Fear The Chorizo

Just out of curiousity, who owns the Padres? Would they be in a position to sell the team or have there been any rumors of that? These are the kind of trades/moves that happen when an organization's trying to inflate their value before a sale...similar to what Hendry did with the Cubs as the Trib was trying to sell the team.

The Cubs are going to have to pay the piper to keep adding pitching via prospects or dollars - it's the one thing they lack signficantly in the minors. They have the big market resources to do so if their organization is run properly, but it's not realistic to see them take a quantum leap forward in 2015. 0.500 or even slightly over that, maybe, but the NL Central is shaping up to be a pretty tough division aside from the Reds. 2016 should be the 1st year that the Cubs really are going for it - 2015 will be a year for them to sort out who they're going to build around and who they are going to trade for pitching help. The Cubs put together a pretty good bullpen last year, but it remains to be seen if those arms can be relied on to win meaningful games when there's pressure to win. If some of their position player prospects are as good as advertised, it won't be long until they're going to need to shell out bigtime $ to extend/keep them around, too. The Mike Trout signing sets a precedent for uber prospects who are destined for stardom. Kris Bryant may be deserving of that a couple years from now if he's as advertised. The Cubs will need to trade a few of their current crop of impact prospects - there's too many that play similar positions. Look for them to stay active in the trade market through next offseason, probably making at least one blockbuster-type deal to bring in impact pitching or corner OF talent in exchange for at least one of their young middle IF players.

KC is going to do the same thing the Brewers did after they made the playoffs in 2008 - go back to being average. If it weren't for a fluky comeback against the A's in the wild card game, KC would already be a complete afterthought for 2015...them getting to the World Series and almost winning it was just baseball being baseball. The bullpen they rode so hard to get there last year simply won't be as good, they're going to lose their best regular season starter, and they still can't score runs.

What about occasionally giving Luc a day off behind the plate and putting him at 1st against a lefty?

Even though there are still huge disparities in team revenues throughout MLB, I think the overall increase in revenues leaguewide have given most teams the ability to take on salary when trying to improve their roster. There are teams in full "rebuild" mode, but those moves are intentionally made. Both the Cubs and Astros, teams that have sat out this stuff in recent years aside from trading away MLB players, seem to be trying to start contending at the same time. The added revenues have given more teams enough $ to be players in the trade and free agency markets. Also, it seems like many of the trades don't include blue chip prospects in return - they are either MLB for MLB player swaps, or some combination of a MLB player + contract-eating dollars for marginal prospects. I think there's a shift occurring throughout MLB that puts tremendous value on the best prospects, and it's leading to alot of MLB deck chair shuffling.

Count me as hoping that Rickie does sign with STL - he's a streaky hitter who needs regular playing time to find hot streaks at the plate, and his defense is bad enough to prevent him from deserving regular playing time in the national league. I think for Rickie's sake, he needs to find a home with an AL team that needs a DH who can get on base and wouldn't be counted on as a middle of the order run producer.

Wasn't Gagne a 1 year deal? Mistake, yes, but a multi-year mistake? no. Melvin's worst multi-year reliever mistake IMO is David Riske...alot of that had to do with injuries though.

I think the Cards have started going down the road of thinning out their strength of young pitching talent pretty quickly. Going into the 2014 season, the trio of Joe Kelly, Michael Wacha, and Shelby Miller were all viewed as quality young arms that would anchor a deep and talented pitching staff for years to come at team-friendly costs. Kelly's gone from the Lackey deal, Wacha had a disappointing 2014 due to an injury that has to be alarming for the organization moving forward, and while Miller hasn't fulfilled his potential at the big league level you can't argue the stuff isn't there. No way this trade happens if Taveras, who the Cards planned to have play corner OF for them for the next decade or so, didn't kill himself and his gf in that drunken car wreck. The Cards still have a deep farm system, but overall their organization has gotten older, less talented, more expensive, and more injury prone since last season's trade deadline.

The Royals are everyone's darlings right now, but they essentially did the exact same thing the 2011 Brewers did in order to push themselves into a playoff contender. Seeing the group of former Brewers in their lineup is reason to look back on trades, but I don't view Cain, Escobar, or Aoki as franchise cornerstones the Brewers should regret trading to improve pitching on their big league roster. They Royals traded the minor league player of the year and a promising young pitching prospect for a frontline starting pitcher and a power arm to add to the bullpen last year. Next year Shields is as good as gone, and while it appears right now like the Royals have alot of pitching depth, they will struggle to remain a consistent contender as long as they scuffle to score runs consistently during the regular season. The Royals are doing more with their shot to win it than the Brewers did in 2011, but frankly baseball playoffs are so random it's tough to draw any conclusions - remember the Royals were down 7-3 to the A's in the wildcard game and the twitterverse was all over Ned Yost for being Ned Yost. They lose that game and Royals fans demand Yost to get fired and question the GM for sending a top tier corner OF bat and rotation arm for Shields when pitching wasn't their weakness, it's scoring runs. In 2011, the Brewers had a solid rotation and a flat-out dominant bullpen during the regular season, very similar to the Royals in that regard. They also were able to hit with power and score runs in bunches on occasion, which helped to limit their team defensive and baserunning liabilities. By the time the playoffs started, the pen appeared to be on fumes and wasn't nearly as effective, and they ran into a Cards team that was on an unconscious offensive hot streak. it was a case of baseball being baseball.

