JohnBriggs12

Stone did throw Hardy's name out there as possibly the PTBNL but he has no inside info at all. He was going on the fact that the Brewers refused to include Escobar in the deal and his thought was well that means they are going to insert Escobar at SS in 2009. While Escobar at SS in 2009 (at least at some point) is certainly possible, as Haudricourt said this morning that doesn't mean Hardy's going anywhere as he might well move to 3B or even 2B. Expect to hear all kind of nonsense out of Chicago. They are having a real hard time coming to grips that the Brewers pulled this off and want desperately for them to have grossly overpaid and/or the Cubs to pull off some similar deal in response. Look for the Chicago media types to harp on Brewers' defense and bullpen as the difference. Never mind that the Cubs and Brewers have the exact same fielding percentage (.983) and total errors (56).

Rotoworld quotes the Cleveland Plain Dealer as saying the PTBNL is either Brantley or Green.

Shutting down Suppan until after the break makes sense to me. But they can do that with 13 man staff instead of DL'ing him. I'd send down Dillon for some much needed regular AB's.

Just a guess, but I'm thinking they could send Dillon down for some AB's and go with 13 pitchers for the next couple weeks, or until somebody complains of some soreness. Maybe they float McClung or Bush on the trade market. Who knows? It would be tough to send down Stetter as well as he's pitched, though he'd probably stay sharp pitching more often at AAA and they know he's going to be big asset in September.

I'm starting to think Attanasio is wealthier far beyond what we have believed up until now. For that reason, I think anything is possiible.

rluzinski, This trade goes beyond the 2-3 additional wins your statistical analysis measures Sabathia to be worth. The mental boost it gives this team will far outpace 2 games. Teams respond to management going out and getting premium players. Now if we can only convince Suppan that his shoulder is hurting and he should spend a month or so on the DL.

I'm just going by what I saw of Hu against the Brewers and Cubs. He was completely overmatched. Granted it was only a little over 100 AB's and he had some success at the minor league level, but the Dodgers wouldn't be looking at Jack Wilson if they thought Hu was even close to being average.

Hu was the single most overmatched hitter I've seen this season. He's a long way from a major league shortstop.

Kendall was traded to the Cubs by Oakland. Most Cub fans were not too happy with him as teams ran at will on him. As for Edmonds, those lazy fly balls to left field are HR only in Wrigley. He's pretty useless anywhere else.

Maddux is a Dave Bush quality pitcher at this point in his career. His acquistion will just mean I'll be focused on football as usual in October.

clancyphile, No knock on Hardy, but Escobar is a far, far better prospect than JJ ever was. Not only as twobrewers points out, he's added power, he also has the dimension of speed.

I think that is the correct offer to make. (Unless you throw in Braddock or Cain somewhere) That is miles better than the two compensation picks that Indians receive. (Plus we save the Indians $5 Million dollars by paying CC the rest of the year) Another team could offer a package that included a better "central piece", but ours would have the most overall talent. I am thinking I can live with giving up LaPorta straight up. He doesn't really have a home, as he isn't a natural OF. But that means we need to keep Prince until he hits FA. I would rather have LaPorta at 1B, and trade Prince for starting pitching that is going to stay for a long time. Green is untouchable to me. I know he isn't on the same level as LaPorta/Gamel/Escobar yet, but he plays a very important position for the Brewers. Green can play 2B and potentially replace Weeks. (Name any other prospect that has a legitimate chance to replace Weeks?) Green is also our back-up 3B in case Gamel can't stick at 3B. And the weakest positions on the Brewers right now are 3B and 2B. I am not interested in trading away our prime contender. At least trading away LaPorta is dealing from a position of strength. (OF) As long as they have Escobar and Hardy, you shouldn't worry. Hardy could easily slide over to 3B and the way he's swinging the bat now, he's proving to have the lumber for a more offensive position. If Gamel can play third, Escobar could slide over to 2B. If not, 2B is by far the easiest position to find decent available talent. All you guys fearing this deal need to look at Randy Johnson to Houston deal in 1998, Sabathia can have that kind of impact. Johnson went 10-1 for the Astros. The other suitor for him that summer were the Cubs who the Astros easily held off thanks in large part to that deal. Houston gave up more quality than the Brewers are talking about (Freddy Garcia and Carlos Guillen), yet it didn't ruin their future as they won the division the next year in 1999 and several more times shortly after.

Every start Sabathia makes for Indians, reduces his value to the Brewers. I'm a little worried that Haudricourt has the list, because it could mean that Melvin is floating the names to make it look like he's making this great effort.

