HiAndTight

The nice thing though is while they are not big prospects, they are all fisty guys who want to win. Guys like Keen, Middlestadt, Vuchinich, Shaw. I think there style of play with walking, slap hitting, liner and etc fair very well for the league. Hopefully Kreiger will give a punch (guy kills the ball) Velazquez I will follow closely. Walker and Hawn have to perform well though. They are the heart of the lineup that will make it work I'm not too concerned with the offensive exploits of a team that could have two potential frontline starters and a third potential #4 as well as a number of relievers. More than anything though, I'm just waiting for these guys to get past BC and get up to Huntsville because as we all know, while it's awesome to see the dominance in Brevard, you don't really know what you've got until you get up to 'Bama...which is why the best part of the season for me so far has been 3 starts from Mr. Thornburg.

No....but I would guess it hasn't been that long. I wouldn't be surprised if Thornburg had a couple scoreless innings combined with a couple scoreless outings to start or finish an outing. Same with others. We've had some impressive runs from young guys. I wonder what Axford's longest streak was? In any event, thats' not the point. When's the last time we drafted a pitcher high, had high expectations and he met them right out of the gate? THAT'S the real question. And not in a couple years like with some of our HS picks, ie, Gallardo, or a Brooks Hall who I love...guys along those lines that we wait 2-3 years for as the Brewers pamper the hell outta them(not saying it's right or wrong, just saying that's how it is). So...I think there are two things here, first of, this is the first time in a while that we've gotten the immediate results we've expected from a top pitching draft pick. And heck, you can throw Jungman into that mix. Perhaps he hasn't been AS good, but...when you're coming off one Mr. Arnett,[sarcasm]anything south of 6.00 is actually nice![/sarcasm] And second, I've always been hellbent against drafting college pitchers for the most part unless you're in the top 5-10. Well, in such a deep draft, I believe we got two college arms who typically would be top 5-10 picks. So HS arms aren't always the way to go. Thornburg, Bradley, and Jungman..three college arms. Not to be forgotten one Mr. Peralta, but I've always advocated spending a lot more money on the DR....something we've done with the re-opened academy. In any event, it appears as though our approach to developing pitching has payed off from all angles. Latin America, the draft, HS and College and trades.

Yeah, I think his defense is just as awful as it's always been, and that it's his hitting explosion that's the small sample size fluke.

A-Those minor league numbers include parts of 6 years in AAA. B-Matt Weiters is 25 years old right now. So he's accumulated his big league stats while Kottaras was toiling around AAA. C-To compare a atrocious part time defensive catcher with arguably the best defensive catcher in baseball, forgetting the age difference in how they accumulated their stats is mis-leading at best. D-All backup catchers sit the majority of the time. That's part of being a backup catcher. Mike Rivera posted a .260/.333/.423/.756 OPS as a part time catcher for the Brewers playing in about 120 games over 4 years. I didn't see much clamoring for increased playing time for him. Not to mention, if your goal is to see more PT out of Kottaras, you really want that to come at the expense of Lucroy? Or are we talking about him at 1st or 3rd base? I think a 3rd basemen is an awful idea and totally pointless. If Aram goes down for an extended period of time, not only do I believe that Green would hit better, but would also obviously be a LOT better defensively than a guy who's played 4 innings there in his professional career. Ok, the Braun point obviously went over your head leading to the asinine and snide comment at the end. My point was if a guy who's played SS his entire life and comes up then as a 3B can't defend over there what makes you think it's realistic that Kottaras, a terrible defender at his given position can? Because Brandon Inge can? A GREAT defensive catcher as well as someone with much more athletic ability. Not to mention...it didn't work out that well for the Tigers. Inge was a terrible offensive 3rd basemen the last couple years who's only value derived from his defense as was the case when he was a catcher...where much less is expected. Not really. If he can't play the position he's played his entire life well, what makes you think(Other than Inge) that he'll be able to play 3rd base, a very difficult position to play without any prior experiance? I don't think this would even be mentioned if he wasn't off to a hot start. Jody Gerut had hot stretches as well, as did Chad Moeller...who I believe hit .280 the year before the Brewers traded for him.

