EauClaireNWL

If it's the young up and comer versus the mediocre retread GM, I'll take the new guy almost any day. Houston has done a good job of reloading their team and this guy has been a pretty big part of that in a small market. Obviously it's going to take at least a couple seasons to see what moves this guy makes, but he's going to have some payroll flexibility and a decent draft slot next year to start the rebuild proper.

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Just because they told him he'd be a part of the rotation next year doesn't mean they aren't going to try and ship him elsewhere. Problem is his trade value is so low at this point, you'd probably be lucky to get a decent single A prospect in return for him and would probably still have to eat a good portion of that 25 million. Regardless, it's going to be a tough decision for the new GM. Do you try to sell low on him in the off-season or do start him in the rotation next year and hope he can regain some of his trade value to be a somewhat worthwhile trade piece at the deadline?

Best to just shut Lucroy down the rest of the season. No reason to rush him back with the team playing meaningless games. Lost two straight to Pittsburgh now. Tank is firmly back on track.

Well, you can take a bit of solace in the fact that if Pittsburgh does lose in the WC playoff, they only have to blame their playoff position on the number of losses to Milwaukee this year. There are a number of games remaining against St. Louis and Chicago, the team will have a chance at playing spoiler in the playoff race. With their remaining schedule, if they play about .500 baseball the rest of the way, given they were sellers at the deadline, I think you can say they had a productive second half for a team well out of it.

Don't worry Brewer faithful. The 2015 Tank is back on track!

As much as I'm mixed about winning meaningless games come September like the team has on this bit of a hot streak, if it's mainly the young guys doing it with the occasional help from the bench guys, then so be it. We traded away a good chunk of our veteran line-up before the trade deadline to help the farm system and the team is still playing well enough to win some games. I want a top 10 draft pick as much as the next guy, but I'm not going to downplay a strong effort by the team either. After the team got off to that god awful start in April, I pegged them at around 70-72 wins and I still think they're on pace for that. The team has been streaky like this before and I'm sure they'll drop plenty of games come later in the month.

I might have felt a little bad for him had he not been barely above Lohse in the suck department this year. I can understand his frustration, but this team is 100% in rebuild mode now. If they need to use September to kick the tires on some younger guys, I'm all for it. You're still going to get your paychecks regardless, and down year or no, you only have yourself to blame for not hitting your contract escalators given the team threw you out there every 5th day when you were healthy until the last month of the season. I guess I'm not completely down on him yet. I'm fine with him taking the off-season to maybe get back to some basics and come back next Spring fresh and compete for a starting rotation job. Given how bad he's been this year, we'd probably get a low A-ball prospect or two in return for him at best and would still probably have to eat the bulk of his contract. I'd rather see him go through a few more steps or potential move to the bullpen next year before completely selling low because we're going to be on the hook for the bulk of that $25 million regardless of what the team does. Unless he has a complete revival next year.

Eh, this roster has still proven to be fools gold before. It would take a pretty significant overhaul in the off-season for this team to be immediately competitive next season, and a small market team like Milwaukee can't afford to over spend on FA's and trade what little talent they reloaded into the farm system just to be a borderline wild card contender again next year. If you can peg anything on this current little upswing, I think it's more a matter of guys getting healthy who are still around and actually playing up to their potential. I think there's a handful of young guys currently up with the big league roster to be pretty excited about, but putting it all together for a 162 game stretch has been this team's biggest Achilles heel outside of 2011 and I think this team is still a good year or two away from potentially contending again. At least to where they won't be mortgaging the future to do it.

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Damn, much prefer this deal to what the Mets offered us! Thanks for snapping defeat from the jaws of victory there NY! It's about time this team went through and got back to small market fundamentals and reloaded our farm system. We might suck for the next couple of years, but a Top 5 draft pick next year and a few moves and we have a chance to make something happen once these guys reach the big league roster.

I was very mixed on this trade to begin with. Part of me is glad it fell through given we were traded for a starting pitcher fresh off TJ surgery and a below average infielder. That being said, for a year and a half of Gomez, there was part of me who wanted to take the chance on Wheeler given we need pitching badly even if he'd only pitch at most two months next season. It's getting to the point, outside of maybe moving Parra, I'd be fine sitting with the roster as is going into the off-season. If Melvin is truly getting canned or moved up and out of the front office, I'd rather let a fresh set of eyes look at the current roster and make the bigger splash trades after September.

My mentality is with guys like Lohse that if the team is going to suck, at least let us do it while auditioning or playing the young guys who might be worth keeping around when the team will potentially be a contender again. If guys like Cravy and Jungman come in and pitch well and the team picks up some wins, then that's fine because you know you have some reliable potential starters or worthwhile trade chips. It's why I didn't have a problem with the Bucks making the playoffs last season cause they did it with their young core when a lot of people felt they should have stunk another year to get another high lottery pick. Obviously basketball is a bit different when it comes to team building and you need some veterans around to fill your major league roster out, but let the young guys with potential get some the playing time versus trotting out a veteran pitcher with an ERA over six just for the sake of his contract or hope you can potentially get something for him, especially when his contract is a sunk cost and he won't be back next year. You can then let the chips fall where they may.

