Roderick

The problem is there is no market for a CF right now. I wouldn't have traded him now. Obviously the time would have been before the Twins traded away their guys and the free agents signed. But only DM knows what he would have got and how he felt about Schafer.

I feel the deal signed is fair to both parties. But the Brewers need to be a team that trades away the veteran when they have a comparable min. wage replacement ready. That is the only way to have the funds available to pay free agents for the holes in the roster that the minors leagues aren't ready to fill. The first thought is that the Brewers don't think much of Schafer, but if Gomez replicates 2012 there is trade value in his contract and they can give Schafer 2013 to pick up #4OF at bats and prove he is a starting CF in the league (because Schafer has diddly squat value in a trade right now). If they give him two starts a week (1-Gomez, 1-Aoki), plus pinch hitting/running that would give him plenty of playing time. So as long as DM is willing to trade Gomez when it is time, I like the signing.

I agree it isn't very likely but I can see a scenario where Braun moves to RF after the season (so he has spring training to make the move) because Davis hits so much in AAA and Aoki stops hitting or moves to CF because Gomez was moved and Schafer wasn't hitting enough. But you are right, it would probably be efficient to move him whenever the value is highest, and not just hold on to him for Braun suspension insurance. Edit: Well it would appear that Gomez won't move.

Maybe RR doesn't think the young starters will go deep enough, especially to start the season and feels he needs another bullpen guy to spread out the innings. But if he is going to go with 8 in the bullpen, then RR better still split up the innings. It will be a waste if he still abuses his "Loe" and doesn't play his #8 guy except one game a week. If he can split up the innings, it should mean a fresh bullpen for the season.

Seems to me the phone would be a landline and more secure and are already in place. Whereas some technogeek may be able to grab the radio chatter from a radio. Just in case they want to talk about North Korea or something....

I think why you are seeing this is that team's aren't thinking that the arby years are that "cheap" anymore. So they are actually protecting a little against the cost of arby going up too.

I'm planning to update this throughout the year with maybe 2 rounds of full scouting reports and a monthly rankings tinkering. Hope that helps give you guys some direction. I know people are kind of critical of my rankings of low-ceiling, close-to-the-majors guys like Burgos, but I hope most people don't have any major gripes. Ignore anyone that is too critical. Let them come out with their own work. Personally, I appreciate your efforts and I will take any opinions on our farm system as I don't have the time to scour reports, etc.

I would have to say that Rogers is pretty darn close to a lock. They have too much invested to come this far and then cut him loose. If he pitches so poorly in ST that they don't even want him in as the garbage bullpen guy, they will "find" some injury to put him on the IR. After a nice long rehab stint in the minors, if he still doesn't have it.....

82-80 Bullpen is above average, other than Axford who is okay at best. The young starting pitchers are up and down - but not bad enough that sending them down is a consideration. Weeks has a monster year. Hart and Aoki have off years and RR takes too long to drop them down the order. I withhold the right to change any of this prediction through spring training.

You have to figure that these guys are locks for the pen, right? - Henderson, Gonzalez, Gorzelany, Badenhop, Axford. Then you have one of Narveson/Rogers (assuming Peralta and Fiers get the other two spots), and then an open spot for someone like Kintzler or Olmstead. So the best I can see is having one position that you can shuttle players back and forth with Nashville if we get tired. If Kintzler makes it does he even have options still? Does someone have a link to a page that shows if a player has minor league options? I guess if you see an day off in the schedule, you could send down a starter that has options and bring up a reliever if you are really hurting that much in the pen - but I would just assume that standard operating procedure would be to give an additional day of rest to the whole starting staff.

Was Green? No, he was a lot worse. Green hit .184/.265/.340 to Ishikawa's .257/.329/.428. Not only was Ishikawa better than Green, he was better than Gamel and Green combined in about the same number of AB's too. Ishikawa performed okay in a very difficult role. 30 RBI in under 200 AB's is being productive. Expecting great numbers out of part time players is fantasy. Ishikawa's shown he can be satisfactory. "Seeing what Green can do", is rolling the dice. Ishikawa is also a natural 1st baseman and considered a good one, while Green's a bit of a novice there. He'd be a far better option in my opinion than Overbay who's finished, if they look outside the organization. Another guy who could be available is Dan Johnson, currently in the Yankees camp. After hitting 28 HR in AAA, he got a look for the White Sox in September and slugged .818. Personally, I would try Green first, but I could see DM signing Ishikawa for the sole reason to have the best defender at 1B to maybe cover for any yips from Segura and keep his confidence up

Is there some point that there is no draft pick compensation if he is signed late enough? June 1? I assume he has compiled enough money up till now that if I were him I would contemplate waiting for that deadline and signing with a team that is definitely in the playoff hunt. Some team will pay him a prorated share of good money instead of trading prospects for a starter.

Narveson is $350K more than a rookie's min. wage. He is super cheap per baseball thresholds.

