WSCO in Appleton at 4 p.m. I’ll be live in-studio taking your calls, emails and tweets, so listen in and get your voice heard.
Around baseball:
Astros: Hired former Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch as their new manager.
Mariners: Designated first baseman/outfielder Corey Hart for assignment.
Twins: Fired manager Ron Gardenhire.
Obviously Hart is the name that will stick out in that section for many Brewers fans. He was able to appear in just 68 games for the Mariners, batting .203 with a .271 on-base percentage and .319 slugging while playing almost exclusively as a designated hitter. He’ll turn 33 next spring and it’s hard to say what the future holds for him at this point.
Elsewhere in former Brewers:
- Nick Doran of Fake Teams says to not forget about CC Sabathia as a potential comeback player in 2015. Injuries limited Sabathia to just eight starts with the Yankees this season.
- Doug of High Heat Stats listed Robin Yount’s catch to save Juan Nieves’ no-hitter in 1987 as one of the best plays ever in that situation.
Ten teams have advanced to the MLB postseason, but the list of contenders will be trimmed to nine tonight when the A’s and Royals meet in the American League Wild Card game at 7 p.m., with Jon Lester facing James Shields. The NL Wild Card game is scheduled for Wednesday, and the Pirates will send Edinson Volquez to the mound to face the Giants in that contest. The Division Series round opens on Thursday.
With the Brewers out of the picture, many fans are likely left without a rooting interest this postseason. Thankfully, plenty of national writers have chimed in to help you choose a temporary new favorite team:
- Grant Brisbee of Baseball Nation ranked all 25 potential World Series matchups and listed Pirates/Orioles as his favorite, with Cardinals/Angels bringing up the rear.
- Mike Oz of Big League Stew did the same thing and has Angels/Dodgers No. 1, with Tigers/Cardinals coming in last. Actually, the Cardinals are in his 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th place matchups.
- Jim Caple of ESPN ranked the Pirates as the postseason’s most “rootable” team, with the Cardinals also last in his eyes.
- Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk has a look at the reasons to root for and against every National League and American League team.
Finally, with help from the Baseball Reference Play Index, we’d like to wish a happy birthday today to:
- Milwaukee native and UW-La Crosse alum Craig Kusick, who would have turned 66. He played seven MLB seasons between 1973-79 as a member of the Twins and Blue Jays.
- Rolling Prairie, Wis., native and UW-Madison alum Lyman Linde, who would have turned 94. He pitched two MLB seasons as a member of the 1947-48 Cleveland Indians.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m having a nightmare.
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.
