JohnBriggs12

Casey? Mientkiewicz (correct spelling)? Brewers already have Mike Lamb, Mat Gamel and Brad Nelson, all of whom have or could play 1B and provide more production than these two.

Thomas is a HOF lock. Forget he's under 2,500 hits (barely). He's got 1,704 RBI to go with the 521 HR. Nobody with those totals not tained with juicing has not made it. Not only that he had back to back MVP's and would have had a 3rd but was beat out by and admitted juicer. He's also got a career BA over .300, a career OBP of .419 and a career SP of .555. Griffey and Thomas were the most feared hitters in the AL in the 90's and nobody else was close. Plus no hint of juicing as he was big when he came into the league.

Marques, Either your dad or Michels may be confusing Sheets' 2007 finger injury. I seem to recall it being mentioned that it was a more typical injury for rock climbers than it is for pitchers. Never was it suggested that Sheets actually was rock climbing. Though one has to wonder if the Brewers know more about Sheets' conditioning habits than other teams.

I think Boras has a real chance of winning this one, so I don't see him settling half way. Had the Brewers come in at say $6.75 million, I'd think they had the upper hand.

The real story goes beyond Sheets. It's the complete collapse of the entire remaining FA market. Agents have cost players millions this offseason by not accepting arbitration. How about Brian Shouse turning down arby thinking he could get a 2 year deal somewhere? He'll be lucky to get a one year major league deal anywhere close to what he earned last year. Some players rather than take minimal salaries or minor league deals will end up retiring. It's amazing to watch this unfold.

I think walk up sales will be down. The fact that so many tickets were sold in packages will likley lead to an oversaturation in the secondary ticket market, especially if the team falls out of it by early August. I'm holding off buying any tickets because I think I'll find them online at under face.

There's a lot of people with houses on the market in the same state of denial. Just like a house, you're worth is determined by what someone is willing to pay you, not by what you think you're worth or what someone paid for someone else. Except for a handful of teams, MLB franchises are worried about the economic impact on revenues. If none of those few teams needs you, then your value drops.

I agree. I think what is holding them up is the Fielder uncertainty. If Boras overplays his hand and files for a ridiculously high number, I think they'll be confident they'll win in arby and will know how much they have to spend.

It doesn't surprise me he wants 2 years. Every report is we haven't seen the worst of this economy. The market for pitchers is more likely to slip next year than it is to pick up and Sheet's will have the security of having a deal in place.

What's more amazing is the Mets wanting him for 1 year at $5 million plus incentives. Obviously Sheets has realized he made a huge mistake not taking arby. I think the Brewers as the only team that wouldn't be giving up a pick need to step up for that price (not more though bklynbrewcrew) unless the injury is more dire than we are led to believe. This has to be Melvin's dream scenario.

I think the Brewers have a younger better version of Heilman named Villanueva. Not that Heilman doesn't have some value, but he hasn't started in quite a while and when he did, he wasn't good (5.93 ERA). He'll be better as a reliever out of NY, but I'm not sure what is value is as a starter.

Aaron Miles alone isn't replacing DeRosa. Miles and Fontenot figure to share 2B. Fontenot earned more PT by hitting .305/.395/.514 in 243 AB's. Both Miles and Fontenot are better defensively than DeRosa. Fontenot had .996 FP and Miles had a .988 FP. DeRosa made double the errors (8) than Miles and Fontenot combined. Nobody has even mentioned Gathright who's in the mix in CF along with Fukudome and Reed Johnson. Nor has anyone mentioned Hoffpauir who replaces Daryl Ward. Luis Vizcaino replaces Howry. Here's the summary: New: Bradley Old: Edmonds Bradley will play RF, not CF and he's not a bad defensive OF when healthy. Edmonds hit a lot of HR for Cubs last year in large part because his power was to the shortest part of Wrigley, the well in LF. Bradley is by far the better overall hitter. New Miles Old: DeRosa. DeRosa is a fine hitter, and his versatility will be missed, but Miles and Mike Fontenot both hit over .300 last year and are better defensively at 2B. New: Vizcaino Old: Howry One veteran rubber armed reliever coming off a down year replacing another. A total wash. New: Gregg Old: Wood Gregg is at least as accomplished a reliever as Wood without the injury risk. New: Gathright Old: Pie Gathright hasn't done much offensively but neither has Pie. Both can run. New: Hoffpauir Old: Ward Hoffpauir had one of the best offensive seasons by any AAA player in 2008 and it translated in limited ABs for Cubs: .342/.400/.534. If Bradley goes down, look for Hoffpauir not to miss a beat offensively. Ward on the other hand was stricly a PH in recent years. Harden was "hurt" when he posted a 1.77 ERA for Cubs last year. Last year at this time, Rich Hill was in their rotation. If the Cubs have a weakness, it's that Neal Cotts is their lone lefty in the bullpen (not counting the newly acquired Olson who figures to be long reliever/spot starter if he makes the team). But last year all they had was Scott Eyre and Marshall as the long man/spot starter so not much change there.

I agree that it's likely that Kendall is the number one option. The question of the original post is whether that's a good thing or not. I think on balance it's a weakness on this team. There might be some alternatives out there, but probably not at a price the Brewers are willing to pay (the D-Backs are asking too much for Montero), given they have catchers in the pipeline. Not sure why Pudge wouldn't be interested in Milwaukee or that he's got much leverage anymore, but if I'm Melvin I'd at least be monitoring his asking price as the days dwindle down without him having a job. Edit: Article on Marlins website today says Marlins want Pudge but will only offer him the major league minimum. Now I would think the Brewers could afford considerably more than that even if it were for splitting time with Kendall. The article also suggests Pudge may not have a job when training camp opens in February.

