Fear The Chorizo

Someone should remind that guy that part of Morris' career occurred during "the steroids era", so he pretty much crapped himself on that soap box stand. from the dead ball era, to racial segregation, to greenies, to steroids....the baseball HOF is full of guys who don't deserve to be in from many eras for many reasons. The reason the HOF has become such a farce is because of how delusional the voting block of writers has become, although the writers have always been delusional...for one reason or another. The combination of weird voting rules, personal/professional relationships & grudges, silly voter habits, and never-ending conflict of interest situations have made the whole process looks stupid for everyone involved...players, writers, veteran committee members, HOF members, and the media who cover it all. To me it's a shining example of why sports shouldn't have as big an impact on society as they do today. What's ironic is the people who tend to shout the loudest about the steroid era clouding the game and the HOF are often the same people who could have made a difference by drawing attention to PED malfeasance during its heyday - not knowing, turning a blind eye, or acting righteously ignorant is poor form for the many who have plenty to opine about now, but had nothing to say when it could have made a difference.

This just shows why I believe we need to draft HS pitching every chance we get. Hitting on 1 will fill 2position players in the future and return a SP anyway. Price was the clear #1 overall pick when Tampa drafted him...out of Vanderbilt, which happens to be a college. If anything it just shows that you need to be terrible enough for long enough at the big league level to draft in the top 5 year in/year out in order to acquire big-time talent - high school or college doesn't matter. That's how the Brewers built this last window of contention (Weeks, Fielder, Braun, Sheets in the top of the 1st rounds, Hardy, Gallardo, Lucroy early in the 2nd round, I think - prospects like Laporta, Lawrie, Jeffress, Jake O. in the 1st or supplemental rounds to use for acquiring quality pitching to get to the playoffs). To regain elite farm system status, the Brewers would likely need to plunge further in the MLB standings to land those early picks again, or hit a few prospect home runs via trade.

1 - Braun and Ramirez return to the middle of the lineup and produce to their career norms 2 - Two of Nelson, Hellweg, and Thornburg take the next step and join Peralta in the opening day starting rotation 3 - A handful of recent draft picks and trade acquisitions turn in solid years and give the minor league system a prospect boost headed up the ladder 4 - 1B gets manned by someone who actually is a 1B for all of 2014 5a - some of the young Brewers (Khris Davis, Gennett, Segura, Thornburg/Peralta/Hellweg, Morris, etc) continue to solidify roles on the big league roster, leading to plenty of questions about overemphasizing minor league system rankings. 5b - if the wheels fall of the big league club early due to injury or ineffectiveness, DM does the right thing and deals veterans approaching free agency for anything of value.

The good thing is that they have no shortage of bodies that can play the position within the organization - the bad thing is that no matter how many platoon options & combinations get pulled from that blob, nothing more than blah comes out of it. I think the best option is to go out and get Ike Davis - send Fiers and one of these other 1B options other than Morris in the trade and see if a change in scenery helps Davis out. If not you still have Morris developing in AAA to turn to.

I think MLB needs to do away completely with compensatory/supplemental picks and the QO system - it's only created more opportunities for big market teams to skim talent from the drafts and sign who they want in FA, IMO. I would propose to penalize teams who are above the luxury tax limit by taking away their high draft choices - if a team is over the luxury tax 1 season, they lose their third round pick. 2 consecutive seasons they lose both their 2nd and 3rd round picks. 3+ consecutive seasons they lose their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round picks. Those draft slots are then given to the MLB teams operating below the luxury tax limit by order of worst record to best (or most $ available for draft signings to least) until those slots are covered for each draft year. Luxury tax offenders also continue to pay the established penalties to put towards revenue sharing. Luxury tax limit could be set each year as the average of MLB's top 10 payrolls - that way if there are a few teams blowing everyone else out of the water writing checks with unlimited TV money (NYY, Angels, Dodgers...), the luxury tax would be difficult to get below over several seasons that would adversely impact their farm systems. With this setup, or one based on this premise, teams could still buy whoever they want and FAs wouldn't be restricted by some team losing a draft choice to sign them. But it would eliminate supplemental rounds that big spenders have used to skim 1st and 2nd round talent from the little guys who are rarely big players in free agency to begin with. I'm sure there are flaws with this idea too, but I think something along these lines would at least give organizations who need to build from within less of a competitive disadvantage on the drafting side of things.

