Warning Track Power

It's funny because I actually find myself rooting for LaPorta and Brantley on the Indians. I don't know if it's because I was so appreciative of what CC did here in the 4 months he pitched that I want Cleveland to reap some reward as well. I remember reading on BF that LaPorta was reportedly a bit of an immature punk too. If Marcum has even something of 25% of CC, I could see myself pulling for Lawrie. Lawrie's issue to me is only that I would like to think I would be smarter than having a personal Facebook with Edward40Hands photos when the whole world is watching. I don't condemn his actions as we have all done stupid/hilarious things like that as 20 year olds and if he hadn't posted them undoubtedly one of his friends would have. But his friend's Facebook would be a lot harder to track down than Lawrie's own. I just would hope that his millions of dollars would have bought him a little more common sense but this isn't a perfect world.

I like your ideas DHonks. Not sure MLB can expand, but I will play along. Here is my proposal for that... #1 I assume Tampa Bay goes to Portland #2 Colorado goes to the AL. It makes sense from the standpoint of geographical rivalries with Texas and Kansas City. #3 Expansion needs to occur. Two new teams need to be added, one in the AL South (New Orleans?) and one in the NL South (Charlotte?) AL WEST AL NORTH AL EAST AL SOUTH Los Angeles Angels Minnesota Twins Baltimore Orioles Texas Rangers Oakland Athletics Chicago White Sox Toronto Blue Jays Kansas City Royals Seattle Mariners Detroit Tigers New York Yankees Colorado Rockies Portland/TB Rays Cleveland Indians Boston Red Sox NL WEST NL NORTH NL EAST NL SOUTH San Francisco Giants Milwaukee Brewers Washington Nationals Miami Marlins San Diego Padres Chicago Cubs Pittsburgh Pirates Atlanta Braves Los Angeles Dodgers St. Louis Cardinals Philadelphia Phillies Houston Astros Arizona Diamondbacks Cincinnati Reds New York Mets

Everything you say is true. However, the realities of economics in my mind are to open new markets to MLB by going to areas such as Portland. Why put a team another team in New York/New Jersey, where you already have 6 teams within 200 miles of New York (Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Phillies, Nationals, Orioles), when you can put a team between Seattle and the Bay Area (700 miles) that has 2.2 million people in its metropolitan area? Portland makes far more sense to me than another NY/NJ team.

In 4 seasons, Josh Hamilton has a total of 15.7 WAR. In 7 seasons, Rickie Weeks has a total of 7.9. I'm not qualified to quantify what the difference in salary should be but I can see that in approximately half the time, Hamilton is worth approximately twice the wins. ***I hate arguing against Rickie in any situation. One of my all time favorite Brewers but thems the facts***

I don't think putting another team on the East Coast will happen anytime soon. If teams are going to be moved then they have to go west. Off the top of my head I will say that I would rather see MLB teams in:*Portland *Las Vegas *Salt Lake City *Vancouver or if those cities cannot support MLB then: *New Orleans *San Antonio *Memphis/Nashville But the concentration of teams on the east coast is so incredibly dense that it behooves MLB to spread to the west before ever re-visiting placing a team in the east.

Understood; it doesn't quite compare. I understand Rickie is "only" asking for $7MM in his final arbitration year versus Hamilton's $13.75MM in his final aribtration year. My only point is that I feel safe in saying that most of us agree that regardless of the fact that he will be post-arbitration years, he is nowhere near worth as much as Hamilton is currently in his aribtration years.

Josh Hamilton re-signs with Texas for 2 years @ $24MM. Rickie Weeks...I love your game but when was the last time you won MVP and hit .359, 32 HRs, 100RBI in one season. I hope you really aren't holding out for the same AAV ($12MM) that Josh Hamilton just got.

Come on Rob! We haven't had a team here in 17 years and you're offering one of the two teams I hate most in life. The only thing on the same level of awful as the Los Angeles Vikings is the Los Angeles Cardinals.

