TheCrew

http://www.cbssports.com/...ent-too-far-in-milwaukee "You would hope that the guys that work for the Brewers have enough guts and enough integrity to call the game as it is instead of worrying about their paycheck," La Russa said. Hey Tony, have you EVER listened to the Cards announcers?

Enjoy watching that long fly ball Al?

Yeah, Brewers look like they are playing with a chip on their shoulder today - they know they let one get away last night and I can't imagine the anger over last nights bean ball BS has lessened since last night.

Almost enough you could make a drinking game out of it.

After this season, I like the cubs and reds compared to the cardinals.

Braun isn't cocky - that's all swagger baby!

I was summarizing and yes, it has everything to do with available funds. It might not come directly out of Mark A's pockets, but - correct me if I'm wrong - at the end of the day, he would have the yes/no say on whether the Brewers would take on the salary and he is (for lack of a better term) the "face" of that money being paid out to players. My main point was that I don't think Melvin did much to make that trade happen.

Exactly, I was half expecting him to collapse from exhaustion. He had to lose a few lbs that inning - for those that didn't see the game, really not exaggerating this. If it was any other pitcher on any other team, you'd feel bad for the guy.

You can't not play players to avoid paying options/bonuses and it wasn't just save opp., it was finishing out games. If K-Rod could prove the Brewers were going with a lesser option in these situations (Saito would be a lesser option imo)........ really wouldn't be hard for him to win such a grievance. All he'd have to say is "Hey, who has the most saves in baseball over the past 5 season? ............ oh, me..... awesome, how many does Saito have? A handful............. hmmm, that is odd. He's not young either, so please Brewers organization, explain why you would go with a guy who is older, not signed for next season and has a fraction of the saves I have over the past 5 years and limited experience in closing games?" The point is it came with a lot of risk, you really think the Brewers were the only team the Mets called looking to do this? It was reported a few teams weren't interested or turned the Mets away - the team with the deepest pockets in the league were one of these teams(Yankees). Bottom line is, in a worse case scenario - and yes, I realize a lot would have had to happen to get to the worse case - the Brewers organization could have been hampered severely next year if the option vested and it would have made it fiscally difficult to resign Marcum/Greinke and would have all but guaranteed Prince's departure. It could have been a huge blow to the Brewers and I think it gets overlooked by almost everyone. Agree to disagree, either way I don't see any point in continuing this because it doesn't even matter as: - Ax is kicking ass - K-Rod dropped the option

Great point RBT!

I brought it up because he had to approve the K-Rod deal. From the sounds of it, Melvin didn't do much except bring it to Mark to get approved. Probably a good thing because I doubt Melvin was creative enough to put that together. Ummm - no. If Axford got hurt, and they used a different guy then K-Rod it would run the risk of a grievance and I can't see the Brewers winning that one. It, in fact, came with a TON of risk - $17.5 million dollars worth next season - which of course, all went away once K-Rod agreed to waive the option next year. I know some think that the Brewers could have plugged Saito in there or whoever they wanted and it would have been fine - but that would all hinge on whether K-Rod would fight it and with Boras as his agent......... Never the less, I'm glad it's a road that that Brewers never have to go down because it could (and I stress could) have ended badly and left the Brewers in a no-win situation next year.

Chris Carpenters kid or a brewer fans kid? or......... maybe we could just have a pool at bf.net to raise money and hire mcclung to bean him when he's walking to his car then. That should make the lawyers happy.

I nominate Seth McClung for this noble task.

Yeah, anyone watching that game could see that the heat caught up to Carp - for those not watching, he literally had sweat dripping off his hat. Guy was just fatigued and didn't have it. I was half expecting some comments about heating/air conditioning today from Cards fans..........

I wish a manager would just have his pitcher throw at TLR one time - seriously, how awesome would it be to see the pitcher wind up and then gun one at TLR in the dugout.

I love it - even Cards fans are getting sick of the the Cards drama.

