LouisEly

I doubt Hoffman would sign with a team that is not a contender, i.e. a team that would only have to give up a 2nd round pick. Cabrera and Hudson are significantly younger and less likely to fall off the table than Hoffman. They also can use the one year deal to buy time to sign them to an extension. We're not saying that no one will sign Hoffman; we're just saying that if he is a Type A it is a lot less likely that someone will.

There was a quote I think from Ash who basically guaranteed that a catcher would be called up, so if it isn't Salome (perhaps they are resting him until Sept. 1st so he's fully recovered when he gets to Milwaukee) it will be Corporan or Lucroy. If they manage to trade one or more of the vets (Kendall, Counsell, Looper, Weathers) it will clear up a roster spot to add Corporan or Lucroy.

Ever since Toby started the Power 50, he has had defend himself from critism of not having relievers ranked high enough. Yet, not a single one of these relievers have made an MLB impact. He's been right, and will continue to be right. Most of the best MLB relievers were starters in the minors. Power 50 - 8/23/06 I'll disagree with your statement. In that Power 50, you'll find two notable names - #49, Joe Thatcher, and "Removed this week: Mitch Stetter" - who were relievers and are currently in major league bullpens and doing very well. Also, #36 Chris Demaria made it to the majors (albeit very briefly), whereas four players ahead of him (one as high as #10) have since been let go and have not made the majors. Thus why I will agree with giving Casey Baron a little P50 love. The Charlie Fermaint comment is especially interesting - "...don't let the sliding numbers fool you - Charlie is still a premo prospect". Some players can take longer to develop than others, but I think after three, at absolute most four years in the minors anyone who will eventually make the majors will be putting up at least decent numbers. Interesting to note who is #27 on that list, with the comment, "leads his team in OPS". This speaks to my point that production matters. Yes some players who produce in the minors will not make the majors, but not to be condecending, I would really like to see some examples of players who didn't have at least one decent season their first three or four years in the minors (barring injury) who went on to become a good major leaguer.

Like Briggs said, if any of those guys were capable of bringing draft picks in return someone will offer something of value for them because then that team could get those draft picks. Also, almost anyone drafted in 2008 or 2007 does not have to be on a 40-man roster, and thus could be a PTBNL in a deal to Milwaukee and could be a good player. As far as Hoffman, he will be a Type A, and I doubt anyone will give up a first for likely one year of him, and I doubt that Hoffman would sign with a non-contender who would only have to give up a 2nd. According to the Fox article he is comfortable in Milwaukee and open to returning, so the odds of him declining arbitration from Milwaukee and someone else signing him are pretty slim. He's probably worth more to Milwaukee next year than to another team in free agency that would have to give up a pick. As for the others... I think some people place too much value on draft picks. You have to weigh the chances of a draft pick getting hurt (Jones, Rogers), not panning out (Krynzel, Murray, Brewer, Gwynn; Dykstra, Adams, Frederickson, Lintz, and Walla have time to develop but aren't looking good so far), or being stupid (Jeffress), against the known quantity of a player who has a couple of minor league seasons under their belt. While Gallardo was a phenomenal pick, the odds are more likely that a 2nd rounder will be a Murray/Brewer/Dykstra. Sometimes players are more valuable than picks. Kendall, though... I'd literally take a bag of balls for him. Looper I'd trade too as he at his salary level is replaceable and having an option next year it is either $6M to have him or $500K or whatever not to have him with no compensation. Same with Weathers, as he would probably accept Arby's. Cameron and Lopez will draw interest in the offseason so someone would have to make an offer equal to the value of a sandwich pick to part with either.

Has anyone watched any of the Little League World Series? I saw some games the past few days and saw some very questionable calls... then I saw the "highlights" of the Japan-Mexico game today. Some of the strike calls made the 1997 Livan Hernandez World Series strike calls look reasonable. And it wasn't just one, it was several. Did anyone else see this? It's one thing to have that kind of egregious umpiring to paid professionals. It's a whole different level to screw over innocent kids over like that. It wasn't likely that Japan was going to win based on Mexico's pitching, but when you have help like that from the umpires it just completely demoralizes you. Fairness is very important to me, and if I were a Little League World Series official or Commissioner that umpire would be not only fired, but I would personally see to it that he never umpires another Little League game ever again anywhere, and I would seriously consider replaying the game.

* If Macha is still manager, none of these players would ever see the field unless Melvin / Mark A. held a gun to the manager's head Beautiful... but Braun and Hart would have a lot of ground to cover. While I generally want Cam back, the fact is if they can't get a good starter for Hardy they might just have to let Cam walk and take his salary and put it towards pitching. Again, not want to - have to. Either that, or the 2010 rotation... is Gallardo, Bush, Parra, Looper, Suppan. Don't know if I speculated this elsewhere, but if Noah Lowry is ready to pitch next year some type of deal with SF involving Hardy for Lowry as the key components might be realistic. Sabean likes vets, so a Hardy+Hart+Peralta+Rivas for Cain might be more tempting than you think, especially since Hardy's value is inflated by his likely Type A free agent status. While Jones would be a great story, in reality he hasn't had that great of a season this year to make me think that one good AAA start is the norm and not the exception; I'd need to see more before handing over the #5 spot to him. AAA depth will probably be Butler, Jones, Cody, Cappy, Hand. While I think a package of Hart and Hardy might be very appealing to SF, the reality of the complete lack of OF depth in the upper levels of the system makes me think he will be back. I'd like to see Cat back as well as he is a good bench bat.

