Warning Track Power

I think Rollins always has been Plan B. Prince is Plan A and we all assume that isn't going to happen. Reyes, as much as I hope he is Plan B, is likely out of the Brewers price range as well. If the Brewers offered Rollins 4 years at say $48 million, they could theoretically get 80% of Reyes at half the cost. Rollins is the guy I believe the Brewers are targeting.

This is EXACTLY what I would do if I were Attanasio, Melvin and Ash. Core of five: Braun, Fielder, Weeks, Gallardo & Greinke. Heavily front load the Prince deal with bigger dollars while Gallardo, Lucroy, Gindl, Green, Gamel, Nyjer/Gomez, SS, Narveson, Axford are still relatively affordable. Is it realistic? I just don't know the Brewers financials well enough to know if they can get creative enough to do something like this.

Given the mixed reactions to whether or not some want Prince to be re-signed, I thought it would be interesting to start a thread to see what your maximum contract offer to Prince would be given the needs at SS, 3B and RP and possible extensions to Greinke and Marcum. Since we do not know about the ability of the Brewers payroll to expand much further, I will say we have to work within the parameters of a maximum $100MM/payroll. To this end, I will say my maximum offer to Prince would be: 7 year/$140MM. ($20MM/AAV) Contract takes Prince through his age 34 season. Makes Braun and him earn the same AAV. Now given the need to extend Greinke as well and Having Braun and Rickie already committed for approximately $30MM year total and Prince at another $20MM, there wouldn't be much room to re-sign Greinke and Gallardo, when the time comes. Greinke would have to receive on AAV around $16-$18MM, which means we would be paying Braun, Rickie, Prince and Greinke approximately $66-$68MM of a $100MM payroll. Is there any way we could field a competitive team if the Brewers shelled out that kind of coin to 4 players? Anyone confident enough in our farm system to take a risk such as this?

Yeah, because Kemps monster year is freseh in our minds. But as previously stated, he's also struggled. Prince for his size has been as consistent as can be. In reality, Kemp's probably going to end up in LF by the time this is over. Given his up and down nature, and Prince's durability thus far, that'd be a very difficult decision to make. If Kemp comes back next year with a WAR of 5.5 at least or 6, it'd be an obvious decision. As it stands, I think I'd rather have Prince for 8/160. As much flak as he gets for his terrible body, he's really not that fat, and he's played 160 games just about every season. As good as Fielder is at the plate, the upside of Kemp and his ability to apparently match Prince's production, albeit for one season, while playing a majority of his games in the bigger ballparks of the NL West makes him the choice for me at $20MM/season. As much as I love Prince, he is really a 2 tool player,power and average. Kemp is a legit 5 tool guy as he can provide the speed, arm and glove in addition to the power and average. If Kemp's 2011 wasn't a fluke, and I don't think it is, I think you would have to consider him the better choice for a $20MM/year deal over the next 8 seasons.

Interesting that the Orioles have gone back to their retro logo full time, the Blue Jays are rumored to be doing so on Friday and the Brewers, who most seem to agree have the best retro logo, have yet to do so on a full time basis. I know it's brought up every year and discussed ad nauseum by members on this board, but I think the Brewers should have lead the trend in this department years ago by switching to their retro jersey on a full time basis. By the way, the Orioles hat looks awesome. Much better than that stale bird they have been messing with for the past 2 decades.

If I was an indifferent fan, meaning not a Brewer or Dodger fan, I think I'd take Matt Kemp at $20MM/year for the next 8 over Prince for the same deal. Having said that, Boras will definitely top this deal given Prince's stats versus Kemp's stats. I think we just saw Prince's contract rise to the level of 8 years/$190MM to top the Teixeira deal.

I for one love David Wright and think a 3-4-5 of Braun, Wright, Weeks would be excellent moving forward. Additionally, I do not believe he will cost as much as Reyes to sign after 2012 and could bring a good amount of production to the lineup once he is removed from Citi National Park. I'm on board with acquiring him as long as Peralta or Thornburg are not included in the deal. This team will have to supplement it's expensive talent with cheap replacements like Lucroy at C, Gamel at 1B and Peralta & Thornburg in the rotation if Greinke and Marcum leave after 2012.

