nate82

This is somewhat true. When looking at the off season free agent market I do not see that many teams that are going to be after Greinke. I believe the teams that are going to be in on Greinke are going to be very limited. The teams that I see going after Greinke are the Orioles, Brewers, Dodgers, and the Rangers. Since the Rangers just spent all that money on Darvish I don't see them going out and signing another big contract to a pitcher, I believe if they are going to sign a pitcher it will be someone like Marcum or Dempster that they will go out and sign. The Dodgers are going to go after Hamels first and Greinke will be option B. I believe the Dodgers are going to sign Hamels and that now leaves Greinke with only two teams bidding on him the Orioles and the Brewers. Now Greinke is not going to come at some huge discount but I can still see something like 6-years at $110-115m on the high side to 5-years at $90-105m on the low side. Now the question is should the Brewers do this? I know the Brewers shouldn't do this but Melvin and Mark A. will do this if they can get Greinke at about $16-18m a year. The Brewers would definitely have to shed some payroll to make this work and I can actually see Hart being dealt in the off season along with Gomez, Morgan, Marcum, and Wolf not coming back. The smart move is if the Brewers feel like they can resign Greinke in the off season and the team is not going anywhere right now would be to trade Greinke and get a piece for the future and then go out and try and sign Greinke in the off season.

I would prefer a trade of Greinke for Profar or Machado. I don't think the Orioles will trade Machado and I don't think they will be that aggressive to get Greinke for an in season trade. I do see the Orioles as being a team interested in signing Greinke in the off season. I am not sure how big their interest will be but they will be one of the teams that will be going hard for Greinke in the off season. The Phillies look like they are coming back alive again though they still have a bunch of holes offensively they have to fill right now. I don't see the Phillies trading Hamels at all. When looking at the trade market there won't be that many top notch pitchers out there that will be better than Greinke to trade for but there is also only a few teams that have the talent to land Greinke (Rangers, Orioles, Rays, and Tigers). I could see either the Tigers or the Rangers trading for Greinke and I believe the Rangers are going to be the more aggressive team and they will give up Profar and another B level prospect. I would prefer a Profar and Christian Villanueva trade for Greinke. This gives the Brewers two very young infielders. I would prefer getting a pitching prospect back but if the Brewers could get both Profar and Villanueva in a trade for Greinke that would really be a steal. The reason I think the Rangers would be willing to let go of both Profar and Villanueva is because they are both blocked. Villanueva is blocked by Olt and Beltre though the Rangers could possibly move Olt to 1B and have Villanueva at 3B when Beltre's contract runs out.

I feel this needs to have its own thread. Not going to clog up the in game thread with Banana Man though that seems like the only [sarcasm]good thing[/sarcasm] that is going on now. In case someone missed it from the game today. Was thinking of making a video but I don't think it would last all that long on youtube. http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/g323/bignate82/bananaman.png

Sigh. At least I have a picture of Banana man! http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/g323/bignate82/bananaman.png

I think I just threw up a little bit watching that banana man.

Tejada was worse than Betancourt defensively at SS last year when he played at SS for the Giants that is.

Greinke, Hart, Marcum, and Axford have the most value right now. You are not going to get much if anything for K-Rod. Greinke is going to bring back top notch talent. The teams that I could see going hard after Greinke if the Brewers are out are the Orioles, Rangers, Angels, and the Dodgers. The Orioles and the Rangers intrigue me the most as they have some rather nice talent in their minors most notably some short stops. I am not sure the Orioles would part with Machado but it is worth a try. The Rangers do have another short stop that they could part with as I expect them to extend Andrus if they are not able to extend Hamilton long-term. The Dodgers have some nice players but no one I would really want in a Greinke trade though I do like James Baldwin and Alfredo Silverio who I think you could get in a trade for Marcum to the Dodgers. As for Hart the teams that would be looking at Hart probably don't have the prospects to net a good enough return. Again I could see the Orioles, Braves, Nationals, Giants, and the Rays as possible trade partners. Now you have to remember with Hart he does have a limited no-trade clause (15 teams) which I believe all of the 15 teams are teams that have spring training facilities in Florida. So that limits the trade possibilities for Hart and the teams that would be interested are going to be mainly teams that have spring training facilities in Florida. If Hart didn't have this clause I could see a Hunter Pence like return for Hart. With Marcum the Brewers could get back some nice talent but not as much as either Hart or Greinke would bring back. As I stated previously I think the Dodgers would be really interested in Marcum and you could possibly get someone like Baldwin or Silverio in return. I like Baldwin better as Silverio is probably going to be more like a Dexter Fowler type player while I think Baldwin could peak as high as a Matt Kemp or he could be a Carlos Gomez type never really seeing his full potential. Baldwin is more risky but he is also far more talented than Silverio is but Silverio is more of a certain thing as how he will turn out. Another team I could see interested in Marcum would be the Red Sox but they really don't have much left in their farm system to trade. The Angels also make sense here but again I am not sure they have anything other than C.J. Cron. Now for Axford I really think the Brewers could get a lot for him at least more than what he is worth to the Brewers. A team like the Yankees may overpay for someone like Axford if their bullpen is struggling. I could also see the Rays being a team that would be interested though I am not sure they would give up much to get Axford. The Red Sox are another team that would be interested but again they do not even have the prospects to get Axford the prospects they have are more in line of getting someone like K-Rod. I would look at trading Marcum and Greinke first and then dangling Axford out there to see what teams would be offering for him. Hart has that limited no-trade clause which is going to limit the teams the Brewers can trade with unless Hart waives his no trade clause. I don't see the Brewers trading Weeks at all he is the last person I see the Brewers moving if at all.

