danzig6767

If his defense was already good at third to go with his bat, odds are slim he could have been had for K-Rod.

As so many others have said, great to get a legit prospect for a guy who was on the street a few months ago. Speaking of Melvin, this is another trade made before the day of the deadline. Whether trading for someone or trading away a player, Doug is decisive and doesn't seem the type who needs to wait until the last minute before pulling the trigger.

It sounds like you are advocating being responsible adults here. I suppose I could get behind that. How responsible was Braun yesterday? Putting out some cryptic statement where he only quasi admits guilt for something, bails out of town without answering a single question, and instead leaves it all for his manager, GM, and teammates to face the fire of all the media questions. How swell of him. I guess we'll find out going forward if Ryan is going to be willing to put himself out there to face the same tough questions which his manager, GM, and teammates had to face yesterday or if instead he'll just refuse to give clear and honest answers to many questions which deserve to be asked of him. He alone is one who can provide some real clarity to everything instead of leaving things mostly up to speculation. What exactly he took. When he started taking what took. How long he took any banned substances. Why he chose to lie so forcefully. Why he thought it was ok to cast doubt on the collector. Until the day comes that he faces the music in an interview where he's truthful and answers many tough questions without a bunch of vague answers, i don't think he has a right at all to complain about any reporting which may have inaccuracies, fans jumping to certain conclusions, or inaccurate speculations. His silence will only be fuel to all of that if or until he chooses to provide the real answers.

How do you know that Braun hasn't been a long time user? Not all steroid users can physically or would choose to bulk up to the levels that guys like Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire did. Plus, that would be a major red flag anyways. We right now don't know what exactly Ryan took, when he started taking what he took, and for how long. He could clear that up himself by being honest instead of making cryptic statements. Either way, some could be right and maybe Braun mostly just used PED's to help recover from injuries. Just as plausible though is that he's been a long term user who managed to have a regimen set up which allowed him to beat the testing system for a long time until finally getting busted. Hell, Lance Armstrong managed to beat drug testing for about a decade or longer. He wouldn't have to be built like Bonds and hitting 50 plus homers a year to be a long term user. PED's alone don't put on tons of muscle mass, just look at other players who have been busted and the levels/drugs a long term user takes can differ.

Seriously, could you imagine if a #2 overall pick, Rookie of the year, and runner up for DPOY were to be busted for PEDs! Von Miller is far from a household name. Like i said, have an MVP like Brady, Manning, Rodgers get nabbed though, get off on an appeal technicality, then forcefully lie multiple times to the faces of everyone, only to later get busted again, it would be a massive massive story that dominated news coverage for awhile. I will grant though that the media in general has been harsher on baseball players getting busted for roids. There is some reason for that IMO. The whole McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds situation was just so incredibly high profile as those three and others were flat out eviscerating long standing important baseball records and benchmarks that it eventually lead to big time outrage in a sport where records and benchmarks are held in such reverence, more so than other sports. So when some cornerback, safety, or lineman in football gets caught using PED's, it's more akin to a Melky Cabrera getting caught in baseball in the eyes of many sports fans. More yawning than huge story to them, regardless if that's technically unfair to bigger name athletes. Lastly, you can't ignore the full context of the Braun situation. Had he simply accepted being suspended 50 games after first getting caught and being quiet vs winning an appeal, casting doubt on the collector, and screaming that he's been wrong accused, the story would have been less explosive. It was Ryan himself who threw gasoline on the media fire with his previous forceful statements proclaiming his innocence, only to later be shown as a hypocritical liar.

Ryan Braun is a member of the group of people who are over 2 years old and have lied. Which includes everybody over 2. It doesn't make it right that he lied (assuming that he lied, and not even knowing what he lied about specifically), but let's get the facts before tacking on witty nicknames. We could easily get the facts if Braun does an interview where he actually came completely clean about what he's done vs putting out cryptic vague statements, so long as baseball agrees to not punish him further for any truths he put out there. Only he knows what exactly he's put into his body, when he started doing so, and how long he kept doing it. Unless baseball were to leak every bit of evidence they have on Ryan and maybe anything he admitted to them, how else are we supposed to get the facts/know what he lied about specifically if he doesn't come clean himself? Just vaguely saying he made mistakes tells us nothing except he's guilty of cheating to some degree, but with zero details. His silence will only lead to speculation, regardless if that speculation is fact based. That's simply the world of sports coverage today.

True, but with big celebrity comes big expectations. If I lie and continue to lie, the impact is limited to me and my family. Braun is a public figure, the most celebrated Brewer since Yount, the most highly paid player in franchise history, and the iconic image of the team. He didn't shy away from any of that. Even though K-Rod and Gallardo's incidents were more criminal, they will pale in comparison to Braun's. It's how we know that Derek Jeter gives gift bags to the women who share his bedroom, but don't know anything about the way other players spend their free time. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Yea, he's a recent MVP and one of the top players in the game, not someone like say Melky Cabrera. Take the NFL. Have someone like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady get busted for roids, it's simply going to be a vastly bigger story than if some random lineman or cornerback gets busted. Mix in that if Manning or Brady got busted, got off on a technicality, then forcefully lied multiple times to the faces of everyone, only to later get busted again, it would be a massive massive story that dominated news coverage for awhile.