Hooray Mike Jones! Not sure why Aguilar is still in Brevard; his trip to the AFL is a good sign and must be in lieu of bringing him back up to AA so that both he and Wooten can close.

The pen isn't a huge question mark - it was their strength this year until the wear of the lack of quality starting pitching since mid-June taxed them. Coffey, DiFelice, Stetter, Weathers, McClung was good until he was forced into the rotation, Smith was just fine, and maybe Vargas has found his niche in the bullpen and could be a decent long man. Personally I'd rather have any of those guys back before Villanueva, but some people think he is fine, and they have Axford and Dillard in AAA. And who knows, maybe Hoffman will want to come back for one more year. Maybe another lefty for the pen, but almost all of the tough hitters in the division are righties (Pujols, Lee, Ramirez, Holliday, Ludwick, Lee, Pence, Soriano). The biggest thing that will impact the roster is whether or not they will be able to trade Hardy for a starter. If not, then they will probably have to let Cameron go and use his salary to sign a free agent to hold them over until 2011 when the prospects start to arrive.

TheCrew - it wasn't until your second paragraph that I figured out which BK you were talking about Lucroy!

You might be able to add Lasker to the list at Wisconsin, as he has pitched well enough and been going deep enough into games to probably jump Helena. Thielbar and Costello, while not as highly thought of, could/should jump Helena being college guys, and the 'Stosh could factor into the equation also. Hopefully a couple of these guys are flipped and/or packaged with Hardy for someone who is ML ready and can help the next two years until the reinforcements arrive.

Look at their lineup - not exactly murderers row. Fiers gives up a run but strikes out 5 of the 7 outs in 2.1 IP.

The only hope is that with the downturn in the economy he may look at other deals that other players have been taking and think that 5/$80M or 6/$100M is as good as he will be offered. Well, hope #2 is that Braun can convince him to stay, but with TGJ already gone if they get rid of Cameron and Weeks then Fielder might not want to stay. Hope #3 is that he will look at the media scrutiny in major markets, and having already burned some bridges in LA, might think that a low media pressure market might be a good thing. I'd say those three hopes add up to about a 30% chance of him signing a long term deal here though, which means 70% chance it doesn't happen. I will say though that I am not in favor of riding it out and taking draft picks; even if he is the #1 FA on the market that year guaranteeing a first round pick and a comp pick (or two comp picks), they will get more for him in a trade than what they will likely get with those two picks.

The seats haven't been filled much lately for hockey so I'm not sure how profitable hockey is right now. I guess that depends on luxury box revenue which in this economy is probably down. My wager would be that hockey is breaking even right now.

And they pay him cash, which is just as good as money...

Welch is money in 7-inning doubleheaders - he threw his no-hitter during one last year along with a one or two hitter.

In regards to the time and schedule demands, it is exactly like someone who works full time while going to school and lots of people do that. Except instead of making minimum wage or slightly more, the athletes get their tuition, books, and meals paid for. If the value of a scholarship is $20,000/year and you compare that to someone making $10/hour working while in school, that means someone would have to work 2000 hours a year to make $20,000 which breaks down to 40 hours/week, 50 weeks/year. So athletes are generally making the equivalent of a full time job. Actually more - the person making $10/hour is taxed on that whereas scholarships aren't taxed. The UW is lucky that it has two major sports that are profitable; my understanding is that the football team funds the entire athletic department and the basketball team's profit is gravy for the university. Not many schools have both football and basketball programs that are successful enough to bring in that kind of revenue.

Nope, just a shortage of OFs at the upper levels of the minor leagues, particularly bench players to sit behind prospects who need to start. With the callup of Bourgeois Nashville only had 3 OFs on the roster. Huntsville only has four OFs as well, so calling up Drew Anderson would leave them short one OF as well. While a chain of reaction roster moves might be preferable (Anderson to AAA, Gindl to Huntsville, someone from Wisconsin to Brevard, Ellington to Wisconsin), with nine games going on in the minors today they might not have had the logistical ability to do that. Goes to show you how thin the organization is in OFs right now too.

