RockCoCougars

It all hinges on the pitching. Look at the Brewers offensive stats from the mid/late 90's until Dean Taylor came to town. You may be surprised. Basically, two guys not names Gallardo need to step it up in a big way - and for the entire season, not just for half a la Manny Parra, Santos, etc.

Why would Posada get in? Thurman Munson isn't in, and they had very similar careers even though Munson's was cut short. Posada had more power, but he should based on the era that he played in. He also had only 1600 some hits- is there anyone in with that few? The fact that he was a Yankee/catcher and won a lot of rings shouldn't get him in. I'd say the same thing for Pettite. He has a solid winning percentage, but that's to be expected from a guy that pitched for the Yankees almost his entire career. The post season performance is impressive, but it's come in a watered down playoff system. His postseason performance in general is more impressive than his World Series performance.

Posada isn't close to a HOF in my view. Nor is Pettitte, even without the steroids. Jeter and Posada out of that crew are the only HOF in my book. As for the Brewers, they had a nice run of churning guys out for a few years there, but probably only one HOF, which would be Fielder. Gallardo has never even been in the running for a Cy Young award, let alone HOF. As for the Brewers franchise, they've had about three 4-6 year spans where they churned out very good prospects: 73-78, 86-91, 04-07. That's about it, and the well has been pretty dry the rest of the time. I'd guess that those three stretches are directly correlated with the scouting staff that existed at that time, namely Jack Z., Manno, and Baumer(I believe). The point here is that I feel that the Brewers could very well be entering a dry stretch. Success at the big league level has seemed to sustain for roughly 5 years after these stretches, and we are at that point right now.

This idea of retooling requires hindsight in two areas. First, when exactly are you selling at peak value? Second, who would you have been able to get back for these guys? I don't think that anyone here has enough knowledge to say, 'We missed the boat by not trading Player A for Player B'. We have heard lots of names thrown around.... Circa 2009/2010- Cain for Fielder, Hudson for Fielder, Sanchez for Hart, etc., but no one knows whether those deals were actually on the table. In hindsight, the first deal looks OK, the last two are laughable. To evaluate Melvin, all we can do is look at is the deals they actually did make. Obviously, the Marcum deal doesn't look that great in hindsight, but the Greinke deal does. Say what you will, but if Greinke is not added (possbily Marcum too), the 2011 run doesn't happen. Without having the huge dollars to toss around, I just don't see that a team can maintain competitiveness for a long period of time by 'striking while the iron is hot'. Mediocrity maybe, but not sustained playoff runs. The Twins of the 2000's would be the best example of this, but they were in a horrid division. Bottom line, it's going to hinge almost all on the young pitching, but they could very well be entering a period of non-competitiveness if things don't pan out. This team actually reminds me quite a bit of the 1985/1986 era team... lots of vets in the lineup, but a very young and unsettled rotation.

Meanwhile, Bogut is back on the injury list. I'm shocked.

I don't know what to think here. I'm not a big fan of Reddick, but they really didn't give up much to get him. I think that the bigger mistake here would be giving him big money this summer. However this trade left them without any depth at PG. I've got to think that Atlanta backed out at the last minute and left them holding the bag. They must have had two deals going at once with more pieces going out and coming back. I'm not really broken hearted over not getting Smith though.

This chatter from inside sources indicates that people from the lab are getting ready to talk, they are probably waiting for their lawyers to negotiate their best deal for the tell all. I hope Braun is telling the truth, otherwise this is not going away. Heck, in this day and age, I wouldn't be surprised if former employees had cell phone footage of these guys getting treatment. I highly doubt that Biogenesis followed HIPAA to the tee.

I guess I don't see why Reddick's name comes up so much. I get that he's high on the 'efficiency' stats, but I see a very streaky shooter. I don't get all the man love for Eric Bledsoe on the Bucks boards either, I've watched a handful of Clippers games this year and have been less than impressed, he looks like a taller Speedy Claxton to me.... maybe I watched him in his bad games or something. Though I'm not a huge fan of adding Smith, I'd rather try to do a deal for him and get Kyle Korver as well than give up anything meaningful for Reddick. I doubt that Atlanta would do that deal though.

