RockCoCougars

Another victim of Macha's favoritism. I remember Macha riding him the first spring training he was here, and judging from how he was handled over the next two seasons, Carlos just never got out of the doghouse.

If Melvin gives this guy 3/30 he should be fired on the spot. I'd even be leary of a one year deal for him. Like the Gagne deal, those can look pretty bad as well. I think that the top priority should be to trade for Garza or Grienke (pipe dream or not, make a run). I'd resign Cappy, and then start trolling to see if Harden, Webb, Duchscherer, or even a guy like Ian Snell would be amenable to a make good one year incentive heavy deal.

I'd have been all over this yesterday if Martin hit LH. I was kind of disappointed to see Varitek and Pierzynski reup yesterday.

Last I heard from the hacks on Chicago sports radio is the Peavy will most likely NOT be ready for opening day. I believe I heard this a few weeks ago.

Weeks should have been re signed with his old agent. It sounds like this new agent is going to be a lot tougher to negotiate with. Typical Brewers luck, but I really hope the nonsense pulled last year on his buddy Hardy didn't sour him on the franchise. At any rate, I think Rickie should be kept if at all possible. I see Lawrie as a corner guy as well- but in the outfield.

Seemed like a good guy, who really has had a rough shake of it with health issues. I never understood the vitriol against him due to his homer-ish style on the radio- especially from many people who grew up listening to Max McGee.... (who he reminded me of).

I understand your line of thought here, but in my view Pavano has limited upside at this point in his career- and he's older and injury prone. It almost certainly will take a multi-year deal to get him, and I think that's a huge risk. I'd rather take a chance on one of the guys that I mentioned for an incentive laden one year 'make good' type deal. Less upfront cost, and you might catch lightning in a bottle. Heck, Pavano himself was in the same boat less than two years ago, the Indians got him for $1.5 million plus incentives.

Pavano isn't worth taking a risk on. Like Suppan, he's old, has been largely mediocre, and is coming off a career season. Unlike Suppan the guy has not been durable- especially when under a long term deal (coincidence or not). Webb, Bedard or Harden are examples of 'risks' that may be worth taking. They would most certainly cost less than Pavano, and as such, the risk-reward ratio would be better.

Doesn't hurt my feelings as Hinske is just a 'guy' at this point. Plenty of them around available without doling out a two year contract and then ending up with a small Jody Gerut-like albatross ($2 million) for 2012 if things go south.

You go Kenny. In my view, two bullets dodged- no big money signing (though Dunn ended getting a little less than I would have thought) of a guy who will probably be a full time DH in two years, and no Fielder/Floyd trade.

I think that altering one's body by using substances that increase strength and bat speed, and helping one recover faster from injuries is exponentially 'worse cheating' than applying KY jelly to a baseball. Going further the steroids were used behind the scenes, while Perry's 'greaseballs' were thrown literally right under the nose of the umpires who were supposed to enforce the rule, Perry was only caught once. Despite loading the ball, Perry still had to know how to control it, locate it well, etc. I think steroids are much worse, because all you have to do is look at what they did for guys like McGwire (who was never found guilty, but admitted using) and Clemens (no admission, but guilty as sin in my book). Both of those guys were regressing and/or injury prone during the early to mid 90's. Next thing you know they recover to be dominant forces. Palmeiro probably would have been about an average major league first basemen. He never did much with the Cubs, gets traded to Texas, meets Dr. Canseco and the rest is history. Though Bonds and ARod have better HOF arguments, how can you pinpoint when they started using? All of the accomplishments of these guys are tainted in my opinion.

I'd be interested in taking a risk on Webb, but I just can't get past the fact that he was supposed to be back about 5 times last year and kept having setbacks- didn't throw one pitch. Sounds like a Teddy Higuera situation to me, so I'd stay away. I would take a flyer on Rich Harden though if the price was right, he was pretty brutal in Texas and left off the post season roster, so I'm thinking he really hurt his value. He also lost some velocity, but he just turned 29 and he still had a decent strikout rate. I'd be willing to take a gamble on him regaining his past form if the price was right. Maybe something like $2.5 million or so with incentives.

I doubt that Fielder would go for that. If he gets hurt or something in the next two years, he would end up leaving a ton of money on the table. I think one way to get Fielder in a soft market would be to give him a 5 year 100-ish million contract giving him the option to opt out after year three. That's a big risk for the Brewers though.

