HiAndTight

You think that may be a bit of an exaggeration? In 71 career AB's, he's got a .823 OPS vs LH'ers. Not exactly enough to say he destroys them.

I disagree on Gomez. I picked him as my breakout guy thsi year, and he's looked exceptional all year long thus far. He's taking pitching, staying back on the ball, he's also staying on top of the ball. He needs to go to right a bit more, but he's such a talented physical specimen and he's still plenty young that I think he is more than capable of breaking out still.

God it's nice to have some power arms in our system who can get their secondary stuff over. Just another reason to re-sign Greinke. If we can develop just a couple of these guys to be #2/3 type starters with two established guys atop the rotation, we should have the pitching to keep us in playoff contention for a long time.

Absolutely. Expecting Peralta to replace Greinke in the first place is HIGHLY unlikely. But I think if the Brewers want to keep their window open for the next 4-5 years, they have to sign Greinke and then use all their young pitchers to supplement their #1/#2 combo in Yo and Greinke. Those two topping the rotation with Peralta, Thornburg, Fiers, Narveson, Bradley, Jungman in the next 2-3 years all being either ready, or knocking on the door could help us fill out a dominant rotation. In this scenario you're not asking these guys to step in early in their career and be #2 starters, you're simply asking them to step in and fill out the rotation. And while Mark Attanasio continues to suggest that the Brewers COULD lose money, Forbes reported their 2011 income at 19.2 million dollars. That, the fact that they're ahead of last years pace for ticket sales, and they've raised ticket prices almost 10 pct AND they have 20 million dollars coming in additional TV revenue on top of a new radio deal that adds revenue(no idea how much though) and the Brewers seem to be doing just fine right now. So to take a player like Greinke and raise his salary from 13.5 to lets say 21.5 has to be done IMO in order to keep a competitive team on the field. Let Wolf and Marcum walk, replace them with Peralta and Fiers and possibly Thornburg if he continues to ascend. Bottom line, we have a farm system to round out a roster, we need to keep in place a core of players for them to round out. By the way, I also believe Mat Gamel will be a part of that core. Gallardo, Greinke, Braun, Weeks, Gamel, Hart and Axford. Luckily two of them will be cheap for a long time. Also luckily we've got a plethora of potential viable starting pitching options and fillers around them. Basically, I think 1 Greinke+a Peralta is worth more than two Wolf type pitchers, and in more than just WAR. One has the potential to dominate the best when he's on, to win big post-season games, to be consistently counted on to save the pen, etc..etc... And I still think we see the 2009 Greinke this season and moving forward(not quite as good obviously, but a guy who can consistently be under 3.00 ERA).

That seems incredibly unlikely with 7 K's as well. So he had 19 pitches to get the other 4 innings? I'm guessing it was a mistake and he threw 75 pitches and they just didn't report the ball to strike ratio correctly. Edit-I see the mistake has been cleared up.

Oakland to me seems like the FIRST place I'd expect him to go. They certainly haven't shied away from large signing bonuses for unproven Latin American/Cuban talent. It seems to be the way they choose to take their risks. I know Michael Iona I believe it was, was just another guy they outbid everyone else for. Now that's a slightly different situation, that was like 4+ million, but it was also for a yount pitcher with projectability. Cespedes is a 26 year old man ready to break out in the big leagues and thrive in the big leagues right out of the gate. Not in 2 yeaers or 3, but right now. Just seems to fall in line with Oakland's philosophy.

We're also in a much better position than Cincy to replace any injured starter. The Cardinals sadly trump up with blue chip starters coming up, but Peralta is clearly ready to step in should we suffer an injury. And while Estrada should be the guy for a minor injury, Peralta should be the guy for a pitcher who's going to miss more than a couple starts. I like Estrada as the long man, but Peralta has dominant stuff. Of course that's a lengthy list of pitchers with equally impressive stuff who don't pan out....but, until proven otherwise, I see no reason not to be confident in him.

Not sure, the last SS the Braves traded turned out juuust fine in Toronto. I can think of a couple of Texas Rangers who would disagree with that sentiment. I think when you start with these nonsensical arbitrary rules and give up on your own scouting reports and the opinions of your scouts, you're not really going anywhere.

That may be the most condescending comment I have ever heard. You're not informed if you don't buy into the consensus that closers are overrated. Because it's been proven time and time again that just any reliever can step into the relievers role and deal with the pressure placed upon such an important role. I value the closers role a great deal. It's cost us, or at least significantly contributed to many of our downfallsin the past few years. Hoffman, Gagne, Turnbow. Sabermetrics has changed the games, but it's getting a little absurd. Example is WAR. Where people take WAR to literally mean a player is worth this many wins rather than a measurement against his peers taking into account the totality of the player. Just the suggestion that if you don't agree with a particular sentiment means you're not a "well informed baseball fan," is asinine IMO. An elite closer can have a huge impact on a bullpen as Axford showed last year, especially after getting K-Rod. There are plenty of pitchers who have great stuff, but fail year after year in the closer role while dominating in the 7th or 8th inning role. Though again, the main point here is that because the consensus on this board is that the closer position isn't highly valued, those who disagree are not well informed fans is what's truly condscending.

