Should The Milwaukee Brewers Trade Mat Gamel?

The Onion headline reads: "Orioles' Top Prospect Wins World Series In First Major League At Bat". It's a good laugh for baseball fans because of the outgrown expectations for the abysmal franchise's latest "savior."

Catcher Matt Wieters already has a Chuck Norris-type website dedicated to his prowess, despite hitting only .229 since being called up on May 30. Wieters could still end up winning Rookie-of-the-year, AL MVPs, Gold Gloves and the title of "Greatest Human Being Who Ever Played Ever" when it's all said and done. But as of now, the hype surrounding him overshadows his current value to his team.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a perennial contender, like the Yankees or the Red Sox or a basement-dwelling franchise like the Pirates or the Nationals, every team has a few prospects that they deem as future all-stars and hall-of-famers. Sometimes, they pan out immediately, like Ryan Braun or Evan Longoria.

Others take years to realize, like Zack Grienke or Rickie Weeks during his frustratingly-short season. But many come up and never meet the hype surrounding them or are so one-dimensional in their abilities, that their impact on the team’s fortunes is minimal at best.

Yet we are still sucked into believing that this one player will make the team better with his bat. Such

Although Mat Gamel has only been up with the Brewers for a month, perhaps we’ve seen enough of him to know how he’ll project as a pro: that he’ll bring power to the lineup, but will be a defensive liability outside of first base.

And while that’s acceptable for certain teams desperate for power in their lineup, Milwaukee is one of the exceptions in the NL. They rank fifth in the NL for total runs and are third (only behind Philadelphia and Colorado) in homers.

However, if there was anything that CC Sabathia taught us, it’s the fact that when bats are silent, pitching will win out the day.  And when it comes to pitching and defense, the Crew’s ERA of 4.12 and fielding percentage of .985 are not terrible, but they’re not going to help Milwaukee separate from Chicago and St. Louis either.

A lack of pitching depth (see Julio, Jorge

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