I don't think Mota was the main culprit. Branyan made a really dumb play to start the inning. If you can't get to the ball, you let the shortstop play it. Hardy throws out the catcher easy there. The infield hit to Weeks is one that Gantner used to make in his sleep. The hit off of Shouse was the killer of the inning though. That changed the entire tenor of the game.

Absolutely. You also cannot bring the infield in with the winning run on second. In that situation, your best chance to win is to play for the tie. I know letting them tie the game there might have seemed like a loss but at least you have time to regroup. Once the ball starts rolling, Yost seems to be clueless on how to stop it.

You're kidding right? You are not actually going to sit a pitcher who's 7-0 with a 3.04 ERA in his last 8 starts to "keep his innings down". Parra's 25 years old (will be 26 right around the time he throws WS clincher), not 21. Besides that he's only on pace for around 175 innings now.

Where does Sabathia go? Seriously, they should go with: Parra, Sheets, Suppan, Bush and McClung. That ensures Parra and Sheets both pitch against St. Louis and Chicago. It also allows Parra to pitch on normal rest after the break, Sheets an extra day after he appears in the ASG and extra time to get Sabathia in here. Then they could replace McClung with Sabathia on 7/22 vs. the Cards, start McClung on 7/27, then start Sabathia vs. Cubs in opener on 7/28 and give Yost the option of either Bush or Suppan for the 2nd game vs. the Cubs.

Jarrod Washburn in his last 7 starts: IP: 42 2/3 H: 46 R: 14 ER: 14 BB: 19 SO: 26 ERA: 2.95 W-L: 2-1 Now those numbers may be good enough that Seattle won't deal him (he's signed through 2009), but if Seattle is serious about dismantling and starting over, I think Washburn makes a lot more sense to Brewers than does Burnett. Sure he's basically the Doug Davis of the AL, but on a team that scores runs, that's not all that bad.

Pouty is a good word. He was lamenting all the chances the D-Backs had but didn't capitalize on. At one point after Weeks HR, he said something to the effect that the D-Backs "deservered" to come back and win this game. Maybe it had something to do with his lame "redhead" section. I'm not a huge Brian Anderson fan, but I don't mute the sound nearly as much as I did with Sutton. As for McClung, he couldn't command his curveball very well, but his fastball was still hitting occasionally in the mid 90's and his control was off so that D-Back hitters were not very comfortable. He also ran up his pitch count early in the game. Brian and Bill kept trying to give him the "dead arm" excuse, but it's been 6 weeks and 8 starts as a starter so I don't think that excuse flys.

That "high price" is worth it. It improves this years team greatly, without mortgaging the future. A middle infield spot needs to be opened up for Escobar, and soon. If he's not quite ready for 2009, I'm sure they could get a stopgap. My inkling though is Arizona is not going to be satisfied with Kapler or say a Gwynn, and the guy who goes will be Cameron. Cameron for Hudson makes the most sense to me, as both are basically rentals, then Weeks and a pitcher (Villanueva or Bush) to Cleveland for Sabathia. The Brewers may then have to go out and rent another OF to platoon with Kapler, though not necessarily a CF as Hart could move over. Ibanez fits that mold perfectly and shouldn't take a top prospect to get.

We are all certainly entitled to our opinions. Fortunately, those whose opinions matter, feel very differently than yoda..... Most of his errors this year have been throwing errors. Was he trying to kick the ball to first base?

Let's see them make one first before we start worrying. We do know Braun is locked up for a long time and even though some guys could be traded, there will be a lot of guys added to the organization via the draft before Braun's deal runs out. I mentioned earlier in this thread that I suspected there were people that considered Escobar the top Brewer prospect which is saying a lot. With Hardy and Weeks' names being thrown out there, those people I mentioned could very well be Melvin and Ash. Hardy fans need to realize that Escobar's numbers at Huntsville are better than Hardy's were there. The other factor is the contract situation for Hardy. He has just 2 arby years left and he figures to get a big raise for 2009. Nobody's talking about a long term deal for him. You deal Hardy, and suddenly that's at least $10 million total you won't have to pay in 09 and 10. If they included Hardy in a deal, it would indicate to me their intention of locking up either Sheets or Sabathia beyond this year using some of the money saved.

If Rivera goes 3 for 4 with a couple HR, do you sit Fielder or Kendall tomorrow, or just send Mike back to the bullpen for another 10 days or so?

I think there's some out there that think Escobar is the best of all the prospects jjfanec. As to Stevo's point about Washington opting for the draft picks, keep in mind that Washington was in a long term rebuilding mode and Cleveland still has a solid contending core if they were healthy. I think they want more immediate return than 2 draft picks and that does work in Brewer favor.

You maybe right AT, but isn't "Melvin's rule" to always get a young arm included in a deal?