JohnBriggs12

I have to believe they've talked about guys like Nady, Burrell, and Thames, but they are waiting on Braun's situation. Those guys would look at it as an opportunity to impress other teams too if the Brewers released them when Braun returns.

Boras took advantage of an old man (Ilitch), who'd like to win a championship before he's gone. At 82, he probably figured he can't take it with him so lets give some to Prince. I think he couldn't care less whether Fielder is productive the last couple years. He (Ilitch), probably won't be around anyway. Maybe when Attanasio is in his 80's he'll break open his pocket book and instead of saving his fortune to leave to his rock star wannabe kids, he'll buy Milwaukee a championship.

Last year's team won 96 games, a club record. I point to 3 factors as the biggest contributors to that record. 1. Braun and Fielder had MVP type seasons in the same year in the middle of the order. Fielder you may recall clearly had an off year in 2010 with just 83 RBI. As bad as McGehee's season was, he did drive in 67 runs and Betancourt for all people's angst drove in 68. Right now I'd take a combined 135 RBI from Gamel and Gonzalez because its going to take better hitting from then than Casey and Yuni provided to get that much production with a weaker middle of the order. 2. The starting pitching went from a noticeable weakness to a strength, albeit one that is often overstated. A repeat of 2011 where their starters are 6th overall in ERA in the NL is probably good enough for them to win more than they lose, but it won't get them near 96. 3. Axford was stellar from day one as closer with nobody better in the league, compared to 2010 where Hoffman struggled before giving up the role 1/3 into the season. Rodriguez was equally stellar from All Star break on setting up. Of those 3 winning factors, I am only confident in number 3 holding up. I remain disturbed by the starting pitching collapse in the playoffs. It wasn't just the results either. Greinke and Marcum just didn't throw the ball well and I don't know what exactly was the cause of it. I'm very anxious to see how they throw in spring. I also worried about Gallardo having logged a total of 226 innings, some 30 more than he ever has and what effect that will have. I've seen too many rotations over the years follow up solid years as a group with collapses that range from modest to severe the following year. It's never good to assume things in baseball especially about pitching. The Reds last year are the latest example.

Not a chance. With no Fielder behind him, he's going to expand the zone (something he's always been prone to do anyway), not contract it, because he'll feel an extra burden to produce runs. Intentional walks may be up but they take the bat out of the hands of the best hitter on the team. That won't help the offense.

Fielder affected the lineup in ways Ramirez won't. Fielder saw 549 more pitches than Ramirez did last year and walked 107 times to just 43 for Ramirez. That is a lot of extra wear and tear (not to mention a lot more base runners) not just on opposing arms, but their heads as well. Fielder also forced managers into more frequent pitching changes often that eventually resulted in favorable matchups for other hitters in the Brewer lineup. The 1-2 punch the Brewers had in their lineup everyday last year was exceptional. That now is gone and that will affect other guys. Of course Ramirez will outdo McGehee, but there's no way I'd take the combo of Ramirez/Gamel over Fielder/McGehee, even with McGehee being so off for most of the year.

Player of the Year: Scooter Gennett - Let the when do we trade Weeks talk begin Pitcher of the Year: Nic Bucci - He comes into his own and dominates AA in his 5th pro season before he turns 22 in July. New-Comer Biggest Splash: Jed Bradley - Will pitch at 3 different levels Most Improved Player: Sean Halton - Will finally figure out how to get some lift on all those line drives against AAA pitching and will have people asking: "Where'd he come from"? after a 20 HR, .300 BA in Nashville.

Player of the Year: Braun Pitcher of the Year: Axford Rookie of the Year: Aoki Most Improved: Gomez

So Prince is a rich man. Of course if he'd signed with the Brewers he'd still be a rich man but for some guys it's more about bragging rights. He lucked out in that the one team that lost a key player for the year also happens to be a team owned by a guy who can afford to buy a championship and doesn't care about losing money. Fielder's case is prime example why baseball needs a salary cap and also why it will never happen. Twenty-nine owners can all make the sound business decision that Fielder isn't worth anything near what Boras was asking. Then one comes along that sees an opportunity to buy a championship so he can bask in the glory, even if it means losing millions of dollars. Fortunately for fans of the NFL with the exception of say Jerry Jones, ownership in the NFL puts the good of the league before anything else. My daughter recently relocated to Toledo. I've offered her my Fielder shirt. The Tigers are now on par with the Yankees and Red Sox as teams I don't want to win.

