TheCrew

I'm just listening to Ueck and watching gametracker online - but I agree. Got Rickie over to 3rd and set Braun up with a runner on 3rd and 1 out, was a productive out.

A's DFA'ed him - Any chance the Brewers sign him and move Hart?

Well said Straw Boss. As I pointed out in my last post, the fact a very good player was traded away 6 months earlier is what has always made it sting a bit more in my opinion. Melvin's infatuation with Mench really cost the Brewers - I'm sure some team out there would have offered up a middle of the rotation guy for Lee or a decent pitching prospect or two.

Draft picks/FA signings aren't really a good comparison. I have no issue when people rip him based on his numbers - in fact I agree with these arguments - but his contract is almost always brought up when people rip on him, that isn't his fault and I've always felt Melvin has kind of slipped under the radar when Soup gets talked about. It was a bad contract to hand out to a guy who, even when handed that deal, is a back end of the rotation guy. I realize some on here do blame Melvin for that, but I'm just tired of seeing 'suppan sucks and he gets paid like a #1' or 'he hasn't lived up to his contract' posts - so I don't mean to generalize everyone - but you can't blame soup for signing the contract. I realize the market was inflated at the time, but if you wanted a 4/5 starter than it would have made more sense to trade for one - or maybe get a starting pitcher back when you trade away Carlos Lee 6 months earlier.

I've never understood why people dislike Soup for Melvin's mistake. When people rip on soup they constantly bring up the contract, soup shouldn't be ripped for that at all, on the other hand Melvin should be.

UZR isn't the end-all-be-all statistic to determine if a player is good defensively. The stat definitely has it's flaws. That said, a guy turning 40 this year is probably going to be playing average to below average defense.

I guess I'm just so overly excited for opening day that even this little tidbit of news gets me excited....... http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...id=21&entry_id=57767 Wish this game was going to be televised by FSN - does mlb.com offer any packages for spring training games?

No risk + high reward = good move

I don't agree at all... there's way better value in Sheets if he's truly healthy. I would rather have 2 pitchers around the level of Gallardo on the staff thant 1 sarting pitcher who always pitches with runners on base, who doesn't approach 90 mph on his fastball, and is in his mid 30s plus paying premium dollar for a friggen reliever. I realize WAR is imperfect, so please get past how it's calculated and look at what I'm trying to say.... WAR illustrates my point perfectly in this case. In every season Sheets has posted over 160 IP he's had a WAR greater than 3.7. Davis hasn't had a WAR above 2.4 since 2006 with the Brewers (2.8), he peaked at a 4.5 in 2004 and has been on a slow steady decline ever since. Hawkins hasn't had a WAR over 1.0 since 2004 because once again there just isn't tremendous value in relief pitching, they pitch too few innings. Sheets worst WAR min 160 IP... 3.7 Hawkins last season above a 1, 2004 with a.... 1.2 (.3 last season) Doug Davis maximum WAR since leaving the Crew.... 2.4 (1.7 last season) I might stink at math, but it would appear to me that Hawkins/Davis would have to find the fountain of youth to equal Sheets' value if he manages to get 160 IP.... 3.6 combined WAR best case vs 3.7 worst case. The wildcard here is that no one really can say with any certainty how well Sheets will pitch coming off surgery. However, if Ben is healthy he's at least a 3 WAR pitcher, in that I have no doubt and even if Hawkins bounces back to another .8 (as he's done in the past, not all that far fetched for a reliever) Davis would also have to pitch a full win better than last season for them to be even be close to outpeforming Sheets' approximate value. Well I did say it's a different story if he is healthy in my original reply - your banking on Sheets pitching a large number of innings, he's hit 160+ innings 1 time in the past 4 years......... health is, and always has been, the issue with Sheets. Heck, if the guy didn't break downand miss significant time in 2 of his last 3 seasons in Milwaukee plus the end of the season in the 3rd, he probably would have been locked up here long term and the relationship would have never soured...... but that is just my speculation. I wish the guy well and enjoyed watching him pitch in Milwaukee - but because of health issues, it would have been foolish for the brewers to throw that much money at him and it's because of his health issues, not talent, that I feel Davis/Hawkins are without a doubt the better value.

Without a doubt it would be Davis and Hawkins - they are also cheaper. Sheets has logged 150+ once in the past 4 years and hasn't pitched in over a year. Coffey/Hawkins/Hoffmann will be a tough late inning combo. Davis is more durable, now if you could guarantee Sheets was gonna give you 200+ it's a different story but unfortunately he just hasn't been durable in recent years.