In my view, Dawson is a no doubt Hall of Famer. Had he not played his home games in Olympic Stadium for most of his career, I think he probably hits 500 homers. Before the knees went, he was outstanding defensively as well. In my opinion, he was one of the top 5 players in baseball in the early 80's along with Brett, Schmidt, Murphy and Murray. I don't think that many would have rated him below Tim Raines in their primes. To me Raines was basically a Kenny Lofton type, who benefited by playing in a park that was made for him - lots of doubles and triples. I think if you look at the total package, Dawson was better than Rice hands down as well, because Rice was a butcher defensively. If you switch Dawson and Rice, Dawson playing his prime in Boston and Rice playing in Montreal, I bet Dawson's stats would have crushed Rice's. The major knock that I've seen against Dawson is a low OBP and batting average. Those are in large part due to the fact that he probably played a few years longer than he should have.

Perry definitely doctored the ball (as did most likely Don Sutton and several others), but I don't think that's the same as utilizing a substance that increases your strength and muscle mass and improves your bat speed. In my opinion, none of the guys who have admitted and/or tested positive for steroids should even be on the ballot. How can they be when Pete Rose is not?

Keep in mind that almost everyone on those early 80's Expos teams ran wild with guys like Ron LeFlore and Rodney Scott and Andre Dawson (I will be the first to admit that this is somewhat hypocritical because I used steals to help justify Dawson being a HOF). In my view, however, Raines wasn't a HOF. He had one Top 5 finish in the MVP balloting, and he was not an impact player after 1987 (though he hung around for another 14 years). Had he done better at maintaining his pace prior to '87 (keeping a career BA of over .300, etc.) he would have a stronger case. That said, to me, he's a guy who had a pretty brief prime (albiet not as good as those of Dave Parker, Dale Murphy, Mattingly, etc.), and hung around forever as an ordinary player. He was a good leadoff hitter, but to me Bobby Bonds was better, and he doesn't even warrant HOF consideration because his career was shorter.

I'd vote for Bert Blyleven, Lee Smith and Jack Morris off that list. I still consider Blyleven somewhat of a stat compiler due to his long career and the fact that he was never really dominant, but I've been convinced. If guys like Don Sutton and Phil Niekro are in, I don't see how you can freeze Blyleven out- although I hate his constant campaigning. Smith was the best closer of the 80's, pitching in bandboxes - one of the last of the true firemen (as opposed to 9th inning specialists). Morris had a relatively short career and high ERA, but he won 250 games and in my opinion, should be in almost based on the '91 World Series alone. Alomar will probably get in as well, but he wouldn't get my vote. That said, it would be interesting seeing him give his induction speech since apparently he has the AIDS. To briefly summarize my annual rant...Tim Raines was not a Hall of Famer, OPS be damned- if Raines has such a great argument, what about Rusty Staub? The only way that Palmeiro should get to the Hall of Fame is to buy a ticket. He was a poor man's Hal Morris before he hit the juice.

Dunn + Floyd is going to cost in the neighborhood of $25 million per in a couple of years. I think that Dunn will be $15 million per at the very least- probably $16-$18 million as he made $12 million last year, and he's getting a raise for sure- someone's going to overpay. Floyd will be getting at least $7 million, and over $9 million if his 2013 option is picked up. I'm not sure that I'd want to lock into that kind of cash for those two. Call me crazy, but I'd rather give Prince $22 million and use the $3 million towards another pitcher. Floyd has strung together three decent seasons, but nothing earthshattering- he doesn't have dominant stuff by any means. If you give Dunn a four year deal, he's going to be 35 at the end of it. A huge risk if you ask me. Prince is 5 years younger and despite his rotund frame, the guy has been extremely durable. I'd offer Prince a 5 year/ 110 million deal with an option for a sixth year of $30 million that vests if he plays a significant portion of the games. I'm not sure how he could leave that on the table.

My gut says that Prince is not going to get as much as people think unless he has a huge year next season (I'm talking Top 5 MVP). I base this mostly on the fact that teams seem leery at best trading for him. From what we know, last deadline, teams were not blowing up Melvin's pager. I don't think this completely is because these teams are simply going to wait until 2012 to get him without giving up players. He wasn't a rental player, either. Any team that wanted him could have had him for two playoff runs relatively inexpensively. It seems that a lot of teams have the same issues that the Brewers and fans here have....his size, his defense, and most importantly dealing with Boras. How's that going to change in 12 months? Finally, it seems that the economy has kind of driven down the market on free agents. A lot of guys so far have taken one year deals, the Yankees are telling guys like Jeter to test the market, etc. Time will tell, but Prince may end up kicking himself someday for turning down the Brewer's extension offer.

