kramnoj

This is horrible for the health of the game in general. Do you understand that at this point, absolutely nothing has changed? That right now the Yankees payroll projects to be less than last year? Seriously, if you didn't write these posts before Teixeira signed with the Yankees, there is no reason to write them now. The Yankees can do this because they are losing Giambi, Abreu, Mussina, the dead weight of Pavano, etc. Now it appears we are headed again to a period of utter domination of the big markets. Yankees, Red Sox, Angels in the AL, and Mets, Cubs, Dodgers, and Phillies in the NL. It's far too early to say this. Right now the Angels and Dodgers are losing ground, not gaining utter domination.

I wouldn't put too much stock in that story. The writer doesn't actually quote Attanasio regarding the Brewers payroll. So for example, Attanasio could have said he doesn't plan on adding to the payroll, and could be talking about the $90M or so the Brewers ended the season with, and the reporter could have thought Attanasio meant the number the Brewers started the season with.

So what exactly is a "union" if it's not players acting in concert with other players? The players don't act in concert with each other when it comes to negotiating for contracts. As much talk as there is that the union pressures players to take the most money, it is a toothless request. I believe the issue stems from Koufax and Drysdale trying to tie their raises together. I don't know what kind of leverage the players had, other than retiring, but IIRC Koufax and Drysdale went to ownership and demanded that they get equal, or at least similar compensation. If this rule didn't exist, Boras could tell teams "If you want Teixeira, you need to sign player X as well".

I think we can pretty much guarantee that Manny won't be going to the Yankees now. It will be interesting to see what the market is for Manny now. As far as I know, he doesn't have any teams pursuing him. The Dodgers may come back, but with no competition for Manny, they don't need to bid high.

I'm curious to learn if the Yankees have any interest in Cameron now after they have signed Teixeira. With Teixeira on the roster, that means he is playing 1B and a spot needs to be cleared for Swisher. This means Swisher is going to the OF, it's just a question if he plays CF or if Damon does. Neither one would probably be a good CF defensively, so I am wondering if the Yankees would want to move Swisher or Nady in a trade so that they can have a good defender in CF. Also, Melky at this point is basically useless to the Yankees. So just for fun let's say the Yankees want Cameron and need to move Melky and one of Swisher or Nady. If you are the Brewers, do you have any interest in Nady or Swisher, and what besides Cameron do you give up? There's no need for the Brewers to get both Melky and one of the other OF, unless they can flip one of the players in a different trade.

There are two main things here. For the Brewers and having the compensation for CC drop from a 1st round to a 2nd round isn't fair. What baseball should do is give the Brewers two sandwich picks instead and just have the Yankees forfeit the 2nd rounder. This way the Yankees still give up a pick, and the Brewers don't get hosed quite as bad. Having two 30 something picks for CC isn't as great as having one of those and a late 20 pick, but it's close, and it's a lot better than getting a pick at the end of the 2nd round. The same would apply for the Jays with Burnett. They should get 2 sandwich picks and the Yankees would still need to forfeit their 3rd rounder. As for the Yankees and their spending, nothing has changed. The Yankees at this point still have a lower payroll than they did in 2008. We'll see what happens in the rest of the offseason. I think they are trying to bring back Pettitte at $10M, and even then I think they come under last year. One difference would be if they still wanted Cameron. I don't think they do, and even if they did, that would probably mean they would be trading away Swisher or Nady (not neccessarily in the same deal), so they still wouldn't be adding a full $10M.

I think it depends on the owner. Mark A. took a risk in the CC trade that the brewers might spend more money then they took in that season. I should have headed this off. There is a huge difference between going a little over budget to make a playoff push and not spending $10M one year so that you can go $10M over budget one year. I don't even think it's about lining owner's pockets. I think its about setting expectations. If you go over budget by $10M one year, fans and media will expect that is the new baseline for what budgets should be.

A few people here have said that the Yankees can only sign 3 Type A or B FA. I believe that is coming from the reading of a CBA clause that sounded exhaustive but wasn't. I have read elsewhere that all teams could sign 4 FAs this year, and some teams could sign more, depending on how many FA left the team. I have speculated that one of the reasons that Cameron was attractive to the Yankees was that he would be a nice addition to the team without using up one of the FA sign slots and that he wouldn't cost the Yankees much in value. It makes sense to me, but I have no idea if that was part of the motivation. I think it's possible that Jeter could play in the OF for a year or two. He's athletic enough. His bat would presumably be below average there down the road, but he should be able to play either corner OF spot decently. The Yankees seeming lack of interest in Teixeira is very surprising to me. He's the best position player at their greatest need, they don't have anyone in the system that looks good there and they had the money to get him. Either they are just laying low and letting the market for Teixeria set itself so they can come in last minute and beat it, or some in the Yankee FO really believe the clutch garbage. How as A-Rod gone from being (one of) the best defensive SS to a first baseman in 5 years? Alex put on about 10 pounds of muscle in between 2004 and 2005. Once he knew that he would be the 3B and had the full offseason to prepare for it, he decided that he could give up some speed and range for muscle.