How I think this works depends largely on if Melvin is grooming a successor to be GM and if Mark A. is on board with hiring him. I'm assuming Melvin plans on retiring in the next few years - if there isn't an internal successor in the Brewer organization or the plan isn't something Mark A's comfortable with, my guess is that Roenicke sticks around to start next season and if things don't go well Mark A. fires the whole bunch and then hires a new GM who can build the organization with his/her people. If there is a succesor that Mark A. wants to become the next GM, I think Roenicke has a better shot of getting replaced with a new manager who knows who his boss will be when Melvin's done. My gut tells me aside from some meaningless coaching staff changes, Roenicke and Melvin will still be manager and GM heading into 2015, but barring a playoff berth next year neither will be with the team for 2016 and the Brewers will be in full rebuild/youth movement mode with a new front office. I think any successor plan got scrambled in Mark A's eyes with the crappy end to this season and with the passing of Bruce Seid.

Weeks to me always seemed to be supremely talented athletically before injuries took their toll, but unpolished as a baseball player and in dealing with attention. His natural ability got him a nice career without really having developed into a baseball player. I think the wrist injuries happened at the worst possible time in his career, where he could have had an extended period of elite offensive production for a middle infielder (even though he never would've turned into a plus defender). He also seemed to be in a good spot in Milwaukee in terms of dealing with media/public attention. That HR derby a few years ago was a good example in my eyes of a guy being overwhelmed by the moment and by all the attention being on him. I don't want to get into a debate about 'clutchness', but it has seemed to me like he's struggled in big spots of games often. Maybe that's just me remembering failures of driving in runs more than the successes in late game situations though. When Rickie would get on one of his 3-week offensive tears, watching his AB's was just about as entertaining as it got. He always could work a count, and when he was squaring the ball up nobody could hit it harder.

1 - I think RRR and staff need to go - clean house. If there was truly a "me first" clubhouse attitude by a few guys, the manager and staff allowed it to happen. 2 - 1B and SS need upgrades. We all know the 2-yr stretch of futility at 1B for the Brewers - they have to get someone over there who can hit in the middle of the lineup and produce. I think Segura's best longterm role on this team is a utility IF who can back up both 2B and SS - find a LH-hitting SS who can play everyday or at least platoon with Segura. 3 - Explore trading Gomez this offseason - he's still young enough to land a unaffordable FA deal in the near future, so the Brewers need to see if they can get impact talent in return for trading the talented but frustrating Cargo. 4 - Understand the position your organization is in. 2014 was the year for the Brewers to sell out to win the division, especially with the injuries/rough starts that the Cards and Pirates dealt with well into August. They're not going anywhere soon, and the Cubs are going to be tougher starting in 2015 also. Make bold moves with the focus on improving the talent within the organization, regardless of how close it is to contributing in the major leagues..

I maintain that this team crapped the bed as soon as they realized that they were expected to make the playoffs. They spent the first 120 games or so of the season trying to convince the rest of baseball they were a true playoff contender. Once they swept the Dodgers on the road in mid-August pretty much everyone at least bought in on them being a playoff team. Since then, the Brewers have gone 11-23 (.324 winning %). They've pitched well enough during this putrid stretch to win the division - but they simply stopped hitting, and the lack of hitting just amplified the overly aggressive baserunning and sometimes erratic defense that comes with the players on this roster.

The Brewers have a very valuable pitcher in Fiers, if they don't do something silly. He's in the prime years of his pitching career right now, making peanuts because of his late-starting arbitration clock. The Brewers should simply ride Fiers year to year, be willing to pay escalating arbitration salaries for Fiers until he reaches free agency, then either trade him at the deadline of his free agent season or simply let him walk. Fiers isn't the type of pitcher that should be given a contract extension of even moderate free agent contract, but while he's pitching effectively at the big league level at near leage-minimum prices he's great to have in the rotation. I don't think trading him now when his trade value seems at its peak would net enough talent in return to justify removing him from the Brewer rotation next season - teams aren't going to part ways with top-tier prospects for him. Fiers' combination of production and arbitration status is uniquely valuable to the Brewers, and it would be tough for them to get equal value in return. Fiers to me is a better version of Marco Estrada, who himself has reached the point of getting too expensive to consider keeping around much longer for what he gives you.

