PrinceFielderx1

I agree completely.

I go on what a player did during the course of the entire season. There's always going to be extended down moments during a season. Ramirez was fine in previous years except last. I'm not concerned about it. I said this before and I'll say it again I'm not going to factor in injury's when projecting what a team will do prior to the season. I just look at there career norms. I don't see nearly as many "if's" as you do.

Aoki reminds me a lot of Craig Counsell in that when he PH's for a player late in the game he takes a walk about 80% of the time and capitalizes on hittable pitches, and does the little things right. because he knows his strike zone. Aoki can do the same thing. Aoki would add better defense in RF or LF no matter who he PH for, and isn't that what we ultimately want in our bench is the ability to get on base? We have plenty of regulars that can drive them home.

Doug Melvin thinks Khris Davis is a 25+ HR 85 RBI player. There's no way he's not starting in the OF full-time for the Brewers next season unless he's traded. A player that cheap and controlled for that long I'd label as untouchable for a small market.

I know it was such a small sample size, but Jimmy Nelson in his 10 IP with Milwaukee looked likes he controlled all of his pitches and had swing and miss stuff. He's miles ahead of Hellweg. I would hope a team would fancy Thornburg or Hellweg more or both. However, you have to be willing to give up a lot for an established SP, and I like Thornburg enough to where I'd give up Nelson.

I see differences between a #1 sp and an ACE. Just wanted to make that clear. Lohse was better than Gallardo last season and you guys are complaining about that deal? seriously guys. No, adding Corey Hart and having Braun and Ramirez back healthy makes us the best offense in baseball when you also include guys like Segura, Gomez, and Lucroy. Segura got tired at the end of last season, because he play winter ball the off-season before. He will have a better year in 2014. Gomez is in his prime and has grown so much as a player. We know what to expect from him. He's an all-star gold glover. All the worries about Braun are overstated. He will have another MVP year and who would be foolish enough to doubt that. We know what Braun does year in and year out. He's consistently great.

Considering I said in October of 2010 that the Brewers (Doug Melvin) would trade for 2 top SP's that off-season when everybody here and elsewhere including sports writers said we didn't have the farm system, and I knew the Brewers were the favorites for Sabathia, I have this front office pegged. I have no clue who they will trade for, but they will trade for somebody. It also has a lot to do with keeping season ticket holders and ticket sales. Mark A will demand it.

