nate82

Valverde for 1-2m would be a very nice deal for the Brewers. He may even come cheaper than that.

Again no it is not even remotely plausible as Hart would have to waive his no trade and the same with Halladay. With Halladay if you do not have your spring training facilities in FL you are on his no trade list and for Hart if a team has their spring training facilities in FL they are on his no trade list. So unless the Brewers are moving their spring training facilities to FL there is no way the Brewers can trade for Halladay as he won't waive his no trade clause this is actually the reason why the Brewers were not able to obtain Halladay from the Blue Jays a deal was in place for Halladay but he would not waive his no trade policy because the Brewers have their spring training facilities in AZ. Hart is also not going to waive his no trade clause either to play for the Phillies as they have their spring training facilities in FL.

I thought the same thing but it looks as though it goes until the trading deadline if this year. I swore it was over after last season but I can't find where i read that. Right now all the reports say it is still in effect.

Hart would just veto this trade unless the Phillies decide to move their spring training facilities to AZ and on the flip side I believe Halladay also has a no trade clause which the Brewers are on since they have spring training facilities in AZ and not in FL. Unless both the Phillies and the Brewers are switching spring training sites this is a no deal from the start.

Not surprising at all with this team. As I stated earlier this team is going to be up and down a lot.

lol I guess I should pay more attention to what hand he throws with bah. Thought he was right handed and batted left. I am starting to fall in love with Ball and Driver personally. Though as the draft comes closer and closer I am expecting them to be taken well before the Brewers pick. Driver to me would be an awesome pick at 17 but I am not sure I agree with the Matt Cain comp. I am still concerned with Hollon and the injury he suffered it maybe something more than just a tweak. But he is an impressive young pitcher.

A.J. Puk looks to be a good bat to pick up he can pitch also but I am not all that impressed with his pitching. Puk has Dunn like power and Dunn like speed probably will be a 1B but he has a really good arm which he could play RF though his speed is not all that great but he does have a strong enough arm to play 3B though I believe he would look more like Cabrera over there than Braun. Clinton Hollon is someone who I am intrigued by but he maybe injured right now? Possibly something with his elbow so that may make his stock tumble. Dustin Driver is another High School arm to watch for. Ryan Boldt looks to be a great CF prospect though I am not sure that is a fit right now for the Brewers. Trey Ball is still someone I like rather well and who I believe should be available when the Brewers are picking. Ball could either be an OF or a starter though unlike Puk I think Ball is more of a pitcher than he is a positional player. Ball is rather athletic and I would really wish the Brewers would go down this route of trying more athletic pitchers than what they have been selecting.

That is not even close enough to what you will have to pay for Hart and I don't see him taking a discount. 4 years at $60m is probably closer to what it would take to sign Hart.

No it doesn't because if that were true then the Angels would have made the playoffs last year right? The Angels spent a lot last off season and did not make the playoffs and they wouldn't have even came close to the playoffs if it were not for Mike Trout having an MVP like year as a rookie. The same can be said about the Red Sox who gambled everything on Crawford, Lackey, and Gonzalez yet they did not make the playoffs. In MLB the correlation between spending in FA and making the playoffs is rather small. It only gives a team a very small percentage increase on making the playoffs. Teams that are spending in FA are normally teams that are already playoff teams or teams that have holes that they can not fill from within their organization. There is already a cap in baseball set right now and the Yankees are looking to get under that cap. Next year the Yankees are looking to get under the 189m cap that MLB has set as the penalties for going over it grows for every year that you are over that cap. Next year the Yankees may possibly lose both Cano and Hughes in FA if they are serious about being under that cap. If Hughes has a good year I could see the Yankees losing out on him as he will be the 2nd best pitcher available in FA behind Garza unless Lincecum somehow comes back to his pre 2011-12 form in 2013. The Yankees will actually have to trade players away or go over the cap as I don't see how they are going to be able to sign both or one of Can or Hughes and stay under the cap. You can even go to this year and see that the cap is having an impact on the Yankees spending as they did not even attempt to counter the Pirates offer for Martin. In the past the Yankees would have just pushed the price up so a team like the Pirates would not be able to sign a player. I don't believe anyone would really like a true cap like what the NFL has as it will come with more restrictions and there still would be a disparity in the teams as the bigger market teams will still land the majority of the FA while still being richer in terms of development of players. With a cap like the NFL's you are going to have a floor like the NHL's which is now in a labor dispute because the smaller market teams are not able to compete with the bigger market teams because of the salary floor. This would happen in baseball and contraction would have to be done which means teams like the Brewers, Rays, A's, Royals, and the Indians would all have to be contracted for a salary cap to work in MLB. Enjoy being a fan of another team because a salary cap in baseball would mean the end of small market teams as there would be a salary floor that the small market teams would not be able to sustain every year.

