HiAndTight

This has to be one of the most difficult decisions the Brewers have faced with regard to how to handle their minor league prospects in some time. You moved Braddock to the pen to ease the strain on his arm, at the time it was thought to be a temporary move. However he dominated so thouroughly that you had to move him up. Now he's right on the precipice of becoming a dominating late inning reliever in the big leagues. Do you want to take that 85 pct chance that he becomes a stud at the backend of games, an issues that has cost us 6 late leads already this year, all but one of them we ended up losing, OR; Do you want to take that 40 pct chance that the move back to the rotation doesn't go awry and he ends up becoming that frontend type starter? Not sure how I'd handle it, but I do think the fact that we do have a number of talented starting pitchers on their way, some not too far behind him(Rivas) helps ease their concerns over moving him and keeping him in the pen. It would be a huge blow to move him back into the rotation and then for him to get hurt and end up accomplishing nothing would be a HUGE blow to us.

A catcher who is going to be at least defensively average and hit .250-.270...and now the important part. And who could carry an OBP north of .370-.380, and hit 20 HR's. That's a pretty high cieling. And I vehemetly disagree that Arnett HAS to be a #3 at worst. With all of the young pitchers we've got, we're finally at a point where if one pitcher goes down, it doesn't destroy us. And with all the chances for a pitcher to get hurt and go down, it's not a good chance he's going to become a #3 in the future. We absolutely need 2-3 guys from Peralta, Odorizzi, Rivas, guys like that to make it all the way up and become fixures. We've got a lot of options for the 3-5 spots. Periard has long been a favorite of mine. I just think putting too much hope on one guy ultimately leads to disappointment(unless his name is Yovani). I think we're in good shape right now. I'd like to see us unloading some of the dead weight, taking a 2 year period to sorta...regroup, get our salary under control and get a surplus so that we can add a player when all the young guys are up and contributing, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. But instead of signing the Randy Wolf, Doug Davis, even Prince Fielder types, I'd rather stick money into the treasure chest so we could add a guy like Matt Cain in 2012 when he's a FA. Not gonna happen. In any event though, I love the depth we've got throughout the top 50. Scotter Gennett may be my favorite new player, Odorrizi is pretty high up on my favorite pitchers behind Rivas, and we've just got every position covered, every type of pitcher... When we start producing utility players like Adam Heether, when we start producing the back of our Bullpens with guys like Heckathorn, Braddock, and Axford, #4-5 type pitchers like Josh Butler, Alexandre Periard, guys like that...catchers...it really saves us a whole lot of money. This is the deepest 50 I've seen us go in years. The top 5 isn't as good as it's once been with the Weeks/Prince/Hardy types, but 10-50 is better than it's ever been.

No, I took it that was as well, but I guess it's better than "He couldn't play second even if he wanted to." I guess. Maybe. I took it as he's talented enough to stick there, and he will if he puts in the work.

Parra has a brain the size of a koala bear. I really don't think he will amount to anything...but I think this team is still pretty good. It is soooo early. I, for one, think Brewers will be in contention on Sept 1st if Hart and Suppan's appearances are kept to a minimum. I'm curious, exactly what has Manny Parra done to show you he's not a very smart human being? Not throwing a strike does not make someone stupid. Often times it just makes them a late bloomer. I recall how stupid DLR was called once upon a time. As for Hart, I don't see this team being in contention with Edmonds and Gerut playing full time or getting the majority of the starts. This team needs Corey Hart to play well in my mind to have any chance. I must confess I always find it a bit irratating when we call players stupid simply because they've yet to fulfill their potential.

No. Not really. He was a dominating minor league pitcher, and a left hander with frontline stuff. In his professional baseball career he's been dominating for his entire minor league career, came up and was pretty damn good in his first full year in the big league and then had ONE bad year. Surely it could be that he is a power lefty who's got very good stuff and actually struggled for a year in the big leagues.

Or maybe he realizes that there is nothing he can do within his power to avoid these injuries, and he signs because he knows, as he recently stated, that the stability means leaving a little money on the table. I don't buy the logic that if a guy signs and buys out Free Agent years then you shouldn't want to sign him because his confidence is low. I can't imagine anyone would argue that with regard to Ryan Braun. Personally I would try and give Rickie 5 years(including this year to give him a 1 Million dollar bump) at 28 million with 2 option years, club option years at 12.5 each with a 2 million dollar buyout. So the 5 years would essentially be 26 million, the 28 would include the guaranteed 2 million he'd get from a buyout. 3.75 this year, 6 next year 7 the year after and 9.25 the year after. That way you're protected against him breaking out and becoming Chase Utley and you can keep him a couple years longer if he does that, and if not, you can part was.

