Warning Track Power

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/milwaukee-locks-up-lucroy/ Favorite line out of this article is: Lucroy’s ability to get umpires to call strikes saves 24 runs per 120 games – similar to the impact of an All-Star level bat. I said this in my the prediction thread, Lucroy's value to this team is severly overlooked.

I absolutely understood the premise of not wanting to deal with a division rival when both are competing for first. I do however believe there exists a scenario where the Brewers and Reds would entertain a deal such as this if they both believed long term it would be beneficial. A Bailey-K-Rod deal would certainly weaken our bullpen this year but we would likely strengthen the rotation beyond this season when K-Rod is more likely to leave. Just a thought.

Wait what? They won't trade with us but they would trade with the Cubs? While I understand what you are getting at, I would have to think that if a say K-Rod - Homer Bailey deal was floated that both the Brewers and Reds might be willing to have dialogue.

Without knowing the particulars of their current spring training facilities in Florida I would have to imagine the most likely Florida candidates to share a potential Scottsdale location with the Brewers would be the Twins or Astros. Once the Astros make the move to the AL West they will be the only team in either West division in Florida. As for Minnesota, they are the furthest west team not currently in the Cactus League, save St. Louis and you know we'd never share a facility with them...or at least I hope we wouldn't.

Good point. In my opinion though he would be more likely to steal in the 8 hole than in the 2 hole with Braun, Ramirez and Hart coming up. Having Morgan at the 8 hole would also give Rickie some more opportunities to drive in runs from the leadoff spot. Additionally, its not like we have a pitching staff full of Sheets-ian hitters so he might be given the green light a little more than we think. Just a thought.

Just throwing it out there: 1. Weeks 2B 2. Gamel 1B 3. Braun LF 4. Ramirez 3B 5. Hart RF 6. Lucroy C 7. Gonzalez SS 8. Morgan CF I like the idea of Nyjer batting 8th. I think he has the skill and talent to hit 8th and take his walks. Additionally, by hitting 8th he may be able to take advantage of his speed and steal some bases, something Roenicke limited him on in 2011 by batting him in front of Braun and Fielder.

I hate this...Call me old school. Call me old fashioned but there is nothing like baseball's Opening Day in any other sport. America's past time having the first game played outside of the country is moronic.

Yes please...

My reaction to this news can best be summed up by Carpenter himself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3xnWRDWYuY

Additionally, the Dodgers signed Hairston to a 2 year $6 million deal. While I agree Hairston would be perfect for us right now, I don't think a $3 million year backup would have fit into the Brewers budget for 2012.