Gomez will be batting 2nd. Do I think he belongs there? No, however I can't imagine a worse 6, 7, 8 in baseball than Betancourt, Lucroy, Gomez. I think you have to break that threesome up and the best way to do that is put Gomez is 2nd and pray he learns how to bunt and be a slap hitter. Weeks Gomez Braun Fielder McGehee Hart Betancourt Lucroy

Per the article, Liriano wants to discuss a 3year/$39MM deal... Does this affect a future Marcum deal since we compared Liriano to Marcum going into the arbitration hearing? Yikes! I don't know if we can afford Marcum @ $13MM per. Brings up an interesting question for me; if I could only pick one option, would I rather have #1 Weeks and Marcum extended or #2 Greinke extended Tough decisions coming...

I am not promoting the relocation of franchises. However, I do think there exists a couple of franchises who could/should be moved from their current locations and become massively popular in a new location. As I do not think expansion is a topic that will come to MLB anytime soon, I wanted to look at the teams that may benefit the most from moving and locations that would support a new MLB franchise there. My question is who should move and where should they move to? Two rules (for obvious reasons): #1 The team can't have a new stadium built in the past 20 years or have one under construction Eliminates: NL West: COL, SD, SF, ARI NL Central: MIL, CIN, STL, PIT, HOU NL East: PHI, NYM, WAS, ATL, FLA Eligible: LAD, CHC Eliminates: AL West: LAA, TEX, SEA AL Central: CWS, MIN, DET, KC, CLE AL East: NYY, BAL Eligible: OAK, BOS, TB, TOR #2 The team can't be a traditional team that obviously won't move Eliminates: LAD, CHC, BOS That leaves us with Toronto, Oakland and Tampa Bay as the teams eligible to move. *Toronto: I don't know if this team really qualifies as a franchise that would move. I am not real familiar with their following in Toronto and Canada. Anybody have any insight to their following and the Rogers Centre/Skydome situation? Is that still considered a decent enough ballpark even though it was only built in the late 80s? I would be interested to hear someone's perspective. *Oakland: It seems that the Giants need to relent a little and allow this organization to move to San Jose. I know there have been territorial issues with the franchises with the Giants claiming San Jose as their territory but this seems to be the best and most ideal situation to keeping this team in the Bay Area. *Tampa Bay: What is the story here? They have had arguably the best team in the league for a few years now and draw terribly. I know the Trop is a dump but come on. If there was one team that drastically needs to move it's these guys. At least the Marlins filled Joe Robbie/Pro Player/Land Shark when they were making the push to the playoffs. Tampa just doesn't strike me as a town that is going to ever continually support baseball. Because of this I think that for the good of the game, Tampa Bay should relocate. My initial thought of where they should go is to Portland. I have friends in the Portland area and say the support for the minor league team there is amazing. If they were to get an MLB team, an immediate rivalry is born with the Mariners. The AL West then has 5 teams. Of course that means the AL East only has 4 but other than the Jays, they all could be relatively close in payroll if the Orioles end up opening the checkbook as everyone is expecting them to over the next few years. Is Portland a viable MLB option? I don't know but I know Tampa Bay sure doesn't seem like its one.

I'd rather give Rickie Uggla's deal exactly then tie myself up with a deal like this. Reyes is great and I would love to have him but he's not worth almost $3MM more per season than Rickie in my opinion. Additionally, if this is the deal to get Reyes, it would probably end any hope of a Greinke extension. I still hold to my belief we can afford Rickie @ $10MM per season and Greinke @ $20MM per season. Whether or not they sign those deals is still up for debate.

IMO, they won't get any of those three at those prices. The Uggla deal puts Rickie's price higher. Greinke won't sign anything until he sees how it goes here...if he has the year he's capable of, he's looking at Sabathia type money when his contract is up. Marcum could sign away a couple years of FA at an imputed $15mm per like you have there, but he probably wants a longer deal. Just my opinion, but I don't think we're going to get any hometown discounts.The only deal of those that could even be considered hometown discount is Greinke's and I doubt he'll be signed for more on average per year than $20MM. Maybe more years, but not much more than $20MM per season. Weeks is my favorite Brewer and I gladly would give him $10MM per year but if he wants Uggla's deal he can walk. He's just not shown to be worth that...yet. Marcum, well considering he just signed for $4MM in arbitration, my proposal is 2.5x per year what he is making now. I don't think that's a hometown discount but I could be wrong.

