jjfanec

Reports all year have been that batters rarely make good contact against Rogers. All he needed to do was trust his stuff a little bit more and pound the zone. Lately, he has been doing that a lot more. Maybe it has to do with him being able to use all his pitches, maybe he is just getting back in the groove at not pitching much over the past few years...it is probably a combination of both. Whatever the reason is we should be excited about his season. He really is not that old for a pitching prospect, even with the almost 3 years he lost due to injury. 64 hits in 93 innings, along with pretty much a K per inning is exciting.

That is what I thought as well. 8 million a year seemed really cheap. I mean what was he going to get in arbitration next year? If it would have been around 6 or 7 million that means we essentially signed him for 2/18 which seems really good.

They could also try to move Hart to 1B, but you are right a corner OF spot seemed likely for at least one of those two. Hopefully one can stick at 3rd and the other 1B or RF. If they lock up weeks long-term the lineup should be pretty set. 1b- Gamel/Hart 2b- Weeks SS - Escobar (as long as he improves) 3B - McGahee or Gamel with Casey becoming a trade chip after this year. In 2011 hopefully Lawrie will be here LF - Braun CF - Cain RF - Hart//Gamel C - Lucroy The rotation still needs a lot of work, hopefully Prince being dealt can get us some arms.

If we got those 3 pitchers for Prince Melvin would look like a genius. I cannot see anyway that would happen.

Or Heyward. Braun has better overall numbers than Heyward. I just do not see who was the glaring omission with Braun being on the team. Werth, Soriano, Willingham, Rasmus, Gomes and Torres have higher OPS' but many have done it in much fewer at-bats. No doubt Braun's numbers would be higher if he had a day off here and there. Werth is the only glaring omission. When the ESPN writers voted on all-stars Braun was 4th. They thought he deserved to be there. Those other guys who did not get on have the one player per team rule to blame b/c guys like Bourn, and Young have no right being there.

You did a nice job analyzing the recent trades by Melvin, however, where are the pitchers? what did Linebrink do for us? Nothing. CC got us to the playoffs, but he was gone quickly afterwards. I think a lot of the skeptisism by Brewers fans come from Melvin's lack of success with obtaining good pitching when he makes trades. Chirs Capuano is the only one I can think of as I do not count the CC rental. Melvin has shown with the Rangers and the Brewers that he and his minions can build a heckovan offense, but has no ability whatsoever in building a competitive pitching rotation. Good point. It is obvious Melvin has struggled to obtain pitching (you cannot fail to count CC though because that run was huge for the Brewers and their fan base). However, the "wonder boy" Jack Z did a terrible job giving Melvin pitching in the minors. Melvin did a terrible job signing good pitchers and Jack Z did a terrible job drafting pitching. Right now this rotation is comprised of two FA signings - Wolf and Narverson (or Davis), 2 draft picks - Gallardo and Parra, one trade - Bush. As for trading for pitchers Bush and Cappy were decent trades. But he needs to net good pitching for Hart and Prince.

How is Delmon Young on the fan vote? Over Alex Rios? That makes no sense to me. Rios has an OPS 50 points higher, and has 22 steals compared to 3 for Young. Other than RBI's Rios is leading him in every stat. Rios is one of the biggest snubs no one is talking about. Votto is number 1 and Rios is number 2, but at least Votto got on the fan vote

What prospect has Melvin traded that we really regret?The CC trade - LaPorta- has looked over-matched in the majors. He could get a lot better but he has not shown much - Brantley- still cannot hit for power. Cain has surpassed him as a prospect - Bryson - Has a plus arm but cannot stay healthy. He could be a nice bullpen guy The Linebrink trade - Inman - has struggled since the trade. Cannot go deep into games and struggles with control. Looks like a back-end of the rotation guy or long-relief - Garrison - Has been hurt a lot, but has potential Durham - Ford and Hammond (?) - neither has amounted to anything Lopez - Gillespie - probably the guy who has looked the best I guess I just do not see why people act like Melvin has made terrible trades. I think people tend to over value our prospects a lot.

His defense has been touted by all of the big prospect guys not just the Brewers organization. Not sure why you think young players don't need time to adjust on defense. Wasn't Starlin Castro supposed to be great with the leather? He has struggled as well. I never thought about guys having to adjust defensively but it does seem to be the case for these two.

I would have liked for both the Gooden and Salmons (if it really is done) deals to only be 3 years, but I really like how the roster looks for next year. Of the 5 starters 4 are guys who are scoring threats and one is a garbage guy there to get offensive rebounds. Jennings, Salmons, Maggette, and Bogut each can hit 20 on a given night. Add into that our depth with Delfino, the Turkish guys whose name I cannot spell, Sanders, CDR, a back up point guard they will still sign, Redd (or whatever he is traded for), and maybe one of the other rookies like Hobson or Tiny. That is a solid lineup.

Prince is having a really rough year. His OPS is not that far from Braun but it just seems like he is not getting many big hits. I am probably wrong on that but I do not feel confident when he gets to the plate.

Well Kentrail did hit a home run tonight so he showed you a little power.

Khris Davis has been good but it is actually the other K (Kentrail) Davis who is having a big night.

