nate82

Perez isn't really a sure thing he has a lot of control problems but the talent is there it is just will he ever get the control of his pitches.? Also he has some delivery issues in tipping off his pitches especially his change up that needs to be fixed though he is a young player and that can be fixed.? Perez is about 2-4 years away.? If the Rangers wanted to win this year and the next year Prince would definitely help in that not to mention Hamilton is getting older.? So it is the question do the Rangers go for it now or wait 2-4 years or longer.? I believe the Rangers could definitely afford Prince they would just have to decide on Prince or Hamilton. Forgot to add the video of Perez where you can see he is somewhat tipping off his pitches.

Broken record warning here. But I believe Texas or Boston would be the ideal teams to trade Prince to. Texas more so than Boston since the Rangers have more to offer than what Boston could offer. A Smoak + deal could work out real well for both the Brewers and the Rangers. The Rangers if they could sign Prince long term would be the heavy favorites in the AL West for the next 3-6 years. If the Brewers could get Smoak/Feliz along with one of the younger arms that the Rangers have would be a great deal plus if the Rangers put Smoak into a deal I doubt there is a team in MLB that could compete with the package that the Rangers could put forward for the Brewers. A trade of Smoak, Perez, and Font would be a huge haul for the Brewers I'm not sure if the Brewers could get that for Prince but I believe it would be close. I don't think the Brewers will be able to get both Feliz and Smoak in a deal and I think Feliz maybe off limits. Also I don't see Chris Davis being anything more than a guy who could hit a lot of home runs but he is going to strike out a ton way more than he should he has no plate discipline at all. I wouldn't include Chris Davis into any discussion when trading Prince to the Rangers.

Wouldn't a six-man rotation be perfect for a very young pitching staff that you would be looking to keep down their innings on.

The top five that I want to succeed in 2010 are: 1) Jeremy Jeffress - He really needs to show something this and stay away from Mary Jane. 2) Lorenzo Cain - He needs to bounce back and show why he was so hyped last year before getting injured. 3) Angel Salome - Again needs to bounce back from an injury year and show why he can be an elite hitter. 4) Caleb Gindl - Can he reproduce those power numbers in AA? 5) Mat Gamel - The real deal or all hype?

Rotation: Gallardo, Wolf, Bush, Davis, Suppan (5) Bullpen: Hoffman, Coffey, Parra, Narveson, Stetter, Vargas, Hawkins (7) Lineup: 1. Weeks 2. Hart 3. Braun 4. Fielder 5. McGehee 6. Zaun 7. Gomez 8. Escobar Bench: Counsell, Gerut, Kottaras, Heether, Edmonds I think Suppan will be the #5 pitcher or it will be a surprise I don't think the Brewers will go with 3 lefties in the rotation. Parra and Narveson will be giving the chance to prove that they belong in the rotation but I just don't see it happening maybe Butler or someone else will earn a spot in the rotation. Zaun should play about 100 games. I think Salome or Lucroy will get some playing time at some point with the Brewers this up coming season though.

Wasn't McGowan one of the original players Melvin tried to get in the Overbay trade or was it Marcum I can't remember exactly if this was just a rumor or was a fact.

No please don't open that one. But whenever you talk about the hitters of that era it is hard to come up with two names better than Griffey and Thomas. I'm not sure I would put Thomas ahead of Griffey or behind him either. Thomas was one of the greatest hitters of that era along with Griffey. I think Thomas gets in but I'm not sure it will be on the first ballot though I do believe Thomas deserves to be in on the first ballot. Griffey and Thomas were iconic players of the 90's and better yet you don't really have much doubts about these two players with steroids as you do with other players of that time.

Yes they would help but neither of them are going to be available. Young cheap pitching is a premium like young cheap catchers. I don't see the Jays trading either of those players at all especially since the Jays just got Morrow from Seattle this winter. I do not see the Jays moving Morrow and I don't see them moving Marcum either.

Excuse me while I vomitWhat I bolded is somewhat correct the last part is just the sense of entitlement. The demand for Yankees tickets is obviously higher than that of the demand for Marlins tickets so the Yankees can charge a higher price for their tickets but even the Yankees have to lower their ticket prices as could be seen earlier in the year when there were a lot of empty seats behind home plate because the price was just way to high and that had to be adjusted. Even the Yankees fans will not pay prices they believe are over and beyond what they should be paying so there is a midpoint where the fans will not pay those prices. Also ticket sales has very little to do with team payroll for the Yankees. The Yankees media revenue nearly pays for all of its team payroll.