WTP, I agree that trading Weeks would be tough to stomach. I love the guy, and he is a very good player. However, after this season, he will have three years on his contract, which should make him more marketable than someone like Sabathia, who we "rented" for a couple of months. I also find it hard to believe that we will be able to afford Weeks, Yo, Braun, Ramirez and Greinke in a few years and still be able to pay the remaining 20 guys on the team. If that's true, I'd rather trade someone like Weeks now "on our terms," than wait until we are forced to trade him "on someone else's terms." Think of the return for K-Rod when everyone knew the Mets needed to trade him. If Green posts another .900+ OPS in AAA, and maybe fills in at the MLB level for an injury and hits well, kind of "proving" he deserves a shot at the MLB level, and if we could get a return in talent similar to what San Diego received for Mat Latos this offseason, we could essentially rebuild and remain a playoff-caliber team by trading Weeks and using the savings to extend Greinke. Monty, in my mind the Brewers core four moving forward should be Braun, Rickie, Gallardo and Greinke. As mentioned in my previous post, starting with those four and moving forward with solid and relatively inexpensive talent in the field with Lucroy, Gamel, Green, Schafer, Gindl and on the hill with Narveson, Jungmann, Bradley, Thronburg, Peralta etc... should allow the Brewers to afford those four players. Assuming Green does in fact prove he deserves his shot, I would look into dealing A-Ram after this season. Yes it won't be on our terms and we would have to eat some salary, but it will at least allow us to move the older, more expensive player between Weeks-Ramirez. You're probably right that one year of Hart wouldn't bring back a Teheran/Minor type pitcher, but let's say he can return a #3-type starter with a few years of service time remaining. We could have a rotation of Yo, Greinke, {Hart trade}, Peralta, Narveson, with a lineup of Schafer, Gindl, Braun, Ramirez, Gamel, Green, {top young SS}, Lucroy. There would be more question marks then we'd have if we keep signing $10MM players, but there's a lot of talent, and we'd have money to fill in gaps. Plus, we'd have a core of Yo, Greinke and Braun locked up, have most of the team under cheap contracts and could offer extensions to players who prove worthy. We aren't too far apart in our opinions of Hart. I like the guy but I am more apt to go with Weeks than Hart if I had to pick between the two. Let's say the Braves offered a Pastornicky and a #3ish type pitcher. I think we would have to strongly consider this as the system is bereft of SS prospects and I think the Brewers would be better served with a Rickie-Pastornicky-Gindl 2B-SS-RF combo than a potential Gennett-Machado-ish Prospect-Gindl combo. Note that I would only consider trading someone like Weeks if we got a phenomenal return, and with his contract and track record, I don't think I'm too far out in left field when I'm thinking something similar to the return for Latos, which was two top-50 prospects, another good prospect, and a young, high-upside pitcher, most of whom will be playing in the majors this year. Latos is in his final pre-arby year this year, so he has additional value of being young, good and inexpensive, but Weeks will have three years of control, is still not old, and has a proven track-record. Brettac said it best...Weeks is probably more valuable to us than he is on the market. I think we would be very underwhlemed in what we would receive in a Rickie deal as I don't think we would get anywhere close to the package Latos brought. If this is the case, I am more apt to continue with Rickie and make him a Brewer lifer and fill the rest of the lineup in around him and Braun by dealing other expensive everyday players like Hart and Ramirez, even if we have to eat a little of their contracts.

-Extend Greinke - either this needs to be done, or we'll end up overpaying a lesser SP on the FA market. It will be expensive, but probably necessary I think most of us are on board with this and believe the Brewers future success in the short to longish term depends on this occurring. I firmly believe that without a re-signed Greinke the Brewers might be going into semi-rebuild mode. They don't become a low to mid 70s win team but with likley losing Greinke, Marcum and Wolf, there will be some growing pains with a new staff. -Trade Morgan now. Let Aoki platoon in CF until the Brewers' brass believes Schafer is ready, and then let Schafer take over. Having Aoki play a couple of months will allow for us to keep Schafer another year, so I'd probably do that. Schafer's probably ready now, so we'd free up some salary and bring back some talent in return for Morgan. Completely agree here. I've seen enough of Schafer to be ready to go with him in CF, with Aoki and Gomez backing him up. I'd be more than willing to see if Morgan could bring back a RH OF bat (LaPorta perhaps). I'm not as interested in the $ savings as I am in getting rid of the redundancy of Morgan/Schafer/Aoki in the OF. -Trade Hart at trade deadline if we're out of it, but more likely next offseason. See if Atlanta is still interested... they have an excess of young SP. With another year of AAA under his belt, Gindl will be MLB ready, and six years of Gindl + young SP should be more valueable than one year of Hart. We'll see about this. I doubt ATL will be willing to part with a Beachy/Minor/Delgado/Vizcaino/Teheran for Hart. I just don't see them moving a young pitcher for Hart who is 30 this season and likely on the downside of his prime years. I agree with the premise though if Gindl or whoever replaces Hart could provide 80% of what Hart does for 20% of the cost. -Next offseason, shop Weeks, who could bring back mega-talent in terms of prospects, or Ramirez who would bring back less. Replace the traded player in the lineup with Taylor Green, who should be able to "prove himself" this year both at AAA and when he gets extended MLB playing time filling in for injured Weeks/Ramirez. No. I'm sorry but I just can't get behind a Weeks deal. Call it my fanboy status of Rickie but I don't want the Brewers to go all Oakland A's and trade off all their studs. I understand he is probably the biggest chip they have to deal but a Teixeira type win deal for Rickie is unlikely and I would say that a Sabathia return is far more likely and look how they turned out for Cleveland. Can't get behind it. I think Braun and Weeks should be the offensive cornerstones for the Brewers moving forward with nice complementary players like Lucroy, Gamel, Schafer, Green and Gindl surrounding them. I don't forsee any of those guys being perrenial all stars that Braun is and Weeks could be, but all could be solid above average MLB players that when paired with a Greinke-Gallardo 1-2 should be in contention for the playoffs annually.

