nate82

Free agency will be the easiest place to add to that. Considering there is Holliday, Ankiel, Bay, and others available. Plus if the Braves exercise their buyout on Hudson that is $11m more than what they would have had this offseason to get a bat. Plus I believe Church will be better than he was with the Mets for the Braves next year. Hart doesn't really add much to the Braves than what they already have and they can get better players in FA than they probably could in a trade. Plus I don't see why the Braves will trade either Jurjens or Vazquez. If anyone is going to be traded it will be Hudson or that $1m buyout will be exercised by the Braves. Trading a healthy pitcher and then relying on one that was injured the year before and who is an older pitcher is not a wise decision. I believe sports writers and other people are overlooking this. The Braves are not going to trade Vazquez or Jerjens and then rely on an injured pitcher in Hudson. It just doesn't make any sense at all.

Atlanta won't be trading any of its good young pitching and I would be leery of any of them they trade away. If anything they will trade Vazquez or Hudson before they trade any of their young pitching. Atlanta has no use for Hart with Diaz playing as good as he has been playing. The Braves also have Hayward and Schafer who will probably be in the majors at one point in the year next year Schafer probably starting in AAA with Hayward. The only player the Brewers have that makes sense would be Gamel and I don't think the Braves are willing to give up any of their young pitching for Gamel. So it would have to be a 1B type or a 3B type with Jones moving over to 1B. Maybe you could get Medlen for McGehee.

Escobar, Sheets, and Duscherer (Spelling?) are probably your best bets of getting them to sign 1-year deals. Both Escobar and Sheets have been injured Sheets hasn't pitched this year and Escobar hasn't pitched a full year since 2007.

Hudson makes more sense since he has a $1m buyout next year that is a savings of $11m and there are plenty of free agent outfielders and 1B out there that the Braves could get to fill their offensive void. It will be a lot easier to find a quality bat in free agency than it will be to find someone to take Vazquez and his contract in a trade. List of possible players the Braves could get with the $12m that they would be paying Hudson: Bobby Abreu, Rick Ankiel, Jason Bay (will be more than $12m), Johnny Damon, Brian Giles, Matt Holliday, Vladimir Guerrero, Troy Glaus, Mark DeRosa, Felipe Lopez, Russel Branyan, Hank Blaylock, Adrian Beltre, and Mike Cameron. That is a big list to choose from and only Holliday, Bay, and Guerrero would probably cost more than $12m a year. The options in free agency by far outweigh the trade market and is probably the safest way to go for the Braves. I just don't understand why the Braves wouldn't just exercise that $1m buyout on Hudson. It is the easiest and best way to improve their team for next year while not giving up much of anything.

I thought it was Conley/and an expiring for Sessions/Alexander I never heard of anything about a pick being in the mix with that trade. But I could be not remembering it correctly.

No. I wouldn't do that trade because you are gambling on McGehee doing what he did this year for a whole season next year and beyond. I would rather keep Gamel and try and get some players through free agency. I believe that person has it wrong the Braves are going to exercise their buyout on Hudson and that will save them the money they need to get another bat. Hudson is the most likely pitcher on the Braves roster to be gone after this season. I wouldn't mind the Brewers picking him up though.

How does it destroy traditional rivalries? The teams that were playing against each other before will still be playing against each other. It would either be more or less games against each other. The Red Sox will still be playing the Yankees and the Cubs will still be playing against the Cardinals. The Mets would still be playing against the Phillies and the Dodgers would still be playing against the Giants. The travel shouldn't really matter there are these things called airplanes that allow teams to get across the country in hours. Travel should be the least of the concerns for the teams and if it is you just shorten the season down to decrease the travel. More games the fans can't watch? What do you mean by that? The fans will be locked out of games? It makes no sense. Nearly every single game is on TV now how would that be changed? Unless you are thinking when I said the TV contracts would be the property of MLB and the games would only be on MLB TV that is not what I meant. I meant that the teams would lose the revenue from the TV contracts and MLB would get 100% of the revenue and dump into the revenue sharing plan.

