TooLiveBrew

At most, I only detected a hint of that. Honestly, I've been feeling bad for Hall for a while now... his body language in recent weeks/months just makes these comments not too surprising. "People always look at salaries and they don't ever look at the human aspect of it. Everyone needs support, especially in difficult situations. The average fan looks at it as you're supposed to get through that because you make a lot of money, but you never know what someone is going through. We're just supposed to be like these machines." I think this is something that's easy to overlook as fans. My heart goes out to Billy. "It's really difficult when you feel like everybody's lost confidence in you," Hall said. "People tell you (negative) things so many times and you start to believe it yourself, and that's what I'm fighting with. Jeez. Bill Hall... he wins games, right? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif "More so than baseball players, we're still men," Hall said. "To be put in those situations, you kind of don't feel treated like you're a man, not knowing your role on the team. I don't have a designated role." It really might be time for the Brewers & Hall to part ways. I can't fault him for feeling like, 'What am I doing here?' (though I think his 'treat me like a man' comments are off-base... isn't being treated like a man not getting coddled? Oh well) He hardly gets used at all anymore, and given Macha's comments, nothing will change any time soon -- "He's part of the team still," manager Ken Macha said. "But there's other guys that have performed better, so I have to put the best lineup out there. "He's had quite a few at-bats and the opportunity to put his name in the lineup.?.?.?. Casey McGehee and Counsell have gone out there and done it. "This is a game of production, and if we don't produce as a team and win games, I'm not going to be working." Something else that concerns me is Macha's apparent trust in small-sample production. Helps me to understand his misuse (imho) of Gamel more.

Gallardo's not 19 or 20. He's fully developed physically. He's 23. He threw 24 innings last season. The Brewers have cost control over him through at least 2013, as best I can tell. His pitch counts & usage are incredibly important to monitor. Macha has lost what redeeming values he had to me (handling the pitching staff) at this point. Also, to jwill --- nicely played http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[nitpicking]Rickie's first tendon sheath tear was in the opposite wrist from this most recent one, and he actually did get fully back from the first sheath tear injury.[/nitpicking] ... and no, I don't remember whether he first had the injury in his right or left wrist http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Aside from the points others have made on injuries, it's incomplete to look at Melvin's trades & make some sort of statement about whether or not he's good due to them. Neglecting great waiver-wire additions & buy-low FA additions like Doug Davis, Scott Podsednik (only great bc he basically netted El Caballo), Casey McGehee, Gabe Kapler, Mike Cameron, Todd Coffey... the list goes on & on... is foolish imo. So DonMoney4mgr, I guess if you want to hang your hat on the abstract concept that Melvin's trades are somehow not making this team better, and that's about all you need to analyze, then go for it.

Eric Bedard was placed on the 15-day DL today, after throwing just 80 pitches in his last start. The official word is "shoulder inflammation". To clarify, no MRI has been scheduled since the M's ran one already on Bedard & didn't see anything. I found the following tidbit interesting... from an article Baker wrote yesterday (his speculation then was that the M's felt Bedard was hurt again): I can't say I find his comments on Escobar particularly well-founded, but interesting nonetheless. I know Morrow's lack of a third pitch is viewed as problematic by many.

Is this actually a sprained elbow for McClung, or is it a "sprained elbow"?

Even if Ortiz doesn't decline soon, Mike Lowell might not be able to be an everyday player at 3B anymore. Adding Prince would mean Youkilis slides back to 3B & Prince assumes 1B... then takes over as DH once Ortiz is done.

Gamel is EXPENDABLE, we have McGehee there! get back involved Doug Unbelievable. Is that you, Ken Macha?

But in the end no major league help and no stud prospects. (Dave Bush isn't helping right now.) Counting Dave Bush's injury against Melvin is absurd. Seems like you remembered at the last minute, 'Oh yeah, I guess he has traded for guys that are still helping us.'

This dog clearly makes more money than me, and can buy & sell any of us like pawns.

And to think Hardy is worth 8 million this season without really being able to hit a ball is almost as laughable as saying he was worth over thirty million the past two seasons. I don't care what website or obscure stat says otherwise. You can just spit on the dollar estimates if you like, but they are very useful comparative tools. I for one can say I find your outright dismissal of them really frustrating in these discussions. I almost wonder if Melvin could call both the Ricciardi and Shapiro and offer up a package of Escobar, Lawrie, and a couple lower level prospects for either Lee or Halladay, and see who bites first. Maybe put out that he's talking with a couple other GMs for other top tier pitchers as well. Take the ball and put it in their court, and see which GM blinks first. With the trade deadline only a week away, it can't really hurt to get aggressive at this point. Not a bad idea at all, Invader. Of course neither GM has to move either pitcher, but especially in Toronto's case, maybe a decent approach would be to lay that kind of offer out there & tell them, 'Let us know if you find a better offer that we'd need to beat.' If the Phillies are the other rumored frontrunner, doesn't that mean the Brewers have a pretty nice advantage in terms of farm systems?

Since I also think Gamel will develop into a well-above-average defender at 3B, and have full faith he will routinely turn in an OBP-heavy OPS in the .850-.950 range in his prime, I vote Gamel.

And fortunately, once again Melvin will have a lot of ammo at his disposal with which to acquire pitching -- Hardy, Hart, Salome, Escobar, Lawrie (to just name some of the bigger names). I have full faith that Melvin is aware the SPing needs to be addressed. I really think we will see an acquisition this season still.

Wow, thanks for finding & sharing that, Buc. This NL Central race just won't get uninteresting, will it?

Totally agreed. Once you start really attempting to follow GMs' moves (as I've tried over recent seasons), you see that not only is Melvin clearly in the upper half of GMs in the league, but as far as small-market GMs go, he's about the cream of the crop. I should clarify by 'small market GMs' I not only mean GMs of smaller-market teams, but ones adept at the types of moves conducive to smaller-market success (the claim of McGehee last Sept. is a perfect example).

