nate82

Lilly was a solid #2 but not anymore. Vazquez of all the free agents next year is probably the best #2 option and depending on the length of the contract I would be OK with the Brewers signing Vazquez. There is probably 3 open spots in the rotation next year and one of them will be taken by a free agent pitcher I am assuming and if it has to be a free agent I would it rather be Vazquez than anyone else on the market as long as the contract is no longer than 3-years. Not my ideal situation but something that I could live with if the Brewers decided on giving some money to a free agent pitcher. That would still leave open two spots for Parra, Rivas, Rogers, Butler, and Narveson.

Yes but they wouldn't cost any prospects and probably wouldn't cost all that much compared to Prince or Konerko. I really don't see the Rays as a destination and again I don't want the Brewers dealing with the Angels there is just absolutely no one in their system right now that wows me in terms of pitching prospects. The Rangers have a lot of good pitching prospects along with the Rays in A and AA that I would like the Brewers to get for Fielder but the only way the Brewers are going to get some of that pitching is if Smoak starts to hit rather awfully. I still think a Chris Davis plus a couple of the A and AA guys from the Rangers would be an OK deal though I would rather have Gamel take over at 1B first before Davis. Maybe the Blue Jays could be a possibility also though I'm not really sure who or what the Jays could bring in a trade and if they would. The Jays are stuck in the same dilemma that the Red Sox are currently in do they go for an impact player and try and catch either the Yankees or the Rays? I don't see the Braves really as a destination since Glaus has been playing so well lately for them at 1B and I don't see the Braves really giving up on Jones. I think the Brewers are probably better off keeping Fielder until the off season and then trading him then while trading Hart to the Padres or the Rays, Red Sox, or A's. The Rangers may even be a possibility if Cruz doesn't get healthy soon for a possible landing spot for Hart.

I'm OK with the Brewers trading Hart and Fielder I am not OK with them trading Weeks. There is absolutely no one in the minors who will be ready as a 2B and Lawrie is not a 2B Gennett is probably the best 2B in the minors and he is in low single A. So I don't really want to see Weeks moved plus he should be rather inexpensive to extend. I don't want to see Lucroy playing everyday catcher is not a position you want someone to be playing everyday even Mauer gets regular days off. Play 3 games and then sit for 1 or 2 games is fine by me as long as Lucroy is playing at least 2 games a week I am fine with that. Really Lucroy should be catching Narveson, Parra, and Bush while Kottaras should be catching Wolf and Gallardo. Firing Macha will do absolutely nothing the Brewers should just ride it out with Macha and then decide on that at the end of the year. I really don't want to see Cain up any earlier than August I would like to keep his service time down. Rivas I would be fine with coming up though I'm not sure there will be any room for him until at least September. The Brewers are going to have to make some decisions here soon in regards to Coffey, Hawkins, and Davis. Who is going down when those three return?

I'm not sure if Netflix installs anything or if you have to install anything for Netflix.

Prince is making $10.5m this year and Hart is making $4.8m. You can expect Hart and Prince both to get raises next season at equal to what Crawford and Pena were making this year combined it won't be cheaper. Also the Rays are looking to be bringing their payroll down next year from this years amount so no I don't see the Rays trading for Prince and Hart. Hart all by himself maybe.

One bad play doesn't make a bad umpire. I also believe the players didn't really vote on the umpires based on their calls but more on how they handle themselves on the field.

If you had unlimited before the switch you get to keep the unlimited. This only effects new customers right now. So lets say that you have your current plan and it runs out whenever the contract ends you will still have unlimited bandwidth until your contract runs out. I have a 2-year contract with AT&T right now that includes unlimited internet use which will run until 2012. AT&T can't change it since it is a contract and I doubt AT&T is going to do something like that and get hit with a big class-action lawsuit. Plus with all of the apps I run on my Iphone I don't even get anywhere close to 1 GB of usage a month and I use Sirius/XM radio along with Pandora on my Iphone. I am also getting e-mail's surfing the net and downloading apps and watching videos online. It is rather hard to get up to 2 GB of bandwidth unless you are using Skype a lot.

Didn't Beckett also sign an extension or is close to signing one with the Red Sox? Also the Yankees and Mets are already showing interest in Lee as a free agent acquisition so the Brewers would have to pony up for something like 5-years $90m or somewhere close to that. Vazquez and Webb maybe the best options for the Brewers but I would rather just not sign anyone at all and just go with the younger players and see what they can do. Rogers, Rivas, Narveson, Parra, etc... If the Brewers are going to spend something around the $100m mark I would rather it be for Prince than Lee.

Sailing around the world can not be anymore dangerous than driving down a road at the age of 16. That same 16 year is probably more likely to die in a car accident than to have died in a boating accident sailing around the world all by themselves. I don't see why or how the resources were wasted. If there was another accident that needed to be attended to I bet they would have attended to that also.

Or sign Dye or Delgado.

You completely missed the point and I am just going to leave it at that.

OK pretend they are the same age. It is about the same thing why does everyone always get hung up on the semantics? If you want a comparison that fits your mold then would you trade Gallardo for 1.5 years of Fielder? Better?

Ask yourself this when you think about trading Fielder for Buchholz. Would you have traded Gallardo for Ortiz last year?

