RockCoCougars

He's done. I haven't seen anyone hit the wall this hard since Carlos Baerga. Everytime I've watched him the past two years, he seems to miss pitches by at least a foot. His defense has slipped too.

He's done. I haven't seen anyone hit the wall this hard since Carlos Baerga. Everytime I've watched him the past two years, he seems to miss pitches by at least a foot. His defense has slipped too.

From the Braves, as others have said Burdette, Crandall and Logan are pretty much no brainers. Joe Adcock too. From the Brewers, George Scott definitely is deserving, in my opinion, he was every bit as good as Coop. I'd also put Oglivie, Higuera and Plesac in as well. Bamberger, Caldwell and Slaton would be borderline picks.

If Powell is wavering in his decision, I can't imagine this weather is helping matters for our cause.

Ah, the yearly HOF debate. I'll condense my take this year. Rice probably shouldn't be a HOF because he didn't do much after 1984....Blyleven doesn't quite make the grade because he was a stat compiler because he started his career so young...great curveball, but he was never one of the top ten pitchers in the game at any time......Raines is popular among the young set (good stat ratios and the like), partially because they don't remember his career.....good, but never HOF worthy.....Murphy just fell apart too soon another two solid years and he would be in.....Kaat, Tommy John, don't make me laugh.....Thank god this is a Brewer site and I don't have to hear people whine about Ron Santo.....Dawson and Jack Morris should be in....another guy who should be in who is not on the ballot is Dick Allen, who was much better than both Tony Perez and Orlando Cepeda.

Man this has been a bad offseason... The team can't even hang on to their mediocre studio hosts.

I'd say this is quite the bargain. Just think, the Brewers could have gotten 3 Pavanos for one David Riske, or 8 Pavanos for one Jeff Suppan!

Very cheap. Must be a little hometown discount in there somewhere.

This team has done absolutely nothing to improve. The top two starters will be gone, if they maintain their quizzical apathy towards Sheets. The bullpen has been absolutely decimated. They have done nothing to improve their offense. I'm not sure what's going on here.... the old "We will have Yo healthy for a whole year" refrain does not constitute a productive off season. Besides the fact that there is no closer, and Jeff Suppan and McClung constitue 2/5 of the rotation at this point, which is scary enough, this team has absolutely no depth. This team is one injury from having a guy like Everitt Stull, Brad Woodall or Joe Winkelsas starting games.....I'm really starting to fear that the ownership group is having cash flow problems. Last year wasn't exactly a banner year for investment banking firms.... Think about it, two years ago, this team was throwing huge money at garbage like Suppan and Dave Roberts, last year they throw $10 million at Eric Gagne.....and this year they won't even make an offer to their ace pitcher- in a down market for free agents....off a playoff appearance none the less? Something doesn't compute here....

I don't know how anyone can say the bullpen is as good as it was last year at this time, considering they've probably lost 5 of the top 6 guys going into last year (Mota, Torres, Gagne, Shouse and Turnbow). The only guy left who was considered a big part going into last season is Riske, and he had some pretty brutal stretches last year. I'd lean more towards the "bullpen is garbage" opinion.

It really seems that way. Why would he comment about getting picks for Sheets, when he hasn't even signed anywhere yet? It also seems like he's basing decisions to go after free agents on whether or not they will "cost picks". Maybe he's just using the "hey, at least we got picks" silver lining to justify the inactivity this off season. I'm starting to wonder if I missed the part where this team is rebuilding.....maybe the ultimate goal of this management was to squeak into the playoffs as a wild card. I really hope I'm wrong here, because I think this team can compete with one more solid starter, a couple of arms for the bullpen and perhaps a lefty bat. It just doesn't seem like they are doing anything. Maybe they are keeping things close to the belt with negotiations, but I doubt it considering even their interest in a fairly low profile guy like Looper has made the news. We are one week from January, and it's really starting to look like a Selig/Bando off season.

I don't know what I'm more upset by- Melvin completely writing off resigning Sheets, or his seeming attempt to stockpile draft picks. I know this view isn't going to be popular here, but in my opinion, the MLB draft is basically a crap shoot. Guys like Braun, or even LaPorta (MLB ready in 2-3 years) are the exception, not the rule. Draft picks are nice, but I think it's foolhardy to stockpile them at the expense of the "big club". This isn't the NFL or the NBA. Lots of their recent high draft choices are going to get real expensive in the next 2-3 years, and will likely be gone. They need to win now.

