ILuvDaBush

Or both...Mary Kate&Ashley style. What's the over/under on Oscar nods? Five? Is this going to set-up Brad Pitt as the NEW Oscar darling, Tom Hanks-style?

Yeah. Where were you with your prescient ideas there, chansen?

I think Charlie V. has to be the biggest trade chip we have approaching the deadline. With his recent scoring proficiency, he has all but priced himself out of Milwaukee. If there is ANY way we could package him with Danny G, I think you have to cut bait. With the savings, sign Ramon and maybe Ridnour, though if we trade Charlie V, the scoring onus is going to then fall on Ridnour and his price tag is going to be inflated. Then again, if RJ gets the looks, you have to imagine he could have an inflated value, like when Glass Vin and Kidd went down and he was the Franchise. All I know is...2009 doesn't look like the banner year I was expecting it to be for Wisconsin sports. Redd-Bogut... We knew we would live by our Olympiads, and I guess we shall also die by them, or the lack thereof.

Based on pure upside, I would be all over Demar DeRozan. My only question does he want to take a paycut amongst other cut fringe benefits (not the least of which is location) and declare for the draft? I was enamored with him early on, and he would be a ready-made replacement for Redd/Jefferson, if/when we trade them, respectively.

I don't know if shutting Bogut down now is the best course of action. Skiles has lit quite the fire under these kids' collective bottoms and I would hate to see them begin to tank. Then again, when was the last time we put together back-to-back wins (rhetorical)?

I still think the Brewers make too much sense. With all these teams backing off, it's obvious his best course of action is to take the Brewers up on their one year offer with incentives, and try again next offseason. If he pitches like he did last year, he would probably earn $14-16M, especially by starting the All-Star Game. He knows the team. He knows the division.

So innings could end in one pitch? Imagine having Carlos Lee or Miggy Cabrera clogging up the basepaths to BEGIN the inning.

Is there any ace pitcher that comes without the possibility for injury? CC has the most taxed arm in baseball. Beckett? Wang? Halladay? Kazmir? I could see Johan being thrown out there, but really, there is no such thing as an infallible pitcher, in so many respects. Give me the days of Walter Johnson and his back-to-back shutouts!

I don't think the Padres are in a position to be forced to eat $10M total in salary with Peavy's contract. If anything, he's underpaid. Also, I thought there was also talk that he was using his No-trade clause to force a team to either extend him or drop the option years. As for the chances at adding Peavy, I have to imagine if there's a chance, the 'stache will query on what it would take.

(insert Bert Blyleven joke)

Originally, it was a California team/ATL/CHC. Then he relaxed the list to include Bo-town and NY. But that's the most relaxed it's been. With Peavy, he knows he's going to get paid, and he knows he can be getting paid while basking in SoCal. And finally, he knows he can be getting paid, living in SoCal, pitching at PetCo (padding his resume for another inevitable payday). I would be in no hurry.

Would anyone trade Dykstra for Inman? Maybe I'm overvaluing the young runt but he looks like he's going to be a quality major-leaguer, Scott Hairston/Jerry Jr. at the very least. Inman?? The walks just scare me.

I know of another player who was "too short", had an "unorthodox approach", and was shrouded in doubt because of this, even though he had yet to fail, much like our future backstop. That gent won his first of many Cy's this year.

Dream 5 Bobbles 1. YoGa- Bandaged Knee. Ball in Hand. On the bump. Bulldog-look on face. 2. CC- Really should pay a slight homage to the guy. 3. Counsell- Another guy who deserves an homage. 4. Weeks- The guy needs something to get the "Everyday Fan" behind him. Then again, I imagine a Turnbow bobble disaster with this one. 5. Villy- One of the most unsung heroes of our team.

Type B's no longer require any compensation from another team, only from MLB in the form of a supplemental pick. As for this market, unfortunately in 1929, there was no free agency. If not for the Yankees, and in a broader light, Manchester City, sports teams would be uniformly thrifty. Instead, since TV and oil are still booming industries, NYY and Man City can just throw caution to the wind.

