nate82

It would be like a scouting department in Latin or South America basically. If team B decides not to put an academy down there then so be it and team A puts one in there who do you think is going to have an advantage when finding those diamonds that just need to be polished to become valuable? I'm going to put my money on team A finding one of those over team B. Team A will also already have a head start on team B in terms of scouting and finding players that show a lot of potential but just need to be polished a little bit more. As for the age limit I don't see it being fair for a player who is older than the average draft players having to come into the draft. Does that give the bigger markets more of an advantage? Sure it does but these players will be free agents and the only way they could bypass the draft would be if they were not on a foreign team meaning their contracts have expired. This might be a compensation for the large markets teams for them to accept thus allowing an international draft to take place. I just can't get behind a 30 year old Japanese player entering the draft or someone who is 4 or 5 years older than the oldest senior college player in the draft. Those players are not amateur players anymore and shouldn't be treated as such.

If you trade Prince what does that tell Braun? Also what will be the implications of Braun not having Fielder batting behind him? Will Braun's numbers take a dip? I don't think Braun is patient enough at the plate to be as productive as he has been without Prince batting behind him. Gamel just doesn't give that kind of a fear factor behind Braun as Prince does. Pitchers will pitch differently to Braun than they have been now with Fielder behind him. Could Gamel and Weeks pick it up and be as productive as Fielder? Sure they could but I highly doubt they will. There are three teams out there that could afford Prince in terms of prospects those teams are the Red Sox, Rangers, and Angels and there are a couple of maybe teams Mariners, Giants, and Yankees. For the Rangers it would be something like Smoak, Holland, and a pick of one or two B type prospects. For the Angels it would start with Reckling/O'Sullivan, Trumbo, and a couple of other B type prospects. For the Red Sox just add whatever they were rumored to be giving up for Halladay and add Anderson to that list. For the Mariners it would probably would be a straight up swap of Hernandez for Fielder. For the Giants it would be Bumgarner and a couple of B type prospects. For the Yankees it would be Jackson/Hughes plus more that the Yankees do not have. The Angels have Morales and Vlad at DH and 1B so that is probably a no go. The Red Sox have Youk and Ortiz at DH and 1B again another no go and I don't see the Red Sox giving up on Ortiz any time soon. The Rangers have Davis and Smoak this is probably the most likely place for Fielder to go since Davis has been disappointing for the Rangers so far this year he has the power but he has no discipline at the plate he is a real true HR or strike out hitter right now. The Giants are also a likely candidate for a trade but they have been reluctant and over valuing their players recently especially their pitchers. I believe the Giants wanted both Hardy and Hart for a Sanchez trade this last offseason. I doubt the Giants will actually do a trade. Then you have the Yankees who really don't have the talent or the spots open for Fielder. Both DH and 1B are going to be occupied for a very long time with the Yankees. The Mets would work but they don't have the talent but they do have a vacancy at 1B though. I just don't see the teams available for the Brewers to trade with to get the right amount of talent back. The teams that do have the right kind of talent don't have a spot open for Fielder except for one or two teams.

Escobar is probably the best option for the Brewers as long as the Brewers only over pay in terms of dollars and not years.

That is a big IF though and he will 34 at the beginning of next season so that is a big concern and he will probably decline after being injured these last few years. I just hope the Brewers go strong after Escobar if they can not get Lackey or another pitcher especially if they are only able to get a high upside A/AA pitcher for Hardy.

2010 lineup 1. Weeks 2B 2. Gamel 3B 3. Braun RF (I'm dreaming) 4. Fielder 1B 5. McGehee LF (dreaming again) 6. Cameron CF (dreaming once again) 7. Corporan/Rivera C 8. Escobar SS 9. Pitcher Bench: Counsell IF, Gerut OF, Cat OF, Iribarren OF/IF, Rivera/Corporan C Rotation 1. Gallardo 2. Lackey (I think I'm high right now) 3. Bush 4. Parra 5. Suppan (our best #5 if Villanueva is in the bullpen) Bullpen: Riske, Weathers, Coffey, Villa, Stetter, Hoffman, and McClung Bullpen wise I think we will be fine for next year. Starting rotation if we can pick someone up either in free agency (Lackey please) or through a trade with Hardy then it should be OK not great not bad but OK. Though the Brewers would have to be extremely lucky in the injury department though. Unless one of the younger pitchers somehow show something that they are ready to be fill ins for injuries from now until next year it is going to be dark. One name to keep an eye on in free agency will be Kelvim Escobar. He might be a good buy low candidate this offseason for the Brewers but he really would only be a #3 at best though but he could be a great acquisition if the Brewers could get a good #2 or #3 for Hardy.

