danzig6767

I think Blunderbuss is a solid album, but i didn't like it on the same level as his work with the White Stripes, The Raconteurs, or Dead Weather.

I can understand why the Pirates would trade Hanrahan for prospects, but it doesn't look like they got much for him unless Sands disproves scouts doubts about his ability to produce a lot in the majors.

The Dodgers said they don't plan on maintaining this type of payroll. They are spending big now while they rebuild the farm system and then will likely lower payroll. I'm guessing you wont' see anyone keep a $200M payroll long term. Why not? With their massive new TV deal, the Dodgers can cover a 200 million dollar payroll with just their local TV revenue alone. That doesn't include money from good attendance, many millions in national TV contracts, and various other revenue sources.

If Baker went Choo Phillips Votto Bruce That's a rough 1-4 for any pitcher to face. If Ludwick can get close to his numbers of last year while batting 5th, the Reds will score lots of runs.

While this trade sure does look bad for KC, the wild card for them in this trade could end up being Wade Davis. He was great out of the pen last year and if he can manage to pitch at least somewhat close to that as a starter for the Royals, that would be huge given he's under team control for another five years i believe.

I wonder if Boras being Jackson's agent is part of the reason teams are reluctant to go hard after him?

The real issue with this is it isn't consistent. The top 5 bullpens in baseball can bring back all the same guys and suddenly be below average bullpens the next year. Everyone but the absolutely stud RPs just vary way too much year to year to rely on. I definitely get that, i was more just pointing out that i think GM's today place more importance on bullpens than in the past given how so many teams now handle their pitching staffs with the later innings of close games almost always in the hands of certain relief pitchers, not starters. That's partly why you see a still young starter getting traded for a someone to pitch as a setup guy. Of course Hanson's health and drop in velocity also was a sizable factor.

Hey, in today's baseball where starters don't go beyond 7 innings that often anymore, even if they are throwing well, the back end of bullpens have never been more important. Those guy have a big impact on which teams win close games late. Of course any team needs a good rotation to be able to compete for a playoff berth, but it's also very hard to compete for a playoff berth in today's baseball if a team lacks a productive back end of the pen. Look at last year. Cincinnati/Oakland/Baltimore all finished top 5 in bullpen ERA. Washington was 7th. San Fran was only 15th, but their main late inning guys were very reliable. Those teams didn't blow games that they lead or were tied late. That's so huge when playoff berths can often be decided by only 1-3 games.

Yea, and those really big markets often tend to have one to multiple big long term big contracts on their payroll which become ugly on the back end of the deals as the veteran/veterans who got deals say 5 years or longer, they start aging poorly in terms of production. I think we'll see more and more of this as upper tier free agents keep getting these crazy long contracts, 5-6 years for starting pitchers and 7-10 years for position players. It's one thing to lock up a guy like Braun or others to long deals while they are still young, that's dangerous in itself. Giving really long deals though to players as they near the age of 30 or are past the age of 30 is incredibly risky, yet i think we'll see rich teams keep having aging guy making big money on their payrolls.

Yea, use him as not the long reliever, but instead the guy who comes in say the 5th/6th/7th inning of games where the Brewers are down only 1-3, so the game is still potentially winnable. Avoid though him pitching much in games where a small lead late is trying to be held on to.

Ditto. I really have no interest in dealing what may actually be our best pitching prospect for a 7th or 8th inning guy. I would struggle trading him even if Walden were to be our closer. Walden was traded to Atlanta, but what about the year Jungmann had in A+ ball last year was so impressive, especially given he was a 22 year old, not a kid out of high school?

That's the rub. Just because a player like Biggio wasn't a home run hitter, that doesn't mean he didn't ever use PED's. Same with pitchers besides Clemens. Big hulking guys like McGwuire, Bonds, and Sosa were obvious, but clearly the league as a whole was awash in roids, so writers can only guess about players who they assume were clean.

Wow. I'd forgotten just how long the Yankees extended A-Rod's contract (2017). I missed reillymcshane's post #6 when I began this one, so this isn't intended to be nit-picky. Didn't A-Rod get busted for roids only a few months after signing that ridiculous extension with NY?