Haha....I've never seen more upheavel over a player returning to a big league roster that makes both the bullpen AND the starting rotation WORSE than it was. It's truly amazing.....I half expected Suppan to hit Odorizzi with an errant pitch while warming up for his rehab start just to kinda stick it to the organization juuuuuust a little extra.

I agree, Casey McGehee has been in AAA for a couple years now and.....oh....wait....wrong guy. Seriously, I doubt that Katin's going to ever be an everyday big leaguer, but before we call a guy a AAAA player, doesn't he have to get a chance to play in the big leagues? Frankly, whatever it takes to get Gomez some AAA AB's so maybe he can figure it out and be that incredible player for us that his talent would suggest cause a sub .300 OBP just ain't gonna do it from a guy with very little power. I love everything that Gomez could potentially be, but lets try and do everything we can as an organization to help facilitate that. If that means calling up Katin for now, Hopper, anyone pretty much short of Cain or Gindl from the AA or AAA rosters just to send Gomez down.

I agree on the pitching. I'm downright giddy about all these young talented arms. There are just sooo many of them that some of them HAVE to work out. My bet for the next prospect to have a major impact as a starting pitcher is going to be Amaury Rivas IMO. Throws mid 94-95 with a great change that was voted best in the FSL by the manager. Anyway, I do think that we've got some spots. There are a number of players who I could see being gone in the next year or two as a result of money issues, or performance. Hart-Lawrie Gomez-Davis/Schafer/Cain Zaun-LuCroy/Salome McGehee-T. Green/Mat Gamel That's just within the next 1-2 years. Anyway, keep drafting the pitchers Brew Crew. I welcome the question that comes with too many talented flame throwers that you don't have places for!

I actually agree. We have a lot of nice position players on their way up. I remember when we were talking about trying to re-sign Prince, I said there are two things I would want to ensure if I'm the Brewers FO. 1-Sign Yo to a long term contract. Check 2-Develop a Farm system that's going to be able to produce players for you year after year on the cheap, but ready to contribute in peripheral roles. You're going to be spending a lot of money on Prince, YO, Braun and hopefully Weeks, so you're not going to be able to look elsewhere like we did this past off-season when we signed Wolf and Davis. I think the path we're on with pitching, everyone can agree things look GREAT right now with the arms. You never know where that will ultimately take you as our top 5 could get hurt or hi, but as of now. So we need to make sure we've got the bats. The type of bats who compliment your core of Prince, Braun, Weeks and Escobar. Taylor Green is the epitome of that for me. He's not going to be Ryan Braun hitting .324 and slugging .660 as a rookie, but the way he draws walk and his bat control, I think he could be a dynamic #2 hitter. The type who could hit .290/.375 with 15-18 HR's. I think Jon LuCroy is a very similar player, except the Batting Average would obviously be much lower. But you've got a lot of other good young players. Caleb Gindl, Green and LuCroy are all solid guys who carry very high OBP's. Brett Lawrie is in a class all his own in our system as I believe he could be truly special. Maybe just a step below Braun/Prince type special. He possses incredible power and the ability to be a star. Mat Gamel is a guy I think everyone's is very much down on after a sluggish second half last year, but lets not forget, he was putting up ridiculous numbers before last year and he has that beautiful short, quick swing that will serve him well. Kentrail Davis is another guy who could be a star. Obviously Salome is a guy who could be a star...could be a bust. And then you still have a number of guys who are a ways away. Walla, Garfield, Richardson, as well as some of the LA kids we've signed. And then some guys like Adam Heether, Eric Farris.....guys like this have value. If you're going to spend 22 million dollars on Prince, and you've got Prince, Braun, Rickie(hopefully locked up), Escobar as your core, you need good solid, and CHEAP guys to fill in around them. Perhaps Taylor Green takes over at 3rd base and hits 2nd. I think he profiles perfectly there. Gamel moves to RF and takes over for Hart and his bloated contract. Salome and LuCroy take over the catching duties. Gomez, Shaefer, Kentrail Davis, or Lorenzo Cain can battle it out in CF. That's a BIG chunk of guys within the next year+ who all have the ability to come in and contribute right away. Just for fun 2 years down the road 1-Weeks® 2B 2-Green(L) 3B 3-Braun® LF 4-Prince(L) 1B 5-Lawrie® RF 6-Kt Davis(L) CF 7-LuCroy® C 8-Escobar® SS This leaves guys like; Mat Gamel, Casey McGehee,Lo Cain, Logan Schaefer, Angel Salome, Adam Heether, Caleb Gindl, Eric Farris, Chris Dennis, Josh Prince, Scooter Gennett, Max Walla, Cameron Garfield(the last handful more than 2 years away). The point is if you're going to sign Prince for 20 million, have Braun here for 10 million(about, won't be there in 2 years just yet) and sign Rickie Weeks(which I think we should have done already on the cheap, but should do NOW(for 8 million) you're going to need to have a lot of guys who can produce for you on the cheap. This is a starting lineup that you can afford, is VERY well rounded, and has the potential to be VERY good. That's about 42 million on a starting lineup from a team that's expected to approach the 100 million dollar mark around this time. Couple that with the fact that we all KNOW that we've got a lot of pitching on the way and I think it's a pretty damn good time to be a Brewers fan!