While we'll never know for sure unless Braun shocks me by ever coming truly clean in an interview, my guess is you're correct. His vague statement is just icing on the cake for me. The guy is just a coward and hypocrite in my eyes given the various comments he's made on PED's over the years, so i fully understand why fellow players and some teammates are ripping him. I have zero sympathy for anything being said about him. That said, he's a Brewer and signed long term, so i want him to play well going forward. Also, hopefully one day fairly soon Ryan will grow some balls and come completely clean vs putting out these vague statements.

Depends what Olt the Cubs are getting. He's been pretty bad this year in AAA.

Well yeah now that the team is out of it. It would be interesting to know if Attanasio would even let Melvin trade Lohse if that was something Doug preferred doing, assuming there were offers of value? Between comments made after the signing about how Attanasio was the one doing the negotiating with Boras and then a recent interview by Mark where he explained why he decided to sign Lohse, it seems pretty clear that he was the driving force behind the deal getting done. Well, with Lohse having another good year and Attanasio having stated multiple times that it's important to him for the team to be competitive every year, i wouldn't be surprised at all if he'd tell Doug to keep Lohse unless blown away by an offer.

Age certainly could be a concern, but you may be overstating his injury history a little? 149 149 124 82 149 132 157 123 145 Including this year. that was the last 10 seasons for Ramirez. That's not exactly a track record of a player constantly missing a ton of games and the two previous seasons he played 149 games in each. Most players are going to miss a differing number of games from year to year, an iron man type like say Fielder who almost never misses a game is more the rarity than the norm. So while i certainly did expect Aramis to miss some games this year, i see no reason though that we should have expected him to miss so many games either. Who knows what would have happened had he stayed on first on that hit instead of going for a double, and in turn jamming his leg on a bad slide. No question that in general aging players tend to get injured more than younger players, but there also can be some simple luck factor in every injury.

I'll admit that i sure didn't see this great run coming from Willy, but so great to see, In a dismal season, at least we've had three brights spots now in Segura, Gomez, and Peralta.

I agree with your post, especially about the drafting. Pretty much ever since that wave of young players came up in Weeks, Braun, Fielder, Gallardo, Hardy, Hart, etc, three of which were top 10 pick, the farm system hasn't provided much of anything beyond some bench players and a few non-impactful bullpen guys. The drafting has been mostly terrible compared to others in the division and particularly at drafting/developing starting pitchers. To me, the biggest mistake which Melvin looks to have made over the last four years or so is hiring Seid to replace Zduriencik. A quality scouting director is vitally important for any smaller market team and unless some of Seid's early picks start showing more promise and/or more recent picks show high promise, his failures could eventually end up bringing down Melvin more than anything else. But, as i said earlier, it was Doug who hired Seid, so he shares in the downturn at drafting/developing high quality young talent.

I guess people simply won't agree on how much fun those two playoff runs were. If i'm not mistaken, TheCrew07 said he didn't enjoy the 96 win and NLCS season at all because of how the team was built. I on the other hand enjoyed that season on a level with the 2010 Packers Super Bowl season and i'm a bigger Packers fan than Brewers fan. I'm old enough to remember all of those lean years between 1982 and 2011, so that was a very special year for me as a Brewers fan. In fact, i was more excited, nervous, and thrilled during that Game 5 vs Arizona than i was during the Packers Super Bowl game. That late year run with Sabathia was also fabulous fun in it's own way given how he just went out there and dominated start after start. I definitely care how the roster is built from year to year by Melvin and Attanasio, but i just don't obsess over it to the degree some others do. While admitting that i don't know every GM in the sport well, i'd say Melvin is a little above average GM, but not elite. So i get some of the frustration that a number of posters have with him because he makes head scratching moves to me also. What i don't get is the hate by some of the overall job he's done, but hey, to each their own.

I'm not familiar with the CBA on this Can players and/or the union actually go into a regular courtroom to fight decisions rendered by MLB or instead once the arbiter rules, a decision is final and can't be challenged anywhere?

Anyone else here think that Peralta looks a little like Mike Tyson?

I agree with both of these posts by you. Plus, for me at least, i really dislike putting players in any HOF who never were one of the better players in the game, even for just a few years.

