piccione88

The latest article on the brewers main site, has Ned talking about moving Kendall off of the 9 hole. Ned said ""I'm still kind of debating back and forth moving him back to the eighth spot. We'll see," Yost said. "I'm just trying to find some way to get the offense going a little bit." He also said that it has worked, but he just thinks it limits him, as far as shifting the lineup goes.

It is not just a matter of next year for Ben, it will be at a minimum a three year deal, probably closer to 5. The Brewers are not in a huge market, so to give a starter who has had injury problem's a long term deal is very risky. If we are out of it, I am sure the Brewers will talk to Ben about what kind of contract he is expecting If the Brewers can not work something out, and another team is offering us a nice deal, I think you have to do it.

I would assume Gamel still does not get to Nashville until the all-star break. The jump from AA, to AAA is not really much of a jump at all, so there is no need to move him any sooner than they had anticipated. Adam Heether will get most of the starts probably.

If you click on the players name, it brings up their bio. In the bio of each player, it tells how they were aquired I believe.

We could get way more in return for Prince alone. Connor Jackson really does not have the bat for first base, but cant play anywhere else, Chad Tracy is a nice player esspecially off the bench, but he battled injuries last year, and is nothing special. Scherzer is really the only guy in that whole package that I like, since he is a young pitching prospect, alot of people, however see him pitching out of the pen long term. If we were to move Fielder we would be getting back guys like Joba Chamberlain.

I dont think Iribarren will ever be a super-sub. From everything I have heard, he cannot play short, so he is basically an outfielder, and second baseman. He could get a shot as a stop gap next year in center field , if the Brewers decide to wait with LaPorta like they did with Braun.

The Brewers pitching is weak, and probably not going to be very strong this year, as the roster stands now. The offense is one of the best in the league however, and once that starts showing we could very well be in a position to pick up a player or two come the end of july. The brewers dont have to make the decision of whether we are buyers or sellers yet, since it is still only may, alot can happen in 2 months.

I can live with bad defense at first base when the guy in question is going to post a 950 OPS season just about every year. It does not make sense to arguably your best hitter whom you control for 3 more seasons. The only way I would consider moving Prince, is if we were getting an equally impressive young pitcher like a Lincecum, or a Bucholz, teams just dont trade players like that.

While I do belive that Soria will be an elite closer for a long time, it would just not be worth it. Soria is only going to give you 60-75 innings a year, that is hardly worth the 600 plus at-bats that Laporta can potentially give a team. If we were going to move Laporta, it would take a top of the rotation starter, that will be around for a while.

I like the Maddux idea alot, and I think that Gwynn could be enough just by himself. I dont think that Maddux's 10 million dollar contract is too much, considering the market for starters these days. As for him leaving Petco, while it will affect him, I dont think it would be that dramatic, as he usually does not have a big problem with the long ball. In 2005 for Chicago he had HR/9 of 1.19, and 2006 for Chicago he had a HR/9 of .95.

I do not see how he is underated. He was rookie of the year in 2000, has been to 4 all-star games, finished in the top 5 of the MVP three times, and in the top 3 twice. As far as who is better, I would take Prince just because all things are not equal. I dont think it is fair to judge people without taking into consideration things like their age.

With Lucroy playing well, and Angel absolutley raking in huntsville our catching situation looks much brighter than most have thought.

From everything I have heard Lucroy is very solid behind the plate, and the pitchers apparently like it when he is behind the plate. MILB.com report from last years draft says that he has an above average arm and solid skills all around. MILB.com is not always the most accurate on every player, but I have heard similiar reviews. Offensivley he is very good, just about everyone ranked him as the second best offensive catcher behind Matt Wieters in last years draft.

I am assuming you mean 2006, when Hall hit 35 homeruns with a line of .270/.345/.553. He played better defense at short that year than Hardy has in my opinion. An .899 OPS from a shortstop is insane, to put it into perspective Jimmy Rollins won the MVP with a line of .296/.344/.531. It would be unwise in my opinion to expect Hall to put up those numbers again, but still to move him off of short after that year really upset me.

Chris Young has pitched like a staff ace the last couple of seasons. Sure he has a huge fly ball rate, which if he did not call petco park home would add alot of homeruns, and he has not pitched a ton of innings. Mat Gamel, and TGJ would not be enough to get him though, and I doubt the Padres are going to be shopping him anytime soon. The Padres apparently have had discussions about TGJ, there have been plenty of rumors. The Padres have some nice bullpen arms, but Melvin has made a bullpen that is hard to add and subtract from, so it would be hard to add in pieces. I could see adding a pitching prospect or two, someone like LeBlanc or Josh Geer.