I was going to put this in the competitive balance thread but it doesn't really fit in that thread. It does but this is a completely different subject on how to fix it rather than discussing if there is or isn't. I was thinking what if MLB decided to use a premiere league type to balance itself. What this would do is move each team into a division based on their record from the previous season and their payroll for the upcoming season. So this would be a revolving division with teams being added and teams being subtracted each year. There is going to have to be some realignment for this to work though. This years premiere league would have looked like this in MLB: AL Premiere division 1: Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, and White Sox AL Premiere division 2: Rays, Angels, Rangers, and Jays NL Premiere division 1: Mets, Cubs, Braves, and Phillies NL Premiere division 2: Brewers, Dodgers, Cardinals, and Giants AL regular division 1: Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland AL regular division 2: Mariners, A's, and Royals NL regular division 1: Marlins, Nationals, and Reds NL regular division 2: Astros, Dbacks, Padres, and Rockies This would even the playing field for small market and mid-market teams. This would pin large market teams against large market teams and the only time a small or mid-market team would ever be competing for a playoff spot with a large market team would be if they made it up to the premiere division by winning the regular division. So if you would take this years premiere teams for the NL you would have the Brewers and the Mets dropping out with the Rockies and Marlins moving up. You would then scramble up the regular division for next year so the Mets or the Brewers would be in the same division allowing the other teams with smaller payrolls to compete against teams with close to the same payrolls. So the new 2010 NL regular divisions would look like this: NL regular division 1: Brewers, Mets, and Astros NL regular division 2: Dbacks, Padres, Reds, and Nationals. This would create competitive balance and a scheduling nightmare also but I would take the scheduling nightmare over having the current competitive balance. Yes the big market teams would still dominate the smaller and mid-market teams but the chances of those mid and small market teams making the playoffs and having an opportunity to win a championship would increase. Anything can happen in a best of five or a best of seven series. Sometimes the best teams don't always win those series example would be the Cubs in 2007 losing to the Phillies and in 2008 losing to the Dodgers you can also add in the year the Cardinals won the world series they were definitely not the favorites to win or to go to the world series same with the Rockies in 2007. This would create more competitive balance in MLB and it will also let the big market teams keep their spending and players earning what they can in the market. The only thing that would need to be fixed then would be the draft and international draft along with the TV contracts becoming MLB property and not the teams property. OK blast away at my idea.

Scarpetta should start in A+ to start the year but should be moving up quickly with Rogers being in AAA by midseason the latest. Lawrie is definitely going to be starting in AA at 2B so Farris will either be at A+ at 2B or playing a UTIL role in AA. As for Cain and Schafer I believe Cain will be the starting CF for Nashville and Schafer will be the starting CF for Huntsville. Brewer will probably be in A+ to start the year and he will be given the chance to move up to AA.

Butler, Jones, and Rogers all should contribute to the MLB team next year in one way or another. But if you are seeing either one of those three starting it is probably not going to be a good sign though.

All of the changes so far that have happened have helped smaller market teams. Has it helped completely level the playing field? No and I don't believe MLB will ever get to that point. Maybe MLB will go more towards an NHL style cap which has a ceiling and a floor but I highly doubt that. It will probably be more like the NBA's salary cap which is there but teams do go over the cap. The draft needs to be changed slotting will help teams like the Brewers and the Royals sign players they normally wouldn't be able to sign. That may or may not be a good thing though. Also the international draft needs to happen maybe it can be a separate draft from the amateur draft for players in the states or it can incorporate both. Something needs to be done and hopefully Selig and the rest of baseball can get this done. This should help out a lot we have all been asking for this and now that it is happening we are complaining about no salary cap. At least we have a commissioner now who is actually trying to get some things for the mid and small market teams. It may not be enough but at least there is a voice that has a lot of pull who will at least try to get this done. We should be rejoicing over this. Just my opinion though.

