JohnBriggs12

The "leaking" of contract offers is a PR ploy (see Marlins). I honestly think the Brewers are holding out as long as possible in the event Fielder doesn't get nearly what his agent has been looking for and we've seen no rumors of any offers for him to this point.. I think they've got a deal on the table for either Reyes or Rollins that's contingent on Fielder signing elsewhere and that one of those two is interested enough not to jump elsewhere just yet. Betancourt would be brought back as low cost guy if somehow Fielder's price comes down to their range.

Keith Law takes the Pirates to task for the Barmes signing pointing that Barmes has a career road line of .230/.272/.361 and that at 33 he's more likely to get worse on offense and defense than he is to get better. The Brewers dodged a bullet by not signing this guy.

It could be used much less wisely as well.

$126 million over 6 yrs, with a team option for another year or a $6 million buyout. Total value: $132 million.

Nobody has stepped up and made Fielder an offer yet. Until somebody does, the market for him is a complete mystery. Boras can talk all he wants about $180 million or $200 million but he doesn't set the market. The Brewers don't want to be in a position where they've shelled out a bunch in deals to other players, and suddenly Boras decides he'll accept a one year arbitration deal from the Brewers in hopes the market for Prince will be stronger next year. To me that's the scenario where Fielder is still a Brewer in 2012.

I'm going to call small sample on that one, despite that the fact that LHBs had a 90 point better OPS against Loe than RHBs in '11... career wise, LHBs have an .837 OPS against Loe, as opposed to a .675 OPS for RHBs. I remain convinced that Loe should very rarely face LHBs, certainly not in a close game The problem with Loe is not so much his splits but his inconsistency. When he's on his sinker is one nasty pitch and good enough to get hitters out from either side. In fact he can look so dominant it can make a manager feel very good about using him late. But when he's off, well he's usually way off and you can't get him out of there quickly enough and no lead is safe. It's that inconsistency that ended up costing him his late inning role.

There's nothing stopping them from getting pitching if they don't extend Greinke and Marcum. A year ago they had neither. The issue is whether it's smart to tie up two guys for multiple years at a high salary. If these guys aren't good, you can cripple the franchise. Greinke allowed a slugging percentage higher than Narveson last year. You really want to commit $75 million over 5 years for this guy? I don't and that's likely the minimum it would take. Marcum had one of the worst postseasons in recent memory. Why on earth would you consider extending him now? By the way, it wasn't starting pitching that won for them last year. The bullpen was the best in the league for half the season. The offense had two MVP candidates who both were much better than they were in 2010. The staters were at best 5th or 6th in the NL. I'm all for extending Axford. He's more of a reason they won last year than either Greinke or Marcum. I love how you always mention Yuni's 2nd half where he hit .270 and had a .700 OPS but never mention how Greinke absolutely dominated in the 2nd half. 9-3 2.59 ERA 97.1 IP 102 Ks 1.161 WHIP is about as ACE like as you can get. Where was this "ACE" in the postseason? 23 hits, 15 runs, 12 ER, 1.620 WHIP in 23 IP. Greinke can thank Marcum for us ignoring his failures. Of those 9 second half wins, 6 of them came against the woeful Astros, Pirates, and Cubs and you won't find teams like that to play in October. I'd extend Greinke in a heartbeat for what he's worth. I never said he was a bad pitcher. But he's not worth $85-90 million and that's what he's going to want based on his 2009 Cy Young.. I think he's worth about what Ryan Dempster got from the Cubs prior to 2009. That was $52 million over 4 years. To me Greinke is on Dempster's level and that type of deal is livable for a team like the Brewers. Dempster was coming off an ace-quality year in 08, but he's never really been on that level. Do I have to invoke names like John Lackey, A J Burnett, Carlos Zambrano, Carl Pavano, to get my point across? All those guys had stretches of ACE quality pitching before signing big deals. They weren't ACES though and within 2 years, not able to be moved. My comment on Betancourt was that he was a starting quality major league SS. I wouldn't over pay him either. But he's not going to affect the future ability of this team to improve itself. Signing Greinke to a huge deal could. These aren't the Yankees, Red Sox or even the Cubs or Phillies. They need to build pitching staffs from their system ala Arizona, Tampa Bay and even SF. Sure if they are short on young arms, finding guys like Greinke and Marcum for the short term is a fine idea, but that's where it should end.