I'd be very leery about giving Dunn $15 million a season for four years. I think that's low though, some foolish team will give him more, though probably for fewer years. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get 3 yr/ $55 million. As I said, Dunn isn't getting any younger, and baseball history has shown that big guys like him tend to hit the wall quickly once they do. He may be able to maintain for the length of the contract, but it's a bad gamble. Dude has DH written all over him, because if he starts to break down with knee/foot/leg problems, he's not going to be able to play the field- not even considering that he's inadequate out there at this point. Because Prince is so much younger, I'd gladly give him an extra 5 million or so per season, as long as the deal didn't go longer than 4-5 years.

I'd just say no to Adam Dunn. Some of the arguments about letting Prince walk involve his poor defense and assumed decline due to his size. In my opinion, Dunn would be much worse in both of those areas. He's five years older than Prince, and guys that big tend to break down (knee problems and the like) pretty quickly. Frankly, I don't think Dunn would come much cheaper than Prince anyway, since he's probably the premier left-handed bat on the market this season. Next year, the fact that both Pujols and Gonzalez may be on the market could create an excess supply of obscenely expensive first baseman- this could drive Prince's value down.

Agreed. I'm just not sure why everyone thinks that Beckham is an uber-stud. People are acting like he's the next Ryne Sandberg or something. Most everything he has done to attain that status was accomplished with an aluminum bat. I would say that he's facing tall odds that he will ever eclipse Rickie Weeks as a player. Granted, Rickie started slow as well (at about the same age), but he's developed into a very good player in large part. For every guy that starts slow and develops, there are probably five 'Rated Rookies' that start slow and flop. Why would you let the proven commodity walk and replace him with a question mark? Salary would be the only reason that I can think of, something that would have been 15 years ago. Even if cost is an issue, McGehee is just as cheap and has shown a lot more with the bat, though I'm assuming that Beckham is a better fielder. Gamel is in the mix as well.This team needs pitching not yet another guy that plays 2nd and 3rd base. Trading a top pitching prospect (reliever or not) for this guy would be asinine in my opinion.

Gordon Beckham would be a huge downgrade from Weeks or even McGehee. In my view, he's one of the most overhyped and overrated players in baseball over the past several years. If he was that good, you wouldn't constantly be hearing rumors that the White Sox are shopping him. Before we hear the 'he is still young' excuse, keep in mind that he is only about a year younger than Prince.

So this guy is a White Sox fan and would be content with Geovany Soto, Hunter Pence or even Nick Swisher for Floyd? On the face of it, I think that this demonstrates that many are either undervaluing Prince and/or overvaluing Floyd. Either that, or this guy is so consumed with 'player wins' and 'controlled players', he'd trade for mediocrity if the stats backed it (Cost per WAR, or whatever it's called).

They aren't going to get that for one year of Fielder.I agree. However, if they can make a few smart moves, I feel this team has a chance to compete for the division next season. If they settle for the best that they can get for Fielder, I think that puts a huge dent in those hopes, especially if it is for a guy like Floyd. That's why I'm inclined to hold Prince at least until the trade deadline. I see the window closing here, and I'm in the 'go all in' camp. Guys like Greinke and Garza may be available, and if that's the case, you have to pursue them agressively. If they do take this route, and the team is out of contention by mid July again next year, I think that they need to take a long look at least a partial rebuild. If that's the case, hopefully Prince will be having a big year in his contract season, and he can be flipped for a decent package of a couple nearly major league ready guys, who would fit a rebuild process better than a Gavin Floyd type. That said, the best case scenario is the Brewers are competing for the playoffs at that point. Worst case, the team falters, they get no good offers for Prince, he walks and most likely they will net two high draft choices. I guess that I just don't understand why many feel this team will be ready to compete in 2012 after a 'building' 2011. There is a realistic possibility that both Fielder and Weeks will be gone in 2012. That's a huge loss for the offense. Who's going to pick up the slack? There doesn't seem to be a slew of guys in the minors that will be ready to fill their roles by 2012. Further, I don't see any sure shot pitching in the minors that will be realistically ready to pitch effectively in 2012. I wouldn't say that any of Rogers, Rivas and Jeffress are sure bets to be solid MLB starters by any means at that point. They may be on the team, but generally young starters take a while at the MLB level to develop. Odorizzi looks good, but he's still in the low minors.