JohnBriggs12

Mora wasn't over the hill nor mediocre in 2008. He had more RBI's per AB than any Brewer regular including Fielder and Braun. He also tied Braun at .285 which led the Brewer regulars. His OBP has been steady at just over .340 for 4 straight seasons or roughly equal to Hardy and Weeks who were behind only Fielder on the Brewers. He's been very solid defensively his entire career. Plus he's got an option for 2010 so you could get 2 years out of him, not one. The one concern is health. He's had some issues that have limited him the last 2 years, but he did play in around 130 games this year. And he doesn't strike out nearly as often as most of the Brewers. I might add Mora did all this playing in the AL East which boasted 3 of the top 4 pitching staffs in the AL (Toronto, Tampa Bay, Boston). As for Sherrill being "average", I also beg to differ. Sherrill saved a respectable 31 of 37, and though his ERA and WHIP were up from lights out numbers in 07, he still fanned more than a hitter per inning and allowed fewer hits than innings. Plus he's just now entering arby and the Brewers would have control for 3 years. I won't even go into Roberts. He's a top leadoff hitter, and even one year is worth it. I like this deal a lot. They get proven talent upgrades in 3 needed spots and it costs them in one spot. They don't need prospects. They have those and they'll have more after next year's draft It also frees them up do more deals with their current infielders for pitching, CF, and or 1B help. It could mean Gamel gets a shot at 1B. They'd definitely need to find one other lefthanded bat even if Gamel claims the 1B job but they'd have the pieces to do just that.

I'm with LS Brewer. That bases loaded double by Mike Rivera that tied a game in the 8th inning after Gagne had allowed back to back HR in the top of the inning was right near the top of my list. When you see the replay of that, Bill Schroeder says this about what Rivera's thinking: "how about more playing time?" Yeah Ned and Dale, why didn't you play that guy more?

A fall Sunday afternoon has meant Packer football on TV for 50 years. It's ingrained into the culture of the state. I was in Lambeau Sunday, with 70,000 other people. Another 80,000 people were in Madison Saturday night. I had earphones on listening to the Brewers as did many others. I was updating the fans around me as the game progressed. Everyone around me was interested but not expecting much. After all, we've all seen Suppan. People were interested in the Brewers but I sensed that having watched this team play so poorly most of September, there was very little belief in them succeeding beyond what they had done. So rather than invest emotionally again for the Brewers, they stuck to their football habit. Besides, even a Brewer win just meant there would be another game (that wouldn't conflict with a Packer game) and that was the game with the potential for the big payoff for a Brewer fan. As far as bucksman's comment about it being only the "Falcons", it's the NFL (not for long) bucksman where teams are on equal payroll footing, and last I checked the Falcons are 3-2 and actually pretty good. Tsack are you telling me there are no bars in GB with satellite? I can't believe they all just have cable.

I think the Brewers want Shouse back too but they shouldn't go overboard with their offer. Stetter showed in playoffs, that he's the main man to get the tough lefties out now.

Spahn wasn't a pitch to contact pitcher. He did have over 2,500 career K's. Back then hitters made better contact overall. You didn't have guys swinging for the fences all the time. Guys actually choked up on the bat with 2 strikes. There were a few guys who came along like that like Dave Nicholson, but they never lasted. Sluggers of the era like a Willie McCovey, rarely struck out more than 120 times and often walked more. It wasn't until the Rob Deers of the world came along that strikeouts lost their stigma. In 1957, Duke Snider led the majors in strikeouts with 104. Nobody else in either league struck out 100 times. By today's standards, Snider would be considered a "contact hitter". And don't tell me guys didn't throw hard in those days either because they did. The hitters did have the advantage of not having to face as many hard throwing relief specialists though it's not like they were totally non-existant. Speaking of Spahn, he had 35 career home runs in the so-called "dead ball era". Spahn would make hitters of today look silly and to say the greatest lefthander of all time wouldn't make the majors today is not worth a response.

I know quite a few Sox fans and they are ready to run Vazquez out of town. He's had one year with an ERA under 4.42 in his last 5 seasons. That's a lot to pay for a guy who'll be 33 next season and in 3 postseason starts has allowed 18 earned runs and 24 hits in 15 2/3 innings. No way do I take on that salary. If Suppan had his arm, you'd have quite a pitcher but Suppan doesn't and Vazquez has never achieved anything near his ability.

