Doug Davis is back.

20 Jan 2010 | 4 Comments »

It was just announced that Doug Davis signed with the Brewers. $4.25M with a 2011 option $1M buyout.  But here is what I wish would be his next move.

Doug: <beep beep beep> <beep beep beep> – <beep beep beep beep>
<ring ring>
Suppan: Hello.
Doug: Hey Jeff.  It’s Doug Melvin calling, how’s Soups kitchen going?
Suppan: We had our best Wednesday yet! We made..
Doug: Sorry Jeff, I don’t care. The reason I’m calling is that we recently signed Doug Davis… and we’ve got a lot of starting pitchers..
Suppan: did I mention our new Mango salsa?
Doug: Soup.. I’m trying to say.. we are letting you go.
Suppan: But why don’t you cut Bush/Parra form the rotation?
Doug: They are all out of options and have better raw talent and upside then you….
Suppan: But who’s going to do the Soups Troops promotion?
Doug: Taken care of.. Gomez Generals.
Suppan: You know how much I love ‘Merica.
Doug: Yeah well, can we get our $44 million back?
Suppan: No sorry.. I used it to bling out my anti-stem cell research protest signs.
Doug: Good luck doing.. <click>

Here it is Doug. Your chance to atone for the sin of signing Suppan by cutting him loose. If we want to “go for it” and win now. Then lets do it, and get rid of the worst pitcher with zero upside in our staff. It’s great that you made some moves to improve the staff, but lets cut the fat and dump the biggest boat anchor to the club… the $12 million is already spent… lets make some good use of it by making Suppan pitch for someone else. It’s only $2M more then you paid Gagne to pitch.. so what’s the big deal?

In fact, I will challenge you with this. You dump Suppan like a bad habit. I will shutdown FDM.com, apologize to you, grow a mustache, and register extenddougmelvin.com.

Category(s): 2009 Offseason Moves, General Fail

Contracts.. Contracts.. Contracts…

14 Dec 2009 | No Comments »

He's back. 1 Year 2.1M.

Hopefully this guy doesn't steal games from Mat Gamel.

Lots of contracts to announce. Things are finalized with the MLBPA so here  are your salary break downs for these three signings.

Randy Wolf – 3 Years, $29.75M plus Club Option ($1.5M buy out).
2010 – $9.25M
2011 – $9.5M
2012 – $9.5M
2013 – $10M ($1.5M buy out)

LaTroy Hawkins – 2 Years $7.5M
2010 – $3M plus $500k signing bonus.
2011 – $4M.

Craig Counsell – 1 Year $2.1M with $500k incentive for games played.

McClung and Rivera were both non-tendered. Not a really big surprise, but I for one will miss Big Red. It’s a real downer for both the fan base and Seth himself, but it might be the best thing for his career. Macha didn’t appear to have much faith and trust in him, so a new start may just be what the doctor ordered. With these three signings, this brings our current estimated payroll total to $82.3M. Over the “status quo”, so perhaps Mark is opening the wallet just a hair to position the team better.

The Wolf contract is the biggest splash of the off season. No other clubs offered him a third year, and we gave him a fourth in an option. This isn’t really a bad contract at all, it doesn’t escalate like Suppan’s did, so he’s not going to be the huge boat anchor that the SS Suppan is. I’m not a huge fan of the third year (and a fourth is pretty crazy), but overall I don’t have to much to complain about. Do not expect an ace out of Wolf, his BABIP was down a bit last year. So expect his numbers to rise a bit, but he should make a solid #2 / #3 pitcher. Personally, I would have wanted a high risk/high reward player like Bedard/Harden/Sheets. Sheets seems to be pricing himself out of reality, and Harden signed a pretty decent deal with the Rangers (1 year, $7.5M).

The Hawkins signing was a bit of a surprise to me. But on MLB Hot Stove, Doug mentioned how Hawkins has closing experience and will provide flexibility when Hoffman isn’t able to go. This might actually prove to be a very good signing in the event of a team implosion. If the Brewers are out of the playoff hunt by the deadline, Hoffman can be moved to a contender for perhaps a reasonable haul. I hope this isn’t the case, but it very well might be. Hawkins is a little over priced, but not by much. It seems that Doug might have learned from his Riske signing that long term contracts to older relievers isn’t a wise thing.

