Bernman23

vs. righties: 1. Weeks/Green, 2B 2. Morgan, CF 3. Hart/Aoki, RF 4. Braun, LF 5. Ramirez/Green, 3B 6. Gamel, 1B 7. Gonzalez, SS 8. Lucroy/Kottaras, C vs. lefties: 1. Weeks, 2B 2. Aoki/Gomez, CF 3. Hart/Gamel, 1B 4. Braun, LF 5. Ramirez, 3B 6. Lucroy, C 7. Gonzalez/PTBNL, SS 8. Gomez/Hart, RF note: batting order only applies to 1st choice players at each position

I BELIEVE (Deion Sanders voice) in Mat Gamel. He's got a smooth swing which he generates plus bat speed with anyways. He was pressing last season, having to make quite the impression to steal AB's from Braun and Prince. He hit .760 in his most extended opportunity in the bigs a few years ago. He's improved his #'s in the minors each year since. I think if Roenicke gives him the same leash a veteran would receive then he'll hit at least .800+. If he doesn't succeed here he'll likely do so elsewhere. It's RR and Doug's choice.

This is the worst deal/move of the offseason, and still not that bad. They should have been able to argue against him receiving nearly a 4 million dollar raise after single-handedly losing games for the team during the most important period of the season and finishing with an ERA in the 4's counting the playoffs.

The oblique injury probably was the issue with his speed throughout last season. That will cause you to run like an old man. He could get much better in that dept after an offseason of rest, rehab, and treatment. And the Aoki acquisition would remedy some of the outfield issues that will be created without Braun. I don't know why people would want that undone with a preseason Hart trade. So a Hart trade right now wouldn't be prudent. But midseason, if he's shown some improvement in the mobility department, and Aoki, Gamel, Morgan, and Braun are performing; might. The Crew would have a surplus of talent in the outfield and at 1B, and might be better served with another pitcher instead, one who is cheaper and will improve the team's chances of extending/re-signing Greinke and remaining under budget this year.

It wouldn't be his fault because it'd an unjust rule as it applied to him. Yes, he would have broken their unjust rule, and have to suffer the consequences under that rule unfortunately. But let's not disassociate ourselves from the fact that the unjust rule would be the root cause of the problem, so that'd be actually what's at fault. Steroids is one of the treatments for cerebral vasculitis. If I had cerebral vasculitis I'd probably only disclose that to medical professionals who could treat the problem and those close to me who I could trust. As far as MLB is concerned, they couldn't help or be trusted. Therefore, I wouldn't tell them anything, and use a masking agent to avoid detection, hoping it would never surface to become an extra problem I had to deal with. And I'd be warranted in doing so because the steroids would be taken for legitimate medicinal purposes rather than to gain an unfair advantage, and people have a right to privacy. HIPPA privacy laws exist for good reason. It's bad enough you have the medical issue, now you are obligated to go around and tell people about it also? It's really not MLB's fault either (outside of the leak). They have to ask to avoid even more abuse of the testing policy. But you can hardly blame the prospective collateral damage victims trying to avoid the bomb from hitting them.

What don't people understand about players potentially not wanting to disclose a medical issue when it is embarrassing and MLB has shown a recent tendency to leak information.

Latroy Hawkins? The joker that didn't blow a lead all last year for the Brewers and did already receive 3 million from the Angels?

I think it'll be a great move if they can acquire him at a reasonable rate after negotiations. He gives you hope to absorb some of Braun's loss from an offensive standpoint for the first 50 games, and subsequently provides the team with a lot of flexibility. It looks like he can hit both righties and lefties about equally as well because of his proclivity to go the other way. That means he could fill Gomez' role even though he's a lefty. If either of the position player rookies cannot make the adjustment to the big leagues Hart could be moved to first with Aoki manning one of the outfield positions. If they can but Peralta or Loe struggles they could use one of their outfielders not named Braun in a trade to bolster the bullpen or rotation. There are a lot of possibilities. I've been usually one to shout about how overrated of a general manager Doug Melvin is and how he had Jack Z to thank for his rep, but this offseason he's doing a great job under some tough circumstances, IMO. And kudos to Mark as well for providing him the financial support to succeed at his job.