Nearly ready = 2-3 years and by 2011 Cain will be the starting CF for the Brewers. If Cain wouldn't have been injured earlier in the year he would be more than likely the starting CF in 2010. You don't need a lot of production out of your CF player that is why others want Gerut to be the starting CF next year over Cameron. Along with the cost savings it also has. Schafer also had an OPS of .815 last year Cain had an OPS of .845 in AA last year. Cain went from A+ to AAA in 2008. The Brewers love this guy and it is not unreasonable to believe or think that if Cain didn't get injured this year he would be at least in the running for the starting CF job in 2010 for the Brewers. With his injury it has probably been delayed until 2011. Schafer should be ready by 2012 or 2013 depending on what he does next year. I wouldn't be surprised if Schafed ends next year in AAA with Cain being on the major league team.

Well you also have to get the large market teams on board and currently they are not. Last I read on this subject the only large market team that is on board with a salary cap was the Boston Red Sox. There is no way you would get a salary cap just out of the owners let alone the players union. I could actually see the players union conceding to a salary cap if there was a salary floor which really wouldn't be a good idea. The contracts will still be guaranteed and that won't help small market teams all that much. I believe the time has past to expect a salary cap to happen in MLB. If MLB wanted to have a salary cap it would have had to do so in the 70's or the 80's. I believe it is to late for a salary cap in MLB both sides that you would have to convince to have a salary cap are rooted into the ground too much and will not budge from their positions. Again you are going to have to wait. I don't see MLB doing anything drastic to increase the competitive balance in MLB. You are going to have to live with the baby steps because that is what you are going to get. It is going to take time to chop down everything before a salary cap will happen. Unless MLB goes the way of the NHL which would make another strike or lockout happen. I don't see MLB doing that though especially with the steroid stuff going around. Both sides are going to be making concessions and hopefully the international draft and slotting system comes. That will help teams become more competitive. Other than TV revenue I do not see what else MLB could do. That wouldn't result in a strike or lockout.

Well that would be all fine and dandy if that was actually the situation but it isn't. The Brewers won't be under the gun until after the 2010 season which is the year before Fielder's final year. Fielder has 1 more year of arbitration yet the Brewers control Fielder through 2011. Fielder doesn't hit free agency until after the 2011 season so the Brewers are not under the gun. So there is no comparison at all.

Selig may or may not be right about the competitive balance in MLB but it has improved with the Wild Card and added division in baseball without those competitive balance can not be made. It is going to take a lot of baby steps in order for more competitive balance will be seen in MLB. I certainly don't want the type of competitive balance that is in the NFL or the NBA. I believe the NHL is going towards the right amount of competitive balance. Selig has to cater towards both large market teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, and Dodgers while also catering towards the small and mid-market teams like the Brewers, Royals, and Pirates. The draft is the third baby step towards more competitive balance the first two steps were the realigning of the league and more revenue sharing. Bud also says he would like to do more. Of course there is more to be done but you can't get everything you want right away you have to give and take. You would never get a salary cap and draft reform in the same bargaining agreement from the players union nor with the larger market teams. This is definitely the right step in the right direction for MLB. Again you can't expect to get everything you want right away you are going to have to wait for the rest.

Not going to happen. Realistic asking price from Melvin for Fielder would include: Lars Anderson, Bowden, Bard, and Buchholz. That is what it would take to get Fielder and that is close to what the Rangers got in return for Teixeira. Anything less and Melvin would hang up the phone. You could switch Anderson with Ellsbury but I don't see the reason why to do that for the Brewers with Shafer and Cain nearly ready. In order to get Fielder the team trading for him is going to have to give up a future #1 starting pitcher, a high upside starting pitcher, and a positional player. Bowden = high upside starting pitcher, Buchholz = a #1 type of a pitcher even though I don't believe he is, and Anderson obviously = the position player.