Not going to begin to get into the Gerut debate but I think Katin would be better served trying to put together a full good year in the minors than he would by coming up and sitting the bench. Why the rush to bring him up? Also why would he be a late inning replacement for Hart or Braun? You do not pull good to great hitters for a better fielder. Actually, teams often do. If you're up late in a game, it's pretty common to substitute out a poor fielder for a much better one, even if the hitter being taken out is good/great offensive player. In fact, Bruan was routinely replaced late in games when he first came up for a superior defensive player, and LaRussa does this fairly often. And there is no "rush" to bring him up. I think if this conversation was about Lawrie, that comment would be spot on. Even about Cain at 24 that comment would be spot on. Plus a HUGE difference in each player is that they're both guys you'd very much like to see develop into key cogs moving forward. Core pieces. Katin is a guy who's likely to be a career bench player, maybe get some platoon starts. So bringing him up to see if he can succeed in such a role at this point isn't the least bit out of line. Braun got replaced because he was a butcher at third. He is not good in left but he is nowhere near as bad as he was at 3rd. If this was a common practice Prince should never be out in the field late in games because he is terrible at first. I have never seen good hitters pulled late in games unless they are rookies or terrible in the field. The odds that Braun would cost a run in the field are much less likely than him getting a chance to hit in the 9th or in extra innings. Katin has had a hot start. But he has never proved it over a season. He pretty much had the exact same start last year and ended with an OPS around 800. I would like to see Katin prove that he can keep walking at a nice rate, so that next year he could be in a position help this team when we need it. I do not get the point in taking a hot hitter and bringing him up for at most 5 at bats a week. It is too hard for a young guy to stay hot doing that. We could bring him up but I think for his development as a player it would be better to keep him down because he is seeing improvement on the stuff that kept him from being a solid prospect.

Not going to begin to get into the Gerut debate but I think Katin would be better served trying to put together a full good year in the minors than he would by coming up and sitting the bench. Why the rush to bring him up? Also why would he be a late inning replacement for Hart or Braun? You do not pull good to great hitters for a better fielder.

I am guessing Lucroy's slugging percentage went up quite a bit tonight.

Is Katin your relative or something? He is having a nice start to the year, but I dont know why we would be in a rush to bring him up. He has had decent OPS in AAA the past two seasons so lets see if he can continue to hit over the next couple months. This is only 30 games. Last year after starting out hot he finished poorly. Let him finish this season and either be a September call up, or try to earn a backup spot in Spring Training

It has been said but Lucroy's biggest help to the staff has been his ability to throw out base-stealers. On a team that plays really poor defense it is nice to pick up extra outs when then can. Lucroy's defense was debated in the minors but it has looked good in a small sample size

It has started back up. Isner is up 63 to 62. I jokingly said yesterday I wanted to see them get to 100. With the way these guys are dominating their serves maybe it could happen. My guess is 70 or so is the winning number. At some point one of these guys is going to pass out. 63 to 63 now as Mahut just won his serve without losing a point

http://www.kare11.com/spo...icle.aspx?storyid=853042 Kahn's statement is being blown way out of proportion by bloggers. As for begrudgingly coming to Minnesota, that's simply not true. Unlike some prospects, Favors is not being picky about where he goes. He's eager to show he's more than just a defensive presence in the paint. "I'll work out for whoever calls and asks, and not even just in the top five," he said. Most of the beat writers in town think all of this is being done specifically so New Jersey will pass on Favors so the T-Wolves can draft him. Thanks for the clarification. I was just going off what I read on a draft website last night. It will be interesting to see what happens. Minnesota needs help pretty much everywhere except pg so they could go any direction.

There is no chance the T-Wolves take Cousins as he refused to work out for them and has straight up told them he doesn't want to play for them. If the Nets take Johnson they will happily take Favors. And you wouldn't want either Love or Jefferson, as neither gives a damn about defense. I read last night that Favors begrudgingly came to Minnesota for a workout, and then their GM bashed him for being out of shape. The writer said it really strained the relationship with Favors and Minnesota. He said that Turner and Johnson being gone was a nightmare scenario for Minnesota, because neither Favors or Cousins want to go to the TWolves

Sometimes letting a guy have a change of scenery is a classy thing to do. Mike had not shown enough to warrant consideration for the majors. A AAA WHIP in the 1's is not good at all. Hopefully, he latches on with a team, but there is nothing classless about this move. The team does not have bullpen depth and they need guys in AAA who can come up and pitch and Mike's results at AAA do not look to translate well at all

Melvin said in an article about Huntsville that Angel would still catch some because Angel knows that controls his future. Interesting comments. I think everyone agrees his value is at catcher and I am glad the organization is telling him he will still play there some.

I think people are over-valuing Katin quite a bit. He is still striking out 1/3 of the time. Last year he started out hot but ended up with an OPS at .800 which is nice but nothing special. He has a really nice OPS right now, but I would like to see the guy have a solid full-season before handing him a corner OF spot

I have some friends who live in Magnolia, AR where Southern Arkansas is located. They said the Cubs had been really hot on Simpson, but they thought he would go in round 3, not in round 1. They were pretty excited, because he is a hometown kid, but they were still surprised to see him go that early.