JohnBriggs12

I dunno, its games like that you live for and remember forever.

Hey they pulled it out. That's all that counts. Weeks might be coming around. Hart looks like he might start a tear. Ramirez is looking like a better sign than I thought. Lucroy should be back in a few weeks. Ransom is contributing too. Time to play Gomez regularly.

1979 and 1980 team had the worst with teams that otherwise were great.

This is unreal.

I am going to go out on a limb and say Bianchi will be up and Izturis will be gone by the end of the week. I base this on what happened in 2006, Chad Moeller and his .506 OPS was sent packing on July 5th with the team in a similar place in the standings and contemplating whether to be buyers or sellers. Brought up was Mike Rivera who had not been on the 40 man or anyone's radar, but was having a fine season in AAA (.827 OPS). Rivera went on to post a solid .783 OPS in the 2nd half. It the Brewers fall out of contention in the next month, Greinke will be dealt, saving 1/3 of his $13.5 million salary. So will K-Rod, saving some percentage of what's left on his deal. If Bianchi comes up and they don't deal those guys, it's because they fought their way back into the race, and that will keep attendance from falling off.

He's got over 2,300 plate appearances in the minors. He hit .315 at AA 3 years ago. He's hitting a combined .329 in 66 games between AA and AAA this year. Prior to 2010, he was the Royals SS of the future. What does he have left to prove in the minors? It's time to see what he can do against major league pitching. They are 6 games back in the WC and 7 in the division with half a season to play. Whether or not they even deal Greinke won't be decided until after the 3 series coming out of the break against teams above them in the standings. Wouldn't it be better to have some idea on Bianchi before you trade Greinke? If you insist you have to get a SS back aren't you limiting Greinke's value? Maybe a team offering pitching/3B is a better deal. Even if a SS is included, maybe you can get a better one that's 2 years away, so you may still need a placeholder. Even if Bianchi is brought up and they still trade for a SS, doesn't it help Bianchi's value to have played some in the majors?

Seriously??? They don't have a SS for 2013. Isn't it worth $125K to get a read on whether Bianchi could be that guy at major league minimum next year instead of spending $3-5 million on some mediocre veteran fill in?

Are you just speculating or do you know this to be true? A .969 career fielding percentage for a SS drafted out if HS is better than average. Granted I don't know about range but he was a high pick (2nd round) for KC which means he didn't miss the first round by much and he's not been moved off of SS. I did hear Roenicke I believe say there were some concerns about arm strength early in spring but they talked to him and he seemed to rectify it. If he were that bad, they would have moved him. He was making steady progress through a very good Royals system, hitting .315/.356/.441 at AA at age 22. At some point in 2009, he got hurt though and missed all of 2010. After missing all of 2010, the Royals acquired Escobar, Bianchi was forced to go back to AA, and he had his worst offensive year, not all that unlike what Green experienced coming off an injury in 2011 and he became expendable. Like Green, the 2nd year back from injury and he's right back on track. Maybe he's not your top prospect and his ceiling might be only that of an adequate major league SS, but take a look at all the 27 and 28 year old guys playing SS at AAA hitting .230. Bianchi is a guy they should at least look at for 2-3 months. All Star potential? No. A guy that will hit a modest .260-.270 with some but not much power, and an adequate glove is better than they have now.

The conundrum the Brewers have is that teams need to come up with something that is better than 2 high draft picks. So teams will have to pony up. I don't know if it's realistic but if Texas offered Holland and Olt, I'd take it. That's the deal that allows the greatest possibility of remaining competitive in the short term with a fairly accomplished yet still young arm in Holland to replace Greinke, while still fortifying the future at what will be a position that opens up as soon as 2014. They have arms in the system for 2014 and beyond. I doubt Texas will offer the combo though for 2 months of Greinke. They are already virtually assured of the postseason and have enough quality for the postseason.

There was a lot of similar sentiment expressed in my section on the club level. We all recognized the seriousness immediately. I immediately thought of the Daryl Kile situation 10 years ago. But I'm sure like always, some fans weren't paying much attention and wanted to amuse themselves. I suppose too on a Sunday afternoon with lots of kids in attendance, that was a consideration.

