umphrey

I have no idea who Terez Owens is but I would be happy if his inside source is correctI also hope that a guy I've never heard of citing a vague, one-line quote from an anonymous source via a very amateur looking website is legit edit: his recent reports ("breaking sports gossip" -his words) made me laugh -Deron Williams and Dwight Howard have dinner together-Michael Jordan gets engaged-Kris Humphries dating Kim K's rival-a sideline reporter wears a bikini-a song about Tim Tebow-Wes Welker wears pajamas and has a girlfriend

Here is all the history of MLB posting fees and contracts (hopefully it formats) Nishioka and Iwamura are the most comparable. These guys don't seem to sign 1 year deals. I would expect 2-3 years, $5M total. There isn't a lot of history but these are the numbers the Brewers and Aoki are going to look at in negotiations. Player Posting Contract Alejandro Quezada 400,001 Signed minor league contract Ichiro Suzuki 13,125,000 3 years, $14 million Kazuhisa Ishii 11,260,000 4 years, $12.3 million Ramón Ramírez 350,000 Signed minor league contract Akinori Otsuka 300,000 2 years, $1.5 million Norihiro Nakamura Undisclosed Signed minor league contract Shinji Mori 750,000 2 years, $1.4 million Daisuke Matsuzaka 51,111,111 6 year, $52 million Akinori Iwamura 4,500,000 3 year, $7.7 million Kei Igawa 26,000,194 5 years, $20 million Tsuyoshi Nishioka 5,329,000 3 years, $9 million

These pitcher deals, front line starter for prospects, I grade them based on how good I think the pitcher is more than anything. The prospects, more often than not, turn out to be how low payroll teams fill out a couple roster spots for cheap. You can get LaPorta, Brantley, Escobars in free agency every year and they aren't even that expensive, just a little bit more so than they are now.

2/$26M it's a pretty damn good deal for them even though he's 34, they aren't in it for too long.

Whoever trades for Jurrjens is going to get shafted

Aoki is just too much of an unknown to straight swap for Nyjer who we have pencilled in to start 75% of the games in CF and we know can hit (as long as its RHP)

That's the 50-day multi-million dollar question. I don't think that anybody reasonably believes that an athlete must disclose every medication he takes to MLB. In fact, he's under no obligation to disclose any medication he takes, except as such a medication may impact the JDA. So, how far does an athlete have to go in investigating medications that are legally prescribed to him for a legitimate medical reason? That's not a question that impacts only Ryan Braun. It seems to me that the JDA does not overrule a player's basic right to medical privacy. If the arbitration panel were to rule that the only way to know for sure that taking a medication will not put the player in violation of the JDA is to check first with MLB, without regard to whatever advice he is given by his personal physician and other medical advisors on the matter, they would be ruling, in effect, that a player must choose between his personal privacy concerns and his profession every single time he receives a prescription. Is that where we're willing to go to catch whatever percentage of guys it is that will be caught under the testing program? We don't even know that this is an issue in the case, but regardless of that fact it's a question worth considering.I think it is the players responsibility to have someone (himself? his agent? his lawyer? his doctor?) contact MLB before taking any medication to make sure it is not going to get him suspended. It is just too stupid not to do this. Honestly, Braun just risked 2 million bucks doing this, plus whatever it might cost him in endorsements.I'd imagine that players take the medicine and then get it cleared after the fact. I don't think MLB would tell it's players to delay necessary medication because it might affect a test and they NEED to know that before hand. Speaking generally, not specific to Braun.

You can do this but you'll get in trouble with the league if that's what happens. For example MLB will be pretty pissed if the Darvish winner doesn't sign him. It's good PR if the good Japanese players come play here. It's pretty obvious if a team bids a bunch of cash and then only offers a cheap 1 year deal for no good reason.

Mike Gonzalez. We need a lefty in the bullpen. Braddock and Parra aren't really LOOGYs and it annoys me when they get used that way. They are highly unreliable anyway. OPS splits for Gonzalez least year vs LHB/RHB: .574/.900, don't know why they used him against almost the exact same number of lefties last year (103, 101). Mike Gonzalez + Loe would combine for 1 shut down inning if you pick their spots correctly.

