nate82

He is if he has bad control. Which is what I meant when comparing him to Suppan. If Fiers is not all that great with his control he will get rocked and he is also going to have to make some adjustments soon as the league is going to figure him out. Don't expect him to be this good for very long.

Well that was a disappointing pick.

What reliable sources had the Giants offering Cain for Hart and why do you keep on repeating this blatantly false rumor as truth? The Giants were never connected with Hart and offering Cain you are mixing Fielder up with Hart. The Giants have never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever have been connected with Hart and offering Cain. The only reliable sources that had the Giants interested in Hart was for Sanchez. Cain was never even discussed as a possible trade with the Brewers for Hart. I still do not know where you got this rumor from but it is not real. The only part of this statement that is true is the sources have the Braves wanting to trade for Hart and the Giants being interested in Hart the rest is false.

I would not want Eovaldi as a center piece for a Greinke trade in my opinion Eovaldi is a #3 starter tops and probably more realistically is a #4 or #5 type starter. Eovaldi is not someone I want the Brewers to be looking at if they are trading Greinke. The rest of the Dodgers farm system is rather weak and most of their better prospects talent wise are in A ball. I just do not see the Dodgers being any kind of a fit for a Greinke trade.

My problem with this is what if the teams you're trying to catch put a good week together as well? Brewers go 6-1 and the Reds and Cardinals go 5-2. You've only gained one game. Way to limit your options, clown. You do realize that the options are limited anyways? I swear people on this board take everything a GM says as 100% gospel truth. It is rather funny seeing some on this board fret over things that are so trivial. If you even look at the trade market for a minute you will notice that there are very little teams that have the talent to acquire Greinke. Melvin stating that he is only going to talk to select clubs actually confirms that there is interest in Greinke but some of the teams that are interested in him do not have what it takes to get Greinke. No big secret there that it is going to be a limited amount of teams that are going to be able to swing that trade. Nearly every GM does this they are going to make the player only available to certain teams as they like the talent those teams bring versus the other teams that they are excluding. If anything this suggests that there are a few teams interested in Greinke and Melvin is only going to look at a few of the teams that have shown interest in Greinke rather than going through junk trades that are not even worth the time to explore.

The first part is posturing by Melvin as he doesn't want to show his hand and most GM's know this. Secondly the bidding field for Greinke is going to be limited anyways which also goes along with your third point. There are only a few teams that have what it would take to get Greinke and there are only a few teams that will be willing to look at taking Greinke. Teams that you can eliminate from the Greinke race off the top of my head are: Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, White Sox and the Nationals and I am forgetting a team here. Teams that have enough minor league talent to acquire Greinke and would be looking at acquiring Greinke is very small. The Rangers and the Orioles are the two teams that have the prospects to get a deal done. Other than those two teams you are looking at a package that you are not going to want think along the lines of a Carlos Lee type of a trade. Which would then bring in the Angels, Dodgers, and the White Sox. It is obvious in what Melvin is saying he is looking for something rather specific and won't talk to teams if they do not have that specific piece. I do not see how this is shocking at all or why you would be up in arms over this. This shouldn't be anything new as there are not that many teams that have the talent to acquire Greinke that list is going to be very small.

Yeah drafting guys in the late late late late rounds is not luck at all it must be some kind of skill that no one in MLB has. The Rays have been very lucky in finding talent in the late rounds of the draft. They have also gotten lucky where some GM's over valued some pieces. It is not all luck but to discount it and state that they haven't been lucky is rather foolish. And yes the Thunder did get lucky what happens if the Thunder get the 4th or 5th pick in that draft and then the next year get the 1st or 2nd pick? Would they still have the same team? What if Durant didn't come out during that draft would they still be as good as they are now? The answer is a resounding NO. So if the Bucks instead had the 1st pick in the 2004 draft instead of the 2003 draft what would that team look like with Howard at center or Lebron from the year earlier? Luck plays into everything more than people want to admit that it does.

While I love the Rays and what they have done they have gotten lucky in their trades. No way does any GM in baseball trade for Zambrano let alone gives up a top prospect for a pitcher like Zambrano was. Zambrano wasn't this big time pitcher he was an average to possibly an above average #3 or #4 pitcher. The Rays got lucky in terms of a team overvaluing what Zambrano was worth. It was labeled as a bad trade when it went down and it was labeled as a bad trade after. What is really funny is the Rays making that bad trade into another good trade when they sent Kazmir to the Angels. Again this was another organization overvaluing a pitcher who was obviously in decline and was overpaid at the time and coming off some questions in terms of how hurt or bad his arm was. The Rays are also bad at putting together a bullpen or were. Basically all the Rays have been doing is throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks if it sticks and you can sign them for cheap then the Rays go with that player if not they let them go. This is just a basic break down of what the Rays are doing right now. As bad as the Brewers have been developing pitchers the Rays have been nearly as bad or even worse at developing positional players especially when drafting in the early rounds. What the Brewers need to do is see that they are great at developing positional players and use that advantage to trade for the pitchers they are not able to develop. The Brewers need to use their strength in order to improve on their weakness. The Brewers have been doing this but not everyone is going to agree that they are doing it correctly. I would have loved for Melvin and the Brewers to trade for more controllable players (pitchers especially) but when looking at the minor league players that have been traded I am not sure there was any player that was traded would have brought back a young controllable pitcher. Maybe if Melvin would have traded for Greinke 2 or 3 years earlier that would have been a great move but I doubt the Royals were looking to trade Greinke at that time and the price would have been a lot higher and I don't believe the Brewers had the pieces to make that type of a trade at all.