Counsell, everybody loves Counsell. He’s the hometown hero that everyone wanted back. He’ll provide protection against injury at SS/3rd and 2nd base. We could have used a cheaper internal option, but with all the question marks we have, it’s good to have a consistent players to back them up. The one thing that worries me is the $500,000 incentive based on games played. So both Zaun and Counsell, who are older, have huge fiscal incentives to play as much as possible in order to vest their incentives. But really, what are the chances Gamel gets to develop and not rot on the bench now that Counsell will want to play all the time? Free Mat Gamel.

Category(s): 2009 Offseason Moves

It wasn’t us!

09 Dec 2009 | No Comments »

It wasn’t us, Doug!  A grass roots movement is taking place, rising up against the tyranny of Doug. The valet at a steak house in Indianapolis lost Doug Melvin’s car keys and he is now stranded at the restaurant.  Perhaps it was Mark trying to get the keys to Miller Park back but grabbed the wrong set instead.

Category(s): General Fail

Doug wants the rest of the winter off

09 Dec 2009 | No Comments »

Two signings today.  Before I can comment on it, I need the break down of terms per year.  My gut feeling is that we’ll back load the contracts, making any chance to offload more difficult. But I’m assuming.

Wolf signed for three years at just under $30,000,000 with a club option for a fourth.

LaTroy Hawkins signed a two year $7,500,000 contract as setup man.

Category(s): General Fail

Welcome to the Zaunbie Nation

04 Dec 2009 | 2 Comments »


His website is something else

His website is something else

Today Doug Melvin announced the signing of Gregg Zaun, a Type B Free Agent catcher from the Rays organization who was offered arbitration.  Terms are decent, $1.9M in 2010 with $600K in bonuses based on starts and a $2.25M club option with a $250K buy-out ($2.15M guaranteed). At first, I was kind of happy and proud of Doug. We now are 100% Kendalless, having a decent catcher allows us to non-tender Rivera to save some money (~$1M) and we can have Salome/Lucroy back him up.  Not a horrible plan hatched.

But then I read this by Tom H at the JS blogs.

“(GM) Doug (Melvin) and the Brewers separated themselves from the rest of the pack pretty quick. They really stepped up. Plus, they said it’s a starting job.”
Not many clubs offer starting jobs to 38-year-old catchers but Zaun, who has played more than 110 games in a season just once, said he’s up to the task.
“Most people don’t look past the first line on the media guide (where age is listed),” said Zaun, who started 74 games last season while splitting time with Baltimore and Tampa Bay. “I spent my first eight years as a backup. I didn’t get to start until I got to Toronto (in 2004).
“I’m in better shape now than I was when I was 28. Obviously, things change in this game quickly. But I’m ready to catch four out of every five starters. That’s the indication I was given.”

“(GM) Doug (Melvin) and the Brewers separated themselves from the rest of the pack pretty quick. They really stepped up. Plus, they said it’s a starting job.”

Not many clubs offer starting jobs to 38-year-old catchers but Zaun, who has played more than 110 games in a season just once, said he’s up to the task.

“Most people don’t look past the first line on the media guide (where age is listed),” said Zaun, who started 74 games last season while splitting time with Baltimore and Tampa Bay. “I spent my first eight years as a backup. I didn’t get to start until I got to Toronto (in 2004).

“I’m in better shape now than I was when I was 28. Obviously, things change in this game quickly. But I’m ready to catch four out of every five starts. That’s the indication I was given.”

Emphasis is mine. Wait.. out with the old Kendall who played 132 games last year and really wore down as the year went on. And in with the new cheaper version of Kendall promised approximately 128 games? For a guy that will be 39 for the 2010 campaign and 3 years older then Kendall… what are you thinking Doug?   Since Macha seems to enjoy giving his players chances to earn their incentives (i.e. Todd Coffey), I’m sure we’ll see plenty of Zaun when he’s too worn out to play.  What the hell.  You will also note that he mentioned it was a starting job. Remember when you didn’t offer Lopez arbitration due to fears of accepting? Did you tell him he’d be a backup? Doug, players want to play.

