danzig6767

That's not true. Estrada (who turns 30 this season) has been in the Brewers' rotation since 2011 with a fairly successful track record. Narveson (31) is coming off injury, but he's started 63 MLB games (appeared in 95) so he's a proven 4/5 starter. Along with Gallardo, that's three fairly "proven" pitchers. We were looking at two "unproven" guys in the rotation, only one of them being young-ish. Fiers turns 28 soon, so he's certainly not young, and while "unproven," he had 22 starts last year (almost a full season) with some success. Peralta is the top prospect in our entire system, and will be 24 in a month or so. Assuming Peralta starts the season in AAA, our youngest SP will be Gallardo, who is about 8 months younger than Fiers. Narveson is not only coming off the dreaded shoulder surgery, in his two years as a starter 4.99 ERA/1.378 WHIP 4.45 ERA/1.392 WHIP So even before his shoulder surgery, Narveson was a 5th starter type who walks to many hitters and is prone to serving up home runs. Counting on him to be a reliable member of the rotation is a pretty big stretch to me. Peralta obviously has the kind of raw stuff to excite fans, especially given how few power arms that our farm system has developed. That said, for as well as he pitched in those 5 September starts, we can't forget that he walked 78 hitters in AAA over only 146 innings before getting called up. Excessive amounts of walks have plagued him his whole time in the minors and mainly explains his career 1.410 WHIP vs minor league hitters. It would be nice to hope that Peralta just was sick of being in the minors and thus his being called up explains why he pitched so well compared to his weak AAA numbers, but he sure was far from being a lock to be even somewhat reliable. Rogers even when healthy strikes me as a real long shot to amount to anything in the majors given his career long inability to simply throw strikes. So while i really hope that one of or both of Fiers/Peralta goes out there this season in the majors and has a very solid year, i have no clue what they'll actually end up producing. All of those reasons above are why i can easily understand why both Doug/Mark A. badly wanted to add some stability to the rotation. That said, i can also understand why many here would have preferred say signing Marcum for one year at around 4-5 million vs Lohse at 33 million and losing the draft pick.

Well Ennder, for all of the flack Melvin gets for signing guys like Lohse or certain trades he makes, i do think that if the team does end up regressing pretty significantly at some point over the next few years, the odds are good that the biggest reason why will have been that the farm system just didn't produce enough cheap and productive players to help offset the more pricey veterans. So if that were to end up being the case, the decision by Melvin which will have had the most negative impact on his team wouldn't involve any player, it instead would be the replacing of Jack Zduriencik with Seid. General Managers in baseball really don't have the time to go and scout the vast number of kids available for a draft each year, so that is up to the Scouting Director who the GM hires. Decisions made by Doug to the big league clubs will obviously have a sizable impact on just how well the team can remain competitive over the next few years, but those fortunes are also tied very heavily to the performance of Seid who Melvin hired. We can end up with a 10-15-20 page thread over the signing of Yuni to be the 24th/25th man on the roster, even though he's largely just an irrelevant spare part. Who gets hired as the Scouting Director though is more important than pretty much any other single move that a baseball GM makes, especially in a market like Milwaukee. I'm leery about Seid, but he hasn't been in the job a long time.

While i've long thought that Attanasio has played a pretty sizable role behind the scenes in how Melvin has been in a mainly win now type of attitude, i do think that you're overstating the amount of say "stubbornness" he'd have towards rebuilding. I just don't see him being like Herb Kohl who has flat out refused for nearly decades to ever seriously rebuild. My sense is that Attanasio has the attitude of if there is any realistic shot at all to at least compete for a playoff berth, he'll defer to trying to compete for that playoff berth for two reasons. 1. He's a very competitive guy 2. He wants to keep seeing about 2.5-3 million fans pouring into Miller Park and fears that a couple of poor seasons would hurt attendance significantly. If though Attanasio looks at the team over say the next 2-3 years and the evidence at some point is pretty clear that at least contending for a playoff berth is a major long shot, i just don't think that he'd be very stubborn and refuse to accept the state of a likely bad team. Over those next 2-3 years, i believe that kids Bruce Seid has previously drafted will end up deciding the direction the Brewers head in more than anything else will. So far Seid hasn't looked very impressive, but if some of his draft picks aren't able to come up and be really productive on the cheap, then it will likely result in putting to much financial pressure on the big league club to stay competitive and thus they'd have to try rebuilding to whatever degree.