Villanueva has an option left so I'm guessing he will be in the minors to start the year while Narveson and Loghren battle it out for the 2nd lefty spot. I could see Narveson winning that battle and getting the long reliever role in the bullpen with Suppan getting the right handed spot or getting the white flag spot a.k.a. down by 5 or more runs and Macha wants to save the bullpen. I think the rotation is going to look something like Gallardo, Wolf, Bush, Davis, Suppan/Parra.

Not just the payroll but the media market size also. The Yankees, Cubs, Red Sox, and Mets will always have a high payroll and can afford a high payroll for a long time with their media market. Also a minimum salary or at least one that is not spoken looks to be coming just look at what MLB and the MLBPA did to the Marlins this year. I think in the next CBA there will be provisions that will be very strict on how the revenue money should be spent by teams. I believe more revenue sharing maybe possible if the money that is being shared goes to the teams payroll and there is a floor or the team going below that floor will lose revenue sharing. I believe this is going to be a real possibility.

I wouldn't mind having the high spending teams being stacked into one division. Think about it for a second here you could have a division of Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, and Cardinals all in one division. Now lets say the playoff system stays the same that eliminates 3 big spending teams from ever making the playoffs and you could probably even cross out 4 if all of those teams were in one division. Sure the big spending teams get a division all by themselves but it does fix the parity problem. Instead of having 3 of 8 or 4 of the 8 teams being big market teams playing in the playoffs you have now eliminated it to 2 or 3 at the most. This would allow the middle of the pack teams more of a chance to win in the playoffs more since there will be more middle of the pack teams than there will be higher spending teams. It wouldn't be a great system but realigning the divisions in terms of the amount of payroll each teams have and the cities market size wouldn't be a bad idea. Having the Cubs, Yankees, etc. all in one division would even out the league and create more parity in the league since you wouldn't have one or two teams absolutely dominating one division year in and year out because they can spend more than the other teams in their division. Will the division that has all the high spenders get more publicity? Of course they will and they do now so nothing is really changing here. I really think realigning the divisions in terms of media market share and team payroll is something that could work and create more parity.

I have been reading that the majority of the economists out there believe we won't be back to a regular economy for another 3-5 years. The job loss rate is slowing for now but unemployment nationally is still way to high it needs to come down another 4 or 5 percent before you can say the economy has fully recovered and that should take another 2-3 years before a majority of those jobs return.

Gold doesn't always keep on going up it is like the stock market the price for gold will fluctuate over time. It does go down in price from time to time though not as much as stocks do. Gold per ounce in US dollars for the last 10 years http://goldprice.org/charts/history/gold_10_year_o_usd.png Gold compared to the S&P 500 for a 8 months not really a good picture but it was the best that I could find at the moment. http://www.crossingwallstreet.com/image806.png Gold alone is a terrible investment long term but you do need to diversify your portfolio if you are using this as a retirement fund. It is always a good idea to have some gold, silver, platinum, and other commodities in your portfolio but I wouldn't dedicate more than 3-5% of your portfolio to commodities though. Gold should really be a small part of your investment and there are other ways to get into the gold rush that is happening right now buy doing what JoeHova posted about.

You are basically describing Wellemeyer in the last part of your post there. Wellemeyer is not a good starter if he wanted to be a reliever sure I could see the Brewers taking a chance on him but not as a starter. Parra and even Narveson have bigger upside than Wellemeyer does and I doubt Wellemeyer will have a better year than what Suppan will put up for the Brewers. The Brewers already have a Wellemeyer on the team and his name is Jeff Suppan there is no need for another.

