HiAndTight

Here's the problem as I see it with your posts, and I'm trying to be as respectful as possible. You're coming to the party about 7 years late, without having been through it so you can understand the reasons behind the decision, you're looking at the weaknesses this team has and thus concluding, "Melvin stinks, he should be fired". This post right here about not scouting international prospects and sucking at it is is proof positive that while you may have spent a month looking over this franchise, you haven't followed it like most of us have. We would all like to have more international prospects, but so would every team. We signed Pascual when he was the top Dominican pitcher available and that didn't work out, but we made the effort. But we also have one of the strongest contingents of Canadian prospects headlined by Lawrie, we have Peralta and Escobar who both look to be key pieces moving forward as well as a handful of others. And you're also completely and utterly mis-representing the reasons behind closing the DR academy. So while you made the comment that you're trying "correct all the inaccurate" statements we're making, you're kinda just throwing things against the wall in your attempt to "inform us", and they're sliding right down to the floor.

Could you possibly give me a link for this, or anything to substantiate it? I've had trouble finding this, but would like to be able to pull it out when Melvin gets blamed for EVERYTHING that went wrong while Jack Z continues to enjoy rock star like love in Milwaukee.

I agree he looks better than Gomez, but I don't see the slightest issue with Gomez's attitude. He needs to adjust HOW he plays the game, but he plays the game harder than just about anyone on the team. He's always going 100 MPH. He needs actually slow down. Just take some pitches, relax up there. But unless he busts out, his time being just handed a starting job has all but evaporated IMO.

Yeah, but the Brewers would then likely take a kid who's rated much lower and is a sure sign or they'd certainly be without any bargaining power. So that kinda defeats the purpose. But I really like this kid a lot. Sounds very similar to Odorizzi and Gallardo.

I really just can't stand reading that site any longer. It's just over the top ignorance oozing out from almost every poster on there. Every once in a while you'll have someone come on and say, "actually, this is how this works, you're wrong about this, and this is also incorrect", but it's after 6-7 pages of ignorant bashing of either team or players for almost no reason. And this is a perfect example of that. Covey's just getting RIPPED over there. For what? Not sure, but they obviously feel as though there's enough reason to make him public enemy #1.

I've heard a lot of variation regarding Scarpetta and Rivas. Rivas's change has to make that 92 looks so much harder though. IF he can get that slider going to the point where it's at least an average pitch, he's going to be a valuable and cheap #4, maybe #3 for us in the future.

Wow....a over the top statement to go with an over the top condescending post. I find it laughable you think Trevor Hoffman and LaTroy Hawkins, both players who have NEGATIVE value right now have more value than Axford. Second, just a simple glance back at Axford's history has to have people concerned about his control issues coming up again. He seems to be an ideal candidate to be Turnbow 2.0. If you don't think there's a high likelihood of that, fine, no reason at all to trade him. But I sure wouldn't take him out of consideration. For instance if throwing in John Axford was enough to compel the Giants to trade Bumgarner for Hart(+Axford) I'd consider it. The Brewers have a lot of power arms who are questionable SP'ing candidates as some lack that 3rd pitch. A guy like Wily Peralta for instance, Jeffress, Rogers aside from the obvious in Braddock. It's not as crazy as some on here want to make it, and it doesn't mean we're "used to losing". This is all a pointless discussion right now though. I doubt we would move him right now.....of course that is a guarantee if you truly believe his value is below Hoffman or Hawkins.

Those adjusted numbers don't mean a whole lot to me to be perfectly honest(The 25 pct LD rate does however). Gamel's a guy I'll believe in until proven wrong at the Major league level based on nothing more than the eye test. He's got great patience, almost too much at times as he struck up 20+ times last year on called 3rd strikes But he's got patience, and he's got as pretty a left handed stroke as I've seen. Smooth, easy, short to the ball. And he looked better at 3rd than I expected. Good enough that I could envision him developing into a solid defender. Not a great first half, but I'm still pretty confident in the talent I saw.

You DO realize we're talking about exchanging Katin for Gerut, right? So questioning how MUCH he would contribute when Gerut has contributed nothing at all doesn't really strengthen the case for Gerut right now. As for Triples having more to do with bad plays by OF'ers, that's such a wildly unsubstantiated claim, I'm at a bit of a loss how to respond to it. It's certainly not like the leader board every year for triples is completely different. Curtis Granderson, Jose Reyes, Carlos Gomez, these aren't players who jsut happen to hit the ball at poor defenders. In any event, the point was that he's got enough speed and athletic ability to rack up triples, not the validity of triples in and of themselves, a debate I don't even know how you would begin to engage in. Anyway, I just don't know how god awful Gerut has to be before some will consider that maybe this RH'ed power bat who's playing well, a RH'ed power bat our bench is sorely lacking by the way, may have some value over him. With all the talk about sample sizes..and rightfully so, Gerut's small little samplings here and there are held up as gospel regardless of just how terrible he gets. Doesn't make sense to me.