I think Kottaras is a pretty overrated player on this board. He's pretty awful behind the plate, and he has been little more than a slightly above offensive BACKUP catcher thus far in his career. I'm not prepared to allow 16 AB's, as big as many of those have in fact been allow them to change my mind on him. I don't particularly care for him backing up 1st as I'd rather have Hart do that as I think Aoki+Hart in RF and 1B is better than Hart+Kottaras at RF and 1B. And with regard to a lack of offense Kottaras has a career .229/.313 OBP. Kotsay last year had a .270/.330 line. Kotsay obviously has a little more slugging potential, but not much. Not only that, but I suspect, or at least beleive Green should be up in June giving us that offense off the bench. He's reaching the age where he doesn't need the AB's everyday in the minor leagues. He's close to being the player he's going to be. If anything, he should be playing 2nd in AAA and Farris Short or 3rd. And finally, Kottaras in either the OF or at 3rd base is a terrible idea in my opinion. Ryan Braun was a SS at one of the best college teams in the nation and couldn't handle 3rd bse. Now we're going to move a catcher, a guy who's never played 3rd over there?

I agreed at the time, but including Thornburg in any trade is starting to get more and more absurd. I think he has the upside of an ace. People have had him pegged as a mid rotation type guy for years, but the guy just continues to dominate every step of the way. Just another outstanding start to the season at AA, dominating hitters with mid to upper 90's stuff. No, he's not Lincecum, but he doesn't need to be. There are legit similarities there beyond height and velocity.

The problem isn't really Ishikawa's lack of production. It's the fact that he's basically forcing Izturis to play more because he can only play 1st. I would have no problem if Ishikawa was kept as the 25th man if there were another backup 2B/3B on the team. Agreed, and I suspect that come June or so, Taylor Green will be brought up to start 1 or 2 games a week and be that PH'er off the bench in place of Ishikawa. Might as well get that extra year out of Green. He's got to be 25 now? No reason to keep him in AAA getting a full year of starts. A full 3 months is fine.

That's a bit of a shot at Mark Attanasio and Doug Melvin IMO. I think Counsell was around last year because he was a viable backup at SS and a very good defender around the IF, and had proven to be a good pinch hitter in certain situations and a guy who could draw a walk or at last had proven it in the past.

Agreed that it's too early to judge, but guys have gotten booed out of the stadium on Opening Day (Suppan, Helms, Deer to name a few). Let's say that we are 29 games in, the Brewers are 12-17 and Ramirez is hitting .163. Sounds like the perfect storm to me. Yeah, but that's like comparing apples to TV's. Those players had been with the team previously. This is our big FA signing. And yes, I suppose he could get booed early on. But I don't think it's especially useful to speculate as to how bad a player has to be at a certain point to get booed.

I tend to give most Brewers fans more credit than that. 9 games in.

I still wish this is what we would have done. A-Ram is a lot of money for an aging player. There is no Benjamin Button out there, everyone is aging. Aram is just 33 years old, and had a big year offensively last year. He would have been our 2nd best offensive player last year. Harriston was offered a deal that IIRC was equal to or even surpassed the Dodgers deal. I believe he wanted to play on the West Coast. And as for complaints about Veras who are these pitchers people believe are as talented as he is? Complaints about him are well unfounded at this point in time. You're using how many games? Axford has a 7.50 ERA. Veras has struck out per inning the last two years and put up 80 appearances last year. And we got him for Casey McGehee, a useless player last year. Meanwhile Ramirez had a 3.6 WAR, despite posting a .4 WAR the year before. This was mostly due to him working his way back from an injured shoulder that came halfway through a very productive 2009 season in which he was hitting .317/.390/.515 in 82 games and was on pace for a 4.0 WAR. As for Aram only making 6 million this year luckily we have guys coming off the books, made nearly 20 million last year, should increase ticket revenues significantly from last year with our price increase and us constantly surpassing last years bench marks, as well as the new radio(not sure how much) and Tv deals(20 million in additional revenue). So we're not as desperate for money as some thing. It's funny, I predicted that we'd be at 95 million last year 100 this year and 110 in 2012 and I was called delusional by a member of the forum. Well, we're at 102, Melvin said we still have some flexibility and after 19.2 million in profits and 20 million coming in, that 110 looks awfully conservative for someone who's delusional.