I couldn't have said it any better myself. $4MM for Marcum is an absolute steal considering the numbers he has put up in the AL East. I would definitely approach him with an extension offer now as we might be able to extend him for far less than we thought we would be able to. I had guessed 4years/$40MM but maybe we could get him for something less.

Or guarantee Russell Branyan a major league deal...especially if the idea was to have a power hitting, left handed PH who could spell Prince at 1B. I don't see the "thunder" in Kotsay's bat. Kotsay's bat is more similar to Craig Counsell than Branyan or Hinske.

Even after acquisition of Greinke, I feel like the Brewers should have (maybe they did) inquire to the availability of Adam Jones for Fielder, provided the Orioles were given a negotiating window with Prince for an extension. Jones' acquisition would have shown to the fans and Greinke more specifcally, we were still going for it. From the Orioles perspective, even with Jones traded, they still have the young-ish hitting core of Fielder, Markakis, Wieters and Reynolds. Man, I would STILL inquire about this with Baltimore.

If Weeks and Fielder leave as FA, they'll have plenty of cash to go after a big name FA. Since SS is more a premier position and they don't have any options in the minors, I'd rather they spend it there. The money coming off the books for Wolf in 2012 and Hawkins can be used toward Greinke. They'd have to use some of the Fielder/Weeks cash savings to sign both Greinke and Marcum admittedly, but some should be left over for a position player. As for the Mets, they have all kinds of money issues tied into lawsuits over the Bernie Madoff situation. I don't see that clearing up in time for them to keep Reyes. The rub is that they will be looking for cheaper alternatives i.e. prospects which the Brewers do not have. As I sit here today on February 8, the only way the Brewers acquire Reyes is through free agency which is the longest of longshots. Just give Rickie the money!

I agree that it would hurt this season but if he is dealt to the Cards it may help in the long term due to their inability to resign Pujols and Wainwright and to a lesser extent Carpenter after 2011. The only way a trade to the Cards happens would be if a substantial amount of Young's salary is picked up by the Rangers.

Now that the Packers have won the Super Bowl, I can go back to worrying about this fulltime...when am I going to see his extension in the JSO Blogs?!? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/mad.gif

Adding Young and any portion of his contract to the payroll would upset me. I think this would be incredibly shortsighted as I don't think having Young, even at a discounted rate for the next three seasons, is good business for the Brewers. Like I said previously, even at a discount, his acquisition likely guarantees the departure of 2 of Weeks/Greinke/Marcum which puts us further away not closer to the championship.

If that's true then the Yankees truly overvalue Gardner. Gallardo's worth to the Brewers is far greater than Gardner so the Yankees would have to seriously overpay. The only way a deal could be consummated would be if the Yankees believed Parra's potential could be harnessed by Larry Rothschild OR if they wanted Randy Wolf.

I for one did not mind the move to the NL. I think the White Sox and Twins rivalries were good but don't match the Cubs and Cards rivalries. As for the rest of the NL Central, well I don't really have strong feelings of passion playing the Astros or Reds. They're really just there. The Pirates are always fun to play and not just because they're terrible. Kind of remind me of the Indians and Royals, just teams I look forward to playing. Overall though, I like playing the teams in the NL more than the teams in the AL. The biggest reason I liked the move is that I loathe the DH. I think that is the bottom line here. If you enjoy the DH, then you probably wish the Brewers were still in the AL.

...And the Kotsay signing looks worse and worse

Sigh...I hate this signing even more now. I forgot Russell was still there. Kotsay's going to be apparently backing up Prince and pinch hitting. Why wasn't Russell the choice then? Makes no sense...

I changed it up a little. I'm going with name any former Brewer/Packer/Buck from the past 10 years you could add back onto today's team. The caveat is you get that player in their prime, not at the age they are now: Brewer: CC Sabathia -Adding a power lefty to split Greinke and Gallardo, then finish with Marcum and Wolf as 4 and 5...the Brewers might win 105 games. Packer: Ahman Green -Putting the 2003 version of Ahman (1,883 rushing yards) with Rodgers, Finley, Jennings, Driver, Jones and Nelson. Probably the best offense ever. Buck: Ray Allen -His trade was the beginning of the end for my love of the NBA. Can't stand the NBA now and barely pay attention at all.