Agreed. Unfortunately, neither Greinke or Marcum are great. As they're getting lit up next year we can all remind ourselves they are getting money that could have gone to Prince. Or we could sign Prince and two years from now when both Greinke and Marcum leave because we didn't have the money to extend either we all can remind ourselves how much it sucks having Prince and no pitching. The jump from 77 to 96 wins certainly wasn't due to our massive increase in offensive production.What makes you think Melvin can't come up with a different pair of pitchers in the same manner? Why are we fixated on these two? Didn't they just draft two starters high too? There was more than just an improved rotation last year too. In 2010, the bullpen was awful for two months. How come everyone forgets that? Fielder and Braun had off years in 2010 too and both were MVP candidates in 2011. Long term, big money contracts to pitchers are extremely risky. I don't care what their names are and how many Cy Youngs they have. Greinke had one great year in the majors. It was far and away superior to any other year he's had. That was in 2009. You going to pay him off that year? I don't disagree with the premise that pitching wins. But there are two ways to win with pitching. The way Arizona did with young guys who are talented and cheap or the way Philly did by anteing up for the best of the best. Right now, the Brewers have neither. Their guys are pretty good but not the best, and the young guys aren't quite ready. The Brewers because of their market are better off in my opinion trying to duplicate what the D-Backs did. With their recent drafts, they are in better position to bring along the young studs rather than tie their hands hoping against hope that the highly paid guys live up to their contracts. Because if they don't they will be in a huge bind.

Agreed. Unfortunately, neither Greinke or Marcum are great. As they're getting lit up next year we can all remind ourselves they are getting money that could have gone to Prince. Yeah because when we had Prince but no Greinke or Marcum we were making the NLCS really consistently. Pitching wins in this league. There's nothing stopping them from getting pitching if they don't extend Greinke and Marcum. A year ago they had neither. The issue is whether it's smart to tie up two guys for multiple years at a high salary. If these guys aren't good, you can cripple the franchise. Greinke allowed a slugging percentage higher than Narveson last year. You really want to commit $75 million over 5 years for this guy? I don't and that's likely the minimum it would take. Marcum had one of the worst postseasons in recent memory. Why on earth would you consider extending him now? By the way, it wasn't starting pitching that won for them last year. The bullpen was the best in the league for half the season. The offense had two MVP candidates who both were much better than they were in 2010. The staters were at best 5th or 6th in the NL. I'm all for extending Axford. He's more of a reason they won last year than either Greinke or Marcum.

How about a swap of Randy Wolf and Eric Farris for Huston Street and Tommy Field? Give Field #28 so fans can rip off the er on their jerseys and save a little money.

Agreed. Unfortunately, neither Greinke or Marcum are great. As they're getting lit up next year we can all remind ourselves they are getting money that could have gone to Prince.

Buehrle figures to get more than the $33 million over 3 that Ted Lilly got last year. Getting 2 years of Wolf for $19.5 million might be more appealing even if you have to give up a decent player.

The FA pitching market is so thin, a reported 13 teams (not including the Brewers of course) have inquired on Mark Buehrle. Now Buehrle hasn't put up an "ace quality" season since 2005. His numbers in recent years are pretty comparable to Randy Wolf actually. Like Wolf, he's an innings eater mainly. Another guy attracting attention in the FA market of all people is Bruce Chen. Now that begs the following question. If so many teams are interested in discussing a multi year deal with Mark Buehrle, who's less than 3 years younger than Wolf, and Bruce Chen who's a year younger but who's never reached 200 innings wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that teams who don't land Buehrle or Chen might have a strong interest in dealing for Wolf, who's got a year with an option left? If the Brewers are indeed serious about Reyes, don't they need to clear some salary space? It appears to me the Brewers could get some interesting offers if they dangled Wolf out there. Of course the media that covers the Brewers never asks Melvin about dealing pitching, but that doesn't mean he's not discussing it.

