JohnBriggs12

It's about revenue. MLB has so many ways of generating revenue via the internet now that marketing it in Japan is a big deal. The Japanese have great interest in how their players do over here. Imagine how many buy mlbtv.

I think this is a good move by the Cubs. Wood hasn't walked anybody this spring. Closers generally don't throw as many innings as the setup guys do. For instance Cordero had 66 appearences compared to 77 for Turnbow last year. That's pretty typical. Dempster was actually the weak link in the Cub bullpen last year though he wasn't bad. Marmol and Howry were very effective in their roles and a huge key to them overtaking the Brewers. With Wood closing, those two don't have to switch roles. Don't overlook Wuertz either. He was at the top of the league in allowing inherited runners to score. The Cubs have a solid bullpen. If the pitching staff has a weak link, it will be that Lilly, Hill and Marquis aren't likely to match their results from last year and Dempster is a question mark. On the other hand Zambrano is capable of a better year than he had in 07.

endaround is correct, McClung won't bring anything, but Turnbow would and they've got enough guys in McClung, Mota, Shouse, Torres, Riske and Gagne for the late innings, with Pena and Stetter available and already on the 40 man in case of injury. That would open up the long man spot to put a Bush or a Vargas.

The Blue Jays are an interesting team. I could see them being really good or pretty average. They have some older guys. Will Rolen stay healthy? For that matter will Eckstein? What about ageless Thomas and Stairs? Do those guys have anything left? I've never been a huge fan of Overbay. He needs to bounce back. He wasn't very good last year. Wells wasn't very good last year at all either. Overbay's 31 and Wells in 29. They should be in prime. Their rotation is very solid but it needs to be. I don't think their offense is better than middle of the pack.

Zambrano, Lilly, Dempster, Hill, Marquis. Lieber goes to bullpen. Marshall figures to be sent down unless he lands lefty spot in pen. That would be a surprise since Pignatiello has been unscored upon all spring. No mention of who will face Brewers in opening series (after Zambrano and presumably Lilly) but it won't be Rich Hill that's for sure. Hill's had command issues all spring and Piniella wants to seperate his lefties.. Both Marquis and Lieber have thrown the ball well in Arizona and except for one outing, so has Dempster. Lilly's been so-so, and Zambrano's been lights out.

The "accumulate as many power arms as possible" was the White Sox philosophy too. Last year they had a bullpen full of guys with major heat, Aardsma, Cisco, McDougal, Masset, etc. They thought their pitching coach, Don Cooper, was a genius too because of Bobby Jenks. They had one of the worst bullpens in history last year. Thinking your pitching coach is smarter than the other guy's usually doesn't prove to be the case.

He had an ERA of 3.75 and a K:BB ratio of 2.2 last season (admittedly, in 12 IP). If Mike Maddux believes he can harness that potential, I'm not going to question it, as he's been right more than he's been wrong. Given the fact that there aren't many long-term options in the bullpen, I'm fine with giving him a longer leash. Is the object to win this year or not? Or is the object to make the pitching coach look good? Did they not pick up McClung for a song (Balfour) last August? Doesn't that tell you guys like that are not that hard to come by?

Sure Seth McClung has a great arm. In a perfect world it would be nice to keep him around. But lets take a closer look at this guy. He's no kid. He's 27 years old. He's had chances before. He's got 263 major league innings under his belt. In that time, he's posted a 6.16 ERA. 6.16!. He's walked 160 guys in those 263 innings. That's bad. He's walked 9 in 12 innings this spring. Yet it appears, the Brewers are certain that if they exposed McClung to waivers, he'd be claimed, so instead of the obvious move of either Bush or Vargas to the pen for long relief and opening a rotation spot for the more than worthy Villanueva. Now I'm not convinced that McClung would get claimed off of waivers or if he did it would be any great loss. Why is Brewer braintrust so enamored with this guy that they're willing to risk a weaker rotation just to keep him?

Munson's a converted infielder. Rivera is better than posters on here give him credit for. I've been saying that for 2 years. He's been the primary catcher at Nashville for 3 years on a winning team with a top pitching staff. Rivera's hitting .290 this spring. Not great but it's not "not hitting". It's barely 30 ABs. By the way, last year Rivera hit .400 and slugged.600 in spring training but didn't make the team. I wouldn't get too excited about Munson having a good offensive spring this year.

That would have been fine had they not had alternatives, but they had several guys just as capable of doing that for a lot less. When I posted that I wasn't anticipating he would get hurt, I just thought it wasn't worth a small market team nearly $4 million for a guy who wasn't better than the two minimum wage guys. As for the depth he added, they still have enough with 7 guys for 5 spots. I would have had no problem with them non-tendering Vargas instead, but to tender both Vargas and Capuano made no sense to me. One yes, both was expensive overkill.

What is bad from the team perspective is that they are paying $3.8 million for zero production. They would have been better off non-tendering him as they have plenty of candidates to take his place. I recall getting hammered when I suggested non-tendering him, even though they had enough cheaper replacements already on their roster. Sadly for his many fans, he's likely pitched his last game as a Brewer. Arby rules won't let the Brewer cut his salary more than 20% and it would make little sense for the Brewers to pay $3 million or so to a guy who'll be coming off major arm surgery.