They gave up "NOTHING," for him last year because the Mets couldn't possible afford to pay him 17.5 this year in a non-contending year. He's been a fantastic pitcher, just as he was for us this year and is among the current leaders in saves. And I'm not sure how it elludes you that in the off-season with everyone injury free a players value may change vs the in-season after your CLOSER goes down. So to recap; 1-He was traded last year strictly for payroll. 2-He's been a dominant reliever nearly his entire career. 3-A big market team that has a WS of bust mentality every year just lost their closer. Gee, can't think of a single reason anyone would be interested in him.

And now because of the two big league catchers from last year, Lucroy who we locked up, Kottaras, Maldonado, and now Jarmillo. How many catchers ready for the big leagues do we really need? Perhaps this was a favor to Rivera. Allow him to go to another organization and catch on with them. I don't know. Certainly not a big deal though.

I played against him when he was in high school. Heckuva catcher in HS. It's been fun following him and now that he's on the Brewers it'll be a lot more fun than when he was with the Pirates.

It fits in because you have to compare the value of a starting pitcher vs a middle reliever. If he succeeds as a starter this year and can hold down the #5 spot in 2013, he's much more valuable to the team than if he is a 6th or 7th inning reliever. Relievers are a lot easier to find that starters and a lot cheaper too. So why move Rogers to middle relief when he still has a viable shot at being a somewhat successful starting pitcher? Beside, it's not like if he fails at starting this season he can't move to the bullpen next season. My point is how can you turn around and talk about all this value he has as a starter, how he has the talent to be an ace, and then at the same time say he's "just a middle reliever," in the BP? And it's not like we're the Pirates and we're talking about Gerritt Cole. We're a legitimate contender this year. We've got a plethora of potential starters who don't break down with such consistency. The only reason he'd "only," be a middle reliever is because of who we already have established as a 8th or a 9th inning reliever. And to respond to your last statement, it's also not like we can't move him to the rotation after staying healthy and contributing to the big league team for ONE year. At the very least, it'd be nice to get something out of him at some point. If he can stay healthy as you're suggesting this year, I'd rather use up whatever he has left in that shoulder for the big league club. If he stays healthy, let him compete next year for the rotation. As for your statement about having value....I don't want to argue semantics, but he's not a top prospect anymore. He's a guy who's one more injury away from BEING cut as you say. He hasn't done anything for the Brewers yet, and I doubt anyone would give up anything for him. I don't consider a guy like that to have a whole lot of value.

I don't see Mark Rogers having any actual value right now to begin with, so losing "value," is a pretty relative term. If you get anything out of him this year, that's more value than he's previously had. And saying he's "at best," a 7th inning guy...I don't understand where that possibly fits into the argument. That's got nothing to do with him and everything to do with who we've already got there. That doesn't mean he wouldn't be incredibly valuable in there. Having deep bullpen is more important today than ever before. I'd love to have 3 legit shutdown relievers, Loe someone who can handle lefties, and then a long man in Estrada/Parra. Obviously having Braddock as that loogy would be ideal. And next year we should have several more minor league pitches ready to contribute. Peralta, Thornburg and an array of relievers should be kicking down the big league door. Provided each continue to progress, and there isn't much reason to think either won't, we could do a lot worse than Greinke/Gallardo/Peralta/Thornburg and Narveson. And Scarpetta's a darkhorse IMO to step up this year and be ready to be a 6th or 7th option next year.

Nor do I think anyone expects him to actually become Johan Santana. The point was rather obvious I thought.

Exactly. The Twins are another team that hasn't always had top farm systems. But they've found some guys along the way to supplement their stud players. We don't need another Braun(though another Braun who happpens to play 3rd base would be nice, but I'm 'bout ready to let that one go).

Probably the exception, not the rule. But regardless. I see Tyler Thornburg who has had no issues with healthy, Wily Peralta, a workhorse who has a history in '07 a TJ surgery. Scarpetta...very little injury concern. Bradley and Jugnman, not much injury history. MY personal favorite Brooks Hall who has been pampered. So with a long list of nice AAA starters(and I ALWAYS FRIGGIN FORGET FIERS) there is no shame in just leaving him in the pen and even pampering him in there. If the 8th and 9th are locked down, and you throw Rogers into the equation, there is no reason he can't play a Saito type role this year in that we don't pitch him on back to back's, take it easy on him, don't get him up and sit him down 3 times a game...etc..etc...

