danzig6767

Come on. The Twins are by no means great, but they aren't horrible either with a 26-29 record.

Hated seeing that also, especially after the pitcher just walked two guys.

But teams have very vast revenue sources to cover for a deal or two like these if they don't work out well. For Singleton, he's not a team worth around 700 million dollars or more. So if he flames out in the majors, he won't be set for life. After signing this contract though, he's now guaranteed 10 million dollars regardless if he ends up not cutting it in the majors. We can't just gloss over how much 10 million dollars is even if pro sports economics today are so crazy lucrative. It's a winning lottery ticket. Be reasonably smart with that much money and any person could live very comfortably for the rest of their life.

Yep, tons of highly ranked prospects never become good major league players and it's not like Singleton is some mega prospect either. So even if he flames out in the majors, 10 million dollars is plenty enough cash to set up a person for life so long as that person isn't foolish with the money. If on the flip side he become a really good player, he'll still get 35 million dollars which would leave him a very very wealthy man and also having the chance to sign a big contract after his first year of free agency which he sold off. For a guy who has yet to play in the majors, he's going to be a rich man regardless if he becomes a good major league player or not. That has to be comforting. As for other players complaining like Mulder, i think they are simply blinded by having lived in a world unlike normal everyday people. So to them, the thought of securing a guaranteed 10 million dollars just doesn't seem like a very big deal compared to someone who isn't already set for life as those players are.

I don't like the idea of signing Morales for that long. Two years with maybe a vesting or buyout type of option for a third year would be the max i'd want the Brewers to go. He'll be 31 in a few weeks and not an athletic guy, i worry he could start declining in a year or two. So i want no part of him getting four years.

I don't see the team trading prospects of any value for bench players. I'm reasonably ok with the bench. Finding an upgrade at firstbase would be the only place i'd consider making a move if i was Melvin. Ideally we could get Morales to sign a one year deal after the draft, but if multiple teams go after him, he might be able to demand a multi-year deal. In that case, i hope Attanasio shows some discipline because i wouldn't want the team giving Morales anything longer than a two year deal.

When Lohse was first signed, my biggest issue by far was giving up the first round pick. That said, what i didn't get was why so many here immediately went to comparing the signing to one like Suppan. Lohse was clearly a better and more skilled pitcher. Suppan never put together the type of back to back years which Lohse had done with the Cardinals. Suppan always allowed a ton of baserunners, he got paid by us after Attanasio got blinded by that success in the playoffs Suppan had in 2006 and i also think Attanasio was itching to make a signing saying the Brewers were finally a player nationally, no longer just a place which players badly wanted to leave from. Hence a big mistake. Lohse on the other hand those last two years in St Louis not only posted ERA totals of 3.39/2.86, his WHIP numbers were a very good 1.168/1.090, unlike all of the baserunners Suppan would allow even when his ERA numbers were decent. For example, in his best year as a Cardinal where Suppan had a 3.57 ERA, his WHIP was still a pretty ugly 1.386 with lots of unimpressive secondary numbers overall.

In today's economics, i think there would be multiple teams who would take Gallardo on only a one year deal at 13 million if he finishes this year with an ERA in say the 3.50-3.75 range. That said, they may not be willing to also trade anything of real value and pay him 13 million, so picking up his option to trade Yovani may not be worth it.

I think many Brewer fans just aren't all that objective because these players are "our guys" but to compare our prospects against the Cardinals prospects as an example: Some Brewers fans may over-exaggerate the quality of the Brewers young talent, but i think you are also way over-exaggerating with this statement. You would be hard pressed to find many posters here who don't think the Cardinals clearly have better overall young talent than the Brewers between both the big league clubs and farm systems. That said, i do agree with the thought of many Brewers fans that guys like Peralta, Davis, Thornburg, and Nelson can all easily end up being much better big league players than they were ranked as prospects for a variety of reasons. They just don't have star potential except for potentially Peralta. I had serious doubts about him mainly because of his high walk totals throughout the minors, but he's really surprised me by reigning in the free passes. When he consistently throws strikes, the stuff is there to be really good. He's throwing a changeup sometimes and if he can ever get to a point when he can consistently throw that for strikes also , Willy will be a beast to hit against.

Garza was not signing a 1 year deal. You want to make room for Nelson? Don't pick up Gallardo's expensive option. Or trade Estrada. If though Gallardo has a pretty good year and Estrada stays healthy, it might be best to pick up Gallardo's option and then trade him to make room for Nelson. I think you could then find a taker at one year 13 million and no draft pick compensation attached so long as he has a say sub-4.00 ERA season this year.

Good call AZBrew

It's a pleasure watching Lohse pitch compared to someone like say Gallardo. Lohse just throws a ton of strikes and with command, thus consistently being ahead or even in the count vs others who nibble nibble nibble and are regularly at around 80 pitches or more in just the 5th inning.