I agree the Cards gave up a ton in Rasmus - but there is a lot more to that story with Rasmus/TLR........ even though it's only a half season rental, getting a top 20 pitcher and some comp picks back (along with a reliever and 4th OF'er) isn't a bad haul by any stretch. I've always thought Rasmus was over rated and was arrogant, hoenstly he reminds me of an older version of his new teammate that we traded away this spring. Anyhow, I'm getting off track, it would not have cost us Thornburg or Rivas for Furcal. Cardinals got him for a fringe outfield prospect and ate some salary. Brewers could have easily got him cheap - maybe it was something in the medial records that scared them off, only time will tell if that was the right decision. Morgan was a great pickup but he is also a perfect example of why Melvin should have been shopping for a SS - Melvin took a shot on Morgan and gave up a guy that probably won't do much at the big league level, he should have tried the same once or twice at SS/3B throughout the season in my opinion. As for the K-Rod trade, we don't know who called who - for all we know the Mets could have came calling and put everything together and Melvin simply said, let me check with the boss. We flat out don't know, only thing we do know is Mark A opened up the checkbook to make it happen and took on a big risk with the 2012 option. (which is now gone, but it was still big at the time)

Yup, I missed the word OR in your latest post. Your trade still makes zero sense from either side. Also, fwiw, your the one that came back like an ass and said "has that not been made clear" on the last page. Clearly you are defensive about someone not agreeing with your proposed trade. Which, since we are done being nice, is probably one of the worst trade ideas I've ever seen proposed. It benefits neither team and would have hampered the Brewers this season and the next 3 seasons with Dunn. All I said is I don't get why people would want Dunn. That's it, you got your panties in a bunch then. I'm done arguing about trades that would only be plausible in MLB the show.

Ummm....... so you want to take Dunn and his contract to get Ramirez and Beckham cheaper, but then you want the sox to kick in a portion of Dunn's contract?!?!? What incentive would the Sox have for trading 2 young talented players at that point? Heck, why not just make it a 3 way and call the phillies and have them throw halladay and lee in.

I agree with the bolded part, not sure why you would put improve in quotes though - are you mocking that these trades improve teams? Either way, you lost me after that...... you seem to be implying that making deadline deals won't impact a club? Anyhow, Yes, Melvin improved the worst part of this team during the offseason. He has done very little since then and has not improved the next worse things in the 8 months since then - I give Mark A far more credit in the K-Rod deal since that really came down to salary and how deep Mark A's pockets went. Outside of that, Melvin hasn't done much - Hairston was a solid move but it would have been far better if that was the complimentary move to a full time replacement for McGehee. The Cards also don't need Jackson to have a Sabathia like season - the Brewers were melting down and CC saved them that season. He HAD to go on 3 days rest or the Brewers miss the playoffs. As much as I dislike the Cards, when I look at things objectively - I see them as a far more balanced and experienced team than the 2008 Brewers.

Jackson is a great pickup - are you really trying to discount him because he has been traded a few times? According to WAR, only 18 pitchers have been better over the past 3 seasons.......... How is that not an impact acquisition? He may not have the namesake of a Beckett or Verlander, but the guy is a front line starter and probably just a notch below the elite guys. I said it in another thread, but it bears repeating - Over the past week, the Cardinals and Pirates both improved. The Brewers did not (due to the Weeks injury).

Minute Maid has helped him - his road ERA is 1.5 runs higher. That said, I was surprised he wasn't dealt as I don't think his contract is that bad either - then again, $12 million at 35 years old for him could be some serious dead weight at the end of the deal.

Not sure if he'd make it through waivers - but Casey Blake is an option I would love to take over for McGehee and shouldn't cost too much.

No, it wasn't clear because it still doesn't make sense. Brewers are a small market team, they can't take on a $56 million dollar contract and have the guy be nothing more than a pinch hitter for roughly 12.5% of the contract (1/2 of 1 season). The guy would have negative value to this team in 2011....... major negative value considering he would have zero defensive value to this team since Prince never leaves the diamond, and on that note - he sure as heck isn't going to get out of his hitting slump when he gets 1 at bat a night (at most). Adam Dunn is on his way to one of the worst offensive seasons in the history of baseball. Think about that for a minute. Furthermore, adding in that contract along with Ramirez's contract would make it much harder to sign Marcum and/or Greinke to an extension. Sure, the move makes sense if your only concern is making sure we have a power hitting 1B next year - even then it comes with some pretty big risk because your counting on a player on the wrong side of 30 to bounce back. Usually a bet that a small market team is better off avoiding. That said, in terms of trying to win a world series in 2011...... it makes little to no sense.

It's not even about Yuni - it's about Counsell and McGehee at 3B and the refusal to upgrade the position, even when you have internal options. There is no excuse anymore.