The only way the players union would accept a salary cap is if there was a salary floor and teams like the Rays and the A's would not be able to survive without a lot more revenue sharing which means less to the Brewers and other teams. In the end there would still need to be more revenue sharing even with a salary cap as there would have to be a floor and I am going to assume that the floor would be around $80-90m. More revenue sharing is the answer for MLB not a salary cap.

Coulter like Lawrie will not be a catcher when he gets to the majors. Coulter will probably be either a corner infielder or a corner outfielder and I wouldn't count on him being a catcher for very long. Now for future catchers there is Cameron Garfield who looks to be either a really good offensive backup catcher or he could be a really good everyday offensive catcher. It really depends on how well he advances offensively. Check this thread out over at the minor league portion of the forum as it has some really good insights on the Brewers minor league system.

I believe the Brewers will and Gomez will decline it as he will get as much or more and will get that at a 5 or 6 year contract. Gomez should get what Upton got this year and maybe a little bit more.

I believe Sanders will develop into a very nice 6th man or a defensive big man. I believe the best comparison to him would be Zach Randolph.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/12/cubs-to-sign-carlos-villanueva.html Not a bad move for the Cubs depending on how many years and how much they are going to be giving him.

Apparently the Tigers are willing to trade Drew Smyly. I wonder what it would take for the Tigers to trade Smyly. I would rather have Smyly than Porcello but if the Brewers some how got either one of these two I wouldn't be all that disappointed in getting either. I am not sure the Brewers have what the Tigers might want maybe a Weeks and a prospect for Smyly trade could be possible? I am a huge Weeks fan but I believe if you can trade Weeks and a lower level prospect for Smyly that is the type of a deal the Brewers need to be doing. A rotation for the next few years of Gallardo, Smyly, Peralta, Rogers, Fiers/Jungmann/etc.... wouldn't be an all that bad of a rotation. Again I am not sure the Tigers would do that trade but they do have a hole at 2B as I believe they have Omar Infante currently playing 2B. If anything I would do a Smyly and Infante for Weeks and ????? I am not sure who the Tigers would be interested in I was thinking someone like Gindl who could take the spot of Boesch. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/12/tigers-taking-calls-on-drew-smyly.html

The 2013 pitching staff looks a lot like the 2009 pitching staff minus Suppan.

Not an 85 win team a 90 win team. I still believe in 90 wins gets you into the playoffs even with the added 2nd wildcard. Yes the bullpen is going to be bad again as I don't see much of an improvement over last years bullpen. It is possible that they won't be as bad as last year but that bullpen is going to hurt the Brewers again.

So far I have only liked a few new music this year not the same style or taste that you guys have so far. 1. Deftones: Koi No Yokan 2. Halestorm: The Strange Case Of... 3. Linkin Park: Living Things 4. Slash: Apocalyptic Love 5. P.O.D.: Murdered Love 6. Avatar: Black Waltz

