Milwaukee Brewers
60-96, 6th AL East, 35 GB
1972 Outlook: As an expansion team, the Brewers have not exactly been world-beaters. They'd managed to avoid 100 losses in each of their first 3 years but not by much: in '71, their worst season to date, they lost 97. So... you've got a moribund team. What you're doing isn't working. You... dump the vets and see how far you get with the kids, right? Not if you're Milwaukee: instead, over the offseason they acquired "veteran leadership", most notably RF Jun Kim, and expected to... I'm not sure what exactly. A .500 record would have been nice.
1972 In Review: Not gonna lie, they had me in the first half. Milwaukee went 3-7 to start but then finished May 15-19 and an 18-11 June even took them over .500 at 33-30 at the end of the month. And then the bottom dropped out: 11-21 in July, 8-21 in August, 7-21 in September, and even 1-3 in October until the season finally and mercifully ended. The Texas Rangers had opened the year looking like they might break the record for futility in terms of runs scored; by season's end, the Brewers' offense was even worse. They did manage to finish out of the worst 3 offenses of all time: they scored 478 runs; the 3rd worst team (the 1966 Washington Senators) scored 466 (the ATW were the Sens of '67 who scored just 429). I was about to say that the pitching, which had been a strength in '71, was fine but then I looked at the numbers. It was not fine: the worst ERA in all of baseball, 3.96. The starters weren't great and the bullpen had the 2nd worst save percentage in the AL at 66.7% (only the Yankees were worse).
1973 Outlook: Well, they can't possibly get worse, can they? They played .250 ball during the second half of the season. Maybe it's possible. I'm still doubtful. You can't possibly play below replacement level ball for a season and a half. Can you? Can you?
Pitching
Danny Plaunt
RHP No. 45
RR, 6'3" 198 lbs.
Born 1944-10-25 in Summit, NJ
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 MIL MLB 7 5 14 2.62 67 2 0 96.0 67 36 28 35 78
1971 MIL MLB 6 6 23 3.42 67 0 0 97.1 88 38 37 28 70
1972 MIL MLB 15 10 0 3.08 32 32 9 236.1 204 87 81 90 132
Moving Plaunt back out of the bullpen, where he'd been a top closer in the AL the past two seasons, into the rotation was one of the few positive moves Milwaukee made last year. Plaunt had shown promise with a 14-14, 2.88 record in the Year of the Pitcher before a 4-15, 4.23 1969 campaign put him first into long relief and then on the trading block, where the then-Seattle Pilots acquired him in exchange for their own swingman Dale Parks (currently a free agent after Washington resigned him and then cut him out of spring training). The fact that Danny Plaunt actually finished in the top 10 in winning percentage (9th with .600) on this team is a testament to just how good he is.
Plaunt lives and dies on his slider and mostly nowadays lives on it. In the past he'd been held back by a less than great circle change but he seems to have brought the pitch along well enough that he can still get outs in his 3rd and 4th time through an order. Although Plaunt leaned much more heavily on his low 90s cut fastball as a reliever to get strikeouts, as a starter he's much more of a finesse guy who keeps the ball low in the strike zone and forces groundouts. His control was also not quite as great as it was in '71.
I still believe that, even at only 27 years of age, Danny Plaunt is an asset better used to trade for a multitude of youth instead of a guy the Brewers should stick with. His current best comp at his age is Chris Regan, who's shown flashes of greatness of his own but who has also bounced around a lot, even finding his way to his current team, the Royals, by means of waivers. It just goes to show how mercurial pitching can be.
Chris Olivares
RHP No. 20
RR, 5'11" 189 lbs.
Born 1947-01-13 in Santiago, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 MIL MLB 8 11 0 3.87 38 23 5 190.2 184 94 82 49 104
1971 MIL MLB 9 15 0 4.17 32 30 10 217.2 219 112 101 73 125
1972 MIL MLB 8 19 0 3.45 31 31 12 234.1 228 92 90 64 137
I'm not saying Olivares is good by any stretch but nobody deserves this. The 25 year old Dominican has lost 34 games over the last 2 years, more than anyone else in baseball save Marius Gaddi (who's gone 27-36), and Gaddi at least is playing for a contender who needs to use him every 4th day. Olivares was part of a 5 man rotation all year, through thick and through thin, was completely unsupported by the Brewers' meager offense all year (2.1 RS/G), and saved his worst for last, following a 3-1, complete game win vs Cleveland that raised his record to 8-17, 3.03 with a 0-2, 8.83 ERA over his final 3 starts, the last of which was a game in which he was knocked out of the box in the 6th by the almost-as-low Yankees after having allowed 6 runs against them.