I really wish we could have brought back Jerry Hairston, Jr. He would be the perfect utility player for the Brewers moving forward. Couldn't imagine us paying him the $3 million per year though that the Dodgers did to be a backup. That was just insanity.

I was at the Brewers-Royals game on Friday and I couldn't begin to describe the enormous amount of terror I had when Yuni was announced...I had forgotten he was on the Royals.

While that trade will undoubtedly look terrible, the Brewers likely don't make the playoffs in 2011 without Shaun Marcum. I guess it really is more about whether or not Lawrie was worth the shot we took to make the playoffs in 2011 and the possibility of playoffs in 2012.

Tim Dillard always reminds of Bill Hader from SNL. Don't know what it is but every time I see Dilliard I think of him as the cop from Superbad.

Funny thing is that I am being serious... If I were a Cards fan, I would be exceptionally nervous about the upcoming season. I mean as nervous as one can be given they just won the World Series. Looking at that team, they are relying on older players at SP (Carpenter) 1B (Berkman), SS (Furcal), RF (Beltran) and injury prone players at 3B (Freese) 2B (Craig) and LF (Holliday). Catcher and CF are the only positions where the projected starter isn't old or injury prone. Toss into the mix they don't know what they will get from Wainwright and I would be relatively modest in my expectations for that team. Of course, they could always turn back the clock again and win 90+ again. However, I could just as easily see them winning 80 and being under .500. Interesting season to be for the Classies.

Carpenter is only the first of many casualties now that Dr. LaRussa and Dr. Duncan have taken their voodoo to other locales.

I agree that a Weaver/Verlander/King Felix deal is the most fair deal to both sides given Greinke's production vs the above three. However, I think when push comes to shove we are going to see Greinke compare himself more to Cain and Hamels who are rumored to be receiving deals well north of $100 million. If this is the case, then Greinke will be moving on.

http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-braves-blog/2012/03/12/braves-shortstop-prospect-simmons-is-causing-stir/ This article makes it sound like Simmons may actually overtake Pastornicky. I for one would love to make this acquisition in the event Simmons beats out Pastornicky. As much as I would love to send Nyjer their way to make room for Schafer on the MLB roster, I think it would more than likely take more. What would a Pastornicky cost to acquire?

That will never happen. Estrada is far too valuable as the long man for the MLB team. Additionally, it isn't like Estrada is some prized prospect getting his feet wet at the MLB level. He is what he is and that is a long man/spot starter...and a darn good one at that.

It is rather amazing to think that SS has become such a black hole for us when we had ARGUABLY the best offensive SS and defensive SS in baseball in 2011, as recently as 2009.

I just can't imagine Melvin and Attanasio more specifically, allowing Greinke to leave given the price they paid in prospects to get him to Milwaukee. Of course if he signs a ridiculous CC-esque type deal then there really wasn't anything the Brewers could do. I do see the Brewers being willing to go to a 5 years $100 million deal to ensure Greinke stays. Crazy thing about the Greinke and Marcum deals is that the best prospect today looks like Lawrie, who was being touted as potentially the best 3B in baseball by midseason on MLB Network Radio SiriusXM. Whether or not you agree it is fascinating stuff that the best prospect brought back the worse pitcher.

This says it so well. Agree 100% with this. Count me in as well...until I read the blog by Haudricourt today. Ugh. That didn't sound too promising to me. Sounded very "Prince-esque."

Great review OWBC. Thanks for posting it. I love everything about ballparks in general and your review was excellent. My overall impressions from the pictures is the stadium is appears pretty boring. Maybe it is the lack of advertising or the lack of the need for an out of town scoreboard in Spring Training or that it was played at night without the downtown Miami sightlines to LF. I don't know. Something about it just seems pretty sterile to me compared to Target Field, Citi Field or new Yankees Stadium opened in 2010 and 2009. Maybe I'm wrong.