I'm just the opposite, I love Hawk. When I got home last night I went over to MLB.com to catch the highlights and hoped it would be the Sox TV call. Hawk is the homer of all homers, that's alright by me and as much as I hate to admit anything good ever came out of the Cubs, I think Steve Stone is one of the best color analysts in the game. I have to, begrudgingly, agree 100% with burniebrewer's points here. And I can speak from experience when I say that ChiSox fans love Hawk precisely because he's such an unapologetic homer. He really does grow on you after a while... I used to think of him as one of the worst announcers in the league, but once you basically accept that it's just 'Hawk bein' Hawk', he really is enjoyable to hear call a game. His call on that Wise robbery was just vintage Hawk.

WOW. Thank you, Cardinals front office. Still, Holliday has always *appeared* to be a very tough out to me. Just seems like what people describe when they talk about a "pure hitter" (short of a legendary one like Pujols, of course).

I don't agree at all FtJ... I, too, get that impression from many posts in this thread.

Oakland traded for Haren. Cain was drafted by SF. Edwin Jackson was acquired by DET via trade. You can't make an argument about FA pitching, and then cite trade acquisitions to back it up imho. Completely different animals. How to win a pennant with a balance of homegrown talent under 6 years of control, sprinkled in with great free agent acquistions, great trade acqusitions, while playing in a small market, with a very smaller payroll (43M), in a much tougher division, while having to pay for a DH, and having crappy facilities with which to recruit those free agents. What hasn't Andrew Friedman and their baseball operations people proven? I'd love to have a pennant right now I don't see what Friedman has done much better than Melvin. I can't believe you're hanging "not having a pennant" on Melvin when everyone knows that luck has more to do with things than anything else in the postseason. Remember how he acquired CC to get this team to the postseason? Are you going to say it's Melvin's fault that CC crapped out in the playoffs? What are the "great FA acquisitions" made by Friedman? Pat Burrell? What are the great trades aside from the fluky Garza-for-Young deal (great move by Freidman & Co., but I don't really give him much credit for Steve Phillips handing him Scott Kazmir either -- not sure if Friedman was GM at the time, either). While I definitely agree that Freidman & the Rays have been run very, very well of late, I just don't see this glaring gap btw. Melvin & Friedman. I honestly don't have the time at the moment, but I will look more into that comparison later.

Ok, sorry for making that assumption.

It's Buerhle by the way...a free agent prior to the 2008 season. I'm not sure if this is just another part of your frustration with Melvin or not, but Mark Buerhle was never a FA. He signed an extension with CWS in 2007 (7/8/07).

Fair enough. Like I've already said. Tampa has proven that it can be done I'm sorry, what has Tampa proven? And honestly, what does one such trade in the past 5-ish seasons prove one way or another? Did Omar Minaya adding Johan Santana prove you can acquire ace SPing by offering a quantity deal of so-so prospects? I would have no problem with Dan Haren's contract. I wouldn't either, but the problem is that you asserted he could have been had on the FA market (not true) for $8M -$9M per year (also not true) US Army recruiters have a tough job too. Guess what...we still have an army. Well, we still have a baseball team, too. we'll just have to disagree there that a chance at 200+ innings pitched of an ERA under 3.00 is more valuable than 25 home runs and gold glove defense from Cam, when scoring runs usually isn't the issue with this team No one EVER said that... you can't find the kind of pitcher you describe for the amount of money you're claiming. And btw, don't you think Cameron has been a huge part of this team scoring runs?

It's really comical to me that LaRussa came out to slam the fans for their purported lack of baseball knowledge (making Duncan the whipping boy is unfair! He's not as bad as they say!)... and then a day later Duncan is dumped for an albatross contract because LaRussa is an idiot & won't just let Brendan Ryan get comfortable at SS. I mean, Julio Lugo is your answer to supplant Ryan? Ryan's defense alone is enough reason to just leave him alone at short. Yes, clearly the Cards' fans are the ones that don't know baseball...

This kind of approach on this topic really bothers me. Mike Cameron was, and still is, an amazing FA acquisition. Yet you pick his contract apart, add in (like zzzman said) a flukish, once-in-a-decade kind of trade like Garza, and then say, 'Use the remaining money on a great free agent' Melvin did use $9-ish million on a great free agent (Cam), but some fans just can't seem to be happy about that. Dan Haren? $8-9 million? You mean this Dan Haren, the Dan Haren that was *traded for* (& cost a king's ransom in prospects) & then extended? 2009: $7.5M 2010: $8.25M 2011: $12.75M 2012: $12.75M 2013: $15.5M ($3.5M club option) Or... this Matsuzaka, who as zzzman also noted cost merely $51.111M just to negotiate with? 2009: $8M ($16.518M**) 2010: $8M ($16.518M**) 2011: $10M ($18.518M**) 2012: $10M ($18.518M **) ** -- these values are if you equally disperse the $51,111,111M posting fee the BoSox paid the Seibu Lions just to speak with Daisuke. Of course, you can't even do that, since whatever team signed Matsuzaka had to have the extra $50M+ sitting around at the time... not gradually available to them over the duration of the 6-year contract. lcbj68c, I want to say that you've had access to things most fans don't, and I respect your knowledge & the sharing of it. However, it just really irks me when fans play the 'what if' game in general, and specifically when said fans seemingly just pull names they like out of a hat & use them as perfect 20/20 hindsight critiques. In short, would I love to have a really nice free agent SP that costs just $8M or $9M per season? You bet. Does this player exist? No. And would I want to see the money spent on Cameron (2008: $5M; 2009: $10M) spent in any other way? Not a chance in...