Saturday, May 23, 2015

Brewers Already Seeing Returns of Gallardo Trade

When Doug Melvin made the blockbuster trade for Zack Greinke to make a playoff push the Brewers farm system was depleted and is yet to fully recover. Don't even get me started with the Brett Lawrie for Shawn Marcum deal either. The Brewers dealt four legitimate major leaguers in Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain, who both almost won a World Series with the Royals last year, Jake Odorizzi and Jeremy Jeffress, who luckily fell back in the Brewers lap and turned his career around. Now the Brewers are attempting to rekindle the minors by dealing some veteran players. The first to go was Yovani Gallardo in a trade to the Texas Rangers for a handful of prospects including current major leaguers Luis Sardinas and Corey Knebel. Sardinas got his chance when Segura broke his finger and went on the DL a week ago, and has recorded at least one hit in every game while going 10 for 30 overall. The slick fielding 21 year old has held his own so far in the show which is promising for if the Brewers decide to ship Jean Segura who has drawn interest from multiple teams. Corey Knebel has been fun to watch as well even though he only has three innings under his belt so far. It's hard not to be excited watching the former 39th overall pick in 2013 throw 95mph two-seam darts over the corners. Both of these young players are certainly making it look like the Brewers got the good end of the Gallardo deal especially with their starting pitching depth. It'll be interesting to see which other players the Brewers decide to part with as the season goes on and what other young talent they will be able to acquire.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

The Emergence of Elian Herrera


To begin the year, the Brewers left utilityman Elian Herrera off the 40-man roster in favor of going with Logan Schafer to add to their outfield depth. Now, 33 games into the young season, Schafer is in AAA and Herrera's late game heroics are winning games at the big league level. When it came time a week ago to reinstate Scooter Gennett from the 15-day DL the Brewers had a decision to make: it was either send down Schafer or option Herrera, who is out of minor league options, and risk losing him to another team on the waiver wire. The Brewers decided to stick with Herrera to help fill in for the ailing Aramis Ramirez, whose back injury is still uncertain, and it has paid dividends. This season Herrera isn't putting up eye-popping numbers batting only .222 (12-54) but since getting regular playing time at third base his numbers are on the rise. In the last week Herrera has batted .294 with a pair of homers and 3rbis all coming in the last two games putting the team ahead in the 8th inning both times. Every good team has a veteran utilityman who can step in and make a difference and right now Elian is that guy. The Brewers are in good hands as they try to fight through early season injuries and maintain pace in the NL Central.


Other notes:
Khris Davis has turned around his poor start to the season on this homestand batting .429 with a pair of homers and 7rbis.

Michael Blazek continues to be the hot hand in the Brewers bullpen only allowing two earned runs in 16.2 innings pitched this season. Blazek has been able to slam the door time and time again for the Brewers early in 2015.