The Rays are not a fit. They are scaling back their payroll next year adding Fielder wouldn't accomplish that.

It is easier to trade for bats than it is for pitchers so if that were to be a problem I think Melvin or whoever the GM maybe would be able to trade some of that excess pitching for some hitting.

But Prince would be everything that Dunn is and more. I would think that they would be looking to make a big splash in the market especially for next year even without Harper being in consideration. But with the Dunn talks I have been looking as the Nats being a dark horse since it would be a surprise if they don't sign Dunn long term but I believe signing Prince long term over Dunn would be a better decision and it would give the Nats three faces to their organization with R. Zimmerman, Prince, and Strasburg. If it won't be the Nats it may as well be the Yankees or Red Sox and I am not sure that the Yankees are really a good match both prospect wise and if the Yankees would really be interested in Prince since the Yankees will have an excess amount of DH options already on their team Posada (DH only right now and playing some games at 1B/C), Rodriguez, Jeter, Swisher, and Teixeira. I don't really see a fit with the Yankees. The Red Sox though if they can't get Gonzalez will go hard after Prince but who will be competing against the Red Sox? The Rays definitely won't compete against the Red Sox for Fielder so you can probably count them out of it. You could add the Blue Jays to the mix along with some big question marks with the Rangers, Angels, Dodgers, and White Sox. Though I don't see the White Sox being a good trading partner nearly all of their good prospects were dealt to San Diego this last off season. This trading deadline is even more bare in terms of teams needing a player like Prince since there is other value out there I would put Konerko having more value to a team like the Angels who are only looking for a stop gap at 1B and not really looking for anything else. That leaves Berkman and Prince as the next two players with a lot of value left. Again it will come down to the Rangers, Giants, Rays, and the Red Sox. I think you can eliminate the Rays and the Giants as possibilities for either Prince or Berkman. If the Rays need a DH they could always sign Delgado or Dye. With the recent performances of both Pena and Ortiz I think you can eliminate the Rays and Red Sox unless both of those players start to considerably under perform. I'm not sure either will do that. So barring any major injury I don't see a team that will have the prospects to give up nor the desire to give up said prospects for Prince at this time.

Rickie is a baseball magnet I swear.

As long as Weeks is batting 2nd I wouldn't mind that.

Stats don't always tell the full story. He throws in the low 90's with his fastball and if he can command his breaking pitch he could become a good bullpen option.

I agree and I believe the Giants even if they weren't getting production from Huff they could always move DeRosa to 3B and Sandoval to 1B. I also don't see the Angels as someone the Brewers should target no one in their system as far as pitching goes really wows me at all. I still like the Rangers and if they continue to not pull away from the Angels and if the Angels pick up someone like Konerko or Berkman then I could see the Rangers trying to get Prince. Though I believe the return value for Prince will be higher in the off season than it will be during the trade deadline. The Brewers may miss out on one less prospect from a team but there will be more teams bidding for Prince during the off season than there will be during the trade deadline. The Red Sox will have to decide on Ortiz if they are going to keep him or not. I think they will dump Ortiz and will be interested in Fielder then more so now because Ortiz is putting up some solid numbers right now. A dark horse for next season will be the Nationals. The Nationals will have a rather nice young core of players and adding Prince and signing him to a long term deal would make them instant contenders in the NL East I would put them as the 2nd or 3rd best team in the NL East then and they would probably become a rather big power house in the NL East for a long time. I still think it is too early to tell who is going to need what at the trading deadline but it is starting to become more clear. I believe a trade of Hart to the A's or even the Rays may make some sense and I believe Prince won't be traded at the deadline.

That first strike there looked a lot like Manny's third ball. Seriously? During one AB it is a ball and during another it is a strike. I just do not get umpires at all I wonder if there is someone has done a stat study on how consistent or inconsistent the strike zone is compared to a computerized strike zone for each umpire. Would be interesting to read.

What was wrong with the last 3 pitches? The first one was a strike the second was a borderline pitch and the third should have been a strike. I can't stand inconsistent strike zones. Computerized strike zone please so we don't have to deal with the randomness that is an umpires strike zone.

I still believe leading into the 2008 year was the best time for the Brewers to have made a trade for a good young starting pitcher. I believe Hughes had fallen out of favor in New York and could have been had for someone like Laporta, Gamel, or Salome. Probably would have had to add another piece to that deal though someone like Green or a pitcher not sure who that would have been. There were definitely some options open for the Brewers to land a good young pitcher from 2006-2008.

It is easier to sign a pitcher in free agency than it is to pry away young pitchers in a trade.

I believe the return the Brewers are looking for for Fielder is not there right now. I don't see the Melvin being able to get what he would like in a trade for Fielder right now and I still believe Mark A is not going to allow Melvin to trade Prince until at least the off season which is probably the better move. I see Fielder's trade value being about the same as it is now if he gets traded during the deadline or the off season not much is going to change between the deadline and the off season. I don't see the Brewers getting 2 top 10 prospects from a team. The best the Brewers are going to get is something along the lines of a AAA starter someone who isn't a hard throwing pitcher, a AAAA positional player, and 2 A/AA high upside hard throwing starters with questionable control. I believe that is what the return for Fielder will yield. I believe the Brewers will get more value in return for Hart than they will for Fielder during the deadline.