Is 2.5 months of service (April, part of May/Sept) time going to push up his arby date by a year? He will be 26 in 2014 and we are expecting him to earn a spot on the major league roster then anyways, right? If he hasn't earned it by then, then I don't really think that when he will get to arby will matter. Out of curiosity does anyone know what Gamel will be paid for this year? The full $500K? Can I assume it will be a year of service time and he will be first year of arby next year? Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants having to go to arby and not even know how good the player is yet.

Old timers disease, which signing have we given up a draft pick for? Suppan? Draft picks are far from sure deals, but we have had a pretty good run until Arnett. But the biggest thing to me is that the draft picks goes to St. Louis. If it wasn't going to them, I would be willing to pay more to Lohse. Edit: If Gamel is out for the season, that just sucks away at the ability to cover for any injury or performance issues for Aoki and Hart. So I would not be for signing Lohse this year, as I think we are one more step removed from being a playoff team anyways.

There isn't a bullpen spot open if Kintzler and Hellweg both earn a spot during spring training. And if Hellweg just concentrates on his best stuff for a bullpen assignment, that could be the case.

Exactly my sentiments. The Brewers could spend money on a #2 pitcher and still not be in the playoff hunt. A key player gets hurt or the other couple of youngster pitchers don't produce or Axford melts down and no one capably fills the closer role. I like the wait and see approach. If the Brewers owners put $10M in their pockets this season, I am sure they will be willing to run in the red in a future season if that is what it takes.

Obviously I don't know specifics, but would be willing to bet that a majority of the time the salary is deferred is because the player/agent wants it. They player might want help budgeting and since they won't have access, it will be harder (but not impossible) to spend. The agent will be able to publicize how big a contract he just negotiated to potential clients, but it is really window dressing. As long as the team doesn't mess up a basic math equation, the time value of money to calculate the true cost of the contract isn't too hard to figure out. As for worrying about the club not budgeting accordingly, the team will have to account for the earned, but deferred pay as a liability on their books - so the accounting is an issue.

I assume the amount covered is whatever the team is willing to pay for. I think the sticky part is the payout. How do you handle a midseason injury? What injuries are covered? Assume the Brewers paid for insurance with LLoyds of London for half of the value of Marcum's contract. Even though he was out for two months, is that going to be any type of payout scenario there? Here is an interesting article. http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21570723-calculations-behind-insurance-athletes-claim-game

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8922469/national-league-central-top-10-prospects-team-mlb Brewers' Top 10 Player, POS (Top 100 rank) 1. Wily Peralta, RHP (73) 2. John Hellweg, RHP 3. Jimmy Nelson, RHP 4. Taylor Jungmann, rhp 5. Tyler Thornburg, RHP 6. Tyrone Taylor, OF 7. Clint Coulter, C 8.Mitch Haniger, OF 9. Orlando Arcia, SS 10. Hunter Morris, 1B Milwaukee Brewers Org rank: 29 Farm system overview It's a system without a ton of upside that's also light on guys who might be above-average regulars at any position on the diamond, the result of some mediocre draft classes and the trades they made to stay in contention over the past few years, including the Zack Greinke deal. Their 2012 draft was one of my least favorites because they stuck to MLB's bonus recommendations with most picks instead of moving their money around to roll the dice on a higher-priced player who brought more upside. 2013 impact Wily Peralta should be on the big league club most or all of the year, as should Mark Rogers (until his shoulder falls off) and perhaps Tyler Thornburg (as a reliever only, please). Sleeper Their second-round pick from Torrance, Calif., outfielder Tyrone Taylor was also a football standout as a free safety and running back in high school, but made substantial adjustments to his swing during his senior season and was the Brewers' best prospect in short-season ball last year. He can run and throw enough to be an above-average defender in an outfield corner with the potential to hit for average and doubles power.

Even with being the highest paid pitcher in the game right now Felix actually got less than what he would have gotten in FA. $200m+ is probably what Felix would have got in FA. Yeah, he would have gotten more than $25M per year, but I don't know if he would have gotten $28M per year. He gave them some discount, but you also have to figure they threw out his old contract, so that is another $6M extra he wouldn't have had going into free agency. I would have done the same thing if I was him. Take the contract now and don't risk an injury and you don't have to move.

Maybe if we had a veteran staff. But with all the young pitchers getting their shot this year, I don't know why Segura wouldn't be given a more than fair shot at SS this year.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8902178/st-louis-cardinals-lead-keith-law-ranking-all-30-farm-systems-mlb Keith Law has the Brewers as the 29th best farm system. This system has one top-100 prospect and a lot of back-end starters or probable relievers. I didn't love their draft in 2012 despite the extra picks, as they didn't manipulate their money to get any players who fell for signability reasons. They took only one player, second-rounder Tyrone Taylor, who has significant upside to become an above-average or better regular.

The Brewers just ran a net loss last year. I don't know how much more track record you need to know that Mark A. isn't going to pocket any profits and not use it in future years. And really he has no incentive to. He may lose $5M/year on net operating, but if the value of the franchise goes up $10M he is still in a better position. Mark A. knows finances and sees the big picture.

That $101M looks like the preseason salary. But you save money on Greinke, use money on injury and Sept callups - maybe our true player costs were in the high $90M area. So if we lost "several" million, maybe our breakeven payroll around the low $90M. Sound right?