They made 19.2 million dollars last year, raised ticket prices, and have been puffing out their chests talking about all the record markers we are passing every time one comes along. The first day of season ticket sales, the first day of individual sales, partial season ticket packages. Anyway though, you're complaining, with all due repsct because of a couple of imperfections on the roster. Aoki is such good vs left handers that he can face RH'ers off the bench. We wanted a loogy, but Brddock wouldn't play along. We have a couple of potential options in the minors, but a loogy isn't a whole lot to complain about. As for Conrad V Ishikawa, I prefer Ishikawa wasn't even on the team due to the risk of him getting even 1 or 2 games a week at 1st base as I truly believe Gamel is a 4_ WAR a year player on average from next year through the following 4-5 years. Not an all star, but a guy who'll top out at .300/.375/.500 with 25-33 or so HR's. But that's not the point. The complaints about this roster are, with all due respect, about as nit picky as one can get. You're talking about a GM who; Brought back all 5 starting pitchers from last year. -Kept in tact the dynamic duo at the back of our bullpen with two elite relievers. -Traded a completely inept 3rd baemen last year at 3rd base for a very competent live armed 7th inning man to preceed those two back end guys. -Signed the top offensive player on the market at one of our two positions of need, a guy mind you coming off a .300/30/90-ish type season last year to fill one of those positions. The other was filled by the player we've ALL been clamoring for. -Replaced one one of the worst defensive Shortstops in baseball for a vastly superior defender at Short, and a guy with more power(I believe it was fan graphs that said had Gonzalez hit the ball exactly as he had last year, but played in Miller Park, he'd have had 27 HR's. Not a career high by the way. -When Braun was possibly lost went out and signed the best Japenese player and an ideal fit to this team in Aoki. Incidentally, a move that looked particularly intelligent when Hart had knee surgery 4 weeks before OD. And upped the payroll to 102+ million dollar WHILE recently stating that we still have payroll flexibility. What could he have done else? I suppose he could have signed Reyes to play SS for significantly more money. He could have signed Jamey Carroll to back up the IF. Would have cost more. Could have signed Harriston, a significantly more expensive signing for a player who did not want to stay in Milwaukee. Personally, I'd have given Green 3rd base, signed Reyes, looked to have traded Hart this upcoming off-season and then worked out a long term contract to Greinke, but Reyes wasn't realistic, and Hart's been pretty dang good now the last couple years. But for the team we had going into the off-season, he did a pretty damn good job IMO of keeping our guys here and bringing new players in. And Aram doesn't look like much, but I would certainly hope that he's going to fulfill his reputation as a slower starter. I believe without looking, but I don't think he started real strong last year either, and ended up having one of the best years of all 3rd basemen in the NL, if not the best offensively.

A guy like Edwin Jackson makes sense to me. He's about the only guy I can picture us realistically signing that could shutdown a team in the post-season. He has that type of stuff. Frankly I wanted to find a way to sign him this year when he hung around so long for 1 year and 10 million...which was obviously not feasible(unless they'd perhaps traded Marcum for a couple B prospects. His yearly numbers won't likely be as good as Marcum, but I like my chances in the post-season much more with him than Marcum(a statement I made before the season, and to a lesser degree Wolf and Narveson, though lefties seem to be able to get away with a bit more without great stuff(.

First of all, I don't know that Hart is one of the top 5 RF'ers in all of baseball...and I don't particularly care. This was under the assumption that we rebuild. Hart is a FA after next year. I don't think it's a particularly wise baseball move to re-sign him. I don't see him aging well. Not to mention, if we're rebuilding, Hart's likely not going to be much of a threat by the time we're contending again. As for your assessment of Greinke, from ages 23-28 his ERA is 3.45 and he's coming off a 2.98 FIP and has looked as good as a Brewers pitcher has looked since CC so far this year. Even in his blow up inning, he wasn't getting hit hard, he was giving up seeing eye singles, bloopers and hitting his spots. I have a lot of thoughts about your assessment of Greinke, but I'll just sum it up with I think you're ridiculously underestimating him. AS for using WAR, if you want to look at WAR, which by the way, isn't intended to literally mean a player is worth X number of wins, it should be used to compare players, nothing more. But Greinke has more WAR in one season than Wolf has in his FIVE seasons combined. In fact, Greinke's WORST WAR since he was 23 years old is Wolf's best Wolf's career. Greinke's about as good a pitcher as the Brewers are going to get. They're not going to be able to replace him, and unlike in a lineup, you can't makeup for Greinke's production by getting slightly better at other spots. I also think it's ridiculous to think that Wily Peralta is going to ever become the pitcher Greinke is and I think Peralta is a helluva prospect. But lets say he does. THEN we've got a legit WS team. If we could trot out Greinke, Yo and then another pitcher as good as those two, that's what makes for a Championship team. Not Randy Wolf as your #2 pitcher and a rookie as your #3.

