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I sure hope so. He was a waste of a roster spot in Minnesota, and a waste of a roster spot this year in Milwaukee. I'd say its pretty safe to say that the Gomez + Escobar + Wolf for Cameron and Hardy swap was pretty much a disaster. Hardy was having a lousy year (really has come on lately), but about the only good thing that you can say about having Escobar and Gomez on the field was that we were saving money. Cain is cheap as well, and as many have noted, a huge upgrade from Gomez.

Hamilton was definitely one of my favorite players of the Yount & Molitor era

Minnesota already exercised Cuddyer's 2011 option for $10.5M on 11/7/2009. Cuddy's contract by comparison (for 2008-2010) was 3/24. 3 years/$24M (2008-10) signed extension with Minnesota 1/25/08 (avoided arbitration, $6.2M-$4.7M) $2.75M signing bonus (due 11/08) 08:$5M, 09:$6.75M, 10:$8.5M, 11:$10.5M club option ($1M buyout) I want Hart to do well, but I think we majorly overpaid based on Hart's power surge in May & subsequent AS appearance. I truly hope I'm wrong. For the record, i think Cuddy is overpaid as well, though his contract falls off if/when we decide to extend Delmon Young (provided he keeps up his hot streak)

Not really... the more games we lose... the better our draft picks next June

Show me where Parra/Narverson put up four consecutive seasons of sub 4.00 eras and the year where they lead the league in strikeouts

I think we seriously are over-valuing our players right now. Players that will not be here beyond 2011 have no value in 2012 to the Brewers.

Ha! and just like that, i jinxed the Oakland pitcher. Floyd with a perfect game for the ChiSox through 5

Bottom of the 5th in Chicago, neither team has had a baserunner yet

I think SK would be a good "buy low" candidate. He's signed for $12m in 2011, and a team option ($2.5m buyout) for 2012. So essentially, its a one year/$14.5m deal. If he doesn't pan out, we cut our losses. If he has a solid first half and turns it around, we can extend him. Not sure what the deal is. I believe he's 26, and has had a lousy year this year, following an average year last year (which followed four consecutive outstanding years). I'd probably consider a Fielder + Parra for Kazmir + elite chip in the offseason. Thoughts?

Why would Seattle ever consider dealing Pineda? Yeah, he's look great with Gallardo in our rotation, but he'd look great with Felix in Seattle as well. Good Young Pitching is worth more than good young hitting

http://sports.espn.go.com...lb/news/story?id=5423451 Jackson to Washington next (for Adam Dunn?) Edit: Added transaction icon --cc

I would have zero problems if the Twins traded Ramos for a rental of Haren, Oswalt, or Lee. A big time impact player (even as a rental) is worth a premium prospects or a few premium prospects. Capps is NOT an impact player. Why anyone would trade a premium prospect for a rental of a medicore player is mind boggling

for all the grief I have been giving Melvin, i now want Bill Smith fired as well. This would be like us trading Matt Gamel for Chad Cordero last year... wow, just wow. Great trade for the Nats. Ramos + should have netted Lee, Oswalt, or atleast Lilly, and instead we got a mediocre reliever. Maybe BF.net nation is correct, doing nothing is better than doing something stupid.

Growing up in a town that played summer ball, i am biased towards summer baseball, but i heard today that there are only about 55 teams left in the state that play summer baseball versus spring baseball. For the baseball experts on the board, is it likely that summer ball will eventually "die off" and combine with spring baseball? I see West Bend West is in the title game... AGAIN. I believe they have made state 6 of the past 7 years. Is that program that good or are they simply beating up on bad competition?

I apologize for my negative, anti-Melvin related posts, but i am really frustrated. Clearly, today is another example of teams willing to make moves to improve their teams either short term (in getting elite players) or long term (getting core prospects for their next run). it is absolutely inexcusable that Doug hasn't made any moves. There is no reason to keep premium talent on a team when we have little realistic chance to keep them beyond 2011. Doug has had nearly a decade to get us good pitching, and we have a 75 win team with a record payroll. We keep hearing that teams aren't offering anything decent, but i don't believe that. I have zero trust in Melvin and nothing in his history leads me to believe that he has any kind of plan to improve our pitching. The Packers should have won multiple superbowls during the Favre era, but unfortunately Mike Sherman, and later Ted Thompson, were too stupid to get the supporting talents needed to make a run when our elite talent was at its peak. Doug Melvin is equally guilty of being an awful GM. We are wasting the prime years of Gallardo, Braun, and Fielder (and to a lesser extent Hart and Weeks), because Melvin has no plan. I will have a hard time renewing my season ticket order unless the GM actually improves the talent on the field. When we have 3 million fans showing up year after year there is no excuse for such a pathetic product on the field (mainly our pitching). The Brewers are a great organization with a great owner, but we need a new GM.

