piccione88

First of all, I doubt that Glavine would want to play in milwaukee. He said recently, either this off-season or last that he would only play for atlanta, or new york. Secondly if atlanta gave up on him, I really do not think that he has anything left.

Garret atkins, and Adrian Beltre are available for third base.

Ken Rosenthal backed up what haudricourt said about the brewers not actively shopping Hart. Rosenthal said that two clubs contacted Melvin about Hart, but were told "he was not listening to offers for Hart." As others have said it is not Melvin's style, nor does it make sense to sell low on a player. Especially a player who has shown that he can be an all star caliber right fielder. As far as trading him in the off-season goes, we will probably already have to fill one outfield spot, with Cameron being a free agent.

Chris Smith has pitched really good for nashville this year, striking out 25, while only walking 3 in 21 innings. Does anyone know what he throws?

I am willing to give up the powder Yount, powder Fingers, and Vuk mini for $60.00.

JJ Hardy is gone

I am selling some of my bobbleheads, the ones that I have doubles of. None of them have a box, but are in very good condition. The prices are not set as I am not completely sure what they are worth, so if you think a bobble is too high just pm me with your price. Rollie Fingers powder blue: $45.00 Robin Yount powder blue: $25.00 J.J. Hardy pinstripes: $30.00 Mini Vuckovich: $10.00 I would strongly prefer pickup, or dropoff, I can go anywhere within a 30 mile radius of milwaukee. If you live out of state just add shipping and handling. PM me with an offer.

Antanasio came to that 90+ million figure by adding in bonuses in player contracts. As everyone's contracts stand now, we are somewhere between 78, and 81 million, unless we signed someone I missed.

When you take this years market, and Edmonds age, I highly doubt that he will get alot of money. I have the brewers between 78-80 million in salary right now, so unless Edmonds wanted 5 million guarenteed, cost would not stop us from signing him. Griffey only got 2 million guarenteed in this market, I do not see Edmonds getting twice the amount of guarenteed money Griffey did. The only thing that would stop us from aquiring him would be if he wants to start. The Brewers would be able to give him playing time though, since we have an all right handed outfield, with an older centerfielder.

Sporting News Magazine recently ranked all of the major league teams off-seasons, and gave the Brewers a C-. The article was written before the Brewers signed Braden Looper, a C- however still seems about right to me, I would probably give them a C. Melvin did not have a ton of money to work with, unless he traded someone which he at least had discussions about that with Mike Cameron and the yankees. Even without a ton of money the Brewers front office did some good things. I like what was done with the bullpen, the Brewers have over a dozen players that are legitimate options for the pen. Most of the relief pitchers picked up this off-season are inexpensive and have high ceilings. In the end I believe our bullpen is better than last years, esspecially in the depth department. That however is the only spot where our depth has been improved. With Kapler gone our outfield is one injury away from having Duffy, Gwynn, or Nixon starting. With Branyan gone, we are a little thinner at third, although Gamel is hitting well enough to produce at the plate, and Branyan is not a sure thing anyway. Obviously the biggest hit we took was when Sabathia, and Sheets left. Melvin was not going to replace them, and I do not think anyone expected him to. Melvin was apparently going for depth with the addition of Green, and Wright, both of whom could probably start a few games and not emerrass themeselves. The Brewers still have plenty of time to figure things out, and I am sure at least one reliever will be traded. As our off-season stands at this point, my opinion is that the Brewers did not make any moves that will come back to haunt us, but nothing that we did was very impressive either. A grade of C seems perfect to me, we had an average off-season to this point. What you all give the Brewers front office for an off-season grade.

I think that Edmonds contract will probably be somewhere along the lines of the incentive laden 1 year, 2 million dollar deal Griffey just signed with the Mariners, maybe less because of Griffeys star power. Edmonds is going to be 39 next june, he cannot play everyday anymore, he has slowed down, and has had very rough stretches at the plate the last two seasons. I am not saying that he will have a poor season, but with middle aged players, you are taking a risk. That is the reason that you do not see 40 year old players getting 10, or even 5 million dollar guarenteed deals very often.

Jim Edmonds is the only appealing option in free agency that I can see. The only problem is whether or not he would be willing to be a part time player. If he is willing to do that, he would be a perfect fit for this team. He is left handed, and gets on base at a very good clip(.377 over his 16 seasons). If we cannot sign Edmonds, I do not think that Brady Clark, or Shannon Stewart would be a better option than Duffy, or Gwynn.

Stetter career FIP against lefties is 3.07, with whip of .89,a 12.58 K/9, and a .99 HR/G. Against righties throughout his career he has a 4.07 FIP, with a 1.27 WHIP, striking out 5.77/9, and giving up .55 HR/9. Those numbers are not very lopsided, and 2005 was the only year where there was a big difference in his splits with a difference of over 2 between righties and lefties. In 2006, and 2007 he actually fared slightly better against righties then lefties.

I will say 85-77, with no playoffs. C.C. and Sheets leaving is going to hurt our pitching obviously, but we are not really that far from where we were pitching wise at the start of last year, and our pen is better. We will not however be able to duplicate a deal like the Sabathia trade mid season. Our offense will be improved though since everyone but Hardy hit below their projected lines. All it would take for the Brewers to make the playoffs would be Gallardo, and Parra pitching 180+ innings, our offense performing like they are capable of, with a player or two breaking out, and the most important thing is just to stay healthy. Or the Cubs could tank it, and we win the division with around 85 wins.

