JohnBriggs12

I think his career numbers represent a larger sample and therefore are more relevant and his career OPS is .105 above average. In 04, he posted a .788 OPS. Of course he's not nearly that good either but not many pitchers ever do that at any time in their careers.

As an added bonus, Wolf is one of the better hitting pitchers in baseball with a .181 career average. Twice he's hit double digits in RBI, including last year with 11. He also has 5 career HR, and an amazing 26 career doubles. That's in 509 career ABs. For comparison, consider Kendall in 452 AB's last year had 19 doubles and 2 HR. Essentially he's a bigger extra base threat than the Brewer starting catcher was last year.

I knew Kennesaw State was in Georgia. My nephew got his degree there after several years at nearby Georgia Tech. Where do I pick up my extra points? Overall, no complaints on the 50.

His BABIP was low because he hit the right parts of the bats Ennder. It's called pitching.

They might if they non-tendered Bush.

Garland turned 30 on Sept. 27. On Sept 26th, only Sabathia had more career wins than Garland among pitchers under 30. I realize that Suppan's signing has left scars, but every guy out there is not Suppan.

Tom H. is reporting that Melvin has a meeting scheduled today with Wolf's agent. Their fallback if Wolf doesn't accept is Jon Garland. Haudricourt is also reporting that they will look for the 2nd starter he wants in the bargain bin in January citing as that's how the Dodger got Wolf last year. Doesn't look like Davis or Washburn are likely unless they fall into bargain status later.

Vargas is tough with men on. He's well suited to be a late inning reliever. I like this move a lot. He was a great pickup last year.

Church is a nice player, but I don't see him as an upgrade over Gerut.

With Pavano accepting arbitration doesn't that in essence knock them out of the Washburn sweepstakes? Personally, if the Brewers were to get Wolf, I'd like to see a trade for a younger guy like McCarthy or perhaps see them go for a Scott Olsen either by trade or if the Nats non-tender him. If they got Davis and/Washburn in addition to Wolf, I'm okay with that too. But I think they'd have to non tender Bush to fit both in. Nobody has talked about Jon Garland, but I wouldn't mind him either.

You mean Gamel couldn't out produce what Hart did last year if he was the one replacing Hart? Defensively Hart is overrated and he is an average at best RF. I just don't see how RF would be a fall off if you put Gamel there even if the Brewers go the route of Nady who wouldn't cost all that much he could outproduce what Hart did last year and give you a boost offensively from RF. There are other options out there in FA that will give you better offensive numbers than what Hart gave the Brewers last year. Ankiel may even give you better production than what Hart gave the Brewers last year. I'm sorry but I am not buying this. I'm also not buying that it's a given SS, 2B and 3B will be a fall off. I also am not sure CF is a sure bet to fall off either because I don't think Gomez is a lock for that position. Heck if they signed Byrd, he could be in CF. Hardy started 110 games at SS and posted a .659 OPS. Based on the 125 ABs and his raking this winter, I think it's a good bet that Escobar will easily surpass those numbers. This guy isn't the number 1 prospect in the organization just because he's a slick fielder. Weeks is certainly capable of a big year, and lets wait until he at least slumps for 80 ABs to bury McGehee.

Byrd would indeed be a nice addition as he can play CF as well as RF.

All the more reason to make a serious effort to bring back Claudio Vargas.

I like the deal. Wolf is very comparable to Ted Lilly, a guy who's capable of a year that resembles that of top #2 or even low #1 starter, but is usually no worse than an average #3. Lilly got 4/$40 million three years ago. Brewers had nothing approaching that from any of their 2-5 guys last year.

MLB trade rumors had listed Maine as a possible non-tender by the Mets. Makes me wonder how healthy he is if they would give him up. The Mets are mentioned on a lot of pitchers so if they were confident in Maine's health, I think they'd hold on to him. I still say Hart for Brandon McCarthy is a good match.

Maybe they'd deal Hawpe for Hart to save some cash. Hawpe's the better hitter and he's lefthanded, but Hart's speed would be an asset in Coors. I agree Francis could the target if it's a pitcher. I don't think the Rockies need to move salary enough to give up Cook for Hart.

Let me throw another name that could be out there if he's non-tendered by the Nats: Scott Olsen. Olsen had the same surgery in July that Bedard had in August and is supposed to be feeling good. Marlins kind of abused him at an early age, but when he was healthy he was a very effective starter (06 and 08) and he doesn't turn 26 until January.

It's hard to look at his numbers and figure out why he'd be any better than any number of minor league FA out there. He's hit a little in Mexico this winter (.312/.347/.751) and he once had 12 HR in the Southern League. Maybe he's got an option left and they wanted a guy they could call up to play SS at a moments notice without a roster move. Makes you wonder if they think Counsell could go elsewhere though.