A very relevant stat that SBs could factor in, a stat that rarely if ever gets mentioned that I think has some merit, is total bases. Granted that the true definition of total bases includes only hits, but an adjusted total bases statistic (aTB? Apologies to Andre Tanneberger) could take the total bases from hits, add in one base for walks and HBP, and then add in stolen bases while subtracting caught stealing (give double weight to caught stealing if you will). This stat, with apologies to Meredith Brooks, could be a little bit of everything all rolled into one. It factors in the key elements of OBP not included in BA (walks and HBP) while adding in the importance of SLG (additional bases from doubles/triples/HRs), and combines that with the value of net stolen bases plus one additional factor - durability. OBP is great, but a .400 OBP doesn't do any good when it is sitting on the bench because a guy has a bad hammie or can't go more than 5 games a week, resulting in a lesser player (replacement or below replacement level) having to play; how does that relate to a player's value over an entire season? All stats have flaws, but I would be interested in seeing what a stat like that would show for players over an entire season and how that would correlate to runs produced (scored and driven in) and adjusted total bases per dollar of salary. This is a discussion for another thread though. I do side with the camp that SBs and speed in general has value; one of the shortcomings of OBP is that a walk or HBP with 1B open doesn't advance any runners, and runners can only advance one base on a walk or HB, whereas runners score from 2B routinely on base hits and sometimes from 1B when there are two outs. Don't get me wrong, OBP is important, but games are won based on who scores the most runs not who has the highest OBP, and speed and SBs often factor into runs scored.

Wooten doesn't start, doesn't throw hard, and is older than Gallardo. He's on the list. And when we are talking about "older", let's talk about at least a year, not just a couple of months. The reason given for not including Fiers was age, not that he doesn't start or throw hard. If that is the reason then state that, not just age.

Dan Merklinger is 3 months older than Gallardo and Amaury Rivas is two months older, but both of them cracked the list. Aguilar is a year older. All three of them are pitching in a pitcher-friendly stadium in Brevard. I'm not saying that Fiers should be ranked ahead of them, but if they're on the list in the mid-20's to mid-30's, then there's no reason Fiers shouldn't be in the 40's. before i rank him over younger guys with higher potential or older guys with good production/experience level So why is Krestalude on the list but Hand isn't? I hate to burst people's bubbles, but Krestalude has given up 68 H and 23 BB in 60 IP striking out only 43 in rookie ball. I get that he's 20, but to me that isn't very impressive and doesn't rank higher than what a 23-year-old Donovan Hand has done in AA this year - Hand has a lower H:IP ratio three levels higher and fewer walks in 98 innings than Krestalude has in 60 innings. Hand put up just as good of numbers in Brevard last year as Merklinger and Rivas at the same age, if not a few months younger. Hand's omission is a head-scratcher.

"Maybe we got a little too excited a little quickly by the pre-draft workout reports" That's my only gripe with the editors - they place a little too much value in draft picks. I realize it is their opinion, however I've seen way too many Dave Krynzel's, Dane Artman's, Bill Scott's (I realize I may get a strike just for including him in this list), Jon Steitz's, Tom Wilhelmson's, Josh Murray's, Khalid Ballouli's (strike two), Lou Palmisano's, and Charlie Fermaint's (I don't think EDR is an editor otherwise I'd be gone) and other guys in rookie ball they get way too excited over. Nowhere to be found are Effrain Nieves and Jose Garcia, and we're darned close to adding Jeffress, Brewer, and Cody Adams to that list too (Darren Ford still hasn't gotten out of A-ball in the Giants system). I can understand having Davis and Heckathorn in the teens, and the 2nd rounders in the 30's, but not some of the other picks at the expense of bumping a Donovan Hand or even a Michael Bowman UNTIL they start producing. I realize that some of those guys slipped in the draft due to "signability" and they paid them more than "slot value" and that, however it's that "potential vs. production" thing, and I tend to gravitate towards the old Casey Stengel line of, "'Potential' is a French word - it means you're not worth a (darn) yet." Good call on Lasker though - he is one that I missed that I should have included (in the 40's).

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4408288 Three year $10.5M deal for Delfino, second season is only partially guaranteed, and third season has no guaranteed money. So considering that averages to $3.5M per year, it is equal or less than the $3.9M that Johnson was due this year. No reason to get worked up about this. Plus, I have a hard time envisioning a guy who is 6'9", 210lbs (Johnson) as being a true PF and not a SF, so I think the Bucks got the better of this deal. Roster is taking shape: C - Bogut, Gadz, Elson PF - Thomas, Mbah a Moute, Sharpe Warrick SF - Alexander, Delfino, Mbah a Moute, (Ilyasova) SG - Redd, Meeks, Bell, Delfino PG - Jennings, Sessions?, Ridnour, Ukic If they can somehow unload Ridnour (and/or Bell) and keep Sessions, or get something of value in a sign-and-trade with Sessions, it will be a pretty good offseason. Edit - I forgot about Ilyasova and Warrick - I knew I was missing someone at the forward spots.

Good to see Chad Robinson go two innings - one hit and three Ks. IIRC they gave him pretty good money to sign, so it's nice to see him back and hopefully back in the prospect picture next year.

So the entire three-game series in Lakeland was lost. That is officially ten games knocked completely off the schedule this season. There is a benefit to playing in California.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/brewers/53314097.html "Ash said the only sure thing is that the Brewers will promote a catcher. Last September, Angel Salome saw his first big-league action." So that means a 95% chance that it will be Salome, 5% chance Corporan (if for some reason Salome is hurt).