JohnBriggs12

They could basically accomplish the same thing by signing Byrnes for the minimum and releasing Suppan.

LaRoche is solid, but he's never going to be confused with the top 1B in the league. He's too streaky and his K rate is a bit high vis a vis his HR output. What's interesting to me about LaRoche is that he's exactly what I think we can expect Gamel to be. Nice stroke, good but not great power, streaky, decent OB skills, but a little too many K's to be a premier hitter. Ultimately if Fielder moves on, I think Gamel will play 1B too.

I hate to bring this up, but if Davis or another starter is signed, someone who's now in the rotation isn't going to be on opening day. The choices are Suppan who's being paid $12.5 million and never pitched out of the bullpen, Bush, who likely will get somewhere around $4 million in arbitration and who is a FA after this year, and Parra. My guess is if all are healthy this spring, one gets dealt and since Suppan can't be, that leaves Bush or Parra. I think they'd like to deal Bush but you never know. His value isn't very high and he's not all that cheap.

That deal is a blueprint for the Brewers to use with Gallardo.

It shouldn't surprise these guys that the market dries up quickly. It happened last year too with Abreu and others. The players that wait are getting less, not more. It's a good move for Arizona.

The difference between Braun and Kendall was about the same as the difference between Kendall and Parra, at least OPS-wise.... so I can see the logic.Walking or not walking an 8th hitter intentionally should never be an absolute either way. It depends on many factors but largely comes down to how badly you need an out. If your pitcher is shaky and the opposing pitcher is a real bad hitter, go ahead and walk the 8th hitter to make sure your pitcher gets through the inning without further damage. If the pitcher is Zambrano, then no, don't walk the 8th hitter.

If he looks anything like the Norris Hopper of 2007, he'll be more than just competition for the 5th OF spot, he'll lock it up. Why not take a flyer on him? He's hit lefties in the big leagues (.367) and almost everyone in the backup OF picture hits lefthanded. Plus he's cheap and wouldn't take money away from the pitcher search.

Toss Norris Hopper into this discussion. Other than lacking power, he fits the profile of a potential 25th man. He hits righthanded and has batted .367 vs. lefties in his limited major league career. He also succeeded in a PH role for the Reds in 07, hitting .296 in that role. He also did a good job leading off for the Reds that year too. He can play all OF positions including CF and despite some injury issues he had in 08, it appears he can still run. Plus he's cheap and this could be a sign that what money they have left will go for pitching. Bench could now be: Kottaras, Counsell, Iribarren, Gerut, and Norris.

They figure to have close $40 million coming off the books from Suppan, Hall, Hoffman, Riske, Bush and Counsell. Offsetting that will be scheduled raises to a few (Braun, Wolf) and arby raises (the biggest of which figures to go to Fielder). That total is speculative but I'd estimate it to be $20-25 million It's way too early to project the non-tender candidates. Any player, Villanueva and Gerut included, has a full season to prove their value. Conversely, another bad season by Parra and I think he'll be gone.

Gordon Wittenmeyer of the Chicago Sun-Times today quotes a team source that "Sheets is not in their plans". Sort of confirming that, the Tribune's Paul Sullivan said this morning on the Score that the Cubs don't have room in their budget for Sheets, but he suspects they do have the money if they wanted to.

In a related note, Russell Branyan is quoted as having moved on from the Mariners. I think it will be interesting to see who the Royals sign first, Branyan or Gabe Gross. Expect to see the following headlines in the next few weeks: 'Matt Wise says "I'm back and ready to pitch."' and 'Brady Clark ponders comeback'. and "Junior Spivey signs minor league deal".

Can you get any more respect than once being 5th in the MOY voting?

That site says "No one has ever claimed that any PED improves visual acuity or reflex response speed". On the contrary, there's plenty of claims out there that human growth hormones improve eyesight and night vision in particular. Now I don't know for a fact that this is true, but you can find plenty of claims by just googling HGH and eyesight. There's also claims out there that HGH therapy improves the quality of sleep. If that's indeed true, then it stands to reason that better rest and sleep helps a player maximize his reflex response speed.

