HiAndTight

Fukudome is currently carrying a .282/.390 line at age 34, and has a career .262/.371 line with a .778 OPS. Calling him a "flop," is a bit harsh. Dice-K put up a 18-3 and a 2.90 ERA in his second year here after a very solid first year, and a career 4.25 ERA playing in Fenway also clears him from the "flop" distinction IMO. A disappointment, but he put up 7.2 WAR in his first two years here. And Hideki Matsui posted a .837 OPS coming over as a 30 year old. I fail to see how he's a "flop," using any definition of the word. So I just don't see the same thing you see with the lack of success from Japanese players. I agree their top teams are almost certainly not going to compete with the top teams here, but they've shown their top players are more than capable of playing over here.

I think seeing that out of Weeks is the most rewarding. All of our faith has been rewarded. I'm loving that extension even more right now. I could nitpick a bit and request he get that BB rate back up to 11-12 pct, and his OBP up to about .385, but I'll "settle" for his .860 OPS and solid D.

Green has been in Nashville the entire year save for about a week.

65 IP, 58 IP and 35 IP. I'd go on, but it just doesn't seem necessary.

I don't actually remember in particular, but based on your responses to most things the Brewers do, one could make a reasonable guess that was your general disposition.

And a Taylor Green callup. It makes almost too much sense. Weeks/Morgan/Braun/Prince/Hart/Green/Lucroy/Betancourt...especially with our rotation is a very good lineup. Any wet bag with a glove hitting after Lucroy is even better.

Yeah, one of the most frustrating things about the current Brewers(which, for the record is a short list this year) is that we have in house fixes to all of our issues save for SS. Zach Braddock's a guy who could be a closer IMO, so he can damn sure be a full inning set up man and a whole lot more than a loogy. That's just mind boggling how he's used. Not that he's used exclusively as one, but he's not used as a guy of his talents should be. He should be our 2nd reliever...at least with Saito out. Loe's a nice guy to have, but he'd be a lot nicer as a 7th inning guy when you have a few right handers coming up, or to bring in if you need a GB, not exclusively as your 8th inning guy. He's done admirably, he's just not used correctly. Right now we have two black holes in the lineup, and they're not what we thought they were going to be. Morgan's taken care of CF, but McGehee's proving to be a major detriment to this team. A black hole defensively as it was coming into the season, he's not hitting at all. Meanwhile we've got two guys who can play 3rd base in the minors, both hit left handed, and both are absolutely raking. One of them struggles playing 3rd obviously in Gamel, but you're already playing Casey there and he can't play D or hit. But Green can do both. So I understand not wanting to bring up Gamel as he's exclusively a 1st basemen now and we're kinda set at that position, but Taylor Green makes too much sense to bring up. At least platoon him, a soft platoon if you want to give Casey the benefit of the doubt and give Green 30 pct of the starts. You've got a bench of Josh Wilson and Craig Counsell who are both nice players, but not exactly offensive juggernauts, Mark Kotsay who was a good player last in 2005. He's been worth about 2' wins BELOW replacement since then, Carlos Gomez, and then George Kottaras, a laughably bad defensive catcher, but brought up because he's a left handed stick. That's just ugly. 4 defensive players(I guess if that's what you want to call Kotsay) and then the one position you SHOULD have a defensive stalwart who doesn't hit is the one that you have up for his bat. Gamel, Green, Saito, and Braddock for Kotsay, Wilson, Dillard. Then throw in a deadline trade to bring back an old familar face in Hardy, and he doesn't even have to hit .310, just what he was doing for us when he was sent packing, .230/.300 OBP with his D would be a monumental upgrade over what we've got now.

I don't see much of a difference between the two prior to their breakouts other than Turnbow was a better prospect. But both struggled to control their stuff, and Turnbow's downfall happened while Maddux was still here, so I don't see that being a significant difference. I obviously feel good about Axford right now, but the potential for an implosion like Turnbow is obviously there. Axford's still only about 90 innings into his Brewers career. Turnbow threw about 70 in his dominant '05 season. The difference APPEARS to be Axford being a little better under pressure, but that was the case with Turnbow as well....until it wasn't. And I absolutely agree with those who are saying Turnbow's stuff was just as good if not better. He threw harder(not much, but the point is he also had that upper 90's fastball) and his slider/curve, whatever it was, was absolutely unhittable. Marmol like when it was on. The bigger point though is probably that pitchers don't often go through the extreme swings like Turnbow, yet we're still a bit snake bitten. What would really be nice is if Wily Peralta could be used as a reliever and he could use his upper 90's fastball(or what I believe would be an upper 0's fastball as a reliever and the Brewers had some common sense with regard to Braddock and they would use him as a SU man. Then there would be even less apprehension about Axford as you'd have a guy who is dominant pitching in front of him, and a guy with closers stuff working in the minors.

