RockCoCougars

No interest in Murphy on my end either, that sounds like far too much to give up.

He's probably still hoping to squeeze a million or two out of Melvin with a little help from arm twisting by Macha and Peterson. Come on Doug, please move on, there's nothing to see here. They may as well inquire about Higuera's health if they want a washed up lefty with a torched rotator cuff.

I guess that I don't get all the uproar about this. If this system was in place in every workplace, I highly doubt that most on this board would not attempt to utilize it to maximize their salary if it seemed at all possible. If you would not you are a better person than I. I'm not sure if people think that he should just sit back and happily take whatever the Brewers offer, because he's 'sucked since he was in the all-star game'. Using that logic, Suppan should be cutting Attanasio a check for about $30 million. To put this more into perspective, Hart will be making only $300,000 more than David Riske next season. I really don't think that $4.8 million is that out of line for a guy that put up back to back 20/20 seasons. Hart was starting to hit a little bit last season too just before he came down with his appendix issue, so it's not inconceivable that he may have came very close to 20/20 again. I'm not the biggest Hart fan, but it seems that he has supplanted Weeks as the whipping boy du jour of the fans. I think that vitriol is better reserved for guys like Suppan and Riske, but that's me.

You are right. Cameron made about 3 times as much money as Hart last year. With all his warts, I'd rather have Hart than Cameron at this point- even if they were making the same amount of money. Hart is 10 years younger, and there is the (albeit remote) possibility that he could improve. Best case, Cameron will maintain, but he will most likely start to decline at his age. Gomez will replace his 'elite' defense just fine if you ask me and likely the .250 career average as well. Hart hasn't been very good, but I don't think that the 4.7 million is really out of line for what he has done. I just think that people have had too high of expectations of him from the start.

I can't blame the guy for trying to squeeze every cent he can out of the Brewers. I'm sure that he and his agent are regretting the decision to shoot the Crew down on the long term offer. They probably left $20 million at the least on the table. Hart has kind of become the Jody Reed of the new century. That said, Hart is not as bad as many here make him out to be. Outside of drawing walks, he's about the same guy at the plate as Cameron was (some power, strikes out at terrible pitches, streaky- disappearing for weeks on end, etc. For whatever reason, Cam is loved by many and Hart is terrible. One of the problems is that Hart was way overhyped as a prospect. He's probably slightly above average, but never was and probably never will be star caliber.

I don't know why some people care so much about this topic, but my view is booing is not 'classless'. I generally don't boo very often, because I really don't like to draw attention to myself. That said, I think booing serves two purposes.. Most importantly to send a message to management- when Suppan is booed off the mound after giving up 11 baserunners in 3 plus innings, I think it's a good thing. It shows management that fans are frustrated watching him trotted out there just because of his contract even though his chances of success are slim at best. The other purpose of booing is to harass former team members who discredited Milwaukee either with their actions while here or with their mouth after leaving. Case in point, I waited for about 11 years to give Sheffield the business. I also had a lot of fun booing Terrell Brandon every time he touched the ball on his first visit back to the Bradley Center.

That dork Caple hates Bud like every other Twins fan out there due to the contraction talk from about ten years ago. What those twits conveniently forget is that most of that talk originated from their skinflint owner wanting to either cash in on the team or apply a threat to the populace for a new stadium. I don't care what anyone says, Selig has been a great commissioner. As a purist, I haven't always agreed with everything that's happened under his watch, but the game seems to be as strong now (perhaps even stronger) than it was pre-strike.

I think Mauer's deal will be a great starting point for Prince. Yes, there will be a hometown discount, but probably not too much. Another consideration is that with all of the Prince getting fat and old/ becoming Mo Vaughn talk, he has been much more durable than Mauer over the past few years. I would guess that Mauer has just as much if not more of a chance of breaking down once he hits 30. As far as Mauer being a better player, I would say that's a toss up. He's probably not going to be a catcher too much longer either. If I'm the Brewers, I wait and see what Mauer gets and go from there. I obviously wouldn't do 10 years for Prince, but I'd do 5 with a higher average salary than Mauer. Pujols is less comparable in my view, because he is the better player but quite a bit older.

With the pitching staff they had last year, they should have brought in 20 pitchers alone in as NRI's.

Schoenweiss is brutal. We can only hope that he doesn't become one of Macha's pets during spring training. He has no chance of making the team otherwise.

In the late 1980's maybe into the early 90's, I would guess that the Brewers were somewhere in the upper end of MLB payrolls. Yount was the highest paid player in the game for a short time. Going further, Selig probably had one of the highest payrolls in the game during the first 10 years or so of free agency, therefore I think his reputation as a cheapskate who bled the team dry is undeserved. Once his daughter and Laurel took over in 1992 is when the team went to pot because they were not equipped mentally or financially to run the team. Couple this with the changing corporate economics of baseball and teams getting new stadiums left and right, it's easy to say he should have sold the team- the problem is that if he would have sold the team before securing the stadium, they wouldn't be in Milwaukee anymore.

Love the man or hate him, there is no doubt than no one would be here talking about the Brewers without him (actually maybe there would be a Triple A team). The team would have never been here to 'hold the city hostage' in the first place.

The Civil Rights Museum is located in the old Loraine Motel where MLK was assassinated. It's very interesting, but I'm not sure your children would be old enough to enjoy it though.

Watch Melvin snap up Petit now.

No way would Suppan get 3-4 million on the open market. Guys who can actually pitch a little like Garland and Washburn have or will barely gotten that. Suppan might be able to finagle a million or so out of a team like Pittsburgh, but that's about it. I'd trade Suppan for Guillen without hesitation.

