The Brewers offense was not a strength to win a World Series. Teams dont win World Series with their offense....homerun hitters, strikeout hitters, streaky hitters, and non-situation hitters. JJ was the worst situation hitter. Everytime there was a guy on 2nd or 3rd, JJ could not get them over or in with a groundball because he was a 100% pull hitter. Now throw in his strikeouts and his streakiness. JJ had 1.25-1.5 good seasons in Milwaukee. I know his defense was good but we are not losing anything with Escobar. I am not 100% sold on Gomez, but I dont mind it one bit. We got a guy that we know can play defense and is cheap. Hopefully we can figure out hitting or the strikezone to take more walks. He has a high ceiling when it comes to hitting because of his speed. Before Cameron, remember all the piss poor defense we saw in centerfield. The guy is 23....I dont care how long he has been in the majors, he is young....it takes time for most major league hitters to figure it out. Bottom line....we had to trade Hardy. There was no way we could have kept him after sending him to AAA and the fact we have a better SS. Could we have waited longer into the offseason...maybe but his value could go down even more, with teams knowing we were going to trade him. If Hardy was on the team next year, it would have been a distraction the whole year. Plus, what if he continues his struggles....we might be lucky to get a bag of popcorn for him. I think we got a decent return on Hardy. His value was no where near what most people thought. We were not going to get an above average ready prospect for him. This way we save money on position players and have it to spend on pitching. I think this makes the Brewers a better team for several reasons... 1-We get more speed on the team to manufacture runs. There were so many games we lost the past years because we could not manufacture a run (tack on a run). Going from a 2 run lead to 3 is huge. Cameron was the same type of hitter as Hardy...steaky, pull, and strikeout. 2- We can spend money on pitching instead of trading for a young unknown pitcher. If we made the trade for Harang and kept Cameron, that is $20 million...What kind of pitcher are we going to get next with the the little we have left? Melvin put himself in this spot with Suppan and Hall...we have to deal with it until 2011. 3 - We are better defensively. And lastly, we dont have to JJ whinning over where he is hitting in the lineup. Most major league hitters can be good when you are hitting in front of Braun and Fielder.