They need to bring in a veteran guy here to at least compete for the job. Someone like Huff or Lee. They may be past their primes, but maybe you catch lightning in a bottle. I don't want them to go into the season with Gonzalez, Green and perhaps Maldonado as their options. Gonzalez is the primary infield backup, and may be needed at short if Segura gets hurt or falls on his face, I'm also not a big fan of using a catcher at first and Green is just blah.

With the possible exception of Gomez, the Brewers should not deal with Boras clients, period. Nor should they sign former Cardinal pitchers off a career year. Nor should they sign a middling pitcher and give up a first round pick for the 'privilege'. They dodged a bullet with Dempster, let's hope someone saves them from the temptation here and soon.

I don't think there's a snowball's chance Estrada is not in the rotation. I don't really feel too confident about it, but at this point, he's basically the number two. I honestly think if one of the young guys goes to the pen, it'd be Fiers as a long guy/spot starter. I think that Rogers will be in the rotation no matter what. They baby his arm too much to put him in the pen, so he'll probably be the 5th starter, and will hopefully go 5-6 innings every fifth day.

Because baseball had by far the richest history of any of these sports, especially when it came to stats/records. Next thing you know, guys are sticking needles in their buttocks and they are doing things to in effect ruin these stats by watering down many records by putting up video game numbers.

I'd say that surgery falls somewhere between 'Greenies' and Gaylord Perry's spitball... or any other arguments that the steroid apologists use.

The key to this whole thing is that Bosch guy. If he has a story to tell, I guarantee that he will write a book, because his days of making money from his 'anti-aging' clinics are over. I'd be all for putting him on the Maury show hooked up to a lie detector.

The trade 'em once they are good strategy is born from a fan base accustomed to a generation of losing. It's basic tenet: a team should never mortgage the future in the hope of winning this season. Instead, the clever strategy is the constant rebuild; stockpiling the minors with premium talent acquired by trading vets in their prime. It's a losing strategy but it gives fans hope for a better future, albeit one that never quite arrives, and it avoids the heartbreak of the calculated risk that falls just a little short. The Brewers may never see another generation of homegrown talent like what arrive in the mid 2000's: Prince, Weeks, JJ, Hart, Braun, Gallardo. Each player is an All Star and produced or exceeded their prospect projections. It's not unlike the young talent the Yankees brought up in the mid 90's, that was the core of their Championship run: Bernie Williams, Jeter, Posada, Pettitte, Rivera. Melvin picked the right strategy from 2007-2012 by going for it. Spot on post. Generally, outside of the fairly rare veteran for veteran deals, two types of teams are involved in a trade. The competitive team is adding the vets and the rebuilding team is dumping salary/adding the young guys. The Brewers 'went for it', and thus have been generally adding the vets. I understand the concept of 'selling high', but that is not something that you are wont to do when you plan to compete for the division. In hindsight, it's easy to say that a certain guy should have been moved. but it's impossible to quantify the value of any return. These veterans don't seem to be bringing the return that they used to. Look at what the Giants had to give up for Pence, not really that much. I've said this before, but when it comes to a guy like Hart, I think that a lot of people tend to undervalue his worth to the Brewers while at the same time overvaluing him on the trade market.

Did you read the Breen article quoting the lawyer or the article the lawyer actually wrote? It goes into depth about the legal side of things. I'm pretty sure the lawyer said she would advise Braun to do exactly what he has been doing, which is say nothing. They've already released a statement saying that he was consulted last year. Like I said, there's really not much else that should be done if you want to protect yourself down the road. Has a lawyer ever advised a client to be fully candid? Anyway, none of us know whether Braun is being truthful or not. I hope that he's telling us the truth, but the skeptic in me has some doubt. Bottom line, it'd be hard to dispute two things here. First, if Braun played for the Cardinals with the same set of circumstances, we'd be all over him. Second, I believe that if he's not telling the truth and did juice in the past, he may escape this latest development, but some day the truth is going to come out. I hope that these athletes that issue blanket denials have been watching the Lance Armstrong stuff. For a while there, he was about as untouchable it gets, yet it all came crashing down.