I don't like the premiere and A league part but otherwise it is good. I just don't think it is a good idea to be demoting teams and it could be reworked where all of the big money teams play in the same division though the DH would have to be either eliminated or added to both leagues. AL1: Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Cubs, and Cardinals AL2: Rays, Marlins, Orioles, Nationals, and Blue Jays AL3: Astros, A's, Diamondbacks, Padres, and Rockies NL1: Phillies, Pirates, Reds, Braves, and Indians NL2: Royals, Twins, White Sox, Brewers, and Tigers NL3: Angels, Dodgers, Giants, Mariners, and Rangers Not much in terms of travel problems for any of the teams. AL1 will be a killer and should keep that division very competitive NL1 is probably the weakest with the Phillies and the Braves being the two big spenders so that may have to be re-worked out probably dropping the Pirates and Indians and replacing them with the Orioles and the Blue Jays both who spend a lot of money also. Scheduling would be a nightmare but that is a small and insignificant problem if you are looking at the bigger problem which is competitive balance. I just don't believe a salary cap will ever be a possibility for MLB so the best option after that is realigning the divisions and stacking the big money spenders in a couple of the divisions. NL3 is also a high spending group with the Angels and Dodgers leading the way with the Rangers, Mariners, and Giants not to far behind them the Mariners are about equal in spending to the Angels and just behind the Dodgers. Does this completely fix the competitive imbalance no and there is nothing that will cure that not even a salary cap.

It is online only no single player. It is rather easy for the multiplayer though and there are not enough weapons like in MW2. I like the concept but they need to add some more variety to the game like MW2. You only have 3 weapons to choose from at the beginning. It is an OK game not a great game though.

92.8 to 93 is though. So he has lost exactly 1 MPH from 2006. He is only .5 away from his 2007 year. So it is not that far of a drop off.

Huh? His velocity was up last year and with Carmona I believe he still has some options left so he could start the year out in AAA. Having extra depth at the starting pitching spot is never a bad idea. SeasonTeamFBSLCTCBCHSFKNXXPO Total *- - -76.0% (93.2)10.5% (84.2) 0.0% (00.0)6.5% (86.7)7.0% (85.3) 3.0%0.1% 2006Indians77.2% (94.1)15.3% (85.2) 0.1% (00.0)3.6% (85.8)3.9% (86.7) 2.9%0.1% 2007Indians75.0% (93.5)12.0% (83.7) 13.0% (85.1) 5.6%0.1% 2008Indians80.9% (92.8)8.8% (83.2) 2.6% (86.8)7.7% (85.4) 1.0%0.0% 2009Indians72.2% (93.0)7.6% (85.6) 20.2% (86.8) 1.4% SeasonTeamGB/FBLD%GB%FB%IFFB%HR/FBIFH%BUH%tRAxFIP TotalPostseason- - -- - -2.584.8315.1 %18.6 %61.2 %67.4 %23.7 %14.0 %5.8 %0.0 %11.6 %33.3 %6.1 %17.2 %26.3 %0.0 %4.706.334.484.39 2006Indians2.2013.3 %59.6 %27.1 %7.7 %13.8 %6.3 %33.3 %4.554.31 2007Indians2.9714.0 %64.3 %21.7 %5.6 %11.1 %6.8 %33.3 %3.863.88 2008Indians2.9415.0 %63.5 %21.6 %9.1 %8.0 %6.2 %25.0 %5.045.13 2009Indians2.0417.8 %55.2 %27.0 %2.6 %13.7 %4.6 %16.7 %5.834.98

Sleeper pick for a surprisingly great season would be John Axford. If someone gets injured and it is a non lefty I think Axford is going to get the call up first I believe he will be perfect in the bullpen with Hawkins and Coffey being the only real hard throwers in the bullpen. Other picks for a surprisingly good year: Jody Gerut and Manny Parra. Both are going to have a great year and I think Gerut may even push for playing time over Hart.

I don't know why this is a shock to anyone but I believe Hart went to arbitration last year also even when the Brewers made a competitive bid for Hart last year. If I remember correctly everyone but Hart last year avoided arbitration. This shouldn't have been a surprise that Hart was going to take it all the way to arbitration.