Piniero and Washburn are not players Melvin should be targeting. Washburn = Suppan no way would I even think about signing Washburn. Just last year he had a horrible year pitching for the Mariners in a pitchers ballpark and now this year he has a great year? I'm not buying it and whoever ends up with Washburn will have another Suppan a good #5 pitcher just not what the Brewers need. Piniero I would take him if he was going to be the #4 or #5 starter in the rotation but thats about it. I would rather see the Cardinals overpay for him and lose Holliday in the process. Melvin is probably going to go after these two players hard in the offseason Harden and Lackey. I would rather see Melvin go after Harden hard since Harden is still youngish yet. Both have their injury concerns. If it was between Washburn and Piniero I would take Piniero though. Hoffman is going to be back next year. I don't see Melvin passing on that especially with what it could do to the bullpen Melvin knows he needs a good bullpen as much as he needs a good starting rotation. Hoffman is a no brainer to retain because the Brewers don't really have someone who can be an effective closer. Villanueva and Coffey would be your closer if Hoffman is not retained. I could see Melvin passing on Cameron if it costs to much but if he can not get the pitcher he wants then I could see Cameron coming back for another year. If the Brewers could sign Harden away from the Cubs oh man would that be great. Harden and Gallardo at the top of the rotation would be a start of a great rotation for the Brewers. Looper will be gone I believe and I actually believe Looper will decline the option. Yes I know he is guaranteed to get $6m but agents and players have done dumber things in the past when looking at free agency. Hudson would be a great #3 for the Brewers but that would come at the expense of Cameron and you would have to expect Hudson to be able to go through a season without getting injured is a rather risky strategy. Same can be said about Escobar and even Harden. The Brewers have enough room to work in with the budget and I believe the available funds for Melvin to get something done will be increased. The Brewers have a $80m payroll this year I could see that going up to $85-90m but that would be the absolute maximum that it could go to I believe. If at $90m I doubt the Brewers would have enough room to add anyone in a trade at the trade deadline though so it would be what the Brewers have is what they will have. Getting a #1 or #2 in Harden, Escobar, or Hudson is what the Brewers need to do this offseason. I believe the Brewers could get one of those three it is just how much are the Brewers willing to spend for either one of those three. Harden probably has the biggest upside and will cost more but he also has the most concern injury wise of the three. Escobar and Hudson are older and would cost less than Harden but not by much in terms of years both Escobar and Hudson would cost less than Harden more so Hudson than Escobar though. I could see Melvin giving Hudson a Looper type of a contract or a Gagne like contract. Overpaying in dollars but not years in the Gagne like contract and in the Looper contract overpaying for the second year. If Melvin could get Hudson on a Looper like contract it maybe the best signing in the whole offseason. As for Harden and the Cubs I'm not sure the Cubs will be able to resign Harden. The Cubs may have to decide on Lilly or Harden. Lilly is a free agent after next season and he will be asking for a deal like Zambrano's or Harden's deal. It will be around the $15-18m a year range for about 5 or 6 years. Is Lilly really worth that? probably not but you know if he has another great season next year it is going to cost the Cubs and are the Cubs really going to let one of their best pitchers go? There is a lot of options for the Brewers this offseason the cupboard is not bare for free agent pitching this offseason as some has speculated yes the big names are not out there but there is a lot of quality arms available. You have Escobar, Harden, Lackey, Hudson, Davis, Piniero, and then after those guys you start to get into your #5 type of pitchers. You even have question marks in Sheets and Bedard. Sheets isn't anymore of a question mark as Escobar as is. Sheets has at least pitched last year Escobar hasn't pitched since 2007 and he has only pitched 5 innings before being put back on the DL. The greatest risk this year is Bedard so Sheets may actually find a home on a one year deal with an option for a second with a lot of incentives on innings pitched.

