ramssuperbowl99

First off, something we need to consider is the contracts we will be on the hook for: Jeff Suppan - $2M buyoutRandy Wolf - $9.5 MTrevor Hoffman - $500k buyoutCorey Hart - $6.5 MDavid Riske - $250k buyoutDoug Davis - $1M buyoutLatroy Hawkins - $4MGregg Zaun - $250k buyoutRyan Braun - $4MYovani Gallardo - $3.25M Something worth noticing here, nearly everything I listed was a bad contract or buyout. The only exceptions are Ryan Braun, Corey Hart, and Yovani Gallardo. Notice the trend? Homegrown players. We need to focus on developing home grown talent. Still, not a completely horrible bunch. Dead Money Coming off the Books from 2010 to 2011:Jeff Suppan - $12.5 M (YES!!!)Bill Hall - $7.15 MDavid Riske $4.5 M This is where we make bank - we have more than $20M fresh in our pockets and we lost nothing off the MLB roster. Arbitration Cases in 2011:Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, Dave Bush, Todd Coffey, Jody Gerut, Carlos Gomez, Carlos Villanueva, Manny Parra Of these, I would recommend signing Weeks to a long term extension of roughly 4 years, trading Fielder, signing Coffey for roughly $2.5-3 M, signing Parra for roughly $1-2 M, and non-tending the rest. Exactly who we trade Fielder for and the exact numbers on the Weeks extension aren't known, but I'm guessing that at least Weeks should fetch 4 years/$35 M ($6 M, $8 M, $10M, $11M). As for Fielder, I just won't include those prospects until we know them. However, I am assuming Jeffress will be brought up as a reliever, since he is moving through the system so quickly and is likely to get a September cup of coffee. Cain was promoted, and should be the starting CF in 2011. I'm also bringing up Gamel as a full time 1B, where he is now getting repeated ABs in Nashville. Further, it appears that Mark Rogers, Wily Peralta, Cody Scarpetta, and perhaps Kyle Heckathorn will be ready by 2012. Rogers likely by Opening Day, the others more likely by midseason. Lawrie will be ready for the bigs sometime in late 2011, and could play 2B, 3B or RF. Therefore, since these guys will start to get expensive 3 years from 2012 (that is, 2015), with Escobar and Lucroy getting expensive sometime around 2013, it might be best to give out nothing more than a 3 year deal. Salary doesn't appear to be a problem, as the sheer volume of non-tenders and expiring dead money gives us at least $30 M to work with, so why not go out and grab Javier Vazquez and maybe a Rich Harden type? Optimally, they are still pitching well enough through 2012 that they aren't a liability, but even if they are, we have the arms to replace them and no gigantic payroll concerns at that point. Finally, with the gigantic amount of bullpen arms we will have homegrown between the above 4 that are listed (Axford, Braddock, Jeffress, Rivas, Thornbug/Nelson/Miller from this draft, etc. etc.) means it is overwhelmingly likely we won't have to pay mediocre relievers like LaTroy Hawkins and Tevor Hoffman $4 M and $8 M. I wasn't able to put together a team that I would feel good about making the playoffs for 2011 without doing a videogame offseason and burning the system up. So, I think we need to shoot for 2012. Escobar, Lawrie, Lucroy, Braun, Gallardo, Hart, Gamel, Rogers, Braddock, Axford, Cain, Parra, McGehee and hopefully Weeks is an awesome place to start. If those prospects continue developing we could have a special group again in Milwaukee, and this time, we will have enough arms to make pitching a strength instead of a weakness.

Matt Miller just threw 7 IP of shutout, 1 hit ball for Helena. His ERA to this point is a very pretty 2.5, and his control has been very good so far. He hasn't been striking out as many recently, however, and he gave up plenty of flyballs (8 I believe). What is the ceiling with this kid? I know he throws 92ish with some good life and he has a nice frame to work from, but do we think this is a guy who could advance through the system quickly?