I would love to see the Brewers go after Jackson, although now that he doesn't cost a team its first rounder, I'm concerned that the price might be prohibitive. The highest I would go for Jackson would be 4/$60M. I think there's a good chance he could get 5 years from someone, though. I could certainly see the Yankees being interested, along with basically any club that misses out on Greinke (or doesn't want to meet his asking price in the first place). Jackson & Anibal Sanchez are pretty clearly the co-second-place SP on the market given their age, and the bidding could get crazy on them once Greinke is gone. I'd rather have Melvin check into the health of Haren and see if maybe a deal could be worked out like say a 1-2 year guaranteed deal with an option for another year based on meeting certain agreeable numbers or innings pitched.

I'm with you on Haren. If we could get him for a non-upper tier prospect, i'd prefer him to signing a guy to a say 3yr deal in free agency, assuming the Brewers front office/medical staff think Haren will recover from his back woes by spring training. He fits many of the things i'd want from a veteran starter addition 1. A contract lasting only one season 2. Recent high level success. His 2011 season was really good and not flukey. 3. When healthy, Haren has thrown 200 plus innings each time. 4. His K/BB ratio has always been a major strength. Yea, Haren has a lot of innings on his arm, 1876 for his career and maybe that's caught up to him where he'll never have another very good season. The flip side to that though is he has been an ace or very close to an ace caliber pitcher for awhile, and as recently as 20011. There really aren't any other starters available with Haren's at least chance to be a No.1 starter for next year if healthy and certainly no other starter with his skills who could be had without giving up either multiple quality prospects and/or big money on a multi-year contract. Melvin and the Brewers striking gold with a guy like Haren could end up being one of those type of moves we see in baseball which has a pretty dramatic impact on a team, even though the move didn't make major headlines at the time.

I don't think Veras putting extra pressure on himself caused problems for him, he was pretty much the same pitcher for the Brewers as he was with the Pirates. His biggest flaw is the same flaw he had the last few years, he simply walks to many hitters. Veras is good enough at limiting hits and his K/rate is quality , but almost any late inning relief pitcher who consistently puts hitters on via walks is going to get himself in trouble. He walked 40 guys in only 67 innings last year, that by far hurt him more than anything else.

I don't think there is much of anything that MLB can do about their lagging postseason ratings, it pretty much is what it is for a variety of reasons and no sport can compete with football. That said, baseball is in great shape overall, even with their less than stellar postseason ratings. Attendance is better than it's ever been. Rates for cable TV deals with individual teams are going through the roof. MLB recently signed very lucrative deals with multiple stations. The sport is in great shape financially. Few teams play in a decaying stadium. Labor peace has been great in Selig's tenure, an underrated factor. Besides those financial aspects, the added playoff berths and revenue sharing has given some hope to smaller markets who make good decisions. Sure, the big markets still have a big financial advantage, but smaller markets at least have a better chance today.

I can only speak for myself, but i've attended about a dozen Packers games and 100 plus Brewers games. While Lambeau Field is a great place to see a football game, as the years have gone by and big HD TV's have come about, in most cases, i'd rather watch Packer games at home on TV than attend games in person. Tickets are expensive, the weather often sucks to spend over three hours sitting through, i like being able to see replays on TV, and i then miss the early or later NFL games during the drive home. Baseball though i love attending in person compared to watching on TV. The weather usually is good and tickets are cheaper. I don't care one bit about missing other MLB games being played that day. One factor you are ignoring is women. Between friends/family, i know lots of women who watch pretty much every Packers games and some will even watch other NFL games. On the flip side, while they might attend a Brewers game here and there for a night out experience, they won't sit at home watching many or any Brewers games on TV. Won't follow the team really close and certainly would never follow other MLB teams. Of course guys are the clear main demographic watching both sports, but the NFL draws in female interest as TV viewers much more than baseball does.