My point exactly. It was a mistake and a misreading of the market to tender Bush. The market for 30 year olds coming off of 6.38 ERA seasons isn't very strong. Bush would be lucky to get $3 million with some incentives on the open market. It was a mistake to tender him. Look what the Nationals did with Scott Olsen. Olsen's younger, is lefthanded, and has practically the identical career ERA as Bush. He was good in 08, bad and injured in 09 but is now healthy. He made $2.8 million last year and wouldn't have gotten much of a raise, but they non-tendered him anyway, and then signed him for $1 million, with incentives that could reach $4 million. Another example is Todd Wellemeyer. Where's the demand for him? His career numbers are not far off from Bush either. He's probably going to end up with a minor league deal somewhere. It was also a mistake to tender Gerut. Not a huge mistake, but look at what backup outfielders are signing for. Eric Hinske got $1 million. Jason Michels got $850,000. Ryan Langerhans got $525,000. Brian Anderson got $750,000. Scotty Pods, coming off a much better year than Gerut was just signed by the Royals to start for a base of $1.75 million. Gerut's going to have tough time making a case he's worth more than that. A bunch of other guys haven't found jobs. Teams just don't have the money to spend on 4th outfielders. Even the Yankees with a huge hole in LF are reportedly budgeting a very minimal amount for an OF. I don't think the Brewers would be out of line submitting arby amounts for Bush and Gerut below what they made last year. If they got to a hearing, they'd have plenty of ammunition.

His issue might not be the amount but a second year. So I wouldn't rule out the Brewers based totally on that. Brewers could opt to backload a 2 year offer.

Amaury Rivas is more likely to win 5 games for the Brewers this season than Capuano and Mulder are combined. Narveson is another one.

Bush - $4.3 million Weeks - $3.8 million Coffey - $1.75 million Villanueva - $800K Gerut: $1.9 million Gomez: $850K Hart: $4.2 million No way Villanueva or Gomez get a million. Gerut barely gets a raise as does Bush. Both will get more than their open market value. Coffey gets the largest % raise by far. Weeks will make a case for projecting his 09 start and get more.

This thread reminds me of how young pitchers are babied now compared to 30-40 years ago. Some examples: Lary Sorenson was an 8th round pick out of Michigan in 1976. He made 8 starts and 13 appearances in the NY/Penn league that year before being bumped all the way up to AA in the same season. By midway through 1977, he was a starter for the Brewers and won 18 games in 1978. Jerry Augustine was drafted in the 15th round out of UW LaCrosse in 1974, and was up with the Brewers to stay by the end of 1975 shortly after his 23rd birthday. Bill Travers was drafted out of high school in 1970 in the 6th round and started out at age 17 in the Midwest League. was in AA by age 19, and in the majors at 21. Moose Haas was drafted out of high school in 1974, After pitching in the Midwest League in 1975, he was jumped all the way to AAA the next year and debuted with the Brewers at age 20. Nobody on here has been harsher on Parra than I have. That's because I believe compared to guys back in my day, he's a weakling mentally. Dare I say the guys in my generation were tougher mentally and physically (Haas threw 192 innings combined as a 20 year old)? Today, they're afraid to have a 20 year old work more than 100-120 innings. No wonder it takes them 4-5 years. The real reason of course though is money. Back then, they didn't have guys with multi year contracts clogging up the pitching staffs and each player didn't come with an arbitration clock.. If Suppan were around then pitching like he has the last couple seasons, he'd already be on his next career becuase he'd be done. I say anyone one certainly as high as AA should be prepared and expect to pitch in the majors in 2010 from the standpoint of being mentally ready. If they're not then the organization isn't doing its job.

Iribarren played exclusively in the OF in Venezuela this winter including a lot of time in CF. He made 2 errors in 48 games. Heether's played 76 minor league games at SS and just 25 at 2B. He made 17 errors at SS, so I think he's not much more than an emergency guy there or at 2B. His OF time is even more limited than Iribarren. Iribarren's played 71 errorless games in the OF in the minors. Heether's played 29 (all in LF). Iribarren played 3 games at 3B in 2009 and didn't make an error in 9 chances. It's not like he couldn't play there or SS in an emergency and probably do as well as Heether. They could indeed both make the team if Melvin really needs to save money. But having more than one rookie seeing very limited time seems dubious to me. Especially when you can option one of them (Heether) who could play everday in Nashville and be called up in a moment's notice without any effect on the 40 man. I think the guys covering the Brewers are overlooking Iribarren because he didn't get a September callup last year. But I think it's a mistake to put much stock into that. With Lopez, 2 SS in Hardy and Escobar and Counsell still around, and Catalanotto and Gerut as OF backups, and another LH bat on the bench in Gamel, Iribarren would have just sat and since he's already experienced the major leagues, there was nothing to gain having him there.