I just started a thread about this. I'd much rather have a fire sale than hit the FA market. Who are we going to go after? Hamels? Meh, sure. 5 years 110? I guess. I'd rather have Grienke as I think he'll prove more durable. Cain already signed. James Shields? Great, another elite pitcher. I don't see either coming to Milwaukee though given the other options available. Boston will likely go after one of those two hard. The Phillies may put up a fight to keep Hamels. The Angels, Tigers, Rangers....I just don't see us ending up with one of the top three pitchers on the market, all 3 of whom are legit ace types. I fear we'll re-sign a pitcher like Marcum to an inflated contract, 4/50 and then try and sign a guy like Jorge Dela Rosa for 2 years and 18 million dollars or some other such nonsense. We have the money. There isn't any question about that anymore. Signing Grienke may be one of the most important moves this franchise makes or has made. With him and a couple of our guys in the minors coming up and reaching their ceilings, the Brewers could certainly win a WS.

[sarcasm]CAN'T BE! How can we bash RR before he makes a decision if he doesn't play along?[/sarcasm]

Just curious what the boards opinion is if we lose Greinke to Free Agency? Let me start by saying I think the Brewers have a very good start in the farm system and a very good core of young pitchers down there. Tyler Thornburg, while he's only 2 games in, has a .82 ERA. If he continues to progress, he's a guy who could legitimately be available later this year in some capacity, most likely as a reliever, but I think he could be a dominant one for us down the stretch in Sept and possibly in the post-season. Similar to Adam Wainwright for the Cards in 2004. But you have Thornburg, Jed Bradley, both of whom I believe could front a rotation, Jungman and Peralta, both of whom I believe are capable of being #2's, and then Fiers whom I can't figure out for the life of me, but at some point you need to stop bickering and just accept the results which have been just extraordinary at every single level even the higher levels. But I think we all know that while these pitchers are CAPABLE of reaching these levels, it's almost certain that they'll fall short. Unless you're the Rays, you can't count on your pitchers to actually perform to their cieling. Still, it's a heckuva start. Now if you plug them into the rotation AS THEY'RE READY behind Grienke AND Gallardo, you could have a overall cheap and incredibly dominant starting rotation for the next 5-6-7 years. If you can get one of those guys to reach his ceiling, even if the rest fall a bit short and Bradley becomes a 2/3, Peralta a 3, Jungman a 200 Innings a year 4.25 ERA type guy, etc..etc...but Thornburg in this scenario becomes another #1, you've got a Phillies like rotation. Which is why I think with all our newfound financial resources; 1-19.2 million in profits last year 2-9 pct ticket increase. 3-record ticket sales for this point in the season already surpassing 2 million tickets. 4-20 million in additional TV revenue coming in. 5-A new radio deal which is said to add revenue(though I have no idea if that's 5 million 100 million of 1 million). And the Brewers are in position truly contend for the foreseeable future. BUT-if they lose Greinke, what should the plan be? My fear is they'll try and make up for it by signing Marcum to an inflated 4 year 50 million dollar deal, a contract I fear would be a nightmare, and then go out and try and sign a guy like Edwin Jackson to a 4 year 45 million dollar deal(a deal I'd be much more alright with). And go with the same team they have this year for the most part. My particular preference would be to see the Brewers blow it up. 1-Trade Hart for a SS. Jackson Profar would be ideal as the Rangers are set at SS with Andrus, but guys like Billy Hamilton from the Reds, a team that's been trying to fill LF for a few years might bite, Xander Boegarts from Boston may be a fit with Iglassias a higher ranked SS, Nick Franklin Seattle, Johnathan Schoop from Baltimore,a potential star, and certainly behind Machado at SS, Jean Segura from the Angels who may or may not be happy with Aybar as their current SS, Lindor from Cleveland which is unlikely without a top prospect to supplement the trade with Hart, or a couple darkhorses like Rosell Herrara from Col who obviously is blocked at short or Jaycee Peterson a guy with HUGE upside as a former Cornerback. Some of these obviously wouldn't be 1 for 1 type deals. In many cases, it might come down to Hart being traded for prospects and then us working out a deal with a team that has a top shortstop blocked. Or Hart plus a prospect. WHATEVER. Address the SS position. 