This "small tear" wasn't news inside the Cub organization. It's why they occasionally skipped his starts. They have him penciled in for 25 starts this year hoping that by skipping every 3rd or 4th start, he'll be as effective as he was for them in 2008 (1.77 ERA in 12 starts). The Cubs knew they needed a spot starter to fill in for 8-10 starts. Olson could be the guy or it could be an Angel Guzman, Randy Wells, or Kevin Hart. I think the Cubs will hedge their bet on Harden by using Samardzija as a AAA starter rather than in their bullpen. Should Harden (or someone else) go down for an extended period, Samardzija will get the call as a long term replacement. If he's not needed to start, you'll see Samardzija brought up later to bolster the pen just like he did in 08

Patrick425, Yadier Molina didn't quite match Kendall's CS rate in 2008, but teams ran less on Molina. As much as you may love Kendall's intangibles, even with them, he's far behind Soto and Molina (who excel in both intangibles and stats) in his value to his team and there's no reason to run him out there as much as they did last year.

Ru Rah Rah, I'm glad you started this thread. I've brought up Kendall's lack of offensive production in numerous other threads. In 2008, Kendall hit 47 points under his career BA, 44 points under his career OBP, and 64 points below his career SLP. He's approaching 35. He could well be done. Yet nobody seems concerned about the catching situation. Maybe with rest that a 34 year old guy who hits .246 with no power should get (twice a week instead of twice a month) he might hit closer to his career norms. Maybe had Yost figured this out, he still might be manager. Kendall caught a career high 1,328 innings last year. How ridiculous is that? This will give you an idea. Neither Johnny Bench or Pudge Rodriguez ever caught that many even in their prime. Carlton Fisk did once. I think this is due in large part because Brewer fans have such a high tolerance for bad catchers. Throw out a few guys and suddenly you're brilliant. Forget the rotation and the lineups, the Cubs biggest edge on the Brewers is their starting catchers. By the way, Pudge is still out there. I've always had a soft spot for Mike Rivera, but having Pudge splitting time with Kendall would give this team a boost in an area it needs one.

Why is this thread headlined "for two prospects"? This deal on the surface could end up a plus for both teams. The O's might have gotten the bigger upside, but Pie is no sure thing. He'll help that woeful Oriole pitching staff with his defense though. Olson isn't a prospect. He was arguably the worst starter in MLB last year, though anywhere but Baltimore, he'd have been in AAA. Still he's just 25 and his minor league numbers have been very good, so he gives the Cubs some potential rotation depth. Pie wasn't in their plans after acquiring Gathright and Bradley.

Rich Hill suffers from "Steve Blass" disorder. He can't throw strikes any more. No need to trade for him, he'll likely end up being on waivers. Blalock's road splits are rather ugly.

Cruz was offered arby. He could have taken it. Same goes with Sheets. I'll bet Cruz ends up a Yankee because he won't cost them a very high pick.

Nate82, If the Ortega's so good, then the Angels should be willing to give up either Saunders or Weaver. Fielder is a premium talent. No way I'd give him up for a pitching prospect who's allowed a hit an inning in the minors (Ortega), an as yet unproved 3rd baseman (Wood), a backup OF (Willits) and a righthanded hitting 1B/DH that has a .262 career minor league BA and .316 career OBP and who committed more errors at 1b last year than Fielder (Trumbo). That's the deal you are proposing and it's not a good one. That it's a lot of unproven talent doesn't hide the fact that it's still unproven talent. The deal I'd make would be Saunders or Weaver, plus Figgins for Fielder and Cameron. The Angels do value defense. As strong an arm as Vlad has, they've been using him more at DH to preserve his somewhat gimpy wheels. They could decide to make Vlad a 1st baseman to prolong his career. That would open up a spot in RF for Cameron. My deal would save $10-11 million this year for the Brewers, freeing up cash to sign Abreu (not Dunn), resulting in Hart moving to 1B and Abreu to RF, and replace a strikeout prone 6th hitter in the lineup with a higher average, switchitting top of the order type that can also play CF and adding a proven 2-3 type starter. Now I'm not saying the Angels make that deal, but that's what I'd consider for Fielder, not a bunch of maybes and could be's

I could have gotten rich on predicting a blast by the opponents hitter that followed a Mike Maddux visit to the mound. Hopefully, Castro says something other than "just let em hit it."

The lineup that scored 750 runs (7th) and hit just .253 (12th) and had a .325 OBP (10th) hasn't been improved in any of those areas. Going into last season the expectation was for much more offense than that. The offense would have been worse had not Branyan given them such a spark in June. Sure guys are capable of better years, but can Kendall and Cameron in their mid 30's decline further? You bet. Yes they were in first in the WC when Sabathia arrived, but it was CC that singlehandidly prevented a 2nd straight collapse. There's no rotation depth. The ace is a guy who's never pitched a full major league season. Manny Parra is being counted on to be a big winner and he collapsed late in the season. But he certainly wasn't alone. The difference between last offseason and this one is that the flaws of this group are clearer than they were a year ago. Nobody can predict what will happen with certainty, and every team has iffs. But this Brewer team has more iffs than teams that are generally considered contenders.

How much is an all-star game appearance worth in arby hearings? Anything?All Star games mean nothing when you follow it up by going .239/.263/.396 with just 5 HR in 255 AB's the rest of the way.

How much is an all-star game appearance worth in arby hearings? Anything?All Star games mean nothing when you follow it up by going .239/.263/.396 with just 5 HR in 255 AB's the rest of the way.

How much is an all-star game appearance worth in arby hearings? Anything?All Star games mean nothing when you follow it up by going .239/.263/.396 with just 5 HR in 255 AB's the rest of the way.