No. NO. NO!!!! Nothing against him personally, but I will never be able to forget the awful trade that saw the Brewers trade my generation's Robin Yount in Jeff Cirillo (in his prime nonetheless) for Blanco, Jimmy Haynes and Jamey Wright. I would never have welcomed any of those guys back to Milwaukee. That trade was the quivalent of the Ray Allen trade to me, which in essence ended my love of the NBA.

I disagree. Those players are not blocked by Youkilis, they are blocked by Adrian Gonzalez. I seriously doubt that any of A-Gon, Pujols or Prince would be okay with a 1B-DH time share. A-Gon and Pujols are good fielding 1B and Prince has already said he doesn't want to be a DH. Same with the Yankees and Teixeira and why I don't consider them players in the Pujols-Prince sweepstakes. The only way I see the Red Sox making a play on Pujols is if he and they agree to Pujols being the everyday 3B, but that isn't likely in my opinion. The rumor in L.A. is that the Dodgers could have a new owner before Opening Day. If that process goes smoothly and swiftly, the Dodgers may yet get into the bidding for Prince and what a splash that would be for the new owner. Especially if that owner is (GOD FORBID) Mark Attanasio.

Hart did seem to really regress for a guy who was only in his age 29 season. He looked slow, tentative and generally like a liability in RF. Really surprising to me given that he has never had a major injury, should still be in his prime and was the fastest guy on the team just two years ago.

Parra is phenomenal. Everytime I watched the D'Backs play I was absolutely enthralled by watching his defense. It's like watching Gomez in CF. He's that good. If Braun wasn't a Brewer, I would be rooting hard for Parra and If Parra gets it, I will not be upset in the least.

Perhaps one of the best ways to look at the Jose Reyes/Prince Fielder question is if Reyes would take the Prince extension, 5 years $100MM, A. Would you give it to him? B. How would that impact the Brewers ability to re-sign Greinke past 2012? I think re-signing Greinke should be the first priority for the Brewers this offseason given Fielder's eventual departure. Re-signing Greinke and signing Reyes would likely necessitate the trading of Hart and Wolf, but I think the Brewers as an organization would and should do this every time. Having Reyes and whatever a Wolf/Hart package would bring them (prospect RF? Maybe see if Philly wants to move Dom Brown as he has seemingly fallen out of favor) is certainly worth more than Wolf, Hart and say YuBet at SS. If Greinke can be re-signed long term and the finances are there to give Reyes this type of deal, I think it would go a long way to opening the Brewers window into the mid 10s. Having Braun, Reyes, Weeks, Lucroy, Gomez/Morgan core is a solid offensive core, while allowing Gamel, Green and Gindl get their feet wet at the MLB level. Of course a vet at 3B like Hairston, as well as one in the OF to cover RF would be essential to ensure the Brewers are covered in the event Green and Gindl struggle, that lineup should be amazingly fast and productive. Additionally, having co-aces in Gallardo and Greinke, another year of Marcum and Narveson and Ax at the back end is a solid start to the rotation given the impending arrivals of Peralta in 2012 and Thornburg in 2013. I was skeptical, but I am warming to the idea of Reyes.

What's bugging me... That my girlfriend and I broke up on August 31 and I have not been able to enjoy the last month of the best Brewers season in my 29 years on earth because I have been working on my "relationship".

Excellent response. I definitely expected a better performance from Yo though. Even a "quality start" of 6-ish IP, 3ER would have been acceptable to me today given the opponent. To give up 8 and have them all be ER...well let's just say he didn't pitch well today.

He's not a big game pitcher. Not sure I understand the sarcasm. If today isn't the definition of a big game, where the team behind us in the division is about to sweep us at home, I'm not sure what is. My exact quote when I raised the question earlier was: "Anyone else worried that Yo might not be a Big Game pitcher? Any evidence to the contrary that isn't coming immediately to mind?" Like I said, off the top of my head I don't recall him pitching in a big game where he has gone out and been a stopper. Now maybe it is because we haven't been competitive for most of Gallardo's career and he was hurt a majority of 2008 but I think it is a reasonable question when one of our "aces" gets outpitched by a rookie in a series such as this.

