NievesNoNO

O.K so maybe calling Looper a steal was a little much. I agree, we should expect more. He does have some value though and 5 mil. per year isn't a bad rate. The problem is Looper, Suppan and Bush are basically the same pitcher with Bush being slightly better. When that's 60% of your starting staff, that's not good. I think he fits fine as a back end starter or long reliever/spot starter. If we can improve our team by not spending the 5 million on him then great go for it. Even if Doug cut loose all our pricy veterans this summer and didn't spend it this year, but said they were going to use it as a savings account to sign Prince in a few years I'd be O.K. with that. This will be an interesting off-season for sure. Doug has some work to do and tough decisions to make.

Absolutely! I agree. In fact that's a steal. For those of you who think the Brewers season hinges on whether or not we bring back Looper, who do you suggest Doug invests that money into? If your premise is something along the lines of we shouldn't renew Cameron, Kendal, Looper, Bush, or Weathers and back up the truck for Lackey then I can see where you're coming from. But if the arguement is we can use his 5 mil. towards trying to get somebody like Jerrod Washburn I don't really see how that helps us.

Let me preface by saying I don't want Fielder traded, but if it was a foregone conclusion that he'd have to be dealt then would the Dodgers have an interest? What about something like Loney, Russell Martin, James McDonald and Josh Lindblom. I don't know much about McDonald or Lindblom, just what I read off of somebody elses list. I really wanted to include Billingsly or Kershaw instead, but I doubt those two are going anywhere. Thoughts?

Well said. Do people think that Melvin will acquire the pitching required to compete for a championship? I'm skeptical, as his track record doesn't really suggest that's a strength of his. I appreciate and even like what he's done. He's made the Brewers relevant again, but maybe he's brought them as far as he can get them and it's time for someone else to refine what's there. I would give him two more years if we're not really close then it's time to move on.

Melvin has done a nice job, but I think he's at kind of at an opportunity for a turning point in his career. He's proved he can assemble a good offensive team both here and in Texas. Now, can he be a little creative and get the pitching it takes to go with the bats? If he can't in the next year or two then I think it's time to look in a different direction. With runners on base strikeouts do matter. Nothing good comes from a strikeout, at least if you put the ball in play you can advance the runner or force the other team into an error. Maybe that's a little old school thinking and I know there's a split in opinion on this, but pitchers pitch different and teams play different with runners in scoring position. That said, there are some players I don't care about strikeouts. For the Brewers there are only two, Braun and Fielder.

I like Byrd if they were to trade Hart for something of value. Hart and Byrd seem like fairly similar players so I don't think it'd be an improvement, but it wouldn't be a downgrade either.

Hopefully not. When the best thing people say about a catcher is he calls a good game and is a good clubhouse guy, he probably deserves a backup roll. Yes, way back when, before he snapped his ankle, he was good. Worst case scenario is Rivera and Salome are no better, but why not give them a shot at least.

1)Weeks 2)Escobar 3)Braun 4)Fielder 5)McGee 6)Hart 7)Cameron 8)Rivera Bench ?? 1)Yo 2)Brett Myers (FA) 3)Jonathan Sanchez (trade Gamel) 4)Guthrie (trade Hardy) 5)Parra Bush Suppan Coffey Hoffman Stetter Riske Weathers

I like the deal a lot. A proven young pitcher for an unproven prospect and an averageish OF. Not that I don't think Gamel will be a fine major leaguer, but a deal like this has a fairly low amount of risk in comparison to a deal that might involve Prince for more unproven prospects.

Yes I would trade Gamel and or Escobar. The Brewers absolutely need pitching. No matter how good some of their positional propects might become we've seen what a good offense and 0 pitching produces. I'd say they have two options this off-season; trade Fielder or trade Gamel and Escobar for pitching. I'd much rather keep Fielder, but what ever brings us more I'm game for at this point. Hart has become an average OF, so to think that we'll just move him for some decent pitching this off-season and then sign an "Abreu type" is a little wishfull. I guess I don't see why the potential trade partner wouldn't just sign the Abreu type player instead of trading for Hart.

I do like the idea of Guthrie for Hardy. I know prospect for prospect deals don't happen too often, but I'd try to ship our top two prospects to the West coast for some top level pitching prospects. Gamel or Escobar to San Francisco for Bumgarner and Gamel or Escobar to Oakland for Cahill or Brett Anderson. Next, back up the truck for Fielder and stick him with Braun for the forseeable future. Sign Brett Myers. A rotation of Gallardo, Myers, Cahill, Parra, and Bumgarner looks nice to me. Six others with Fielder and Braun will always be respectable.

I'd roll the dice with Brett Myers. Just a few years back he was the ace of the Phillies staff. He seems to have gotten somewhat of a raw deal there. They've moved him from starter to closer to bullpen to starter. I'm sure for good reason, but he's always had the stuff and I'm sure the Brewers would assure him a starting roll. Even better if they don't give up picks for him. I'd wouldn't mind taking a shot with Harden either. I'm sure his injury problems would be maddening, but a half year of him is probably better than a full year of most on the that list. Just thinking back to Sheets; what I wouldn't have given for even a half season of him this year.

