danzig6767

Barring some teams making a trade offer at some point better than i'd expect for Gomez, i likely wouldn't trade him or offer him an extension for a few reasons. 1. Even though the odds are that the team next year won't be able to seriously compete for a playoff berth, i don't think Attanasio is going to want to go really young and pretty much punt on the season before it starts. He likes seeing Miller Park full. 2. Almost very rookie is a question mark as to how exactly they'll perform in their rookie season. Some excel. Some are solid and some look overwhelmed and badly struggle. Schafer could be one that struggles badly. 3. We will have sizable money coming off the books between Greinke, K-Rod, and Wolf. Gomez wouldn't get huge money in arbitration. So i'd likely bring Carlos back and put him in some degree of a platoon with Schafer. Start Gomez around 100 times and Schafer 60 games. Of course that ratio could change if either guy's play forced extra starts.

Axford was fine, he just threw an 0-2 fastball right down the middle to Morse. Veras had a quick 10th inning before imploding in the 11th. As for Roenicke deserving the majority of the blame for the bullpen woes, that's insane to believe that. Roenicke certainly has his faults, but everyone in that bullpen has been stinking up the joint for awhile now. It hasn't mattered who Roenicke brought in because each of these guys in the pen has been like throwing gas on a fire. Hell, just look at the WHIP numbers for all of the guys in the bullpen, they all fill up the basepaths.

Jim Henderson for closer. Henderson and old fart Hernandez are probably our best relief pitchers right now.

The crazy thing is that literally every single guy in that bullpen sucks and isn't reliable at all. That's hard to have happen. There isn't one guy in that pen that i'd feel remotely confident in if i was managing this team.

I've never seen anything like this from a Brewers bullpen, even during the dark days during Bando's tenure. Amazing.

I disagree; it's just the way the Rangers operate. Sure it sucks for them to not have Greinke right now, but the Angels overpaid to get him. Like the article 'Stache cited in the OP stated, the Rangers don't build for one season, and that's precisely why they're currently fighting to get to their third straight WS. I could definitely see Daniels ponying up for Josh Johnson, who as others have already stated would be Rangers property through 2013 as well. I agree that the Rangers seem to have a more long term view towards their franchise and that should help keep them legit being a playoff contender for years to come. That said, in my opinion, it has to be tough for Texas management and fans to take the stay disciplined route after losing back to back World Series, including last year's absolutely devastating loss to St. Louis. In at least all my years watching baseball, that Game 6 loss by Texas was the biggest kick in the nuts loss i've ever watched a team suffer through. In consecutive innings, they were only one strike away from winning a title. Man, that game would still be haunting me if i was a Rangers management member, a player, or fan. Getting Greinke certainly wouldn't have guaranteed Texas a title this year, but it would have increased their chances to both hold on to the division over the Angels and once in the playoffs, to have a SP with the ability at least to shut down a good offense. If instead they don't acquire a different quality starter, they face the real chance of the Angels winning the division, maybe missing the playoffs, and even if they do make the playoffs, not having enough pitching to advance far. As for the Angels overpaying for Greinke, for me there to many variables left to be played out before saying that. Greinke could help them make a deep run in the playoffs, maybe even win a title. He also could resign there if he likes how things go this season. It'll take time to see how the three young guys in the trade pan out.

Exactly. Although if a GM plans to keep his job and actually negotiate future trades it probably behooves him to just keep his mouth shut about what other GMs have specifically said/offered. Heck, it's pretty much just a good principle to live by in everyday life. Don't spread rumors, and don't believe hearsay/rumors. Life is better that way for everybody. It's one thing to say "I've got other offers out on the table that are better than what you are currently offering--thus you need to up the ante" And it's another to say "The Angels just offered x, y, and z, so we'll need to get Perez and Olt from you to make a deal work" I would guess that Doug told him the former, and specified which players in the Rangers organization they like. Then again, I'm just some idiot on the internet and I hate negotiating (at least if I'm on the selling end), So I pretty much know nothing. Yea, neither of us is a GM and thus don't know what exactly two GM's say to each other during trade negotiations, but i agree that it's unlikely GM's say to another GM that so and so team offered these certain players, now can you beat the offer. It's probably more vague like another team has a better offer on the table and thus if you want my player, your offer has to include X player/players.

Two thoughts from this picture: 1) It does seem like he genuinely liked the guys in the Milwaukee clubhouse. He said something when he met with the press to the effect that the guys got along very well even when things weren't going well on the field. 2) Wolf and Kottaras really might be inseparable?! My thought was that whatever anxiety issues he had in the past which may have affected his pitching at times, he seems pretty much over them. There was also all that talk about how would Zack fit in with his teammates after we traded for him and that never seemed to be any problem at all. Instead, he seemed to fit in fabulously and was well liked by everyone.

Hope he does well obviously, but his minor league numbers don't inspire much hope in me, even though his last three starts have been good. Still way to many walks and K rate is down

My guess is the Angels feel that they should end up having a good shot to sign Greinke. They have some big contracts coming off their books the next two seasons and fairly recently signed a huge new cable deal. So they easily could be in the position to give Zack the kind of money which would make Attanasio balk at. Not only that, Greinke could look at the Angels roster and feel confident that he'd be at least competing for a playoff berth each year. I see the odds being pretty good that he signs an extension before the season ends.

