RockCoCougars

Fukudome is just a 'guy'. I'd join a lot of fans in sacking Miller Park if they gave him a three year deal for good money. I'm still trying to figure out how a .260 career hitter can be a 'good OBP guy'. He averages a homer every 50 or so plate appearances, so he has little power either. He has a nice arm, but so did that Carroll dude the Brewers had this season. Don't get me wrong, he'd be a great replacement for Kotsay at a shade more money as a 5th outfielder, but he'd be a huge downgrade over Hart.

So 15 games his HR's had a big time effect. That's huge to me. Prince looks like the anti-Mike Cameron. At any rate, replacing him in the lineup will almost be impossible. I like Gamel, but 15 homers would probably be pretty close to his projection for a full season.

Doumit is the type of guy they should have gotten this year- too bad the Pirates had their little mirage in July. I'd be interested if he'd be willing to take a relatively large pay cut. He'll probably end up getting too much though.

If you don't like Carroll, you don't respect OBP, or not getting out. He's not going to be effective playing 155 games, but he can, and has been effective playing 120. He can also play any of the 2B/SS/3B spots. There's a reason Doug wanted him at the deadline, he's versatile, has OBP skills, and is a decent fielder. He may be able to get on base due to drawing walks or 'hitting them where they ain't', but I want no part of him- the guy hasn't slugged .350 in five years. Counsell had 'OBP skills' until this year as well. Carroll is old, has no power, is poor defensively at short, and does not come through with guys in scoring position. Hairston does the same things Carroll does, with a little power and he's younger. Sign a legit shortstop (Barmes, Furcal etc.) with Hairston as the back up at all three positions... a no-brainer in my view.

We got him for scraps because he was coming off his worst year ever with the bat, and Washington wanted him gone because of his attitude. Morgans antics towards the end of the year started to get really old. I am in the keep Gomez camp. It is only a matter of time befor Nyjer goes Nyjer and becomes a huge distraction. That isn't what the Brewers need as a young and somewhat inmature team. Right. But you aren't going to be able to 'sell high' on him precisely because of the attitude. Either Morgan continues to behave himself (I believe that he will), or he gets DFA'd.

yep, those are horrible contract numbers based on his production. But, what if Dunn is the 2012 version of the 2011 version of Lance Berkman Thinking aloud again... I wonder if the White Sox would do a Dunn/Alexei Ramirez deal for Randy Wolf/ prospects? This would allow them to clear the Dunn contract off their books. For the Brewers, I see Ramirez as a poor man's Jose Reyes (locked in at a pretty affordable deal). Obviously a huge risk, but for roughly $65 million net, you'd have Dunn locked in for 3 years and Ramirez locked in for 4. Obviously, Dunn is a huge risk... but I've compared him to Dave Kingman in the past. Kingman had a horrible year with the Mets, everyone thought he was done, then he went to Oakland and put up some good numbers. Maybe Dunn goes that way as well coming back to the N.L.. I just don't see how a guy could lose it that fast.

Morgan is a great 3rd/4th outfielder, but like I said, he has little or no trade value. For evidence of this, just look at what the Brewers had to give up for him- nothing. He's not a complete tool like Alex Sanchez (and is a much better player), but like Sanchez his reputation precedes him. No team would give more than fodder for Morgan. My hope is that he continues to behave himself and can be a cheap and fairly productive asset for the next few years.

I doubt it. I think that SF will resign Beltran to what will turn out to be one of the worst deals this off-season. They almost have to save face after what they gave up for him.

Carroll is garbage. If Melvin wastes even a million dollars on him, I will be irate. Sign Hairston as the backup utility infielder, and ease Counsell into retirement.

In my view, not even considering whether I think he is worth it, the major issue here is that the Mets want to bring back Reyes. You can talk about Madoff all you want, but my guess is that they will drive the market up big time. These guys are in the number one media market and have revenue streams that make the Brewers' look like a trickle. Plus it seems that his preference is to stay in New York as well.

Rick ManningThat's it. Here's another of my favorite Brewer trivia questions. Reggie Jackson led the American League in homers four times. In three of those, he tied for the lead with a Brewer. Name those Brewers.

Exactly. I just don't get all this talk about Selig not caring for the team. Were the people who say this at any of the games during those years. A crowd of 15,000 was considered one of their better crowds. I can see blaming them for not making good draft picks, but for not spending more money on FA's ?? I don't get that, unless you know something about their books at that time than the rest of don't. Yes. I went to many more games back in that era than I did today. Selig did care for the team. Ironically, the 'Day Baseball Died' in Milwaukee was the day that Robin got his 3,000 hit. I say that because that was the day Selig was named interim commissioner. Things were ran great to that point, but once Laurel and Wendy got their hooks into things, it became a shoestring operation at best and things started going to seed. The fact is that during 93/94 the team spent little if any money. Look at the exodus of players after '92 and the guys signed to replace them. After '93, Robin retired leaving money on the table, and the 'big' acquisitions were Jody Reed and Brian Harper. After preliminary approval of Miller Park in 95, they did start spending a little money on guys like Ben McDonald and an extension for Eldred (shudder).

Which former Brewer stole (then teammate) Dennis Eckersley's wife?

