HiAndTight

No, he said he would be fine going somewhere to be a SU man. He understands that's the role that he's going to have.

Ramirez isn't exactly the second coming of Brooks Robinson either. I wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole, as I believe that he has 'overpaid albatross around neck' written all over him. I'd rather go with McGehee and address SS. No, but I don't know who said he had to be. He is MUCH better than Mark Reynolds however. As for prefering to go with McGehee and addressing SS, I don't understand why it has to be one or the other. If you were to bring in Ramirez, it would greatly lessen the importance on finding an elite SS and you could focus instead on finding a guy with a very good glove and not much offense. Though I can't bring myself to want to go with McGehee under any circumstance. He's terrible defensively and he's awful offensively. That's not preferable to any scenario in my opinion. And, finally, with regard to Ramirez being an "overpaid albatross," I'm not sure if a player can be when his contract would expire after next year, and the value of his current production exceeds his contract at this point. Simply put, McGehee+$20 some million>>>>>> Ramirez... not even mentioning that the Cubs would probably want something of decent value for him. If you are looking at him for 2012, just wait for the Cubs to buy him out, and you'll get him for a lot cheaper than the option. Your argument doesn't make sense. If Ramirez is such an albatross and not even worthy of contemplating, why then do you think the Cubs would want a good prospect in addition? What's more, why would the Cubs demand a good prospect in return if they plan on simply buying him out? Either way, it'd cost more to sign him as a FA and be a MUCH bigger risk as he's likely going to get a 3-4 year deal than it would be to trade for him and wait for his contract to expire(and collect the compensation if we so decided). At the end of the day though, just summing it up as "20 million plus McGehee or Ramirez," doesn't really say much. McGehee has negative value at this point now and you have to be able to get something better for that 20 million over the next two years, and do so without giving up a lot of prospects. FA's are going to cost money over a longer period of time(or they're simply not going to be that good). More talented players with lower salaries are going to cost more in return. And signing Ramirez after this season, even if you could get him for 1 year and 16 million is missing the whole point. That he would be of great help next year is simply a bonus, but teaming him up with Prince THIS year would be the more important issue. Solving the 3rd base issues in our "go for it," year is the whole point. Not that next year won't be a year in which we intend and are capable of competing, but we're particularly geared up for this year.

Mark Reynolds is absolutely terrible at 3rd base. If we're going to go that route, we might as well move Braun back and try and pick up and OF'er. Better production and cheaper. Same with Wiggington...though not as bad defensively, he's worse than McGehee at 3rd. And it's not like either is lighting it up with their sticks. Murphy's having a nice year, but he's more of a utility guy to me who's playing well, and is cheap. So I see no motivation on the Mets part to move him. So there is a reason they offer so much less risk and are so much cheaper than Ramirez. They're not anywhere near as good. Ramirez could be a guy to put us over the top. Ramirez hitting 6th behind Hart, Lucroy 7th and then perhaps a Jamey Carroll hitting 8th IMO elevates us to the the level of the Phillies. Particularly because I'm of the belief that Greinke will come around.

No, we are talking roughly $22-23 million for 1.3 seasons. His option for next year is vested if he is traded, meaning any team acquiring him is locked into next year as well. In that case, absolutely no way they should even think about this.I think you absolutely have to think about this. Trading for Ramirez would mean you could effectively put a glove at shortstop, even an Adam Everett type(when he was younger) and your team would be set. The five starters, the everyday players. Gamel/Weeks/Defensive SS/Ramirez/Braun/Morgan/Hart. Bench of Kottaras or Maldonado, Green, Wilson, Gomez and Gindl. And you get that for roughly the same payroll you have this year, AND you're getting the TV deal kicking in next year(or the year after, but I believe it's next year). With the BP pieces you have now, and the young pitchers you have coming up in that role, you'd be able to greatly improve your team without adding much salary, and while rebuilding your farm system. Now at the end of the day is it worth it? Are there better alternatives? Not sure. But to summarily dismiss it seems short sighted to me.

Because the best three from the first half doesn't mean they'll be your best three moving forward. No matter how you cut it, Greinke still has to be counted on as your #1 for a couple reasons. First, he's shown he's more than capable of it, despite running into some obvious hiccups. He can dominate like no Brewers pitcher since Sheets(and obviously CC). Second, if he doesn't step up and become a legit #1, the Brewers aren't going anywhere either.