Olivares has good stuff and solid control. He was really good at keeping the ball down last year, much better than he'd been in his previous 3 seasons in the major leagues, with just 0.3 HR/9 (9 overall), less than half of what he'd done prior to this. I hate to say it but this looks like luck going the other way for him. He's got solid stamina and mixes 4 pitches including a good 12-to-6 curve that got him 16 GIDPs last year. In fact, He finished 5th in the AL in complete game percentage, finishing 38.7% of his starts. He wasn't nearly as good at holding runners last year, giving up 16 steals in 25 attempts (in '71 runners went 8/17 against him) as he concentrated on the hitter a lot more.
You'd love for things to turn around for Olivares but maybe "losing pitcher" is his baseball identity. He's 25 and so still a couple years away from his prime seasons.
Jonas Youngblood
RHP No. 24
SR, 5'7" 165 lbs.
Born 1942-03-15 in Kendall West, FL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 PEN AAA 1 1 2 4.50 10 2 0 20.0 16 11 10 12 20
1970 MON MLB 2 5 0 4.64 19 10 1 81.1 81 47 42 42 42
1971 PEN AAA 3 3 2 4.62 17 1 0 35.0 35 19 18 21 24
1971 STL MLB 0 0 0 6.75 2 0 0 5.1 7 4 4 3 4
1971 TUL AAA 0 2 0 4.43 4 4 0 24.1 25 16 12 20 17
1971 MIL MLB 6 2 0 4.16 9 9 0 58.1 61 27 27 25 26
1971 EVA AAA 0 0 0 3.08 2 2 0 11.2 12 4 4 5 11
1972 MIL MLB 6 12 1 3.24 31 23 4 183.0 154 67 66 77 88
When you see a guy named Youngblood, you think you're going to watch a man with a fiery fastball and maybe even firey-er temperament. The actual Jonas Youngblood is a junkballing right-hander who nibbles and nibbles all game long. He's got a good forkball that he can get groundouts with but that's about the sum total of his positives. His "fastball", which rides in on right-handed hitters, can only be called "high 80s" on the best of days. A guy like this has to be pinpoint with his control and Youngblood misses a good amount, both off of the plate and out over it (15 HRA last year). And one thing that really mitigates all those groundouts is that his pickoff move is just about the most predictable move in the game: last year runners were 22/26 on him.
It's not hard to see why Youngblood never had more than 81.1 IP at the major league level before this season. You'd think it's doubtful he'll get any more... and yet, he was kind of successful with this team. Expect the Brewers to keep riding him in the middle of their rotation until he turns into a pumpkin, which could come quickly.
Omar Jimenez
RHP No. 28
LR, 5'9" 143 lbs.
Born 1949-02-14 in Santo Domingo, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CHL AA 1 0 0 3.37 1 1 0 8.0 4 3 3 7 2
1970 EVA AAA 10 9 0 4.47 29 29 0 167.0 143 93 83 111 132
1971 DAN A 20 1 0 1.45 21 21 14 179.1 136 37 29 46 214
1971 EVA AAA 5 1 0 0.87 8 8 2 62.0 47 6 6 14 54
1971 MIL MLB 1 1 0 4.26 2 2 0 12.2 10 6 6 5 10
1972 EVA AAA 4 3 0 2.54 11 11 1 85.0 58 24 24 33 92
1972 MIL MLB 7 11 0 3.45 23 23 3 156.1 125 62 60 67 127
When a guy has the kind of year Jiminez had in A-ball in 1971, he's going to get called up quickly, no two bones about it. The irony(?) is that the fireballer had actually been sent down to Danville after a touch 1970 season in AAA that saw his walk rate explode. Whatever he was doing wrong in the high minors, he sure fixed in the low minors and, following a little September cup of coffee and then a solid 11 games in '72 where proved it wasn't just one good year, Jiminez found his way into the major leagues, where his change and his split-fingered fastball continued to generate strikeouts to back up that fastball of his, which, the radar says it only occasionally hits the mid-90s. That's still awwwwfully fast.
Compounding matters for hitters - hopefully not for Jiminez himself - is that all that speed and movement come from such a small frame. Balls just kind of come out of his tiny hands and zip, they're on you. His control was slightly below average in the majors but come on, slightly below average is a huuuuge upgrade over what he was 2 years ago.