1993-2004 they were a sub .500 team. I suppose one could blame that 100% on Wendy and not Bud but I just don't buy that. Maybe I should re-think that. I blame Laurel, Bando and Wendy in that order. A typical second generation running the family business into the ground deal- even though I tend to agree with the notion that they were tanking a bit to get the new stadium. Especially in '93/'94.

Looking back, I guess they did have a good team in 1992, but most of the years after 1983 the Brewers had one of the worst teams in baseball. '84, '85, and '86 were disasters. \ Those were really the only 'bad' seasons that the franchise had in a 15 year period. OK- '90 was a disaster, but they were picked by many of the pundits to win the division. Until money started ruining everything, Selig was considered one of the best owners in the game, even by the players. Until things got really crazy in the early 90's, Selig wasn't afraid to spend money on the team either. He signed guys like Bando and Hisle, was in the bidding for Nolan Ryan, etc. He kept all the stars too, Molitor in '92 was really the first substantive player the Brewers lost in free agency (unless you count Billy Travers).

If you think the bullpen will repeat their performance again, I think you are going to be disappointed. Yes, Loe was brutal early in the season, but take a look at the stats of the others.

I don't know. I worry for the future of this team. You don't lose a bat like Fielder and then not miss a beat unless you have deep pockets or are incredibly lucky. How do you replace the power? I'm not saying that you need to get all Prince's homers back, but you have to get a decent chunk of them. Going further, I don't think that you can expect Braun/Weeks/Hart to combine for 80 homers again next year. I also worry about the bullpen. Sans Loe being brutal in the first half, they were lights out. That's not going to happen again. I see a lot of posts suggesting starting 2 or 3 guys who are (basically) rookies. Good luck with that. In a lot of ways, this reminds me of the '92 off-season. Yes we are losing Prince (Molitor), but we can replace his production with A, B and C and fill some other spots of need (Reimer, Brunansky and Doran). We still have most of our core in Braun, Hart and Weeks (Yount, Vaughn, Listach), and the rotation will be back (Eldred, Wegman, Navarro, Bones). There are young guys to fill the holes in Green, Gamel, etc. (Jaha, Hamilton, Nilsson). Best of all Yuni (Stubbs) will be gone! There are obviously differences in this in that Yount was no Braun in '92 and that team also lost Bosio from the rotation. That said, that squad had a lot more legit young talent in the pipeline. I think there are lots of similarities in the very real possibility of a decimated bullpen though. The motto for '93 was' Rounding second and heading for first. They ended up in last. With Houston, Pittsburgh and the Cubs in the division, that's not likely again, but my point is that I don't think it will be as easy to plug holes and 'retool' as a lot of people think.

I still don't get all the whining about the All Star Game home field thing. Immediately before they made this rule, every year there were d-bags faking injuries or otherwise trying to get out of playing in the game because they wanted the vacation. As such, the game was starting to go the way of the Pro Bowl. I think this has been effective in alleviating this quite a bit.

Besides being his home, Florida could have an edge in signing Prince due to the lack of a state income tax. If I guesstimate that he wouldn't have to pay state taxes on a little over half his salary (games played in Florida). I would guess this could mean somewhere in the neighborhood five million over the course of the contract when we are talking a nine-figure deal. On the other hand, if he went to Toronto, perhaps the opposite would be in effect.

I really don't think that Prince is going to get 8 years. He'll be lucky to get 6. I could see a foolish team giving Reyes 7 years though. In the end, I think Reyes comes a lot closer to Prince in annual salary than people expect - as in within $5 million or so I'm going to predict that Reyes gets like 7 years/$125 million and Prince gets 6 years/ $140.

Rollins apparently wants a 5 year deal. I wouldn't give him more than two. My preference would be Barmes (might slip through the cracks) or Furcal (didn't look 'done' to me as many were saying around the trade deadline).

If you ask me, I'd say Morgan has a very low trade value. He may be loved in Milwaukee, but most of the rest of baseball considers him a 'head case' at best, a 'cancer' at worst. No reason in trading a cheap controlled player like him at this point.

There are actually people on this board who think our 2010 team had just as much talent as this team? Really? I thought this was a place for knowledgeable fans? Not me. They were definitely a mid 80 game-ish winning team though. He obviously had serious issues with in the locker room, but on game day he was probably the best manager the brewers have had in decades. If by decades, we are talking 20 years, I beg to differ. I'd take Garner in a heartbeat, Trebelhorn too. Yost is a tougher call, but I'd give him the edge as well. The only full time manager 'worse' than Macha in the last 20 years in my view was Lopes. Macha reminded me a lot of Buck Rodgers, in that the players hated him, and a lot of people forget that the pitching on the '81 and '82 Brewers was pretty awful as well.

Why are you laughing in the dugout as the game is ending. As Trenni said on the postgame show, 'maybe Rickie farted'.

I like the Dunn idea, but the White Sox are going to kick in some substantial cash (or Alexi Ramirez) or I laugh and hang up the phone. What is the deal with them, are they in rebuilding mode, or what? Considering his contract, it'd probably be impossible to get Ramirez from them, unless they really want to unload Dunn and get something good back.