Gagne
It is time for a Brewers post. Needless to say it has been a very interesting opening to the season. Let’s start with Gagne and the bullpen.
Gagne at this point is an average pitcher. He no longer thows 98 and relies on his changeup. That is fine, and Trever Hoffmann has been very successful with Gagne type stuff. The difference is that Gagne has been falling behind in the count which has caused him to throw a very hittable straight fastball down the middle of the plate. This has led to 4 home runs allowed already and 4 blown saves. Say whatever you want about the weather, mound surface, whatever. That had little to do with the underlying fact that Gagne is a very hittable pitcher, who will be prone to some untimely Home runs this year. He has currently saved 6 out of 10, a poor showing to date. He could have had the save yesterday had Weeks turned the double play, but why put Weeks in that position? When you start out by hitting Cesar Izturis and give up a gap shot to Skip Shumacker, you deserve to blow the save. To his credit, he did a great job by striking out Ankiel, and inducing Pujols into a ground ball, but he wasn’t “unlucky.”
Now the good news… The bullpen has been very good overall, and you don’t necessarily need to have your best pitcher in the closer’s role. What Gagne has done, is allowed Ned Yost to establish roles for the rest of the pen. For those who don’t regularly follow the Brewers, that is Yost’s main issue. He likes to tinker. The Brewers lost the division last year primarily because the bullpen collapsed. Wise, McClung, Turnbow, Linebrink, Aquino were completely unreliable. So Melvin brought in Torres, Riske, Mota, and Gagne this year. Yost now has several options in the 7th and 8th to get to Gagne. This begs the question of the importance of the closer. Should that be your best pitcher or should it be someone comfortable in a 9th inning role, thus allowing the better pitchers to excel in high leverage situations earlier in the game. As bad as Gagne has been, despite his 4 blown saves, the Brewers are 9-1 in games he has pitched. The rest of the bullpen is responsible for the teams’ 5-1 extra inning record.
As bad as Mota was last year, an adjustment by Mike Maddux [He had Mota return to standing upright and using his 6′6″ frame] has turned him into Mota circa 2003. Torres is a ground ball machine. Riske has been slightly dissapointing to date, but I still think he is likely to be the most reliable pitcher this year. All of them can pitch multi-innings, which is huge for a team that in 2007 had the lowest percentage of multi-inning relief stints in the majors. They also have 2 lefties, who are very productive, to give Yost options against the Reds and Cards. All these options have allowed Yost to completely bury Derrick Turnbow {see next post}.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Gagne is poop. You’re a moron for betting Pounders on him. He may be a very nice fella in everyday life, but as a reliever (especially as a closer), Gagne is done. The Brewers wasted $10 million bringing him on this year… and your only hope is that Yost has the wherewithall to realize that sooner than later, and the ability to bring in someone - anyone - to actually close games for the Brew Crew.
I believe the Brewers will win their division… as long as they have a new closer by Memorial Day. If Gagne is still closing games much past that, the Brewers will find a way to lose a very winnable division.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
no…not the case… Yost has no clue, and will consistantly use his “bag of excuses” after every Gagne blown save… luckily Yost has a very big bag…
April 26th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Couldn’t agree more. Gagne is horrible. So glad he is not in Boston this year, although we seem to have the equivalent in Mike Timlin, but at least Timlin doesn’t need to close.
You simply can’t get yourself into hitters counts if you don’t have the stuff to throw a fastball by someone when you need to. And Gagne consistently gets himself into hitters counts. And um, here’s a newsflash, but now that he’s not juicing, he doesn’t have the stuff to throw anything by anyone.
April 26th, 2008 at 10:45 am
True… but did he just come off the juice midseason last year? He was an effective closer for the Rangers - and I thought a very good acquisition by Theo (who gave up a pitcher and an OF who simply had no future in Boston due to those in front of them, but will likely both have serviceable major league careers). Now, in hindsight, it could be argued that Murphy and/or Gabbard could’ve been moved in a separate deal(s) to bring something other than Gagne, and that’s a fair assessment… but given the givens at the time, good deal by Theo. It didn’t work for some unknown reason, but good deal.
Now the Brewers giving an obviously washed-up Gagne $10 million to be their closer this season? Dumb move by a usually intelligent GM. I don’t konw what he was looking at.
Regarding Timlin, I agree with Danny’s comment on a separate post: If Timlin is on the Sox roster after the ASB, it’ll be as a member of the 60-day DL. He’s done. No shame there, terrific career - but he’s done (finally).