RockCoCougars

How dare you speak ill of Eric Byrnes. I don't watch MLB network too much- especially during the off season, so I haven't noticed him before. Is he fairly new?

On a semi related note, who does Eric Byrnes' hair? He looks like a complete tool, and sounds like the late infomercial huckster Don Lapre.

Wow, what a surprise! I was very pessimistic about how this would turn out. Still nothing on ESPN.com . Guess that they are either trying to wipe egg from their faces or are too busy reporting on 'Linsanity' and the Brady Quinn's war of words with Tim Tebow. Probably a bit of both.

I doubt with Selig at the helm MLB would do anything to stick it to the Brewers In the unlikely occurrence that Braun is exonerated, all the conspiracy theorists who claim that Selig showed (yet again) favoritism toward 'his' team will get very annoying, very fast.

If this is all that he was charged with, maybe he is starting to clean up his act. Seriously, I expected much worse.

Couldn't care less about St. Albert now that he's in the A.L. I'm glad he's gone, and I don't have to bear witness to his pretentiousness anymore.

The Brewers simply cannot afford to trade Hart or Weeks at this point. There are already enough questions/possible holes in this lineup. Based on their pitching staff, the window is still open, but this season is going to determine the course of the next several if you ask me. Let's say Braun is suspended, a couple guys get hurt and this team starts to implode. If you can't lock in Greinke, you have to think about a rebuild moving forward. Then maybe you think about moving guys like that. In a state where we watched the Packers do a 'retool' as opposed to a rebuild under Thompson (though I would argue that was a bit fortuitous), it makes sense to want the Brewers to do the same. I just don't think that the MLB/NFL are the same animal. In the NFL, you can stockpile draft picks, draft well and some of those guys make an impact immediately. In baseball, you are talking 3-4 years generally- best case. Admittedly, I'm not an expert on the farm system, but from what I've seen, there is not a lot of major league ready talent. Things seem pretty heavy toward the lower levels, which would indicate a new window in perhaps 4-5 years (if everything goes right). Like I said, above, 2012 is going to be a pivotal year for this franchise in my opinion.

No doubt Maiden is absolutely huge internationally, but they aren't mainstream in the U.S., although they have a strong and very devoted base here. I'm going to make a metal/sports analogy here....Maiden is kind of like Soccer in the U.S., while Sabbath/Ozzy are MLB/NFL. Metallica is like the NBA, the 'new kid', peaking in the 80's and downhill since.

Come on guys, Jeremy Lin is just that good. The Big O had nothing on him. ESPN would not constantly milk an easy 'flavor of the month' type story unless there was some real substance to it. Good thing that the ASG is on TNT. If it was on ABC/ESPN, they'd really be making a full court press to get him named to the team (as well as every All-Star event). Back on topic, I've got to think that we are going to hear something today or tomorrow.

I'm praying for rain. I have no desire to deal with a wet, heavy snowfall at this point in the game.

I'm sure that I'll get laughed out of here for this, but I think that the Yankees got a steal in Ibanez. He's pegged as the semi-regular DH though (correct?), so I highly doubt that he would have bypassed that opportunity to come off the bench for the Brewers. I'm starting to covet the Yankees bench (Andruw Jones, Chavez, etc. potentially Branyan and Hall).... except for Dickerson.

I don't understand how some people can be upset with this bench? I think this is one of the strongest benches we have had in quite awhile. I don't see it. Gomez isn't really a bench guy, especially if Braun is suspended, but lets assume that you have a bench of Gomez, Aoki, Green, Izturis and Kottaras. Gomez is great off the bench (primarily as a defensive replacement/pinch runner, not so much as a PH), but then you have four guys who combined for less than 200 MLB PA last season. I'm not sure how you can project or expect much from them, outside of Kottaras who is an OK #2 catcher with the stick but a defensive liability- in my view, in the bottom half of MLB backups. Green is a wild card, could be solid, but he may rot on the bench regardless. Aoki is an extreme wild card, he could be anything from Ichiro light to completely overmatched. Izturis, is what he is, a 25th man at this point. If everything pans out could this be one of the strongest benches in the league? Yes. It could also turn out to be one of the worst. Toss in a few injuries and things really get thin.

I don't know. Are you forgetting they went into the season with 2 of their 8 defensive starters on the DL? That their most promising young bullpen arm missed almost the entire season? That their best starter missed 6 weeks? That the MVP missed 15 games in the middle of the year? That both of their primary CF's were on the DL for an extended period of time? That our All-Star 2B missed 6 weeks with an ankle injury? That the #2 and #3 bullpen options both spent extended time on the DL in the first half -- and it was so bad that Daniel Herrera was actually considered a viable option in the bullpen? That our Loogy had a hip injury that kept him from pitching almost the entire season? They had a LOT of injuries. The fact that they won 96 games is, well, amazing. Yes, the starting pitching staff was amazingly healthy, but other than that... everyone got hurt. The starting pitching was the focus of my argument (only 7 Estrada starts during Greinke's recovery). I'd bet everything that I own that's not going to happen again. That said, the regulars were pretty durable as well. Lucroy missed about a week, Hart and Braun missed a few. The only notable extended injuries were Weeks and Gomez, and both were back for the playoffs. This link indicates that the Brewers hitters were towards the bottom of the league in days on the DL (I'd assume that the pitching DL are mostly Saito and Parra). http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/2011-disable-list-spreadsheet-and-team-information/ I'd be surprised if they are that lucky again. Honestly, I'd be surprised if Ramirez doesn't hit the DL at least once during the season, and you know that a few other guys will get hurt.

You have to love that Gamel was one of the first position guys in camp and in good shape. A very good start...