In my opinion loogies do more harm than good most of the time. Having a left hander or two in your bullpen is nice, but unless you can get righties out as well, you are doing more harm than good. With that said I do believe that Stetter can come in and pitch an entire inning, which is something Shouse could not, which forced us to use an extra pitcher. With that said my pen would look something like this: RP-E.Morlan(he has good upside) RP-M.Stetter RP-D.Riske RP-E.Gagne( I like what he showed late last season, and I think he will have a very nice year) SU-S.McClung SU-C.Villanueva CP-T.Hoffman.

I recently won a few bobble heads from my brother, and one of them was a very large Prince Fielder bobble head that I have never seen before and cannot find anywhere on the internet. As I said it is rather large, esspecially his head, he is in the blue uniform. My brother said he got it when he purchased season tickets a few years back. If anyone can tell me what year this is, and roughly how much it is worth I would really appreciate it.

I have got a mint condition Rollie Fingers powder blue bobble head without box for sale. I would like to get $55.00 for it, but I would also trade it. I am currently more into minor league memorabilia, esspecailly the bowman autograph cards. PM me if you are interested.

I would absolutley love to have Bonds in Milwaukee. The Brewers need OBP, and a left handed hitter, Bonds solves both of those problems with a .400 OBP for sure, and still pretty good pop. I do not think the Brewers would need to trade anybody either, the Brewers would just have to move Braun to right field. Hart would still get plenty of playing time, since Cameron, and Bonds especially are getting up their in age. You can say what you want about Bonds, most of which I would agree with, but the fact is he is still one of the better hitters in the game, and the goal is to score more points than your opponent. Barry Bonds and his OBP laden 1.000+ OPS would certainly help us accomplish that. I put almost no value on team chemistry, and I could care less about what these athletes put in their bodies, it does not affect me so I could really care less. Sadly major league baseball does not feel this way, since they have to worry about their image. I am convinced that MLB GM's have decided that nobody will sign Bonds, and I think they should have that right, although I do not agree with it.

When did Sheets say he does not want to play for milwaukee? Earlier it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Ben would not be back, since their were many other options in free agency, and everyone assumed that Ben would be one of the most sought after pitcher on the market. Now almost all of the front line starters are gone, and due to Bens health issues many teams opted to go in a different direction. I still do not think that Ben will be back, but to say that he does not want to play in milwaukee is a stretch. Just yesterday John Heyman listed the Brewers along with the Mets, and Rangers as Ben Sheets possible suitors. So if he did not want to play, then guys like Heyman would probably know about it. The only place I have really heard too much about Ben not wanting to play in Milwaukee is on Tom Haudricourts blog comments, and the Brewers.com forum. And I just assume anything on their is false anyway.

Boston Globe writer Tony Massarotti, wrote that the reason the Mets only offered 36 million is that the yankees, phillies, and red sox have only had preliminary discussions with Lowe, and are not currently interested in him. I would imagine that if the Mets do not up their offer, Lowe will look closer at teams outside of the northeast. Sadly I doubt the Brewers will be one of those teams.

I doubt it would even take a 2 year deal. The dodgers reportedly offered Saito a one year deal worth 2.5 mil plus incentives. Saito turned it down, but I cannot imagine the market being much higher than that. I would be willing to bet that the Brewers could get him on a 3.5 million dollar deal, plus 2-3 million in incentives. Saito's injury was pretty serious and there are alot of concern over whether he will ever be able to play near the level he was playing at. I do not think he will be posting sub 2.0 ERA seasons, or striking out 12 a game anymore, but at 3.5 million he wont have to do a lot to be worth it.

With Capuano just coming off of an injury, we need more depth in case of injury. It would be nice to have have Villanueva, and McClung stay in the back of the bullpen all year. I am not sure if Mulder will ever be very useful again, but on a minor league incentive based deal I do not see that much risk. There are better options in my opinion though.

According to Bill Ladson the Nationals have signed Daniel Cabrera to a one year contract. With Cabrera, and Olsen the Nationals have some pitchers with potential finally, although I would bet against either of them panning out. Cabrera would not be the ace the Brewers wanted but he could have provided some depth, I am not upset that we lost him though. I am concerned however about the market, there are still plenty of pitchers available, but the top pitchers have strong ties to other orginazations. Johnson is a california native, and is rumored to love the Giants, Derek Lowe is just about a lock to sign with the Red Sox, and John Smoltz with the Tigers, and Braves. If the Brewers fail to get any of those pitchers at a fair price, I think we would be better served going after a couple of cheaper pitchers like B.Penny, or maybe even P.Martinez. Anyone but Perez, or Garland.

According to David Kaplan the Cubs are Adam Dunn's first choice, and they have "exchanged pleasentries." The Chicago Tribune says that Milton Bradley is still on top of the cubs wishlist though.

Ian Kennedy, and esspecially Phil Hughes is too much to ask in return for Cameron. Alot of people are still very high on Hughes, Bill James recently projected him to have an ERA of 3.35 next year. You can say that wont happen, and point to his durability concerns, but the fact is that he has the potential to be an absolute stud for years. Giving up the opportunity to have a cost controlled cy young candidate for a year of a good centerfielder is just not worth it. As far as Ian Kennedy is concerned he is still one of their top 10 prospects, and in the very near future could be a middle of the rotation quality pitcher. Do not get me wrong, I do not think that Cabrera straight up for Cameron is a fair deal in any sense. I just think that you are setting yourself up for a huge letdown if you think the Brewers are going to get an MLB ready starting prospect back.