FYI, his OPS the last 3 years has been .850. When given playing time and being healthy he has done pretty well. Do I expect him to make the All-Star team? No. But saying he is as bad an .800 OPS player you can come up with is a pretty healthy exaggeration in my mind. Shirt, how would you find a guy who puts up such an OPS who is a worse player? He's about as bad as you can get defensively. He hits about .230. He strikes out a TON...which I say realizing K's are overrated, but he just strikes out so much. He's got some value, but I don't think you could find a worse player with an OPS in the .800's. He's a nice bench bat, but that's about it to me. I think he's a bit glorified on here.

We always hear about how the Brewers should have made THAT type of move. They should have traded for Garza. They should have traded for Edwin Jackson. They should have traded for fill in the black-young pitcher who's value dropped, but had a good arm. Well, here's your chance. I wouldn't trade any of our top 10-15 pitching prospects, even the Scarpetta, Peralta, Bucci, Howell, Brooks. I think the best I might give is a Chuck Lofgren, maybe Anundsen, Merklinger.... Don't even want to trade Watten as I'm a big fan of his. I think he's got a nice career as a long man or even as a #5. He'll take a while, but I loved watching him last year as he's got a heavy FB and he is capable of being a GB machine. Anyway, give the Fins something they may be able to use now. Hell, even Narveson for Miller. Miller could be a big time find if Rick Peterson could get him fixed. These are the types of fliars you have to take if you want to get a frontline starter. Gotta hope for a little luck in a trade for a reclamation project. Incidentally, I wonder if the Tigers would have ANY interest in a Core Hart+Todd Coffey/Carlos Villanueva for Rick Porcello type trade? Probably not, but I'd even be willing to consider a Hart+Axford for Porcello+Cody Satterwhite? Hell, if we could grab Porcello and Andrew Miller in one fell swoop(two moves obviously), I'd gladly do it. Porcello you already know can be a legit big leaguer and Miller you know has the stuff to be one. Throw in two young pitchers who can hit 95-98 into your upper levels and thinks start to look a bit better. Not sure just how realistic/unrealistic the Hart-Porcello trade is. I know they need BP Help so Axford would be big for them, beyond that, no clue.

Branyan's the type of guy who should be traded about 3 times a season. He's usually alright the first couple weeks a team has him, and then he goes back to the .230-ish, all or nothing type hitter that gives him a nice overall OPS, but ultimately leaves his actual production well short of his .800-ish OPS. He is a fun guy for when he does get ahold of one and you can watch it go 560 feet. That's always impressive. Short of that, meh. He's about as bad a .800 OPS type player as you can come up with. Nice bench player though. I'll never forget sitting in one of the luxury boxes with a bunch of clowns not even paying attention to the game as we took some clients out to the game and I was on the edge of my seat and he hit a game tieing HR in the 9th, and then Prince came and hit a game winning HR in the bottom of 12(maybe) that was ruled a 2B and would have been a HR a couple months later when they implemented Instant replay.

I think the difference between Gallardo and Narveson is enormous and accounts for the substantial difference in these two situations.

Exactly, MLB players are smart enough to realize that you are playing for a season record. In my opinion it wouldn't be hard at all to convince your team that pulling Yo out was the best thing for increasing your team's chances to win more games over the course of the season. I didn't suggest they were smart enough to realize that the overall seasonal record is more important than one game. What I do question is that would agree there is a direct correlation to improving that seasonal record by taking out a pitcher going for a significant personal achievement with 90-ish pitches after 7 innings rather than allowing him to finish the game. In my opinion, I think that'd be a move that would cause a lot of bickering. Players aren't pouring over these things like we are. They're not all looking at Yovani's pitch counts and coming to the conclusion that he's been throwing too many pitches. I think they'd look at it, see a guy who'd given up just 2 hits, no runs and was dealing at about 90 pitches and they'd be pissed they yanked him. Could be wrong, but I think you're giving these guys too much credit.

I posted elsehwere in which people thought Lawrie for Marcum was a "great deal" and a steal. I was stunned. If the Jays love Lawrie and who wouldn't, I would want two of Jenkins/Drabeck/Stewart and maybe even McGowan in addition. I think Lawrie's that type of impact.

I wanted to see the Brewers add Miller for a while now. This would be the ideal time to jump in on a guy with the potential to be a frontline starter. At 25 and pitching in AA with the pressure of being the key piece in the franchise changing Miggytrain trade, there's a lot of pressure on him. I'd throw a guy like Dykstra+maybe a Riske in which we pick up the salary? Hard to say if they have any illusions of competing this year. Otherwise maybe Narveson would interest them both for competing this year and in the future. While I like Narveson, I'm a HUGE Miller fan. A trade like this could make a career for a GM. Miller's that talented IMO.

Yeah, the fact that it's almost a 1 in a 100 shot he ever amounts to something is besides the point, why just waste the 300K you spent on him(at least 300 K). Makes absolutely no sense. We were high on this kid, there had to have been something there the medical staff didn't like or didn't think was right and didn't want to be responsible for. Has to be SOMETHING else to this story. Not sure what yet though.