Jiminez will fall off this list once it's published due to no longer qualifying but he was the #11 prospect in the league according to the 2nd-half Baseball America list. He'll be the ace of this Brewers staff sooner rather than later.
Matt Brock
RHP No. 34
RR, 5'12" 197 lbs.
Born 1939-12-27 in Pasadena, CA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 BOS MLB 7 6 30 3.31 67 0 0 92.1 79 44 34 31 82
1971 BOS MLB 9 7 25 3.78 59 0 0 90.1 81 38 38 34 77
1972 MIL MLB 8 6 18 2.53 61 0 0 81.2 66 23 23 40 60
Brock was one of 3 key pieces the Brewers acquired from the Red Sox in that blockbuster trade from last October, Jun Kim and 2B Dwayne Fraser being the 2 others. The 32 year old Brock was pretty much the same guy he'd been with the Red Sox, a high-risk, high-reward short reliever. It was hoped that a move to a bigger ballpark would help curb his increasing gopherball tendencies - Brock allowed 10 HRs in both '70 and '71 - and to some extent it helped, as he dropped to 7. At the same time, he found it harder to keep his slider over the plate and in the second half of the season hitters stopped swinging at it: his worst 2 months of the year were August (1-1, 4.2) and Stpember (2-0, 3.72).
Brock should come back to play the same role because what else is he going to do on this team? He could be traded again, I guess, if someone else wants a guy who could strike out the side or give up 2 walks and a bomb depending on whether or not he's able to place the breaking pitch on a given day.
Abraham Sarmiento Jr.
LHP No. 4
LL, 5'11" 172 lbs.
Born 1950-06-08 in Manila, PHI
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 EVA R 1 2 0 4.26 4 4 0 25.1 25 13 12 6 31
1970 HUR S A 3 2 0 3.37 7 7 0 42.2 41 16 16 19 37
1971 QUI A 12 5 0 3.97 27 22 7 163.0 153 77 72 58 154
1972 SA AA 4 3 0 3.73 9 9 6 72.1 54 31 30 31 48
1972 MIL MLB 3 2 1 6.41 44 2 0 47.2 51 34 34 17 41
Hey, give the Brewers credit for trying... or don't? Give them credit for possibly ruining a prospect by pushing him too quickly? Following a solid but not really spectacular start in AA San ANtonio, the Brewers promoted Sarmiento all the way to the major leagues and made him their lefty specialist. He... was not good, starting with an 8.44 ERA - 10 runs allowed in 10.2 IP in July, then settling down a liiiittle in August - 0-1, 5.52, although that includes his 0-1, 7.84 record over 2 starts so the 6 games in relief he had were OK - and then getting absolutely destroyed in Setpember to the tune of 0-1, 12.86.
Sarmiento Jr. has a nice slow curve that he pairs with a fastball with good movement, that is, when everything is working OK. When it's not, everything finishes up in the zone and hitters blast everything they see out of the park. He did hold lefties to 203/263/391, which really only shows how awful he was against right-handed batters: 316/377/590. Out of that, yeah, theoretically you could still make him a situational guy, but a situational guy who turns opposite-handed hitters into Ernesto Garcia is not really a guy who needs to be at this level.
Sarmiento Jr. is still just 22 years of age and has a bright future ahead of him (ed. note: he does not; in reality, Sarmieno was an outspoken critic of Ferdinand Marcos amd died young after a 7-month imprisonment where, among other things, he was deprived of his asthma medication). He could reeeeally use another year in the minors to put things together though.
Victor Marin
RHP No. 8
RR, 5'11" 177 lbs.
Born 1941-04-09 in Hamden, CT
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CHC MLB 11 11 0 4.85 27 27 6 168.2 182 95 91 65 87
1971 CHC MLB 5 10 0 4.19 36 15 3 150.1 161 83 70 53 93
1972 MIL MLB 4 14 1 3.94 38 18 6 150.2 157 73 66 49 83
Where all DJ Khaled (who?) does is win, win, win no matter what, all Victor Marin does is lose, lose, lose no matter what. He's now a combined 9-24 in the last 2 years and once lost 19 games for the Cubs. It adds up to a career 78-97 record. Now 31, if you squint enough you can see how Marin could be an okay back of the rotation guy for a good team: in spite of throwing only slow, slower, and slowest, Marin still gets K's OK and has good control. He gave up a loooot of HRs towards the end of his time in Chicago but that's almost to be expected out of a finesse pitcher pitching in Wrigley. Milwaukee County Stadium is more his speed.