One thing that's fun about watching the winter leagues is you see names that crop up that haven't been around the majors for quite some time. One that intrigues me is Richard Hidalgo. Hidalgo you may recall was one of the brightest young stars in the game when at age 25 in 2000 he hit .314/.391/.636 with 44 HR and 122 RBI for the Astros. After 2003 when he put up a .957 OPS, his numbers slipped considerably until his final year with Texas in 2005 where he hit .221/.289/.416 but still managed 16 HR in 339 AB's. After leaving the Orioles spring training when his wife became ill in 2006, he left presumably to go to Japan. He joined the indy league Long Island Ducks in 2007 but "retired" prior to the season. In 2008 he attempted a comeback with the Ducks but left the team in August. Last year he played just 2 games in the Mexican League. Whether his presence in the Venezuelan Winter Leagues means he's seriously looking to make a comeback, who knows. But I'd bet scouts are taking note.

Pierre is a terrible CF but good LF. Not really. There is nothing wrong with his fielding either in CF or LF. It's his arm that's the issue. To the extent it's easier for runners to take the extra base on him in CF, then yes, he's better off in LF. But offensively he does a lot of things. He's a great bunter. He puts the ball in play. He doesn't run quite as much but he can still steal a base. He's extremely hard to double up. Furthermore, if he were to have a solid year in 2010, his salary for 2011 of $8.5 million might not be impossible to move if say the Brewers kicked in $2.5 million of his salary. That potentially would make it a complete wash with Suppan.

At this point in their careers, Pierre is a significant offensive upgrade over Gomez. Replacing Suppan with just an average starter is an upgrade to the pitching staff. Upgrading offense and pitching essentially in one move is easily worth an extra $6 million over 2 years.

Up front I make no bones about my affinity for Rivera. It goes way back to 2006, when he was brought up after the release of Bad Chad and continued in the spring of 08 when most on here assumed Eric Munson or JD Closser (remember them?) would win the backup catcher job and I was posting that no, Rivera deserved the job. There's been a lot of assumptions here and elsewhere that the signing of Zaun is the end of Rivera as a Brewer. To quote Lee Corso, "Not so fast". One assumption is that since Rivera is arby-eligible, he is too costly to keep. Two things to consider if this is what you believe: Do you think Rivera's agent is dumb enough to price his guy out of the league? Unless they know other teams are sincerely interested in his services, he's still has very little salary leverage. So it's quite possible that the Brewers could get him under contract before arbitration for a very modest raise and even if it did go as far as exchanging numbers, Rivera's not likely to ask for an amount that will assure he doesn't have a major league job. The other assumption is well, they have plenty of other options now behind the plate. As far as numbers go, this is true. But let's look at the makeup of the candidates. Zaun is the only guy assured of a job. Zaun is a switch hitter who has played mostly against righthanders. Potential backups are lefty swinging inexperienced Kottaras, 2 rookies in Lucroy and Salome, and Rivera. All reports are Salome is not ready so let's eliminate him. Kottaras might make sense though his inability to hit lefthanders limits him. Lucroy makes sense if the Brewers gave him enough starts that he was developing but they might want to wait a couple months to defer his arby eligibilty. But all these guys have one thing in common. None has ever caught this Brewer pitching staff. Rivera has. The other thing to consider is as of now who exactly is the right handed bench bat that can come up late in a game to face a lefty reliever? Answer: There is none unless you consider Heether but didn't the Brewers get burned by trying to use an untested guy (Nelson) in a tough role last year? All the other bench candidates hit lefthanded. On the other hand there is Rivera, a veteran that has shown that he's a productive hitter even with long periods of inactivity. Of course as a lone backup, Rivera's usefulness as a bench bat is very limited. But as a 3rd catcher, now he can be used in a PH role. Not only that, he can play 1B too if Fielder tweaked something. But the real key is having a 3rd catcher allows the manager to the flexibility to double switch the catcher position. That means fewer pitching changes and less stress on the bullpen. So I propose that for now at least Rivera be kept at least until they go out and get a better RH bench bat.

I'm certain that if they pay something like $2.5 million to Counsell, that they are going to play him some (200 or so ABs) so that's probably true especially given Macha's reluctance to play young players last year. Whether Escobar needs protection is questionable. He's going to hit and when he does, why sit him? To justify a big investment in a backup? While the right handers he's facing right now in Venezuela don't qualify as "tough", Alcides is tearing them apart to the tune of .393/.411/.488 in 84 ABs.

A. He wasn't Kendall and B. On the rare occasions he did play, he got a lot of big hits as attested by the fact that Rivera in 08 and 09 drove in a run every 6.3 AB's compared to Kendall's one RBI for every 10.5 AB. That's amazing for a guy who spent the better part of two years sitting with his feet up in the bullpen

He's a long shot to make the Brewer roster, but adds depth for sure and he's lefthanded. There's a lot of signs that Melvin is hedging his bet on Carlos Gomez as the full time CF and this is another. I would discount his numbers a bit in 08 and 09 because there's not too many better places to hit than Tucson and Reno.