The Dodgers want someone now, and Attanasio and Melvin aren't going to wave the white flag until the last week of July if at all.

Free Jeff Bianchi

I was at the game, and it comes as no surprise to learn the man had passed away. From where I sat on the club level, it was clear the paramedics were working to revive him and just weren't able to. I lost my dad many years ago in a similar sudden fashion so my heart goes out to his family and the entire Brewer organization. That had to be a very tough afternoon for everyone that witnessed that in the bullpen. Throughout the game, I thought about the contrast between this beautiful summer afternoon at Miller Park full of fans enjoying the day and the tragedy that had occurred and all I could think is to embrace and enjoy life. We're all only here a short time.

That's only if you assume Gonzalez would have continued at the clip he started on. Remember he had just a .270 OBP last year. Between them Isturis (2), Ransom (0) and Maysonet (3) have just 5 errors, so defensively they've been okay and like Gonzalez, Ransom has pop. BTW, Bianchi's back up to .309 and has only made 2 errors in 42 games at Nashville. At some point they need to look at him this season.

I guess I shouldn't have typed this on the day he pitched :-( His 2 previous starts, (9 ER in 11.2 IP) were lousy too. Fact is except for a few good starts here and there, he's been lousy all year. Sure he could have a couple more wins, but focusing on those starts is ignoring the obvious. I think Hiram Burgos is stating a pretty good case for a look see this year too. He's my pick for minor league pitcher of the year to this point.

Where are you getting that Derek Holland is "substandard" MLB fodder? He had a 16-5 record and an ERA under 4 last year in the AL at age 24. He also had 162 strikeouts facing lineups that don't include pitchers. Just 3 years ago, he was ranked as the 31st best prospect in baseball. He allowed 1 run in 10 innings against the Cardinals in the World Series. His ERA is up a little this year, but his WHIP is better than Darvish who is actually 2 months older. Only in somebodies dream world where every minor league pitcher is the next Verlander or Sabathia, is Holland considered "fodder". He's also locked up through 2016 at a pretty reasonable cost. At worst, Holland is a solid #3.

Just for the record, Sean Halton has 4 HR in his last 16 AB's. We've been waiting for the power to match his size and maybe this surge is a step in that direction.

Considering Green can't play SS it seems a stretch to wonder why Green doesn't get in there ahead of those two stiffs. Green has done nothing to show he is better than Ishikawa so I don't get the constant complaints or calling RR an idiot for this situation, especially when Ishikawa was on the DL for most of the recent games. I do remember RR was some sort of fool in the complainers eyes for keeping Ishikawa over Conrand, then became and idiot when Conrad played and was terrible. Hart has now taken over 1B, Aram is at third, Weeks at 2nd, where is Green going to play? It isn't like he is some uber prospect that the team has to get in the lineup. His minor league numbers are remarkably similar to Ishikawa's and Ishikawa has outproduced him at the ML level. If the team finally throws in the towel and admits the playoffs are pipe dream then fine, try to get Green in as much as possible just to see if he can hack it at the ML level but at this point I can't complain about Ishikawa getting some AB's over him. Green should be playing 2B at least part of the time. How long can continue to go with a starter hitting .180? Everyone was wanting Green to replace McGehee last year, but at least McGehee drove in some runs occasionally and the team was winning. They are stuck with Weeks for several more years, but that doesn't mean he has to continue to play every day right now.

I don't trust Michaels as a source, but if that were indeed the offer, Greinke would be risking an awful lot if he turned it down. He's going to be making 17-18 more starts and the downside risk is huge if he were to experience injury issues or be less effective in the 2nd half. That $125 million can easily dry up. Conversely, he could at best get another $15 million over the life of the deal with a great 2nd half. Unless his agent takes the Boras approach that whatever a team like Milwaukee can offer, another team will eventually beat, so no offer is high enough, then he should advise his client to accept.

