JohnBriggs12

Something definitely doesn't compute here. Braun is no dummy. He already had his big contract. Baseball is a business where there's lots of money at stake. Anything's possible including criminal forces at play tainting something in his food or his normal supplements. Braun may have ticked off the wrong people. Heck Attanasio may have made enemies in business as well. I think this story is far from finished. Braun could end up filing all kinds of lawsuits.

It is stunning. They did report that Braun has known the results for better than a month and has denied taking any banned substance and is appealing it.

"I just need him to hit 22-25, get 90-100 RBI's, continue his above .300 average and have a suitable OPB". It's unrealistic to think that from age 34-36 that a career .284 hitter will continue to hit above .300. He's certainly not going to leg out many hits. He's a below average defender with the potential to injure his shoulder again. I think it's realistic for him to hit 25 HR and drive in 90 runs, and hit around .285 assuming he stays healthy. Is that worth $13-14 million per year given the risks of age and possible recurring shoulder issues? Not in my world. If his price falls to around $10 million a year, ok.

After a rough 2004 season, nobody thought Podsednik had any value left either. The White Sox traded Carlos Lee to get him. The fact is the first 1,000 AB's of McGehee's career were pretty productive. In the last 500 he struggled. But baseball people know sometimes players who had early career success have trouble overcoming that first long bad stretch. Hence the term "sophomore slump". I have the benefit of living out of state and seeing out of town telecasts. I can tell you that McGehee is still pretty well thought of by a lot of people in the game who think all he needs is an offseason to clear his head. He's a guy who drove in 100 runs in the major leagues. Those guys don't appear out of nowhere. It takes talent. If the Brewers deal McGehee there's a danger they would be selling at a very low point.

It doesn't really matter how many viewers the Brewers had actually watching games vs. how many watched the Angels. The Angels have many more that could watch, and the signing of Pujols means advertisers will bet that many more will. It's the basic argument that Bill Veeck made back when he owned the St. Louis Browns. A game requires two teams. Without the 2nd team, there is no telecast and hence no advertising money to be made. Therefore, broadcast rights should be split. The NFL got that concept way back when thanks in large part to 2 men who owned teams in the large markets, George Halas and Wellington Mara. Baseball never got it, hence the inequities. The luxury tax is a poor substitute that doesn't fix the problem, it perpetuates it.

Not when your closer is making less than a million, there's no one out there that's better so you'd need to sign two relievers to make up the difference, and the bullpen as a whole isn't all that expensive. Look at segments of the team in regard to allocation of resources rather than one specific player or role. Individually, if you allocate so much to a guy that he's not tradeable, that's not a good think. But K-Rod is still tradeable now and he'll be tradeable in-season.

He appears to have improved somewhat in the field the last couple seasons, but his overall fielding numbers are scary: 113 errors in 276 games at SS.

Buehrle is a tremendous innings eater but he's led the league in hits allowed 4 times. In the NL, his innings figure to be down a bit, and that might actually make him better. It's a sign though there would be a market for Wolf if Melvin were inclined to shop him.

Wolf has some value. Look what teams were willing to pay Mark Buehrle and he's basically a slightly younger innings eater too. Personally I don't anticipate a trade. If K-Rod's accepting means they stop going after A-Ram, to me that is a good thing.

One way I judge a signing on whether two years from now the guy you sign could be dealt. Ramirez is fools gold. Nice numbers but no impact. Sort of like Carlos Lee without the likeability factor. Astros would love to have somebody take Lee. Brewers will be looking for someone to take Ramirez off their hands in 2 years.

It's a signal there were no other guys in their 70's that hadn't already received the award and they weren't ready to start naming guys still in their 60's. McCarver turned 70 in October. It's always been a longevity award. When Costas gets the award, I'll know I'm over the hill as he's my age.

Just another warning on Ramirez. In 2010 he hit .241/.294/.452. Last year he hit is 2nd home run on May 29th. He got hot after the Cubs had fallen out of the race and he needed to earn a contract. He turns 34 in June. He's had recurring shoulder issues. He's not a bad guy but he's always seemed to be a selfish player. He puts up numbers but he's as impatient at the plate as Yuni. His defense is below average. If I thought he was the difference between making or not making playoffs I'd say go for it. But he's not. With him or without him this is not a playoff team. It's an 80-85 win team. Signing him will be one that they will regret.

You wouldn't save $10-11 million cutting him. With no K-Rod, no Saito, and no Hawkins it will take at least $10 million to rebuild the entire bullpen. If they had K-Rod even at $13 million, they could take a risk on the Kintzlers, Fiers, De la Cruzes, and Mclendons and minimum wage guys to cover the 6th and 7th innings and still have the best 8th and 9th inning combo in the NL. You non-tender Loe also, saving another $2.5 million and Parra for another $1.2 million and it's basically a wash. Then in July, when the Brewers are out of it, which they will likely be with no Fielder, teams will be all over them for K-Rod when they only have to pay 1/3 of his total salary. I know it's hard to think a little out of the box, but it's something that Melvin and company need to do. Thinking out of the box = overpaying for a relief pitcher and staffing it with a bunch of unproven arms? I don't think Melvin has trouble staffing bullpens as ours was one of the best last year. And yes, you do save $10-$11 million by cutting him. Paying 1/6th his salary = saving $10-$11 million. Any person who replaces him will like cost at tops $2-$3 million so that's still a net of $8-$9million. Or, alternatively, Melvin could "think outside the box" and use a young unproven arm to fill that role. A bullpen of K-Rod + Axford and a bunch of unproven arms would be a disaster. How is that any more of a disaster than paying for a much worse 8th inning guy and then having to fill the 6th and 7th with expensive vets? We saw the effect of having just such a guy in the 8th inning with Loe last year who lost 7 games in the first half. The are paying a ton for this rotation. You should expect 7 innings out of them a good portion of the time anyway. Young relievers emerge all the time all over baseball. I'm sure one or two of the guys they have now could too.