I just did some quick math and looked at the roster and looked at Cot's site. If the Brewers resign all of their players minus Weathers and Kendall and if the Brewers trade Hardy away for a minor league player the Brewers have a salary of $74.13m next year. I just assumed about a 45% increase in player wages in arbitration. I also assumed Cameron would come back for $7m which is probably a low amount but even with an increase to 9 or 10m it will be just over 80m with Weathers buyout and Halls contract that the Brewers have to pay for. I am also assuming Hoffman resigns for about $10m. So that would leave about 7-10m worth for a free agent signing. Assuming that the Brewers do not pick up Looper's option that means the Brewers will owe him 1M. That would bring the team salary to about 75.53m. Now I am not counting all the players on the 40 man for next year because I am way to tired to do that and I'm missing one or two players who would be on the 25 man also 3 if the Brewers don't pick up Looper's option. Without Looper's contract the Brewers would have about 12-15m available for a free agent. The other 2 spots would be taken up by small contracts in the 400k - 500k range. If the Brewers get Guthrie he would be owed about 1.5m after arbitration. So subtract about 2m from the available funds for a free agent. I believe the Brewers could get Escobar on a 1 - 2 year deal for 10-12m a year maybe even less if the free agency market is as bad as it was last year. If not I wouldn't mind if the Brewers went 15m 4 years for Harden which wouldn't be all that bad just very risky for the Brewers to do. Hudson could also be had around the 8-10m mark for one year. The Braves are going to buyout Hudson's contract. The Brewers should have some flexibility next year in terms of free agent dollars available. I just hope Melvin doesn't do something like the Harden deal and just does another Looper deal with Hudson or Escobar.

Baseball is a sport not a job. Baseball is a game not a job. Baseball is a childs game played by men. Just because they get paid to play a game doesn't make it a job. Chill out man the object of a sport is to entertain the crowd not be corporate robots. This is an entertainment thing and if it was more like the No Fun League I would stop watching baseball. I love it when an athlete shows an emotion when they do something good or bad. They are there to entertain us nothing more nothing less.

Actually Grand Canyon National Park is just east of Las Vegas. It is about 200 miles east of Vegas. It is somewhat out of the way but I believe if you take I80 W and then take US 191 south you would run into the Grand Canyon National Park. Then it is only another 300 miles to Las Vegas. If you do that it adds about 5 hours onto the trip than driving straight to Vegas.

Unless she wants to be stopping at the grand canyon and other tourist attractions before going to Vegas drive but you could always take a tour out to the grand canyon in Vegas. Some of the states you drive through to get to Vegas are rather dull and boring remind her of that. Especially the first part of the trip through Iowa and Nebraska. Corn fields after corn fields and nothing but flat ground for the most part. It doesn't start to get interesting at least scenery wise until you get to Colorado and Utah. Then when you go through Nevada which is mostly desert I believe you could go through either I80 W or I90 W. I80 W takes you through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, and Utah. I90 W takes you through Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah. I90 W is the longer of the two drives taking about two more hours than I80 W. If you drive straight through it should take you about a day to get there compared to about 4 hours of flight time. Or you could take US-93 which is an even longer drive in terms of time but is probably more scenic. I took I80 W to Denver when I went out there a few years ago. It is much better to fly unless you really like to see flat fields of corn and then some mountains and then a desert and then the city of Vegas. Plus it is better to use the public transportation in Vegas than to be driving around there.

I don't know why they don't just let Gamel play RF for a bit. It is not like we are playing for a pennant here. I believe both Gamel or McGehee could play a corner OF spot. Gamel could probably play RF better than McGehee could though. Gamel is athletic enough where he could play a corner OF spot and switch from the IF to the OF like Braun and Hall did. I don't even see a problem playing Gamel in RF for the rest of the year platooning with Hart when he comes back. It would give Gamel more of an opportunity to see MLB pitching and it would help ease him into a starting role in RF in 2010. A lineup with both McGehee and Gamel in it should be good enough. I would rather see Gamel in the #2 spot next year than Hart in the 6th or #2 spot. 1. Weeks 2. Gamel 3. Braun 4. Fielder 5. McGehee 6. Cameron 7. Rivera 8. Escobar That right there should be the opening day lineup for 2010 and the lineup for the rest of this year.