You clearly don't understand the other side of this argument if you are making blanket statements. Assuming perfect health with some good breaks in close games this team is maybe a mid 80s winner... Is that what the eternally optimistic are hoping for? Repeating the excellent best case scenario that was the 2011? A couple of key players were on the DL in April and that was it, smooth sailing the rest of the year. I'll appeal one more time for people to take a macro view of the division. Who has ascending youth? Which teams are already better? For example on the MLB forum someone brought up that Beltran is leaving STL, but so what? They can replace him with Oscar Taveras who's one of the best pure hitters in the minor leagues. Obviously yes I know 2013 was a lost season with family issues and injuries for him, but he has the potential to be a stud. The Cardinals may not win 97 games, but they aren't falling off all that far and are getting more youthful. They are what posters like me were hoping the Brewers would become... mostly perennial contenders with the occasional down year. They have more WS wins since DM took over the Brewers than the Brewers have WS appearances in the history of the franchise. Pittsburgh will be able to insert a legit impact pitcher into the rotation (excluding Cole who's already up) each year for the next 2-3 seasons. There will likely be some growing pains with their youngsters, but I would expect them to compete for the division every year in the near term. Cincinnati will maintain over the next 2-3 years until they hit the stage the Brewers are at now with a bunch of aging veterans and a thin farm system. Cingrani will be up to stay for the Reds, they still have Stephenson coming, and I think Hamilton will be a very productive player at least until he loses a step. After those 3 I'm not so high on the rest of their prospects. Corcino falling off horribly really hurt them, and on the plus side Ervin is intriguing though not toolsy. Finally Chicago is on the verge of having a super line-up, they have more legit hitting prospects than any team I can remember since I started following the minors; Soler, Baez, Almora, Vogelbach, Olt (still a believer), and Bryant. Not to mention Alcantara and Candelario who I've also been impressed with. The Cubs are horribly thin on pitching, right there with the Brewers in comparison with the rest of the division, but the difference is the Cubs can buy pitching in FA to go with the bats when they mature. The NL central has become one of if not the best division in baseball, many of us have been saying for years that there is very strong management around the division, it's been a steady climb for the Central for years. The Brewers are clearly the 4th best team in the division, and have a much tougher road to that wild card than the 2nd place team in any other NL division. When the division was "down" we were 3rd place team as often as not, and now that Jack Z's scouting department who drafted Braun, Fielder, Hardy, Gallardo, and so on are gone, there are no more impact potential prospects to trade for a short term pitching. Melvin's "best" moves have been bought with prospects... unfortunately for him he's been out of that currency for some time, now his true "creative" colors will show. If Lohse is the best the Brewers can do, we're hopelessly out manned now and in the near future. Kyle pitched great, but we gave up a 1st round pick the team desperately needed to finish 4th in the division and under .500. The move made no sense from any kind of macro view, it's the kind of move than can only be justified by framing the argument around the rotation for a single season... any larger perspective and the logic just doesn't hold up. Simply put the Brewers were still horrible in 2013 with Lohse and had no chance to add an impact player than might have helped in the future. I'm not going to look at this in the false way that you are doing by taking last season division standing as a measure of where the Brewers are at. Considering what we found out in Gomez and Segura and what we already know in Lucroy, and knowing that we went the majority of the season without Ryan Bran, Rameriz, and Hart I'd re-think calling the brewers a 4th place team when if they had gotten more playing time out of Hart, Braun and Ramirez and had they had 1 more pitcher like Lohse they could have easily been the 2nd best team in the division. Lohse is right up there with Gallardo. I view them both as a 1/2 SP's, then thre is Peralta with his high ceiling, Estrada, and 2 very impressive SP's in Nelson, and Thornburg who both really impressed at the end of last season. Add in there another number 2 SP, and our rotation will be good enough to go with what will likely be the top offense in Baseball should Hart be re-signed. The Brewers bullpen was 3-4 th in the NL last year or was in all of MLB? The Brewers starting rotation was BETTER than the Cardinals during the last few months of the season. Btw.. I'm not going to even think about injury's in this equation, because they happen to every team and you don't know when and for how long they will strike. I just know what these Brewers players are capable of. We clearly have different views/projections of this Brewers team. I'm not worried at all. That's in large part because i know DM and know what he will likely do, and that is go after another top pitcher and more bullpen help.

We all saw how well that worked last year. The Brewers will add bullpen arms and trade for a good SP, and sign Hart. They will be fine next season.

I have to say the Phillies are absolutely stupid when it comes to these types of deals. Big Market teams should take there cues from small market teams. I do view the added room for payroll compared to a small market to a large market as an advantage. Big Market teams should take advantage of the stupid big market teams by trading there players over 30 who are signed to long term deals to another big market team looking to get good quick and request their top prospect in return and just eat 30-50 million of the players salary. There's a stupid big market team like this every off-season. This would allow the team who's shedding payroll but adding a top prospect to not have to pay for a players declining years, and use that money to do what small market's do, which is offer the prospect a long term deal after his first 2 pre arby years, and sign him through his prime, then let him go at the end of his contract and get the 1st rounder in the next draft or trade him in his last year. If a Big Market team did this they would have no more than a 115 million payroll and they would be a young team, and pretty damn good. Teams get so attracted to these franchise players when they shouldn't and they should just trade them for a top prospect or let them go and take the first rounder. It's like these teams are afraid of pissing off the fan base by trading a franchise player, and lose track of the real goal, which is winning. The big market might have unlimited money, but there's still only 25 roster spots and you aren't going to sit or demote a player making 10-25 million a year no matter what for many reasons. Yes in a year or two I'd trade Ryan Braun. I think he's going to rebound this coming year and come very close to MVP and the year after. Just imagine the haul the Brewers could get for him after a year or two like that. It would be perfect timing.

Couldn't agree more. Serious question which is not meant to turn this into a fight: Do you tend to feel unsafe at Miller Park? There is a point where it becomes over barring, but this isn't it.

That signing is going to allow us to compete the next 2 years for a wild card spot. Without it we would need 2 top SP's this off-season not 1, and with our farm system it wouldn't be possible. That signing prevented a rebuild/blow up.

