1971 Recap: Milwaukee suffered through another bad 90+ loss season, thanks in large part to a completely anemic offensive attack that at times looked like it was going to be one of the worst of all time. They did move out of that eventually; while they had the worst offense in baseball it was not historically bad.
1972 Outlook: 3 years in and that trade they ran with Boston looks like they're rebuilding once again, this time around defense from the looks of it. To be fair there wasn't much to rebuild with.
Pitching
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Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9
Osborne, Brian 27 RR 8 17 .320 3.46 32 32 0 10 1 0 221.1 210 100 85 9 107 8 101 1.432 100.0 0.4 4.4 4.1
Olivares, Chris 24 RR 9 15 .375 4.18 32 30 0 10 4 0 217.2 219 112 101 18 73 9 125 1.342 100.0 0.7 3.0 5.2
Izquierdo, Alex 22 LL 7 13 .350 2.74 29 29 0 10 1 0 210.1 186 78 64 8 82 5 137 1.274 100.0 0.3 3.5 5.9
Gomez, Ricardo 30 RR 0 0 .000 3.21 20 19 0 0 0 0 56.0 62 21 20 3 16 2 32 1.393 100.0 0.5 2.6 5.1
Plaunt, Danny 26 RR 6 6 .500 3.42 67 0 55 0 0 23 97.1 88 38 37 6 28 8 70 1.192 100.0 0.6 2.6 6.5
Mazyck, Deshawn 29 SR 4 2 .667 4.28 54 0 30 0 0 2 69.1 71 33 33 4 33 3 39 1.500 100.0 0.5 4.3 5.1
Pettijohn, Elliot 24 RR 2 2 .500 4.41 40 0 14 0 0 0 49.0 51 28 24 3 28 2 20 1.612 100.0 0.6 5.1 3.7
Whittier, Landon 26 LR 4 10 .286 5.35 26 17 1 0 0 0 109.1 107 67 65 17 78 3 55 1.692 100.0 1.4 6.4 4.5
Chavez, Pedro 28 RR 0 2 .000 5.01 18 0 7 0 0 0 32.1 39 24 18 6 15 2 20 1.670 100.0 1.7 4.2 5.6
Coffey, Kent 26 SR 0 11 .000 3.66 17 11 1 0 0 0 78.2 87 50 32 3 47 3 32 1.703 100.0 0.3 5.4 3.7
Youngblood, Jonas 29 SR 6 2 .750 4.17 9 9 0 0 0 0 58.1 61 27 27 5 25 1 26 1.474 100.0 0.8 3.9 4.0
McGranahan, Chris 33 RR 4 1 .800 1.08 6 6 0 2 1 0 50.0 35 7 6 2 13 2 25 0.960 100.0 0.4 2.3 4.5
Rivera, Jose 29 RR 2 2 .500 6.06 9 4 5 0 0 0 32.2 39 22 22 3 15 1 21 1.653 100.0 0.8 4.1 5.8
Labbe, John 30 RR 3 1 .750 3.66 16 0 4 0 0 0 19.2 27 8 8 0 5 0 15 1.627 100.0 0.0 2.3 6.9
Zapata, Dave 29 LL 0 1 .000 5.52 15 0 4 0 0 0 14.2 18 10 9 3 3 0 9 1.432 100.0 1.8 1.8 5.5
Garcia, Edwin 30 SR 1 1 .500 4.73 2 2 0 0 0 0 13.1 18 7 7 0 4 0 11 1.650 100.0 0.0 2.7 7.4
Jimenez, Omar 22 LR 1 1 .500 4.26 2 2 0 0 0 0 12.2 10 6 6 1 5 1 10 1.184 100.0 0.7 3.6 7.1
Field, Joe 33 LR 1 0 1.000 0.00 5 0 2 0 0 0 8.0 4 0 0 0 2 0 5 0.750 100.0 0.0 2.3 5.6
Garcia, Dave 30 RR 0 0 .000 4.50 1 0 1 0 0 0 2.0 2 1 1 0 1 0 3 1.500 100.0 0.0 4.5 13.5
Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max
Osborne, Brian 32 8 17 7 1 10 9 23 0.281 10 1 22 69% 52 80 14 7 15 2.4 3.2 6.9 107 3 6 14 9 150
Olivares, Chris 30 9 15 6 1 7 14 16 0.467 10 4 17 57% 52 90 22 5 15 3.0 3.7 7.2 107 2 8 11 9 152
Izquierdo, Alex 29 7 13 9 0 8 12 17 0.414 10 1 21 72% 58 84 25 7 13 2.1 2.7 7.3 112 1 7 12 9 160
Gomez, Ricardo 19 6 10 3 1 3 8 11 0.421 5 0 9 47% 49 81 29 4 12 2.9 3.7 7.1 108 2 4 8 5 137