No, I'm CERTAINLY talking about side arm. Don't you watch Arod play 3rd ever? Of course they're going to throw sidearm when they have to charge a chopper, or a slow roller. Tejada does it quite a bit. Anyway, we're not going to agree. This is something I was taught playing baseball and something you see a lot watching college and professional baseball. I can understand if you coach high school that you're very much against teaching high school kids this. But my point is this. I don't think Rickie's lazy, and I don't think he's gone this long without any "correcting him". I believe what he's doing is correct. I also think he's been playing a whole helluva lot better than you're giving him credit for as you seem to have some pretty harsh critique's of Rickie. So I'll leave it here as I don't see us coming to an agreement.....

Topper, there's no much question that at the higher levels, IF'ers throwing sidearm is a fundamentally sound technique. I think you're talking about what you teach your High School kids and we're talking about what professional players do. You'll see almost every single big leaguers drop down sidearm as it's quicker to get rid of the ball. To be honest I'm not sure what the Soriano play had to do with it. You see one big league OF'er do that little hop. You see..as I said, almost every big leaguer(3B, SS, 2B) throw the ball like that. You obviously don't see OF'ers do it because you're right, you're not going to get the most power on the ball. They also don't do a crow hop from 3rd base on a slow roller.

I wonder if the Lincecum signing made a difference. Elite young pitchers are going to get paid during their arby years either way. Might as well lock down a FA year or two.Perhaps, but it's exceedingly rare for a guy entering his arby years to have two Cy Young's in his back pocket. I think that's a pretty rare situation.

Perhaps topper it's possible that what YOU consider fundamental isn't what others do. For example the very topic of this thread. Throwing sidearm from the IF is absolutely a fundamentally sound technique, however it's not something you would teach high school kids as it's obviously not that easy. The same can be said for turning two and throwing it off your back leg as you obviously cannot step into it as a 2nd basemen coming across the bag with a runner bearing down. I don't recall the flip you're talking about so I can't comment on whether that one was him making a poor fundamental play on, but I question it based on your over the top bashing of Weeks in previous situations where I believe you were wrong.

I'll go with 90-72 I'm an optomist, and I can't stop now. Surprises 1-Manny Parra I think he starts the year in the Bullpen posting pedestrian numbers. Perhaps a ERA around 4.30 with good K per 9 numbers. Someone goes down, Suppan struggles, whatever it may be, Parra comes back in and siezes his oppurtunity. He's so talented, he simply needs to get on a role and he's the type of guy who could single handedly make a 3-4 win difference. Has a second half where he goes 11-2 with a 2.85 ERA in his last 22 starts leading a late season charge. 2-Rickie Weeks He stays healthy, and also puts together his ridiculous talent, talent that IMO is unmatched on this team. Not by Prince, maybe not even by Braun. He puts up #3 type numbers. .290/.410/.550 hits 28 HR's and plays above average defense. 3-Prince and Braun combine for 85 HR's and hit .300-.310 respectively, get on at a .385/.415 pace and give us the top 1-2 punch in the game. 4-Gomez and Escobar Figures it out....to a point. Gomez hits .285 with a .335 OBP, Escobar struggles early while playing spectacular D, but has a Hardy like 2nd half in which he hits .300/.345 and flips with Gomez to hit in the #2 spot when we hit our late season run. Pitching Gallardo takes another step winning 18 games, 3.30 ERA 225 K's in 215 IP Wolf steps back a bit, 14-10 3.95 ERA 195 IP Davis takes 6 hours per game, but throws 205 Innings with a 4.25 ERA Bush picks up where he left off prior to Hanley's liner posting a 4.30 ERA and takes a no-no into the 7th at least twice The BP is among the league leaders. Disappointments Casey McGehee- Can't live up to last year, hits .250/.315. Mat Gamel comes back, spends a month in AAA riping the cover off the ball an takes over for McGehee sometime in June/July. Trevor Hoffman Father time catches up to him, he is still effective, but blows a few saves and Macha starts going with a BP by committee approach to a degree. Hawkins and Coffey assume a larger role Callup's Zach Braddock- Braddock comes up, starts as a mop up guy, but as the season progresses becomes a key man in our BP dominating the league. Mat Gamel- Comes up to stay at the end of June Jon LuCroy When Zaun goes down, he comes up to split time with Kottaras and shines placing himself in line to be the Opening Day catcher next year. I also think Craig Counsell DOES actually perform as he did last year. I think his newfound stance and the quickness with which he gets the bat through the zone adds a couple years to his career. Question- How this team doesn't win the World Series or 115 games with my surprises! Can Corey Hart bounce back amid all these question marks and all the pressure on him to be a viable big league hitter again. But I'll go with 90-72 2nd place in the NLC to ST Louis who wins 95 games WC winner as the Phillies deal with injuries and the Braves get out of the gate on fire. Once where in...it's anyone's guess! Hey, you'll never say I'm not the eternal optomist!