exerpts from an article about Adderall, at the time focusing on the increased presence in the NFL (especially the Seahawks secondary): "It masks fatigue, masks pain, increases arousal — like being in The Zone," begins Wadler, currently an associate professor of medicine at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, in a phone interview. "It increases alertness, aggressiveness, attention and concentration. It improves reaction time, especially when fatigued. Some think it enhances hand-eye coordination. Some believe it increases the mental aspects of performance." That's not to mention possible increases in acceleration, speed, strength and power that accrue to Adderall users. It's no wonder that Wadler calls Adderall "one of the quintessential performance-enhancing drugs. There's no question it's a performance-enhancing drug." Adderall has been banned by virtually every sports organization, from the NCAA to MLB to the NFL. But the NFL, like other sports, allows players who have a medical need for the drug to use it without penalty, after they have applied for and been granted a Therapeutic Use Exemption. The NFL doesn't disclose the number of therapeutic exemptions issued, but MLB in 2011 granted 105. Such numbers were an eye-opener to Wadler. "I'm an internist, and I see lots of patients," he said. "I can count on one hand the number I've seen over the years who had (ADHD) to such a degree that they required medicine." He says that ADHD has become "the diagnosis du jour in our society." ...In short, Adderall has benefits for legit cases of ADHD, but when such a high percentage of professional athletes are getting exemptions in order to take a banned substance to likely enhance performance moreso than pay attention, it's yet another stain on the concept of having "clean" games and even playing fields. It would be interesting to find out if Davis didn't get that exemption until last season, when he went off with historic offensive production. That of all things should prove just how performance-enhancing Adderall can be - he had a Brady Anderson-type outlier year for him last season.

he had an extended period to rest the thumb last year once his suspension started. After a week or two of spring training this year it recurred. No surgical repair likely means he's dealing with this the rest of his career - based on the past two seasons it's something that makes him an inconsistent option offensively that can't be relied on to get through a season healthy and productive. It's not like he'll get a longer period of rest for the thumb than he got over his past offseason. Maybe Duchovny's character's hand hyperbaric chamber in Zoolander will work...

The displeased may be in the minority, but Goodell's tenure has been full of alot of garbage so far. Concussion issues/litigation boiling over and the current farsical officiating around "illegal" hits in a misguided effort to make a brutal game safer (not possible) Bountygate Spygate Ray Rice domestic violence issue, and the ill-conceived effort to try and keep it away from public scrutiny Two current players (Hardy and McDonald) still active after recent domestic violence charges-current investigations...(they're playing likely because they weren't caught on tape that everyone can see) Aaron Hernandez The Belcher murder/suicide incident at the Chiefs facility (if domestic violence was such a league focus, why not change policy then??) The ugly Incognito/Marting bullying/locker room mentality situation, debate, and fallout The Redskins name fiasco...at this point it seems like a much more trivial issue that what the league got itself into now Completely nonsensical and inconsistent punishment policies for personal conduct/PEDs/team conduct This Ray Rice thing has boiled over because the NFL got caught trying to cater to public opinion, which changed several times due to various levels of attention. The NFL has looked awful trying to explain its actions since this incident occurred (both the league AND the Ravens). Originally the public viewed the Ray Rice incident similarly to countless others, and the league/Ravens went about their "investigation" similarly to other incidents...they waited until the public eye moved on to other issues before issuing the penalty. The timing and optics of giving Ray Rice 2 games for knocking a woman out and suspending Josh Gordon a season for smoking weed was terrible in the public eye. So, the NFL tried to cater to public opinion and Goodell threw together a Domestic Violence policy that appears much stiffer but still leaves too much room for interpretation in the eyes of many. Then, the tape showing Rice's actual act comes out in public, which the NFL apparently figured wasn't going to happen for some reason, and then both the Ravens and Goodell tried to ease public outrage by releasing/suspending Rice indefinitely. Goodell's CBS interview and subsequent reports about when the NFL actually got that video and what Goodell actually knew from Rice's 1sthand account prior to issuing the 1st 2 game suspension basically make him out to be either an arrogant liar heading an organization desperately trying to divert public scrutiny elsewhere at every turn, or intentionally negligent (the ostrich in the sand defense). Either should be worthy of losing his job as commissioner, but ironically the only way that currently happens is if NFL owners decide it's his time to go...the same people Goodell's made a ton of money, who happen to have a laundry list of their own issues that give the league a black eye (Jerry Jones recently, Irsay, etc). Frankly a trained monkey could make the NFL money as commissioner with its current popularity, so that should give the owners even more reason to view Goodell as expendable for the benefit of getting public outrage off their backs...that's always been what their main concern is - get rid of adverse situations the easiest way possible, pull the curtain back over the "shield", and keep making money.