You make quality points endaround, but Johnson returning is no sure thing. He'd have to take a significant pay cut for Arizona to sign him so he might look elsewhere. As for Davis, his 1.53 WHIP would have him on my dead weight list at $8.75 million. By the way endaround, you missed several guys on the White Sox: Javier Vazquez: $11.5 million in 2009; $11.5 million in 2010 2008 numbers: 12-16, 4.67 ERA, terrible down the stretch and in playoffs. Sox version of Suppan Nick Swisher: $5.3 million in 2009; $6.75 million in 2010; $9 million in 2011. 2008: .219/.332/.410. A guy who might be useful to Brewers as a switch hitter with OB skills who can play CF (though not well), but is prone to huge slumps and was awful down the stretch for Sox. Committing over $20 million to this guy is a huge risk. Jose Contreras: $10 million in 2009 Best case scenario is a July return from achilles injury. J

I'd swap Suppan for Byrnes if I could. To me Byrnes' downside is potentially less devasting than Suppan's. Plus I think it's easier to imagine him being a positive contributor than it is Suppan. I think Suppan's best days are clearly behind him. All of these guys are risky, but Byrnes is just one year away from his career year, and he has a history of rebounding. He's likely to be at least as productive as Cameron. He's also 3 years younger and doesn't strike out as much. Yeah, he hasn't played CF since 06, but he was moved to make room for Young who is a stud out there. Byrnes is adequate at best, but who else to the Brewers have if they don't overpay Cameron?

Hardy's stats are good but they're not in the class of Ernie Banks who was the premier SS in the Spahn years. In 1959 Banks hit .304 with 45 HR and 143 RBI. That TWR is Hall of Fame numbers, not what Hardy is doing. Put Banks in his prime in Minutemaid, Miller Park, Great American Ballpark, for most of his road games and he'd hit 50 some home runs easily, In Spahn's time there were 16 major league teams. I'd put a lineup like the Giants had with Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, Alou etc, against any lineup of today. The Braves lineup of the late 50's, Bruton, Logan, Mathews, Aaron, Adcock, Covington, Crandall, Schoendinst, had 3 HOF's and another (Adcock) who would have easily had 400 career home runs if not for some serious time lost due to injury. Many of the guys now in the majors would be minor leaguers in that era. I'm 56 years old. I grew up watching those guys and saw many including Spahn in person. They were great players then and they'd be great players now.

I'd like to point out that Parra will be 26 next season. That really isn't young by baseball standards. In fact it's nearing prime. He wore down mentally this year more than anything. He never lost any velocity. Gallardo will be 23 and while that's still pretty young, it's not like he's 20. Plus he's the de-facto ace of the staff.

Right now there are more questions than answers. I wouldn't discount possibility of Villanueva either returning to the rotation or getting a shot at the closer role as there is precedent for non-power arms being quite successful and Villanueva is really a mature pitcher for his age. Last spring the Brewers didn't bring in a huge quantity of non-roster arms. I think that will change. There's going to be competition.

Judging a manager over 16 games is like judging a hitter after 40 AB's. The sample size is just too small. Removing Yost relieved some tension. It didn't matter who was brought in it should have had some positive effect. Besides we don't know if the law of averages was kicking in or the fact they faced the Pirates followed by a disinterested Cub group. He made some good pitching moves but one really bad one in starting Suppan on a day he was clearly ok with using Gallardo multiple innings in relief. They'd be foolish not to look at other guys. They may eventually settle on Sveum, but they shouldn't hand him the job based on 2-3 weeks.

Rosenthal isn't speculating that Hardy will be traded, he's saying Hardy himself thinks he will be traded. There's a reason Escobar was untouchable in the Sabathia deal. He's that good and everybody in the game knows it, including Hardy.

A playoff game is a bigger deal, but in Wisconsin, people care what the Packers are doing. I doubt too many will stay tuned to baseball between innings and watch the ads for Frank TV 50 times. The advertisers sure won't be getting any bang for their buck.

Some of us are able to follow more that one sport at a time. When your season consists of 16 games, they're all important. For that matter, the OSU/Wisconsin game is on my mind too. I'm pretty certain a good share of the 70,000 with tickets to Lambeau Sunday are Brewer fans too.

Adds to the gloom. Takes the one lefthanded hitting OF with CF skills anywhere near the big leagues out of the equation.

Lovely, start the game the same time as the Packers game. Morons.

Patrick, Kendall's career numbers aren't anything special throwing out runners so it' likely that going forward they will be less than what they were in 09. Brian McCann had 99 more total bases than Kendall and even though he's near the bottom throwing out runners, a guy like Kendall has a hard time even approaching the value to his team than McCann provides. The topic of this thread has to do with the offense which has been pathetic. Offensively, Kendall is bad, plain and simple. That's not to say that he's not at least a middle of the pack overall catcher in 2008 but the offense needs improvement and playing Kendall 150 games is part of that problem.

