JohnBriggs12

The Nats did everything possible to baby Strasburg. He never exceeded 100 pitches, he was on pace for maybe 150 innings total, etc. It's not necessarily the workload that causes the problems. That being said, let me offer this novel solution for the Brewers. How about letting Jeffress and Braddock essentially share a rotation spot next year and build both guys back into staring pitchers? Seems to me that has the highest long term reward possibility. Only drawback is it would require a 13 man staff, but that's what they had most of this year. Granted a bullpen that included Jeffress, Braddock and Axford might be very solid. But eventually, with the Brewer rotation in recent years, the best relievers get worn down to the point they aren't effective. If you're going to keep Parra around, let him relieve. Get a true loogy off the FA pile. Fact is relievers are a lot easier to get than are starters. While we're moving relievers into starters, I'd do the same thing with Loe. Loe was doing nicely starting at Nashville, 4-3, 3.10 ERA in 10 starts. No reason he couldn't be a decent 4th starter. So if effect my rotation would be: Gallardo, Wolf, Jeffress/Braddock. Loe, Narveson. If they get a good starter for Fielder, all the better.

Fielder is currently 11th in the NL among 1B in runs batted in. At best, he's no better than the 4th best at his position in the NL, clearly behind Pujols, Votto and Adrian Gonzalez. To compare his contract situation with Joe Mauer is laughable. That the Phillies grossly overpaid Howard doesn't mean Fielder will get that same kind of money. So there is definitely a scenario where the Brewers could a) afford Fielder and b) outbid the market. All they have to do is patiently wait. If they retained Fielder, and he duplicated his 2010 season in 2011, his value will fall below the offer he's already turned down from the Brewers back in April. No team is going to offer a 1B coming off back to back 85 RBI seasons over $20 million a year. Now of course, if they received a very good offer of pitching help, they will and should jump on it. But I'm not holding my breath. Hudson would have been a pretty good return. Forget what the scouts say. Hudson's outperformed the scouts evaluation of him since the day he was drafted in the 5th round in 2008 and he's still doing it.

He's not going to get close to 200 IP. He needs to work through this, not sit through this. In the long run, it may make him better. I think Macha needs a quicker hook with him though especially with the expanded rosters.

The unemployment rate in Ohio is 10.3%. That's the 9th highest in the nation. Neighboring Kentucky and Indiana are just as bad. That doesn't count discouraged workers who have given up looking. By contrast the rate in Wisconsin is relatively modest 7.8% Many others that are working are worried. Baseball isn't high up on their priority level. Furthermore, in many areas, schools opened last week.

The Brewers need to be careful and not overreact by focusing only on trades. Trades carry with them as much or more risk than signing FA. The failures in the FA market the last couple seasons weren't because it was necessarily bad strategy. It was a combination of going after the wrong guys (Wolf instead of Pineiro and Davis instead of Garland for instance) and some bad luck. In recent years, the Brewers have reacted to the wrong things. Last year, the issue was "starting pitching depth", so they focused on numbers. They should have focused on quality. They also reacted to failures by ex-Cardinals Suppan and Looper by ignoring Pineiro because he too had success as a Cardinal. I'm very leery every time Attanasio raises an issue. He generally misses the point. It was who Melvin signed, not that he signed guys rather than trading for guys. If they do start trading, it's who they get that's important, not how they got them. Attanasio needs to focus on whether or not Melvin is doing the job. That should be the extent of his involvement. He shouldn't be setting baseball strategy.

It's all perspective. If you expected him to be the next Joe Mauer, IRod or Johnny Bench, you'd be disappointed. But those guys are once in a generation types. If you thought he has a chance to be a slightly above average major league catcher, then he's right on target. He's never going to be a 30 HR guy or a .320 hitter. If he can hit .275 and settle in the 15 HR a year range, that's pretty good production. Toss in a respectable caught stealing percentage around 30% and you have yourself a good major league starting catcher for the next 5-6 years.

I don't totally agree with you though there is some truth to that, but you can't ignore the fact that his recent form is the best among any starter they have at either Nashville or Huntsville. Nobody's saying he's still not a longshot, but they'd have nothing to lose looking at him for a month as a starter (particularly in place of a FA to be in Bush that I can't believe will be back next year) much as they did with Narveson last year. Granted Narveson has had his issues, but he does have the the second best peripherals among Brewer starters this year (insert joke about tallest midget here). My point is the Brewers should be turning over every stone in search for starting pitching.