I believe Wilson has shown interest in the past in working out with MLB teams in spring training, more or less as something to do to pass some time before getting ready for mini and training camps. It's a PR and teambuilding move from the Rangers perspective. I don't think it's like the Michael Jordan situation where he needed to find something to do to pass the time during his ban from the NBA for gambling... Yeah, if the SF Giants drafted him, the way things are going the Mariners would then draft Kapernick.

If the Brewers can't get Ike Davis for the trade price they want, I'm fine with going into the 2014 season with Francisco and Halton in Milwaukee and giving Hunter Morris a month or two in AAA to prove he's deserving of an everyday 1b gig in the majors.

I think the solution for the Weeks dilemma is the following: see what shape/health he's in at Spring training - if he's healthy it's worth starting the season with 2B as a platoon scenario with Weeks and Gennett. That would limit his ABs likely to the point to not have enough appearances for that 2015 vesting option. If Weeks is healthy and producing reasonably close to his career #'s, I would think he'd have value to a contending team looking to bolster their lineup or bench at the trade deadline - and it should be enough value to get a decent prospect in return without the Brewers send money with Weeks in the deal. If the Brewers are actually in contention come the trade deadline and Weeks is part of the reason, you keep him if that vesting option is unlikely to be reached.

I hope the rule gives equal protections to both runners and catchers - the flip side to the rule being too harsh on runners plowing over catchers would be catchers setting up shop over the plate and breaking ankles/hands of runners being forced to slide into a shin guard. Got to have a home plate obstruction call on a catcher blocking the plate if a runner can't go through him. If written and enforced correctly, it takes a very dangerous play for both runner and catcher and makes it alot safer. Knowing how these rules get applied, there's going to be issues.

It's the escalating salaries for players past their prime that is crazy, and unfortunately MLB's current pay structure almost forces teams to spend their money in this manner. It would take an event like Trout suffering a career-altering/ending type injury before his payday to possibly cause the sea-change that is needed to at least bring the pay structure to where it should be. The pre-arby, cost-controlled aspect of paying talented young players peanuts to produce is great, but Trout's gotta be looking around at the rest of the Angels' contracts and shaking his head. I wish more teams locked in younger players to big money deals similar to Braun's - at least they get a player's best years instead of paying them for services already rendered like the Pujols-type extensions. It would benefit baseball longterm if the salary structure was set up similarly to the NBA, even with a much looser cap. Very difficult problem to fix because of the difference in MLB drafts, minor leagues, international signings, etc. The players will never go for that, but you get the feeling that the TV money is going to cut 1/2 the league out from being able to build winning organizations regardless of who they have in management. I get the feeling like MLB salaries for players and exploding team payrolls seem like the housing bubble did before it burst - things can go south very fast if slight changes start happening in projected revenue streams in some markets...ask the Mets about that one. I don't see an abrupt reduction in salaries, but I think high percentages of these teams going bananas with new money are going to regret it more than reap any rewards.

upside is great, but I hope for Blengino's sake his list of players he was high on to draft includes at least some guys with sustained big league success...otherwise there's plenty of room to criticize him, too. 5th overall pics should probably do alot more than have a cup of MLB coffee - Rogers had a huge arm but also came from a cold weather climate with a limited innings load in high school. sounds good, but there should have also been durability questions for a guy like that - obviously those weren't as big of a concern as what they should have been. so much of MLB success is the ability to control the mental aspects of the grind of a season and schedule - it's one of those factors that has to be extremely difficult to gauge or quantify statistically when evaluating draft-eligible players due to vastly differing levels of competition and experience...disappointing that talented guys like Salome and Braddock didn't have the makeup to succeed longterm. Ford was fast, but you can't steal first. As for Jack Z, he seems like a guy who worked well running a scouting dept. for a GM that understood his strengths at identifying quality hitters at various positions. Jack Z in the role of GM seems to be in over his head.

not worried at all about a perceived lack or rotation spots for some younger arms knocking on the MLB door - seems like some had similar concerns last offseason even before Lohse was signed, and look how that turned out...there was significant debate over who should be viewed as the rotation #2, Fiers or Estrada. these hot stove concerns have a way of taking care of themselves, especially with younger or unproven pitching at the big league level. at the end of the day talent always wins out with all other things being equal, so a pitcher like Nelson or Hellweg shouldn't be worried about the Brewers acquiring a guy like Smith. Smith adds to their pitching depth and quality, but in no way would having him on the big league roster prevent Nelson or Hellweg from earning a rotation spot if they truly deserve it.