I wouldn't want you starting on my team either Monty. He'll be 27 next month and while it's true he's never had an extended look, it's a fact he's never produced at the major league level. I based my speculation that the Brewers weren't sold on him because they talked openly about giving Hart time at 1B and they brought in Ishikawa, who had more experience at the position at the major league level. Look I didn't have a problem with the Brewers starting this season with Gamel this year as the everyday guy at first base. Despite some comments, if you'll look back, I posted several times that I thought Gamel had potential to be similar to Adam LaRoche. But the difference is by the time he turned 27, LaRoche had 3 full seasons in the majors. What's changed? Gamel isn't playing anywhere right now. He's missing almost an entire season. Any player, even with some history of success at the major league level is going to be a question mark after missing so much time. Yes he's hit as a minor leaguer. Although if you look close, his first year at AAA was fairly uninspiring: .278/.367/.473 with 89 K's in 320 AB's. Lots of guys put up big numbers in the minors. Until you do it over a period of time in the bigs though, there are questions.

Marcum and Greinke's salary combined this year is equivalent to one year of Greinke under that scenario. Next year they have Wolf and K-Rod coming off the books too. They can still afford a player or two. The real issue is injury risk or if Greinke would become ineffective before the contract is close to ending. I think what Fiers has done and to an extent what Estrada has done has convinced them that Wolf and Marcum can both be replaced internally with pre-arby guys already here. That's key. Guys like Parra, Loe and Morgan can easily be non-tendered for cheaper options.

I'm not sure what they were thinking letting Maysonet be the odd man out. Ransom is clearly pressing and all this team needs is another guy who can't put the ball in play. At least Maysonet can bunt (he's got 2 sacrifices) and put the bat on the ball (9 K's in 60 ABs).

monty57, The Brewers weren't all that sold on Gamel going into this season. He got the job basically by default. If he performed reasonably well, then he'd stay there. If not they were ready to move Hart, injury or no injury and they would not have waited an entire season. They also kept Ishikawa as insurance in case of failure. If they were sold on Gamel, neither move would have been made. What's changed is now they know Hart can play there. They also know they have a cost efficient player in Aoki that can play RF. They also will make room for Schafer if not later this season, certainly next year. What's also changed is Gamel is missing nearly an entire season. He's never hit over an extended period in the major leagues so your comment he "should be able to hit" is much less certain than you suggest. Change the word "should" to "could" and there is a huge difference. The relative merits of extending or not extending Hart have nothing to do with Gamel. Gamel will have to earn his way onto a roster and into a lineup. He's beyond the point where it's going to be handed to him. Tough for him but that's life in baseball.

Why is Parra still on this team? He hasn't been an effective pitcher since 2008. His ERA this month is 9.82. Yesterday he gets beat by a guy who had one RBI all year.

I think people spent to much time talking prospects and forget about others that are actually doing better than Top prospect. Well, the reason for that is because it's a lot more common for a top prospect who throws in the 90's with a couple good secondary pitches to actually have a successful big league career. Not to mention that Burgo's hasn't been putting up big numbers until this year. It took him until age 22 to get out of rookie ball, was uninspiring against younger competition. Until this year. And I think people have been talking about him....almost exactly when they should have started to. He finally at age 24 started to perform well with mediocre stuff in HiA, and now he's dominating AA. Fiers certainly didn't get a lot of respect and he performed well at virtually every. It takes a while for guys with average stuff to get a good look, especially when they have average stuff and average results. So it's fair time for him to get talked about, and there was little reason to focus on him coming into this season with the same amount of interest that Jungman, Bradley or probably 10 other pitchers deserved. But, if he has something he's added, a cutter, if he has a deceptive delivery that allows his fastball to look deceptively fast like Fiers. Great. Maybe he'll be a guy who'll succeed throwing 88-90 MPH and thrive doing so. Obviously, we're all pulling for him to do just that. Burgos was drafted fairly high (6th round) out of a small school (Bethune-Cookman) so the organization must have liked him. I would guess his stuff has always been decent. But most of the focus on here is on the top couple rounds. He's not the only under the radar guy though. Sean Halton can't crack the top 50 and he's hit at every level moving up every year.