The whole thing stinks of top-down meddling. Worse, the top-down meddlers are clearly flailing. I guess it just seems that no clear cut decision on the direction was made over the last month or so. To me there were 3 options. 1) Make the moves to go for a play-off push again. 2) Sell our remaining commodities, bring up our young guys and try to get better for next year. 3) Hold. Basically say here's what we have good, bad or otherwise we're finishing out the season, let the chips fall where they may and we'll go back to work in the off-season re-tooling. They seemed to have chosen all of the above to some extent. We made some non difference making moves that cost us young players. Not bad moves so to speak just somewhat pointless, without addressing starting pitching as well. While we haven't sold any players, we've now demoted JJ Hardy and for what. To prove a point? Fine, then prove the point to everyone who's sucking it up. We've experimented with Gamel and now Escobar without committing to them. It also seems Macha has lost the team. To get blasted on the 1st game of a home stand the way they did is unacceptable. It's not just that game, but they've been flat against teams they should be better than.

It's not a good thing when your GM is instructing the manager how to manage.

I was just thinking the same thing. I sure was excited about getting Macha in the off-season, but he doesn't seem like he adapts well when the situation changes. I suppose he'd look a lot smarter if our pitchers could pitch though. Never the less, getting dominated at home by inferior teams on a regular basis is unacceptable.

This move seems to be a bit dramatic and a little hypocritical considering how many chances Hall got over the last few years and that Kendall is still being run out there every day. Apparently Hardy's not playing with the same deck as the rest. This maybe belongs in another thread but Macha and Melvin don't seem to be on the same page. Escobar needs to play close to every day.

"not motivated to move"= why yes, I'm fielding offers currently and have put some feelers out for what I could get for him but haven't received a fair offer yet.

The Brewer fan in me says yes, the baseball fan in me says no. The Brewers haven't played "good baseball" for any extended period for a long time. So long, I really can't remember when. However, if they manage to trim the lead to about 3 games or so by the end of the month there's still hope as they play the Cards 9 times and Cubs 7. The opportunity will be there, but will the good Brewers show up?

I see this one carrying over to this final game. I don't think it will help as a motivator for the Crew however. Prince was definitely in the wrong for charging the clubhouse. Even if it's the truth Martin probably shouldn't be admitting that they threw at a guy intentionally. To me that adds fuel to the fire. Why not just say what everyone else does, "that one just got away" or something to that affect. I just can't see one team admitting they threw at you and the other teams player charging a clubhouse and that being the end of things.

Sadley, I stand corrected. Cameron would definately have some value to somebody. Trade him with the requirement to take Hall for a low level prospect. Maybe we could do the same with Hardy and Suppan. I'm only half kidding, I don't suppose any team would go for that. Coffey would have some value as well as Hoffman. Hart probably has more value right now than he will this off-season considering averageish outfielders our pretty easy to come by through free agency. I guess we can't deal everyone we still need to field a team. Seriously, if there were any legit offers for young pitching I would be considering it. The good news is we still have a very young and talented offensive group and one stud starting pitcher.

Hardy + for Washburn and Morrow would seem fair on both sides. The Mariners probably have the better end of it, but it makes sense for both. Washburn won't be enough at this rate though. Now if they could add Justin Duchscherer inexpensively and catch lightning in a bottle with his health then perhaps there's still hope.

Hey, back to .500!!! If you close your eyes and say it a few times and preted we were just under .500 the whole year it almost feels better. We're a long way from out of it, but it sure feels miles away right now.

The longer the Brewers stay in the mix for Halliday the more I believe it will happen. I haven't heard their name linked to any other player. To me aquireing Lopez as basically a rental signifies that they're serious about at least making a run at the play-offs again. Whether it's a good trade down the road I don't know. If it includes Parra and Escobar I don't really like the deal, but it's hard to argue with making a run at it with a guy like Halliday. I have to assume there is some pressure on Doug as well to win with this current group of players.

Amen to that. As long as Burns is pitching every 5th day we have no shot. If we want to make a minor move and at least get a major league pitcher to take his spot and roll the dice that the other 3 teams in front of us now fail I'm fine with that, but I don't want to give Parra, Gamel, or Escobar in any deal this year.

Interesting stuff. I think if the Mariners were out of contention they may consider trading Bedard, but right now they're not. Seems like a pretty fair deal though considering his status. Might have to give a little more. I don't see Hardy in Boston, they have Jed Lowrie. The Dye and Lopez deals I don't see getting done. I don't think they make sense for either the Sox or Dbacks. I do agree they should try to sign Fielder to a long term deal. I could also see Hardy going to Seattle, but in the off-season. I'd like to see the Brewers stand pat this trade deadline and let the chips fall where they may. This off-season: 1. Trade Hardy to Seattle for Brandon Morrow and Phillippe Aumont. That might be too much for the M's to give, but 1 didn't seem enough. I didn't take the time to research any more of their prospects. 2. Trade Hart + to the Giants for Tim Alderson and Sergio Romero. 3. Sign Marlon Byrd in free agency to play RF. 4. Resign Cameron. 5. Release Hall 2010 Lineup Weeks 2b Byrd rf Braun lf Fielder 1b Gamel 3b Cameron cf Rivera c Escobar ss rotation Gallardo Parra Bush Looper Suppan Morrow to the bullpen for the time being, Romero to the bullpen. No, that's not too flashy, but I'm banking on 2011 when Suppan and Hall come off the books. Cameron, Looper, and Bush can be shown the door as well. 2011 Rotation Gallardo Parra Allderson Aumont Morrow, Braddock, Jefferies?? Not sure on all the details, but the point was to stock a few more good young arms and hopefully four of that group succeed besides Gallardo. The lineup would look pretty much the same as 2010 except replace Cameron with ??