Hopefully he doesn't stick around long enough for Melvin to consider picking him up as a stretch drive bat. Considering Texas dumped both on us, I've always debated which Kevin was worse, Mench or Reimer. Thank god Reimer is too old to play, he is Canadian, and more importantly has ties to the Texas organization. Melvin would be all over that.

I'm not sure if I like this move having never seen Estrada. That said, Dillard always seemed to have good stuff and never really got a chance. I sure hope that he doesn't turn into the next Balfour somewhere else.

I agree with some of the others who feel that the way the team handled the Hardy situation may have damaged the clubhouse somewhat. I know some of you feel that he did it to himself- but let's be realistic, he didn't play poorly enough to be sent to the minors given his track record. All I know is that after Mauer signs, the Brewers had better make Fielder a similar offer. Like I said, you either give Prince the extra money or let Melvin spend it on another 30 something starter who throws 89 MPH. Who else are you going to give it to? The Brewers have never really had any luck signing free agents from other teams. In the past 30 plus years, I can only think of a few who were worth the money.

Wow. This is really stupid. I hate it when people whine about certain divisions/leagues are 'unfair' due to the talent level. I hate it more when they try to come up with stupid ideas to counter the 'unfairness'. Frankly to me it just shows they haven't been following sports very long, because all such things are cyclical.

Vaughn is often used as a comparison to Fielder, but he was 31 years old when he went into free agency, Prince will be 27. Generally, a player's prime years are late 20's early 30's, Prince's next contract will cover that. I also disagree with the fact that Vaughn was a better player than Prince is. The batting average was higher, but give Prince some time, I think that his will go up. Plus, Prince hit 50 homers at an age where Vaughn spent most of the season in Pawtucket. I didn't say Prince was the greatest, I said he will perhaps be the greatest. Don't get me wrong, I grew up as the biggest fan of Robin, but he didn't turn into a good offensive player until he turned about 25 or so. Prince is 25, and he already has 160 home runs. I 'Right now, Yount and Molitor are 1 and 1a, but if Prince and Braun keep this up for another 10 years, they will be right there.

Yes, but doesn't paying Suppan, Wolf, Riske and Hall over $30 million combined this season limit payroll flexibility already? I'm sorry, but I have no faith that Melvin would take the money saved by not signing Fielder and spend it wisely. His track record signing major league free agents has been spotty at best. Where else will that money go? Braun is locked in, and outside of maybe Weeks all the young talent on the team will be pretty cheap for the next several years.

True. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Prince also had the same guy who represents Weeks in between Cecil and Boras. Bottom line.... do not trade Prince for scraps, and then use the money to sign two mediocre 'guys'.

I don't quite get the defeatist attitude that some on here have about Milwaukee. I don't know how you can read anything in to Fielder's comments. Who's to say that he doesn't like playing in Milwaukee and will give the team some kind of hometown discount? He doesn't always seem like a 'New York' type of guy to me anyway, actually seems kind of quiet and shy. Yes, there is the 'Boras factor', but Fielder fired his previous agent, so that shows that he has a little backbone in such matters. It was the same deal with Yount in '89. Everyone was talking about how he wanted to go back home to California, or take the big bucks the Tribune was offering, but he ended up taking a fair contract in Milwaukee. You can debate whether or not that deal worked out, but Yount was a lot older at that point than Fielder will be. Throw in the fact that outside of a few big contracts, the free agent market was very slow this year, and the fact that the team should have a bunch of money coming off the books, Fielder should be signed. The way I look at it, give Prince what he's making this year, plus what Suppan is making and you are right in the ballpark of what he will get. Once other bad contracts like Hall and Riske are off the books, there is another $10 million available to fill holes (over $20 million when Wolf is gone). How will this cripple the team? By the way....no way is Gallardo 'more valuable' at this point. He may be in the future, but he hasn't even been able to pitch a full season yet.

Why would you 'sell low' (actually extremely low) on two guys at once? Though I don't have much faith that Hart will bounce back, I think Weeks still has a chance to break out. Last year was going to be the season for it, and his injury absolutely sucked the life out of the team. Since there doesn't seem to be enough spots in the infield, I think the Brewers should have looked into either moving McGahee or Gamel. The problem is McGahee probably wouldn't bring back equal value and Gamel's value was hurt by Macha's mismanagement of him.

Reds fans probably thought the same thing back in 2000 when they signed Ken Griffey Jr to a big free agent contract. But the "best" thing that it did was cripple the franchise financially for years and prevent them from fielding a competitive team. The article doesnt really seem to say too much. Fielder, smartly, is keeping a low profile about the whole thing. Reality of the matter is that if the team is anywhere near what Pecota has projected for the Brewers on July 31, 2010, Fielder will probably be dealt to a team in contention for a very nice, farm system revitalizing, prospect laden deal. I would rather take a chance crippling the franchise by signing perhaps the best player that it has ever produced. Despite his size, Prince has been very durable, so I'll take the risk that he gets injured. He will only be 27 when he's up for free agency, so I don't buy into the 'he will get too big and be an injury risk and/or unable to play first base' argument. I don't want to rebuild by taking a prospect laden deal. It seems to me that most of the time these superstar for prospects deals don't work out very well for the team taking prospects (unless you're Florida, I guess). The fact is that Suppan and Hall will be both off the books in Prince's free agent year. That should free up almost $20 million of payroll. I say wait and see what Mauer ends up getting from the Twins and make Prince a similar offer this season. Griffey was traded to the Reds, by the way. I think they dumped a big contract on him right away thereafter though.