There aren't a whole lot of 1/2 pitchers that will be on the market in 2010. Per Cots, here is the list right now. Any players with an asterisk have an option for 2010: Brandon Backe HOU Miguel Batista SEA Josh Beckett * BOS Erik Bedard SEA Jose Contreras CWS Doug Davis ARZ Justin Duchscherer OAK Adam Eaton * PHI Kelvim Escobar LAA Rich Harden CHC Tim Hudson * ATL John Lackey LAA Cliff Lee * CLE Jason Marquis CHC Brett Myers PHI Vicente Padilla * TEX Brad Penny LAD Joel Pineiro STL Jason Schmidt LAD Jarrod Washburn SEA Brandon Webb * ARZ Todd Wellemeyer ST One can certainly make the argument that money should be held back to save for extending the Brewers own young players, or to make a play for a trade that may happen, but I personally wouldn't save any money for the players in the above list. There are some decent names on there, but I wouldn't count on the Brewers being able to sign them for what the Brewers would consider a market deal.

The 10 million doesn't need to be spent this year. This is where the biggest disagreement is. Teams don't generally operate this way. The Marlins have been saving money for years, they should be able to have a payroll of $150M some year with all the money they have saved. But for whatever reason, it doesn't work that way. Maybe it's a PR thing. It won't look good for the customers to have a playoff team one year and then significantly cut payroll next year. If you are essentially telling the fans you don't think you have a chance to compete, many fans will listen and choose not to follow the team. So how many millions are you actually saving yourself when you take into account the smaller attendance and associated revenue?

The 10 million spent on Cameron could be used in much better ways and by trading him you'd get the bonus of something else in return. It's easy to say this, but it is much harder to actually show. It's not like there is a great young FA that will dramatically help the Brewers years down the road that is available right now. As far as getting something in return for Cameron, the market seems to be Melky. No other team seems interested in trading for Cameron, and the Yankees aren't interested in giving up a player of signifcant value for him. I really hope Melvin decides to take a step back this season and focus on making a run in either 2010 or 2011 What specific benefit comes from taking a step back? If you could trade current players that wouldn't be factors in 2010 for good future value, sure, do that. But that doesn't seem to be an option. Absent of that, it makes sense to build as good a team as possible for 2009 within a budget and not make any moves that would hurt the chances of future Brewer teams.

I believe Sheets was so insulted that he will never play for the Brewers again. What reason do you have to base that on? If he was so insulted, why did he see Melvin at the Winter Meetings? Why did his agent reportedly say "Let's just stay in touch"? Do you think Melvin is making this all up, Sheets is just waiting until he signs a deal before he comes out saying how awful the Brewers are? There's a difference between being insulted and burning bridges. Right now we have no indication at all that Sheets has burned any bridges to keep him from playing in Milwaukee.

I wonder what it will take to get Looper. He's probably not expecting huge money. Maybe a one year deal for about $7M and a team option for $9M? Even that is probably overpaying, but the Brewers probably need to sweeten the pot a little for Looper to sign right now.

twobrewers, I'm not sure what your point is. Are you just saying that I understated Sheet's reaction? Or are you disagreeing with the point that I was making that Sheets not being happy with an offer hasn't resulted in him burning bridges from his side? Are you saying that if the Brewers now offered Sheets a multi-year deal that was equal to any other offer that Sheets was getting, Sheets wouldn't take the Brewers offer because of the previous insult?

Not disagreeing, but my premise is that the brewers aren't going to be a contending team in 2009. No reason to spend 10 million on a 36 year old cf in the last year of his deal. Sure there is. You never know what will happen in a baseball season. Other teams could suffer major injuries, your team could get lucky in close games, and you find yourself with a winning record and in the playoffs. Even if a team is convinced that it won't be a contender, they should still spend reasonable money on good talent. You want fans to come to your games and spend money, and you don't want fans to realize that they can spend a summer not enjoying Brewers games. Some of them may find other things they can do with their money and time, and will be harder to win back down the road.

I don't doubt that Sheets feels slighted by the lack of a contract offer before he became a free agent. But that tells me there isn't any bridge burning on his side. Unless it was just a respect thing, his disappointment indicates that he would have been willing to come back for the right offer. So that leaves some bridge burning being done by the Brewers. That they were willing to take even a small risk that he might accept arbitration is indication that they had no problem with him pitching for the Brewers again, given the right circumstances. So I don't see any bridge burning. I see two parties that have different ideas of the value that Sheets has. As long as there is a major difference in that perception of value, no deal between the two is going to get done.