You are welcome to your opinion but this is completely false. Over 60 million people attended games in person this year in baseball which will be more than 20 times as many attend an NFL game, they expanded the TV market and the internet market has exploded. Baseball is still right there with football for most popular sport in the US. The long season, slow pace and erratic schedule just doesn't lend itself to playoffs. I agree with you that jerichoholicninja really underrated baseball's popularity given attendance has never been as good as it is right now, but it does suffer as a TV viewing event compared to football for much of the public. Sure the much shorter schedule, gambling, and fantasy football all factor into the ratings monster that football has become, but that's only part of the equation. It doesn't explain though why say a random Monday Night football game between non-high profile teams will still draw in noticeably higher ratings than a World Series game or even some college football games can draw in higher ratings than a baseball playoff game. The sporting public simply loves watching football on TV, regardless if a game involves teams they really like or hate. They don't respond that way to baseball. Where i think the public loves baseball most besides watching their home team on cable is attending games in person. Baseball is such a great sport to attend in person. Most of it's games are played in summer when the weather is good, thus it's nice to attend simply to enjoy a nice day or night outside. The slower pace to the game also is nice when attending in person because people can talk and interact with their friends/family in a relaxed manner. It's very kid friendly. On the flip side though, except for really major baseball fans, it's not as strong of a TV sport, unlike football for much of the public.

I don't buy that the public just doesn't care about baseball anymore, attendance at games is better than it's ever been in baseball history. My reasons for the poor postseason ratings are 1. Baseball is viewed as a summer sport by many sports fans who like a lot of different sports. They like attending games in person on a nice summer day/night and follow their teams on TV when not attending games. 2. While the overall attendance numbers are very good and so are local ratings for teams, very few of those fans of multiple sports will sit and watch say regular season games which don't involve their home team. I certainly never do. So once the playoffs starts, many regular sports fans aren't really excited to watch teams they don't care much about. 3. Football. That is the sport which owns the heart of so many sports fans. Unlike baseball, people in droves will watch NFL games, and not just games involving their favorite team. They'll also often watch some or all of the 3pm game, the Sunday night game, Monday night game, and Thursday night game. Then you have college football on Saturday which also is very popular. That's four days/nights where baseball has to try and compete with the ratings monster that football has become. Of those four nights, any baseball playoff games being played on Saturday and Sunday are especially doomed ratings wise as football is on from noon until 10-11pm.

Now we are touchy. Way to stay above an internet fight, I wish I was as awesome as you. Saying his contract was a mistake is not the same as saying "he is going to suck." You are basically creating an opposition to argue with and baiting people with insults while saying you are above it all. Do you have any compelling reasons to believe that a 34 year old's defense and offense will stay at a higher level than they have in the past 4 years other than blind faith? If you want to tell everyone they are wrong at least back it up somehow. I know your post wasn't directed at me, but you say turbo only has blind faith on his side, yet what do you have to base your belief of regression on besides basically just guessing that will happen? The OPS for Ramirez over the last four years. 2009-- .905 2010-- .745 2011-- .871 2012-- .901 If you go beyond further than the last four years, it's pretty amazing just how consistently close his stats have ended up being from year to year since 2004 when the Cubs traded for Aramis. What he did last year with the Brewers was far from being any sort of aberration, it was near exactly the kind of season he's had since 2004. Sure there is a chance that age finally starts to catch up to him either next season or in year three of his deal, age at some point catches up to all athletes. That said, if say someone told me i'd win a 1000 dollars, but i had to correctly pick the over/under on whether Ramirez will finish with an OPS of .850 or higher next year, i'd take the over given he didn't show a single bit of his skills declining last year.

I'm fine with keeping divisions and awarding a playoff spot to any division winner, but then once a season ends, seed the playoffs based on records. The teams with the 4th and 5th best records have to play the play in game.

Yea TLB, i've been super impressed by Segura's defense, both with his range and arm. Hard to believe that some questioned whether he could make the switch from secondbase to shortstop.

