Brewers Sign Mike Gonzalez

[Rudi]

Mike Gonzalez and Brewers have agreed to one year deal at $2.250m plus incentives

[Goober]

So much for cutting costs in the bullpen. Despite getting rid of krod and his huge salary. The Brewers are only going to reduce bullpen salaries by about 1.7 million this year. This is due to Melvin's mistake of not trading Axford when his value was high, and the two recent signings.

We're not overpaying for bullpen help, but I would have preferred higher cost savings by getting some bargains, not signing players in December.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Jesus christ gob, its a one year deal for $2.25. Whether you pay Gonzalez or pay some scrap heap camp invitee a million less, what difference does it make?

There is no prize for being the most cost efficient. If you dont like Gonzalez thats another issue, but do we even evaluate players anymore, or is it all about cost efficiency?

[Glenbino]

Jesus christ gob, its a one year deal for $2.25. Whether you pay Gonzalez or pay some scrap heap camp invitee a million less, what difference does it make?

There is no prize for being the most cost efficient. If you dont like Gonzalez thats another issue, but do we even evaluate players anymore, or is it all about cost efficiency?

Its weird that this question seems to come into play in the one major sport with no salary cap.

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[Goober]

Jesus christ gob, its a one year deal for $2.25. Whether you pay Gonzalez or pay some scrap heap camp invitee a million less, what difference does it make?

There is no prize for being the most cost efficient. If you dont like Gonzalez thats another issue, but do we even evaluate players anymore, or is it all about cost efficiency?

What bothers me is that the Brewers are prioritizing the bullpen over the starting rotation. The team has set the 2013 payroll budget at 80 million. Right now payroll is projected at ~75 million. So they have 5 million left to sign a starter, assuming the bench spots are filled with major league minimum guys.

Right now, I don't think there's anyone left who would take 5 million, who would be worth adding, unless that's enough for Marcum. Most of the low cost, high upside pitchers (McCarthy, Feldman, Baker, etc.) have already signed. So it looks like the Brewers will be filling the rotation with internal options.

The current rotation candidates are: Gallardo, Estrada (these two are guaranteed a spot barring injury), Fiers, Peralta, Rogers, Thornburg, Narveson. Not a very exciting group of players. There's some potential with some of the prospects in that group, but counting on them to give you 30 starts/200 IP is foolish. On the other hand, counting on those players to transition to the ML level by taking a bullpen spot in 2013 is a lot less riskier. However it looks like the bullpen is almost full with established relievers at this point. Just odd roster construction in my opinion.

[Goober]

Its weird that this question seems to come into play in the one major sport with no salary cap.

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This is the only sport that interests me enough, for me to analyze at this level. That's me personally, but I also think it's a lot easy to judge baseball salaries due to the way the game is played. Similar to how baseball sabermetrics works, while the weird football statistics that asoraider123 posts is nothing but tomfoolery.

But don't get me wrong, it's easy to spot bad contracts in other sports too. LOL Matt Cassell.

[Glenbino]

This is the only sport that interests me enough, for me to analyze at this level. That's me personally, but I also think it's a lot easy to judge baseball salaries due to the way the game is played. Similar to how baseball sabermetrics works, while the weird football statistics that asoraider123 posts is nothing but tomfoolery.

But don't get me wrong, it's easy to spot bad contracts in other sports too. LOL Matt Cassell.

I do the same thing.. I have no idea what Wesley Woodyard is making nor do I care.. maybe its just the permanence of an MLB contract that makes me think that way.

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[Goober]

I do the same thing.. I have no idea what Wesley Woodyard is making nor do I care.. maybe its just the permanence of an MLB contract that makes me think that way.

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That's another thing, NFL contracts are goofy because they aren't guaranteed. I have no interest in figuring out how those contracts and the salary cap system work. I don't know how NBA or NHL contracts work, because those sports suck.

[Warner2BruceTD]

What bothers me is that the Brewers are prioritizing the bullpen over the starting rotation. The team has set the 2013 payroll budget at 80 million. Right now payroll is projected at ~75 million. So they have 5 million left to sign a starter, assuming the bench spots are filled with major league minimum guys.

Right now, I don't think there's anyone left who would take 5 million, who would be worth adding, unless that's enough for Marcum. Most of the low cost, high upside pitchers (McCarthy, Feldman, Baker, etc.) have already signed. So it looks like the Brewers will be filling the rotation with internal options.

The current rotation candidates are: Gallardo, Estrada (these two are guaranteed a spot barring injury), Fiers, Peralta, Rogers, Thornburg, Narveson. Not a very exciting group of players. There's some potential with some of the prospects in that group, but counting on them to give you 30 starts/200 IP is foolish. On the other hand, counting on those players to transition to the ML level by taking a bullpen spot in 2013 is a lot less riskier. However it looks like the bullpen is almost full with established relievers at this point. Just odd roster construction in my opinion.

Interesting take.

I just assumed they were turning the rotation over to that group of youngsters you listed. You would know better than me, has there been a concerted effort to find another veteran starter, or is that just a strategy you personally would have chosen?