Oooops copied the wrong stats but the point still remains the same. .236/.313/.333/.646 This is still bad.

I am not a big fan of Chase Field. The views from it are to far away. Even the ones that I have had felt like I was the game from the upper deck instead of from the field area. The stadium itself feels way to big and it feels like you are inside of a warehouse more so than you are in a baseball stadium. Yes the "seat patrol" is pretty bad there. I was sitting in an empty row a few times and just decided to move to another seat that was open and was asked to move to my assigned seat and this was the bottom of the 9th and there was no way this person was going to be sitting there. I have also experienced the don't cheer to loudly and I actually think there are some signs around the ball park which states exactly this.

Fiers is not a pitcher who is going to give you a 3.75 ERA that is wishful thinking. Fiers is a 4.00-5.00 ERA type of a pitcher which is basically your average to above average #4 or #5 starter. A year where Fiers gives you a 3.75 ERA will be a career year and probably would never be repeated again. If you want to look at what type of a pitcher Fiers is you only need to look at Josh Collementer. He had a career year last year in terms of his numbers but came back down to earth this year. Basically this is what is going to happen to Fiers next year as he will come back down to earth and you will see him at that 4-5 ERA. Fiers is a 100% control pitcher and when his control is not on he is going to look a lot like Jeff Suppan.

I think we have all probably tended to have high hopes for Green over the last year that probably aren't ever going to come to fruition. I think he's probably a AAAA/24th/25th man guy. I never really saw Green being nothing more than a platoon guy coming into this season. He is what he is and that is a utility player and probably nothing more than that.

Gomez just had a better ab than Green. Not sure if I should be laughing or calling for Green to be DFA'D.

Does that really matter? If Ramirez can play 3B I am sure he can handle 1B fine. Why does a player have to play at a position especially one where it is not all that difficult to play have to play at that position at some point in their career in order to be looked at to play there? I would get this if it would be a difficult position like catcher or moving someone from 3B to 2B but 1B? Come on that is the easiest position in baseball to play next to the DH. There have been plenty of players that have transitioned from OF to 1B or from any other position to 1B without a problem and they never played the position before. I don't see any problem with moving Ramirez to 1B to finish out his contract and I don't see him not playing the position ever being a problem at all.

Cliff Lee also did this. Lee really didn't want to be traded out of Philly and never really was going to be signing anywhere but Philly the year he was a free agent. I wouldn't bet on Greinke returning to the Brewers as a free agent but I could see him coming back to the Brewers if he is traded this year. The thing with Greinke is that I don't see that many teams that are going to be going hard after Greinke. The Nationals are all set with their pitching, the Braves have been really conservative in terms of spending lately, the Yankees are looking to dump payroll right now though they would add someone if they are the right player and the same can be said about the Red Sox. I don't see the Cubs being major players in free agency yet as they are not quite yet close to contending. I also believe the Cubs are going to shy away from free agency for awhile. The Rangers look to be more occupied with Hamilton and the Angels just did a big splash last off season I don't see them being in the hunt for Greinke. The Dodgers are going to go hard after Hamels and the Phillies look like they will be looking at offensive players first before looking at their rotation. I believe it is going to be a very small amount of teams that are going to be in on Greinke. Milwaukee, Baltimore, Kansas City, and Toronto are the teams that I believe will be in on Greinke in the off season. Toronto scares me the most as they could put up a lot of money though their ownership and current GM are still shy of spending in free agency after the blunders they made their. In the end I think Greinke will either sign with the Brewers or Orioles. I believe Mark A is going to push Melvin to sign Greinke at all costs this coming off season.

I am not really worried about the stats of players in Rookie ball to High A as the stats are really meaningless at this stage. There are so many bad players that will put up great numbers at this level while some really good players put up some mediocre to bad numbers. I am more worried about velocity, movement, and other things than any of the stats right now. Me personally I don't really care about the stats until AA and then again forgetting about the stats in AAA.

Axford = Turnbow v2.0

I believe a lot of people here would hate Joe Maddon a lot as Roenicke and Maddon have the exact same down to a T managing style. Both have the same problem or perceived problem with bullpen management. I remember one game where I believe Maddon had Longoria sacrifice bunt a runner over to 3rd late in a game. If that happened here this board would blow up. Point is there is no manager in baseball that worth anything really at most a manager is going to win you maybe 1 game a year and probably lose about 2-3 games a year.