2-Let the FA's walk. Marcum 8 million K-Rod 8.5 million Wolf 10 million Grienke 13.5 million Hart 10 million Morgan-2.5 million-Not much use for him if we're going to be starting over. Aram-6-10 million(much will depend on what he does this year, but there were teams such as the Angels interested in him last year. If he can put together another .300/25/90 type season for us this year, I'm guessing we could trade him for a B- type prospect and only have to eat 6-7 million dollars on the contract. If he struggles to, then perhaps more. That's over 50 million dollars that we could shave off the payroll. That, to my way of thinking leaves us with ONE question. Weeks. Do you trade Weeks as well, especially if he has a good season, or do you move him..again, provided he has a good season for a couple prospects? He's the type of guy who could help a LOT of teams out. He's also the type of guy who I'd like to see stick around Milwaukee and remain part of our core. So I say he stays. That leaves you with' Braun, Yo, Weeks, Lucroy as your regulars. A lineup of RFAoki/1BGamel/LF Braun/2B Weeks/3B Green/CF Schafer-Gomez/C Lucroy/SS Gonzalez I'm still hoping out hope that the type of AB's Gomez has been putting together will finally lead to more confidence, taking more pitches and him continuing to hit the ball well. A .285/.325 line from him would make him a 5+ WAR player IMO as I think he'd steal 60 bags. Schafer however reminds me of Steve Finley. Pitching Staff would be decimated obviously, but you'd be rebuilding. Gallardo/Narveson/Peralta/Fiers/Thornburg BP-Axford/Veras as well as others You're obviously starting from scratch, but you're also pretty well set up with the upcoming draft. Marcum and Greinke would net you additional 1st round picks. So in addition to 2011 when you had 2 first rounders who look to be durable inning eaters with high upsides and a 2nd rounder who may have the highest upside. You have back to back 1st round picks in the 2012 draft, plus a supplemental 1st round pick as well as your 2nd round picks. 2013 you will have 3 first round picks, plus 2 supplemental 1sts. That's a total of 7 first rounders in 3 years and 3 supplemental 1st rounders to add to a farm system that has several extremely talented toolsy players in the lower levels, including a couple on the DR team that could turn out to be stars, but a system that's also lacking any truly elite prospects as of right now. Use the slashed payroll over the next couple years to identify the players who have a long term future with the Brewers. Mat Gamel IMO will be one of those players, Taylor Green I view as a Mark Loretta type player with more power, Aoki is 30, but his type of skills tend to diminish a bit later than others. He should be a viable starting option for 5-6 years IMO. But the bottom line is that I don't want to see the Brewers stuck in the purgatory that the Brewers are currently in, or find themselves in the position the Astro's found themselves in trying to hang on to long trying to win. Without Grienke, I don't think we have a team that can win a World Series. So the next best option IMO is to take what we have that can help us win in the future, ie, Braun, Gamel, Gallardo, Weeks(maybe) and then see what we have in the plethora of young arms we've got coming up. See who sticks. Take the money saved from the payroll to lock them in, be it Thornburg, or whomever, be much more aggressive in the foreign markets before they become subjected to the draft, get into the Cepedis type players sweepstakes and use that money to add talent to the system. If we draft wisely, add a couple impact bats, our pitching develops, we could turn around and contend again within 3 years and be a legitimate contender in 4-5 years. If we hold on IMO, keep our payroll up at 110 with the likes of overpaying Marcum and a second tier starting pitcher, we're going to struggle to win 85 games and will be a couple injuries away from being a 70-some win team. Relocating those assets, slashing our major league payroll in lieu of re-building our system and then locking in those players who prove to be part of the future is a far smarter way to go. Of course the best case scenario is to sign Greinke, even if it takes a 5 year 115 million dollar extension, thereby keeping our window open for another 5 years is preferable. But, again, if that doesn't work out, I don't want to see this team just hang on to try and appease the fan base at the expense of the long term goal of winning a world series.