I think Melvin made a major strategic blunder by tendering Bush. Whatever Bush gets in arbitration is about double what he would have gotten as FA coming off 6.38 ERA year. 30 year old pitchers like Bush with career 4.70 ERAs and a losing record pitching for some good offensive teams and coming off a horrible year are just not in demand. Now not only are they overpaying Bush, they are forced to give him an inside track on a rotation spot. Melvin talks about having flexibility but he surrendered flexibilty by tendering Bush. Non-tendering him wouldn't have prevented them from keeping him if the price was right and it would also have afforded them extra cash to see if they could do better. Bush can still make that look like a good decision if he goes out and pitches like he did in 08. But with 2 of his last 3 seasons posting 5.12 and 6.38 ERAs, it's a pretty big gamble.

really? when he was a starter with the brewers he was topping out around 89-90. he will be a starter again. i cant see him pitching 2 or 3 days in a row even at 1 inning per night. I don't remember him topping out at 89-90 in 07. I thought he was more like 86-87. It's going to take more than an 86 or 88 mph fastball for him to become an effective major league starter. He's got to prove he can command a breaking pitch consistently against good hitters because he can't get by just on his fastball whether its 86 or 90 and his changeup which is a pretty good strikeout pitch for him. If he can command something with movement, then he's got a chance. But the Brewers can't afford to have him test it against major league lineups so he's going to have to do it in the minors first.

do you think it should just go to a Catalanotto (veteran minimum) or a Iribarren/Heether type. There's only 11 non pitchers assured of a roster spot. The backup catcher is up for grabs between Treanor, Lucroy and Kottaras. The two backups virtually assured spots are Gerut and Counsell, both lefthanded hitters. That leaves two spots, the 24th and 25th spots, not just the 25th, that are open. One most likely will go to either Iribarren (my choice largely because he'd be exposed to waivers if he didn't make it and he's younger than Heether), or Heether and not Gamel because if he's not starting, he'll be in Nashville. Some have mentioned Oeltjen too, but going in as a non roster guy, he can be kept if he doesn't make the team at Nashville. If it's Iribarren or Oeltjen, the 25th man should be a right handed hitter, preferably a cheap veteran who can handle pressure PH duties late in games rather than the inexperienced albeit long time minor leaguer Heether. Then it comes down to what you are looking for. Want a guy who can come up late and bang a HR and fill in at a corner OF spot if needed? Then a guy like Gomes or Thames makes sense. Want a guy that will give a quality AB consistently who can fight off good pitches and put the ball in play? Then maybe a Loretta fits the bill. Since, except for occasional pop from Gerut, the rest of the bench doesn't provide a ton of power, I'm inclined to look at Gomes or Thames. Braun has been known to need a week every now and then to nurse an intercostal problem. Having a proven power guy to fill in would be a nice luxury.

I don't think there was much concern over anyone claiming Aguilar. Guys coming off years with 7+ ERA's at AA aren't usually in great demand even for the weakest of teams.

Brian Duensing is not worth Gamel. His body of work (84 innings) isn't extensive enough when coupled with rather mediocre minor league numbers (4 ERA in 330 AAA innings, more than a hit per inning) and the fact he was 26 before making his major league debut.

You're ignoring the economics involved here sbrylski06. When talking Twins and economics, it's all about Joe Mauer. If Slowey reverts to his 08 form, he's going to get a huge raise in 2011. Same thing with Baker who'll be in his 2nd year of arby. I think it just might be in their best interest to insure they don't have to pay both Slowey and Baker in 2011 and they can do that and pick up a needed, yet cheap bat with a lot of upside. They are going to need every available penny in 2011 to keep Mauer happy. That's why they are talking one year with Washburn and have Pavano on a one year arby deal too. Any deal would be contingent on a physical. The Brewers wouldn't go into it blind.