There is no scenario where they'd end up just cutting him. None. Even if they inked Fielder or Reyes and needed the salary room, there would be plenty of suitors for K-Rod with just a one year commitment. If they don't sign either Fielder or Reyes, they certainly can handle a one year deal for K-Rod to fill a setup role that is currently not filled. None? Really? You wouldn't cut him to save $10-$11 million? You think there would be a ton of suitors for K-Rod at $13-$14 million for one year? Why? Mets had to eat the entire cost last year to trade him. If you think there's such a big market for him, why can't he fetch a one year $13 million deal in the open market and get a closing job that he really wants? There's no scenario in which they'd just trade him. It's either cut or keep. You wouldn't save $10-11 million cutting him. With no K-Rod, no Saito, and no Hawkins it will take at least $10 million to rebuild the entire bullpen. If they had K-Rod even at $13 million, they could take a risk on the Kintzlers, Fiers, De la Cruzes, and Mclendons and minimum wage guys to cover the 6th and 7th innings and still have the best 8th and 9th inning combo in the NL. You non-tender Loe also, saving another $2.5 million and Parra for another $1.2 million and it's basically a wash. Then in July, when the Brewers are out of it, which they will likely be with no Fielder, teams will be all over them for K-Rod when they only have to pay 1/3 of his total salary. I know it's hard to think a little out of the box, but it's something that Melvin and company need to do.

Giants are reportedly shopping Keppinger. He's not quite as versatile as Hairston, but he'd be a nice guy to have. They are also shopping Ramon Ramirez who put up some good numbers in relief for them last year. Would seem to me these two would fill some Brewer needs. Between them they are projected to make about $5 million in arby.

Exactly. You can't fall in love with a utility player to the extent you overpay him. When you need them, they can be had via trade. Hairston for 1 year at $2.5 million made sense, otherwise move on. Ryan Theriot is a likely non-tender by the Cards and perfect for that role too, or in a pinch be everyday SS for you.

cubfan1126, Now that Santo's in, Boyer should be too, but Boyer should have made it first. Unfortunately he died in 1982 and didn't spend two decades in the public eye on a 50,000 watt radio station. My problem with Santo is that he was never better than the third best hitter in a lineup that never won anything and he was done at 34. Had he had two more productive years I could overlook the fact that Williams and Banks were better players than him on the same team.

I personally don't think he belongs (I'd take Ken Boyer over Santo myself), but if it was going to happen it should have happened when he was alive. Boyer was the better player. Their numbers are close, but Boyer was an MVP (1964) and spent half of his career in the pre expansion era when pitching wasn't as watered down.

"A-Ram makes the lineup very righthanded" Assuming he plays 3rd, it would be no more righthanded than it's been the last several years. My problem is his cost in dollars and years vs. his age. Guys at his age making $10 or more million per year over multiple years tend to underperform their contracts and be impossible to deal. I have essentially the same problem paying Furcal or even Rollins (who'd command even more) that much too unless it's just for one year. That's why I'd rather deal for one year of Carlos Lee, and platoon him at 1B with Gamel and let Green and McGehee fight it out at 3B and bring back Yuni, who by the way is probably worth more like $3-3.5 million than $2 million.

I'll take that one.

I saw that and thought about it. Or what a formidable middle of the order in Braun, Lee and ARam....I'd be interested in signing ARam and trading for Lee. It would be fun to hear Uke make horse noises when Lee hits a homer again.Lee crushed lefties last year to the tune of .348/.413/.615. Yes $6 million is a lot for a platoon player but it's not a lot to pay $6.5 million for a 1B platoon of Gamel and Lee that would figure to be pretty potent.

Astros have said they'd eat most of Carlos Lee's salary to facilitate a trade. I'd rather have one year of Carlos Lee at $5-6 million than double that per year for multiple years of Ramirez assuming the Astros will take a middling prospect and pay 2/3 of his salary.

I believe the White Sox have a requirement that they have to carry a rag arm, slap hitting OF each season. Scott Podsednik and Pierre having carried the tradition bravely. Morgan would be a perfect candidate to carry on the tradition. Yeah all Podsednik did was help them win a World Series. Pierre wasn't their problem last year, Dunn and Rios were. They let Pierre go because they have Alejandro De Aza who they like very much. De Aza is younger and cheaper. They aren't looking for a Morgan. Besides Podsednik and Pierre were guys Ozzie liked and Ozzie is in Florida. They aren't going to deal Ramirez. They have a highly regarded prospect in Eduardo Escobar, but he hasn't hit enough to be an everyday SS in the big leagues.

Huh? You're right about Fielder being a long term investment which is exactly why the Cubs are going after him. Tom Ricketts said yesterday he thinks the Cubs will contend in 2012, but that the complete building job will take more time but not longer than a deal that Fielder will get. The Cubs are not going to just surrender this season. Not with two rivals potentially losing huge parts of their lineups. Signing DeJesus is a sign they are going to try to be competitive.

I'd pass for anything over $10 million per year or longer than 2 years.. He's not a guy I'd want as a centerpiece on my team. In the post PED era, he's getting to the upper limit age wise and he's had a history of shoulder issues. You won't win with a guy like Ramirez as a key guy in the order. He doesn't get deep in counts either.