Ennder

You just have to keep in mind that Melvin isn't just building the major league team, he is building the fanbase as well. A lot of decisions have been about getting the organization turned around and showing results to the fans to get them back in the park. While you might not care about the playoff appearance the average fan and especially the casual fan who they are trying to get to come to the games more do care about it.

Actually this will get better as time goes on because the draft picks we got for losing Linebrink will likely replace these guys who are all marginal players in the first place. The team made the post season, hard for me to fault this deal at all. Both of these players were blocked for at least the next season and I think Cain will be better than Brantley so they would have blocked again next year. The draft pick compensation from Cordero leaving the team. The risk with this trade was always that Cruz would figure it out, 3 years later he finally did. We needed a guy that could step in and give depth should a starter go down, I'm not a believer that Balfour can keep up what he did last year either so lets give this one some time before judging it. Doug Davis is nothing special and the team wasn't going to re-sign Davis so it was a 1 year deal. Eveland was part of this deal and he hasn't been a very good pitcher since other than a luck based solid ERA for part of last season. Estrada was actually putting up good numbers before his injury but that is always the big issue with offense first catchers. Out of this whole list of complaints not a single player you listed would have significantly helped the Brewers in the past 3 years. We still have an above average farm system with a lot of good young talent on the major league team. Find it hard to really complain about his overall body of work even if I haven't liked every move he's made. His biggest flop was that 4th year on Suppan(he got too much money as well but a lot of crappy innings eaters got the same type of deals so hard to blame him, Washburn, Marquis etc).

This makes me so happy. Now Stetter can pitch full innings and Swindle can be kept as the LOOGY. Coffey, Swindle, Hoffman, DiFelice, Stetter and Villanueva give us a decent bullpen and we can use McClung and Julio in mop up games.

How long do the Rangers have him, not really sure where to find that kind of info. I mean he has been up and down in the majors for quite a few years now I'd have to think he is running out of time with them unless he signed an extension or something. Cots says 1 year 408k for his contract but not seeing anything about arbitration years etc, I guess I don't know how that all works with these guys who only play in sept each year.

I don't think there was a way to know that Mench would completely lose his power when we signed him and he was a player that could help us that year.

To be fair Weeks did cut down on his Ks in 08 and his defense was improved though it slipped a bit late in the year so there were signs of improvement last year. Just his power was down and he didn't take as many walks so he had bad with the good!

Hart's plate discipline was better in previous years than last year so he always had better skills in the area. BB rate also generally does climb with age so it is definitely something a player learns with age. However you have to be careful early because as was mentioned in the various pitching freak out threads, BBs are at their highest in April.

Hasn't it been two and a half years? Oops I was looking at major leagues when I said that. He last played for the major league brewers in 2005 or 4 years ago, He last played for the minor league Brewers in 2006 or 3 years ago.

I was at the game tonight. Looper looked really good though he looked like he just wore out as the game got late. The defense looked really good tonight, Fielder even made a couple nice plays. We had to leave to put my daughter to bed and it was 3-3, by the time we reached the car it was 8-3, I guess I'm just bad luck!

He had a couple of really hard hit balls tonight even if they weren't HR type balls. Good to see. I still wish he had better music before his ABs though!

Kind of hard to say he missed the boat on him when it took him 4 years after the trade and age 28 to play a major role in the majors(he did nice in a sept callup last year too but that isn't major role). I don't think anyone ever doubted the power, it was whether he could hit for a high enough average in the majors.

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/43059057.html They are dropping like flies!

The fact that he admits he is still get treatment for the injury would seem to somewhat validate the worries people are having. Obviously the injury is something they will have to manage long term and while he may say it feels fine it doesn't mean it isn't affecting his swing in some way. I still am more worried about him than say Fielder or Hardy as an example.

It has been extremely accurate overall considering he talks about players he doesn't actually get to see himself. I use his advice all the time for fantasy baseball though and it is generally correct.

I completely 100% disagree with this statement though and I'm not cherry picking anything. The Brewers need to find 4-5 more wins somewhere to make the playoffs, it could be breakouts of players currently on the roster, it could be somehow trading Kendall for Joe Mauer!, it could be breakouts in the bullpen turning it into a strength, it could be trading for a real 3B etc. Getting another starter is ONE way we could improve but it isn't like this rotation is so miserable that there is no way it can lead us to a playoff like say Baltimore or Washington or Texas has. Gallardo has 146 IP of 3.46 ERA now with better peripherals than the ERA and 396 IP of a 2.59 ERA in the minors while young at every stop. That is a great track record. Parra has 202 IP of 4.44 ERA with better peripherals than the ERA suggests as well as 545 IP of 3.07 ERA in the minors. Just because these guys aren't 10 year vets doesn't mean they don't have track records of success. Gallardo, Parra, Bush, Looper are as good as most teams 1-4 including some teams that will make the playoffs this year. They aren't a knockout rotation but they aren't a big weakness that means we'll have to score 8 runs a night to win games either. I could easily see our rotation being as good as the rotation that won the Phillies a world series last year as an example.

I didn't think we'd make the playoffs going into the season. I think 3 teams in the NL East are better than us and the Marlins could be though I think their rotation falls apart in the 2nd half. The Diamondbacks, Cardinals and Reds are all in the same general range as us too. We'll either need a couple break outs offensively or a mid season trade to put us over the top. I think we are around 84-86 wins and not just because of the rotation which is average.

I disagree, everything Gallardo has done in the majors and minors profiles him as a #1. I won't keep posting about this since it gets old but you guys are just making way too much out of a small sample of games. Better rotations than ours have struggled just as much as ours has this year, this is baseball in April, it is highly random.

Last year the White Sox rode Danks and Floyd to a playoff berth and they had less of a track record than Gallardo/Parra do. Lincecum had less of a track record going into last season than Gallardo does and he won the Cy Young. Lester had less of a track record than Parra or Gallardo last year and was in the running for a CY. Every single year young pitchers step up and have great seasons with nothing more than a minor league track record and maybe a partial season in the majors. I think you guys are making a mountain out of a mole hill. I don't think we have a 90 win team but it isn't going to be Gallardo and Parra that keeps us out of the playoffs and they aren't going to struggle just because we don't have a veteran ace. That is the kind of thing they say on ESPN but is proven wrong every year on the field.

I think a lot of pitchers have gotten off to bad starts and people are making too much out of it. The Giants 'stud' rotation has been miserable as well. The yankees are allowing 5.5 R/G. This early in the season the stats are more or less random and meaningless. Melvin is a smart guy, I'm sure he already knows all of this.

The sample sizes are so small that none of that really means much though. The Brewer pitchers are all walking more guys than they historically have, it won't stay like that all season. Every single team in baseball is going to go through a 10 game stretch where they pitching struggles.

Pitching is generally ahead of hitting in April, it is almost always the lowest ERA month of the season. BB are always high in April and HR are generally low.

I like it personally, the Mets have an overrated offense so I think Gallardo keeps us in the game vs Santana and Pelfrey is not a good pitcher in general and is struggling now so maybe Suppan keeps us in that game.

Hopefully tomorrow since I'm going to the game and hopefully next week on what should be a tough road trip. If we lose the first 5 series of the year I have to assume it costs us any chance at the playoffs since we were on the edge of being a playoff team in the first place.

The fantasy baseball site I post on a lot handles bets with signatures. The loser has to live with a signature of the winners choice for a full year. That seems appropriate in this case.

Well I'm out, just too frustrating watching the same combination of walks and bad timing every night this week. I'm going to the game tomorrow, hopefully that gives the team their mojo back.