I think supporters of the bridge burning theory should lay out some support for it before it becomes accepted fact. I see zero evidence for it. There is a quote from Sheets in the last month where he says something like not wanting to close doors, burn bridges, etc. We have TH reporting: "Brewers general manager Doug Melvin told me this morning he met yesterday with free agent right-hander Ben Sheets and his agent, Casey Close. Melvin did not have the meeting to make a bid to keep Sheets, however. And it doesn't sound like he intends to make an offer. "We just went up to his suite and just visited with him, talked baseball, talked free agency," said Melvin, who was accompanied by assistant Gord Ash. "We didn't talk about a contract. I think he's going to be OK." and "Sheets was injured often during the four-year, $38.5 million contract he completed this year, so the Brewers obviously are leery about giving him a multi-year deal, even with the loss of Sabathia. "We never ruled it out," said Melvin. "Casey said, 'Let's just stay in touch.' "We haven't sat down and had a plan (for making Sheets an offer)."" I think it's much easier to believe that the Brewers don't feel Sheets is a good investment because of his injury history and are probably looking to find a bargain in the FA market. This is total speculation on my part, but I also think Melvin may now want Sheets to sign elsewhere so that the Brewers get the two draft picks. Melvin may find the two picks and a bargain FA to be more valuable than bringing Sheets back. Also, in terms of negotiations, Sheets needs to make the next move. Melvin has offered a one year deal at market value and Sheets has rejected it. If Sheets wants to come back to the Brewers because he isn't getting good offers, he needs to let the Brewers know that and they can see if there is some common ground.

Maybe Sheets was hoping some team wouldn't mind him missing the first month of the season and offer him a long term contract. Is this being reported as likely? I thought he tore a forearm muscle and that he was expected to fully recover and be ready for 2009 with no current complications.

It's possible Atlanta may be involved now that Furcal has signed elsewhere. They started off trying to get Burnett, then focused on Furcal. Looks like they have enough money to spend, so it's just a question of who their next target is. Edit: Probably for the comp. picks. That was certainly a possible benefit, but he had to be willing to take the risk that Sheets would accept. At this point, Melvin probably prefers that Sheets sign elsewhere so that they get the benefit of those picks, but it may well be that the best money that Melvin can spend for this year is to bring Sheets back for one year.

It seems like both parties would benefit from a 1 year deal -- yet they seem miles apart. Melvin agrees with you, that's why he offered one. I think Melvin would still offer a one year deal, but he needs to let Sheets market fall to a one year deal before offering one, otherwise there is no point in starting a negotiation.

I don't know that it makes sense to give up prospects for a young catcher, when that has to be the deepest position for talent for the Brewers. If Salome isn't ready defensively by 2010, there should be some veteran catchers that the Brewers can sign for a year and hope that Salome or Lucroy is ready for 2011. This is more of a general comment, but I believe the Brewers have to count on paying minimum salary (or close to it) at C in 2010 and for a few years. As the current players get deeper into their arby years their portion of payroll used will go up, meaning money has to come from somewhere. $4M saved at C isn't a huge amount, but it should cover the arby raises for a player or two in 2010.

Great, spend $10 million on a guy worth half that thinking you can deal him when you can't. There's no sugar coating that as that was the plan and he failed. Since you say that Cameron is worth only $5M, it should be easy for you to justify that. Cameron's option was picked up because his value at $10M is far better than any value the Brewers could get from CF internally and there was no good FA option. One option may have been to put Hart in center and sign someone like Burrell or Dunn, but that would have given us a softball league defense and bad defense will hurt a pitching staff. Melvin was willing to explore trading Cameron to the Yankees if he could have got a nice pitcher back, but if Cashman won't give up talent to get Cameron, than Cameron will provide good value to the Brewers.

Pretty sure the current plan for the Yanks is Damon/Melky/Nady, with Swisher at 1B and Matsui getting most of the DH starts and some games in the OF and hoping that Posada can catch 130ish games. Now if you are referring to the rumor of the Yanks signing Manny and then Damon shifts to CF, the expected offensive production of Damon over Melky should outweigh the defensive woes of Damon.

It's pretty ridiculous, What is ridiculous about it? Cameron is only going to the Yankees if the Brewers feel like they are getting value back, Hall is only going to the Yankees if the Brewers want to trade him away and the Brewers have shown absolute zero interest in offering Sheets a multi-year deal.

Sean Forman just provided a link that showed what his site will look like next year. Just an incredible amount of information will be readily available. He said it should be ready by ST 2009. Here's the link to a few players: http://sandbox.baseball-reference.com/