I'm more upset that Boras got a team to apparently bid against itself, thus perpetuating that in baseball it's not supply and demand but super agents that set the market. Detroit overpaid. Good for them. I know the auto industry has come back some but the Tigers would need to increase their attendance by oh, say another 7 to 800,000 or more(assuming more of their unsold tickets were of the nosebleed type seats last year) to pay that salary. That's not going to happen.

The Astros used to be the Colt 45's so it's not unprecedented. The Astro moniker was the result of NASA having its headquarters in Houston. The Obama administration has drastically de-funded NASA, to the point I'm sure there are a lot of ex NASA employees around Houston. New ownership might prefer not to have it's team associated even in such a miniscule with a government agency that no longer carries the respect that it once had. If you own a team, you own the name and you can call it anything you want. 2013 marks the beginning of a new era for the franchise moving to the AL. So the timing may be right.

I think we have to be careful. The word "appeal" is misleading and gets thrown around too much. No determination has been made on a suspension and hence there is nothing to "appeal" or overturn. What Braun's hearing essentially is equivalent to is a defense case being presented in a trial. The test and it's results are essentially the prosecution case. The panel that decides his fate is essentially the jury. If they rule in Braun's favor, he won the case (as opposed to an appeal) and he's not guilty of violating the drug policy. Case closed. If they rule against Braun, he gets suspended (he's not been suspended to this point) and (unlike courts) there is no avenue to appeal.

HiandTight: "A full season with Gamel at 1B, Gonzales at SS, and ARam at 3B is significant" To quote the Wilson Staff commericials: Seriously? Gamel has all of 107 games played at 1B as a pro and in those 107 games his fielding percentage (.987) is worse than Fielder's career .992. He may eventually be fine there but he's still learning. The difference career wise between A-Ram and McGehee is microscopic. Both are slightly below average. Ramirez isn't going to get better at 33. Gonzalez is an upgrade but not by much. He may save 10 runs defensively, but he'll cost them close to that by not getting the bat on the ball with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 out. The infield defense wasn't that big an issue last year. When Wolf is bad, they hit the ball where there are no defenders. When he's good he gets K's and popups. Gallardo and Greinke get most of their outs on strikeouts and flyballs. Greinke gave up an extrodinary amount of extra base hits. With the exception of Loe, nobody on the staff relies on sinkers.

I agree with everything you wrote. It's no disrespect to Wolf to say it's far more feasible that say a Peralta or Estrada could match his numbers than Gamel could match Fielders and as good as K-Rod was in a Brewer uniform his overall numbers, 2.64 ERA, 1.298 WHIP get matched by young power arms that seemingly come out of nowhere every season. I know fans don't like to face it, but Fielder is on a HOF career track. I don't think Gamel is. That being said, even if Fielder were interested in a one year deal, Melvin doesn't seem inclined to want to bother having to move guys.

There is certainly no love lost between Dan Patrick and ESPN. but there's no doubt Patrick has connections so there's reason to be hopeful As for ESPN. they never really backtracked, but it's clear they muted some people. When the story broke Mike Greenburg was proclaiming that Braun's MVP should be taken away. You don't hear much talk about that now. Down here in Chicago, ESPN Chicago's baseball guru Bruce Levine has painstakingly avoided condemning Braun when the story has come up on his Saturday morning baseball show. Levine has many contacts inside the game and is tight with Selig too.

Actually, he's had 1 otherworldly season and a few good seasons and 1 meh season. And Bradley, Jungmann, Peralta and Thornburg are just prospects and are far from guarantees. It's still too early to say that they're the Brewers rotation of the future. I think the Brewers should extend Greinke but not Marcum. They are keys to the rotation of the future. A lot has already been invested in Bradley and Jungmann as first round picks out of college. If two of those guys turn out to be quality major league starters, they'll be fine rotation wise and have plenty of cash left to round out needs elsewhere. If the pay Greinke $20 million per year for 5 years and he gets hurt or turns into John Lackey, they'll still have the young guys but with no safety net of saved cash to buy or trade for a veteran. Yes they are all prospects. But teams pay dearly for quality starting pitching prospects. Greinke didn't come out of thin air. He's here because they had prospects to deal to get him. Same goes for Marcum. Nothing is stopping them from doing that again for different guys. One big reason the Brewers were able to do that when they did was because Suppan was finally off the books. Loading up the books again makes no sense. Sure I'd take Greinke for 4 years, $56 million. But he wants much more than that I'm sure and I don't think he's worth the risk.

