squambaum

I don't think there is much debate anymore. Our staff is a mess, and CV is officially our best option to start today. Now it's just a matter of who can we trade without hurting ourselves next year. Trading for a couple of decent prospects and watching them play with Escobar and Gamel would at least be a little exciting. I'd rather watch a legit pitching prospect get hit around in the majors than Suppan or CV. We still have two more months of baseball to play and our bullpen is already dying. If we save some money now maybe we can reinvest it in the off-season and bring in a quality starter to pair with Yo considering Suppan and Hall's contracts come off the books after next season. We have the offense and if our starters could go more than 5 innings our BP wasn't that bad either.

Those were my thoughts exactly. He should request to get sent down and get regular AB's. Other than the knock on his pride there is no real downside for him unless of course he doesn't think he could produce at AAA either. Where would he play though? 2nd? At the very least he may hit well enough to raise his trade value to the point where we may be able to do a waiver wire or offseason trade to some team looking to buy low.

I called my friend again and they pretty much echoed the JSOnline report but with a little bit more colorful language. It wasn't a very fun weekend for them but with an economy like this they couldn't really complain. You should be fine Hawing...enjoy the game.

I talked to a friend with inside knowledge of the electrical repairs and they said that these were major repairs, not minor. The water got down to some pretty heavy duty electrical equipment and it likely all needs to be replaced. When I informed them that the next home game was Tuesday and the Brewers said that the game should be played as scheduled they said, "We'll see...I hope so". They also said that there were people working more or less around the clock but these aren't small repairs, damage is in the millions on the electrical alone - but that is what insurance is for.

I'm starting to lose track of what this debate is even about. Who cares what the ball meant to HY, he was the legal owner of the ball and thus could do whatever he wanted with it. Coughlan never owned that ball, he just used it. The whole thing seems like Capitalism 101 to me. I hope that were I ever presented with the same situation I would have enough class to handle things with grace but since I'm hearing two different versions of the story I can't really judge either of them. The whole sentiment of need/desire = entitlement is very frustrating however and if anyone truly believes that sentiment I have some college loans that I need/desire to be payed off.

It's what I meant. I tend to like Melvin but we have an 80 million dollar payroll and no pitching save the pitching Jack Z drafted. I'm not calling for Melvin's head but we know Mark A is a pretty involved owner and I think we tend to be a little hypocritical (is that a real word?) of Melvin since he did such a great job taking us from pitiful to playoffs. I don't really want to hijack the thread from the original poster though so this is probably best left for its own topic and probably a bit later in the year. It was just a thought.

Does anyone think we have the rotation of any of the four teams you listed? Poor pitching plus streaky hitting just doesn't seem like a great recipe for success to me. Mark me down for under. This team is going to follow its bats so they could go on a hot streak and turn all of this around but I just don't like the way we are constructed. Some have suggested we only have till July to turn things around or we may be sellers but will Melvin be the one selling?

Why does baseball have to follow the same rule as American economics? Not to mention the comparison doesn't still well because the Yankee's need competitors; unlike businesses which (ideally) want to drive their competitors out of business to grab the biggest chunk of the pie. If Burger King went out of business I'd choose between McDonalds and Wendys; if the Yankees drive the Brewers and other small market teams out of business I'm not going to become a Yankee fan, I'll just stop watching baseball (maybe not, but I'm not going to spend a fraction of the time I do now on it). Baseball isn't even 'America's game' anymore either. It may have recieved the moniker way back in the day but I think it is fair to say that since football is more popular and uniquely American, it is fair to say that football is 'America's game'. I'm all for a salary cap as long as it is accompanied by a floor. Level the playing field as much as possible and let the players decide it all on the field. If the Yankee's win it all next year what does that prove? That you can buy a championship in baseball? Just doesn't sound very exciting to me.

I don't know if you are refrencing my post or not but either way I agree completly. If we are in the race we would be foolish to deal him at the deadline. I am just operating under the assumption that the team as constructed today isn't a playoff team considering the layout of the central and the rest of the NL - hence I think he probably gets dealt by the deadline. I know we will still make some moves and anything can happen in the regular season but taking an objective look I just don't think this team is a contender considering we needed, in my opinion, the best pitcher in baseball and a Mets collapse to go last year.

If the team is really intent on trading Cameron they can wait. He is being paid reasonably for his production and if we are having a bad year some contender is going to covet his power/defense for a stretch run. I have no idea if Cameron will be on our opening day roster but I doubt he is on our roster come August 1st. That and the fact that he may become a type B or A free agent means the Brewers have no real motivation to deal him just because the Yankees want him. Let them wait until spring training when someone on another team goes down with an injury and we start getting other inquiries about Cameron; I bet they will have no problems picking up all of Cameron's salary and giving us something better than Melky and Igawa.

What happens when a team doesn't sign their first round pick from the previous year? Do they get a sandwich pick or do they get that pick again in the next years draft? I only ask because I know the Yanks didn't sign their 19th pick from last years draft so they may have two first round picks. Would they then be able to sign Sheets and Sabathia and still give us two first round picks? I looked quickly on the interweb but didn't find anything regarding the rules and thought all the smart people here might know.

The similarity between the 90's Cowboys and the 90's Braves is the management not the amount of money they spent on their players.I think you bring up a good point that good management will usually trump high payroll but I think your list might not tell the whole story. I don't know what your criteria was for selecting small market but I wonder how many teams would qualify as small market. Also I think if you look at which small market teams have been able to field consistently competitive teams I think the NFL's track record would be better than MLB. I have no stats to go off of just gut intuition, you may prove me wrong. You're NFL list would seem to suggest that big market teams can afford better facilities and staff and thus win via better management and I see no reason why that would not also apply to baseball, only in MLB there is no salary cap to prevent them from also out spending everyone on the best free agents. I just don't see any way an uneven playing field can be seen as a positive.

I guess we just have to agree to disagree. I don't want to get too off topic but I would argue that the salary cap is one of many reasons why football is so popular - it adds a true competitive balance to the sport (or at least as close as possible). I'd say that competitive balance is a huge reason for popularity as the more fan bases you can make excited about football the more popular the sport. The teams that stand no chance in the NFL usually rotate. You may have a pretty good idea that your football team is going to stink but within a few years they can turn things around. There aren't as many Royals or Pirates in football as there are in baseball. I think part of that reason is if you stink in baseball it is a number of years before you see any impact players from the draft and if you couple that with the inability or unwillingness to sign impact free agents teams that stink stay that way longer.

Why is everyone putting Hart on the block? He is a 5 tool player that had a bad final month of the season. A team with the Brewers limited payroll shouldn't trade a cheap quality outfielder like him unless they get something very good back in return. Not to mention he is most of the little speed this team has - plus who do we have behind him that can step in and play next year and if we trade him we would be forced to pick up Cameron's option unless we wanted to replace 2/3 of a good outfield in one offseason.

Is it really that balanced? 7 of the 8 playoff teams this year were in the top half of the league in salary. The small market Brewers only made the playoffs because they 'operated in the red' and raised the payroll to 90 million. I'm all for a salary cap. The NFL is the most popular sport in the country for a reason and part of that reason is that almost every fan base has reason to be excited every few years. Sure horrible management runs some teams into the ground (lions) and some dynasties still happen (patriots) but at least you don't have teams like the Yankees who are in it almost every year because they can outspend everyone else.