RockCoCougars

Mark A has deep pockets but he didn't get to be rich by making dumb business decisions. I am sure he makes a modest profit and that is about it. Agreed. But part of the equation is the extreme unrealized gains that the ownership has reaped through the franchise value. This team is pretty close to a championship level with a seemingly short window, not to mention the fact that tens of millions in salary will be coming off the books in the next two years. I don't think it's too far fetched to think the ownership could run at a fairly large deficit for 2012 to make a big time final run.

I highly doubt that Grienke's 'issues' will preclude him from signing with New York, Boston, etc. As we've seen money talks. He may crumble under the pressure of the contract/fans/media in one of those locales, but I don't think he would hesitate to sign a contract for many extra millions. It's actually pretty disconcerting that the Yankees and Red Sox have been so quiet this off-season, because the odds are high that they will buy whomever they want next year.

I'm working under the understanding that the club could basically do a sign and trade deal with K-Rod at any point from now to the arby hearings. Is that assumption correct? If so, I'd hardly expect them to get a haul for him, anyone could have signed him without compensation. My guess is that he was looking for way too much cash considering the market.

As a DirecTV customer who is tired of seeing FSW as an 'alternative' channel (non full time), I wish the Brewers would have stuck it to Fox when they negotiated their new contract. Is it that preposterous to think that they could have started their own statewide sports channel? I certainly would kick in several extra dollars if I knew the money was going toward payroll. Obviously, such an idea is probably a pipe dream as Fox is a near monopoly now in the regional sports network game.... the Yankees are the only team that I know of that have successfully done their own channel (though the Cubs and Sox are still on a Comcast channel). It's frustrating watching a Minnesota centric sports channel knowing that the Brewers get higher local ratings than the Twins.

Why do people think they know of what our max budget is? Mark can have a budget of 120M+ easily if he wants. And he may even want. As I've said before, it's the small market mentality. If the franchise is not rolling in cash right now they are doing something very wrong. Unless they win a World Series, they will never exceed the popularity level they are at as we speak. Let's not even factor in the massive appreciation in the value of the franchise since Attanasio bought the team. If the Twins have a payroll north of $110 million last season, there is no reason the Brewers can't do it for a few years. I don't want to hear about market size either, the only appreciable difference in revenue that the two teams should have is the media contracts (TV/radio) that allow the Twins to broadcast games in the Dakotas. As far as I can tell both teams are basically broadcast from the same entity- the old MSC studios in the Twin Cities. With the new TV contract in 2013, the Brewers should have commanded nearly as much as the Twins are getting- the ratings have certainly been higher over the past year. As I've said before, the Twin Cities is a bigger metro area and local TV 'market', but outstate Wisconsin has more people and is probably more affluent than outstate Minnesota/Dakotas. This shouldn't be taken as a lack of appreciation for what Attanasio has done in increasing the payroll from the penny pinching ways of the Seligs, but it's not 1995 with the team averaging 18,000 in County Stadium with no regional sports network deal, either. When the Brewers were good in the late 70's early 80's, the market supported one of the highest payrolls in baseball. I know that local TV money has changed that landscape, but there is no reason not to use the Twins as a barometer.

Begin your search of the Internet and find one "expert" who doesn't consider Gonzalez a much better defensive player than Yuni. Yuni is one of the worst defensive starting SS's in MLB historyI'm not going to rehash the whole Yuni argument again, but outside of poor range on balls hit to his right (most of which would end up as infield singles anyway), he was not that bad. Strong accurate arm (did he make a throwing error all season?), good at turning two, and just as good as most with the routine play. Bottom line, saber people like sketchy fielding metrics and OBP/working the count. Yuni was bad in both, so he is the worst player ever. I just don't see how bringing in a 35 year old shortstop who has also had defensive issues is an upgrade, not to mention that he hasn't hit over .250 for five years. I guess since he strikes out a ton, he will be better at working the count.

I'm not sold that this guy is any better than Yuni, unless you are a stathead. Looks like a poor man's Jose K to me.

Has Boras done anything this off season, or has it been a complete fail for him and his clients? Madson, K-Rod, etc. Things remain to be seen on Prince, but I haven't heard anything about any of his other clients (E. Jackson, etc.) getting paid.

All I can say is, sweet. I really don't think the Cardinals are that good anymore. Does anyone think that they would have beaten the Brewers without Pujols, or made the playoffs for that matter? I don't. Sure Wainwright may be back, but does anyone think that Berkman will repeat his magic? Carp will be another year older as well. Holliday is good, but doesn't inspire any fear for me. Same with Freese. Who else do they have?

Jon Heyman claims that the Brewers aren't done pursuing Fielder. I don't really buy it, personally. Interesting. Has Haudricourt made his 34th blog post this week confirming his suspicion that the Brewers are out?

I'm still hoping that they can get Saito for $2 million or so. This probably increases the odds of non-tendering Loe/Parra, I would guess.

Would have liked to have kept him, but with the growing chance K-Rod is around, the priorities have shifted. I sure hope that they are able to keep Saito though, as he was my preference of the two.

This kind of reminds me of the time where the Cardinals acquired Rollie Fingers and Bruce Sutter in the span of a few days. They were able to flip Rollie to the Brewers within a day or so of acquiring Sutter. However this is different. Because K-Rod was a FA and any team could have had him, I'm guessing that he stays until at least Spring Training. Boras seems to be wavering a little bit on whether or not he's going to accept. We shall see.