Marin is 31 years old and you don't usually put vets into the swingman role that he's now sat in for 2 years running, especially when you aren't getting results out of it. Marin was better as a starter (4-12, 3.80) than as a reliever (0-2, 4.76) but was not in truth very good at either. His making the team in '73 comes down to how many of the kids are ready to go.
Infield
Adam Brown
C No. 1
LR, 5'10" 184 lbs.
Born 1948-07-12 in New York, NY
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 GB R .360 25 75 24 27 3 0 11 24 18 13 1
1970 NEW S A .300 30 100 24 30 5 0 9 24 17 15 0
1970 CLI A .319 91 270 59 86 17 2 10 39 89 50 0
1971 MIL MLB .240 93 246 33 59 13 3 7 33 35 49 0
1972 MIL MLB .208 111 312 33 65 12 1 8 36 65 64 0
Brown's second year as the Brewers' starting catcher was... fine, if a little disappointing. The 23rd overall pick in the 1969 draft, Brown at this point looks like more of a platoon half - he hit just .167 in 36 at-bats vs LHPs last year - than a full-timer and he's not anything special defensively to boot. That said, he does have decent power and maybe his biggest skill is his ability to transfer his catching knowledge to great pitch selection and from that an ability to draw a lot of walks. Although Brown carried an average of only .208 he got on base at a .347 clip and only 6 of his 65 walks were intentional.
Brown thinks he has more power then he actually has so he'll swing for the fences and miss a bit too much. When he isn't trying to do that he's got some ability to go the other way with a pitch. Scouts are not exactly sanguine on any projected ability to solve that issue though. As noted, Brown is only an average fielder with a fair arm that only threw out 27.7% of would-be stealers last year. He's more of a guy to go in and do his job than a team captain that catchers often become. He also has an outsized opinion of himself as a player, which may get him into trouble as he comes into his prime.
Brown's still only 24 and since catchers do develop more slowly (note: I don't think this is a thing in OOTP but it's conventional wisdom and I am going with that), he could still add something to his game. It's not like he has a huge amount of competition for the position at the moment.
Eddie Dimmock
C No. 12
LR, 6'1" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-05-17 in Reading, MA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 LAD MLB .197 101 320 30 63 17 0 5 40 47 89 0
1971 CAL MLB .214 41 117 11 25 4 1 1 13 15 24 0
1972 CAL MLB .205 41 83 12 17 3 0 1 12 14 16 0
1972 MIL MLB .185 18 54 2 10 1 1 1 7 5 13 0
On July 28, Dimmock replaced Chris Flores as the Brewers' backup. Dimmock was a starter with the other LA team for several years before moving to Cal and at 30 he thinks he can still start. He needs to hit for that to happen though: he hit .260 in '69 but hasn't come close to that since, and to make matters worse he's also a lefty. The club called up minor leaguer Ken Hall at the end of the year to coax a platoon again and although that was not fruitful either - Hall did go 5-21, which isn't terrible, I guess, but he hit .185 in AAA so I don't think that's sustainable - it's hard to imagine this team heading into 1973 with two left-handed catchers.
Sergio Sicre
1B No. 7
LL, 6'1" 202 lbs.
Born 1946-02-04 in Bayamón, PUR
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 LOU AAA .316 90 253 56 80 19 1 13 38 28 42 0
1970 KC MLB .228 41 136 14 31 6 0 1 15 12 16 0
1971 LOU AAA .256 116 390 53 100 21 0 10 62 51 36 0
1971 BOS MLB .200 10 10 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 1 0
1972 EVA AAA .280 42 125 11 35 6 0 5 23 10 11 0
1972 MIL MLB .281 103 356 40 100 9 1 12 38 27 39 0
A throw-in in the Jun Kim trade, Sergio Sicre wasn't really expected to do much. Maybe he could be a solid AAA bat and a guy who could fill in in case of emergency. Then Kozue Nakamura completely forgot how to hit and left the Brewers with practically no choice but to recall Sicre and see what he had. He made the most out of the opportunity; in spite of not even being on the roster until June 6, Sicre finished 3rd on the team in HRs, 4th in RBIs, and 3rd in hits.
The Royals tried to make him a left fielder in 1970 but the Red Sox gave up on that and made him into a full-time first baseman. That was a position he was going to be blocked at by Mike Miller so the move to Milwaukee was great for him. Sicre looks like he's got the lumber to hold his own at the position and hit in the middle of the order for most teams. With Wilwaukee that meant 3rd for a good chunk of the year. He's a slowpoke but at first base that doesn't matter so much; in fact, he can use his height to good purpose in the field even if he doesn't move to his right well.