I think this underrates how valuable a guy that can post an .800+ OPS for league-min. is. For a team that's trying to operate around its maxed-out payroll, guys like Gamel are critical to have. Not saying I'd be against trading Mat absolutely, but his value to the Brewers is pretty big over the next three seasons or so. I'm guessing not everyone believes Gamel will be able to contribute a .800+ OPS for the Brewers. I think people realize how valuable that type of player is, but you're making an assumption he will be that type of player. And assumption I agree with incidentally, but one that people who've seen very little of Gamel and know very little of him might not. I also don't think we're that maxed out and will have room to add in the next couple years, but that's not really the point here.

We've got plenty of trade chips to improve our team. We're not going to be, and don't need to trade for Jose Reyes, as such, we don't need blue chip prospects. We've got plenty of chips to trade for Jamey Carroll types...which is really all this team needs.

I suspect Shields is the logical choice.

That adds no insult to me. I was a big Villy fan the entire time he was here and thought he profiled better as a starting pitcher, but even as a fan, I'd never want to rely on him in a playoff series. Greinke's still clearly the better candidate to start a post-season series. I'm not that persuaded by half a season of either. I'll still take Greinke every time out over Villanueva, and we still have the potential to match up well with anyone in a short series.

This report kinda supports the argument for paying over slot later on for talent that fell. Scootter Gennett is obviously more than worth the 260K he got, or whatever it was exactly. Del Howell has been a bit of a disappointment, but at this point I think if you combine he and Gennett's bonuses, you'd be more than happy with that production. And then you have Thomas Keeling who's still showing some promise, but isn't quite as productive as Gennett. Still, if he can keep having walk-less outings, you have to feel pretty dang good about him.

Why not just quote me since you're taking issue with me? Let's see how he performs before we go to the "premature" card, cortisone shots don't fix the problem, they mask the problem by artificially reducing the amount of swelling in the affected area, which temporarily reduces the pain. It's pretty similar to chiropractory in that the issues causing the discomfort are not permanently solved, only temporarily band-aided. I can only speak for myself, but what I take issue with, are the absolute statements from people(not anyone in particular) without medical degrees and without any intimate knowledge of the situation, arguing with the Doctors who've examined him. And so what if it only masks the point? From what I understand, there is minimal chance he can injure himself further, so based on that information(and again, not a Doctor, so just going off the medical reports) it looks as though they're trying to see if they can get anything out of him this year and then solve the problem in the off-season. He has 16.2 pretty horrible innings thus far and I'm not sure what another 50-60 is going to prove regardless of quality if he still needs surgery. Either way he'll still be out of options having never pitched more than 130 innings in a single season. You're not sure what another 50 or 60 will prove? Well, we could kinda use a power armed reliever. If he can have the surgery in the off-season and have time to heal, I don't see what the problem with that is. What's more, I don't get your point in mentioning that he'll still be out of options and having never had more than 130 innings in a single season. How does that argue for OR against surgery at this point? Would those things NOT be true if he were to have gone under the knife before at least trying to salvage the season? Obviously. So I don't get the point here.

I'm not sure this is true. Boggs isn't anything special, but you seldom are going to get "special" when replacing a truly special player on a HOF trajectory. Gamel does have, IMO, a potentially "special" bat, but that's mitigated by playing him anywhere but 1st where his defense will be terrible...at best. And I also disagree that he's not going to be much worse than Braun. I think he could potentially be MUCH worse than Braun out there. Braun's not a great fielder by any means, but his familiarity with the position at least helps to prevent any major mistakes. Who knows what'd happen with Gamel out there.

When you put a player out of position in the majors you run a big risk for injury. I don't want Gamel learning the OF on the major league roster.I'm not buying this one. I see very little injury risk for Gamel playing in the OF. It's not as if he's some big, slow, fat slob where you have to worry about him pulling something just running. The injury risks for a guy like Gamel going into the OF are so negligible that basing a decision on said odds would be foolish IMO. Now the fact that he's just not a very good OF'er as a result of not having played out there is a strong reason to not run him out there, not concern over an injury.