I can totally see Doug Melvin trading 1 of our core players in 2015 for top prospect or prospects. That's quite the core I mentioned above.

Couldn't agree more.

No reason to blow it up. In 2015 when Lohse, Ramirez are gone the Brewers will still have a core of Lucroy, Segura, Gomez, Braun, Gallardo (resign), and Peralta and maybe even Gennett. The Brewers could trade one of them and re-stock the farm in addition to the next 2 draft years, and open up another 5+ year window to compete.

Mark A will never allow this team to be blown up. It's really that simple.

Till around age 36. His offense numbers and durability would more than make up for his defensive issues. They can eat half of his salary in his last year and move him.

If they would substitute Ramirez for Nelson, for a package of: Ramirez, Henderson, Davis, Hellweg, Taylor, Kintzler For Fielder, Porcello + $40 million I think both teams might do it. I was trying to propose a trade scenario where we keep Ramirez, because can you imaging a 3 tier threat of Braun, Fielder and Ramirez? That would be devastating for any pitcher. But... Perhaps, your right, and we should sacrifice offense in Ramirez to keep our top pitching prospect Nelson. Pitching depth is very important.

Hardly. It will take hardly that much.. All it might take is the willingness to eat 106 million and give up Henderson. the word is out they want to salary dump fielder for "something" in return to sign there FA boras client Scherzer. So the Tigers are going to eat roughly $60 million for Henderson and maybe someone else of little consequence? I don't see it. Prince had a down year, but he's still one of the best run producers in the league. They may be willing to trade Fielder and eat some money for a decent package, but Henderson sure isn't going to get it done. Henderson + Davis + Kintzler + Nelson + Taylor + Hellweg would be enough to probably get Fielder and Porcello. The only one of those players that would be hard to give up would be Nelson. However, we do have Thornburg.

Hardly. It will take hardly that much.. All it might take is the willingness to eat 106 million and give up Henderson. the word is out they want to salary dump fielder for "something" in return to sign there FA boras client Scherzer.

I'd do this in a heart beat. Trade Henderson, Davis, and Weeks to Detroit for Fielder and Detroit pays us 50 million and pays Weeks salary this season. That 61 million in saving for the Brewers, and it reduces our payroll from 82 million to 71 million. Detroit pays his first 2 years. Lohse, Gallardo, Ramirez contracts are all up after 2015 anyways. Braun's contract increases to 20 million at that time anyways. Go for it all in the next 2 years. Then rebuild around Braun, Fielder, Lucroy, Gomez, Segura, Peralta, Estrada, and Gallardo for another long shot at contention. Use that extra money for this season and next and add a good SP and get some etablished bullpen help. Sign Hart to a 1 year guaranteed deal plus a vesting option for a second. Move Braun to RF and move Hart to LF or just give him his spot back. If you think about it Mark A has to inquire about this after what Braun did to us. This will totally right the ship with Brewers fans and make our offense probably the best of all time in baseball if you include Hart, and he comes back in form.

The top 100 is irrelevant. It has zero meaning to me when it comes to rating the Brewers system. This can be a separate discussion and it also has relevance here, but heading into the 2010 off-season after Melvin realized he made a huge mistake by not getting better pitching in his rotation I predicted that he would sign 2 top pitchers despite people calling me crazy, because they didn't believe we had the talent in the farm to get them, including these minor league analyst. I was proven correct, DM went out and got both Greinke and Marcum. I said it then and I'll say it again DM will get another Lohse/Gallardo type this off-season, and any of Nelson, Taylor, Hellweg or Thornburg could be traded to get that pitcher.

Actually our bullpen was top 3-4 in NL or MLB can't remember. Our rotation was equal or better than the Cards was in the last 3 month of the season. Our pitching isn't nearly as bad as you think it is.. We just need 1 more Gallardo/Lohse type and we will be just fine considering the offense we have;especially if Hart comes back.

He wont ever have 100 rbi's in the Reds current line-up.

Cincinnati could get another 100+ RBI player with good obp, add a above average 2 hole hitter, and resign choo and have a much better team at the cost of Votto. Votto wont be pitched to with runners on. In my opinion you don't give 200 million to a player who can't drive in 100 rbi's.