The baseball academy's in Latin America and South America can stay because you can just change those to minor league affiliates or into a Latin or South America league. The big problem is who has ownership of the teams? Will it be just one big cooperative where MLB takes over and a few MLB teams get to share a Latin or South America team? For the Japanese players and other foreign players you could have an age limit on who can enter the draft. If a player is older than 26 years old they can become exempt from the draft. Meaning they have played enough professional baseball in their country and are at least 1 to 2 years older than the oldest college senior entering the draft. Also MLB could do what the NBA does with its international draftees. That is the team can only pay x-amount of money to the team the player belongs to. MLB could do it as a percentage of the slot where the player is drafted or it could be a hard line where a team could only pay x-amount to the foreign team.

I think never. I don't think the Brewers will ever trade Prince unless they get a deal that the Rangers got for Teixeira. Trading Prince would help in getting pitching but you are also losing a lot of offensive production by doing so. I'm not sold on Gamel being able to pick up the slack even if his defense would be better at 1B. I wouldn't mind a Smoak + deal from the Rangers for Fielder but I highly doubt that will happen. Only other team I can think of that will trade MLB ready pitching and a positional player would be the Angels. I would do a Reckling and Tremblo + deal for Fielder but the Angels don't really need Fielder with all the spots Fielder could play being blocked DH and 1B are already being held by players who look to be locks to be staying there.

Something like the NHL draft would be a fix for this. A team could hold onto the players draft rights for 4 years or they could be sold to another team for cash or a player. That is what I would like to see especially the ability to trade the rights to a player or to sell the rights for a player to another team.

It looks as though Selig is pushing for an international draft and a slotting system for the draft. From the Washington Post.

You could use tubetilla and download it off of youtube and use it like that. Not sure if that is illegal or legal to do so.

And if the Brewers wouldn't have picked up Cameron's 09 option Gwynn would have been playing CF. That is not all that comforting having Kendall and Gwynn in the lineup together.

Geovany Soto says hi. Stephen Drew also would like to say hi. Though he has been starting to pick it up this year. I was expecting big years from both Hardy and Drew, but I still believe they still are two of the top 5 young short stops in the game.

Wouldn't Counsell have to pass through waivers first? I'm not sure he would pass through waivers though a small contract and the chance the Brewers pulling Counsell back if they don't get something valuable in return is rather risky. I'm not sure Counsell would even get past any of the NL teams let alone some of the AL teams.

My top 5 1. Cubs Fans 2. Magneto (X-men comics) 3. Cancer man (X-Files) 4. Hal 9000 (2001 A Space Odyssey) 5. Sideshow Bob (The Simpsons)

Selling high on what with Hart? Have you forgotten how bad Hart was playing in the second half of last season? If you had forgotten By Day/Month AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB HBP SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS Pre All-Star 357 48 103 26 3 15 58 17 4 66 13 3 .289 .327 .504 .831 Post All-Star 255 28 61 19 3 5 33 10 1 43 10 4 .239 .263 .396 .659 The only time to sell Hart high was after his 2007 season. 2008 was definitely not a time to sell high with Hart especially with his bad 2nd half. It definitely would have had taken more than Hart to get Jackson. The Brewers wouldn't have been selling high on Hart at all in the offseason.

Any injuries and that team would have been out of it especially if it hit the bullpen.

You could make a case for Hardy but I don't think anyone thought Hardy was going to have a year like he is having. I believe holding onto Hardy was the right move I didn't see anyone that would have been available who would have been an impact pitcher that was available. Escobar was also not yet ready to be playing every day at SS in the majors. Also if you trade Hart you have to plug that hole up with someone. The Hart for Greinke rumor is completely untrue. When was the last time the Royals traded one of their hyped prospects? DeJesus never got traded even though he was rumored every year to be traded to someone. Which I believe is really bad for the Royals fans they could be reaping the benefits of a DeJesus trade right around now. Greinke would have been out of the question. Hart may not have been enough to get Jackson from the Rays since Hart lost a lot of his luster after the All Star break last year. With free agency having very little good OF that were at a decent price for the Brewers to replace Hart I can see why Melvin didn't trade Hart also. I believe this is the offseason that the moves that should have been done last year that didn't get done because of other factors out of Melvin's control where just not right. This offseason you have the Rays who have to make a decision on Kazmir and Crawford on who they are going to keep. I'm hoping the Brewers push hard for Kazmir by trading Hart to the Rays (obviously not a straight up swap of Hart for Kazmir) who can then trade Crawford for some young pitching to replace Kazmir with Hart taking over for Crawford. The Giants will also have to make a decision on where they want to go Bumgarner and Sanchez will probably be on the move to get some more offense on that team. A Hardy to the Giants trade makes a lot of sense. With possible free agents of Damon, Abreu, Matsui (he is really only a DH), Dye, and others in the OF the Brewers maybe able to pick one of those players up at a smallish contract and improve the offense a little bit. I believe that Kendall will not be back next year he just is not producing enough offensively and his defense has declined this year which should have been expected. There are holes but this offseason looks to be more of a perfect storm than last years. The Brewers could get lucky in the starting pitching department and sign someone like Bedard or Escobar to a short term contract. With both of those players being injured this year those two could be perfect buy low candidates for the Brewers to bridge the gap. I just don't see the last offseason being a disaster when taking into account everything that has happened this year. Even if Melvin traded Hardy or Hart for pitching you would still have Burns, Dillard, McClung, and Villanueva in the starting rotation because of the injuries that happened. I don't think there would be any real big difference in the record if Hardy or Hart would have been traded this last offseason.