If you haven’t, check out his website. It’s really something else. I’m pretty sure that we can add this to the list of things Doug looks for in a free agent: A crazy website with a cool catch phrase of “Bring your Z game.”  I never looked at Corey Patterson’s site—maybe it’s better then Zaun’s.  I use baseball-reference a ton, I even sponsor a page (Go Dave Bush!), because getting them money is a big plus. But if you look at his BBRef page you’ll notice his sponsor is also his agent. Thats like being the kid in grade school who only gets one valentine – and it’s from your mom.

Category(s): 2009 Offseason Moves

Tag(s): , ,

Here’s your chance Mark….

02 Dec 2009 | 2 Comments »

Tom H tweeted the following..

Brewers GM Doug Melvin meeting with owner Mark Attanasio in LA to line up financial ducks for offers to free agent pitchers.

Pull the trigger

Hopefully is smiling because he made some major off-season front office moves

Marks’ not a dumb guy—he seems to have a grasp of our market and how it all works. Previous posts touched briefly on the fiscal constraints we have. A quick summary is: $90M is our theoretical max, $84M is perhaps a best guess, but in this economy and with a mounting backlash against the Front Office failures could possibly even point to “status quo”.  My best guess is that $66m is already tied up, and we require 4 position players, 1 bullpen arm and a starting pitcher. So there you have it… limited resources that need to go rather far. Mark’s a rich guy, but he can’t afford to throw millions upon millions into the club.

So here’s your chance Mark. Ask the hard question. I’ll even give you a few to get the conversation rolling…

  • What is the long term strategy of the club? Right now we aren’t sure what we are doing here. Are we building through the minors to build the majority of our club, or are you trying to finish your career where you started? You know, the Pirates farm club.
  • Do you understand the blow back against our club due to not offering arbitration? We already face declining projections for attendance next year due to 2009 performances.  How is waiving the white flag going to inspire fan buy-in? Halama isn’t doing it. This goes back to the lack of a strategy. Yes we understand you can’t simply appease the fans, but what’s the upside of not getting a sandwich pick?
  • Spare me the small market team crap. The Twins made the post season while spending $12M less last year then we did. (Looks like the Cubs have a ton of money already tied up for years to come). How are you going to manage the club better in the future to ensure that our strategy matches our market constraints? Stop just bitching about it while not doing anything for the club.  You can work the system while trying to change.
  • Why the hell didn’t we figure out our fiscal outlook before declining arbitration to Lopez?

That should start a long conversation hopefully ending in the realization that the club isn’t improving with Doug at the helm. I’d also like to encourage you to not allow Doug to harm the club in 2011 and beyond by making poor decisions now.  2011 is a pretty banner year for the club: Suppan and Halll finally come off the books. $20M dollars are coming off, and you need to protect your investment by not allowing him to make horrible decisions like those. The Brewers need pitching. Randy Wolf and Doug Davis. although better then what we had last year, should not be considered in any long-term strategy for the club. Don’t pick up pitchers to give the illusion you are doing something. Make it count or limit the damage to a year so when $20M becomes available you can do something useful with it. Can you imagine what we could do with that money right now?

Category(s): General Fail

Draft picks be damned: How to bungle Arbitration

01 Dec 2009 | 3 Comments »

Arbitration needs to be filed by the club by 11:59pm EST tonight. But we don’t have to worry about the suspense, Doug made the decision to not offer arbitration to any classified player per Haudricourt. It’s no real surprise on some of those players. Doug moved on from Cameron after rushing the trade of Hardy for Gomez. Cameron has plenty of value, but is dangerous if he accepts due to his salary and potential Arbitration numbers. Looper, Kendall and Weathers are not very good at the game of baseball anymore, and it’s smart that we moved on. But then there is the matter of Lopez.