I'd hope they'd just move Prince up to 3rd and hit Hart 4th and Gamel 5th. I know it won't happen, but two weeks of Gindl would be interesting. I wouldn't bring him up as a PH and 5th OF, he needs his ABs. I think we go a little overboard at times in demanding a prospect get at bats. I'd be fine with his progression if he came up and got limited at bats for a two week stretch. Obviously you'd prefer regular AB's, but it's hardly going to derail his development(not that you said it would) if he only gets 24-27 AB's over the next 15 games or so.

Hmm...I don't know, I'd re-word that "we" aspect of it. I've never had confidence in McGehee. Of course....I have and have had very little in Hart as well. So I won't pretend to get it right everytime as I'd have traded both of them this off-season, even in a "go for it," type of season, but I think most who follow the crew would disagree with your statement right there.

Well, if you want to really dream and acquire Reyes, why not take the next step then and replace McGehee with Green as well. God that'd be a ridiculous lineup. Reyes/Morgan/Braun/Prince/Weeks/Green/Hart/Lucroy. Now grabbing Furcal would also make for an incredibly impressive lineup as well if we could manage to just use what we have within our own system to improve that putrid 3rd base position.

Oh. I took the Estrada comment to mean you wanted him to get sent down, not out righting Mitre. And we've got fallbacks. We'll be able to get through a game if we have a short start. Estrada comes in and goes 2-3-4..whatever. We're rested, and we called up the two best players while sending down the worst pitcher. As for James...meh, can't work up any emotion about that whatsoever. So Marcum last 4 innings and Estrada comes in for 3. Next day Gallardo last 3 innings, and then? I'm hardly a fan of Mitre but the Brewers are exposing him and have absolutely no depth for a #6/7 starter.Do you really envision a GOOD outcome if Marcum and Gallardo go 3 innings in back to back games either way? And if that happens, if Marcum goes 3, we can call DiFelice back up, or Rivas or another pitcher.

Oh. I took the Estrada comment to mean you wanted him to get sent down, not out righting Mitre. And we've got fallbacks. We'll be able to get through a game if we have a short start. Estrada comes in and goes 2-3-4..whatever. We're rested, and we called up the two best players while sending down the worst pitcher. As for James...meh, can't work up any emotion about that whatsoever.

DiFelice did get sent back down.

Who are "a lot of guys" in our BP? Axford, Loe, Braddock, Estrada, Hawkins? Would you really take him over any of those guys? He's posting a shinny 14-10 K/BB rate, throws 88 MPH and is just a really nothing reliever. Does anyone actually trust Mitre at all? And I think it's rather obvious that Gamel is up to DH.

I don't understand your issue with this move. Pretty much what we had hoped for. When Marcum can only go 4 innings, the guy who was starting for us earlier in the year can replace him. And I'm sure the James move was merely procedural.

The problem is he's rarely healthy. As far as the Weeks comparison, he's what 28? Furcal has missed a ton of time three of the last four years and will be 34 as this season ends. So once again, why would we sign him to a long term deal? Who said anything about a "long term deal?" Furcal's a good fit here. It's his injury history that makes him affordable, and he still has the ability to perform well. I'd rather trade for him and give up the lesser value than give up whatever it'd take to get someone like Reyes(which is pretty ridiculous at this point) or even Hardy who'd also take a lot to acquire. And moving forward, looking at the FA market, taking a chance on Furcal offers the most upside at the lowest cost. 100 games of Furcal at the level he'll likely give you and 60 of Wilson is a LOT better than Betancourt. And, I'd be in favor of signing his current backup Jamie Carroll next year as well as a utility guy.

If by "pushed" you mean sending them to the majors before they are ready, then I don't agree. I don't believe they'd trade him this season for a AA prospect, pinning their playoff hopes on an untested (and not highly rated) rookie. The Brewers have several OF prospects who have the potential to make Hart expendable, but I hope they wait until they are reasonably sure that they're ready before pulling the trigger. That may be this offseason, in which case Hart would be a nice trading chip, and the salary relief (along with losing Prince, Yuni, Hawkins, Saito, Counsell, etc) would go a long ways towards improving our team for the future. Hopefully the money will go to land a top-of-the-line SS like Reyes, Rollins or Furcal, but there is also the possibility of trading Hart for a good, young SS and we'd have extra cash for doing something like extending Marcum and Greinke. No, I believe he means promoting them quicker through the minors. Not sure where anyone would suggest "promoting them to the majors before they are ready." That just seems overly sarcastic and obviously not what he meant. I also have no interest in signing Rollins and I don't believe they'd need to make any financial moves to be able to afford Furcal. I think anything over 2 years 10 million per for him is overpaying, and at what, 34, it's unlikely anyone's going to give him much more.