Wouldn't Hensley cost a lot in terms of a signing contract as he is already committed to Ole Miss?

I don't get the fascination with Beane he is not all that great really. Just look at the Holliday trade he made that is one of the worst trades ever especially for what he gave up and then got in return for trading Holliday.

It is a TV problem. If you have a game setting on your TV you should switch it to that and some TV's have actual game ports they want you to plug it into. For example my Sony TV recommends HDMI slot 3 for game consoles. There is also a mode that you can place your TV into which helps with the lag.

Not a bad idea I am not sure the Red Sox would give up on Youkilis for a 1-year bullpen fix though.

One of those pitches to Braun was a strike and it wasn't called a strike. Gotta love MLB umpiring.

I wish Gomez could bunt as good as Izturis does or could at least figure out when he should be bunting and when he shouldn't be.

See miracles can happen! Izturis with a home run.

Both are noodles with the bat at a position that is normally a power position. They both also leave the bench rather weak in terms of power at the plate. I would rather have a no glove 1B than an all glove singles hitting 1B. Green would be fine offensively at 2B but he is about as valuable as Ishikawa is at 1B.

Not really interested in seeing what Green can do at 1B. I'm sorry but an Ishikawa like line at 1B is not something I am looking forward to seeing what Green is going to do.

I wonder if the Brewers could get Lee for a low end prospect maybe even a Parra for Lee trade might work.

Doesn't Branyan have an out clause in his minor league contract with the Yankees that should be coming up soon? Derek Lee is still out there though I wouldn't be really thrilled with Lee. I wonder if Vlad could play 1B?

Offensively Weeks has actually under performed more so than Aramis has so far but it is so early in the season I am not even worried about it. If Weeks and Ramirez are still playing like they are come June then I will be worried about it.

The MLB App is not linked to the Charter package it is linked to a MLB.TV subscription If you don't have one you won't be able to get access to the games through your phone. If there is a Charter app which there maybe you could use that. No idea if they would have the Sports View Plus package on it or not. Since the way you are describing how you get into the gameday it sounds like it is a Charter only thing which will not allow you to get access to the MLB at bat app.

Every mainstream projection system has Greinke as better than that. And to say any minor league starting pitcher projects to be a 3.8 ERA pitcher in a couple of years is pretty bold, to say the least. Case in point is Hellickson of the Rays who is a better pitcher overall than Peralta and he is probably going to be slightly worse than the 3.80 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 114 ERA+. Peralta will probably come in around a 4+ ERA and that is just guessing. There is no way to know what Peralta or any minor league player will do.

Was he ever really a first round pick? I was thinking he was more of a 2nd rounder or a fringe supplemental pick.

On top of that, the AL West includes OAK, SEA, & TEX, and the first two teams also play in HR-unfriendly parks. I think the ballparks in which he'll be playing most will, overall, hurt his chances to run down #763. With all that said, though, Busch Stadium's HR PF ranks for the past four seasons are (oldest to most recent), 19th, 28th, 26th, & 27th. This is, without a doubt, one of the best power hitters & hitters of all-time. So the 'general rules' need to be either thrown out, or at least considered with a bit more scrutiny. After this season you can add the Astros which their park is a launching pad for HR's with that short porch in LF.

How about Vancouver. If you like some of the outdoors type of things like hiking that would be interesting. Plus there are other things you can do like Whale watching.

http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/mil/ticketing/risingstars.jsp April 2nd 3:10 pm CT. Which was the game last year. I haven't seen anything about this year though.