Morneau had post-concussion syndrome last year and had very little injury history prior to that. Mauer missed a small chunk to start the year last year and he also had a very limited injury history prior to that. I don't know that any team would have acted any differently under the same circumstances. "The guy," they brought over was a guy who as a 25 year old hit .350 in Japan and was/is a fantastic defender. He also got hurt and hasn't gotten going. Outside of Mauer and Morneau, they have Cuddeyer, Kubel, Young and Span. I think that compares pretty well to most teams. They DID count on Valencia. Not sure why they wouldn't have. He was a young guy who had a very good rookie year. I doubt they expected the production as last year, but here again, I'm not sure what you would do when you have a 25 year old kid who hits .311, has been one of your better prospects for the last several years. So I think you can safely say it was more than just injuries to two players. Mauer, Morneau, Cuddeyer, Kubel, Span, Nishioka, and Thome all dealing with injuries is one helluva bad run of luck. As for their pitching, their starting pitching is the same as last year and they had Kyle Gibson, one of the games top pitching prospects waiting in AAA, and he's pitching well there this year. I think you're looking at a plethora of just terrible luck and everything going wrong when very little of it was predictable and saying, "they should have seen this coming." I don't think any team short of the Red Sox and Phillies could deal with the type of injuries and bad luck they've had this year, and they've still managed to be one of the hottest teams in June, the Brewers sweep notwithstanding. In a rather weak division, I still think if they get healthy, they're a good bet to go on a run and make the playoffs. I also think Nishioka is going to prove to be a fantastic signing down the road.

A-He was 24 and 25 years old. B-He made a total of 15 starts in those two years, and not a single one in 2010(so not sure why his starters OPS would be included other than to make it appear as though he was actually given more chances than he truly was). I was always a big fan of Villanueva as a starting pitcher. He could make guys look absolutely foolish at times. I think he profiled(s) better as a starting pitcher than a reliever. It was rather baffling how they would consistently be searching for any warm body to pitch innings and he was taken out of the rotation very quickly.

I don't see how them not being able to come to an agreement the last CBA inherently suggests not only that they didn't WANT to do anything the last time, and in particular that they don't want to do anything this time around. I'd say there has been a pretty strong consensus recently from GM's and other execs that the draft system is in need of reform and that it's atop their issues for the next CBA.

He certainly doesn't come off nearly as bad in these interviews as "TheCrew07," suggests he does.

His change isn't an out pitch? edit. Or am I reading too much into that tweet? I think thath is change IS an out pitch. But a change isn't a breaking ball, so I'm not totally sure what you're driving at here.

This is very much my idea on how to sorta re-work this team moving forward. I would also include a short term fix at 3rd base. Perhaps even someone like an Aramis Ramirez in hopes that he can bounce back, knowing you can work Taylor Green into the lineup. I'd be nice to see a focus on OBP moreso than SLG and defense. Most likely you'll just go with McGehee and if anything work in Taylor Green that way, but we definitely need to use Prince's money on shortstop at the very least. I'd be more than happy to raid the Dodgers Shortstops from this year and grab Furcal and Carroll. However you do it, there are a ton of different options, but the bottom line is that I'd like to see us model ourselves a LITTLE bit more after the twins. Solid defensively almost across the board, and no black holes offensively rather than the best 1-4 in the league(or one of anyway).

Thia I Well this is a bit more than a little ridiculous... Quite a few pretty reputable scouts had him in the top 10 available talents, so writting a power lefty odf at this juncture is absolutley absurd.

I couldnt disagree more. Our defense would be so much improved at 1st and 3rd that while we'd lose something offensively, we'd still put two damn good bats into the lineup. Of course I love Gamels stick and, and could see a nice .280/.370 line and we all know what Wright is capable of. Weeks Morgan Braun Wright Hart Gamel Lucroy Pick up a Scutaro type SS and we could actually be sound defensively, and have a more balanced lineup. Truth be told, I love Prince, but I am looking forward to changing the identity of this team ever so slightly. Well rounded, and it wouldnt take much.

My thoughts exactly. I still do not like Lawrie for Marcum straight up at all. When you throw in Greinke, I like it much better. I just happen to think we've traded away a player who would have been one of the 4-5 best hitters in Brewers history when all is said and done, and possibly more. I also happen to think he's going to develop into a nice 3rd basemen. As much as I'm loving this team right now, it's hard for me to get past what it'd be like to watch Jake Odorizzi leading our rotation in a year or two and Lawrie hitting 4th behind Braun putting up a .300/.385/.525 type line. I'm sure I/we are in the minority there. Then again, Greinke's always been my favorite pitcher, so I'm not complaining about that one at all, and if this team keeps playing well....meh, I'll just shut up.