So when is Ryan Braun's BABIP going to go back to his '07 level, especially vs. lefties? He's done it already. He must be able to reproduce the line again! And while I knew that a HR wasn't a BIP, I never really thought about how that might drag down his BABIP vs. lefties from '07. Nevertheless, let's look at their improvement vs. us. Soto v. Kendall. I would say Soto should be about where he was last year. Our hero backstop may regress, as that is my expectation right now. Lee v. Prince. I would say Lee should stay where he is, though he could outproduce what he did last year. I still have the image of him that the Marlins had some years ago, ie doubles power and a good average. Prince...I expect him to explode next year, or at least slightly improve on last year's numbers. Miles v Weeks. Let me first say that "Rickie is going to put up MVP numbers this year!" That said, his average should at least creep back towards respectablity and with that, his OBP should climb. His power...something for the wishing well, but it is there to be tapped. Miles..."I don't think we're in St. Louis anymore." Considering what DeRosa brought to the keystone, big downgrade. TheRiot v Hardy. Been beat to death on TheRiot. Hardy...probably regress, though 50HR from the SS position over two years, hard to continue to replicate, especially when playing premium defense. ARam v. Mill Hamel. If ARam continues his patient ways, he could progress this year into a true MVP candidate. The one player who produces and still has upside. Mill Hamel...hopefully we see this guy around mid-May. Big time upside. Significant downside if he's replaced by Bike Hamb. Soriano v. Braun. Soriano could definitely improve on last year's digits, but so can Braun. Neither has an affinity for the slow walk to first (unless, in Braun's case, he can continue his slow walk then to second). Braun's just entering his prime while Soriano spent his prime in Texas and the Bronx. Fukudome v. Cameron. Let me first say, Fukudome in center is surely a downgrade offensively from what they had. An over .900OPS is not easily replicated. Also, Cameron won't be lost for the first 25 games, which can only improve his overall numbers, as well as the pitchers' considering his exemplary defense. The Board Game v. Hart. The board game manufacturer put up the highest OPS in the AL last year...in Arlington. I would say Braun has a better chance replicating '07 than Milton Bradley has of breaking the 1.000 barrier. Hart, on the other hand, was an All-Star before a September that would make any baseball player cry (even Counsell). Is it wrong to expect progress on this front? So I would say the better question is, have the Brewers improved simply with age and ascension (in the case of our Hot Corner Dweller)?

Parra the Number changes, Parra. It's Par®a your own good.

Wasn't the Big Three of 06-07 Bailey-Tiny Tim-Hughes? I thought Yo was more of an afterthought because he ONLY got his fastball up to the mid-90's and he didn't come with a first-round grade like those three. I still would take Yo over all three. Let me see Tony Tim tear his ACL and pitch another inning.

And in the power department. Rickie is all natural. Roberts...had Brady Anderson's trainer.

Cards can never be counted out, if only for Pujols. The Pirates are finally going in the right direction, which puts them on track to contend in about three years. The 'Stros, as previously mentioned, are old, and if last season is any indication, we can expect their power-hitting shortstop to age three years again this year. The Reds...scare me. More than the Cubs. I hate to use cross-sport comparisons, but it reminds me of the Packers v. Vikings. Coco...Sharper. It may be more emotional when we play the Cubs, but the team whose talent level scares me the most is the Reds. If Harang shows that he's past his injury and Volquez proves last year was no fluke, then I don't know of any other rotation in our division I would rather have (the Cubs rotation is a house of cards). And imagine if THIS is the year Homer finally becomes enamored with being a pitcher. And I have long been one of Cueto's biggest fans. Have the Cubs improved? On paper. Did they have to because last year, they played absurdly over their heads? Of course! Thus, I must ask, which is the biggest reason to expect trouble from the Cubs this year? A) Counting on THAT pitching staff. -Harden. "There's a James on the phone. He says he's punched your card enough times, you're entitled to a free SLAP surgery." -Zambrano. "Lou says Big Z not supposed to go on computer." -Dumpster. "A Rose by Any Other Name..." But Canadian Karma is quite the Lassie. -Lilly. "The Brewers have ONE lefty hitter, as well as a Ryan Braun and a Bill Hall." -Heilman. "But I don't want to be a relief pitcher. I'm taking my ball and going home, back to sweet home, Chicago!" B) Counting on The Riot and Alphonso to set the table is like asking out the head pom-pom in high school, and then expecting her to pay. You know you're going to pay dearly with that type of expectation. C) Lou-Milton-Big Z-Soriano-and 2 Canadian Pitchers for comic relief. Their clubhouse needs to have its own reality show. You could pick random hosts from the Cubby Bear. America needs this in these sad times. D) No Depth. No Farm. And there only semblance of luck....is their fifth starter spot, whether it be Heilman or Samardzija, either way, they have Touchdown Jesus's unlisted digits. D)

I'm moreover trying to convince myself that the Bucks can't be uprooted. I doubt Starbux and Sonics sales in Seattle are slighted in the slightest, at least because of this slight.

I thought Meyer passed up well over a million dollars to go to college in hopes of extracting a David Price-type bounty. Price, himself, was a Dodger draft pick, IIRC.

Well Kohl's stores around the state depend upon the "hometown grocer" mystique which would be severely tarnished if the old gent or his seeds sold the team to an outsider.

Santana's beginning to decline and Ichiro is going to hit the wall FAST as he is all about his speed. I don't see how that second deal wouldn't be vetoed.

I was just saying based STRICTLY on ceiling, we have one of the best systems. Ideally, Gamel's defense becomes above-average, Salome continues to hit and becomes the GG defender he has the talent to become, Jeffress continues to K more of his contemporaries than all his cronies, Escobar's bat doesn't turn back into a pumpkin, and Lawrie... Well right now, he could be....A-Rod, behind the dish or at the hot corner. The only two players on the Pirates who can rival the Brewers' top 5 would be Pedro and Tabata (though that's more Tabata the Pirate than Tabata the Yank). The Cubs? Vitters...on a good day. Cards....Colby could be 30/30 which is nice, but beyond that? 'Stros. No. Reds...great prospects but outside of Neftali Soto and Juan Duran, no one's ceiling jumps off the page.