JohnBriggs12

Other than Nelson and Richardson, I don't see any must adds or guys that would be in great demand as Rule 5 guys. If there's room, sure add Morris and maybe Heckathorn or Kentrail Davis. I'm not worried about needing Prince as infield depth. There's any number of better middle infielders that will be cheap and available. I'd remove Olmsted, Manzanillo, Lalli, Gamel and Prince. I'd non tender Axford and Francisco if they sign another 1B.

He can't be worse than Francisco. Your lineup, with Braun in RF, Davis in LF, would almost force them to use a LH bat at first and I'm not sure any of the guys they have in Francisco, Gamel or Morris is the answer there. Of course they could sign a Loney or a Morneau I suppose too. I'll take a Gindl/Halton platoon or Gindl everyday in RF over any one of those guys in the batting order. Third base is a lot harder than 1b and it's just not the throws. It's coming in on slow rollers etc. Braun's a good athlete. He can play there.

I don't think Nelson's ready either. 43 BB in 72 2/3 innings at AAA? Thornburg and Gorzelanny have the inside track internally. I'm not as down on Gorzelanny. Lets see what he does the rest of the year. Though they do need to find at least one or two lefties for the pen so he's an option there as well. Thornburg needs to get some starts too the rest of the way. They could bring in someone from outside the organization. Maybe a mid-level type FA signing, or a deal.

Just watching his routine throws, it does appear that Davis' arm is an issue. Maybe it's slightly better than say a Juan Pierre, but in RF, guys would routinely go from 1st to 3rd on hits to RF if he were out there. Maybe Braun to 1B is the solution. Braun is certainly in no position to fight a move and doing so actually might help him in the clubhouse. If I were advising him, I'd have him offer to make a move. I'd still deal Aoki, then open up RF to a platoon of Gindl and Halton.

Well, an optimist might look at the year Francisco Liriano is having and think the same could happen with Volquez. He was good once, albeit in 2008. But the thing about Liriano, if you looked at his game logs the last few years, occasionally he would toss in a gem. He just wasn't doing it with any consistency and his bad outings were bad. But the talent was still there. Volquez on the other hand has had several nice starts mixed in there, but nothing one would classify as dominant and when he's been bad, he's been real bad. He'll get a look somewhere, but given the number of guys the Brewers need to sort through, not sure if the Brewers would or should be interested.

During the Reds telecast today, Dusty Baker was quoted as saying Davis was the most impressive call up he's seen this year. Considering he's seen Puig, that's quite a statement. Reds announcers have been raving about Davis. I think we need to find a name for this group of rookies (Davis, Gennett, Gindl, Schafer, and Halton) all whom were all drafted between round 3(Schafer) and round 16(Gennett) and none of whom has ever appeared on a Baseball America top 100 prospect list. Heck, Halton's hardly gotten a mention on the Brewers' top 50. I like "The Unheraded 5".

"It's not a lie, if you believe it." George Costanza telling Jerry how to beat a lie detector test. Criminals often unable to face the horror of their own acts, convince themselves that either they didn't do it or that they were justified and therefore innocent. OJ Simpson, Jerry Sandusky are likely two prime examples.

There's no magic formula for ensuring the Brewers will contend in 2014. Right now the most logical scenario is that they are near the top of the league in runs scored and the pitching is middle of the pack. The emergence of Davis and Gennett would seem to strengthen the lineup to the point where the first requisite seems quite possible. What they need is for the pitching to be what it's been since June 1. I'm quite certain Aoki will be dealt, if anything just to make room for one of the young OF. Right now that appears to be Davis, though Gindl and Schafer could still have a say too.

I have a question. Forget for a second what you've read from the experts that rank prospects, and lets suppose too that you have no access to what a player has done in the minor leagues or where he was drafted. Just based on what you've observed from him in a Brewer uniform, what makes anyone think that right now Scooter Gennett isn't ready to be an everyday 2B in the big leagues? No fair if you can remember that Pedro Garcia hit .294/.339/.468 in his first 2 !/2 months in the big leagues back in 1973, but ultimately was a .220/.267/.348 career hitter.

