PrinceFielderx1

Melvin said no teams had contacted him about K-Rod, trade and #[/s]Brewers like idea of having him back. Free agency seems likely route for SS. Per McCalvy twitter.

link Sounds like the Brewers still have room in budget for a SS or 3B man or both.

Asked if obligation to K-Rod might stop interest in Aramis Ramirez, Melvin said, "Possibly. I'll take a look at it." Per Tom H twitter This is Doug Melvin's way of not tipping his hand. He doesn't really say anything in this quote. Melvin is really good at saying a lot, but not really saying anything..

Why should I expect that? because you assume there's no money for anyone else? I don't know why fans assume Doug Melvin and Mark A will sit on their butts now because of this when they clearly know that losing Fielder will hurt their offense, and when they need to upgrade positions on the field, they do so aggressively. Just look at what they did last off-season. That's what gives me hope. Other moves will be made to upgrade the team. I'm not yet concerned about it.

Most of the buyout was paid by the Mets.

You don't think it's a little harsh to call Ron Roenicke an "idiot" when he was the manager of a 96 win team in his first season with the franchise? I do. Anyways, Ramirez is a very productive 3B man and would be a huge upgrade over McGehee and Green. By signing Ramirez the Brewers would have a trade chip in Green. btw.. Good point about DM paying Gagne 10 million.

I'm sure they have a budget for the other areas as well like SS and 3B. I think it's premature to say that K-Rod accepting arby will affect the Brewers ability to sign a player like Ramirez or a player like Furcal or both for that matter. Mark A said last off-season that he has adopted a new payroll philosophy of letting talent dictate payroll.

Isn't Ramirez better at Miller Park?

Yes, but if he does just stay on the team, they won't be able to sign any free agents outside of Betancourt. The rest of the pen will be weak, and there will be some holes in the lineup. Without K-Rod these problems could be at least partially solved. There's absolutely no reason to pay your setup man $13 million, no matter how good he is. If they keep him, say goodbye to Saito, Hawkins, Ramirez, any SS other than Yuni, and any other free agent. We'll be filling the roster with all rookies and minimum salaries. I don't believe it will affect the Brewers ability to sign Ramirez and a SS like Furcal, and have Gamel man 1B. K-Rod deal is only a 1 year deal and so is Wolf's for that matter. Last off-season Mark A said publicly that "he would let talent dictate payroll." That actually worked out very well for the Brewers. I see nothing that suggests that philosophy has changed.

I have a hard time seeing the Brewers releasing K-Rod if he were to accept arby. If he accepts I believe he is on the team for good. On the bright side the 8th and 9th innings should be scoreless innings most of the time. Kinda hard to get any better than K-Rod in the 8th and Axford in the 9th.

Mark A and Doug Melvin meet with Scott Boras about Fielder. Scott Boras called them to update them, then decided to meet. Tom H Blog

10 years is insane! Wow..

Fielder prefers teams east of the Mississippi River and teams that can win the World Series in the near future. The list of known interested parties includes the Brewers, Mariners, Cubs, Rangers, Blue Jays, and Nationals. Seattle's rebuilding status and geographic location may remove them from the mix, while the uncertainty around how much Chicago's new front office is willing to spend may remove them as well. mlbtraderumors link

Not just that, but you get the impression that teams aren't willing to give out big long-term deals greater than 6 years to players that have injury history's or that are on the wrong side of 30 and that are getting older. With Jose Reyes, there were reports that many teams didn't want to go above 5 years for him, because of his injury's. Now there are reports that the Phillies (who have money) who wanted to re-sign Rollins wouldn't go above 3 years when Rollins is seeking 5 years. Sounds like many teams that have money (not that many) are trying to be conservative and smart with the money they have. That could always change, so we will find out more in a couple days, but so far it doesn't look like it. The only team that I can see giving Fielder a 7-8 year contract is the Cubs, but you wonder with a new GM and ownership if they will be smarter and not hand out big long-term deals that are risky like signing Fielder. Are the Cubs even able to spend big this off-season? If the Cubs aren't going after Fielder, then a 6 year deal or less could possibly be enough to sign Fielder which I can see the Brewers doing.

This is why I believe Fielder's asking price will come down. Possibly way down.

