RockCoCougars

Braun is really closing the gap now. Fielder is under .300 and Braun is closing the gap on most of the other stats. I think if he hadn't been hurt, he'd be ahead. I agree that Votto is in the discussion as well. Right now, I say: 1a: Fielder 1b: Braun 3. Upton 4. Votto 5. Pujols

No one. You simply wait until Thursday to bring them back. No need to rush them back.

Barmes would be a solid get, but judging from how strangely Houston was acting about Barmes at the deadline, they've probably got a 4 year/$50 million extension in the can with him or something. I think Reyes will end up costing nearly as much as Prince. If so, I'd prefer giving the money to Prince. Outside of this contract year, Reyes has never been that great at the plate, and I think he's overrated in general. He seems like he could end up being a major bust. As for Hawkins and Saito, I'd be open to both. I can't see either commanding that much cash or more than a year plus an option year on the open market at their age.

Prince still lives in Florida right? If so, Tampa seems like the ideal destination- good thing they don't have the cash. I don't see the Marlins coughing up the cash, but you never know.

Why doesn't it seem rational? I think everyone agrees that they need a power bat off the bench. A power bat from the left side, even better. Why wouldn't the Brewers put a claim in on every power hitter in the last year of their contract (or young and cheap). There aren't that many players in the baseball that fit the bill. How hard would it be for some intern to present Melvin with a list of say, guys with over 15-20 homers who are owed less than, say $2-3 million? My guess is that list would be pretty short. The GM staff could then put claims in for guys that they do their due diligence on. If the Brewers didn't claim Berkman, they better not have claimed anyone who doesn't pitch left-handed.

Berkman seems like a move that Atlanta would make. He's owned the Brewers over the years, and I really don't want to be facing him in the playoffs without a LH reliever (and he's hit Narveson pretty well if you are going to throw him out there). I will be irate if he ends up going to Philly or Atlanta due to inactivity on the part of the Brewers. The fact that the Cardinals would likely get a pretty good prospect in such an event makes it even worse.

Yes no upside, if he's healthy they're not trading him to us. If he say breaks his leg and his out 4 months, they let him go and make us pay him. No upside. I disagree. What is the point of claiming anybody on waivers then? You claim a guy like this mainly to block your competitors up the food chain from getting him. Like you said, if he's healthy, chances are they are not trading him anyway. I'll take my chance that he doesn't 'break his leg' between the time he goes on waivers and September 1st, if he does, I'll collect the draft picks that will come when he's a free agent.

Football and baseball are entirely different. Most calls in baseball wouldn't take nearly as long to review. Football you look at things like, "Where are his feet? Does he have possession? When does his knee hit the ground? It's not clear from that angle, how about a different shot?" With some things, I agree. Fair/foul balls, plays at first, etc. However, I'm still not sure if that Pirate catcher missed the tag on the Braves baserunner after watching it dozens of times. At the same time, these plays should be easier to call on the field as well, as long as the umpires are competent and positioned right. In football, the play can happen pretty much anywhere on the field, and there's no guarantee that the official will have a good view of it.

Let's see how fast Milwaukee's attendance drops if they don't do well. Of course, but they won't be maintaining a $113 million payroll anytime soon either. I'll be interested to see the Target Field attendance next season after this year and when the luster is starting to wear off. Gate receipts are just a small portion of revenue. Their market size means they can get a bigger TV contract which is a huge advantage. If that's the case, then why did the Twins (and the Brewers) demand new stadiums under duress? I'm not arguing that the Twin Cities isn't a bigger market. I'm just stating that there is no way they will maintain that kind of a payroll down the road unless they can keep selling out the stadium. Everyone uses the 'Metrodome sucks' excuse, but the fact is that sports fans up there are the most fickle that I've ever seen. They could be paying Joe Mauer over 25% of their payroll someday soon.

No upside? I'd give Berkman $1.3 million down the stretch, no hesitation whatsoever. He'd be ideal for this squad off the bench. I will be irate if somehow a playoff opponent gets him.

The Twins have a larger television and radio market up there, that's true. However the fan base is very fickle. In my view, that team has been playing over it's head for the large part of the past decade, but one bad season and you would not believe the level of apathy and vitriol toward the team up there. I never thought that I'd see the day where Mauer was booed. Another thing to consider is that the Cities are a '4 major sport' town again, not to mention everything else going on up there. There is a ton of competition for the entertainment dollar up there. The new stadium gives them all kinds of new revenue streams, but if people stop showing up, and stop selling out the suites, the Pohlad boys aren't going to take big losses on that team.

Someone has to carry the gear to the bullpen. May as well be Dillard.... I'd rather have a third catcher that can throw a little.

Personally, I think the Twins are in really bad shape for years to come. The contract that they gave Mauer could go down as one of the worst in sports history. We can debate how well Prince will age all we want, but the Twins gave a guy with no discernible power and a history of knee issues $180 some million. They are on the hook to Mauer for $23 million for each of the next seven seasons, and for the next few they will be paying he and a guy with concussion issues (Morneau) $37 million combined. Once the luster of the new ballpark wears off in Minnesota- not to mention the weather up there and the fact that Minnesotans are even worse bandwagon jumpers than Wisconsinites- things don't bode well for them maintaining such a huge payroll for the long term.