"Morris would interest them (The Rays)..cheap replacement for Loney...they would get the same production out of Morris as they are out of Loney this year." Really??? They would think they could get a .799 major league OPS out of a guy who's sporting a .726 OPS at AAA far from the glare of a pennant race? Why wouldn't they just go with Vince Belnome, who's sporting a .858 OPS playing 1B for their own AAA team?

I would just like to hear something that sounds like he gets it now. This statement isn't it. He still seems to be detached from reality. I know elite athletes are insulated but are they that clueless? He would have been better off saying: "I know my credibility is shot, and that I can't expect it to ever return...all I can do now is stay clean...work hard and produce on the field and hope over time people will judge me on the totality of my career, not just this period where I used horrible judgment and hurt a lot of people in the process."

What good young player? Ramirez's contract precludes them getting a quality prospect in return. If they are out of it next year and Ramirez is productive, he'll likely bring back more at the deadline than he will now. Melvin has never given one signal that he's throwing in the towel on 2014. Nor should we expect him to at this stage of his career. It's up to the owner. If Attanasio wants a complete rebuild, then he'll need to replace his 61 year old GM and put in a younger guy willing to wait. I think we are at least a year or two away from that.

Davis K rate is one strikeout every 3.45 plate appearances. Francisco's is one every 2.82. Of course if Francisco can slug .500 and maintain an .800 OPS, the strikeouts won't matter, but he needs to make a bit more consistent contact for that to happen.

It wasn't long into the 2010 season when Brewers cut their losses and dumped Suppan with a contract similar to Weeks'. Before his injury, I figured the Brewers would give Weeks until Memorial Day to show he can still produce. Now with what Gennett is doing and the injury, I'm not so sure Weeks survives the cut in Arizona. He has zero trade value. I expect Aoki will be dealt. Odds are Hart will be signed to a 1 year deal with incentives. There will likely be another minor move or two. Axford will be non tendered but could be brought back at a lesser salary. Gonzalez won't return. Neither will Yuni. If there are big deals in the Brewer future, they will come next July.

Every time I think Francisco might be the answer, he does something like strikeout 4 times in back to back games. The jury is still out on him. His K rate is right up there with the all timers like Dunn, Jose K, Mark Reynolds and Branyan. Whether he's a 35-40 HR guy over a full season is open to question. We know he has power surges not unlike the rest of those guys, but are his lulls so bad and his defense so shaky that he's a net minus? That and the fact that there are some intriguing alternatives out there in the FA market, makes me wonder. Hart is going to be relatively cheap and wants to be here. It's hard to overlook that. I do wish we could see a bit more of Halton too. Not that he'd be the prime guy, but as a fall back if they went with Francisco. Morris isn't a serious candidate carrying a .731 OPS at AAA. Maybe he'll blossom next year in AAA, but that remains to be seen.

Anybody see the play Scooter made last night? It was vintage Gantner. Weeks gets to that ball too, but often doesn't field it cleanly or if he does, makes an off target throw.