Really, the more I think about it, the less I care if our RF'er hits 30 Hr's and puts up Hart like numbers. At this point, I'd prefer a guy who could hit .300+ with a .385 OBP even if that only comes with a .400 SLG. Not to mention the fact that he'd likely be incredible defensively, at least compared to Hart. Saves 10 million, gives us a legit leadoff hitter who can hit both left and right handed pitchers. This is ALL based on the pretense that Aoki is what I think he is. A couple of really impressive at bats where he takes 12 pitches and works his way for a walk or puts a good swing on the ball. That's not nearly enough in and of itself, but this isn't like Russell Branyan when he went on his HR binge or George Kottaras right now. There is something to be said about HOW he goes about his at bats, and I think being able to battle like he does is something we're sorely lacking, something great offensive teams like Boston and New York seemingly always have, and if he can continue to produce, I'd be all for trading Hart to a team that is desperate for some power production in return for a top 100 prospect, ideally a shortstop. In fact, the Braves would be my personal choice as they've got a couple really good looking young shortstops. In doing so you've got a cheap RF'er who can hit leadoff, and a young, elite SS who you'd control for 6 years. Or 5 if it's Pastronicky(as this would likely take place after this year).

Yeah, this is great. Rather than jumping around from player page to player page it's all in one area. And can someone explain to me how every time I see Thornburg's #'s, they look like a mistake? Like they've subtracted a couple runs from his ERA? If he can continue to pitch like this for just even 5 more starts in AA, I think it's time to move him to AAA. Actually, he won't continue to pitch "like this," ie, a .82 ERA, but if he can continue to dominate, keep striking out more than 9 per IP, and keep his walks down...and move him up to AAA. I suppose the other train of thought would be to keep him in AA all year long and then he'd be ready next year to contend for a starting spot in the big league rotation, but unfortunately the Brewers don't operate like the Marlins do in this respect as they very rarely promote from AA as opposed to AAA. I'm not going to start going too much back into it, but Thornburg is another reason why I think re-signing Greinke is so important. I think he can be a boarderline ace. A legit #2. Of course his upside will be questioned until he actually does it due to his size, but if he were 5 inches taller, nobody would doubt him at all. But if we're allowed to slot him, Peralta and Narveson BEHIND Greinke and Yo, our rotation could develop into a truly great one. Two aces, a 1/2 in Thornburg, Peralta as a #2/3 and Narveson as an very good 5. And hell, the way Bradley and Jungman have started, it may be when Narveson starts getting too expensive, you could have replacements for him as well. But asking him to step in and fill Greinke's shoes? A recipe for disappointment.

That doesn't mean the manager agrees with you.Where did Izturis bat when he played 3rd again?

Can't disagree with that, his numbers have been real good since 2010 and his contract runs out next year when he is 31 and hopefully Gindl can take over at league minimum so that they can afford some pitching. Or...Aoki. I have been incredibly impressed with him so far this year. He could easily be an everyday leadoff hitter who posts a .375 OBP with fantastic defense. I think we get caught up a bit too much in trying to fit partiular offensive skill sets into defensive positions. But lets put Rickie's production in RF and Aoki's at 2nd base. Nobody would complain. In fact, we'd be thriled. So what he won't hit 30 HR's. Neither does Ichiro.