The confidentiality stuff isn't just for in case Braun wants to initiate any proceedings. It's also going to protect him in case someone wants to initiate anything against him, which isn't out of the realm of possibility. Look at the proceedings against Bonds and Clemens. If Braun waived confidentiality now to just appease the fans, he could lose any confidentiality in the future if someone files a suit against him. I guess that I can see that, but if he's giving true statements to the press/fans, he shouldn't have to worry about any liability for slander etc. I would guess that he'd be more concerned about a perjury charge down the road (assuming that he gave sworn testimony to the arbitrator). Perjury is what they went after both Bonds and Clemens for. At any rate, if he's innocent, you'd think that he'd speak out to get the story out there. The fact that he's seemingly afraid to speak out seems to indicate the opposite- unless he's planning on bringing action against someone himself.

Shot of the year right there. Wow.

There is one thing that makes me think Braun is telling the truth, and that is, as discussed earlier, no one has gone to the media with any info on him juicing. I'm sure that they tried to find someone last winter as well. The other thing is that he can't be stupid enough to give his own name to the lab, can he? I suppose if he was showing up physically at the location, he'd pretty much have to, but if he's just buying the supplies/juice, why not have an 'associate' buy it for him. Actually, if he bought it himself, maybe that's why no one has come forward to rat him out. Also who'd be stupid enough to stiff one of these outfits for 30 grand? That might cause them to send out a 'little birdie' to get into some journalist's ear. All that said, I'm about 40/60 on the whole thing right now. I agree with some of the others here that 'trust me, if you knew the real story...' soundbites aren't enough this time. I want a better explanation, and think that the fans/organization deserve one for mostly standing by Braun last time. Frankly, I don't think that any confidentiality agreement would preclude Braun from briefly detailing his side of the story. It's not like a legal settlement was reached with a gag order or something. Going further, Braun's camp has not initiated any legalities against anyone in the past year, so that seems doubtful at this point. Bottom line, by not taking any legal action and keeping quiet, Braun appears on the surface like a guy found not guilty at a trial where he took the fifth.

Deft statement, but keep in mind that the lawyers have known this was coming down the pike so they've had plenty of time to craft it. If nothing else, I think that the truth is going to come out here one way or another with this. Now that he's been linked to a 'lab', if he was doing something, multiple people are likely going to have the goods on him and squeal. One thing that is on Braun's side is that no one has done that in the past year. Let's hope that he's telling the truth.

Kind of funny how ESPN is the only major sports website that isn't putting this out there yet. They are absolutely going to torch Braun.

What about Cash? I thought they were kind of a team.

The minute that I saw the A Rod/U of M links, I had a feeling that this news may be coming down the pike. The Brewers are facing a PR nightmare.

Before the season, you simply do not trade the guy who is far and away your ace if you have any aspirations of competing. I'm not ready to rebuild yet, and to me trading Gallardo would be a rebuild move (Full disclosure... I do not believe that the concept of 'retooling' as you go- getting younger and cheaper while remaining competitive- is realistic in MLB). If you are rebuilding, you may as well trade Braun as well, as he'd be in his mid 30's before the team was ready to compete again. Now, if the Brewers completely tank the first half of the season away, the idea of trading Gallardo becomes more reasonable.

Absolutely. I would be in favor of putting his name up there. Not quite a hall of fame player, but definitely a hall of fame person. If I had to pick one athlete least likely to be in the news for a 'transgression', it would be him. That has to count for something, especially if a guy like James Lofton is in there.