[Goober]

Interesting take.

I just assumed they were turning the rotation over to that group of youngsters you listed. You would know better than me, has there been a concerted effort to find another veteran starter, or is that just a strategy you personally would have chosen?

It's hard to say whether or not the Brewers wanted to sign a veteran starter this offseason. I think either way, they no longer intend to do so, unless it's through a trade. They were heavily involved with Dempster, but luckily we avoided that. There was really no rumored interest in guys like Feldman or McCarthy which I find disappointing. Both would have been good fits. I also don't understand why the team doesn't want Marcum back.

As for trades, the rumored names that I have heard are Bud Norris and Derek Holland. I would love to have Holland. I don't see either happening though.

I can accept turning over the rotation to the young pitchers. That's fine. However it isn't a strategy that I think will lead to winning in 2013, maybe in 2014 if everything goes well, but not 2013. This year will be far to dependent on pitchers who have never started an entire season in the big leagues, and will likely see innings limits. I don't think it's realistic to expect that rotation to perform at a high enough level to make the playoffs. This is fine, you can't win every year, but if that's what we want to do then we should also be selling some of our veterans so that we can compete in 2014 and beyond. No reason to hang onto guys like Corey Hart and John Axford (granted his value is low, hopefully he gets off to a hot start to regain his trade value).

[SuperKevin]

The Nats have lost 3 lefties from their bullpen this offseason and the Brewers have signed two of them

[Guest]

I get Gooby's point, because the Orioles essentially constructed a bullpen of low cost guys, signed off the scrap heap or thrown into the bullpen like Tommy Hunter was at the end of the season. It's tough to see your team throw money into the bullpen and not see it work out. Case in point, the Orioles have done that for years and it didn't work. When they let it go and brought in guys to compete for spots, things seemed to work out.

Every team does it different, but he's got a point, though at the same time, it's highly unlikely that another team will pick up guys similar to ODay and Ayala in the same off-season and repeat what the Orioles did.

[moneyman255]

It's hard to say whether or not the Brewers wanted to sign a veteran starter this offseason. I think either way, they no longer intend to do so, unless it's through a trade. They were heavily involved with Dempster, but luckily we avoided that. There was really no rumored interest in guys like Feldman or McCarthy which I find disappointing. Both would have been good fits. I also don't understand why the team doesn't want Marcum back.

As for trades, the rumored names that I have heard are Bud Norris and Derek Holland. I would love to have Holland. I don't see either happening though.

I can accept turning over the rotation to the young pitchers. That's fine. However it isn't a strategy that I think will lead to winning in 2013, maybe in 2014 if everything goes well, but not 2013. This year will be far to dependent on pitchers who have never started an entire season in the big leagues, and will likely see innings limits. I don't think it's realistic to expect that rotation to perform at a high enough level to make the playoffs. This is fine, you can't win every year, but if that's what we want to do then we should also be selling some of our veterans so that we can compete in 2014 and beyond. No reason to hang onto guys like Corey Hart and John Axford (granted his value is low, hopefully he gets off to a hot start to regain his trade value).

I actually kind of like the Brewers approach so far this off-season. They could have over-payed and gave Dempster 3 years, but Melvin had a plan and budget and stuck to it. The bullpen was a mess and instead of giving 4-5 M per year for RP that vary year to year, Melvin got Gorzo and Gonzalez for pretty much the cost of Grilli or Adams. The Brewers needed LHRP and got two really good potential loggys. Gonzalez held LH to a .179 AVG last year with 1 HR allowed in over 65 AB and has held LH under .200 in his career. Hell, Randy Choate got 3 years and nearly 2.5 M per year from St. Louis. Milwaukee got pretty much the same type of pitcher for 2 years less and less money.

Gorzo adds insurance to the rotation as well, and it allows RR to use matchups with either of the 2 LHRP.

About the rotation, I don't think anyone on the market was worth going for. I still would like to see them sign either Marcum or give it a shot and take a risk on Jurrjjens, but overall, I can't complain about Melvin not overpaying for either Edwin Jackson or Sanchez. McCarthy would have been a good signing imo, but he still would have cost nearly 8 M per year. Hell, Liriano even got 2/14 from the Pirates.

I think it's time to see what Milwaukee has in the young pitchers. It's about time that they give the young pitchers a chance because we know they really haven't given them a chance in the past. See the Wolf/Suppan etc signings in the past few years.

I also don't blame them for cutting payroll. They have one of the worst TV deals in baseball, getting about 10-15 M per year, it should improve in 2014 all the way up to about 20-25 M per year. They also had a payroll of over 100 M last year and didn't make the playoffs and attendance was overall down from the previous years. Therefore a 80-85 M per year payroll seams reasonable and fair.

It also gives them room/flexibility to add players at the trade deadline if they are still in it compared to last year when they were as tight as they could be. If they struggle and are out of it by the trade deadline then we will probably see Hart/A-Ram and maybe even Axford traded. I still think they believe they can contend though.

Overall, I really like these last two signings.