Forget spot starts, he should take Bush's spot the rest of the year. True, he's probably not the answer for next year. But he does have the best form right now of any starter in the higher levels, so what do they have to lose looking at him for a month? While Narveson's numbers aren't great, he's got the second best WHIP among Brewers starters and they are 12-10 in his 22 starts. Dillard is in much the same stage of his career Narveson was a year ago. Even if his chances of succeeding at the major league level next year are 10-20%, can this organization afford to dismiss him without another look?

It's hard for most 8th place hitters to take a lot walks. Pitchers do not generally nibble against 8th place hitters even with the pitcher behind them. By definition, 8th place hitters are the weakest in the lineup. Pitchers go right after them early in counts because usually their mistakes don't end up over the wall.. If the hitter takes early in counts he almost always gets behind.

"Unbelievable stuff" is a tipoff. Here's a partial list of other guys who had "unbelievable stuff": Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Nick Neugebauer.

Katin's 27 and he's struck out once every 3 AB's at AAA. His numbers are up some this year, but he's not in any way comparable to Cruz, who posted OPS of over .900 at age 25 and over 1.1 at age 27. Cruz also a career .311 hitter, and .591 slugger at AAA while Katin's .261 and .523. Cruz struck out a lot too but 1 in 4 AB's is a lot better than 1 in 3. It's questionable whether a guy who has trouble making contact at AAA can be effective off the major league bench too. Brad Nelson, who made better contact in AAA couldn't handle that role. Gomez, for all his deficiencies as a hitter, at least gives you pinch running options and late inning double switch defensive options.

Right. Just make every opponent have to use a Pirate pitcher and the problem would be solved.

I still say they should give Dillard one last look too. As a starter this season, he's 3-1 with a 2.86 ERA, and .178 opponent BA. Granted that's only over 6 starts, but form-wise, he's been the best they've had at AA or AAA lately. True he's not 23 or 24 and he's had a couple looks, but he's only a year and a half older than Butler. Given their pitching situation, I would think they'd be better off auditioning him than letting Bush run out the string of his Brewer career in meaningless games. If he fails, he can just be let go. If he shows something, he can be added to the mix for next spring.

He's coming off 2 outstanding starts, he's stretched out yet has less than 100 innings. This is the time you look at all options. Dillard's had a solid year. He's allowed only 83 hits in 95 IP. He's got a WHIP under 1.2. There's lots of guys on other non-contenders with those type numbers getting look sees. The Brewers can't afford not to explore options they have.

Speaking of September callups, has anyone noticed that Tim Dillard has put together back to back outstanding starts. He's not on the 40 man currently, but I expect he's going to be added and he's going to get a look in the rotation from here on out.

Absolutely, and as a FA the Brewers will have no interest in retaining, why not cut the chord now? After allowing 1 run and 5 hits in 15 innings over his last 2 starts, I think the Brewers are going to take a look at Dillard in his spot and he's not currently on the 40 man.

Pitcher A career as Brewer (age 26-28): 248 2/3 IP, 5.47 ERA; 1.592 WHIP. Pitcher B career (age 24-27): 441 2/3 IP, 5.28 ERA; 1.662 WHIP Pitcher C Brewer career (age 28-29) 218 2/3 IP, 5.19 ERA; 1.50 WHIP Pitcher A = Wes Obermueller Pitcher B = Manny Parra Pitcher C = Wayne Franklin Obermueller and Franklin both became sort of poster boys for fan's frustration with the Brewer pitching staffs at the time and neither did anything after leaving. Both weren't any worse than Parra, yet somehow there remains some out there that want to see him come back next year for fear he'll find success elsewhere.

I don't know about the rest of you, but aren't you tired of seeing teams trot one mid to upper 90's reliever after another out there against the Brewers? Don't you ask yourselves why the Brewers aren't producing guys like that? It's the inability to produce these guys from within that's caused Melvin to waste 10's of millions on over the hill relievers the last 4-5 years. They finally came up with Axford this year but they could use one or two more. I can't see any reason for the Brewers not to bring up Jeffress. Maybe at some point, he can be converted back to a starter, but they need his talent on the major league roster in some capacity.