I don't think Attanasio is some ultra stubborn owner that would never allow for a serious rebuilding project like Herb Kohl is with the Bucks, but i do agree with you that he clearly seems like he will defer to the side of trying to win now unless he feels that is pretty much a hopeless proposition. I'd love to be a fly on the wall during Atanassio's conversations with Melvin about the state of the team from year to year. To know exactly just how much influence he has on sizable moves which are made each year? Take the Lohse signing. I think it's about a 100% lock that Mark A. had to sign off on the contract, but i'd love to also know if say he put some pressure on Melvin to get a deal done with Lohse? Or was he the guy mainly negotiating with Boras, not Doug? Has Attanasio overruled any moves Melvin has wanted to make over the years and if so, which ones? I'm surprised nobody in the media has tried hard delving into the the whole Melvin/Attanasio relationship. My gut sense is that they share pretty similar beliefs on the team, but who knows to what degree and his level of influence on which moves get made or not.

Roenicke is never going to start Yuni over a healthy Weeks or Ramirez, so that just leaves shortstop. Unless Segura really really struggles at the plate over an extended length of time, not just a few games and he then lets that negatively effect his fielding, i just don't believe that Yuni will see more than a few random spot starts here and there at short. The one way i could see Yuni getting a number of starts in a row is if an injury hit a starting infielder, but in that case the difference between him or Murphy starting for awhile is miniscule given both suck. Murphy has a career .643 OPS and Betancourt a .682 OPS, neither guy can hit except that Yuni can jack a homer once in awhile.

I think Yuni sucks, but so does Donnie Murphy. One scrub just replacing a different scrub. So long as no other injury happens which resulted in Yuni starting at SS or 2nd, it's hard for me to get overly stressed about him replacing Donnie Murphy to be the 24th/25th man on the roster who shouldn't see the field much. The more troubling aspect to me is that Melvin couldn't come up with a better solution at firstbase so that Gonzalez could be the utility infielder, and thus a final roster spot wouldn't come down to Yuni or Murphy who both are scrubs.

I don't hate the signing to the same degree as many here do, but i definitely would rather have Marcum on a one year 4 million dollar deal than Loshe at 3yr/33 million and losing the draft pick. It also would be easier to stomach if the third year wasn't guaranteed with instead some sort of team option/buyout or Lohse had to reach certain numbers to guarantee that third year.

I get the feeling this is more Mark A then Doug. just a feeling though I've been saying for awhile now that when some fans get mad at Melvin for moves he makes, never forget about the Attanasio factor. I don't believe he's a super involved owner like say a Jerry Jones or Daniel Snyder in the NFL, but i don't think the Brewers structure is like the Packers either where the GM/Ted has no interference at all from ownership. Attanasio strikes me as very competitive, prefers trying to win now whenever possible at all, and he clearly loves seeing about 3 million fans pour into Miller Park each year. So my gut feeling is that at the very least Attanasio has to sign off first on any major moves and he very well could be prodding Doug to be more aggressive at times to get deals like this Lohse one done.

Under the right circumstances I'll trade a starter for a position player (like with Greinke I wanted the best total package) but in general I'm looking to trade equal or up in value. The most valuable trade pieces we have are productive MLB players whom are replaceable, that's why I would have traded Fielder, Hardy, and Hart all before their final season in a Brewer's uniform. If you aren't winning a WS with them and/or they aren't signed long-term, then what's the point in keeping them if you can fill multiple holes elsewhere in the organization? You and others here seem to be of the belief that Melvin is the owner or that you in your hypothetical GM dream world would also be the owner, not Attanasio. Some act as if the Brewers are run like the Packers with no owner and thus the GM can do absolutely whatever he pleases. That trading important players like Fielder and Greinke are only up to Melvin. I don't buy that at all in observing Attanasio. He certainly doesn't act like Jerry Jones and do a dual owner/GM role where Jones signs off on every move, even small ones, but i've seen nothing to think that Attanasio isn't actively involved with more important decisions. He's clearly a very competitive guy, loves seeing 3 million fans help his bottom line, and he's stated that the team will defer to trying to win now whenever possible. So you may have wanted to trade Prince 2-3 years before he reached free agency, trade Geinke before last season started, and traded Hart whenever you wanted to, but that doesn't mean ownership/Attanasio would agree with you. Besides that, unless you were actually a real GM and talked with other real GM's to get real offers for players you wanted to trade, and then you posted those offers for us to evaluate the merits of pros/cons, it's hard to take your hypotheticals all that seriously. It's easy for random folks on sports forums to say i'd trade player X and Y without any legit and exact knowledge of what you'd really get in return.

