JohnBriggs12

Actually I kind of like the thinking especially early on. No matter who's pitching the odds against Lincecum on opening day aren't good. Why not sacrifice that game with Suppan, then follow him with Bush and Parra against Cain and Johnson. Then you'd have Gallardo to face the Cubs #4 starter in the home opener and Looper to face their #5. By not squaring up against opponents aces initially, Gallardo will build up confidence (and a winning record) that will serve him well later when he will be facing more aces. You can always skip over Suppan down the road when off days allow.

I agree with you on Stetter, but no way they start the year with 13 pitchers including 7 righthanders in the pen. Right now Julio and Coffey are 11th and 12th pitchers unless Riske isn't completely healthy. Any one or two of Dillard, Swindle, or Morlan could knock out a Coffey or even a Julio. I'm thinking their not certain Riske is completely healthy, hence the interest in Cordero and or Isringhausen.

Paige didn't exactly "pitch into his 60's". Nobody was sure exactly how old Paige was. He's listed as being born in 1906 and it's possible he was a couple years older but nevertheless, he didn't pitch continuously after 1953 when he probably was no older than 50 or so. Charlie Finley, the erstwhile owner of the then Kansas City A's who at that time were perennial losers, saw a marketing opportunity and signed Paige in September of 1965 as a publicity stunt. I remember Finley had Paige pose in a rocking chair they had set up in the bullpen. Paige made one start, on September 25th that year, and pitched 3 scoreless innings. The start did boost attendance for that one game. The day before another future Hall of Famer, 19 year old Catfish Hunter, shut out the Red Sox on 2 hits in front of 2,300 die hard fans. Paige drew a "crowd" of 9,289. Officially, Paige was 59 when he made that start, 40 years older than his teammate Catfish Hunter.

Great point Joe. I wondered all last year when Yost's job description was modified to include keeping Jason Kendall happy.

Since they were going to look at Mendoza, might as well take a look at Isringhausen. I think there still must be some concern over Riske's health.

I love both the quote and the tone it sets. I've taken a wait and see approach to Macha but he sure passed the test on this one. No way is Kendall a guy who should start 150 games.

Assuming a guy can competently describe a play, and can be objective about it, the most important thing to the fans listening is that the guy has a passion not just for the game but for the team he is describing on a daily basis. I'm sure Provus will feign passion for the Brewers and if he's around long enough, perhaps he will acquire some attachment to the team. But how long was Powell here? 12 years? The first chance he got to go "home", he did it. So much for his attachment to the Brewers.

That he worked for the Cubs doesn't bother me, but the guy is a native of Highland Park, and thus a lifelong Cub fans. I've heard him doing games during Hughes' bathroom breaks. He's okay but nothing special. There's hundreds of guys out there that are just as competent that aren't tied to the Cubs. This is a terrible decision that compares to the time they brought in diehard White Sox fan Loren Brown to replace Merle Harmon. This guy will jump into the Cubs booth the minute Pat Hughes retires. It took some time for me to get used to Wayne Larivee after he jumped from Bears to Packers, but Larivee didn't grow up a Bears fan so I could accept him.

Let's stop saying Gamel is Braun. Gamel's fielding took a huge step forward in 2008. His fielding percentage at Huntsville was .918. Braun's fielding percentage at Huntsville in 2006 was .869. Now .918 still isn't good, but if he continues to progress, it's not that far from acceptable if he hits. I heard Bill Melton on Chicago radio the other day talking about how bad Robin Ventura was defensively when he came out of Oklahoma State. Ventura made 25 errors his rookie year with the Sox and fielded a mediocre .939. The next year he won a Gold Glove, his first of 5. I'm not saying Gamel will ever win a gold glove, but to judge him primarily on one season of minor league ball where he made a bunch of errors is shortsighted. There are many instances where 3rd basemen started off with very poor defensive reputations and turned into fine players. Mike Schmidt won 10 gold gloves but 5 times he had 23 or more errors in a season. Eddie Mathews was considered a butcher early in his career but he turned himself into a solid player there. Bottom line is, it's a tough position and even the best are going to make errors but the more experience one gets, usually the better one gets there.

Cruz might be smart to wait until after the June draft and then sell himself to the highest bidder.

