Roderick

To be greedy, I hope Lohse and Smith are both left off the roster. Give their pitching arm all of the all star break off would be best.

I would do that in a second. If we get Middlebrooks you can assume the Brewers could trade away a corner infielder easily enough. I'm not sure I like Jungmann as much as many on here do, but even better if it only cost Magnifico.

I would be willing to part with something to get Middlebrooks, but not Thornburg. Would Delmonico and Jungmann be in the ballpark? Too much, too little?

You can't assume a different last guy in the bullpen also wouldn't have given up runs when deciding if Wang has cost us a game. Assuming in the alternate universe, it probably would have been Figaro taking the last spot (Figaro more stretched out than Wooten), what is to say that he would have held teams scoreless?

I like how Martin Maldonado is 6th on the right handed reliever depth chart in the system.

Yeah, it appears they have Nelson, Fiers, Mills, Pena and then they start a bullpen guy as the schedule dictates. What is the status of Burgos' shoulder? If they are going to keep him on the DL for another couple of weeks, I don't see why they don't drop Heckathorn down to AA and bring up a Hunstville starter to AAA. And by the time Burgos is ready to join the team, something will have shaken out and he will get a fit.

1 of them, the other has been on ignore for years. Furthermore I was referring to He's a very solid and cheap pitcher but two freak hamstring injuries have convinced everyone he's an injury prone fluke. Which might be what 1 or 2 posters have said, but is not the consensus opinion. I've elaborated on this numerous times earlier in the thread. His age, stuff, small window of team control remaining, and lack of innings pitched makes him expendable... not because of what he is, but because of what he isn't. I don't mind posting a detailed explanation once or even twice, but I'm not wasting time typing up those long posts essentially explaining the same opinion for a 3rd time only to have it continually misrepresented by those who won't take the time to read such a post and skim it at best. Estrada is someone you walk away from, not someone you build around, and the idea should never be to build around 30 somethings. We also have to find a way to get Thornburg and Nelson experience in the rotation before we absolutely have to rely on them in 2016. There's a plethora of reasons to move on from Estrada beyond "2 freak hamstring" injuries, multiple posters have covered the reasons why but the same throw away lines about a lack of respect keep coming back around. That actually suggests that those who post such things are aren't actually reading and taking the time to understand the counter argument, not the other way around. Do you even read before you write? First of all, you did not post anything about Estrada in this thread like you stated. Secondly, we were specifically talking about the potential trade of Estrada for Moustakas - which evidently you mixed up with some other thread, but still felt the need to admonish us for not reading your other posts in other threads on your anti-Estrada rantings.

Estrada gets no respect here for some reason. He's a very solid and cheap pitcher but two freak hamstring injuries have convinced everyone he's an injury prone fluke. That's not even close to what's been said. Did you even read the two posts exactly before my post? Both threw Estrada's name in there.

Why is everyone throwing Estrada's name out there? Maybe I am in the minority, but that seems like a big overpay by the Brewers. I don't think much of MM and I think a lot of Estrada. If you meant to package Estrada with Weeks and the Royals were willing to pay $4-$5M more of Week's contract, then I suppose I would deal. But I don't see any way we deal starting pitching away while in contention, unless ARam were out for the year.

I think this is the issue. You would have to move a AA starter up to AAA as they are all having a good season and can't be demoted. And unless a Figaro/Fiers/Nelson is called up to the majors, I don't see a hole in AAA to move a AA guy up. The only old geezer starter in AAA is Mills and he is having a fine start to the season and if the 40 man roster wasn't an issue could be an emergency callup starter type guy who they want to keep ready.

I agree the Royals have more invested in him and would want to run out the string rather than trade away cheap. But when you just look at his numbers, I don't see anything that special and since he is going to start earning some real money next year, I definitely wouldn't trade away any of our top prospects to get him.

They could always bring up Nelson/Figaro/Pena (40 man guys, whoever is rested) as an emergency starter if Fiers is brought up to the bullpen. And if we aren't talking about one or two starts, then they could piggyback and stretch one of Fiers or Thornburg out.

He is young, but his best season was still only a .708 OPS. As he is arby eligible next year, if you did trade for him with a Pena then you would still be looking to get a better guy to replace him sooner than later. I think T.Green can probably give us what he can this year for only the price of a 40 man roster spot.

Don't you think the Padres would tag him after the season? If so, it would take a first rounder in value to make that trade.

You don't think the Brewers trade KRod away so that he can be awful for the other team and come cheap back to them the next season?