They just need to DFA Lohse and get it over with. He just doesn't have it any more. You couldn't get a bag of baseballs back in return for him at this point and running him out there every 5th day is just hurting this team unless they're intentionally trying to tank. ANY starter pitching in Colorado right now would be a better option. Someone will probably kick the tires on him next Spring and offer him a minor league deal. For now, thank him for the two solid years he gave us and give him the $5 million sunk cost left in his contract and wish him luck going forward.

It's amazing that had this team even played even slightly under .500 ball through the first two months of the season, they'd easily be in Wild Card contention right now. Maybe it's for the best they tanked given the fools gold this roster has shown us before, but hey, if the make some moves and the young guys keep playing well, more power to them.

At the end of the day, there are always a lot of what if's...? and what could have beens..?, but that's all water under the bridge at this point. Melvin needs to be let got by the end of the season. His contract is up and should not be renewed. 13 seasons is a lifetime in baseball years and you've gotten two playoff appearances and one division series win to show for it. The only way this ship is going to get righted is by getting a GM and scouting staff who won't trade away half the farm for a one to two year window of contention every five years as well as an owner who has the balls to make those moves needed in the front office. I don't think Doug was a complete disaster given the 10+ seasons prior to his arrival, but it's time for this team to have some fresh eyes on the farm and roster cause there is no easy overnight fix for what the current state of the team is in.

To me, anything under 80 wins this season with this payroll means both Doug and Ron are done. Complete house cleaning. Doug's been in charge of this team for 13 years now and he has two playoff appearances and one playoff series win to show for it. Mark is going to potentially get the opportunity to bring in his own guys now for the first time and it's all on him to find someone who can draft well and put a competitive product on the field in a few years. It means tearing down outside of keeping a few talented and untradeable (at the moment) pieces and probably being a 70-75 at best win team for the foreseeable future. The window for this current squad to contend was last season and a typical streaky team collapsed in the last two months and fell out of contention and with no major moves in the off-season, this was the result. I did have a small amount of optimism this team might have had a chance at a wild card if things went right, but with both Luc and Gomez on the DL and very little quality play outside a few guys, it's gonna be a long year. To me its pretty much about getting what you can for guys before the deadline and having a good draft in June. Chicago sucked for a few years with Theo to get their farm system in order and now they've got a lot of talented guys finally starting to make the jump to the big league roster. We're probably going to be looking at something similar here in Milwaukee, but it's just the nature of small market teams. At least we have an owner now who seems to care about the product on the field and is willing to spend money to try and build and keep some of his better players long term, and it's also going to take that same owner to make some tough choices in the next year to get this sinking ship righted again.

Roenicke sticks although I do see some changes coming to the coaching staff. DM and RR are tied at the hip and on the hot seat in 2015 given both are entering what are the final years of their current deals excluding RR's 2016 option. If this team fails to make the playoffs next year, MA cleans house.

I think at this point if he's healthy for a good portion of the second half, given the state of our starting infield right now, I don't see how the Brewers don't pick up their end of the option especially with Attanasio pushing our payroll over 100 million this season. It'd be up to ARam and his agent after the season ends if they feel he can get a better deal or not by declining the option and probable arbitration offer.

It's a one year deal, and any bullpen depth we can add is good in my book. He's a bit of a headcase, but he didn't cause to many problems the last time he was here. If he sucks, you can cut ties or trade him for peanuts with little penalty.

I think it's a good move. It's better than sitting on his kiester during the suspension and doing nothing. Sure, PR probably has a lot to do with it, but for a guy who is probably going to be with this team for the foreseeable future, anything you can do to personally put yourself out to the fans is worth your time imo. It's not like he has to start worrying about baseball again until February.

I'm definitely in the "Let Fielder walk, use the money to re-sign Greinke/Marcum" camp. We've seen what a quality rotation can do with this current squad that does have a couple of holes on the IF. San Francisco proved you don't need an elite line-up to win a championship if you have the pitching. Fielder has been a great member of this team and it would be great to re-sign him, but not at the cost of hindering the team's long term payroll flexibility that will be needed in order to stay competitive. The division is very mediocre this year with the higher payroll teams like the Cardinals and Cubs going through a bit of reshuffling the deck so to speak in the next couple of years. If you can keep the current rotation and do a decent job of upgrading your IF a bit while replacing Feilder with Gamel, the team would still definitely have a shot at winning 90 games next year which was good enough to win the division last year (and this year) and would definitely put you in a position to win it again next year imo.

Unless the Brewers finish at least .500 or better, I don't see Melvin picking up Macha's '11 option. Macha has been pretty meh, but Melvin probably won't fire before the end of the season. Melvin probably gets one more year regardless considering his deal runs through 2012 unless the team completely goes in the tank and finishes under 70 wins.

I don't see the team non-tendering Bush. He's young and shown enough in the past to allow him to get one more year to try and try to get his ship righted. He's usually been pretty good when healthy. If he stinks up the joint again in '10, you can let him walk at the end of the year no worse for wear. I can understand the team wanting to overhaul their starting pitching staff to a degree, but you don't want to deplete it to the point where you have littler or no depth on the roster. At worst, Bush is a strong candidate for long relief if not the 4 or 5 hole in the rotation.

Lopez is a lock just because we traded for him during the season and will want to get a draft pick to make up for the loss in the farm system since there's a very good chance he'll decline it. The only guys who are also worth the risk imo are Counsell and Vargas, but I honestly don't see the Brewers extending them it.