I'm going to withhold judgment until I see what happens, but I'm beginning to worry that this ownership group has lost a ton of wealth "in the market" as of late. With all the salaries coming off the books salary should be well below last year, even with the raises for Suppan and the like. I'm starting to feel like the Yankees called Melvin's bluff with Cameron and unless he can be moved, nothing substantive is going to happen..... "adding that the Brewers wouldn't raise their $81 million payroll because of the recession" sounds like something Laurel Prieb used to say to justify the penny pinching operations of the Seligs. As I said before, I will withhold judgment here, but I will say that the level of fan support this team got last year (and the dollars that went along with it) should not warrant a payroll cut, especially considering that the core of this team will probably only be together for another year or two.

As far as I'm concerned, Suppan is a AAAA scrub, albiet one making eight figures.

I'd be all over Nick Johnson IF I knew he could stay healthy, but that's a huge if. He's proving to be this generation's John Jaha.

And the Brewers do?

At $5-6 million or so per year, I'm OK with this. As others have said, he's much better than Suppan - kind of a poor man's Dempster. That said, he's no spring chicken, so I wouldn't give him more than 2 years.

I think he was referring to the movie, not the album.

I think the rotation as it is constituted now is very subpar, and I don't like it one bit. Gallardo is definitely a potential future ace, but when your top two starters have less than 50 career starts combined, you have some problems. I'm not sold on Parra yet, considering how he hit the wall last year. Did he truly run out of gas, or did the league figure him out? Bush was sent to AAA for a period of time last year, so I wouldn't call him a solid three. Suppan is a negative, and shouldn't be in the rotation at all. Unfortunately, he will be run out there every fifth day in an attempt to justify his contract. McClung was solid for most of last year, but he is going to burn the bullpen every time he goes out there, because he generally doesn't pitch far into games. Frankly, I want this team to come clean on why they are not pursuing Sheets, because it's starting to make me angry. You've got a guy who started the all-star game last year, and you don't even try to re sign him? Something smells funny here, and I think they owe the fans an explanation....

I think this is the way to go. Not much to dislike about this if you are Sheets, and it gets the deal done on the Brewers end without dropping huge money. There is some risk that he could have a big injury next year, but I think it's an acceptable risk. This option is much better than giving a mediocre pitcher like Garland, Perez or Fuentes 8 figures for four years.

If that's the case, I'd rather just keep Cameron. I have no interest giving a guy like Fuentes big money for multiple years.

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it".... Maybe I need to step down from the ledge, but I'm starting to get nervous about how this off season is shaking out. The perceived lack of interest in resigning Sheets and seeming lack of motivation to make any major moves is disconcerting to me. I've been thinking about this off season, and how it's starting to remind me of 1992/1993. For example..... Team emerges from mediocrity (83-79 record the year before) to win 90 games (92-70 in '92, 90-72 in '08) Team plans on building around 5 young position players on offense moving forward (1992: Listach, Vaughn, Hamilton, Nilsson, Jaha - 2008: Braun, Fielder, Hardy, Hart, Weeks) Team has "stud" young pitcher to anoint as ace of the staff (1992: Eldred - 2008: Gallardo) Team has several veteran free agents that it makes little if any effort to resign (1992: Seitzer, Fletcher, Plesac, Bosio - 2008: Gagne, Mota,Shouse, Kapler, and Cameron (I will throw him in here because I don't believe the team ever intended on keeping him) Finally, and most importantly Team has "face of the franchise" free agent (1992: Molitor 2008: Sheets) with an injury riddled past, that team chooses not to seriously pursue because........ Team has an albatross contract (1992: Higuera 2008: Suppan) In the 1992/1993 off season, the Brewers did basically nothing but make a few window dressing moves picking up has-beens like Dickie Thon and Billy Doran. They basically sat pat while losing a bunch of their valuable free agents. Of course, the next season they won only 69 games... Could it happen again? I'll give you that the young offensive core wasn't nearly as talented as the current one, but in my opinion the pitching staff on paper headed into1993 was much better than the staff as it's assembled now. My biggest fear is that the team makes a Kevin Reimer-like move to replace Ben Sheets (Jon Garland, anyone). I guess that when I hear "he's always hurt when we need him", it sounds an awful lot like "he's just a DH". Now I'm not saying that this team will revert to a 69 win season. But I will say even though it's early, I don't remember being as unhappy with an offseason since 92/93.

Another thing, if they want to move Jody Gerut too, I'll even throw in Tony Gwynn, Jr.

I guess it makes too much sense to actually happen. I would give them Parra and Escobar, and I think that would be enough to get the deal done right now. Peavy is only 2 years older than Parra, so it's not like their giving up youth for a grizzled vet.

Personally, I think Redding is better than Suppan, and I'd have interest in signing him.