Whittier, Landon 17 3 10 4 1 2 5 12 0.294 0 0 7 41% 43 61 25 5 7 2.5 3.9 5.9 97 1 7 9 0 111
Coffey, Kent 11 0 11 0 0 6 0 11 0.000 0 0 6 55% 45 79 17 1 6 0.5 0.6 6.3 105 1 3 4 3 164
Youngblood, Jonas 9 6 2 1 3 0 7 2 0.778 0 0 3 33% 49 74 29 2 4 5.3 7.4 6.5 105 1 1 4 3 128
McGranahan, Chris 6 4 1 1 0 1 5 1 0.833 2 1 6 100% 70 80 63 0 5 2.2 2.3 8.3 115 0 1 3 2 140
Rivera, Jose 4 2 2 0 0 0 2 2 0.500 0 0 2 50% 38 57 12 0 2 3.0 4.1 6.7 115 0 0 3 1 139
Jimenez, Omar 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 1 50% 54 62 45 0 2 7.0 9.9 6.3 98 0 1 1 0 102
Garcia, Edwin 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 1 50% 46 67 26 0 1 1.5 2.0 6.7 108 0 0 2 0 114
Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR
Plaunt, Danny 67 6 6 32 23 9 72% 32 0 25 14 36% 1.520 30 20 20 13 54 7 31 21 20 11 15 4.4 20
Mazyck, Deshawn 54 4 2 5 2 3 40% 11 6 16 11 41% 1.068 11 33 33 10 44 6 20 6 22 14 12 3.9 21
Pettijohn, Elliot 40 2 2 0 0 0 0% 6 6 31 13 30% 0.841 9 23 21 18 22 9 13 7 7 8 18 3.7 21
Chavez, Pedro 18 0 2 1 0 1 0% 1 0 12 7 37% 0.618 2 12 12 7 11 4 8 1 4 1 12 5.4 31
Labbe, John 16 3 1 0 0 0 0% 3 3 10 7 41% 0.916 3 8 8 6 10 5 4 3 1 4 8 3.7 20
Zapata, Dave 15 0 1 0 0 0 0% 2 2 11 5 31% 0.739 3 8 7 6 9 6 5 4 2 2 7 2.9 17
Whittier, Landon 9 1 0 1 0 1 0% 2 1 8 4 33% 0.661 2 6 6 4 5 2 1 3 2 0 4 3.1 19
Coffey, Kent 6 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 5 2 29% 0.585 0 5 5 3 3 1 3 1 0 1 4 4.7 27
Field, Joe 5 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 0 0% 0.794 1 3 3 1 4 0 3 1 0 1 3 4.8 20
Rivera, Jose 5 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 5 1 17% 0.208 0 5 5 2 3 1 2 0 0 0 5 3.6 21
Olivares, Chris 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.144 0 2 2 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 2 4.0 27
Gomez, Ricardo 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 2 0 0% 0.333 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 8.0 39
Garcia, Dave 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.878 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 6.0 25
Having traded away a couple of their best arms in Brian Osbourne and Alex Izquierdo, the Brewers will go to the mat in 1972 with a rotation that's sure to be one of the youngest if not the youngest in baseball. The "ace" is
Chris Olivares, now 17-26 in 2 seasons as a Milwaukee starter. He looks like a roughly league average player by the peripherals who finished below average via ERA because of some poor defense behind him. The Brewers did manage to win 14 out of his 30 starts; perhaps he was also pitched a little bit too hard. Milwaukee should also be interested to see if
Jonas Youngblood can capitalize on a solid August and September. If so, he might be a trade chip, given that he's potentially the old man of the staff at 29.