I do not think that Escobar is trade bait in the eyes of the front office. Gord Ash seems to have a man crush on him. As for Hardy I see him as around average to above average offensivley for a shortstop. The average line for a shortstop is .266/.324/.401. JJ should be able to produce something around that consistently. The problem in my eyes is that he is not a good option at shortstop. Yes he has a great glove, and a strong arm with good accuracy, but he does not have the range to be considered a good shortstop. He simply does not hit well enough to be put at third which is probably the best place for him.

Tim Sullivan of the san diego union tribune speculates that Edmonds will likely be released or sent to the DL by the end of the weekend. Edmonds is currently hitting .180/.267/.236 his defense which was not very good last year for a center fielder has not gotten any better. The Padres owe a remainder of 4.75 million from the 6 million dollar's they owe him, the Cardinals picked up 2 million of his 8 million dollar salary.

Would we have to expose Bush to waivers again, or is that a one time thing?

Salome does have an absolute cannon. That is just about the only good thing about his defensive game at this point however, and his throws are not always on target. If Salome contnues to hit like he has though he wont need to be Ivan Rodriguez behind the plate.

It is way too early to say that Hall needs to moved, he has shown great power this year as well. Last year was a down year, but alot of people would argue that it was largley due to bad luck, and getting injured when he showed some signs of life. Either way Stewart is not an obvious upgrade in my eyes. Stewart makes good contact, and has a decent eye at the plate, but he has not shown great power yet. Last season with the Colorado Springs he hit a line of .309/.379/.478 which looks impressive until you consider the park he played in. Colorado Springs plays there home games at an elevation of over 6,500 feet which is the highest of any pro baseball team, 1,000 feet higher than the Rockies play at, and the Sky Sox do not have a humidor to my knowledge. With that elevation Stewart's .169 isolated power does not look to impressive. Stewart makes good contact, and has a decent eye at the plate. His power has not come around, and plays poor defense. His power should come around at some point, but as of right now Billy in my eyes is still the better player.

I was listening to the post game show on 1250 today, and Mitch Stetter was interviewed by Tim, and Sparky. One of the topics they talked about was how Melvin might use him this year. Stetter said that after spring training Yost had told him depending on the team the brewers will carry 13-14 pitchers, and Stetter will certainly be up for certain teams that are loaded with left handers. I really cant see that the 14 man pitching staff was planned in spring training. Hopefully that was just Stetter being creative. It seems very hard to send him down considering how he has been pitching. Varying his arm slots seems to have worked so far this year in nashville, and now in a very limited time in Milwaukee.

Laporta hit a bomb in the second off of dan smith with Errecart on base.

The tigers still have a few guys that could be valuable down the road. Jeffrey Larish is one that comes to mind. Larish is strictly a first baseman, but he has very good power, and a great eye at the plate posting 87 walks last year in AA. Larish is blocked by Guillen for the forseeable future. If the Brewers decide to move Prince after the 2010 season, and dont want to move Laporta back to first base Larish could be pretty good. Scott Sizemore, is middle infield prospect, who mainly plays second base, but is trying to learn short. Sizemore was rated as having the best strike zone discipline in the tigers orginization by baseball america. He does not look like he will be a star, because none of his tools are great, but he does alot of things well, and could be a good option as a backup. Michael Holliman is another second base prospect they have. Holliman has good power, especially for a second baseman, he takes his walks, and can also play some shortstop. Holliman's numbers may be a bit skewed however since he has been playing against younger competition, he reached AA last year at the age of 26. The tigers also have a few outfield prospects who given the brewers current outfield logjam would be of little interest to us most likely. right fielder Matt Joyce plays great defense and has some pop, and Brent Clevlen who looked good last year with the big club hitting .282, with 3 homeruns in 42 plate appearences. Clevlen had not looked that good though in AA, or AAA. Regardless Clevlen has power, and could be another good guy off the bench. The Brewers probably are not looking for anymore 4th or 5th outfielder at this point though.

That was Bruce Froeming, sorry if the spelling is wrong.

Also Maas Haas already does a very good in depth post for all of the games.