I hope he doesn't have the surgery. If it's the surgery that would make him lose feeling in his thumb permanently, screw that. It's not worth it. I guess my line of thinking is it's worth the risk the surgery actually repairs the problem and Braun reverts back to career norms. I'd rather risk the surgery not working and making things slightly worse to get the reward of the surgery working and getting an MVP-caliber player back. No surgery leaves the Brewers with a significantly diminished player for certain making 20 million a season who can't be counted on for more than 130 games...no thanks.

that was the reasoning after Braun started his suspension middle of last season to avoid surgery and hope the extended time off would give that thumb/hand enough time to heal...didn't happen. If the 2014 version of Braun is what we'll get moving forward without attempting the surgery, I (and likely Brewers' brass) are hoping Braun does indeed try the surgery and hope it at least marginally improves the condition. Oh, and specific to this thread, if there's a RHP starting against the Brewers, Parra should be in the starting lineup right now. Period. He's the hot hand, and while a month of games is not a sample for Parra to deserve starting over Braun/Davis in the long run, at this point in the season you can't sit a hot offensive player during games that he'd have a platoon advantage hitting against a righty. Doesn't have to exclusively be for Braun, Davis, or Gomez because Parra can play all 3 OF positions. Just give one of those 3 the day off with the option of entering the game late as a pH in a key spot of the game.

The least of the team needs for 2015 is a strict platoonmate for Scooter at 2B....finding a solid RH hitting utility infielder? OK, but it doesn't have to be for a strict platoon. After the horrible 2014 season Segura's had, I'd entertain the possibility of bringing in another starting caliber SS who hits LH and moving Jean to the utility MIF/pinch runner role - Segura could fill in at both 2nd and SS as needed. Bullpen, Rotation, and corner IF/aging veteran question marks are much bigger than who takes Scooter's AB's against LHP, IMO.

The least of the team needs for 2015 is a strict platoonmate for Scooter at 2B....finding a solid RH hitting utility infielder? OK, but it doesn't have to be for a strict platoon. After the horrible 2014 season Segura's had, I'd entertain the possibility of bringing in another starting caliber SS who hits LH and moving Jean to the utility MIF/pinch runner role - Segura could fill in at both 2nd and SS as needed. Bullpen, Rotation, and corner IF/aging veteran question marks are much bigger than who takes Scooter's AB's against LHP, IMO.

all-time Brewer collapses in a season? I think this tops the list. To go from sweeping the Dodgers on the road towards late August, when the Brewers were a few games off the best record in the NL, to essentially losing all but 2 games since then and falling completely out of a playoff picture that includes 2 wild card spots in a league with only 7 total teams even close to contending for 5 playoff berths is flat-out crazy. it could turn around just as quickly as it's fallen apart and the Brewers could sneak in as a wild card, but this has been an epic fall at the worst possible time of the season. It's as if it took until late August for the baseball world to finally view the Brewers as a playoff team, and as soon as that happened the Brewers promptly started playing horrible, horrible baseball.

He's never had a great walk rate, but this year it's lower than other years - likely because he's been challenged more at the plate due to the nagging injuries and periods where he's scuffling. The thumb is definitely an issue when it comes to his power - 2013 and 2014 are by far his lowest slugging % seasons. Hoping he's able to overcome that issue somehow and get back to the mid .500's or better slugger he had established himself to be. Braun's still in the top 30 of all MLB in OPS - he's having a solid season while dealing with various ailments, and the counting stats look pretty good considering the time missed with the DL stint...just not the MVP-caliber production he put up in 2011 or 2012.

so I guess we can put Polanco back on the daily list for this thread, now that he's been sent back down to AAA after stinking up the joint since the ASB. Polanco and Taveras have talent, no doubt...but it's comical how much was made into them being the next Mike Trout caliber impact player once they were called up to the bigs. Their early struggles are alot more commonplace than instantly being the best player in the league like Trout was a month after he came up to the show. Maybe there was more to Super 2 status timeframes holding these guys in the minors earlier this season...

you could make a very good argument that Gallardo has been the Brewers' best starting pitcher this season...he's had scuffles for sure, but he's been very, very good of late - typical of what his career #'s bear out. I'm not sure why the Brewers wouldn't simply exercise his option and plan to put him right back towards the top of the 2015 rotation. Seems like we have a big pile of SP depth heading into next year, but A LOT can go happen to eliminate it in a short amount of time. And a Gallardo trade over the offseason would get a pretty good return...just not good enough for me to be willing to move him. Possibly at the trade deadline next July if the Brewers are out of it. I'd be willing to give up a little value in return by waiting to see how next year's team looks.