He probably cost us bullpen depth. We have 2 elite RPs and some risky guys (best of Loe, Braddock, Estrada, Veras, Kintzler, De La Cruz, McClendon) instead of 1 elite RP and some proven guys like Hawkins and Saito. Maybe they would have given Rollins 4 years instead of signing Aramis.Maybe Pena would be a Brewer.None of those things upset me at all. He might cost us a Greinke or Marcum extension though. We could have given Aramis $10M per instead of deferring the money, which would have given us some flexibility for extensions. That would only be about $4M/year for 2 theoretical years though so don't start blaming him now.

What are we even paying him, maybe $1.5M or so?

Latos is a strike out guy. I don't think changing parks is going to change much for him. He's 24 years old and his last 2-3 years are almost identical to Gallardo. On the surface I thought this was a steal for the Padres, but really it looks pretty even because Latos is legit, young, and signed. The Reds are getting 4 years of ace pitching. I can't think of many pitchers who have more trade value than Latos. I think the Reds wanted to trade away some surplus, and they did well with it. I'm sure the Padres are happy too because they can probably fill a number of roster spots on the cheap.

I'd like to say I never thought I'd see the day when we were all hoping that Braun has herpes

Gomez has really weird splits vs RHP or LHP if you go look at the numbers for 2011, 2010, and career, I don't know what to make of it. I don't think you have to bench him against RHP, but I think you have to bench Morgan against LHP.

The 2 free agents ranked right above and below him made $3M and $4M. Seems like we slightly overpaid, not a big deal, but the option for next year sucks because it is almost a guarantee.

I would agree except for in this case, what was the alternative? I just don't see how people would rather have the worst left side of the infield on baseball again to maybe extend a pitcher and add a slightly better bench player or two

Cool, those high strike out guys can be useful when used as needed

If only we would play Green, Gamel, Peralta, Rivas, Shafer, Fiers, we would win at payroll Sorry if some of us would rather find out what we have in Green and Gamel while they're cheap, have money to build a bullpen and a bench, and have flexibility to make a run at a Greinke extension.Sorry but I just don't get this desire to hate on every deal that is more than 2 years and $5M/per. Is this really going to take us out of the running for that 4th outfielder or LOOGY we have our eye on? Now our bench is in good shape with Green on the cheap. Also, Greinke got himself traded because he had that kind of infield every year.

It's because they know the club only has limited resources and they're spending a large amount on an aging, no-defense player.If only we would play Green, Gamel, Peralta, Rivas, Shafer, Fiers, we would win at payroll

But what about the 2014 season? Think of the 2014 season!!!

I am kind of baffled as to why people want Taylor Green instead of Aramis Ramirez (and for 140+ games no less) in a year where we have playoff hopes Did you want to spend that money on Carlos Beltran or something?

don't care, I just don't want Braun to be a crappy player after this or get suspended

Don't you have to kind of use the 2011 trade that sent him to the Brewers as a barometer? He's available for twice as long and there isn't that terrifying vesting option to worry about. At that point in time his value was about $4M for half a year, so I would think now he'd be worth about $8M for a whole year + value for not having a vesting option so about $10M is what I think he'd be worth on a 1 year deal. Whatever his real value is, it has to be lower than the $12M or whatever he is projected to make in arbitration, because he would have just signed a 1 year contract for that much somewhere else to close. Therefore his trade value is a salary dump. Whatever prospects we get back, we will just be buying with money we send with KRod.

Let the lineup debate begin 1. Morgan2. Hart3. Braun4. Weeks5. Gamel6. Lucroy7. Gonzalez8. Green9. Pitcher It looks like we are missing a 5 hitter more than a 2 hitter because Morgan and Hart are probably going to be 1/2 in some order and however you shake up 5-9 the 5 spot is kind of weak

I can't think of many reasons to play for the Dodgers instead of the Brewers right now on a short term deal besides money