Patrick425, You are telling me you prefer Kendall over: Brian Mccann, Geo Soto, Russell Martin, AJ Pierzynski, Kelly Shoppach and Pudge? I don't think you'd find one major league scout that would take Kendall over any of those guys or any of the guys on your list either. Yet none of those guys (even young studs like Mauer and Soto) catches as many games as Kendall. That's the problem and why I compared Kendall to Bench and the Pudges. Those are the only types of guys that have any business catching 150 or more games and Kendall isn't and never was close to being in their class.

"I think the best comparison to Escobar playing next year is Hardy's first half of his rookie year". You are ignoring some important facts with that statement JJ. Hardy missed almost the entire 2004 season prior to his stuggles the first half of 2005, his rookie year. Escobar has nearly double the minor league AB's that Hardy had (2,141 to 1,142). Hardy never hit over .300 in any minor league season. Escobar is coming off back to back season's where he's hit over .300. Every player is different. Hardy is a fine player no doubt, but Escobar might well be capable of being good next season. That Hardy wasn't for a few months doesn't mean Escobar can't be. Escobar also adds the dimension of speed that Hardy doesn't possess.

There's better offensive catchers on practically every team. Heck Rivera is. Kendall was once a good hitter, but he's not now. He's been good defensively but not in the class of other catchers that have caught everyday like Pudge and Johnny Bench. But those guys were premier hitters too. No way should an under .250 hitter, with no power, who's only slightly above average defensively and in his mid 30s be starting 150 games. There's no question in my mind that if he starts 125 games instead, he probably hits 25 points higher and they get much more out of that position without sacrificing all that much defensively.

You guys who think "fix 3b and you've fixed the problem" haven't been watching games. I pointed out last winter after the Cameron signing, that the team was far too A. Righthanded and B. Strikeout prone. I said that this would cause Fielder's numbers to go down significantly (they have), and make it easier for opposing pitchers to get in a groove facing similar hitters throughout the lineup. People pointed out to me well, "Jenkins didn't do anything anyway, so how is not having him going to affect anything?" And of course people couldn't get Estrada out of town fast enough, but as bad as he was in 2007 and he was bad, he was a more productive hitter than Jason Kendall was this year. You cannot build an effective lineup with essentially 6 righthander hitters who strike out between 98 and 142 times and a catcher who plays every day that can't hit .250 and slug over .325. Counsell was right when he said "If I have to play a lot, it's bad news". Counsell is not an adequate platoon player anywhere at this stage of his career. At best, he's a nice 25th man on your roster. It's also bad news when you start the same catcher 150 times and he's over the hill (as a hitter) like Jason Kendall. That Rivera didn't get more opportunities after producing in the few he got is a mystery. Fixing Corey Hart and Hall is still possible but you need to have them surrounded with a couple high average, good contact, lefthanded hitters so opposing pitchers won't be able to hone on in with their sliders. Cameron is another guy who's much more effective in a lineup that is balanced. Having Cameron, Hall, and Hart all in there is asking for trouble. It's no coincidence that the offense from top to bottom was at its best when Branyan was hot. Unfortunately Branyan has never sustained it over a season, so he's not the answer. But stick a guy like Aubrey Huff (just an example) in there and it would make everyone else better. They just have to find that guy. Maybe it's Gamel, who knows? Maybe they have to deal to get one, but something has to be done.

Another guy with bad contract that could be exchanged for Suppan is Eric Byrnes. Byrnes has come out and said he'd waive his no-trade clause if he likes where he would be going. Byrnes is owed $22 million over 2 years. He's certainly capable of giving you what Cameron does offensively with better contact. He's not Cameron defensively, but he's played there.

Even is Suppan starts, there's no reason Gallardo can't come in relief at the first sign of trouble. I don't think Svuem will allow Suppan more than twice through the order even if he's sharp and not that much if he's not. I expect the same plan to be in effect with Bush, with Parra/McClung ready practically from the start. Personally, I'd start Parra in game 4. Lefthanders are just better matchups vs. Phillies.

It's amazing that this team won 90 games with as poor an offense as they have. I can think of lots of Brewer teams that were under .500 that had far better offensive teams than this one. The 1996 team that went 80-82 scored 144 more runs than this team for instance. The lineup for 2009 needs major changes. They can't win next year with 7 guys with 98 or more K's and and low OBP.