True, but .434 good? By a 21 year old middle infielder who's never played above A ball in a league with many guys with AA and AAA experience? He's second in the league a few points behind 3B Jedd Gyorko who's 2 years older, was a 2nd round pick and has AA experience.

He's versatile enough that he could be used 4-5 days a week and get 450 ABs.. After all Kotsay got 233 AB's and Fielder never took a day off.. What he's looking for and what he'll get are 2 different things. He's probably best suited for an AL team that can DH him though.

No thanks.

It was a decent bench last year. Yes Counsell was bad, but other than that guys performed like typical bench players and Morgan's arrival moved a starter to the bench. Counsell and Kotsay only made $2.2 million total, and it will cost close to that just for Hairston. They'll have one less guy who will be counted on for every day duty so more of a need for a bench this year. Assuming some bounce back from McGehee, and that Green can produce, that's a plus. I'm almost certain they'll look for a veteran to take Kotsay's spot too rather than use Gindl in that role. I'd consider signing Doumit as a guy who can catch, play 1B and corner OF and pinch hit, and keeping Maldanado around as a defensive backup.

Cardinals got 11 seasons including most of his prime from the best player in baseball and never paid over $15 million to him in any one season and won two World Championships. I wouldn't feel too sorry for them. They do get back a lot more salary flexibility too. They've still got a pretty decent club and money to spend to improve it.

I love reading you Yuni haters react and how you almost get mad when he does well. I know it bothered you that he hit so well in the postseason. My solution for you guys is to get over it. Embrace him. He's a decent bat down in the lineup. He won't walk much but he'll make contact, hit with some pop and knock in a few runs. He's no gold glover but he's not the 2nd coming of Jose Valentin either. There's no big gap between him and the guys being mentioned. You don't over pay for guys on that level. Barmes and Furcal aren't worth big contracts. If Yuni's the most cost effective, they should go with him. He's at least still in his prime. With a full year in the NL under his belt, he'll hit in the .270 range with 15 or so HR. I'd rather they sign Reyes myself. But if there not going to seriously upgrade, get the guy who is cost effective and younger.

Have to trade Hart? Before you do that there's this July 31st trading deadline. Assuming they are out of it, which isn't a given, but very possible, they have plenty of chips that can be cashed in: Greinke, Wolf, Marcum, Morgan. I wouldn't include Hart. They'd get a decent haul out of those deals and go into the winter with plenty of salary room to be a player for a guy like Matt Cain or John Danks and be able to go into 2013 with a competitive team. They could trade Weeks or Hart at any time, but I don't think that's necessarily a move that represents rebuilding. In another year, Gennett might be ready to take over 2B and Weeks' value would still be pretty high. He might bring back a major league player at another position.

It's conceivable Schafer could be everyday CF by midseason. If they aren't in contention in July, my guess is Morgan will be shopped.

I wish I would've been reading this post back in July before the trade deadline. Instead, we were stuck with inept Betancourt. Melvin sat on his hands and showed his arrogant side by sticking with Yuni in spite of the majority of people rightfully suggesting he's not a MLB starter at SS. Yuni had the exact same OPS in the 2nd half as Furcal (.718), and a much better postseason. Furcal even had a lower FP with the Cards (.958) than Yuni (.965) had as a Brewer. The Brewers were 47-23 (.671) after the break with Yuni. It's hard to imagine what Furcal could have done to improve on that record.

Signings like this is throwing money away. Since his one big year (7 years ago), Ellis has been no better than ordinary. He's easily past his prime and a marginal starter.

Greinke, Marcum and Wolf leaving is $30 million off the books. That puts them in a very strong position to go after guys like Matt Cain or John Danks (either of whom I'd prefer over Greinke) with Gallardo at the top of the rotation.

You don't trade young pitching unless you get pitching back. Peralta and Thornburg are very valuable guys for the Brewers to keep, not to trade. Having both of them take up 2 rotation spots at pre-arby prices from 2013-2105 allows money to be spent elsewhere. The Brewers can't afford to have 4 of their starters making $7 million or more every year. That doesn't leave enough for holes elsewhere in the lineup and the bullpen.