The more details that come out, the sadder this story is. Regarding the Orioles, right you are, greg. The O's were kind of a hybrid of the 90's Braves and the modern day Cardinals. For about 20 years they built a rotation around a 2-3 homegrown guys (most notably Jim Palmer) and some castoffs who came up big for them. Bamberger and Ray Miller were kind of the Dave Duncans of their day. One year, I believe that they had 3 Cy Young winners in their rotation (Palmer, Flanagan, Steve Stone).... plus Dennis Martinez and Scott McGregor (no slouch either). They also had the year where they had 4 twenty game winners. They definitely did it with pitching- heck one year I believe they won like 102 games with Kiko Garcia starting at SS. With Belanger before him, they never had a SS who could hit. Earl Weaver was pretty much the grandfather of a lot of the modern strategists- very anti 'small-ball', brought platooning into fashion, etc. One of his big platoons that I remember was Gary Roenicke and John Lowenstein. The year after Weaver left, they won a World Series with those two platooning and a platoon at third base (Wayne Gross/Todd Cruz) fashioned with castoffs from the A's and Mariners- in those days, a bad thing. Weaver came back in the mid 80's, but the pitchers had aged and things fell off fast. I remember going to a weekday matinee at County back in the mid-80's. Both teams pretty much stunk, but there was a loudmouthed O's fan decked out in jersey and all (back in the day where you rarely saw them on adults). I remember him screaming, 'then you've got Shelby out there picking his butt' after the Brewers scored a run. I never forgot that for whatever reason, and now I laugh every time they show John Shelby on TV.

It would be tempting to sell high on Marcum, but I don't think that you'd get back a prospect package comparable to Lawrie for him. I'd say better to just ride it out with him unless someone wants to give up a proven MLB slugger at a need position (3rd base) for him.

I like Gamel, but he will come nowhere close to the production of Prince. HR and RBI aside, Prince's OBP is through the roof. Personally, I'd be thrilled if Gamel could hit .280 with 15-20 home runs in a full season and comes within 75 points of Prince's OBP- somewhere in the .340 to 350 range. Even in the best case scenario, Gamel is much closer to Lyle Overbay than Prince Fielder. If Prince walks, I think that you have to add another power bat to the lineup- the main question is, where? The off season free agent market isn't exactly teeming with these guys either. Most of the guys with some power are either long in the tooth 1B or outfielders. Unless you move one of the current starters, I think we are looking at third or short- no one really out there. It's most likely going to have to be down through a trade.

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I'm also intrigued what they do with Scarpetta, I don't believe he is ready for the majors but I don't know if they can get much for him in a trade either but he is out of options. Others here know more than I about this subject, but I believe the Brewers are trying to get the MLB to grant an additional option year for Scarpetta. If they don't get it, then who knows what happens. Probably he either gets a bullpen role which he's probably not ready for, or they let him become a FA. He's from Rockford, IL. Sorry to veer off topic, but I never put this together until I saw Rockford in this post. Anybody remember his dad, Dan? He was also a Brewer farmhand who got lots of ink in 'What's Brewing' back in the day. I met him in Rockford at some point in the 80's.

I'm sure the Mets would want a king's ransom for him. Since the Brewers really don't have the ammo in the farm system, my guess is that the Mets would want to start the deal with Weeks or Gallardo.

$$$$$$. He's been pretty good, but I don't like the contract one bit. The Astros aren't going anywhere for the next few seasons. I really don't think he would bring much in a trade either. Does anyone here think that the Brewers would get a haul for Randy Wolf? Rodriguez reminds me a lot of Wolf- albeit a little younger with less injury baggage, but at the same time, he's due 8 figures for an extra year. If the Brewers were 42-88 right now, do you think this board would explode if the Brewers flipped Wolf for a marginal prospect?

And you didn't answer the question: Where do you put the runners? Let them 'complete the play'. That way, every time there is a close play on a diving catch or a short hop, the ump will be hesitant to make the call because replay will clear it up. Same thing with any line drive down the chalk.

College football games are over three hours mainly because they stop to move the chains after every first down. Perhaps these brief stoppages play a role, but you have to consider that in recent years the NCAA has also changed the rules regarding out of bounds plays, adopting NFL-like rules to speed up the clock.

One issue with the college game is that the smaller conferences often don't have enough technology/camera angles to have the efficiency that say a Big 10 game on ABC has (plus the national TV games have a ton more commercials as well, so breaks aren't as noticable). I would guess that replay goes better in a Ohio St./Penn St. game than it would in a North Texas/Arkansas St. game. Obviously, 'MLB' would have a Cadillac replay booth in place, but like I said, at some point do you start replaying strike calls, etc.? If you are going to use an automated system for that, what is the point of even having umpires on the field (maybe you need one to keep the game moving). I am a purist codger, but to me, using technology as an umpire is too much of a fundamental change.

How much college football do you watch? It doesn't take any additional time. It just uses a TV time out which would have been used later anyway. I am not sure of the average number of replays per game but it is probably 2-3. It has been a complete success.I watch way too much college football, and I respectfully disagree. It's rare for a college game to be under 3 hours these days, and that's ridiculous. Obviously, the networks- and, in turn the conferences- love it because it allows them to add even more commercials, so it will stay. It seems like the 'replay booth' messes up a chunk of the time as well.

Flanagan was one of the last in a great line of Orioles pitchers. Tough to imagine now, but the O's were probably baseball's best franchise overall during the periods of the mid 60's to the mid 80's. This is a really sad story, but I have to think there is much more to it than the simple fact that he was despondent than his job performance as co-GM.