Of course if Chapman would become an ace, that would be more valuable than him as a lock down closer. That said, if both he and Broxton pitch like they did last season, they would form a very enviable duo and thus would be a major strength at protecting wins. One just needs to look at our very own Brewers the last two years to see the importance of back end of the bullpen guys in today's baseball where those guys pitch in nearly every game within 1-3 runs. In 2011, that back end of the pen was huge in securing a playoff berth and then huge in blowing a potential playoff berth last year. Granted, you'd rather find productive closers and set up men on the cheap than spending big money or using an insane arm like Chapman in the rotation, but it's not often that teams make the playoffs in today's baseball if they aren't good at protecting leads late in games, so it's a good problem to have for the Reds.

I think you're leaving something out of the equation, that being our owner. While i don't believe that Attanasio is one of those very overbearing type of sports owners who demands to first approve any move that his GM makes, in watching him, he certainly isn't an owner either who just mainly has the team for an investment and thus isn't involved with the operations much. Attanasio is not only very competitive and wants the team to potentially win each year, he loves seeing 2.5-3 million fans enter Miller Park. So while i agree with your general premise that Melvin pretty much is going to prefer looking at his roster from a year to year in a win now manner unless totally convinced otherwise, i think Attanasio also shares that vision. Thus, both are going to defer to keeping the productive veteran unless a situation arrives where a playoff berth looks very remote, as happened last year and lead to the Greinke trade. You bring up Prince as an example. Do you really think Attanasio would have been for trading Fielder before the season started in 2011? I don't unless maybe if the Melvin was offered such a ridiculously good package of players that saying no became almost impossible. Listen to Mark talk about Melvin, on top of the contract extension. I think that overall, both share similar mentalities on trying to win in the present whenever possible, but not ignoring the importance of the farm system either.

I think you undervalue the year he had last season compared to what that is worth in today's salary structure. Now obviously this wouldn't happen, but if hypothetically Gomez was on the free agent market and it was guaranteed that he would repeat each year a .770 OPS, 37 stolen bases, and also provide his normal stellar defense, he'd get significantly more than a 3yr/24 million dollar deal. So both sides took a calculated risk here. If Carlos ends up having a season similar to or even better than last season, he'd have been able to command significantly more than this contract. If instead he regresses back to his .650 OPS levels, then the Brewers will have overpaid some, but at least the defense and elite base running would keep the contract from being some major blunder.

Why have a problem with what players make given all of the money flooding into the coffers of the owners? Have you not seen all of the new national and cable TV deals signed by both MLB and individual teams? The sport overall has never seen financial times as is the case currently. Not only is the TV money huge, attendance has never been higher. If the players weren't getting what they are, all of that extra money would just go into the pockets of extremely wealthy owners instead. By that logic the Brewers payroll should have gone up this year not down. I was only responding to your comment about having a problem with what MLB players make.

I have a problem in general with what many MLB players make. If you can get to your arby years and have a pulse you are guaranteed $1 mil. Why have a problem with what players make given all of the money flooding into the coffers of the owners? Have you not seen all of the new national and cable TV deals signed by both MLB and individual teams? The sport overall has never seen financial times as is the case currently. Not only is the TV money huge, attendance has never been higher. If the players weren't getting what they are, all of that extra money would just go into the pockets of extremely wealthy owners instead.