Only if Garza continues to pitch poorly. If instead he rebounds and puts up solid numbers in the future, his contract would be easily tradable as salary inflation continues to rise so much and even more so if say he only had two years left on his contract. Then again, that would make it less likely the Brewers would trade him a year or two from now.

Was Melvin the main driver in signing Garza or Attanasio? After Garza was signed, Attanasio did an interview where he discussed the signing. He mentioned himself having about 20 separate discussions over a month or two with Garza's agent before getting the deal done. I think it's safe to assume that as Attanasio was having these discussions with Garza's agent that he was also talking with Melvin, but in general i'd love to know just exactly how the process has been over the years when it's come to the major free agent signings and Attanasio's involvement? Herb Kohl was notorious for being heavily involved with major decisions the Bucks made or didn't make over the years running the Bucks, along with foolishly demanding his GM's never fully rebuild with youth. In Green Bay, Wolf and Thompson were largely granted free reign to do as these pleased as GM with little to no involvement from Harlan and now Murphy. For some reason though, no Brewers beat writer has ever seemed to try and delve deeply into the Attanasio dynamic as owner in regards to just how much influence he wields from year to year on both major roster decisions and overall philosophy as to whether say maybe in a given year should the team try going younger? I think it would be very very interesting to get an inside view on just how exactly things play out with Attanasio and Melvin. Do they always come to a consensus before a major decision is made? What happens if they disagree, be it a minor disagreement or a sizable one? Does Attanasio negotiate contracts with free agents on his own, inform Melvin what the amount is for, and then ask for an opinion given how often Mark mentions talking with agents after signings? I find this dynamic fascinating given it's so unknown. Then again, they may not answer questions about this. As for this offseason, i do think the odds are decent Marco will be shopped and traded to make room for Nelson. Don't see any chance Lohse is though.

I was just saying that non-stars in baseball who get busted for PED's rarely receive much attention. It's mainly just the big name stars in baseball which have become front page news stories after getting caught. In football, if some big time quarterbacks were to get caught for PED's, i do think it would become a major story.Same if say an Adrian Peterson got busted after where he broke an NFL record for most rushing yards in a season. I will grant though that even a hypothetical situation like that with Peterson, it wouldn't be as big of a story as Bonds and Mcgwire were since certain baseball records are simply more revered than football records are. My guess as to why certain baseball records are more highly revered is that baseball is much more of an individual sport compared to football. A hitter completely controls his own destiny at the plate as to whether he hits a home run. An NFL running back certainly needs tons of talent and heart to break records at his position, but he also needs a quality line in front of him to open holes consistently. A great back can only gain so many yards with a mediocre or bad line in front of him. A great hitter or pitcher only needs their own gifts to be special.

I'm with you Regardless of if the team eventually tries to sign Morales, it bothers me that Morris hasn't at least been called up and given a chance to replace Overbay who just can't hit anymore. Morris very well may never end up being a long term option at firstbase, but for the present, it would be hard for him to be worse than Overbay.

I feel bad for the kid 1. He's an A ball pitcher pushed into pitching against big league hitters before he's ready. 2. He's rarely being used, so when actually being put into a games, he has to be rusty. 3. He's on a team in first place, so he likely feels extra bad when he does poorly compared to if he had been picked up instead by a team like say Houston or another bad team where his struggles would be less magnified. 4. He doesn't speak English and that might make him feel more isolated as his struggles on the mound mount with each appearance, even though his teammates seem very supportive of him personally. When Wang was getting shelled last night, it was hard for me to watch because i felt really bad for him, to the point i turned the channel.

His great start at the plate was so refreshing after his struggles last year, but i have wondered how his catching skills are developing or not developing? Obviously it would be more ideal for Coulter to become at least a solid defensive catcher if his bat continues to show good promise given catchers who can hit well are generally rare. That said, if his catching skills don't come along well, i'd hope the organization doesn't wait to long to give him a position switch to learn. Speaking of that, if Coulter eventually shows that he just won't be able to cut it as a catcher, but his bat stays good, would first base be his most likely position to be switched to?

Thanks Crew07 I check the stats of the Brewers minor league system here and there, but of guys picked later in the draft, it's hard for me to know just how excited i should get over any good stats, especially among pitchers.