I was hoping after MLB actually started testing for PEDs in earnest that GMs would quickly realize that even the best players aren't going to remain superstars into their late 30's, early 40's, and the lengths of these crazy contracts would at least drop. Having the added revenue streams sure is great, and I'd have no problem for teams with the funds to shell out Cano/ARod/Pujols-type coin for superstars playing in their prime, but on 4-6 year deals, not a freaking decade. Agents are still getting away with using precedent for these super long term deals - that precedent was set during the heyday of the steroid era, when guys added 4-5 seasons of prime onto their careers with PEDs. Unfortunately it would take all MLB GMs and owners to make a stand by not giving out these longterm deals and that doesn't appear to have any chance of happening. A 10 year extension for a guy in his mid-20's? for the right player that can still be a good investment. 10 year FA deals with no trade clauses for a guy already in his 30's? stupid unless the Mariners know Cano's been able to avoid PED bans with whatever masking agent he's been using (remember he was involved with Biogenesis...albeit indirectly) - with how the Seahawks have been operating over the past few years in that part of the country, that may be Jack Z.'s reasoning.

Love this deal because the Brewers were able to get value by trading away a middling veteran player they weren't going to keep around after 2014, and they picked up a left-handed pitcher with years of team control. I'll take Khris Davis playing most every day in the lineup over Aoki, and that's what this trade allows while also shifting Braun over to right field. That said, I think this team continues to be too right-handed at the plate - would love for the Brewers to plug in a LH power hitter at 1B everyday that's a better option than Francisco. Always have liked Hart in the past but those leg injuries have to be concerning - would rather rely on a younger option that can hit from the left side, and I think Morris still has to prove he can be impactful in the majors.

let's see, Pujols was the best hitter in baseball for close to a decade during his stint with the Cardinals - during that time he had any number of injuries (elbow, leg, and foot come to mind immediately) that he seemed to play through while compiling ridiculous stats. Some of those injuries appeared rather serious, but Pujols was able to 'battle' through them. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he took PEDs that helped him recover faster or play through all of his nagging injuries. Ironic that the Cards were willing to let him walk instead of signing him to one more mega deal, and as soon as the ink dried on the paper in Anaheim, he's been a shell of his former self and those nagging injuries have turned into chronic ones that keep him off the field. Signing that big FA contract seems like the ideal time to lay off the PEDs, especially since Braun's failed test occurred during the same offseason Pujols signed his deal.

Gamel is roster fodder for the Cubs until their prospects start forcing their way into the big league lineup - they intended to use Ian Stewart in the same way until he became a prick to them. Seriously, a guy who hasn't played in two seasons because of knee problems isn't someone the Brewers should worry about letting go. Gamel needs a change of scenery and the Brewers most definitely needed to move on from him. No way he was going to fit into the Brewers' outfield plans next season, and IMO he never had the bat to hold down a fulltime job as a 1B, nor the glove to stick at 3rd...at least for a team looking to contend.

Isn't Weeks' recovery from surgery going to take significant time, which likely is going to hamper his ability to play right away when spring rolls around? If anything Gennett showing he can at least man the position at the big league level should give the Brewers plenty of reason not to rush Weeks back into the lineup until he's healthy and showing the ability to hit...something that hasn't happened in the past when Weeks has come off other injuries.

Way to trade these guys when they had upside DM. Oh wait.... at the time of the Sabathia trade, when they had significant value, most everyone here was thrilled to have kept them in the Brewer organization...memory can be selective, I guess.

Not sure how Gamel wouldn't clear waivers, since he has a knee that keeps collapsing and he did nothing at the major league level that would cause another organization to actively pursue him. Unfortunately for Gamel his knee problems started at the worst time for his big league aspirations. He in all likelihood will end up in Japan or as a non-roster invitee to a camp somewhere. That may end up being in Milwaukee, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Brewers just want to move forward. As for Green, he's got the same issues Gamel has with both injuries and ineffective play at the big league level. Sure they haven't had a ton of AB's to establish themselves, but they're getting in line with countless other players who had small windows to make a splash in the majors but failed due to any number of reasons.