What if Sabathia instead of signing with the Yankees signed with Milwaukee. Would the season be any different? Short answer no. Now lets say everything stays the same as the way that we know it Bush, Weeks, and Suppan all go down with injuries and miss time. Right now you would be looking at a rotation of Sabathia, Gallardo, Parra, Burns, and ?????. Now take into consideration that McClung still goes down with an injury that means you are down to Villanueva and Coffey as your closer. The Brewers are also not able to trade for Lopez you can take that as a good or a bad thing to happen. The starting lineup probably looks like this: 2B Counsell CF Cameron LF Braun 1B Fielder 3B McGehee RF Cat SS Hardy C Kendall Now you are putting extra pressure on both Counsell and McGehee to succeed and if Hardy was playing like he was and with Hart having another erratic year and going down on the DL that offense looks even worse than what it is right now. Also the rotation isn't any better with Sabathia in it right now. You are basically hanging your hopes on Gallardo and Sabathia to be perfect almost every time out. Now another popular idea was Melvin trading Hardy/Hart in the offseason for some pitching. The same problem still exists here just replace Looper with the pitcher received from the Hardy/Hart trade. I'm sorry but I just do not see how this season would have been any different with a free agent signing, a trade, or if the Brewers somehow were able to keep Sabathia. If the Brewers were able to keep Sabathia that means Villanueva or Coffey would have been the closer there wouldn't have been enough money for Hoffman. The Brewers were really relying on Parra, Gallardo, and Bush to have a great year this year and even with an addition through a trade from either trading Hardy or Hart the Brewers would still have had to rely on a big year from at least two of those three. Suppan would still have been in the rotation and depending who the Brewers got in a trade for Hardy or Hart there may or may not have been enough room to sign Hoffman. Now take into account you would still be relying on Burns, Dillard, etc... to fill in for an injury. I just don't know why some people thought we were just one starter away from having a really good team in the offseason. It was not just a starter that this team needed in the offseason. This team needed bullpen help which Hoffman has helped and starting pitching help. The Brewers needed a #2 or #1 type of a starter to put in their rotation and there wasn't any available that would have been inside the budget for the Brewers. Edwin Jackson would have been considered a fringe #3 starter at best in the offseason probably a #4 starter which would have cost the Brewers at least Hart if not more to get him. That is the only player I can think of that the Brewers could have legitimately went after and he would have helped the team more than Looper and would have allowed the Brewers to sign Hoffman. That still wouldn't have fixed the depth for pitching though. You would still have to rely on Burns, Dillard, or a Mulder or someone like that to take over for an injury. I'm not sure going with Escobar or someone else in RF would have been a wise move for the Brewers either. I just don't see what the Brewers could have done differently this last offseason. There were a lot of holes in this team and only so much money to go around and talent to be spread around to get the pitching that would have been needed. I do believe this offseason will be different and the Brewers will be going in another direction in regards with Hart, Hardy, Kendall, and Looper. The Brewers and the Rays will match up nicely with one another and I believe a trade will be possible between the two. The Giants also match up nicely with the Brewers as trading partners.