I would think the "point" would be obvious. Both come from similar backgrounds. And absurdly small sample sizes aside, both have incredible stuff, and have been incredibly wild in their past opening the door for Axford to potentially duplicate Turnbow's precipitous decline. And the difference in the two thus far seems to be Axford's "ability" so to speak to not completely melt down when he puts someone on base and when he does walk people as Turnbow so often did. I'm confident in Axford right now, but to not see the potential for him to suffer a similar fate seems to be a bit deluded.

Morneau missed the last 30 games of 2009, most of 2010 and there were questions to him being ready for this year. It is not a surprise at all that he is hurt. Mauer has had a lot of trouble with his knees and catching puts a lot of strain there and he had surgery in the off-season. I live in Minnesota and when Mauer went on the DL it was a "here we go again" attitude. Morneau played 135 games in 2009, and as I said, had PCS last year. He'd otherwise been healthy. He averaged 151 games per season from 2004-2009. And obviously catching takes a toll on a player. Nobody's denying that. But Mauer has averaged 134 games in his career, sans his rookie season, a total 100 pct in line with what top catchers play. So whatever the general "feeling" may have been in Minnesota, the fact of the matter is they had little reason to EXPECT those two to continue to deal with injuries. But lets agree they should have known both would be injured. What would you have them do? You're criticizing them for how they're built. What would you have them do with two superstars in their prime years who've averaged 134 games, and the other 151 excluding a freak bout with post concussion syndrome? As to Nishioka I have read nothing calling him a fantastic fielder. Most said he would be lucky to stick at SS but was probably a 2B. Lots of players from Japan come over and dont succeed and watching Nichioka at the plate he looks pretty bad. Twins fans are railing his approach. The Twins manager was certainly impressed with his defense; http://www.topix.com/forum/sports/TQVCLB1TG4O4AQ9SH And he was a Gold Glove winner in Japan. AND plenty of players have come over and had a great deal of success. In any event, I find it utterly ridiculous to comment on a player and how he looks after 16 games that have been broken up by a broken leg on a freak take out slide at 2nd base. I don't think anyone would argue that point. I agree they have had some bad luck but Thome being hurt some is not a surprise as he is old. I will stick with Morneau being hurt not being a huge surprise. And when some of these guys were healthy they were not producing anyway. Span is unlucky and Cuddyer was a short stint on the DL. Young getting hurt the first time was a product of an out of shape player. Fine. Him getting hurt isn't a surprise because he's old. Then all the young players getting hurt SHOULD be a surprise. You like Nishoka a lot more than I do. I don't like or dislike him either way. I'm simply reading glowing reports from scouts talking about him in Japan and from the Twins in ST'ing, as well as him thriving and winning batting titles in Japan and can see he's clearly a talented player, regardless of 16 games and the results therein. I think they have been unlucky but I think some of it had to do with banking on guys who have a history of missing time the past few years and on guys who have not proven to be consistent major league players like Casilla, Valencia The only reason Valencia hasn't PROVEN to be consistent is because he hasn't played more than ONE year in the big leagues. Again, ONE season and he was very productive. The Twins have actually been remarkably healthy in their starting pitching staff and it has been pretty average at best. I dont see that rotation setting them up to make much of a run. There bullpen has had a couple injuries but one of those, Nathan, you could see coming a mile away with his coming off major surgery and a dip in velocity starting in spring training Again, their starting pitching is the same as last year, and they had Gibson ready to come up from AAA. A staff that was good enough to win 94 games. Now the Twins are a second half team and they could make a run in a weak, weak division but outside of past performance of the team do you see any reason to think this team is really going to turn it around that much? Well....a 15-2 run in June already had them starting to turn it around, and past performance is a pretty good indicator of future performance. And I do believe they've had some awful luck. So yes, I do believe they'll turn it around. It depends on how healthy they are the rest of the way. If Liriano can be the dominant pitcher he often looks like, Gibson can come up and have an impact, Baker can keep up his success, etc..etc...