Well I suppose it depends on how they plan on using him. I had written that I hope they continue to force him to use his fastball, power curve AND his change even though he doesn't need to in order to get these guys out. If they're just going to let him rear back and pump in 99 MPH fastball after 99 MPH fastball mixing in that 85 MPH power curve here and there, then I see no reason he couldn't be a Brewer this year. Of course I also think it's a pretty big blow to the organizations pitching prowess as opposed to him starting, but hell, it's better than what we were expecting to get out of him. I just shudder to think of a bullpen of; Zach Braddock Jeremy Jeffress John Axford Mark Rogers Todd Cofffey Carlos Villanueva Latroy Hawkins Chris Narveson That's a pen that just keeps bringing the heat over...and over...and over. Heck, Coffey would be considered a "soft tosser" in there, and that's one you could realistically see NEXT YEAR if they chose to. Of course there is that TINY concern about the innings 1-6. That's where Parra's continued improvement(and believe it or not, I think the HR he gave up to Bourn was a good sign), Rivas, Periard, Wolf and Yo come in. That could be a solid staff within a year. I shudder to think of how much better it could be if you replace Rogers and Jeffress into that starting staff as they somehow figure out how to harness their electric stuff and command it and use that 3rd pitch, but that almost seems to be getting a bit greedy.

I'm not sure what you're saying here. Why risk such an investment and such a talent on being the 40th man? Are you saying why risk it by having him ON the 40th man? There really is no risk. You lose someone from the 40th man, likely Cruz, the SS who is actually looking pretty good, but that's about it. He's subject to MLB testing, not MiLB testing, so no recreational drugs, ie, no career suspension for pot. Ergo, you no longer are in danger of him seeing a career long suspension, and that cloud hanging over his head is now cleared from what I understand.

I hope Melvin's comments don't stop teams from asking. I wish he'd be more proactive about it, instead of sitting on his hands waiting for the phone to ring, but the bottom line is that if the Brewers let it be known that Fielder is on the market for the right price, it wouldn't take them long to find someone who could find a spot for him on their roster. ---------------------------------------------------- It baffles me that people take the words GM's say in public as gospel, or we believe that GM's are sitting on their hands because they're not openly shopping their star player in the media. I think it's be foolish to think that Melvin hasn't taken, or made calls regarding Fielder, starting probably long before we'd think.

Heard a rumor from a friend of mine that has ties to the team that the Brewers had a deal in place for Halladay but that Roy shot it down. I've got a lot of friends who work for the Brewers in some capacity or another, and there are a number of rumors that start from within that office, completely aside from the GM's or any actual decision makers. I always have a friend calling me with some huge move that's on the verge of happening. I've come to realize that the people in the season tickets department talking to those interns in other departments have some wild imaginations. I'm certainly not saying this wasn't possible, but I've heard the better part of the NL All-Star team potentially coming to Milwaukee.

I thought it was essentially a foregone conclusion that Werth was gone next year and would not be re-signed? With long term deals all over that lineup, Brown ready to come up in the near future, I didn't think they were keen on giving Werth the 12-13 per he'd likely command.

I guess I mean the act of getting 0 hits itself doesn't impress me. I mean someone who goes 9 IP, 4 H, 0 BB, 10 K had a more impressive game than a 9 IP, 0 H, 4 BB, 5 K game. The hits themselves just aren't that big of a deal in that type of line. Just have to agree to disagree I guess. With 27 hitters, 35 in this instance who go up there trying to get a hit, and are unable to do so, I find that pretty impressive. I think anytime you can go through a lineup 3-4 times without giving up one single hit. Not one Texas Leaguer that falls in, not one sharply hit ball that finds a hole....I find that impressive. It's not the MOST impressive thing in the world. Yes, a 14 K 2 H 0 BB CGSH is more impressive. The fact of the matter however is that there have been a LOT, LOT more 10 K 4 H 0 ER games than there have been No-Hit games. By the way, a little trivia(that I'm not certain of the answer). Who was it who threw that no-hitter for the Yanks in the early 90's in which he had a couple of walks and then there was a couple of errors, at least one on a fly ball where an OF'er lost the ball in the sun leading to a couple of runs? I want to say it was the Yankees and the White Sox? Anyway, there are varying degree's of "impressiveness" no hitters, but a no-no, is always impressive to some degree in my mind.

Yes, but you'd have to convince your team that pulling Gallardo with a shutout in the 7th was increasing your teams chances to win. I doubt you could do that.

I think that's a great point backup. I'm a guy who isn't as worried about Yo as someone like Manny Parra who I think has almost no chance to start for 5-6 years without suffering a serious injury, as I think Yo's got a very smooth, free and easy delivery, but I still don't like the PC's he's been racking up. 115 over 8/9 IP is a lot better than 100 over 5, but still, we need to start looking for chances to back off the 24 year old future of the franchise. As for this last outing, sitting behind a computer screen I'd have taken him out after 7 up 5-0, but the game isn't played behind a computer screen. You have the human element, the clubhouse dynamic, pitchers getting annoyed with Macha for pulling them when they've got something special going....not to mention even Macha has stated the CGSH is a significant accomplishment and a big point in a pitchers career.