I was a big Cameron fan - From what I've heard about Gomez, he is damn good defensively, let's assume they are the same on defense and look some offensive numbers. Cam hit .233 with RISP last year - Gomez .247 (small sample size for Gomez, only 73 AB's) Cam also had 3 times as many K's as gomez with RISP but only had twice as many AB's. Cam was better at drawing the walk, but most vets are. The way I see it, Cameron is 37 years old - his numbers continue to drop and while I've always like the guy, I don't think he is going to be effective for much longer. Gomez on the other hand is 24 years old, has blazing speed and plays good defense - if he can get it together at the plate, the dropoff will be minimal at best. Even if Gomez doesn't improve at the plate this season, I don't see it as a substantial dropoff from Cameron - heck Cam only hit .250 last year and strikes out more often than he gets hits these days............ I'd rather have a guy that has the potential of being on the upswing than a guy who is guaranteed to be on the downside.

Sheets hasn't thrown over 200 innings since 2004 - he missed the entire season last year, and 2 out of the 3 years prior he missed significant time. That and he wants $10 million or more plus incentives. Let's also not ignore the fact that Sheets probably doesn't even want to come back to Milwaukee with the way things ended. Bedard has never hit 200 innings and hasn't even hit 100 innings in either of the past 2 seasons. Both have durability issues - Davis doesn't, only significant time the guy missed over the past 6 seasons was due to cancer. With the limited payroll, they can't be putting money out there that has a good chance of ending up on the DL. Davis is a better signing than either of those guys.

Pujols is gonna get his regardless if it's a lefty or righty. Oddly enough, Holliday is about 30 points worse against lefties for his career.

How is replacing Looper/Burns/McClung/Villy/etc. and one of Suppan/Parra with Wolf/Davis only a slight improvement? Not a stretch to think this rotation will be about middle of the pack in the NL - which would be a major improvement - and with starters going deeper in games it should keep the bullpen fresher.

Love the signing - Wolf/Davis in the rotation is a massive upgrade over what was trotted out there last year.

The Marlins always trade players when they start to get expensive for young talent - the only real exception has been Hanley Ramirez. Johnson is going to get a nice bump in pay this year, as will Nolasco - Johnson is the likely trade candidate of the 2 because he has had tommy john surgery and he becomes a FA sooner. His agent is already on record saying that he wants a market deal (i.e. no discount to stay in Florida) - signing him to a lucrative deal doesn't fit with that fish have done in the past. You have to keep in mind the Marlins like to keep their payroll low, was $35 million this past season, around $20 million the season before that and around $30 million the season prior that one. Ramirez's contract also increases a bit again, so it wouldn't surprise me at all to see them try and shed some payroll this offseason. If Johnson was signed to a market deal, you'd have to figure it would be around $10 mil per season, as of 2011 that would have the Marlins tying up $20+ million in Ramirez and Johnson....... maybe they will do it, but if recent history suggests anything, they won't. I think the problem we will run into with them is the lack of starting pitching to send back their way - Perhaps a package of Gamel, Parra and a midlevel prospect or two would have them interested, they could shift Gamel to 1b since they will have a need there with Nick Johnson departing.

I think it'll be Davis who gets signed, then I'm hoping they make a trade with Florida for Johnson or Nolasco.

He was banged up last year, I think that was the main reason he caught so few games - not sure about this year, but that's till over half the games and they have a really good backup catcher in Shoppach (could be part of the reason they aren't having him catch as much)...... he did catch 121 games 2 seasons ago. Heck, even if he caught 3-4 games a week it would be a big upgrade, and from what I've read it sounds more like a salary dump - I think he could be had without giving up one of the elite prospects.

That's a good point, but I still think they'd need to get at least a mediocre arm or 2 to tide them over and give them a shot...... I realize it's a long shot either way, and maybe the pads are asking for a lot........ but they need to find a way to get a guy or two in that at least gives them a shot, I don't think Burns/CV/Dillard gives them much of one.

Unless I've missed it, I haven't seen them linked to Martinez at all - He's under contract for next season as well and would be a huge upgrade offensively. Maybe Melvin doesn't want to piss Kendall off....

I'm not saying Correia is the answer, and maybe the pads are asking too much, but I'm pretty disappointed the brewers are just sitting on their hands at this point...... When you look at the big picture, they are still only 3.5 games out (assuming the dodgers hold on tonight), I'm not saying they should give up the farm but they should get an arm or two that at least gives them a shot to win...... Burns/CV/Dillard doesn't do that and it's pretty much throwing in the towel for the season. It's 3.5 games and a really soft schedule over the next month...... season is far from over, but if they trot out burns/cv/dillard every 2 out of 5 days it might as well be over.

Settle down llyod.......

What is there to be positive about..... the worst team in baseball scored more runs than they have in any other game this season. So glad I didn't drive 2 hours each way tonight for the game

This isn't a vent thread - the team has played like crap for a month, some of us were still holding out hope.......... then the worst team in baseball comes into Miller Park and puts up 13 runs in 2 innings......... maybe it's a knee jerk reaction, but I just don't see any reason to think this team can turn things around and be a legit contender down the stretch, even if they make a trade in the next few days. They should sell at this point.