Hard to say what it would've taken to get him for two seasons, as the Brewers and Angels were the only teams after him. The problem is that we had to sign him to the deal we did because Melvin does not believe in financial flexibility. We were locked into a lot of contracts and the number crunchers wouldn't allow him to pay more than $6MM this year, so he had to get creative, which could hurt us in the future. First of all, look at the contracts currently on the books. Only Ramirez is an older player tied into a multi-year deal. It's not as if Melvin has locked up a bunch of 30-plus year old vets to big contracts. In fact, i don't see a single player on the roster that Melvin would struggle badly to trade this offseason if he wanted to because of a bad contract which scares most other teams. Besides that, you're being naive if you think it's just Doug who has wanted to take a win now path towards roster building. Watching Attanasio the last 3-4 years, it's pretty clear to me that he is a win now type of owner unless he feels almost all hope for a competitive team isn't likely. Mark really likes winning and especially likes seeing 3 million fans keep filling Miller Park. No, I agree with you that there is value in playing competitive ball. However, I would be interested in seeing the ratings the 2012 Brewers get vs previous years, as I think half of the fans lost interest long ago and probably don't even know they're in the playoff hunt, which negates the monetary value of being in a playoff run. Therefore, the "die hards" who would watch the Brewers even during 100-loss seasons are getting to see more exciting ball than we thought a months or so ago, but the Brewers really get no gain from it unless they make the playoffs. The Brewers will draw close to 3 million fans again this year and they've been drawing 30-35 thousand during this run. As for ratings, i can only speak for myself and a few buddies of mine who are Brewers fans. We are all old enough to remember the dark days of about 20 straight years where the Brewers were buried in the standings most years by June or July at the latest, we didn't keep watching and apathy was extremely high. Over the last 3-4 years though, my good friends and i have not only watched the vast majority of games and attended many in person, we've actually cared a lot about the team. Bought Brewers gear. Talk about the team instead of just the Packers. Really look forward to big games starting, like i look forward to the game tonight. Don't underestimate just how important that has been in reviving the love for the Brewers baseball in Milwaukee. Also, we will never know the "what ifs" that could have been if we hadn't spent the money (economists would call this the opportunity cost). I don't want to get into off-the-wall "what if" scenarios, but it is reasonable to believe that we could be better next year and certainly in two years without Ramirez and his contract on the books. Unless Ramirez surprisingly falls off a cliff next year, i find it very unlikely that he won't earn his 10 million next season. Maybe in 2014 he declines to where he's overpaid to significantly overpaid, time will tell and if so to what degree. Even in a situation like that, it's only one year, not multiple years. Plus, if he is productive next season as i expect and come 2014 the team feels it needs his 16 million dollar salary elsewhere, i really doubt that Melvin would struggle to move Ramirez's contract since it would only be for one season. Given all of the new big cable TV deals, lots of teams are swimming in cash and an only one year deal at 16 million won't scare good teams looking for a bat.

The signing should be viewed based on the totality of how Ramirez performed over all three seasons in relation to his overall compensation. First of all, i highly doubt that Ramirez would have taken a shorter deal unless the Brewers would have paid him 30 plus million over two seasons instead of three, which would be dumb. Aramis and his agent very likely were looking for a certain dollar amount as total compensation from whoever he signed with. As for what value will he have brought if the team ends up missing out on the playoffs, you and others will i'm sure disagree with me here, but i place value on competing for a playoff berth in baseball, even if the team falls short. Football is my favorite sport, but for me baseball is unique because of the 162 game schedule. Teams play pretty much everyday. So there is nothing like baseball IMO when a team you cheer for is in a playoff race. Every night/day that team plays and the game feels important. That's great entertainment value for me at least. What sucked so much about most of those 20 years pre-Melvin and Attanasio was the lack of hope and entertainment value, even before a season started. As a fan, i knew most of those teams had no realistic shot at all to compete for a playoff berth. Thus, by say only 30-50 games into a season, i'd already be bored by watching the Brewers because there was no nervous tension over winning or losing the game that night. Well, this season like the last 3-4 years, pretty much all of the games have felt important because we actually had solid to good teams. Potential playoff berths were actually realistic. These last 30 games or so have been great fun to watch and the last 16 games could end up being tension filled fun also. I love that as a sports fan and it's why i watch sports. These last 45ish games wouldn't have had that fun/entertainment value without Ramirez and his production. Some fans may view any season where the team misses the playoffs as the same, regardless if they finish 2-3 games from a playoff berth or 20 games short. I don't.