Based on what are they arguing he isn't a good enough option then? Like I said he's played there before some and his issues for the infield were in the throwing accuracy dept (which obviously wouldn't hurt him as much in the outfield), not athleticism or hand-eye coordination. And you'll lose a lot of offense playing Gomez everyday against righties. It's bad enough Braun is going to be removed from the lineup for 50 games, now you want to replace him w/ a guy who has hit .636 against righties the last 3 years?

Many posters here acted like it was crazy when some suggested Taylor Green play some 2nd base with Weeks out. Then he got into a number of games and performed more than adequately at the position. Mat Gamel has played a few games at left in the majors, and did play it here and there in ST and the minors. But since some didn't recall that or haven't seen it, he should automatically be excluded from the conversation I guess. Roenicke justified playing Mark freaking Kotsay for 30 games at corner outfield and he was butterfingered sloth and didn't hit all that well (.702 OPS). Certainly Mat Gamel is a more viable option in corner outfield than he was.

You don't recall correctly. He's played 3 games in the majors at left field. I think he's also gotten some innings here and there in the minors and ST but I can't be sure of that. There hasn't been much of a need until now to employ him in left field because the organization was rock steady at the position. I think he's a viable option to solve the leftfield issues if a better alternative emerges at 1B.

It wasn't random chance that the Brewers had a better record than the typical team w/ their run differential. They had a great bullpen after they returned to health and K-Rod was acquired. Pythagorean win/loss record isn't as relevant in baseball because there is different personnel having an impact at the end of a game. The Brewers should have a very good bullpen again if they hold onto K-Rod, a decision which I'm getting more apt to support after hearing A-Ram's contract specifics. But if he could be traded for more support in the middle of the order (like Morales) and then replaced by 1-2 Hawkins' types (maybe Hawkins himself would come back in the trade) then I do think that would be the better option.

The young players should have plenty of a chance to succeed in spite of this signing. As of right now Gamel is projected as the everyday first baseman, and even if Doug acquires someone to receive more starts there, he could man the LF position for the first 50 games until Braun returns. Subsequently he could get over 50% of the starts against righties backing up 3 positions (1B, LF, RF). As for Green he could backup two positions (3B, 2B) to receive about 2/5 of the AB's vs. righties. That's not bad for his rookie season. They should receive plenty of action this year to develop while the Crew doesn't risk being overly reliant on them when they are fighting for a playoff spot. Ideally Roenicke/Melvin would have integrated Green more when Casey was struggling, so both he and Gamel wouldn't be rookies this year, but that's in the past.

As for the trade, hard to see how anyone would be against the move. We saved some needed salary. Veras looks to be a competent reliever at the very least. Lastly, with Casey gone, he won't be around for Roenicke to take at bats away from Gamel if Matt doesn't start out hot.El Dude, there was a sizable contingent here that griped about the Morgan acquisition when history indicated he would be a significant upgrade over Carlos Gomez, and didn't cost the team anything salary or player wise. It just goes to show some posters here will fixate on the downside of just about every move. Sure, there are some risks involved w/ both the moves announced today, as there are with any you make, but it's hard not to see the positives outweighing the negatives for the Crew. McGehee - clears unnecessary salary, there's a much greater sample to indicate last year was closest to the player he was, ensures that our veteran biased manager won't favor him regardless of how poor he plays, and got a decent reliever (which we needed) who has posted a sub 4 ERA each of the last two seasons. Ramirez - helps pick up some of the slack for the losses of both Fielder and Braun, will prevent teams from walking Braun as frequently when he returns, same suspect defensive player as McGehee but enormous upgrade offensively (wouldn't we have taken that last year?), and is making a substantial salary but a third of what Reyes received and a fifth of what Fielder will so the risk was limited as it should be for a market like Milwaukee. They were both very logical moves for the Crew.

Doug is making all the right moves this offseason. I don't think this particular move was a sell low. I think it was a sell high enough. Casey had 6.5 pro seasons against 1.6 to indicate that he wasn't good enough to be an adequate starter/good bench player. Maybe he surprises and continues to inexplicably be a better major leaguer than minor leaguer, but I doubt it. I do hope for his sake that he does prove me wrong because he seems like a good enough guy and turned down a substantial sum of money (which was a relief from our perspective). In addition to clearing McGehee's salary, Doug acquired a decent reliever in the deal to fill a need. That was a bonus. Solid work.