While I appreciate how impressive hard throwers can be, I don't understand the fascination with Pena. He's 26 years old and except for half a season at Huntsville in 2007, he's done nothing above A ball. Even his last full season in A ball in 2006, his ERA was 4.43. It's not like it's just walks either. He's allowed a hit per inning over his entire minor league career. What's special about that? He doesn't compare with McClung. McClung has had command issues but never walked a batter an inning over a full season like Pena did in 2008. In fact McClung posted a full season ERA under 2 at AAA. Throwing hard doesn't make you a major league pitcher. Pena's had 531 minor league innings. That's plenty of time for the light to go on. It hasn't.

This isn't bad for Gamel, it's good for Gamel. It's spring training. Macha was going to have to find a way to play 4 different guys there this spring and that's not counting Counsell. There aren't enough split squad games to do that. Now it's a more manageable 3 guys (McGehee, Lamb and Gamel). By the time Hall's back, the minor league teams will be playing games. If Hall's not ready to start the season, McGehee will unless of course Gamel blows everybody away in camp and if he's ready to take over, that's a plus for this team because he's a lefthanded bat. Where it's bad is they won't have the opportunity to stick Hall out in the OF to help out an area that's very thin. If Cameron went down, I'd want an alternative to Gwynn and Duffy and that guy is Hall.

No it's not. It's a numbers thing, Right now there are 4 OF on the 40 man roster. Even if you include non-roster guys Nixon and Duffy, that's only 6. That's not to say Gwynn will make the opening day roster but he's got a lot fewer guys to contend with than Pena. Pena had zero chance of making the Brewers opening day roster. Even the likely AAA bullpen guys (Dillard, Aguilar, and Bateman) were ahead of Pena.

It will be interesting to see if any team shows any interest in Pena now that he's been DFA'd.

Those calling for Gwynn to be DFA'd need to remember a spot will need to be created if and when Trot Nixon is added. That won't happen until late in ST.

Aside from the Yankees, I think the Nats had the best offseason. They fleeced the Marlins for Scott Olsen and Josh Willingham, and added a booming bat in Adam Dunn in the middle of the order. They also re-signed their number 3 starter from last year for a minor league contract. As for the Brewers for the 2nd straight offseason Melvin failed to add a lefthanded bat to the everyday lineup when there was a big group of qualified FA candidates out there. I know I get clobbered every time I bring up Cameron, but my main problem with him is that as good as he is, for 2 years he's been the primary reason they don't have a compliment to Fielder from the left side. Last year ok, there wasn't much to choose from so Melvin got the best guy he could get regardless of which side they hit from. But this offseason he had two chances to clear room to get a big lefty bat either by not picking up a big option on Cameron or dealing him to the Yankees. He did neither. To compensate, Melvin now has a bench of all lefthanded hitters aside from backup catcher. How that balances out an everyday lineup with 7 righthanded bats most of whom are similar in that they have trouble getting a runner in from 3rd with less than 2 outs, I don't know.

The Nats have made some real good moves this offseason. If they were to add Orlando Hudson along with Dunn, look out. That would be one tough lineup especially if Milledge and Dukes take a step forward. That's not to say they'd be a serious threat in the NL East, but they could well be a wild card factor.

Thank you crewcrazy. Jon Heyman is the same guy who called Abreu's defensive deficiencies way overblown. Heyman contends, that because his one big problem (fear of the wall) was combined with the glare of playing for the Yankees and their many outrageous fans, that his overall defense was ignored. He still has a very good arm and he can still run and he made only 2 errors in 2008. Heyman also contends that one reason Abreu has not seen a DL in 13 years is because he's not reckless in the field. According to Heyman that costs his team a half dozen doubles that should be outs over the course of the year but considering Abreu is on pace to end up in the top 5 or 10 in career doubles himself, it's not a bad tradeoff.