If the Brewers could get a high ceiling given up on pitcher along with Guthrie I could go with that. I don't see the Brewers having the depth problems they had this year next year though with Butler, Jones, Rogers, and possibly Capuano as the #6,7,8, and 9th starters. The Brewers also have Suppan who can fill in as the #5 starter. Depth won't be the Brewers problem next year it will be finding a good #1 or #2 pitcher. Guthrie probably would project as a #3 which would be fine I guess in the rotation. Hudson/Escobar, Gallardo, Guthrie, Bush, and Parra would probably be as good as the Phillies 2008 and 2009 rotation (2009 before Lee was added). I'm just hoping that the bullpen won't suffer because of this. If there is no money left to retain Hoffman then Coffey, Villanueva, or ????? would be replacing Hoffman as the closer. I imagine the Brewers roster next year looking like this: C: Rivera, Lucroy 1B: Prince 2B: Weeks, SS: Escobar 3B: Gamel Util: McGehee, Lopez/Heether, Counsell OF: Hart OF: Cameron OF: Braun OF: Gerut Starters: Escobar, Gallardo, Hardy trade, Bush, Parra Bullpen LRP: Suppan RP: Villanueva, Coffey, Stetter, Narveson, DiFelice, Hoffman AAA 6th starter Butler, 7th starter Jones, 8th starter Rogers, 9th starter Capuano. The only question marks I have is if the Brewers bring back Kendall instead of Cameron. Kendall should cost less but Cameron brings more value to the Brewers. The Brewers will still be on the hook for at least $6 million of Hall's contract in 2010. I really wish Melvin would get creative and trade Suppan for Meche maybe the GM in KC is really that dumb and would do something like that though it would make sense for the Royals to do this trade because they would be saving $9.5m if they do the buyout after the 2010 season. The only other problem I see with next years team assuming the Brewers can get a trade for Hardy and pick up a free agent pitcher is how well Escobar, Gamel, and McGehee will do next year along with Weeks. If Weeks isn't able to go right away in the season you could see McGehee playing sometime with Counsell at 2B next year. I don't think the Brewers will be able to get a platoon partner with Counsell for next year and get starting pitching in free agency.

I would rather sign Escobar or Hudson to a one or two year deal than trade Hardy for Guthrie. If someone like Radames Liz is involved sure but not a straight up trade for Guthrie. Guthrie will be 31 next season and I would rather trade for someone who is a little bit younger than 30 years old. Especially if you are trading Hardy away.

I would rather do a Hardy and McGehee trade than a Hart and McGehee trade there is more value in trading Hardy and McGehee together. The Orioles come to mind in needing a 3B and a SS and they have some good young pitchers. There is some value in the free agency market the Brewers could look at getting Escobar being one that could come cheaply because of his injury concerns he may only get a 1 year deal because of his age and injury that has left him out for the past 2 years. A rotation of Gallardo, Escobar, Bush, Parra, Butler/Jones/Suppan wouldn't be any worse than this year or 2008. In fact there should be more depth next year than there was this year. You could even go with a rotation of Gallardo, FA Pitcher, Bush, Parra, Butler and have Suppan be the #6 guy or longman in the bullpen. The Brewers will have more depth next year with Jones and Rogers being available and that is a huge step up from Dillard, Smith, and Burns. Maybe you could even put Capuano in the mix as the #6 starter along with Jones and Rogers. I believe the Brewers will be able to trade Hardy for a rather good prospect not a top 25 prospect but a top 50-100 prospect from someone. Remember that if the Brewers continue the way they are playing their pick should be protected in the draft and that means they will be probably go after a type A guy knowing they will still be able to keep their draft pick in the 1st round. I still believe Hardy has a lot of value left in him and there are GM's out there looking to get Hardy and will see what it will take to get him. I don't know why I have this feeling but I believe Melvin is going to go hard after Lackey or Hudson if he comes on the market which I believe he will the Braves will choose Vazquez over him and exercise the $1m buyout on Hudson's contract. I just have this 6th sense feeling that Melvin is going to push Mark A or Mark A is going to push Melvin to get a top quality pitcher in the free agency market and I believe it will be Lackey or Hudson who we will end up getting. With Hardy's money coming off the books it should be enough to land someone like a Lackey or Hudson that is if the Brewers also go with some cost saving in not bringing back Kendall and Cameron the Brewers should be able to bring one back and I'm hoping it is Cameron but they can't bring both back even at reduced salaries.