Not for $8mil/yr BJ Upton just got 5yr/75 million. Other players around the league have been getting huge long term contracts as all of this new cable TV money is flooding through baseball. It's 2013, not 2003, the salary structure in MLB has changed and will only continue to rise, making 8 million a year not be that much money. Not only that, the deal is only for three seasons, lessening the risk.

That Gomez really meant it when he said that he wanted to stay with the the Brewers beyond this season because my money is on Boras advising Carlos to play out the season instead and enter free agency, but clients have the final say. I'm sure he also was happy to secure his future financially given he has a wife and young children. I would see the appeal of that if i was in his position. Sure, he maybe could have made more if he played out the season and had a god year, but 24 million dollars is still plenty enough to live a very comfortable life for himself and his family so long as he's not stupid with that money.

TW Weekly did a piece on Carlos recently and he mentioned then just how much he wanted to remain a Brewer long term. That he loves the team, his teammates, the city, and so did his wife. Given how Boras pretty much never has a client sign a deal while only being one year from free agency, i gotta believe that Gomez pushed Boras to get this done.

These are the kind of risks the Brewers need to take IMO because if Carlos can keep his OPS at least in that .725-.800 range, it's a bargain given his defense and base running, especially with how salaries are exploding through baseball.

Because baseball had by far the richest history of any of these sports, especially when it came to stats/records. Next thing you know, guys are sticking needles in their buttocks and they are doing things to in effect ruin these stats by watering down many records by putting up video game numbers. It would be a bigger story in football though if a superstar like say Rodgers, Manning, Brees, Adrian Peterson, Megatron, etc got busted for using PED's. Quite a few guys get suspended in the NFL each year for using a banned substance, but never has a big superstar been busted like a Braun, A-Rod, McGwire, or Manny. Baseball also had HOF level stars in Bonds/Clemens who everyone thinks used roids. Granted though, the largely individual aspect to how baseball is played compared to other sports has caused baseball records to be more revered.

Yea, it's amazing how many 6-10 year contracts at huge money which have been given out over the last few years. The odds sure seem more likely that most of these contracts will end up as dead money on the back end of these deals. When decline and/or injuries strike as these players get in their 30's, you'll have multiple teams paying guys 20-25 million a year to be pretty average players or injury messes like A-Rod currently is.

What? Football has been testing for roids longer than baseball has. Obviously players in both sports still will look for ways to beat the tests.

Hard to argue with his thoughts given the adds sure seem against the current rotation being able to produce well enough to win at least 87-90 games, so as to make the playoffs.

This would be a much more fitting complaint if the Nats were actually big spenders. They have built the team around cheap young talent and their payroll isn't really out of line with the Brewers. This isn't really about the market, this is about a team built from the ground up that has an average or better player at every position except part of the bullpen going for it before the cheap guys get too expensive. This deal puts $7M on the books for them this year. If the Brewers thought they were 1 player away from a serious world series run I'm sure they could find another $7M. I agree with everything you said, but also don't forget who owns the Nationals http://assets.bizjournals.com/washington/news/Ted%20Lerner*280.jpg?v=1 The guy is worth between 3.5 and 4 billion dollars. He's 87 years old. Even if some want to argue that Soriano is being overpaid by a few million a year, Lerner can handle it financially just fine. Being 87 though and having a team with a legit shot to make the World Series next year, i can't fathom him fretting over Soriano's salary if in the playoffs Soriano is on the mound closing out tight games. Hell, Lerner could light two billion dollars on fire and still be filthy rich.

The NBA is not expanding, the owners won't allow their precious TV money to get split up even more. If the Bucks go, the NBA will probably never be back in Milwaukee. Yep, if the Bucks ever move, odds are very slim Milwaukee ever gets a team back.

Really hard for me to pick a favorite from between White Stripes, The Raconteurs, or Dead Weather. I remember when the first Dead Weather cd came out, i was obsessed with listening to it and there are some great live versions of the songs on youtube. His full body of work with the White Stripes is amazing also. Speaking of solo Jack White, for whatever reason i hadn't initially listened to his work on the Cold Mountain soundtrack. Man, it's really good. If you hadn't heard it, here are two from the soundtrack.