Landon Whittier will probably also at least start in the rotation in the first full season of a project to convert him from the relief role he filled admirably in Cleveland in 1969. Speaking of converted relievers, expect to see last year's stopper
Danny Plaunt get tried out as a starter. He started the entire 1968 season in Washington and was 14-14 with a fine, even for the year, 2.88 ERA.
Who, then, on the back end?
Kent Coffey is a less than glamourous choice as the 5th starter given his 0-11 record in Milwaukee last year (he was 2-13, 4.14 combined between the Brew Crew and Detroit). He's a former 17 game winner (in 1969) who's still just 26 so there's reason to think he'll be able to bounce back. Of course, even a bounce-back year means he will probably have to contend with low run support.
Oscar Jiminez struck out 10 guys in 12.2 September innings, which all by itself puts the young Dominican into the mix.
For all the talk of his bad year in Boston,
Matt Brock still co-led the AL in saves in 1971 and he should lowkey be an improvement over Plaunt, who put up superficially fine numbers but allowed 14 of the 25 men he inherited to score. Not good! Brock himself allowed 14 of 26 but is a year removed from only allowing 5 of 22 to come in. Also not noted in the relief breakdowns above is that Plaunt had 14 meltdowns to 25 shutdowns whereas Brock, as bad as he looked in August and September, had 12 vs 30. Perhaps less reliable - but still an upgrade over the old guy Deshawn Maczyk - is 35 year old Eddie Sanchez, who had a very high 4.72 ERA but at least didn't let inherited men score behind him (7/22). His huge drop in K rate - 7.2 to 3.8 - has to be the biggest concern. Elliott Pettijohn is there in case Sanchez is washed, although he mostly looks like a 10 years younger version of what Sanchez is right now.
Batting
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Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
Garcia, Luis 36 RR 106 277 12 56 6 0 3 27 33 60 0 0 10 .202 .283 .256 2
Brown, Adam 23 LR 93 246 33 59 13 3 7 33 35 49 0 1 8 .240 .330 .402 2/3
If he's not careful,
Luis Garcia might just go from starter (de facto starter but still a starter) to out of a job on Opening Day. Milwaukee is the 5th team he's been a member of in his 14 year career that included technically 3 World Series championships (he was a late-season call-up for the Yankees in 1958 and 1960 but did contribute meaningfully as their backup backstop in 1962) but his hitting dipped badly last season after a .274/5/33 campaign with St. Louis in 1970 and at this point in his career he's average at best defensively. He's well regarded as a leader, which might have been the main thing that kept him on the roster last year. That said, he's reportedly sick and tired of playing for a losing team and blamed his offensive malaise on the environment.
Adam Brown was the 23rd overall pick and even played in the Futures Game in 1970 but somehow never made the top 100 list for prospects. He seems like he'd be a career backup on a better team. Milwaukee added
Ken Hall from Boston in the Jun Kim trade; should Garcia get cut, it'll be because they consider him ready to go. He hit just .212/7/29 in half a year with AAA Louisville but did much better in relief of Sid Bartoszek in the bigs (.312/0/6, albeit in 32 at-bats).
Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
Nakamura, Kozue 29 RR 150 565 60 177 29 2 4 65 46 56 0 4 29 .313 .366 .393 3*
Hawkinson, Ray 29 LR 26 45 4 15 4 0 0 4 2 5 0 0 0 .333 .354 .422 /3
Rogers, Jim 30 LL 36 42 3 12 2 0 2 7 4 8 0 0 0 .286 .348 .476 /379
Fleischaker, John 28 RR 15 12 3 5 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 .417 .429 .750 /3
Johnston, Chris 37 RR 8 9 2 3 1 0 0 1 3 1 1 0 0 .333 .500 .444 /34
Yi, Wing-fung 27 RR 56 183 30 49 10 3 4 17 29 27 9 2 2 .268 .366 .421 4
Biron, Eric 24 RR 46 169 19 45 11 0 3 10 12 32 3 0 1 .266 .315 .385 4/76
Jones, Pat 34 LR 53 155 21 49 15 2 2 16 11 18 0 1 2 .316 .355 .477 4/56
Moore, Chris 31 RR 14 45 2 9 2 0 0 3 4 11 0 0 1 .200 .265 .244 /453
Rios, Esteban 25 RR 18 38 2 6 1 0 0 4 1 10 0 0 2 .158 .179 .184 4/8
Louderback, Frank 28 RR 10 24 2 3 1 0 0 1 4 3 0 0 0 .125 .250 .167 /4
Martinez, Francisco 24 LR 103 373 34 94 11 1 4 35 9 35 0 0 10 .252 .275 .319 5/6
Morrison, Mike 30 RR 56 234 23 71 10 0 5 24 14 15 1 2 8 .303 .345 .410 5
Villafana, Marco 25 RR 15 29 4 5 1 0 1 7 5 5 0 0 0 .172 .297 .310 /56
Temudo, Guido 24 RR 64 192 15 39 5 2 1 16 24 25 1 1 9 .203 .299 .266 6
Armand, Mike 31 RR 43 148 20 34 5 2 2 18 20 30 7 2 2 .230 .320 .331 64/5
Yeater, Andrew 24 LR 61 151 16 32 2 0 2 17 12 31 3 1 3 .212 .274 .265 6/457
Flores, Hugo 29 SR 35 112 10 22 4 2 3 11 3 19 1 1 1 .196 .222 .348 6/4
Ramey, Justin 32 RR 13 57 12 14 0 0 2 6 2 10 0 1 2 .246 .271 .351 6/4
This team went through a looooooot of position players. It's what you do when you're very bad. That said, they managed to alight on one guy to play first base and kept him the entire season. That was 29 year old rookie
Kozue Nakamura, a Rule V draft pick from the Angels who immediately made good after getting out of that particular logjam. It's easy to see why California didn't ever use him - Nakamura has no power whatsoever and is only an adequate fielder - but for Milwaukee he was a source of some of the only offense they could muster. His bat control meant he put the ball in play a *lot*, which contributed to a high average but also to 29 double plays. The other guys at this position were mainly pinch hitters and failed players from other systems; I'd be very surprised if anyone other than Nakamura played the majority of games for this team in '72.
Second base was pretty much a revolving door all season long and as of this writing it's not completely clear who the team will choose for 1972.
Eric Biron was the incumbent from 1970 but he got hurt in May and barely played the rest of the season. That opened the way for... a big mess, although eventually Milwaukee acquired two former Yankees in Wing-fung Yi and Pat Jones. Jones in particular hit well but seems kind of against the overall youth movement going on here; nevertheless, as of this writing he's still on the team. All that said, one of the main pickups in the blockbuster trade with the Red Sox was [b]Dwayne Fraser (.308, 2, 14), who was the Red Sox' starter in 1970 and who was great as a backup for the World Series Champs. His big downside, indeed the reason why the Red Sox benched him, is an arm that's bad even for a keystoner. He's also rather lacking in range. These are probably issues the Brewers will learn to live with.
Mike Morrison swept in, gave the Brewers a huge upgrade at third base over the final two months, and for his production he was shipped off to the Orioles for a couple of minor leaguers. That means that
Francisco Martinez is at least on paper the 3rd baseman again. Martinez hit for about as empty a .252 average as you will ever see. He is a plus fielder at third, at least if you can get over his occasional stone hands, but is that enough? I'd say that one of the guys Milwaukee got back for Morrison, Leo Lujan, would compete here, but the AI smartly released him on the 28th. At this point it looks like they'll need to find someone via trade or off the waiver wire, as their top infield prospects all have pretty bad arms.