The train won't go 110mph though. That is its top speed the average speed that the train will hit is somewhere around 60mph I believe. Most of the time you will be going around 30mph - 55mph. The train only cuts the time to transit to Madison by about 5 or 10 minutes I believe nothing drastic really. If the train made more stops this would make more sense. Destinations they should be adding are the Appleton/Green Bay area, 2 or 3 stops in the downtown Milwaukee area, Wisconsin Dells, and 2 stops around Madison one near the campus and one near downtown. I would use the train then for trips out to the Wisconsin Dells (overly priced tourist destination) and up to the Green Bay and Appleton area. Having the train stop at the air port is just not a good idea and even if they have to keep the airport stop for a terminal to go to Minnesota then fine leave it there but just add at least one or two more stops near the campus and downtown Madison. For Milwaukee you could even argue for a stop near the airport though there already is an Amtrak stop near the airport already though it is horribly located. It just does not make sense to have the only stop being the airport. It is not that I don't want the rail it is just that the people making the decisions are not thinking about the whole idea here about the rail. There needs to be more stops for it to be something worthwhile and waiting for the Minnesota stop to be made may take 10-20 years. Adding to the tourist destinations in WI would be a smart idea but unfortunately smart and politics never really goes together. If the state really wants to have the rail system there needs to be more stops and there needs to be more thought put into this than there currently has been.

Yes if they are going to do a rail system they need to do it correctly and right now it is not being done correctly. The stop at the Madison airport is just stupid it doesn't take you anywhere really if you are going to Madison. I use the rail to go to Chicago when I go there but here is the kicker Chicago already has a great public and taxi transportation system Madison and Milwaukee do not. I'm not against the rail system I am just against where the stops are being placed. If they are going to have a rail system it either needs to stop in downtown Madison or somewhere near the UW campus. Also adding a rail line to Green Bay and Appelton would be a great idea also it would make getting to Packers games for people living in Milwaukee a lot easier and people living near Green Bay an easier option to getting to Brewers, Bucks, and other events in Milwaukee.

No not necessarily. The rotation as is right now is Gallardo, Wolf, and Davis who are guaranteed spots basically in the rotation. That leaves two spots open I don't think Narveson will get one of those spots though I wouldn't mind him getting one. That leaves Bush and Suppan one of these two will be in the bullpen and it probably will be Suppan. So you have a rotation of Gallardo, Wolf, Bush, Davis, and Parra/Narveson/Carmona/Suppan battling it out for the last rotation spot. With a bullpen that is pretty much set in the back end with Vargas, Hoffman, Hawkins, Coffey, and Stetter. So that leaves two spots open for about 5 players which include Narveson, Parra, Suppan, Villanueva, and Carmona. So the rotation isn't really as fixed as you may think it is the bullpen will probably consist of Suppan and Narveson/Parra. I don't see the Brewers keeping three lefty relievers in the bullpen though. I believe Narveson is going to be the odd man out and will be designated for assignment I'm not sure if he will pass through waivers or if he will accept going back down to AAA. There should be some interest from other teams for Narveson though. Maybe the Brewers could work out a deal for Narveson plus to the Indians for Carmona. I'm not sure the Brewers budget would allow for that though. Hart or Bush would definitely need to be traded then though.

A Hart for Carmona trade wouldn't be a bad idea. The Brewers would only be on the hook for 1 more year of Carmona if he doesn't pitch well 2012-14 are all team option years in that contract. I don't think the Indians would do a trade for Hart though since they would want to be saving money on that trade. I could see a three way trade where the Brewers send Hart to a third team for a minor league prospect and then send that prospect to the Indians for Carmona. The Mets make some sense in this three way deal but I would believe the Mets would probably want Carmona instead of Hart in that deal but that all depends on what the Mets are looking for. They have Matthews Jr. now but I don't see that working out at all for them and they need another OF along with SP. It would really depend on the Mets needing a corner OF or another SP. I don't believe Carmona is garbage I believe he is going to have a bounce back year this year. I think Carmona just needs a change of scenery and a change of pitching coaches I see that Carmona was throwing his fastball and slider less last year while he was using his change up more. I think Carmona is having the same problem that Parra is having. Carmona is exactly the type of pitcher the Brewers need to target. He is rather cheap for the next couple of years and only in 2014 is when he gets really expensive. Carmona is only 27 years old if the Brewers pick up his option each year they would have him until he is 31 years old. I don't see a big problem in the risk department here. His salary is low enough to where the Brewers can afford it and if he becomes somewhat like he was in 2007 again then this would be a bargain for the Brewers. From Cot's: 10:$4.9M, 11:$6.1M, 12:$7M club option, 13:$9M club option, 14:$12M club option.