THIS! Yes there might be an overwhelming amount of negative feeligns for a potential sweep at the hands of the Cards, but the memories of the almost crash and burn September 2008 and collapse in 2007 don't exactly inspire confidence. Let's not forget the Brewers almost lost the division in 1982 as well in Baltimore. I think we all have a little right to overreact in this situation. We all put our heart and soul into rooting for this team and we so rarely have been rewarded with playoff teams, that now that we are so close to winning a division for the first time in 30 years, we tend to overreact when things go bad. I don't have one issue with scared fans or doom and gloomers. We're Brewer fans. It should be expected. Let's go Crew!! A comeback win crushes their spirits!! I can't jump on board with thinking we're the Brewers, we should expect bad results. If anything, your mentions of the 2007 and 2008 teams just serves to remind me that the core of this team has taken their lumps when the pressure is on, and the team has felt more mature in the second half the season, IMO. I'm not saying expect bad results. I'm saying that we as Brewer fans are not used to success and because success has been so fleeting for the Brewers, it is only natural to expect fans to get nervous and scared when things don't go our way in a series such as this. We all are pulling in the same direction and not everyone has the same perspective on what one series means. Cut them some slack for overreacting. People are going to overreact and it should be expected.

THIS! Yes there might be an overwhelming amount of negative feeligns for a potential sweep at the hands of the Cards, but the memories of the almost crash and burn September 2008 and collapse in 2007 don't exactly inspire confidence. Let's not forget the Brewers almost lost the division in 1982 as well in Baltimore. I think we all have a little right to overreact in this situation. We all put our heart and soul into rooting for this team and we so rarely have been rewarded with playoff teams, that now that we are so close to winning a division for the first time in 30 years, we tend to overreact when things go bad. I don't have one issue with scared fans or doom and gloomers. We're Brewer fans. It should be expected. Let's go Crew!! A comeback win crushes their spirits!!

Anyone else worried that Yo might not be a Big Game pitcher? Any evidence to the contrary that isn't coming immediately to mind?

Because he was an obvious upgrade over Yuni. For me, it has less to do with how he has performed against us and more to do with how much better he is historically than Yuni. It's just even more painfully obvious when he crushes another HR in the series and Yuni cost us the 1st game in the series with his pitiful bunt. That was Yuni with those two errors that led to runs? Wow, he's looking more like Hairston and Fielder every day! That bunt attempt in the 9th epitomizes Yuni B. Yes those errors were atrocious and obviously gave them two runs but having runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out should have been easy for even an average MLB player....and here we go with ANOTHER Yuni special. Ridiculous.

Because he was an obvious upgrade over Yuni. For me, it has less to do with how he has performed against us and more to do with how much better he is historically than Yuni. It's just even more painfully obvious when he crushes another HR in the series and Yuni cost us the 1st game in the series with his pitiful bunt.

There isn't a player I like less in baseball more than Albert Pujols...and it has absolutely nothing to do with his killing of the Brewers. Run out your HRs poser.

I guess we should have traded for Furcal at the deadline.

1. Every time the Brewers wear that jersey they spent hours talking about the 82 team. And? Just because that's what the announcers talk about, that doesn't automatically mean that's why fans like them. 2. The jersey and uniform itself is overrated imo. Your opinion. Can't argue that. Agree to disagree. 3. Since people still love that uniform, why go back to it? People are still going to buy the retro jerseys and people will also buy the jerseys they have now. You're just cutting down your sales by just going back to the retro stuff. I didn't say anything about going back to this uniform in this thread. I said they should look at what the fans wear and capitalize on this, i.e. more sales, more revenue, by bringing back the retro road uniform instead of another variation of the current set. Your statement about cutting sales is not supported by what I said about enhancing sales by capitalizing on what the fans obviously prefer.

When will it be announced that Chris Carpenter is going to start this game?

It has nothing to do with 1982. It's a good looking jersey.