Sorry, Kozue Nakamura, your job's probably gone. Sicre has it now to keep.
Kozue Nakamura
1B No. 13
RR, 5'11" 203 lbs.
Born 1942-04-18 in Moriguchi, JPN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HAW AAA .333 114 393 57 131 24 1 2 55 37 16 0
1971 MIL MLB .313 150 565 60 177 29 2 4 65 46 56 0
1972 EVA AAA .320 36 128 17 41 10 0 1 10 7 11 0
1972 MIL MLB .174 41 132 10 23 5 0 2 13 8 21 0
A Rule V draft pick out of the California organization in December of 1970, Nakamura was one of the feel-good stories of the year, going from minor leaguer to All-Star. He even finished 3rd in the AL in hitting and 4th in hits in that storied season. Then, following another solid spring training that showed no signs of what was to come, Nakamura just plain stopped hitting. He hit .140 in April and .160 in May until the Brewers decided they had to do something. By June, the 1B job was Sergio Sicre's alone and other than a small stretch in which he was called back up in August to pinch-hit and do a little of backing up (he never actually played at first though), Nakamura was in the minors for the rest of the year.
The good news is, he did appear to recapture his hitting stroke. The better news is, the DH opens up a spot for both him and Sicre. Nakamura isn't anything great at first base either so it's a coinflip as to who actually plays the position. There's also the possibility of using him as a platoon bat although truth be told, Sicre handled lefties well enough in 1972.
James Hong
2B No. 26
LR, 5'12" 166 lbs.
Born 1953-02-22 in Minneapolis, MN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1971 NEW S A .409 6 22 2 9 2 1 0 3 2 1 2
1971 DAN A .302 44 172 33 52 10 0 5 19 22 31 1
1971 LYN A .000 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
1971 WR A .400 1 5 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 1 0
1971 CHL AA .268 11 41 4 11 1 0 2 4 5 2 0
1971 EVA AAA .326 12 43 7 14 1 0 2 8 8 4 0
1972 EVA AAA .263 52 198 31 52 6 2 12 30 19 48 1
1972 MIL MLB .255 92 322 40 82 15 1 8 28 48 52 7
Look, nobody actually thinks that Hong is 19. I swear I saw him in an epsiode of Kung Fu playing an older guy. But he insists that that's his real age and scientists have studied his body and say that it is the body of a 19 year old. All we know for sure is, in a world with Snake Plissken, you cannot do without Lo Pan.
If Hong truly is 19, just being able to play in the league at that age means he's going to really be something. He was more than just a guy who was vaguely able to play though. He's got good pop for a second baseman and the kind of batting practice hits that make you think he can do a lot more than that. He's already shown himself to be a guy who knows how to wait for his pitch, although he's also been very, very susceptible to the high fastball. About the only thing holding him back from being a perennial All-Star in the making is his actual defense at second: Hong has a bad arm, which is why he's here and not, say, short or third, and on top of that is only OK at moving to his left and right. He's an intelligent guy who will improve as he learns how to play the batters. He's a plus fielder, no threat to lead the league or finish in the top 10 in steals but 10-15 steals over a full season sounds about right.
Hong should be in the lineup somewhere for the Brewers for a long time to come. He's going to make big trouble in the little Chinas all over the country, by which I mean opposing stadia and I'm not sure how that applies.
Dwayne Fraser
2B/3B No. 35
RR, 5'11" 194 lbs.
Born 1945-03-23 in Prince George, CAN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 BOS MLB .314 153 573 64 180 40 4 2 63 53 45 5
1971 BOS MLB .308 56 169 21 52 9 3 3 25 7 22 1
1972 MIL MLB .238 96 244 22 58 10 0 3 21 19 35 1
Dwayne Fraser surely feels hard done by and who could blame him? After finishing 7th in the AL in average and 3rd in doubles in 1970, he watched as the Red Sox brought in the surer handed Brian Long to play the position instead. After a season acting as Long's caddy he was shipped off to the Brewers, who were not going to be contending for anything but promised the then-26 year old the starting job. Fraser started slow but wasn't, like, horrific or anything, but the Brewers as a team were flailing and so they called up their "19" year old phenom they'd recently picked up from the Twins, James Hong, and handed him the gig. Fraser immediately went to the bench, and outside of a 2 week stretch in August when Hong was sidelined with a foot injury didn't start again until the last game of the year.