I fail to see how JA Happ isn't considered an elite prospect. He has outstanding numbers in his year + at the MLB level and is cheap & under team control for atleast 4 years

Happ is a bit long in the tooth (age 27) to be considered a prospect, but given the numbers he's put up at the MLB level, i think he could be a very good #2-3 (maybe even a #1) for 4-5 years... plus he's cheap. I'd be more than thrilled if we could get a JA Happ for Corey Hart

http://sports.espn.go.com...lb/news/story?id=5418481 Even Podzilla is worth two prospects apparently

I would agree with those that say we should NOT be going for it in 2011. I would add that since we are a below average team in 2010, if we are not going to resign Weeks, Hart, and Fielder, the correct play would be to maximize their value and get players that will help us in 2012 and beyond when we are "going for it". If this means we get top talent that is 1-2 years away from MLB ready, so be it. Melvin's insistance on getting "MLB ready talent" is what makes me have zero confidence in him to get a good return on our talent that we have the option to trade away to improve our team long term Not going for it full speed (we clearly aren't right now), yet not using our assets right now who will not be a part of our next wave of going for it is classic one foot in, one foot out Melvin. He's be perfect to rebuild the Pirates. I seem to know a retired GM with Janesvilles ties who led another small market franchise to greatness, and I'd imagine he might be willing to give us 3-5 years to take our beloved Brewers to greatness. Off topic- i will admit that Weeks has had an outstanding year and has achieved a performance level (and relatively good health) that i never thought he'd reach, so Melvin knows better than me on that one.

I think the best thing we can do (in the next two months) is get rid of Melvin... We have some solid talent to maybe trade (Weeks, Fielder, and Hart), and we desperately need some young arms. We aren't going to get a sure thing in those trades (nobody trades the Strausburgs of the world), but we need an assortment of AA arms that should help give us a decent window in 2012-2014. Melvin has shown ZERO ability (outside of the CC trade) to acquire above average pitching via trade. We have money to spend in this offseason. We can either try and bring in premium talent to go with our pre-arby players, we can try and resign our own premium talent, or we can look at FA. I think spending money on middle tier FAs is frankly a major waste of money. Melvin has failed miserably with virtually every free agent signing during his career with the Brewers. He has found us some average players (that cost us nothing), and the result has been to go from a 60-65 win team (mid 2000s) to a 75-80 win team (late 2000s). We need pitching. Melvin has failed for almost a decade to get us pitching. It is possible, maybe even 50% likely that a new GM would be worse than Melvin, but i have zero confidence in his ability right now to improve this team. The fans want to win, the fans have packed MP. Mark A wants to win, and he's been willing to spend ($90M payroll). Simply put, the Brewers have succeeded in becoming an average franchise (thanks largely to Melvin), but we need someone else, someone with more ability to take us to the next level. End Rant

We just simply disagree. I think most GMs don't want to deal with Melvin because Melvin seems very unmotivated to take any chances to get above mediocre. With most trades, particularily deadline deals, teams sacrifice short term for higher ceiling players to get better long term. Melvin doesn't understand this concept and talks about wanting to have top-end MLB ready talent now. Why would anyone trade for our all-star (but expensive talent), if they have younger, cheaper, and as solid talent already? Melvin was a big upgrade above Dean Taylor or Sal Bando, but we will never be a winning organization with such a mediocre GM who is content with 75 wins and not taking chances that give you a good opportunity to be successful

bottom line, Doug Melvin completely whiffed on Dan Haren. Absolutely no excuse for us not aquiring Dan and his extremely team friendly contract. The only way we couldn't beat the Angels offer is to have an incompetant GM, which unfortunately we do. As noted above, our team will be nothing unless we can add atleast one more elite pitcher (Cliff Lee, Zach Greinke, Dan Haren, etc...) everything else is window dressing

Ouch... three straight well hit balls off Yo....not good

I would offer than good defensive middle infielders are cheap.... much easier to load up on contact pitchers, and then acquire some defensive superstars, then to pay top dollar for power pitchers who don't need decent defenders behind them

I forgot about Blackburn's deal.... still, four years / $14 million isn't exactly a big contract. If he ever shows signs of life (low 4s Era), that would be a steal. I think people need to ask themselves, would they rather have Narverson or Blackburn in our rotation next year. Bush (if he's even here) will be due a nice raise in arby next year