The Cardinals also won it all two years ago with a rotation which struggled to last just five innings in nearly every start vs the Brewers in the NLCS. They won that ring with great bullpen pitching and good hitting. And a manager who understood that managing in the playoffs was completely different from managing in the regular season. LaRussa is annoying, but he was masterful in the playoffs that year in how he handled a rotation which was terrible most of the time outside of a few great starts by Carpenter. Starters kept getting rocked or were mediocre at best, so Tony would yank them in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings and let his bullpen keep his team in games. Speaking of that Cardinals team. I still remember when they made trades at the deadline for veterans and bullpen arms, i went to a Cards forum and most of their fans were irate. They were ripping the GM left and right as clueless for not trading for prospects instead of veterans. Had TheCrew07 been a Cards fan, he likely would have blasted those trades also. Come a few months later, those same Cardinals fans got to experience one of if not the most exciting playoff runs in MLB history. A ride they'll never forget and i'm envious of given how that season and playoff title run played out. Wow that had to be amazing to experience.

The Cardinals also won it all two years ago with a rotation which struggled to last just five innings in nearly every start vs the Brewers in the NLCS. They won that ring with great bullpen pitching and good hitting.

If my memory is correct, the last two years or so, most teams have shied away from trading higher end prospects for relief pitchers at the deadline.

As far as what I wanted Melvin to do, I would have parted with just about any position player other than Braun at any time for more pitching, I've been very consistent on that point since 2008. You seem to believe that the Brewers are run like the Packers where there is no owner and the GM would have full authority to do a he pleases like Ted Thompson is able to do. I think you're living in a fantasy land if you think Attanasio would be ok with consistently selling off productive players for prospects as you'd like to do. We've already seen how heavily involved Attanasio was in the signings of Suppan, Wolf, Ramirez, and Lohse. He backed the trades for Sabathia, Marcum, and Greinke. He extended Melvin's contract and i think that's because Attanasio has an even stronger win now mentality than Doug has. Just look at the Lohse signing. Melvin had made multiple statements about not wanting to give up a first round pick to sign Lohse, but Attanasio continued to stay in contact and negotiating with Boras. Granted, i don't think Attanasio micromanages the team on a level of say Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, but he certainly isn't a just sit on the sidelines owner either. From everything i've seen of Attanasio, he strikes me as the type of owner who will only be for selling off productive major league for prospects if he's nearly 100 percent certain before a season starts that contending for a playoff berth is a total pipe dream or at the deadline when the team is dead in the water as we were last year and are this year.

He's never been a workhorse starter because it often takes him to many pitches to get outs, even when he's having a good start. He is a very solid starter though and his best selling point in trade value is arguably his contract status. A team trading for him isn't getting a rental, they'd get two more seasons. That ups his value quite a bit.

I'm not dead set against trading Gomez. As with any potential trade, the devil is in the details. That said, Aoki can't play CF, he'd be a massive liability out there. Hell, even in RF he has to play practically on the warning track because he's so terrible going back on balls.

Sure it's possible that Gomez could eventually revert back to being an offensive liability instead of the asset he is now, but i agree with you in that i'd bet against it. For me at least, it's not just his really good stats between the second half of last year and his great stats this year. What makes me not feel the improvement isn't mainly just a fluke is the eyeball test matches the improved numbers. He's hitting balls hard to all fields, not just him trying the pull the ball all of the time. A little better plate discipline. Thankfully Sveum had that conversation with Carlos after which the team stopped trying to make him into a certain type of hitter Gomez isn't capable of being, just as the Twins tried doing. He's not a slap hitter and thus trying to get a bunch more infield hits and walks was realistic. Instead, for all of his speed, Carlos is built more like an NFL safety than some more typically skinny and speedy CF like say Juan Pierre or Ben Revere. Walks will always be a weakness for him and i'm very skeptical the batting average can remain above .300, but his SLG% surge over the last roughly 500-600 at bats i see as being legit and will continue going forward.

It may be easier to move Aoki right now and someone else. Believe me I've come to love Aoki (and Gomez for that matter) but if you think about it he's only an attractive player at this price-point. Once he hits arbitration in 2015 it gets dicey. I'm perfectly fine with shopping Aoki. To me he'd be right at the top of my list to shop if i was Melvin given Aoki should be attractive to quality teams needing a leadoff hitter and besides that, he has an extremely team friendly contract all through next year. He'd not just be a three months rental to a contender. That said, whenever it comes to these threads where people post stuff like the Brewers need to trade this or that guy, the bottom line needs to be for what exactly? Obviously this is a sports forum and on nearly every pro sports forum out there, playing a pretend GM with hypothetical trade possibilities is a driving factor in why so many people visit pro sports forums. While acknowledging and taking part in that myself, sometimes it does annoy me a bit though when posters say this or that player should be trading for X package in return or complain if certain players don't end up being traded, even though those posters way more times than not don't really know what offers were legitimately made. Lastly, i wonder if the wild success of Segura will have any impact overall on the trade deadline market this year, especially given contenders no longer get the same draft compensation if/when a rental bolts as Greinke did to LA?