The Maryvale thing is interesting. Perhaps a vindication presser? I'd imagine if the suspension was upheld, it'd come from the home office in NYC, not to mention that the Brewers would probably want to distance themselves from it. On the other hand, I suppose if the suspension is upheld, there will be a media blitz on Maryvale regardless.

I throw my trash away as well.... except for beer cans on opening day. Those usually roll to the ground near the heaping piles of cans/bottles that mark where the recycling cans stand.

Respectfully then we just share a different opinion. Do I think the 2012 Brewers win 96 games? No. Is that more a reflection on improvements from the Reds and Pirates? Yes. I think on paper, this team is probably about 5-10 wins short of last year based on the talent of the roster alone. I hear your point on the improvements within the division (particularly Cincy), but I also agree with the WSJ that the Cardinals have been weakened even more than the Brewers. In my opinion, the team had a perfect storm of opportunity last season. Not even mentioning the fact that they feasted on a poor division, I can't ever remember a Brewers team that had better luck with injuries (especially with starting pitching) and such an effective bullpen (outside of Loe's mid-year struggles). The odds of either of those things happening again are pretty low. Kick in the fact that the potent 3-4 lineup duo will both likely be gone for the first two months, and in my view we are looking at a team that will likely win somewhere in the mid 80's (and I'm actually giving them some leeway, because they get to play the Astros, Cubs and Pirates so much. A few key injuries, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them under .500.

The comparisons to those guys are worthwhile, but to me it comes down as a supply/demand type thing. Those guys were all signed prior to hitting the market, so the comparisons would have been more pertinent to the Greinke situation last year at this time. If Greinke hits free agency this fall, he is going to be right at the top of the list of pitchers (barring injury). If John Lackey and C.J. Wilson can command over $75 million in free agency, Greinke will get more as a 28/29 year old. Look at what the Rangers gave Darvish, and he's yet to throw a pitch. Bottom line, the Brewers need to try to get this done ASAP, or he will probably be getting offers close to nine figures from the usual suspects (I'm particularly worried about the Yankees and Dodgers).

I think the only thing that could make this a truly "bad" offseason for what the Brewers did or did not do as an organizations is a potential Braun suspension. The replacement of 2011 Fielder/ McGehee/Betancourt with 2012 Gamel/Ramirez/Gonzalez has been discussed at great length on this board and I believe it is darn close to a push. Replacing 2011 Hawkins and Saito with 2012 Veras and Loe is definitely a downgrade but not a substantial enough one to warrant any huge concerns. I believe Kintzler will become a rock solid option in the 2012 bullpen and actually replace K-Rod as the 8th inning guy in 2013. The rotation remains in tact. The bench appears to have more depth than in 2011. I just don't see how this was a "bad" offseason. I disagree. First of all, the Brewers lost probably one of the top 3-4 players that this organization has ever produced... for nothing that will help the team for the next few years, if ever. Second, Braun is probably going to get suspended for 50 games, with his past and future accomplishments forever tainted. Those two things are enough to rank things right at the top in my view. In the final analysis, the team has lost roughly a third of the division winning team (and possibly Braun for 50 games), and replaced them with Ramirez, Gonzalez, Veras, Izturis, and some guys with little to no MLB track record. I know that some would argue that the defection of some of these guys is 'addition by subtraction'.... In my view, they lost a big chunk of power from the lineup, their bullpen has been weakened, and the bench is still bad. Moving forward, they have many more question marks than they did last year at this time. The only plus is that the rotation is coming back intact, though I have my doubts whether all of those guys (particularly Marcum and Wolf) will repeat 2012. The defense will probably be better, but it's not like the team has added a bunch of gold glovers.

I don't know where things stand if you were to rank things, but I think that it's hard to spin things that it hasn't been a bad off season.

There is a reason that no one is signing Lee. He's pretty much at the end of the line and likely wants way too much money (I suspect that money is more of an issue to him than playing time).

I was going to bring that up.... he looked pleased with himself didn't he? As for Sanders, I'm usually all for taking the easy layup in that spot, but the Bucks had no timeouts left, so it was the wrong move. The last two possessions were an absolute farce. On the first, you had two open threes passed up before the turnover, they looked like the Badgers. Back to Sanders, the guy is horrible offensively. How many bunnies and ill-advised jumpers did he miss last night? At least five. I know that people like to bag on Gooden, but if Gooden is playing, chances are they win that game going away. Jon Mac kept complimenting Sanders on his defensive play on Howard last night, but for the most part Howard owned the basket.

Wait a second, there is another Chris Carpenter in baseball? I remember the one that was a rated rookie way back in the day, Cris Carpenter. I think that he got a cup of coffee with the Brewers back in the Bando era.

I actually think this is an OK move. Odds are that Ramirez is running on fumes, but the A's are risking little to nothing. Most guys of Ramirez' stature would not take such a deal (Vlad, etc.), so maybe they will catch lightning in a bottle with Manny.

This really comes down to relativity. How does AJ Burnett stack up vs Correia, McDonald, Karstens, Morton and Bedard? If he is better than any of them, then the Pirates have upgraded their team I'd say that Burnett does not stack up too favorably, considering how much the Pirates have to pay even after the Yankees ate salary. $13 million is nothing to sneeze at for them and they could have used it better in my view. Burnett was absolutely horrible in the second half last season, and the home/road splits do not support the whole 'leaving a hitter's park' thing. Compare this deal to what Florida got Zambrano for. I think that Zambrano may actually pitch well this season, because he's a free agent afterward. The Pirates assumed much more risk and much less upside in my view. They should have waited the Yankees out and demanded them to eat more salary.