Archive for Brewers

After a relatively calm first week for closers, the fantasy world got rocked on Thursday night. While the pitching the ninth inning of the Brewers’ series opener against the Cubs at Miller Park — a game that was firmly in the grasp of the visiting team — Corey Knebel hopped uncomfortably after making his second pitch to Tommy La Stella, then quickly fell to the mound. Knebel sustained an injury to his left hamstring, and according to multiple reports, he will undergo an MRI on Friday to determine the exact nature and severity of the issue.
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Even if you don’t own a turntable, it’s time to shop for some 33s.

Each Thursday, I’ll be recommending hitters to pick up who are owned in 33 percent of leagues or fewer on CBSSports.com and Fantrax. I’ve chosen to use these sites’ ownership rates as a guide, as they tend to be higher than those on ESPN or Yahoo. If I were to use the latter two sites as a guide for identifying players who are available in at least two-thirds of leagues, in reality, some of those players would be unavailable to many owners who play on CBS and Fantrax.
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It’s no news flash that Corey Knebel is really good.  But is he Aroldis Chapman-good?

On Wednesday night, Knebel tied Chapman’s record for most appearances with at least one strikeout to begin a season. In his 37th game of 2017, not only did Knebel notch his 64th strikeout of the year, but he also earned his 11th save in a 4-3 win over the Pirates. He leads all relievers in strikeouts, even though he ranked 39th in swinging strike rate prior to Wednesday’s games. While there was nothing wrong with his 13.8 percent whiff rate, Knebel has been unparalleled in getting strikeouts because he had coaxed swings on only 41.3 percent of his pitches. To put that in perspective, only 36 out of 719 qualified relievers have had a rate at least that low since 2013. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes you try things and they don’t work out. The Brewers’ offseason signing of Neftali Feliz to be their closer always seemed a little superfluous, but it had a certain logic. The $5.35 million they paid for his services was less than what Joaquin Benoit and Koji Uehara got, and he was following up a comeback season with the Pirates. You could see the possibility of Feliz finding some consistency as the Brewers’ closer, and then they could always flip him at the trade deadline.

Feliz was 8-for-9 in save chances, but he was not consistent and certainly did not build up any trade value. When he coughed up a three-run homer to Mookie Betts in the top of the ninth on Thursday, Feliz was en route to his fourth loss. That was enough for Craig Counsell to make a change. He went on MLB Network Radio and said he was going to give Feliz “a break back there and get him right.” He also said Corey Knebel “has been outstanding,” but that doesn’t mean you should run out and pick Knebel up. Counsell told MLB.com he wants to use Knebel in a variety of situations, so essentially, the Brewers are going to a committee to close out games. Read the rest of this entry »

Spring training is just days away, and that’s our queue to take stock of bullpens around the majors. This is the first of six installments that will take a look at how bullpens are lining up, one division at a time. We begin with the National League Central.

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A few weeks ago, we introduced depth chart discussions in the form of playing time battles. RotoGraphs staff have discussed and assessed noteworthy battles for playing time and/or starting gigs for position players and, separately, pitchers, and such analysis will continue until the season’s commencement. Here, specifically, this author will investigate the Milwaukee Brewers‘ position player situations.

This post would have been a lot less interesting had the author written it four weeks ago when he originally considered doing so. But after what can be conservatively described as a favorable offseason, the Brewers have some playing time battles with peculiar fantasy implications, especially for prospectors.

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(A: Both.)

Disclaimer: I wrote this post about Gerardo Parra yesterday afternoon because that’s how things work over here on the West Coast. Between yesterday and this exact moment, Eno Sarris and Paul Sporer posted their most recent episode of the Sleeper and the Bust during which, at around the 45-minute mark, they coincidentally discuss Parra. (Er, Parra is the coincidence, not the podcast.)

Basically, Sarris and Sporer say pretty much everything I write here but in fewer words. So if you want to hear a couple of smart dudes discuss Parra’s rest-of-season prospects, tune in. If for some reason you’d rather engage in in what will be a more verbose, occasionally visual, absolutely not visceral experience, proceed:

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For this post, I will let my deluded ramblings — what my National League outfield analysis eventually and ostensibly becomes pretty much every time nowadays — devolve into stream of consciousness. Because this is a sentence I actually wrote but deleted: “I want to talk about Gerardo Parra.” An alternative I considered: “Let’s talk about Gerardo Parra.”

Point is, I’ve started thinking too hard about simple things and my brain is grinding to a halt. Whatever — let’s just talk about Parra. Let’s have an open dialogue about the guy who, for all intents and purposes, is having a career year this season from an offensive perspective.

Parra’s 129 wRC+ (weighted runs created) easily vanquishes his previous high (106) set back in 2011. It marks only the second time his bat has rated better than average, so you’d be lying if you told me his production thus far in 2015 hasn’t surprised you. To attest: a man who, for six years, averaged eight home runs per 600 plate appearances has hit nine in almost half the time.

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Episode 87

The latest episode of The Sleeper and the Bust is now live! Jason Collette joins Eno Sarris preview the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers.

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us any fantasy questions you have that we may answer on our next episode.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the feed.

Thanks to Ian Miller aka Teen Archer, for the new intro music

Approximately 100 min of joyous analysis, & excuse the barking dog about 90 minutes in.

FSTA draft results mentioned several times in the show

Given his initial contract demands, three years at about $15 million per year, and what he signed for, three years at $11 million per year, it’s hard to argue that Kyle Lohse was one of the offseason winners. That said, the initial responses to the deal seem to point to the idea that even if Lohse lost, the Brewers didn’t exactly win by signing him. The money isn’t likely to be an issue with the deal – Lohse only needs to be worth about two wins a season to justify the cost – but the loss of a draft pick to a division rival is an abstract cost for which Lohse won’t be able to directly answer.

But the money is spent, Lohse is a Brewer, and the question at this point is whether or not he’ll be able to provide the team with value above and beyond the two wins necessary to justify his contract. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s Roto Riteup is back in full, so that’s sort of cool.

• Chris Narveson has now undergone season-ending surgery on his left shoulder. Narveson was never a fantasy stud, but he was a good candidate for wins and a few strikeouts in NL-only leagues. Narveson may now be out in Milwaukee, depending on what happens with free agents to be Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum. Even if you have him cheap in a very deep dynasty league, I’d cut bait.

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