Neither makes sense for the Brewers. Greinke is going to want a long term deal (5 years or more), in the range of $16-18 million per. He's had one outstanding season. If he happens to revert to his 2009 form, he's going to want $20 million per. If he doesn't, he shouldn't get more than $13 millon per year. Those kind of contracts for pitchers are risky for the big boys (Lackey, Burnett, Zambrano). They can be devasting for small market teams. If Marcum repeats his 2011, he's going to want $50 million over 4 minimum. That's way too much for a soft tosser who proved unreliable in the postseason. Bradley, Jungmann, Peralta, Thornburg, etc. That's the future of the Brewer rotation They can always add a vet here and there to fill out the rotation or those guys can be used in deals to get premier pitchers for short term investments like they did to get Greinke and Marcum in the first place I prefer investing in youth with starting pitching. The Gallardo model is the way to go.

Brandon Allen's big numbers were at Reno. Reno is like pre-humidor Coors, maybe worse. I was in Reno in 1992 and decided to catch a game between the Reno Silver Sox (then an A's affiliate in the California league) and Stockton (then a Brewer affiliate). I don't recall the exact score but it was something like 26-17 in favor of Stockton. I'd never seen anything like it. I was convinced guys like Rob Lukachyk (2 MLB AB's), Duane Singleton (87 MLB AB's) and Mike Harris (part of spring training replacement 1995 Brewers), who probably had 15 hits between them that night would be future Brewer stars. The only guy in the lineup that night that had any impact in the big leagues was Mike Matheny.

Wolf? Heck I'd sign Oswalt and trade Marcum. Sure he's got back issues, but he's looking for short term and Oswalt's never thrown up all over himself in the postseason. The Brewers have guys capable of filling in if he needs a month on the DL to be ready for a stretch drive.

Full beards at age 11 would be a tipoff. You'd think MLB could hire an investigation firm to verify ages of prospects if they can pay Bud Selig $22 million a year to turn into the JoPa of MLB.

Per tweet of Dionisio Soldelvia of the AP, Carmona's real name is Roberto Hernandez Heredia, and he's not 28. He's 31. He's going to have VISA problems in all likelihood. That's the 2nd guy in the past year who's been playing under an assumed name and a false age. One wonders how many others there are. Apparently MLB is too busy leaking medical information on league MVP's to ESPN to notice.

You are not only underestimating the loss of Prince you are overestimating Ramirez and Gonzalez, both of whom I expect to be anywhere from minor to major disappointments. You are also underestimating the effect Prince in the lineup had on guys like Hart, Weeks and even to a minor extent Braun. All those guys played their entire careers with Prince in the lineup. The Cardinals suffered a major loss too, though Beltran is a pretty good pickup (at least as good as Ramirez) but assuming Wainwright is healthy, they got a major upgrade in their rotation. I don't see a similar upgrade in a Brewer rotation that had guys gassed by last October. Cards also have a nice blend of established players with emerging guys like Freese, Jay and Craig. With the possible exception of Lucroy (who's probably close to his ceiling) I just don't see emerging players on the Brewer roster unless Gomez suddenly blossoms. I think given the division, the Brewers can be competitive, if their starting pitching holds up. But last year I had no doubt the Brewers were sitting on the best roster in the division and I don't get that feeling going in this year.

I'd bring in one more veteran starting pitcher on a minor league deal for spring training insurance. Somebody like a Rodrigo Lopez, just to throw a name out there. Then it depends on what happens with Braun. If he's suspended, I'd like a RH bat. Brooks Conrad doesn't do it for me. Pat Burrell, Xavier Nady, Marcus Thames, Jonny Gomes, are all still unsigned.

Even if he were healthy (and he's not) how is Katin an option? He's a soon to be 29 year old minor league FA (no longer Brewer property) that's never sniffed the major leagues. Other than being Braun's college teammate I don't get the love. There's still some veterans out there like Burrell, Gomes, Thames, and Nady that actually have accomplished something at the major league level.

Conrad's a 32 year old career minor leaguer with only 332 major league AB's so I wouldn't consider his numbers to worth comparing on sample size alone.. Nady did have a serious injury (shoulder I believe) a few years ago and that pretty much relegated him to a bench player, but I would consider him to be a much better option than Conrad. It's possible they consider Conrad to be viable in RH pinch hitter backup role though I'd prefer a veteran like Nady myself.

I laugh every time a player who can't find a job as a player says he's retiring. They used to say of some guys that they won't retire "until the uniform is ripped off them". I think that applies here. I hope Counsell can be useful in the organization somewhere.