Jim Rice just got in with 2,452 hits. Abreu has a higher lifetime BA than Rice .300 to .298 and a career OBP more than 50 points higher than Rice and figures to pass his hit and RBI totals. It would be a long shot for Abreu to pass Rice in HR, as he trails by 141 but I don't think he needs 3,000 hits. The big stat in Abreu's favor is 6 straight years of 100+ RBI and 10 straight years of 98 or more runs scored. If he reaches 9-10 straight 100+ RBI years, he'll have an excellent case for HOF regardless of his hits total. You'd be hard pressed to find any guys with 10 straight 100+ RBI years and a lifetime .300 BA that are not in the HOF. This is an absolute steal for the Angels. Some of you guys that talk like he's decrepit at 35 are the same ones that think Cameron at 36 is still worth $10 million. Abreu still stole 22 bases last year and played in 156 games.

liveoctober, You need to worry about Suppan. He's a 5-6 inning guy. Gallardo on the other hand is going to be asked to go 7 most nights. I also don't think this affects Villanueva at all. He was the 8th inning guy before this deal and he still is. I think we'll see McClung make 8-10 starts (a semi 6 man rotation). That might take 1-2 starts from everyone else and keep Gallardo to no more than 200 innings, and Parra to around 185.

Get used to it guys. The consensus perception nationally is that the Brewers have taken a big step backward this offseason.

No offense Patrick425 but you are making a classic mistake assuming that times are so much better now than they were in the mid 90's. Those teams had guys who put up big numbers. Jaha had a year with 34 HR and 118 RBI. Kevin Seitzer had 3 years in a row where he hit over .310. Daryl Hamilton was a good CF and was usually around .350-.360 OBP leading off. Greg Vaughn was a 30 HR, 95 RBI guy. David Nilsson had a year where he hit .331/.407/.525 and he was primarily a catcher. Jeff Cirillo was beginning a stellar career. Heck even the guy you dissed, Mieske, had 3 straight years slugging over .430 as a platoon guy. Even the pitchers you mentioned all had their moments. Eldred was as good a prospect as any they have now, but he got hurt. Bones had a year or two where he was a decent starter as was Karl and even Sparks. Every year there was reason for hope. Yes the Brewers have some very high quality players now, like Fielder, Braun, and Hardy. But except for Pittsburgh and San Diego, every NL team can say that and even those teams have some very good players. As sure as spring follows winter, 10 years from now, fans will be saying things like "At least we no longer have a team with bums like (take your pick, Weeks, Hall, Nixon, Counsell, Kendall, Suppan,) playing key roles. That's the way it is with fans. As years pass, and players that never quite lived up to expectations move on, fans forget that they pinned hopes on these guys, just as fans did 10 years prior. This team is much like many Brewer teams in the past. They have to have a lot of thing go right, not just for themselves but with their competition. Even the most optimistic fan on here is conceding the division to the Cubs. That leaves the Wild Card which is contested not among 6 teams but among 13. The odds of winning the WC in any given year are not very good, much less twice in a row. I'm hoping for decent health and an entertaining season and some new faces to emerge at some point in the season. If that happens, I'll be satisfied because I don't think this particular Brewer team is well positioned for a huge year. It's certainly not hopeless, but there's just too many ifs and hopes to feel really confident.

Bush's BABIP rate might appear to be lucky, but BABIP doesn't figure in HR, and he allowed 29. His problem has always been that balls hit hard off of him tend to leave the park. If half of those hit off the wall instead, his BABIP rate wouldn't appear to be as lucky, and his ERA would be in the 3's.

I really question that projection on Abreu. Abreu's worst full seasons by category: BA: .283 OBP: .369 SLG: .445. How can you assume he's suddenly going to start regressing dramatically especially if you're not assuming Cameron (who's a year older) will? And how exactly does one rate a guy who scored 223 runs and drove in 201 over the past two season to be below Hart? Abreu has driven in 100 runs for 7 straight years and 8 of the last 9 and is a career .300 hitter. If he does that 3 or 4 more years, he has a case for the HOF. Baseball-reference BtRuns in 2008: Hart -5.2. Abreu +17.7. Abreu has never been below +14. Also other than his problem with the wall, could someone please quantify his fielding deficiencies? He's had double digit OF assists 7 times. Dunn's done it twice but his RF experience is 82 games.

In my book Bush is the #2 starter until Parra actually proves he's better over a longer period than 2 months. To list Parra who's coming off a year where he had a 1.54 WHIP ahead of Bush who's WHIP was 1.14 (and who'd career WHIP is 1.23) makes no sense to me. Granted WHIP isn't the be all and end all, but it's a good indication of solid, consistent pitching. My order would be: 1. Gallardo 2. Bush 3. Looper 4. Parra 5. Suppan or McClung