If you trade someone like McGehee or Hart for some pitching you can easily replace them with some cheap players or expensive players. Abreu is probably out of the question the Angels want to bring him back for another year so the Brewers would have to really overpay to get him. Damon could be a fit with the Brewers to play a corner OF spot but I would rather just bring Cameron back to play CF than pay Damon to play a corner OF spot. If you can trade a Gamel for a good pitcher with 1 year or lower service time with a lot of talent you do it. Pitching is the most expensive thing in the game to acquire and if you can trade a Gamel, McGehee, Hart, or Hardy for some really good pitching you better do that as a GM because pitching is at a premium and you need every single bit of pitching you can get. There are options out there to replace McGehee and Hart. They will be cheaper than going out and signing a free agent pitcher or two. The Brewers should stay away from starting pitchers in free agency and focus on bats and bullpen arms in free agency. Damon, Hideki Matsui (mostly a DH now), Cliff Floyd, Reed Johnson, and Marlon Byrd. Of those free agents Byrd, Johnson, and Floyd would come cheaply. Floyd maybe an interesting platoon option out in a corner OF spot.

Washburn as the #2 starter yuck. That is like putting Suppan as the #2 starter. Don't let Washburn's season this year fool you at an extremely pitchers friendly park. Washburn would be no better than Suppan or Looper.

I saw it on Friday and it was a great movie. I'm glad I went to see it than waiting for it to come out on DVD.

We won one on Thursday.

Keyword is like Andrew Miller. Per Cot's on Andrew Miller's service time Andrew Miller lhp 4 years/$5.4M (2006-09) 4 years/$5.4M (2006-09) [li]signed Major League contract with Detroit 8/06$3.55M signing bonus on Major League roster: 08:$1.325M, 09:$1.575M escalators may bring total package to $7.5M, depending on when Miller makes 25-man roster contract guarantees September call-up in 2006 Miller may opt out of contract early & go to arbitration acquired by Florida in trade from Detroit 12/4/07 [/li] drafted 2006 (1-6) drafted 2003 (3-68) by Tampa Bay (did not sign) agents: Darek Braunecker, Jim Lindell, Mark Rodgers ML service: 1.122 That is not a lot of ML service time. One year is the absolute maximum I would trade Gamel for in terms of service time. That is why I said someone like Andrew Miller someone with a lot of talent and potential but hasn't hit it yet. I wouldn't go after Miller because of his injury problems Miller is a lot like Parra though and looking over at fangraphs and looking at Andrew Miller's stats in both his minor league splits and his major league splits there just isn't enough data to say he is a below average pitcher. This year he has been anything but below average. The maximum number of service time should be around 1 year and at least have the potential of an Andrew Miller like pitcher for Gamel. The only way the Brewers would trade Gamel is for someone like an Andrew Miller (low service time and a high upside) otherwise you have to keep Gamel. You can't be trading Gamel for someone like Cain or Sanchez.

No. Everyday no matter when it is counts towards the service time of a player. You are confusing rookie status with service time.

Top 10 prospect by a magazine, website, or media outlet doesn't hold much water in a trade. Look at the talent first and what they have done in the minors and the majors first before looking at some top 10 list. Talent wise Gamel is a top 25 prospect. Gamel is major league ready and the Twins and Rays trade really is the scale you should be going by. Bumgarner is about what Garza was to the Twins a top 10 prospect in the game being blocked by a lot of pitchers in front of him. Gamel is actually nothing like Young though talent wise and psychologically wise. Gamel has more promise than Young did it is not every day that a two players match up perfectly for both teams. Gamel has a lot of value and I believe you are devaluing him as a prospect. You have to remember here also that Bumgarner is in AA so he is at least another year away from being in the majors and another year after that before he will be an effective MLB pitcher (limited innings and other nuances that come with young pitchers.). While Gamel will help the Giants win next year that has a lot of value for the Giants. Not only will Gamel help them win next year it will also cost them very little in payroll. Which means they can bring back Molina if they choose for another season or two. While Bumgarner is valuable to the Giants in a pitching sense Gamel would be worth 10 times more to them than Bumgarner will be to them. It is not everyday that you can get a one for one trade where both teams benefit from the trade. The Brewers wouldn't move Gamel for anyone less than Bumgarner, Cain and Sanchez have to much service time already for a Gamel for one of those two. Hardy for either of those yes but not Gamel you just can't throw away years of service time of Gamel for a year or two of Cain or Sanchez. Especially Cain who has been abused lately just look at the amount of innings pitched he has accrued over the past couple of years. It will frighten you if you look it up. He is definitely not worth a Gamel (to the Brewers) like player maybe for someone like the Yankees or the Red Sox it would be worthwhile. Just because a player is a top 10 prospect overall and another is in the top 25 that doesn't mean both can't be traded for each other you have to look at where each player is at and look at both teams and see if there is a fit. This would fit perfectly for both the Brewers and the Giants. I would rather have a more MLB ready pitcher but Bumgarner is one of the few prospects I would trade Gamel for.