And that was knee slapping hilarious(I'm also being sarcastic), but with the exception of Gamel who was only blocked by Braun, Prince, Hart and McGehee. What other players do we have that are blocked or that are suppose to have been playing the last several years that haven't? We wait to long on Lucroy? Has Gindl just been BANGING down the door? Schafer? He's had ONE healthy year now where he was within range of the actual big leagues. So please show us this lengthy list of players that Melvin and "CO," has always done with young players on there team.

Calling a pitcher with two seasons in which he hasn't reached the 200 inning mark in Petco one of the best in the game, a tad premature.

Why are you so concerned with "long term solutions," at this point, in March, two weeks from opening day with a team coming off 96 wins and a team that is arguably as good, if not better as a whole. And we're worried about that trading a player won't "do all that much to hurt the team this year." Evaluate that statement. All that much, might be the difference. Anyway, I like our farm a lot better than these rankings. Especially with the players we have already in the bigs. That's all based on a Greinke/Gallardo duo atop the rotation for a while.

No surprise. Anyone who knows Gantner knows that's just the type fo guy he is. We always hope that the players we root for, ESPECIALLY a player like Gantner who played his whole career with one organization and was part of one of the best trio's of all time....but Gantner is one of the slimiest guy I know.

A-We don't know who's going to be on our bench. If Green makes the big league team, you're wrong in your assessment of our bench. B-How many teams out there that are mid market teams have a bench with legit power hitters?

Trade for a shortstop? Upgrade the starting rotation by signing Edwin Jackson or Roy Oswalt? Trade for a starting pitcher? Sign Saito and have boatloads left over? I could keep going...Trade for what shortstop and trade who? Stephen Drew? Alright, sounds good. Lets give up who exactly for a SS as good as he is coming off injury? And if not him, who? Scutaro is a great idea if you knew at the start of Free Agency what he'd be traded for. 2-So rather than a significant upgrade at 3rd with a proven big leaguer, we should have signed Edwin Jackson, who by the way, when we signed Aram was looking for 4 years at 12 million per? 3-Roy Oswalt? The guy who has expressed almost no interest in Milwaukee and has been particularly interested in a very limited amount of teams? 4-Sign Saito? Do you really think that Signing Aram stopped us from signing Saito? I don't think the two are the least bit related. So I would have to ask you to keep going. And not just assume that whatever another player signed for could have signed for the same amount for the Brewers, ie, Rollins signing for equal money to Aram does not mean we could have gotten Rollins for that same price.

I'm still at a loss why we're so consistently disappointed that a guy who's been worth 12 WAR over 12 seasons wasn't brought back to a team that Melvin has said specifically needs to rely on their younger home grown players, and believes we have several guys who can contribute in the near future. And actually, since 1998, it's only 11.9 WAR. So still not getting the BF.NET love. He can hit it a mile and he gets red hot for 2-3 week stretches and then can't hit for 3 months. You are acting like he's been a full time player over his career. 12 WAR in 3400 AB means he's been about average. He's getting pretty old these days but at league min, he could still be a nice option off the bench for a team.And yet there are some people actually scared that Corey Patterson, who over roughly the same amount of time in the league has a WAR of 11.5 to Branyan's 11.9 makes the big league team on a minor league deal. One is still an above average defense, and would likely be a fantastic defender in LF, the other can't move and would be a disaster out there. Not to mention that if you're looking for LH'ed pop off the bench, that's about the only thing we have in offensive position players ready for the big leagues, most of whom are thought to be #4 type OF'ers, ie, not starters, so perfect fits. And far better defenders(Gindl, Schafer, and then Green for 1st and 3rd covering all the positions that Branyan can't play). The Branyan love at this point is just so far over the top and ridiculous. He's a guy who hit the ball with power and drew walks, both very valuable. Sadly though it almost ALWAYS came for very short periods of time in which he went on ridiculous runs followed up by incredibly long runs of futility and can't play any position right now except for a bat off the bench. Which...by the way is stock full of left handed hitters. So no, I don't have any problem seeing why Melvin didn't want him, and frankly, Melvin will probably have several more shots at him this year if he really has even the slightest bit of interest.

I don't understand how people have convinced themselves that Jimmy Rollins, a fixure in Philly, and a player playing on the best team in the National League would have just been had by the Brewers for the same money he signed with the Phillies for. Why uproot his family when he's played his entire career in Philly and they're a better team than us? More likely, it'd have cost significantly more money than the Phillies signed him for. It's like arguing that the Brewers and Phillies are on the same level in terms of attracting Free Agents, not to mention, potential HOF players who've already got 12 years in playing for the Phillies.