Now 27, Fraser is definitely more of an offense-minded keystoner than a defensive one, and that also means he's unlikely to move anywhere else in the infield. I listed him as a 3rd baseman because he started a game there but he just plain doesn't have the arm for that posiiton, and if you ask him to play shortstop he's going to embarrass you. Fraser got to pressing really bad in his time in Milwaukee last year and struck out almost as often in 244 at-bats as he did in a full season in 1970. He's ever been a guy who Ks much so perhaps a change of scenery will help him there.
At the end of the day, it would be very, very surprising if Fraser is wearing Milwaukee blue and gold on Opening Day. He doesn't want to be there and the Brewers don't have a place for him. And somebody will surely have a spot for a high-average doubles machine, range or no range...
Francisco Martinez
3B No. 23
LR, 5'11" 178 lbs.
Born 1947-02-09 in Monción, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 MIL MLB .306 149 569 60 174 35 2 5 58 29 39 0
1971 MIL MLB .252 103 373 34 94 11 1 4 35 9 35 0
1972 EVA AAA .368 5 19 3 7 2 0 0 3 1 2 0
1972 MIL MLB .224 102 335 27 75 5 0 6 24 13 30 1
After hitting .306 in 1970, Martinez had one of those seasons that makes you think, "why is this guy in the league, exactly?". Somehow, perhaps because Milwaukee was interested in seeing just how bad he could be, he was given another year at the hot corner and managed to somehow be even worse. Martinez is a contact guy - he sure looks like a .300 hitter on paper with his lack of strikeouts and ability to spray the ball all over the field. He's never shown much power anywhere but in 1970 he at least showed an ability to drive the ball into the gaps in the outfield. The last couple years he hasn't and in 1972 outfielders just came in on him, knowing he had little ability to knock anything over their heads.
Martinez is a decent enough fielder. Last year he had a fielding average of .945 which probably would have been really bad if the league had anything resembling a normal error rate. That's his weak point. As a third baseman he's got a good enough arm and can dive for balls hit to his left. He's very slow - even in his big 1970 season he grounded into the double play 25 times - and is no real threat to steal first or any other base for that matter. One nice thing about him is that he generally keeps an even keel, though the Brewers' hitting coaches have been bugging him a lot about his stance and it's reportedly beginning to wear.
You can't think that Martinez will go into 1973 as the Brewers' 3rd baseman, not with the last 2 seasons under his belt. And yet... who else do they even have?
Pat Jones
3B/2B No. 5
LR, 5'11" 197 lbs.
Born 1937-05-02 in Williamston, MI
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 NYY MLB .254 113 299 43 76 16 4 6 42 27 26 2
1971 NYY MLB .274 43 84 8 23 7 0 1 9 6 8 1
1971 MIL MLB .316 53 155 21 49 15 2 2 16 11 18 0
1972 EVA AAA .214 6 28 0 6 0 0 0 2 1 4 0
1972 MIL MLB .234 45 107 7 25 5 0 2 7 5 16 2
Now 35, Jones suffered a broken hand at the end of spring training and in the process probably killed the last chance he'll ever get at starting regularly. He did come back in July and started for mostt of that month, but when you're an older guy hitting .237, there's precious little to keep you in the lineup and when a bout with back tightness kept him out of the lineup for most of August, the Brewers simply didn't bother to put him back into the job as season's end.
It is a really open question of who starts at third in 1973. I put Eric Biron there for the time being but Biron has a poor arm. He does have soft hands, which is kind of a big deal for 3rd basemen in the early 70s, and unlike a lot of guys in the mix he's shown the ability to hit at the major league level (although he only got 27 at-bats in '72 so he doesn't get his own review). Dwayne Fraser has similar hangups. Frank Louderback is a 29 year old farmhand who can field OK but has the hit tool of a 29 year old who's still in AAA. The only thing I can say for sure is, Milwaukee's not going back to a 35 year old to help them lose 100 games.
Guido Temudo
SS No. 11
RR, 6'2" 189 lbs.
Born 1946-10-26 in Guarenas, VEN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CLI A .230 25 100 12 23 3 0 0 15 14 12 1
1970 POR AAA .222 47 162 18 36 3 0 0 9 19 21 1
1970 MIL MLB .257 67 206 19 53 9 0 3 12 14 33 0
1971 EVA AAA .176 4 17 1 3 1 0 0 1 1 2 0
1971 MIL MLB .203 64 192 15 39 5 2 1 16 24 25 1
1972 MIL MLB .191 127 388 23 74 10 1 2 12 34 59 3
Temudo wasn't very good in 1971 but boy oh boy was he bad on offense last year. Anything you want a position player to do, Temudo didn't do it. He didn't hit at all, he struck out a lot, he had zero power... I guess he walked an OK amount but his hitting was so bad that he was still well below average at getting on base (.262). This is not the first time I've said this about guys on this roster but you can't think he's going to get this many at-bats again.