Not just nothing, the Brewers gave him a $332,000 parting gift when they signed him to that contract and then cut him loose. I still am confused over that one, when it seemed Melvin was dead set to cut him anyways no matter how well Juan played in spring training or how poorly the gritty veterans played in spring training. The Brewers didn't sign Reynolds and Overbay until January, while Francisco was tendered a contract in December. So the club didn't know for sure that they'd have a replacement for Juan. But I think you're right - the club never really intended to go with Francisco at 1B. I think tendering him a contract was a safety net - just in case Melvin couldn't find a replacement. I bet the team thought that someone would trade for Francisco. His salary wasn't outrageous. But no luck. Personally, I'm not concerned we let Francisco go. He's a streaky player and a bad fielder. Reynolds is a streaky player, but at least his play at 1B has been solid. He's hitting .222 with a .786 OPS. That's about what you would hope for from a guy who had a .221 BA and a .759 OPS over the last three years. It's not great, but we can live with it. I just hope they keep Overbay on the bench more - he's gotten too much PT over Reynolds. As for Francisco, he may have topped Reynolds' stats if we had kept him, but he would have needed a platoon partner and his defense would have been terrible again. Juan needs to play in the AL. He can DH and fill in at 1B/3B on occasion. That's the perfect scenario for him. I know they signed Reynolds/Overbay afterwards, but it seems to me that it wouldn't have taken too much forethought to realize there are so many 1Bs free agents out there and so many spots available in the league. And obviously the Brewers didn't care about how they performed in the spring, they just didn't want JuanFran. It just seems the Brewers are tight with the pennies on some stuff (paying the pre-arby guys) and are willing to pay $322K on the chance someone would give us a little something for him or one of the veterans gets injured in the spring (before they could pursue another gritty veteran).

Melvin just said the other week that he has been told by scouts that Wang wouldn't make it through "waivers" or whatever it is to get back to the Pirates to make a trade. Another team would claim him to put him on their 25 man roster.

Not just nothing, the Brewers gave him a $332,000 parting gift when they signed him to that contract and then cut him loose. I still am confused over that one, when it seemed Melvin was dead set to cut him anyways no matter how well Juan played in spring training or how poorly the gritty veterans played in spring training.

I find this interesting because the automatic answer is yes, Melvin will go out and get someone - he always has. But that someone is usually a pitcher. And, knock on wood, I don't really see adding a pitcher at the deadline assuming the pitchers are healthy and pitching somewhat to their ability/pay rate (and Wang is retained the whole season). Where is there a pitcher that has options that you can improve enough on to send out decent propect(s) to get a meaningful return? I don't see it. So then you look at positional players. Barring injuries - Gomez, Braun, Segura, Lucroy, are no. Between Overbay and Reynolds we can play the hot hand and get good enough defense, that I wonder if it is worth it to trade for a slight improvement unless that player you trade for is also going to be the 1B for the next few years (and is preferably lefty bat). Is there any way to trade for Goldschmidt just so he doesn't play against us anymore? You aren't going to trade to replace ARam assuming he comes to any type of life, unless, once again that player is the future of that position for the next few years and ARam is moved to 1B. I think it would take quite a slump from Gennett for Melvin to look to replace him and in the mean time they would just give more time to Weeks. That leaves Davis. For no logical reason Davis has a shorter noose than Gennett to me. But I think you look to trade for a player only looking to fill out the rest of the year. A Jerry Hairston Jr. to give a spark for the last two months. I don't really see trying to improve upon Bianchi and Maldy and Schafer for what you want them to do. So the one move will be acquiring a big, aging pinch hit bat to replace Weeks when he is cut in July.

It seems to me there has been multiple times this year that a Smith/Duke/Thornburg have closed out an inning and could be brought in for the first batter of the next inning for a righty/lefty matchup and he hasn't brought them back out. I know it is nice for the reliever to start the inning fresh, but these pitchers that can go more than one inning easily and he isn't using them that way - and I assume at some point they won't be stretched out to go a long two innings if needed. A waste to me.

It has got to be a case of the GM trying to save face, right?.... How long can Melvin hold out hope that Weeks will get a little hot streak and another team loses a 2B and they can get more than min. wage back in savings? It is just time to cut him and bring up Gindl / Green and let Bianchi start against some of the lefties for Gennett.

Besides the income tax you are paying the 7.65% of FICA for yourself (employee) and the 7.65% of FICA as the employer. So 15.30% of your tax bill is FICA, not income tax related.

They did already tell KRod he would have the day off. But who knows..... http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mil/tracy-ringolsby-francisco-rodriguez-has-surprise-record-tying-start-at-closer?ymd=20140430&content_id=73820328&vkey=news_mil

Hellweg can be placed on the 60 day DL at any time, he is having surgery today I think it said on the minors message board.

I wish they would have used the concussion 7 day DL for Segura right from the get go. I would have thought that would have passed the smell test.