I sure wasn't taught that. In fact, I was taught you never do that as it's a terrible technique. What's more, when have you ever seen another big league 1st basemen do that?

No way.Based on what? He doesn't read the ball well off the bat, he has very limited range, & he's poor at scooping the ball. Dunn & Giambi have the built-in advantage of simply being taller. He moves so much better than either of those two, that there's is just no way you can put him on the same level. I agree, I think that's a gross exaggeration. He's not good, but lets keep it in perspective.

I agree. I always love watching to see what potential top talent we ended up snagging. And it seems that we spend the money and sign those players more often than not. The Brewers do a fantastic job of identifying those who are going to want well over slot and actually delivering. And the late teens does often seem like the place that those selections are made. Of course you have guys like Brooks Hall(maybe my favorite pitching prospect after we lost Odorizzi) and was it McDaniel(the FSU behemoth) that we grabbed in the 33rd or so last year? Maybe it's just the recent run with Gennett, Keeling, and Howell that is making it seem like that, but it seems to me there have been quite a few more. I just love this approach to building a team. I'm constantly baffled when small market teams insist on spending 2-3-4 million on a middling journeyman type free agent when an additional 2-3 million in a draft budget can mean signing 7 or 8 Scooter Gennett/Brooks Hall types. One reason why I've been a fan of the way the Pirates have been approaching their drafts in recent years. Anyway, if Colby or any of the more involved draft guru's can offer any inisght on this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Yes, this is obvious. It's along the lines of "gotta take it one game at a time," in terms of sports cliches that are cliches because they are true. Nonetheless, this is kinda the point of having a draft portion of this message board. What else would we do without speculating and digesting the picks we just made?

Hey, I thought this was worthy of it's own thread. Usually I follow the draft a bit closer than I have this year, so when someone along the lines of a Scooter Gennett, Thomas Keeling, or a Del Howell is drafted, I have an idea that they're early round talents who fell for a number of reasons. This year however I haven't followed the draft nearly as close. Could we keep a running tab of who we drafted that fell because of a strong commitment and/or signability concerns? Any insight would be appreciated.

Or perhaps rather than sign Furcal, we could just pencil in Orlando Arcia as our leadoff hitter and our starting Shortstop for 2012?

I didn't realize he was that young myself. Anyway, I've long been a huge fan of Green. Again, I think the Brewers have a real chance here in the next year to revamp the identity of this team. With Prince set to become a FA, and Green and Gamel potentially taking over at 1st and 3rd, you could become a much-much better defensive team and have a much more balanced attack Adding two lefties, and two guys who should be substantial improvements defensively could help out this pitching staff a ton and make up for the loss of Prince. Add to that the potential to go out and pick up a SS with the money saved from Prince and we could actually become a good defensive team next year Marco Scutaro is one guy who should come pretty cheap and can still pick it. Rafael Furcal is a question mark with regard to injuries, but may be worth it on a 2/20 type contract. He could also give us a nice leadoff hitter. Jamie Carroll is a older guy, but again, one who still has some short term value. Furcal is actually my favorite with maybe a Jack Wilson type as a utility IF'er to provide some protection. Perhaps 2/22 or so on Furcal and 2/5 on Wilson? Lineup of (Switch hitter in italics, Lefty in bold) Furcal SS Morgan CF Braun LF Gamel 1B Weeks 2B Green 3B/McGehee(Platoon) Hart RF Lucroy C That lineup and that team could very easily eclipse the production of this years lineup when defense is factored in, and it wouldn't cost much. In this scenario, you're saving 4.25 million with the difference from Prince to Furcal. And of course you lose that huge stud in the middle of your order, but you have literally an entire lineup that could very realistically carry OBP's of .350 or better. A bench of Jack Wilson/Jamie Carroll/McGehee(or Green), Gindl, Gomez and Kottaras. Not to get too far ahead of ourselves(which I've already done), but the prospect of Taylor Green being our 3rd basemen is a very enticing proposition.

Count me among the disappointed if Jungmann is like Mike Minor. I now a lot of 1st rounders don't even make the majors, but Minor is a dime-a-dozen type starter. I expect more from the 12th pick in a strong draft. How is Minor a "dime-a-dozen type starter?" Minor's absolutely torn up the minors to the tune of a 2.86 ERA, 226 K's in 195 IP, a 1.087 Whip. I don't know if you're going off the 60 or so innings he's thrown in the big leagues in which he STILL struck out more than 1 per inning, but he's hardly a dime a dozen type guy. He's also the 37th rated prospect in baseball right now. So....yeah, I'd be alright with getting two of him. Add two 2/3 type pitchers, you've got Gallardo and if you can hold onto Greinke, you could have a better rotation in 3-4 years than you do now.