From 2006-2009, the duration of Rivera's Brewers career, NL catchers hit .259/.324/.396; Rivera's neutralized line over that time span was .255/.328/.419. Yes, it was only 374 plate appearances in aggregate, but nevertheless, Rivera was an above-average offensive catcher for the Brewers.Yeah, but again, as you said, 374 PA's. Most of that damage was done in one season. I suppose part of the problem in my mind is the last year he got regular playing time he put up a .215/.270/.421 line....in AAA. He's a slow, poor defensive catcher who doesn't draw walks and occasionally can run into one. I don't see much to like about him.

Because he's simply not that good. A good offensive catcher as compared to Jason Kendall doesn't mean he's still a good offensive catcher as compared to the league average. Rivera to me was always a very poor catcher who had two things going for him. 1-He was in Milwaukee; 2-He had good numbers in a very small amount of games. I mean the guy can sure run into one if he squares up, but his overall offensive game is just sub par.

Given how often the games is on the line with the other teams big lefty up at the plate, I'd much rather go with Stetter than Narveson or Parra at this point. Neither have shown they can dominate lefties like Stetter can. One hasn't been given the chance, the other simply hasn't done well. You've got a 7 man pen. You can have 6 guys who have flexability. 5 if you want to take the closer out of the equation. Plenty of room for the types you're talking about while also carrying that loogy.

No, you need to have 6 years of service time in to be considered a Free Agent. Braun is still well short of that going into his 4th season. So he would have 3 more seasons before he would become a FA. I believe we ended up buying out three years of Free Agency for Braun. A good deal for us obviously. If you think he gets just 15 a year, we end up getting him for free the other 5. Of course...we assume a great deal of risk.

Plus he has a pretty long injury history. I doubt Parra really has any trade value at this point. We just have to stick him out there and hope he puts it all together in 2010. Yeah, his injury history still has me very, very nervous he's going to succomb to future injuries. I was of the opinion last year that he was injured when he was so erratic as he's never been a guy who's struggled with control...at least not to the point he did last year when he was all over the place, and he ended up having his shoulder "cleaned up". Well, it's not your living room carpet. Any time you have to go into the shoulder, it's troubling. I do believe he's alright...however it's still concerning.

1-Running to check the box scores every day for the minor league teams. When I don't listen to attend the games(which this year looks to be a little tougher to pull off than last year). Namely the pitchers. Watching what to me looks like a potential World Series team with it's pitching continue to develop and stay healthy. 2-Watching Rickie Weeks perform at a level that stops my friends from calling me an idiot for saying he's as talented as Braun or Prince...which I still believe. 3-Kentrail Davis, Brooks Hall, Scooter Gennett...different than #1, I just can't wait to see what some of these guys who we haven't seen yet.

I think if a guy hits .300 35-40 HR's and has a 1.000 OPS, he's going to get a ton of money. I think you're putting too much stock on defense in the FA market. There are a lot of stiffs who get paid because they can swing a bat. Carlos Lee, Soriano are just two that come to mind.

I would have been more than "OK" with this deal. I mean, it would have hurt to give up Parra and Gamel, but for Garza? Luckily I didn't click on the thread until 1 AM on the 2nd, so I had a whole day of April Fools jokes to prepare me. My heart did speed up for a couple quick beats however!

It has, but that's a bit mis-leading. He started more games last year than he had previously in his career. His average velocity is in line with his first two years of his 5 year career. But when you start 10 games(0 and 6 in the previous two years respectively) it's not out of line to think he may see a drop in velocity.

Me too. If there's any reason besides the contract you're out of your minds, and even then I'd probably take Hart.Hart's just one of those guys who has drawn the ire of the fans IMO. People get a bit irrational when talking about him. Hart is too important to the Brewers and too talnted to let go. He's struggled, and the way he flails away at that slider low and away looks so ugly that's a big part of the disdain, but there is absolutely no way the Brewers are just going to dump Hart. This is a make or break year for him, but he's got too much to offer potentially.