Umm, he just got caught cheating and the best they can do is hope he still feels loved? The NFL already under punishes the PED cheaters compared to MLB and does not even attempt to investigate accusations outside of the testing policy like MLB does. It even trickles down to fans and media. If a baseball player the level of Mathis got caught it would be a huge story for weeks on end. That player would get major condemnation from everywhere, fans and media alike. Anyone care to bet how long this is front page material? Seems to league that has the real PED problem, top to bottom, is the NFL not MLB. In both how cheaters are viewed and how they are handled. It's not hard to see the difference in why baseball players have received more condemnation and attention overall than football players busted for PED's. 1. Baseball stats and records have long been held up as much more hallowed and with reverence compared to football. So when guys like Bonds, Mcgwire, Sosa etc were shattering long held and revered records in baseball, it was a huge huge national story at the time. On the flip side, when NFL records like say most passing TD's, yards, rushing yards, receiving yards etc get passed, it gets much less coverage and sports fans in general just don't care as much as when major baseball records get broken, especially home runs. For example, ask random sports fans who holds major records in football and you'll get a lot more wrong answers compared to baseball. So the outrage was simply much higher when it came out that nearly all of these majot stars shattering long time revered baseball records were doing so jacked up on roids. The taint of that was so strong that it remains to this day. 2. The star factor. When that stuff was going on with major stars like Bonds, Mcgwire, Sosa, and more recent ARod/Braun today, it leaves a bigger taint than most guys getting busted in the NFL. For the most part, it's mainly just the quarterbacks and some elite skill position players who are the stars in football. They aren't the ones getting busted usually. Look at baseball, the only guys who get tons of attention for being busted for PED's are the stars. Sports fans mostly yawn over other players like say Melky Cabrera or Jhonny Peralta when they get nabbed. So in football, when say offensive or defensive lineman get caught, it usually draws faint caring from sports unless maybe it would be some HOF caliber pass rusher. Other than that, some offensive lineman, nose tackle, safety, tight end, corner, etc just isn't going to be a huge story or cared much about by fans except in a rare case of one of those guys being a big star, kinda as non-stars in MLB usually get scant attention for getting busted. Have it come out though that say Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Calvin Johnson, and Adrian Peterson are currently or were in the past all jacked up on roids, it would be a huge national story with legs to go on for awhile. Not so much when an aging defensive lineman gets busted who possibly may even have been doing as he said. Either way, Mathis isn't anymore of a star than a Lucroy caliber baseball player getting busted. His teammate Andrew Luck on the other hand would be big news if caught.

It's true that the Cubs have a weak lineup, but this is the same Lohse we see in nearly every start, regardless of the lineup he's facing. He's yet to give up more than three earned runs in any start so far. For a guy who pretty much tops out at 90mph, his consistency over his last four years is really impressive to me. He's rarely had those type of starts where the starter gets jacked up for say 5-6-7 runs and has to leave the game early. Even with his less than flashy or dominating stuff, i've come to really enjoy watching Lohse pitch because he works fast, doesn't walk hitters much, and usually stays ahead in the count. When he does give up runs or gets in trouble in an inning, he never looks rattled. As for the Cardinals, i certainly worry about them a lot. That said, for as much as you can say that they have guys who eventually will start hitting better, look at the Brewers. The team is 12 games over .500 even with Braun missing a bunch of games, Ramirez having that long slump/now hurt, Davis and Segura struggling most of the year, and Weeks being bad until recently. With some luck on the health of Braun/Ramirez going forward and Aramis hopefully not being to deep in decline via age if healthy, the offense has it's share of room to produce better, even more so if Segura and/or Davis hit better to go with a healthy Braun/Ramirez. Health in sports is so incredibly important, but also often very unpredictable. The Brewers likely are going to need a mostly healthy and productive Braun/Ramirez duo going forward to win the division, but who knows if that will happen.

Not only will losing Votto hurt the Reds in the short term, this is the same knee he had problems with last year, he's 30 years old, and they still owe him over 200 million dollars through 2023. Votto when healthy is pretty much the last guy in the NL i want to see at the plate in a close game situation with runners on base when playing the Brewers. He can hit both lefties and righties. Can hit for power and average. Has amazing plate discipline. That said, the odds strike me as high that the Reds will be stuck paying him 20-25 million per for about five years or more as a player no longer near as good as when that contract was give out. This will be exasperated even further if injuries hit Votto hard on top of simple regression via age.

I've been very surprised by the defense played by Reynolds so far, both at first and especially at third. I know that he played third for a long time, but i just thought for whatever reason that he'd be a sizable liability if forced to play there often via a Ramirez injury. Watching him play both first and third though has made me appreciate his signing even more given we have nothing in the minors at third to call up when Ramirez got hurt. What a huge pickup Reynolds was.

I follow the minors, but not super closely. I see that two guys in particular, Brent Suter and Tyler Cravy are off to great starts in AA. For those of you who follow the minors much more intently, are either of these guys or both legit prospects with the kind of stuff that could potentially project to getting big league hitters out?

If a trade is made at the deadline, i think it will fall in one of two scenarios 1. A position player on a bad team making decent to good money in the last year of his deal that the other team would be happy to mainly just shed the money. 2. A position player who can help some, but isn't good enough to demand a top notch prospect in return. Kinda like what say Baltimore gave up in the K-Rod trade.