Unlike most of you that weren't even born at the time, I have real experience with this question from the 1960's. I ended up becoming a fan of the Kansas City Athletics, who eventually moved to Oakland, and I continued to follow them closely even through the first year or two the Brewers were around. I really got into them. I could pick up broadcasts from Minnesota and Detroit after dark and Chicago anytime. If the A's played those teams, I was listening. I heard Catfish Hunter's perfect game against Minnesota in 1968 through the static on the radio. One of my favorite baseball memories is going to County Stadium to see my A's play the White Sox in 1968.. I got Rick Monday's autograph that day. I also saw the game there in 1969. These were my options at the time: 1. Stay a Braves fan. I just couldn't do it. When your team leaves, while you don't blame the players, you loathe everything else about them. 2. Become a Cub fan This was never an option. Before the Braves arrived, my dad was a White Sox fan, so becoming a Cub fan wasn't in my DNA. Also I've always had the belief it was Cub ownership that was behind the Braves move to Atlanta. The guys that bought the Braves and moved them were neighbors of Cub owner Phil Wrigley. Hard to believe this, but in the early to mid 60's Wrigley Field was a ghost town and Wrigley didn't like seeing former Cub fans rooting for the Braves. 3. Become a White Sox fan Well I was 13 at the time and trying to find my own identity. I wasn't about to follow my dad and older brother back to the White Sox. 4. Become a Twins fan Another "never going to happen". There was much talk in the day that the arrival of baseball in the Twin Cities contributed to attendance drop in Milwaukee. I hated the Twins for that. I settled on the A's for 2 reasons. One was, well, they weren't very good and they needed fans. The other was a Sporting News article from 1965 that Charlie Finley was looking into moving them to Milwaukee. If the Brewers left town, I could see myself once again being an Oakland fan or a Royals fan.

Austin Ross now has 37 K's and just 5 BB's in 33 IP!

You're wrong on the "questionable stuff" part. Riske threw in the mid 90's for much of his career. Unfortunately, none of that was time spent as a Brewers.

But 2 of those starting pitchers can, in theory, be replaced with almost anyone for a net gain in the rotation. They could put almost anybody in Parra's and Narveson's roles and be better. Not good enough to be a contender I suppose, but better than what they've been getting this year. Which might make it worth it to pick up Davis' option and throw a deal to Capuano. You're kidding right? They'd be better off bringing back Braden Looper for a couple million than picking up Davis' option. As for Capuano, let's not get carried away every time he logs 3 good innings. Maybe he's worth bringing back if the price is right to compete with Narveson for a job, but starters have to get through a lineup more than one or two times and that's been his problem even going back to 2007. He's basically a two-pitch pitcher (fastball and change), and it's hard fooling guys 3 times in a game. I still think Narveson's an adequate 5th starter, if they can bring in a number 2 and a decent number 4. He'll still be cheap and cheap guys provide flexibility. If he does fail, you move on to the next guy without hesitation. If you are paying a guy any significant amount to be your 5th starter, like you would with Davis, you end up holding on to him too long waiting to get your money's worth.

Last year Hardy was on 2nd 11 times when a batter hit a single. He scored less than half of those times (5 of 11). Escobar has been in that situation 10 times this year and scored 9 times. You can't compare the 2 without mentioning that one can't run at all and the other will get you the extra base routinely. Escobar has hit in extremely bad luck this year. Despite having the highest line drive percentage (23%) among regulars, he's got the lowest Babip (.278). If his Babip were league average, he'd be hitting close to .270. I think a line of .280/.330/.380 is far more in line with his ability right now than his current stats. Yeah his errors are a bit high, but he's also made plays Hardy can't make in his dreams.

It will all come down to what they get for Fielder. It won't take much to improve on Parra, but they have more arms than him to replace and it will take more than a deal of Fielder to replace all of them. On the other hand, they are 37-31 since June 5th after making their "in season" improvements this year (Axford, Loe, Braddock added), (Suppan, Davis, Hawkins subtracted). Gamel's hot stick the last 6 weeks is encouraging, but he still has no major league track record, so he's definitely a wild card. He's going to be under a microscope if he replaces Fielder. At least Dickerson gives them a "plan B" option too, with him in right and Hart to first.

Bergen played in the dead ball era. I wouldn't consider any player from that era.