What Temudo does bring to the table is good defense: a plus arm, probably the best arm a shortstop has in the AL coupled with nice hands. He's got below average speed and doesn't move well in the infield, which is why he won't be in the Gold Glove mix (also the existence of Oniji Handa). He's OK as a bunter and if he starts again (ugh) he'll probably finish in the top 10 in sacrifice hits.
It's not enough! Find something better, Brewers!
Andrew Yeater
SS/IF No. 18
LR, 5'11" 192 lbs.
Born 1947-02-10 in Pasadena, CA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CLI A .267 98 303 49 81 7 2 0 30 65 64 12
1971 MIL MLB .212 61 151 16 32 2 0 2 17 12 31 3
1972 MIL MLB .165 55 139 13 23 0 1 2 9 16 32 1
OK, so when this is your backup, suddenly Temudo doesn't look so bad. Yeater put up a decent-ish season in A ball and that earned him a spot in the majors the last 2 years. He showed a lot of ability to draw walks back then but when your average is in the realm of the pitchers you can half 100 BB abilities and it won't matter. Not that Yeater has shown that anyway.
He's a good fielder who is game enough to play anywhere the team wants him to. His teammates like him. It's too bad he can't hit. Man, this team is desperate for shortstops. Look for the Brewers to try and fill this void in the Rule V or via trade.
Outfield
Jacquot Mazzucato
OF No. 25
LL, 5'10" 182 lbs.
Born 1948-08-27 in Petare, VEN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 BUR A .253 28 91 8 23 7 0 3 9 10 18 1
1970 AND A .280 43 82 13 23 4 0 3 18 16 14 0
1971 PFD AA .235 64 183 26 43 7 1 12 28 25 37 2
1971 DEN AAA .291 51 134 23 39 8 0 13 44 18 20 0
1972 MIL MLB .229 121 362 38 83 16 0 18 57 39 77 3
Montreal's Norman Engelman was clearly the Rule V pick of the year last year but Mazzucato is #2 for sure. Plucked from a Rangers (I guess Senators at the time) system that was chock full of first basemen and left fielders, Mazzucato was stuck into left field against right-handed pitchers and got the job done, leading the team in HRs and RBIs. That's probably a bigger indictment about the rest of the team than actual greatness from Mazzucato but he did fine. The average is a little lower than it could have been thanks to a .165 July when the team decided to try him full-time (he went 4-40 against LHPs on the season). Still, he even saved his best month for last when he was about the only guy on the team to do anything in September: 292/395/585 with 4 HRs and 14 RBIs in 65 at-bats.
Mazzucato is your classic mistake hitter. He's fooled by all sorts of breaking pitches but the second a pitcher leaves one of those or tries to sneak a fastball up in the zone past him, boom, good bye baseball. He's hit for power in the past as well (although man, the Rangers organization did not like using him - that's a red flag). Don't expect contact from him. He's an adequate fielder at age 24, which means he probably won't be at 30 so he'll need to go full Ken Phelps(who?) to stay in the big leagues.
Out of all the positions on the team, left field, against RHPs at least, is set for 1973.
Steve Winwood
OF No. 55
LL, 5'9" 180 lbs.
Born 1948-05-16 in Birmingham, ENG
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CB S A .365 74 285 70 104 20 2 24 94 46 45 3
1971 BUR A .274 39 135 17 37 5 1 7 21 20 18 0
1971 BIR AA .218 85 303 33 66 13 2 9 29 35 48 1
1971 IOW AAA .244 12 41 5 10 4 0 0 2 4 7 0
1972 BIR AA .212 25 85 16 18 3 0 4 18 13 13 0
1972 IOW AAA .260 24 77 17 20 4 0 4 14 16 17 0
1972 OAK MLB .150 9 20 2 3 1 0 1 2 1 4 0
1972 MIL MLB .261 64 138 19 36 5 1 7 16 18 27 1
Winwood was a casualty of the A's "win now" mentality last year, being pushed out to the Brewers in exchange for Antonio Arredondo in June. Arredondo looked major league ready at 29 whereas Winwood looked overwhelmed in 20 at-bats. WELP. This is why you don't judge people based on 20 at-bats, because Winwood stayed up for the rest of the season on this bereft Brewers team and would have led the team in hitting had he qualified. He showed 20 HR power back in 1970 and that's very much on the table for the English singist, who is still only 24.