Several ways. First, how excited do you think Free Agents are to sign with the Brewers and the Brain sideshow? Sure, money talks, but if things are close I don't think too many players WANT to be on the Brewers, they way they did for a few years now. Milwaukee was finally a viable destination, Fun clubhouse, nice park, starting to win. Not anymore. Ditto for current players. Will Segura or other players be billing to sign a long term deal now? Maybe, but I bet they're thinking twice. Braun will have effect on trades also. Very well he may already HAVE had an effect on trades at the deadline this year. Why? In business, you smell weakness. If you know there's turmoil going on in Milwaukee, you may not offer as much in return. That's what happens when you negotiate ina position of weakness. Finally, I think attendance will suffer. Some of you don't realize how upset a whole lot of Brewer fans are. Whther they should be this upset or not is irrelevant. They are, and that will translate to lower ticket sales. Especuilly coming off a losing season. Less revenue = less money to spend on the roster. Those are all tangible ways Braun's actions will have on wins and losses. Not to mention the intangibles of 24 other players having to deal with this circus all year. Thanks FVBrewerFan for making my case on why Braun will be traded regardless that they can't get equal talent back. The fact is he can't hide here. In a major market, he shares the headlines with others. Where would he end up? It would be ironic if he ended up in LA back with Zack and with Kemp. But it is home and as long as Braun doesn't marry a Kardashian, he's at least not the focus of the entire area, and the Dodgers have a bad contract they'd like to unload in Eithier too. Of course the Dodgers don't have room in the OF anyway, so maybe Anaheim for Hamilton to reunite with Narron makes more sense. The whole situation is absurd and it's all Braun's doing.

Kirk Gibson wasn't just a major league baseball player. He was a big time college football star at the same school that produced one of the all time juicers, Tony Mandarich, about a decade later.

Absolutely and it's also possible for Braun at 29 to have learned a painful lesson and become a better human being going forth. Whether he can or not only time will tell. I don't know what purpose Olney and guys like Gibson's continual bashing of him serves.

I don't get the uproar over what Braun was privately telling his teammates to cover his lie. He had to come up with something. That was a given. He wasn't saying this publicly. In fact I thought the indignation over Braun "outing" the collector was grossly overstated. Braun didn't mention his name. The media dug it out. Some of us brought up the collector being a Cub fan motivation on this site. Heck I brought up their being a gambling interest connection. We didn't know and were entitled to speculate anything as we naturally wanted Braun to be innocent, and so I presume did his teammates. We all know that a lie of this magnitude leads to other lies. Braun has plenty of work to do to restore any faith in him by anyone. Today's apology is just a start. Would Gibson prefer he stayed silent longer?

His peripherals were not all that bad last year at Huntsville. He kept the ball in the park (7 HR in 119 innings). His K/BB ratio was a respectable 2.32/1. Opponents hit a non-BP .275 off him. I'll admit he did struggle mightily in 2011, but he's certainly made progress since then. He's been looked at through prism of a high draft pick so being average was deemed as a disappointment. But he's been far better than average (.569 OPS against and a paltry .283 SP against) this year staying off the sweet spot on the bat. The walks are a concern for sure. But scouts saw ability in this guy at some point. He's earned a call up and a spot on the 40 man along with Sanchez.

What have you been watching?? The Brewer rookies are all really doing pretty well. None were top of the line prospects. Heckathorn's obviously put it together this year after having been switched to the pen. Whether one has something to do with the other, who knows? I think he's a pretty good bet to be called up in September to work out of the pen. He just turned 25, still plenty of time for him to have a major league career.

"I hate the way this team is managed from the GM down to RRR" An argument could be made that RRR is doing his best managing job of the 3 years he's been here. With all that's gone on, this team is playing good baseball. Over the last 30 days, most missing their former MVP, they are tied with the Reds for the best record in the division. He's taken a bunch of 2nd tier prospects and has them playing winning baseball. He's also juggled an ever changing rotation that since mid June has started 11 shutouts. Roenicke could get an extension and he might deserve it. Of course it took an injury to get Weeks out of the lineup, so I'm not going to give RRR the credit for that.

Peralta logged 175 innings last year. Nelson has already surpassed his 2012 inning totals. I doubt we see Nelson at all in September. I still think they will give Hellweg another start or two if anyone other than the six of Gallardo, Lohse, Gorzelanny, Estrada, Peralta and Thornburg. Nelson's also walked 40 batters in 66 innings at AAA. Let him get that walk ratio down before you throw him to the wolves.

Yeah that starting pitching that's recorded 11 shutouts in the last 57 games is really awful.