Lopez is indeed a client of Scott Boras, and with that said has a vast vast history of not accepting arbitration to maximize his own profits clients salary in the free market. So why then did Doug not offer arbitration to Lopez? Let me pour two fingers of scotch and we’ll dive right into it.

Adam McCalvy blogged about the recent moves. You can read it here. There’s a lot of words there, and reading is hard. So here’s the big point.

“You would love to have that depth,” Melvin said Monday in previewing his looming decisions. “But is [Lopez] going to want to be a part-time player? He’s going to want to be an everyday player, and Rickie is going to want to be an everyday player. In some sense, you also ask, are you willing to trade the possibility of [acquiring] a pitcher for Felipe Lopez? That’s the question.”

That bold is mine. That is the very reason why Lopez and Boras would decline arbitration and see what you can get in the open market. And come on Doug, you pissed away our money for a free agent on Loopers option, Suppans boat anchor of a contract, and Halls salary (Go Mariners!). Stop saying it’s because of Lopez potential arbitration year money that we are in this mess. Hold on one more finger to go.

The only other reason the vast series of tubes could think of is that Melvin is once again going to his talking points, something he must have learned while reading “Going Rogue” by Palin. Always go to the talking points, and in this case.. like all cases… it’s all about the small market woes. Due to the great strain an extra draft pick would place on the system. You know, because of how expensive a sandwich pick signing really is. It’s completely unfair.

The only good thing about not offering arbitration to Lopez is this.. all you reading this..(hopefully it’s not just mom this time) welcome to the Fire Doug Melvin side. Hopefully the two fingers of scotch helped you as much as it helped me.

Category(s): 2009 Offseason Moves, General Fail

Don’t worry, Halama will save us!

24 Nov 2009 | No Comments »

Our pitching woes have been solved. Today Doug announced the signing of John Halama to a minor league contract.  He hasn’t pitched in the Pros since 2006, but has  similar numbers to Braden Looper. In fact his HR/9 rate is actually a bit worse then the Looper.  It appears to be a move to protect for long term injuries by stocking up the Sounds, and hopefully nothing else. But you don’t see why he has been signed… he has never played on the Rangers, and he’s not a washed up ex-Cardinal. The connection is that in 2003 he pitched under Ken Macha, so be prepared to see him used a lot if he makes it to the Pros.

The other move is Chris Capuano is back with the Brewers again. He signed a one year minor league contract with a spring training invite. He’s recovering from his second TJ surgery and looks to break to the pros with the club. It’s also a move to bolster the minor league system for any kind of extended injury. I like Cappy. His pick off move is the sweetness, but two TJ surgeries are pretty hard to come back from. Plus if he does crack the pros, he’s going to be limited big time to IP.

So what do these moves mean? Using our press conference media templates, I would have to say that these are going to be the internal candidates for the last starting pitcher spot  once all of the good pitchers are off the market, and our salary pressures due to crappy contracts finally shows it’s ugly heads to the fan base.  I for one welcome our new Capuano overlords.

Category(s): 2009 Offseason Moves

And we are off…

20 Nov 2009 | No Comments »

Doug Melvins official season has started. The MLB Free Agency period has begun.  Be prepared to be underwhelmed, as I noted before salary problems are already apparent. With $20m+ tied up on Hall/Weathers/Looper/Suppan we have a very small amount of money available. This is the last year of the Suppan contract (plus $2m next year for a buy out), lets just all hope that Doug doesn’t screw the club by signing another over valued free agent to a long term contract.

Stay tuned, we’ll update on all the news!  And remember Doug, we already have prepared remarks for you.

Category(s): 2009 Offseason Moves

Redesign!

16 Nov 2009 | No Comments »

For all you loyal readers (hi mom!) as you can see, FireDougMelvin.com has a new site design. Out with the old blogging software and in with the new. I was able to migrate all the old nuggets of GM wisdom over… so if you are new: Check out the archives.

Hopefully this prettier version will help our cause and bring down Doug just like Ned. Till then, keep fighting the good fight.

Category(s): They are all out to get me!

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