There are only a handful of MLB teams that have the revenue streams necessary to buy enough major league talent to compete year-in and year-out. Even that doesn't guarantee success, look at the Phillies this year. Attanasio has clearly shown that he prefers a win now mentality and will spend as much as he can when he feels the team has a solid shot to make the playoffs, this is nothing like the Selig's operation. That said, he also is a man with enough common sense to grasp when situations don't go as he had hoped, so he had to act proactively. Obviously both Mark and Doug wanted to sign Greinke, but if Zack made a decision that he wanted to explore free agency, Attanasio/Melvin couldn't just pout, keep Greinke, and pray that by some super slim chance Zack would change his mind and resign here.

Yea, he often was in all kinds of trouble last year, he just managed to consistently weasel out of it. That's hard to do. Any last inning reliever who puts to many guys on base will usually end up paying for it.

Does it really matter given K-Rod can still blow leads in the 8th inning instead of the 9th?

Roenicke basically said so in his press conference. He said that these weren't normal circumstances or else he'd have sent Zack back out there.

Who was he supposed to put in? Every single guy in that bullpen has been a human gas can for awhile now. Roenicke has no reason to trust any pitcher in that horrific pen. Well pretty much what everyone else said. He wasn't supposed to put in anybody with Grienke at 87 pitches (11 in the 7th), 14 in a row and due up in th 9th. If the game meant anything to him he wouldn't have pulled Grienke. I think he must have been more interested in proving (to himself? to Melvin?) that the bullpen can't be trusted to get 6 outs with a 5 run lead, the lefty reliever can't pitch to lefties, Loe can't get a big out, and whatever else everyone else already knows. But it can't be that he thinks that what he did gave him the best chance to win the game. How do you know that Melvin didn't give orders on how to handle Greinke if he pitched well? The team is almost for sure going to shop Zack, but needed a good performance from him tonight in front of trade suitors watching. Once he put in seven great innings, it could have been a pre-planned situation to remove him at a certain point.

Who cares? This season is trashed anyways. No need to lower ZG's trade value by letting him implode in the 8th. Time to start rebuilding. I always love this argument. Yes, who cares about wins. We can't make the playoffs - or it's unlikely - so lets just completely give up. Sounds like something someone who never played competitive sports said. Please The team obviously is intending to shop Greinke and tonight was a perfect showcase performance, so they removed him after seven great innings. That clearly was priority number one for the Brewers, with good reason given the season is toast for any type of playoff run. Plus, he left with a five run lead, even a minor league pen should be able to protect that. If you want to complain about anything, it should be that Manny Parra continues to stay on the roster.

Greinke may have been on a pitch count Either way, i'm glad he was pulled, things worked out near perfectly. Greinke looked fabulous to any trade suitors and if Melvin/Attanasio had even the slightest dumb belief that the team shouldn't be a seller, tonight had to be the final nail in the coffin for them. Plus, you gotta admit that meltdown was amusing.

Who was he supposed to put in? Every single guy in that bullpen has been a human gas can for awhile now. Roenicke has no reason to trust any pitcher in that horrific pen.

At this point in the season, i find the bullpen woes amusing. I can't imagine having to manage a team where literally everyone in the bullpen is bad.

He also mastered that comeback fastball which started off the corner and at the last second tailed back over the plate. Countless batters just stood there frozen and took it for a called strike. Then he'd throw a straight fastball off the plate with no tail back and hitters would either swing and miss at it or hit a weak grounder. In the end, for guys who don't throw hard, it's all about command. Being able to consistently locate pitches in spots they intended to and which are hard for hitters to drive. Hell, even hard throwers need command, look at Parra his who career and Axford this season. Any pitcher can succeed in the majors if they avoid getting behind in the count a lot and have consistent quality command of multiple pitches. Obviously though in most cases it helps to also be able to throw in the 90's with good command.

Sabean often catches a lot of flack and if my memory is correct, many baseball fans thought the Melky/Sanchez trade was another dumb move by him, but it's turned out to be an absolute steal for him. Sabean certainly has made his share of head scratching moves over the years, but IMO his overall track record as a GM in regards to wins/losses and a title is better than the amount heat he's gotten for the poor moves he's made.

Teams rarely trade a top 3-5 prospect the caliber of Profar, much less for a rental like Greinke who won't return comp picks if he didn't resign with Texas. Plus, the Rangers have a deep enough farm system so that they will be able to acquire a piece at the deadline if they want without having to give up Profar.

Did baseball state their reasoning as to why they no longer will allow teams trading for a rental to then get comp picks if that player isn't resigned?

Walks by late inning relievers just seem to almost always come back to bite the pitcher. All three of the hits were more bad luck than hit hard, but he simply can't walk the two other guys. Not only that, the hit by Furcal would have been ball four had he taken it.

There is something which needs to be factored in for any team that might try to trade for Greinke or any rental player, that being changes in the new CBA regarding comp picks. In the past, if say Texas did trade for Greinke and he signed elsewhere after the season,, Texas would get a first round and sandwich pick. That made it much easier to stomach trading valued prospects for only a few months of a rental acquired at the deadline. This can no longer happen though because a player needs to be with a team all season long to get picks in return. So it will be interesting to see if/how that change in the CBA impacts just how much teams are willing to give up for a few months rental given they can't count on getting some comp picks after the season.