And if the product of that is having to sign ONE player, Zach Greinke, to an inflated contract, then so be it. He's that important to ANY chance the Brewers have to win a World Series, sometimes you bite the bullett and you make that deal. Hart was signed at a time when I thought he should have been traded(proven very wrong). Weeks was signed a year later after I thought he should have been(proven right IMO). Yo was also signed even later than I would have as I would have gone 8 years 60+ million to sign him earlier as he just strikes me as a guy who can stay healthy with a very solid delivery. Beyond that, if we have to lose Weeks in a couple years, I think Gennett should be ready. If we have to lose Hart in a couple years, Aoki/Schafer/Gindl could fill in admirably and you can take that 20+ million and allocate it elsewhere. I'm in the minority, though I'd like to see Weeks hand around and get paid before he comes up, I don't think that guys like Green, Gamel, Gennett, Schafer, Braun, Aoki, Lucroy and guys like that can make a balanced enough and productive enough lineup to win IF we can maintain an elite pitching staff and even take that a step further and throw in any number of our talented starting pitchers, or a power armed relievers coming up through the system that I think we could have a 12 man staff that could really be dominant from top to bottom. And a lineup that could be exceptional defensively. Not to mention, two years ago the thought of Tyler Thornburg literally being a potential starter for THIS SEASON was unfathomable. Who's to say Richardson isn't going to be that breakout player this year and just mash his way though AA and become an elitle prospect. Or Kentrail Davis who has the potential to be "that guy," still could break out. So we don't know which offensive player is going to step up and become a stud, and I'm of the belief that Gamel is going to be a 4+ WAR player, Green a Mark Loretta with 20+ HR type player, Lucroy I think could hit 18, Schafer I think could hit 15....Weeks and Braun could hit 75 together...we could have a lineup of .275/340 type hitters who can play defense, and lack superstars, but is more tha good enough to produce a lineup that can thrive with it's top to bottom solid production, as we build a GREAT rotation. Not to mention, you'd be looking at saving a helluva lot of money to go with young players. And a side note, we have to go BPA with our 3 1st round picks, but we DO have 3 first rounders. Who's to say we can't find a couple offensive gems in there who move quickly and are in Milwaukee in a couple years or used as trade bait? Bottom line, I think that our farm system is vastly underrated, we'll have to see what happens next year, but I think we see this system in the top 12 or so next year and still rising.

I think it's a big exaggerated just how bad Izturis really is. He's a back up SS. Just like back up Catchers(Except on the Brewers, or they would have gone with my guy MM to start the season...luckily they did not) you want a guy who can catch the ball first and foremost.

Any thoughts where this kid is going to start out the year? There are no absolutes and obviously how one team handles it's players is differently from how another does. But I'd really like to see the Brewers start to get a little more aggressive with their prospects. I don't know yet if Arcia is the next Starlin Castro, though I do like his chances to be a big league SS in the future(though it's so far away it's just speculation, more reason to be excited). He just seems like a kid who at 17 is primed to get pushed a little bit. I frankly don't see any problem giving him some games in Wisconsin before letting him play in Helena next year. I just don't see a whole lot for him to gain from another year in the DSL. In fact, I'm curiou as to others thoughts on how many from that team will be brought over this year. Does Sosa come as well? Perhaps Torezz as well. Any thoughts? But the bottom line is I want to see the same approach taken with Arcia as Melvin said he was going to take with Thornburg, ie, start to push him aggressively.

And you think that one comment among hundreds can't be changed? Anyway, we've seen what Aoki has been doing. He's been a great pinch hitter, and he's been the guy to get a start in the OF. And one does NOT have to beleive anything. Morgan has more value to us, and Aoki is a great value off the bench. At least for this year. Moving forward, he can back up this year, we can perhaps trade Hart next year to clear payroll if we need it(which we won't, not with the massive additional revenue coming in next year for Greinke). But he could give us a legit leadoff hitter. Schafer could take over the role Aoki is playing this year, or they could split time given Aoki's ability to hit left handers. There is no reason to ruin a good thing. We have a very good OF with a lot of versatile defenders who can all hit and get on base(maybe not Gomez..yet, but I think he's coming around...and it's not like he's 30 years old...he's building confidence and maybe that's all he needs, god knows he's got the physical ability). I'd sacrifice the power if wanted a CF/RF combination of Gomez, Schafer and Aoki. Aoki could lead off, and what I've seen so far, there's nothing that suggests to me he couldn't be a fantastic leadoff hitter, Gomez, I've already said I think is going to break out. Even if it's just .285/.330/.440, he'd be a AS caliber CF'er with his defense. And Schafer reminds me of Steve Finley with perhaps a little less power. The bottom line is what are we going to get for any of them at this point? We're flush in the pen, he's not expensive, and if you're not going to get much for him, there is no reason to replace him. And by the way, this may come as a shock, but opening day rosters....are seldom the same even a month later, much less at the ASB. Conrad hits in AAA and he'll get his shot. The myth about him destroying left handers is equal to saying that Gamel can't hit at the big league level. Except Gamel has more AB's in the bigs that were poor than Conrad has/had vs lefties that were productive. Not that I disagree. Just that I believe the facts are being distorted. I also believe Conrad should be starting.