But I still think Mark A. and DM have bigger plans in store.I'm getting that sense also.

link Sounds like the Blue Jays have their limits. The Mariners might not have the money to spend on him (conflicting reports on this). The National's according to Bill Ladson aren't going after him, because they have LaRoche and Morse. What other teams could go after him?

link

Seems like a lot of the premium players available if not all of them are either getting old (wrong side of 30) or are injury risks. Rollins (33), Reyes (big injury risk), Ramirez (33), Pujols (31 and has a 200 million and long term deal coming/long term risk) Prince Fielder is the most attractive option, but even he is a long term risk. The Brewers aren't in a position to be giving out huge contracts to these older players and injury risk players. Melvin didn't seem that impressed when he was talking about Ramirez, because he referred to him as just "another bat" in the recent JSonline.com article. I think the Brewers should take a calculated risk and give Fielder a 7 year 20+ million contract and sign him. He would be very good for the Brewers for at least 5 of those years and give the Brewers a 5+ year contention window. The alternative would be to not sign Fielder and have the offense downgraded (possibly significantly) and risk falling out of contention. I choose re-sign Fielder.

I'd go 7/161 (23 million a year with 5 million deferred annually (comes to 18 million a year)), 25 million 8th year mutual option W/ 10 million buyout, with an opt out after 3 years. Total guaranteed comes to $171 million, and potentially $186 million. A few points, 1.) Fielder will be 34 years old by the last year of the contract. He's currently 27. 2.) I don't see any team giving him 8 years guaranteed. I can see a team offering 25 million for 7 years (175 million) guaranteed. Which is more money than the Brewers, but at least the Brewers offer would be competitive, and they would be putting Fielder in a position where he would have to choose to stay in Milwaukee, where he would be apart of one of the best hitting combos (Braun, Fielder) in Baseball history, a team that can provide him protection in the line-up (Weeks), a contending team that just won the division, excellent fan base, or choose an extra 5-15 million dollars and play for a new team. 3.) The Brewers are going to find out (perhaps they already are) that they will likely be outbid when it comes to players like Reyes, Pujols, Rollins etc.. Which will imo force them to go hard after Fielder and increase their offer to him. They will also know that the Brewers offense will be down graded without Fielder and that Braun won't have the same protection behind him. For these reasons the Brewers have to still be interested in Fielder, and I think what we have seen is the Brewers just being smart by exploring other alternatives first, because Fielder is a long term risk due to his weight and the money he will demand, but regardless it will likely lead back to Fielder, in my opinion. 4.) If Fielder chooses to play for a new team, then I can see the Brewers just plugging holes with players like Alex Gonzales at SS and Ramirez at 3B and McGehee/Gamel 1B. The Brewers probably have fall back options, but regardless their offense will take a significant hit, because they are minus a premium player.

Actually, after the 2010 season the team was worth $376 million, which is a $153 million increase from the $223 million that Mark A bought the team for in 2005. Forbes

I'm not sure it will be a SS, but I suspect that Doug Melvin will be assertive in trying to replace Fielders production. That is just Doug Melvin's style as GM. I have a hard time seeing Doug Melvin not making any additional moves to improve the starting line-up and just going with what they have.

I like the set-up. If you don't want it to come down to a 1 game playoff, then you better win the division.

The Brewers could have already re-signed Betancourt if they wanted too. Betancourt wanted to come back (very interested), but the Brewers decided to see what else was out there and upgrade the SS position (find someone better than Betancourt). The Brewers know that many if not all of the SS out their (Reyes, Rollins, Barnes, Furcal etc..) will be an upgrade over Betancourt which is why they are talking with their agents right now and not Betancourts. I don't see Betancourt coming back at all. Just added to the blog post -- Melvin said Betancourt is "very interested" in coming back. It was the #Brewers who wanted to test SS market. McCalvy tweet.

DM is doing his diligence by checking in on all FA SS's out there Barnes, Rollins, Reyes etc.. #[/s]Brewers GM Doug Melvin will continue to do his dilligence on SS market by talking to agent Dan Lozano, who represents Jimmy Rollins. Per Tom H #[/s]Brewers GM Doug Melvin meeting now with Barry Meister, agent for SS Clint Barmes. per Tom H