Ummmm AAA talent is normally less than what you would see at AA. AAA is full of AAAA players or veteran MLB players (Suppan, Hall, etc type of players). I would say at AAA it is step down talent wise and there is more MLB talent in AA. I would rather see Thornburg stay in AA where the competition is actually higher than that of what it would be in AAA.

Horrible trade for the Brewers. The Brewers give up a lot of value and receive nothing in return as I don't believe Youkilis can stay healthy for even a half of a season anymore and I doubt he will even make it throughout the rest of this season without going on the DL at two or three more times this year. This is not a good option in terms of a trade for the Brewers.

If he wouldn't have gotten injured late in the season last year he would be only a year or two away. Cron has some very nice power and looks to be trapped with the Angels as both DH and 1B will be occupied by Pujols, Trumbo, or Morales. I think Cron will be available for a team in a trade and like I posted earlier Cowart would be a very good upgrade for the Brewers at a position of need. After the Ramirez contract would be over Cowart would be ready if not sooner to take over at 3B.

No we wouldn't have gotten Greinke by taking out Alcides and replacing him with Gamel. Why would the Royals want Gamel or another OF when they had Moustakas and Hosmer at positions that Gamel would be filling? That makes absolutely no sense for the Royals to even want Gamel at all. That's why I said "or one of our OF'ers." That still doesn't get it done. None of the OF'ers would be enough talent wise to replace Escobar. The Royals were looking specifically for a SS, CF, and a pitcher for Greinke. Adding another OF to the deal doesn't fix the wanting of a SS in the deal. Without Escobar in the trade the Greinke trade does not happen as Escobar was one of the key components to that trade. You can't substitute an OF for Escobar and then say the trade could go through because it wouldn't as none of the other players especially the ones in the OF are even on the same level as Escobar is and was at the time of the trade. The Royals were already getting Cain adding another OF to the mix just doesn't make any sense for the Royals. To be honest there wasn't much the Royals were interested in that was in the Brewers farm system. Cain, Escobar, Jeffrees, and Odorizzi were really the only valuable pieces to the Royals at the time this trade went down. If you add Hardy back to the Brewers Escobar is still going to be in that trade deal as you can't replace him with another player as there is no other player that the Royals would have had interest in that was in the Brewers farm system.

From what I understand, UDFAs are subject to the same rules as picks from rounds 11+. That link is confusing as it doesn't really say anything definite about UDFA. Mostly just speculation about it nothing definite there unless I am missing something. When looking at the CBA fully there is no reference to UDFA's being part of the new CBA rules concerning the draft. http://bizofbaseball.com/docs/2012-16CBA.pdf

After relooking at the Angels system again I am really liking Kaleb Cowart. He is a switch hitting and a very good defensive 3B. He hasn't hit all that well right now but he is only 20 in A+ right now. I am also liking C.J. Cron from the Angels it is just to bad that the Angels don't need some OF help. Their OF is already crowded with Bourjos, Trout, Hunter, and even Trumbo. I would really like to trade Hart to the Angels for one of Cowart/Cron and Nick Maronde. Not a trade that would help next season but it would deepen the Brewers minor league system by a lot. The Giants look to be another team that may need some OF help. I assume the Giants would want some more pop in their lineup and I think Hart would be the perfect fit there. I like Tommy Joseph and that is about it from the Giants. The Giants don't have much in terms of prospects but a Melvin move might be getting someone like Belt and a few other guys for Hart from the Giants. I would rather get Tommy Joseph as I think he has more potential and power in his bat than Belt does and he is more athletically gifted than Belt is. The only question here with Tommy Joseph is what position would the Brewers play him at. He is a fairly good defensive catcher and he could be moved over to 3B as he is rather athletic. After looking at the Rangers I think I might prefer an Olt, Neil Ramirez, and Roman Mendez would be a nice haul for a Greinke trade though I think that maybe too much. I wonder if the Rangers would give up Profar or Perez plus some B/C+ type prospects to get Gallardo? Looking back at the Jimenez trade I would expect something similar or just a little bit more for a Gallardo trade. I am not sure the Rangers will give up what it would take and even with the trade I proposed above I am not sure I would take that maybe Perez and Olt as the centerpiece for a trade for Gallardo and I would seriously look at doing that. That trade would set the Brewers up to make a run around 2014-16. With Perez being in the rotation in 2013 at some point and then Thornburg and Perez in the rotation in 2014 with Peralta, Jungmann, Bradley, and others joining them in 2015 or 2016.

No we wouldn't have gotten Greinke by taking out Alcides and replacing him with Gamel. Why would the Royals want Gamel or another OF when they had Moustakas and Hosmer at positions that Gamel would be filling? That makes absolutely no sense for the Royals to even want Gamel at all.