Is this a case of revisionist perspective? Have you forgotten how completely terribly Hardy was playing in '09 prior to that demotion? It was 2 months overdue and everyone around here knew it. He'd been very blah in '08 AND missed half of '10 with the Twins as well, with his '10 bat very much resembling his '08 & '09 bat. There was no good way to project, after 3 BAD years, that Hardy would rediscover his All-Star form like he did this in '11 with Baltimore. Absolutely not. I was on here ripping the demotion the day it happened. It was obviously a vindictive move by the Brewers to mess with Hardy's service time, and increase his trade value (which backfired). Hardy and Hall were the scapegoats for the failure of 2009. At any rate, Hardy was probably the best defensive SS the Brewers have had since I've been watching the team. A solid player based on his defense alone. He was a streaky hitter, but was off two twenty plus homer seasons. Now we are discussing which no hit, no glove guy to sign.

I posted this above, but still curious. If K-Rod accepts arbitration, is the hearing binding, or do the two parties have the opportunity to negotiate a deal? If they can, and I'm the Brewers, I offer him 1 year /$7 million and strongly hint that if he goes to the arbitrator for a higher figure, its almost certain that he will be released on the last day of Spring Training.

I really don't think that the Bucks are that bad considering the general state of the Eastern conference. By default if nothing else, I'd give them better than a 50 percent chance of making the playoffs- much higher if Bogut is 90 percent of where he was pre-injury. Yes, I know, they will be fodder in the first round....

Maybe the rules have changed, but I thought that in the past a player accepting arby meant that they bought more time to negotiate with the team (though binding themselves there)- meaning, is it a lock that this would go to a hearing? If this was the case, and the Brewers do have the ability to cut K-Rod and only pay a fraction of his salary, they may have some leverage to do a one year deal at a reduced rate without the hearing. If so, he may be more attractive on the trade market, and this would be better for K-Rod than risking getting cut in Spring Training. Obviously, this hinges on a bunch of the arby rules that I have no handle on and begs the question why couldn't K-Rod/Boras negotiate his own one year deal.

I'd rather have Gamel + $10 million at first than Ramirez. His only great value is that he is the best hitting 3b out there right now. Put him at first, and you can find guys who could come close to matching his numbers for far less. That said, I worry a lot about his defense at third. From what I've seen of him, he is worse than McGehee.

There are no shortstops to trade for except for fringe types that would likely be no better than Yuni. Ironically the best shortstop traded over the past year was Hardy, and the Orioles got him for almost nothing. Next to the Suppan and Riske signings, the worst blunder of the Melvin regime was completely botching things up with Hardy. I'd love to get the inside story on this whole thing. Please don't give me the whole 'he deserved his demotion' thing either. If that were the case, Florida should have demoted Ramirez last summer.

There is no harm whatsoever in tossing a guy like Hall a NRI. That's probably all that he will get. Best case, he comes in playing for his career and surprises. Worst case, you cut him. For heaven's sake, Erick Almonte was the utility guy last year on the opening day roster last year, while Counsell was making $2-3 million to go 0-fer the summer.

I worry about a lot about Ramirez for the aforementioned reasons. This will probably be his last big contract, and I don't like signing players like that because you can't even count on a big contract year (something Ramirez has done a few times). So many red flags (age, defense, injury, questionable motivation) with this guy, it's probably a coin flip whether he pans out. On the other hand, I want to stay far away from Rollins. Frankly, he seems like a Suppan-type signing to me. His value is largely based off the MVP and the championship ring. If you look at his career as a whole, it's not that impressive outside the MVP season. His value to the Brewers is solely due to their dearth of anything at SS. Like Suppan, there doesn't seem to be much interest in Rollins either, and that should be telling. I can see myself on here in a year in a half whining about him hitting .255 with 4 home runs in late June, and getting the annoying 'He's doing what we signed him for- providing vet leadership and stabilizing SS. We knew what we were getting into when we signed him, and we have no better options. Plus he's great for the clubhouse and the community.' response. Bottom line, he seems to be a good guy, but he is worth no where near what he is seeking.

The Brewers could cut him prior to Spring Training and only pay him 1/6th of the contract if I am not mistaken. So if it comes to that and Melvin can't trade him we could cut him and only have to pay between $2 and $3 Million This, then. Regardless this was a huge risk to take for a couple of extra draft choices.

If he pitched as he did last year (though it was often white fingers on the dash), this wouldn't be the worst thing in the world with the shutdown 8th/9th on paper. However, at that salary, he'd almost certainly have to be moved. Didn't the Brewers go to arby with Vargas a few years ago, and then dumped him right before the season started? Perhaps the new CBA changed that. Maybe if he accepts, they can flip him for Carlos Lee, Brett Myers and about 15 million, then trade Wolf to make up most of the rest of the money.

I don't think that McGehee has any trade value whatsoever. Not that they tried to moved him last winter, but he didn't seem to have any value then after being named team MVP. As for Rollins/Ramirez, gun to my head, I'd go with Ramirez. I have the sense that Rollins is going to be an epic bust. No more than three years for Ramirez though, and I think that's a year too long.

Hall would be nearly free, but it seems that his name is mud in the Brewers organization for whatever reason.