Right but 90 wins is more of a safer bet to get you into the playoffs and I am not sure the Brewers can or could get to that point through FA or even through a trade right now. Hamilton at best would give you a 2-3 wins over what we have right now. Dempster would have given the Brewers another win or two that is not enough. Basically the Brewers would have had to of spent like the Dodgers have done. In order for the Brewers to have gotten to 85-90 wins would have been to add Hamilton, Greinke, and one or two bullpen pieces which would have put the Brewers at a payroll of around $130-150m. Realistically the Brewers are probably going to add someone like Braden or Liriano and a bullpen piece which should get the Brewers to about an 82 win team. In order for the Brewers to be a 85 win team Braun will have to play at an MVP like level again with Weeks, Hart, Ramirez, Aoki, Gallardo, Lucroy and Axford all performing around an All Star level. This is not to mention that Peralta, Fiers, Estrada, Rogers, Segura and Henderson will all have to be at or above league average. I just don't see all that happening and see the Brewers finishing 3rd in the NL Central behind both the Reds and the Cardinals. The Cardinals are closer to an 85 win team but they are about in the same boat as the Brewers are and the Pirates could be an 85 win team but are they? I am not sold on them especially their pitching mainly their starting pitching and they will probably end up around 80 wins. Like the Brewers the Pirates needed to add a lot of wins to get to the 85-90 win range and the additions that they had this off season just did not get them to that position. Schafer is a downgrade from Gomez defensively and offensively I would put them at about the same but giving the edge to Schafer. Now it isn't as big of a downgrade if you went from Gomez to Hamilton but the drop off is still there.

The QO system is bad now but not for any of the reasons you stated at all and Marcum is a horrible example as he got injured. I don't believe Marcum would have been offered arbitration in the old system just like he wasn't offered a QO. This had nothing to do with the QO system it had more to do with him being hurt and playing poorly. Now there is some good in the new QO system mainly for teams that sign multiple players who have been offered a qualifying offer. Lets go back to when the Yankees signed Sabathia, Teixeira, and Burnett. Now lets imagine Sabathia and Teixeira were eligible for a qualifying offer in that year the Yankees would have had to give up their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round picks. Each team losing those players would all get compensation picks after the 1st round instead of 1 team getting a 1st round pick another getting a sandwich pick and another getting a pick in the 3rd round I believe it was. So lets go to the future here the Angels just lost their 1st round pick as it is now gone and now lets say they sign Lohse to a contract they just lost their 2nd round pick with the Cardinals picking up a compensation pick. This also hurts the Angels in another way as they just lost money they can now spend in the draft their draft pool money has now been decreased considerably.

The Brewers are currently at about a 80 win team. This means that the Brewers need to find 10 wins either in FA, through trades, or hope that someone over performs that is currently on the team. I don't believe the Brewers can obtain anyone or find those 10 wins in players in FA. If the Brewers would have signed Dempster that would have been the off season and he alone wouldn't have added the 10 wins the Brewers would have needed. So if the Brewers would have signed Dempster the Brewers go from a .500 win team to a slightly above .500 win team. Is Dempster really worth paying all that money just to be an above .500 team? I believe the Brewers can get that by signing someone like Liriano/Braden and a bullpen arm and will probably have a higher probability of getting to a 85-90 win team. The Brewers just need to sit back and wait for the prices to drop a bit before going into FA. The Brewers just don't have what they need to trade for a player that will get them to the same win total. It would probably be better to retool the team for 2014 or 2015 than it is to be adding pieces for 2013.

It wasn't Dempster or bust really it was just that he was the only realistic option though I thought McCarthy was more of a realistic option than Dempster was. Melvin wants an innings guy at 2 years max which Dempster fit almost perfectly. Braden, Liriano, Jurrjens, and others are probably the only other options right now. I believe Melvin has kicked the tires on others but it looks as though those tires have kicked back.

You may be able to pry Buckel and Odor away for Corey Hart. Personally I would take this. I don't see them offering up Martin Perez since he's very close (especially since they've lost out on a ton of pitching this offseason). I also don't see them offering up Mike Olt at this point. You might be able to get Profar and Perez for Gallardo and Hart but probably more along the lines of Andrus and Perez for that trade. The Mariners would be another team I could see going after Hart. Liddi and a low level prospect is probably close to what you could expect. The Phillies make sense a Brown for Hart swap would be fair. But that is not going to happen unless Hart waives his no trade clause and I don't see that happening at all.

No!!!!!!!!! Only pay big bucks for ace pitchers like Felix, Sabathia, or Cain not 2nd tier #1's.

Sorry wasn't questioning your point was questioning the point as why would Marcum even bring this up. This is kind of like saying the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning. There really is no point in him saying this. Of course he would be interested in coming back to Milwaukee I am not even sure why anyone would even ask him a question if he would or would not. Why would you limit yourself from a team especially if you are in Marcum's situation?