He's not a very good fielder even at his age and DH might be his primary position. The Brewers probably didn't do much to his future potential by using him the way they did: evne though he's well short of his prime, he's at the "what you see is what you get" point of his (baseball) career. He's a guy who you just look at and roll with it, baby.
Ross Poynor
CF No. 31
LR, 5'12" 201 lbs.
Born 1943-06-08 in Cedar Hills, OR
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 NYY MLB .281 84 171 17 48 3 2 7 29 7 44 2
1971 NYY MLB .220 40 91 10 20 2 0 4 9 5 18 0
1971 MIL MLB .257 79 284 31 73 5 7 7 27 20 39 8
1972 MIL MLB .252 118 457 49 115 7 3 12 37 39 77 17
Poynor led the Brewers in hitting! He was also the only guy on the team to qualify for the hitting race. Poynor was one of those approximately 10 thousand Yankees outfield prospects from '69 and '70. Most of them didn't work out. Poynor... it's hard to really say where he sits in that. A .252 average is pretty OK in 1972 terms but otherwise he had meh power, was only slightly above average at getting on base in spite of the average, and all in all was basically a league average player. When you're on Milwaukee and you can play centerfield, you play basically every day. Poynor missed 3 weeks with back tightness; otherwise that's exactly his profile.
Poynor is pretty out of place in center. He's not the complete disaster we've seen at the position in recent years but neither is he a guy a team that's any good would be putting out there. That said, the team doesn't really have a lot of other options here and so there's a really good chance they'll just keep trotting Poynor out there until he ages all the way out of the position. He does help himself with his speed; his 17 steals were a career high and even though they came in 30 attempts, even that marks an improvement in his own base-stealing skills (in 1969 for example he was 9/22).
Yeah, write Poynor's name in the lineup daily. Is he actually good? Meh, he's fine. "Fine" gets you 600 at-bats (barring injury at least) for a team like this.
Fernando Ceballos
CF No. 2
RR, 6'1" 200 lbs.
Born 1943-06-29 in Cumana, VEN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 POR AAA .297 30 111 13 33 5 0 1 8 6 13 11
1970 MIL MLB .230 90 326 34 75 14 3 4 23 14 74 13
1971 MIL MLB .225 136 520 54 117 7 5 3 23 9 75 14
1972 MIL MLB .206 61 180 14 37 6 1 0 7 7 32 5
Ceballos won the Gold Glove in 1971 but there's only so far that great defense can take you and a .239 OBP meant that Milwaukee was willing to deal with Ross Poynor's decidedly subpar D instead. Ceballos still managed to start 31 games last year thanks to Poynor getting hurt / the Brewers briefly deciding to try him as the right-handed half of a platoon. Somehow Ceballos managed to post an even lower OBP - .235. He played quite a bit in August and September but did not exactly make the most of it, hitting .162 and .167.
Yeah, he's still a great fielder with great range and all that. This is not a guy a serious team or even a half-joking team starts.
Jun Kim
RF No. 15
LL, 6'0" 197 lbs.
Born 1938-09-26 in Seoul, KOR
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 BOS MLB .249 150 575 75 143 23 3 18 66 51 105 10
1971 BOS MLB .283 111 396 43 112 12 4 11 43 37 60 7
1972 MIL MLB .247 113 421 47 104 9 5 13 47 40 74 8
The worst that could be said about Kim, I guess, is that he didn't match his career year of 1971 at the plate. He was otherwise the same Jun Kim you get every year: great, potentially Gold Glove level defense in right, a decent amount of pop for a right fielder, and a role as team captain. He tried hard whenever he was out there; it's not his fault that there was almost no talent around him. He did only hit .216 after coming back from a strained back that forced him to miss all of Julyl He was slashing 279/341/428 and would have been a shoo-in to be the Brewers' All-Star rep.
The injuries, unfortunately, are probably part of what to expect out of Kim at this point. He's played in 140 or more games just twice in the last 7 years (that may be cutting it close; he did play in 139 in 1969... but I mean, even that includes a couple injuries that kept him out of the lineup for around 3 weeks total). At 34 you certainly don't expect it to get any better. ALl that said, he'll be a regular in Milwaukee's lineup until he proves he can't be; they simply do not have anyone else to play here.