Omar Little

Monty...First off, I guess trying to be sarcastic and a smart alec doesn't come off too well in print, I was joking about the catching comments. It was funny to see things turn that way after almost 5 full pages of stuck in neutral talk. "the thread turned when you said that Melvin "...has stunted the grow of the franchise." How about the absolute lack of any advanced, top of the rotation starters other than Gallardo during his 7 years as GM (and you can include Jack Z's time before that as well)? That's the biggest reason why the growth of this franchise has been stunted or stuck in neutral, IMO. Pitching is SO hard to find and way too expensive(and risky) for a team like the Brewers to get via free agency so, as a franchise, you cannot afford to make mistakes and go 7-10 years without being able to develop good pitching internally. I mean, 1 or 2 young, hard throwing starters is all I'm asking for up to this point. I'm not asking for Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum or Tommy Hanson, I'm asking for a quality 3 and 4 starter who throws faster than 87mph. Really, in the last 10-12 years there's only been Sheets and Gallardo that have been stud home grown pitching talent at the ML level, right? I guess I misunderstood what you said about the talent in the system. There is some good talent throughout the system but I don't see a lot of great talent that could produce another wave of high ceiling guys like we had with Weeks, Fielder, Braun, Yo, Hart, Hardy, Escobar and Gamel. Again, that's just my opinion.

"I'll take the 3 year sample over the month and a half of games every time." How's that 3 year sample of the Milwaukee Brewers as a team looking to you right now?? It doesn't look too good to me.

So, when did this thread turn into a discussion about the catching situation??

Thanks brains! I was a little overexcited when I wrote that post and realized I made those mistakes! I just edited my post to remove those errors.

"Thanks to Melvin, we now have a team with talent all over the field. Thanks to Melvin, we have a minor league system with talent that will supplement our major league roster and some that will be able to be used in trade." If you include pitching, RF, CF and catcher in your mix, there's not talent all over the field! As far as the minor league system goes, you don't have enough talent in the minors to supplement the ML roster AND use in a trade. You trade your high upside prospects to make a stupid deadline deal(like I could see happening again this year) or in an offseason trade you are screwing your depth and the guys you said will supplement the ML roster. To be honest, outside of Lucroy, Gamel and Lawrie who really excites you in the farm system? Oddorizzi, Arnett and Heckathorn are at least 2-3 years away, Cain can't stay healthy, etc. As for DMs drafting of pitchers, like a lot of people said, I think his evaluation process if flawed. You've GOT to hit on more than 1 top of the rotation prospect in 7 years! Yes, DM has helped turn the fortunes of this team around but I think he's gotten this team as far as they can go and IMO has stunted the grow of the franchise.

Are you reading my mind bklyn because everything you've said in your 2 posts is exactly the way I feel! This team has regressed since 2008(without CC the team probably finishes at/below .500 again) and really hasn't improved that much, if at all, since 2007! Once they started competing in 2007 and DM/MA got us all believeing that the playoffs would be a regular occurrence, just "being in the race" in August stopped being good enough for me! Yeah, the team was crappy for a lot of years and that sucked but I can't believe how many people(3 million of them walked thru the gates last year) are still satisfied with just being competitive! This band-aid approach isn't cutting it. The Braun n Fielder era is coming to a close with little to show for it thanks to the poor FA signings, lack of significant trades and DM and Jack Z's inability to draft and develop young pitching talent! It is time to tear this thing down and start over again. If any of you are old enough to remember the Bucks of the 1980s, you can remember how many years they used an approach similar to what DM has done the last couple of years. They would bring a couple of over the hill, veteran, band aid players year after year so they could just make the playoffs or compete for a playoff spot. That philosophy never got them any closer to a title and never let them develop a young core of players who would allow them to compete once Sid, Pressey, Marques Johnson, TC and Sikma retired. What followed was a LONG stretch of losing season. I hope that the Brewers don't head in that direction and I hope that when the time comes to trade Prince, someone other than DM is making that very, very, very important trade for the Brewers!

I couldn't agree more with everything you said in your last post Crew07 but I especially like what you said above! DM has had plenty of assets to use to aquire a young pitcher but he hasn't done it...we don't even need to get started on him and Jack Z's poor track record in drafting pitchers during his tenure! At least it seemed like Bruce Seid(sp?) to get it when it comes to drafting pitchers. My biggest concern with DM is having him in charge of working out the trade for Fielder! He's had a TON more misses than hits with the trades he's made and I don't trust him to get the most return for Prince in the trade market.

Couldn't agree with you more! How many more times is Rock going to blame Suppan's poor performance on having 8 days rest?!?!? Personally, I'm getting sick of hearing Melvin spew his same, company line BS about Suppan and the team in general!

So true, brewizard, so true. Melvin LOVES aging, soft tossing lefties for some reason and really has got some strange man-crush on Doug Davis. I've never been a fan of them pursuing Davis and never will be. Another average lefty in a division dominated by power hitting right handers and if anything these guys are modest upgrades over Looper and Soup. Anyone care to guess as to how many more wins Davis and Wolf are good for over Soup and Looper?? At best(if most of the "ifs" go our way) these offseason moves push the Brewers closer to, or a few games above .500, NOT closer to the playoffs. IMO, it's another year wasted during the "Prince and Braun" years(that small window small market teams have to win a WS)....which, by the way, are ending after the 2011 season.

I agree with a lot of the posters. I would not give up Gamel for an ok starter when you can get a similar in the FA market without giving up a prospect. Also, I'd keep Gamel around at least another year because there's no guarantee McGehee will put up the #s he did in 2009 on a consistent basis.....see Scotty Pods and Brady Clark.

Well said Peavey! People are already starting to complain about Wolf's injury issues, Bedard and Harden would be 10 times worse for a lot more $$$. Also, why do so many people have this pie-in-the-sky thinking that Sheets will come back to Milwaukee?? The relationship between the Crew and Sheets was severely fractured after the 2008 season. Sheets felt slighted by the Brewers contract wise and won't come back unless the WAAAAY overpay for him and even then, I don't think he'd come back here.

I'd give up a mid-level for Correia too. These are the kind of guys that they are going to have to go after if this Wolf deal falls through.

I agree with CWS, if they trade Hart, take a shot at signing Ankiel before Marlon Byrd!

I hear ya on WSSP, Invader! Witrado from JSonline has used his appearances on that station to call Prince a bully in the locker room among other things. Bill Michaels blog was an interesting read and I've heard that Macha's lost the team from more and more sources. I think/hope he retires or is not brought back for 2010.

I don't know if you can say that he's lost this team, but I don't think there is a respect factor Macha. I don't know if they are one in the same but I am sure there has been some questioning among players and the other coachs as to how he's handled players in various ways(Gamel, Escobar, Hardy, Hall, Kendall) and how he's handled "game" situations as far as backing his team or having their backs. I'm not a guy who thinks a manager needs to have "the fire" cause that's something casual fans believe in, but a manager needs to show some emotion during a season. When things have been going poorly for the Brewers or they get screwed by a bad call, Macha just seems to sit there and say "well, that's the way it goes, there's nothing we can do." I just don't know if he was a good choice for this particular Brewers team and I wouldn't be sad to see him gone after this year. Man, my 1st post and I've rambled on 4ever...sorry!