I have a difficult time pinning the Brewers' failures in 2013 on Roenicke - in fact, I'd think both Roenicke and Melvin are now tied together, and how 2014 goes will have alot to say about whether they both stay or go after next season. I'd say the team's struggles were more Melvin's fault that Roenicke's - Ron can't fill a lineup card out with competent corner infielders if Melvin doesn't give him any to choose from. The injuries to Hart, Gamel, and Ramirez stunk, but so did Melvin's plan to fill those positions when it became obvious those injuries were long-term issues. The Braun distraction was just icing on the cake, because those injuries and the pitching injuires/inconsistencies during the season's 1st half had already cratered the season. I think the team will need to improve at the big league level and more importantly the organization needs to show growth/potential in the minor leagues, or Melvin will be on the hot seat. I'm not sure what his contract status is, but Mark A. may want to urge him into an early retirement if next year gets off to a poor start at all levels of the franchise.

I did a detailed review of contract commitments per team some time ago - from what I remember the Brewers were in the middle of the pack regarding payroll commitments for two-three years out. That does stress a small market team trying to be a mid-big market player. I don't buy them being at the bottom of the future rankings, though - too much is put on prospect rankings for players expected to just debut in the big leagues as stars. Since the Brewers' system isn't highly regarded right now it's natural to assume they're in for a long scuffle. The Dodgers getting a high mobility score probably has more to do with the mountains of money they have to spend - if any of those players on long term contracts fall off the cliff and are untradeable, they can afford to eat salary without them producing and bring in someone else. The Brewers aren't in a position to pay someone to play elsewhere (probably exhibit A will be having Weeks on the roster next season even though he's been bad and hurt for the past few years). ESPN probably sees Braun's contract and current suspension as a huge anchor dragging the team down moving forward - if he isn't an MVP-caliber player after the suspension, it is going to be a huge issue for Milwaukee.

Honestly, teams will shift infielders in as the pitch is being delivered, or they'll shift infielders back as the pitch is being delivered so the opponent doesn't know for sure what is happening. And the contact play is always on with two outs, because with two outs a manager would be fired for playing the infield in...IMO the contact play should never, ever be on with no outs. I think where Roenicke ticks a lot of people off is it seems any time there's 1 out and a guy on third, the contact play is on regardless of who's up, who's on third, and most importantly who's on deck. IMO, the contact play is a good baseball play if you have three things: 1- a good baserunner at third capable of reading a ball hit anywhere but to the third baseman (impossible to read whether a pitcher would get to a grounder up the middle off the bat) 2- the batter in the on deck circle is a pitcher or poor hitter not likely to drive the runner in with two outs 3- the game situation can drastically change with scoring just 1 run (late, down 1 run or tie game). When I was taught the contact play it was the baserunner's responsibility to freeze on a line drive or anything hit at the third baseman - not like a safety squeeze that a runner was breaking for home as soon as the ball was contacted toward the ground. There's a little bit of time needed to read the ball off the bat, but making the right read prevents guys from being automatic outs at the plate.

I don't think it's that people are 'down' on him, I think it's that that people are only saying that he's a very limited player (2nd base only) with a few holes in his skillset (little power, and low OBP if he doesn't hit for high average). Well, since his main competition in 2014 for a starting 2B is an injury-riddled guy making over 10 million bucks who can only play 2nd with many holes in his own skillset (low OBP because he can't hit for average, bad defensively, can't stay healthy), I'll take the guy making 450K to play there everyday that's hitting the prime years of his career over the guy that's a shadow of his former self. Unfortunately for the Brewers, I don't see how they can get out from paying Weeks' 2014 contract via trade...at this point I think it's a safer bet projecting Gennet to have a better 2014 offensively than Weeks. That's more of an indictment of Weeks' declining production than an endorsement of Gennet's ability. I think Gennet will be ok offensively as a 2nd baseman in the long run, and I think he's earned the opportunity to play everyday from here on out.

Just breaking that Matt Harvey of the Mets has at least a partial UCL tear and would likely need Tommy John surgery... young pitching with dominant stuff is the most valuable commodity in baseball, but keeping it healthy enough to build a consistent contending team is like trying to catch lightening in a bottle.

in addition to his arm troubles, wasn't he also busted for PEDs when trying to recover? no thanks on mr. volquez