brewjihad

Let's just say for a second that the Brewers win the division and Parra is on a hot streak through August and September, and hits 165 innings before the playoffs start. Then what do you do? Simply put, the season is a marathon rather than a sprint. That sums it up very well. Parra will be a major contributor this year- just maybe not until July or so.

From what I have seen thus far, this site is a bunch of knowledgable people who somehow became addicted to Brewers baseball and who need to feed their addiction daily. And their remedy is Brewerfan.net.

Do you really think Scott Boras is going to say to Prince. "Hey, they gave you the extra $200,000 back in 2008. You can go ahead and give them a hometown discount..."? Not at all. Sorry if it was interpreted that way. I have no problem with what the Brewers did on this, but I think they could have just thrown in a little extra to eliminate the issue entirely. It wouldn't really have hurt anything.

I understand your opinion entirely, but disagree with one point- I don't think Parra needs to be in the rotation on opening day. The baseball season is six months long, and there will be plenty of time for Parra to make starts in the majors and be effective. I think we all agree that there is no way Parra could be expected to make 30+ major league starts this year and still be counted on as a rotation member in October (knock on wood). The point is that Parra will have a huge impact on the Brewers this season. But I'd rather see that impact occuring in July, August, September, and October than in April, May, and June.

Having 7 good starting options would be just fine with me, if Vargas (or even Bush) could be turned into a few prospects.

You can't be upset with the Brewers about this. But still, if they can give a few million to Guillermo Mota, I think they could afford to throw another $200,000 or so at all of the young guys to keep them happy. It would probably be worth it the long run.

I sent him an email as well. Hopefully, he gets swamped and realizes he shouldn't try to pull stuff like that again.

The stat line suggested by DrWood would be well within Weeks's potential this this year. Just look at his line from last September... it was absolutely sick.

I was thinking that too. It doesn't matter at all, but at least when people say he's terrible because he didn't win a game I can say, "Well, technically..." http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

"If the crew is out of contention.." No...... But I do agree with the rest of that post.

I anticipate that Ned will now plunk their best hitter in the eighth. And then bring Turnbow in with a man on base.

Honestly, Yovani could have more than Kendall- 3 to 2 or something like that.

To clear this up, is Villy wearing 33 or 12 this year? I've heard both, and there are references to both in this thread. It says 12 up in the graphic. Does anyone know for sure?

I'd like to see Rivera or Rottino win the job as well. Rivera only batted about .220 at AAA last year, so that will count against him- even though I think he would do the best job as a backup. It just seems that Munson has the least potential of the three. Rottino and Rivera don't have anything left to prove in AAA, they've probably gotten as good as they are going to be- so why not give one of them a chance?

Luis Pena may not be the next great closer, but he definitely has potential as a late-inninngs guy. It'll be interesting to see how he fares closing at AAA this year because he could be a legitimate candidate for a major bullpen role in '09.

Yes. Then he said "Tony Hall". Just getting back into the groove of things...

No hitter http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif "Ten up and ten down... Might be time to call the neighbors." Jim is in midseason form too.

Interesting... Uecker said that Joe Torre called him three times this offseason and asked if Bill Hall could play third base.

Gotta love listening to these two, especially for spring training games. They run out of things to talk about and go on tangents and tell stories for most of the broadcast. Uecker just made a joke about "Tulo" hitting one "Too high".

I am listening to it on 1150 WHBY in Appleton.

http://www.brewcrewball.com/story/2007/11/26/31230/187 It's a little old, but a classic

I agree with that. Appleton is almost 2 hours from Milwaukee, so I don't think a lot of fans would be "stolen"... However, the cold weather issue could definitely be a factor.

I live up in Appleton, and the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers player development contract with the Mariners also expires after this season. I personally would be thrilled if the Brewers signed with the T-Rats. I would actually be interested in how the players did if they were future Brewers instead of future Mariners. I've heard rumors about this in the past, but nothing can be commented on by any club until after this season. Fox Cities Stadium is a beautiful, relatively new stadium, so there are no issues there. I think it would make a lot of sense for the Brewers to sign the Timber Rattlers as their low-A team. It would create more of a following for the Brewers up here, it would give the Timber Rattlers a boost, and the big club would have a nearby location to send rehabbing players to, which would also be a draw for the T-Rats. Obviously this is mostly speculation on my part, but it would be neat if it did happen.

Many of the major sports websites have published filler articles that "rank" or "grade" all of the MLB teams' offseasons. Very seldom do they have any credibility. For example, SI.com's Jon Heyman ranked the Cubs offseason 9th and the Brewers 20th. It's almost impossible to compare two teams' offseasons because of their different needs, but everyone who is baseball-savvy enough to post here knows that. But still, I'm a bit surprised by the scepticism by the national media about the Brewers. An extra starter could still be dealt, but the odds are that the haul would be prospects unlikely to contribute this year. So I think it's time there's a thread to see what the real experts' thoughts are about Doug Melvin's offseason overall. This isn't necessarily meant to be a direct comparison with the Cubs, but more an evaluation of the moves that were made over the winter. Are you happy with what has been done? Have the moves he has made handcuffed any future moves? And most importantly, do you think that the talent level has been improved enough? Personally, I am pretty happy with DM's offseason. I was really surprised to see some of these breakdowns say things like, "the bullpen lost Closer Francisco Cordero, but the overall performance shouldn't drop too much." I really think this bullpen is much better than it was last year, there's plenty of depth. All you need to know is that Chris Spurling and Greg Acquino were on last year's opening day roster. This season, one or two very worthy candidates for the pen will start the year in triple A. The last option out of the pen will likely be a starter. Even Solomon Torres, projected as the 6th inning man, has closing experience. Melvin signed David Riske for a smaller contract than Scott Linebrink signed. Signing Mike Cameron was a logical move and was definitely the best available option to fill in the last offensive spot. Of course, DM gets extra points for bringing back Russel Branyan. I anxiously anticipate an announcement that Joe Winkelsas has been brought out of retirement. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif And the great part is, aside from the Riske deal (pun intended), no money is tied up beyond this year, putting the Brewers in great position to make more moves next winter. Say what you will about Gagne, Kendall, Torres, Cameron, and everyone else, but if any of them are bad this year they leave and their money can be put towards other positions and locking up guys like J.J. Hardy who are their arbitration years. I think this post has gone on long enough now. What are your thoughts about the offseason?

How nice is it to be a Brewer fan these days? We can talk about our number 5 hitter as a possible 30/30 guy.