Could someone please explain this? Claudio Vargas pitched his way out of the Brewer rotation last year. He did not make another start after August 24th even though two other starters, Sheets and Parra later went down with injuries. Chris Capuano also pitched his way out of the rotation in 2007. He did not start a game after August 19th until Sheets went down with an injury. The September rotation was Sheets (until he got hurt), Gallardo, Suppan, Villanueva, and Bush. All of those guys were in the rotation because of merit not the result of injuries. Except for Gallardo, the rest are healthy at this time. Now it appears that out of that group, the lone healthy guy most likely not to start the season in the rotation is Villanueva. This after a September where his ERA of 1.99 was second only to Gallardo's 1.36 and a spring where he's been as good as anyone. Yes I know Villanueva has options and Vargas doesn't and Vargas has had a good spring too, but how do you justify taking your second best starter from the prior month you played games that count and replace him with a guy who had to be removed from the rotation because of ineffectiveness last August? Depth, smepth, go with the best and Villanueva's in that group. They should start the season with what they ended with last year: Sheets, Suppan, Villanueva, Bush and Parra replacing Gallardo temporarily. Give the most shaky of that group. Bush, 10 to 12 starts and if he's getting knocked around, replace him. You could do the same with Villanueva if he struggles 10 or 12 starts in. That way guys who earned their spots last year have them to lose, not taken away. Assuming Capuano is DL'd, either deal Vargas or put him in the pen in the long man role (you may lose McClung, but that's why you signed 4 righthanded relievers in the offseason).

The Brewers made a mistake not protecting Crabbe. They also made a mistake not using him at SS in the minor leagues. He was the perfect guy to groom as a utility player after Counsell's gone when they are going to need cheap bench players because the starter's salaries explode. Heck he should have been brought up when they sent Weeks down last August. While on balance, the Brewers do a good job in player development and evaluation, they do make mistakes and this was one of them.

1. Capuano won't win 5 games all year. 2. Turnbow's ERA will be over 6 before he's finally released in July. 3 Tony Gwynn will hit over .300 and have more HR than Kendall and endaround still won't like him. Edit 3/23: One down, two to go.

Don't assume Munson's won the job just yet. He's had a nice spring offensively compared to an okay spring by Rivera, but Rivera is a well liked guy in the clubhouse, knows the staff better than Munson and has more experience behind the plate.

What's not said, but likely occured, is that either Texas inquired about a Brewer pitcher or Melvin offered them one and they asked what they want in return, Melvin brought up Laird. Texas has an obvious need for a pitcher. That they won't part with Laird doesn't mean they won't make an acceptable offer though. But keep an eye on the Mets. When push comes to shove, I think they will get involved.

An MRI for Capuano could mean they want to make certain he's okay before they deal another pitcher. I get a feeling something is cooking.

Not based on major league production Al. Sure Roberts doesn't have the monster upside Weeks has, but we haven't seen it yet from Rickie over a full season. Roberts is also a far superior defensive player and is just as good a base stealer. We'd also be throwing a wrench into Cubs plans. As for dollars, you could even them out by including Capuano or Vargas in the deal. O's could use either of those guys. Eventually, the Brewers aren't going to be able to pay all their core anyway so 2 years of Roberts isn't all that bad. I don't think Melvin would do it, but it's certainly worth considering.

I've got to agree with endaround here. Jacobs would have little value to the Brewers. He's not a bad hitter but he only plays 1B. But if Bush is attractive to the Marlins, it's worth exploring as crunch time for the pitching staff decisions is getting real close. I don't see anyone who might be available off their major league roster that's a need for Brewers though.

"Gross can hit, Gwynn can't". The truth is both have some, though different, offensive skills, but neither has yet shown they hit well enough to be everyday major leaguers. That's not degrading either's talent as both are legit major league players, just not everyday starter types. One can play slightly above average defense in CF while the other is somewhat defensively challanged in the corner spots. One is 3 years younger than the other, and therefore more likely to show offensive improvement over the other who's at the age where generally what you see is what you get.

We pretty much know what Suppan is no matter what he does this spring. His pitching line on any given day goes: 6 IP, 8H, 3ER, 1 BB, 3 K. He'll do that, give or take a run or an inning, roughly 27 of his 33 starts. Of the other 6 starts, 3 will be really bad (5 runs or more), and 3 will be really good (1 or fewer runs). That's okay for a 4th starter, and better than average for 5th starter. The problem is he's being paid as the number 2 starter, and if they go with any or all of Vargas, Bush, and Capuano, they are getting no better than an average number 4 starter from any starter not named Sheets or Gallardo. Given the fragility of Sheets, that's not a good thing.

Turnbow's current spring stats: 5 IP, 4H, 5R, 5ER, 2HR, 2BB, 3K, 9.00ERA. Pretty much same pattern as last season so far. First outing was bad, followed by 3 good ones, then another really bad one, 3ER in one inning. The argument that he has a high percentage of outings where he doesn't allow any runs in my mind is offset by the fact that when he does allow runs, it's usually multiple runs and that is a killer for a late reliever because it's almost a certain loss in a manner that is very deflating.

If, as many here have suggested here, Munson had the edge going in for the backup catcher job primarily because he's a lefthanded hitter, why wouldn't that hold for Gwynn over Kapler especially if they would also keep Dillon? It doesn't make any sense to me with the 3 OF starters being righthanded once Cameron is back that they have any need for a righthanded backup.

Dillon has to make this roster. He might be needed to start some at 2B if Weeks doesn't wake up. I'm fine with Kapler making the team but for me he has no role once Cameron is back.

I wouldn't rest Fielder more than once a month, replacing him with Dillon. I would rest Cameron at least once a week when he comes back (he's 35 years old remember) and replace him with Gwynn. I'd rest Braun and Hart every two weeks on alternating weeks. Not so much to rest them but to give Gross a once a week start. I'd do the same with Hardy and Weeks (provided Weeks starts hitting). That would give Counsell one start a week. I'd rest Hall about every 10 days or 3 times a month. That would end up giving Dillon 4 starts per month. In AL parks, I'd platoon Dillon and Gross at DH. I'd give the backup catcher a start every 4th or 5th day.