Shortstop was also a pain position in 1971 and doesn't look to be much better in '72. They should at least have
Guido Temudo for the entire year; the 25 year Venezuelan was out until August with a broken bone in his elbow he suffered in the 1970 offseason. The only thing keeping him from being a Gold Glove quality fielder is a lack of range; granted, that's a pretty big thing. He also hit .257 in 1970 and the Brewers will hope that that, and not a 1971 season that was spent trying to get back into the swing of things, represents his true value.
Andrew Yeater, his backup going forward, is the dictionary definition of replacement level.
Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
Powell, Andrew 27 LL 117 382 38 92 14 0 2 24 16 38 1 0 9 .241 .275 .293 79
Ferrell, Jared 25 LL 104 279 46 80 16 2 19 49 40 47 1 0 4 .287 .383 .563 79/8
Allen, Mike 33 RR 20 45 4 2 0 0 0 2 2 15 0 0 1 .044 .098 .044 /789
Barlow, Terry 27 LL 16 44 3 11 1 2 1 3 5 7 0 0 1 .250 .340 .432 7
Zalaznik, Josh 27 RR 13 26 2 6 0 0 1 3 4 4 0 0 2 .231 .313 .346 /73
Fernandez, Mario 25 RR 10 19 1 7 1 0 0 5 1 0 0 0 0 .368 .400 .421 /7
Ashbaker, Ryan 28 RR 6 17 1 5 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 .294 .294 .353 /7
Arredondo, Antonio 28 RR 6 9 2 3 0 0 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 .333 .333 .667 /7
Ceballos, Fernando 28 RR 136 520 54 117 7 5 3 23 9 75 14 3 4 .225 .236 .275 8*/9
Springsteen, Bruce 22 LL 32 124 16 36 4 0 9 21 10 25 2 0 1 .290 .341 .540 8/7
Haskell, Jason 30 LR 13 20 2 4 0 0 0 1 4 3 0 1 0 .200 .333 .200 /87
Berry, Jon 31 LL 14 14 2 5 1 0 0 1 2 2 2 0 0 .357 .412 .429 /87
Poynor, Ross 28 LR 79 284 31 73 5 7 7 27 20 39 8 5 3 .257 .300 .398 9/87
Marsden, John 28 LL 47 177 14 35 4 1 4 17 16 24 2 0 4 .198 .263 .299 9
Greeno, Roger 29 RL 24 40 4 8 1 1 0 3 7 11 0 0 1 .200 .319 .275 9/78
Left field was also a big, big mess in 1971 that the team hopes will resolve itself.
Andrew Powell was acquired in late April with the hopes that he'd become a cornerstone of the lineup. Instead he hit an empty .241 - almost 60 points below his 1970 average - and lost his job as the season went on to the intriguing
Jared Ferrell. It's safe to say that Ferrell was blocked in what has now been shown to be a talented Kansas City outfield. Nevertheless, Ferrell was the best hitter on this team over the second half of the season and hopes to be their cleaup hitter of the future. He does have a strong enough arm to play in right and so might see a lot of time there, especially if Jun Kim is as washed as some people fear.
Fernando Ceballos is another guy who just kind of finds himself in ownership of a starting job in spite of a really, really bad 1970 season. Ceballos is a top notch fielder, it must be noted. You've still got to carry an on-base percentage of higher than .236 to survive in this league, great defender or no. For that reason rumors abound that the actual CF for 1972 is the failed Yankees prospect
Ross Poynor. Poynor was a good, solid starter for NY in 1969 (.298, 8, 41) who then lost his job in 1970 because the Yankees love them some old men. He was then traded to the Brewers for virtual peanuts (specifically, the peanut named John Marsden) in early June. He was hitting just .220 for the Yankees at the time of the trade so his .257/7/27 was pretty solid, all things considered. It's still well south of what the Brewers expected. And we have to be honest: even if he plays in center, he's got the range of a corner outfielder.
Jun Kim figures to be the team's starting right fielder and the veteran leader the front office insists that they need to kickstart this team. Kim missed all of September with a strained hamstring and hit just .111 in the postseason, leading some to believe he was done. Cooler minds think he just struggled to come back from the first major injury of his career. The missed time also meant he failed to win his 6th Gold Glove but at least on that front everyone agrees that his magnificent arm is still intact.