paul253

Even Gomez could drive in close to 100 hitting in the 5 hole. Hart drove in 91 in 2008 with a rather crappy bating line. RBI is a terrible stat. Do you really believe that? Do you believe Alcides Escobar could do the same? What about Jason Kendall last season? Yes, RBI is relatively dependent on guys being there to drive in, but as JohnBriggs said, Prince Fielder doesn't seem to be having success driving runs in this season. You have to be able to get hits. It's not like Casey McGehee has 51 sac flies or ground balls to second base when there is a guy on third base with less than two outs. Casey McGehee is a good hitter, and he's cheap. Why move him now? And I stand by my statement. If Mat Gamel was hitting .280 with 13 home runs and 55 RBI at the all star break (like McGehee will be right around) people around here would be thrilled. Also, that Corey Hart stat you reference. He was an all star in 2008 wasn't he? 58 of those RBI were pre-all star break and only 33 were after (granted he played in 29 fewer games after the break). But both his OBP and Slugging percentage went way down after the break. Even though his final stats looked rather poor, when he was actually driving in the runs he was hitting really well. Actually, it almost goes to show that when you are indeed hitting poorly, you aren't going to be driving in nearly as many runs. So I disagree with you that Carlos Gomez could drive in as many runs as McGehee if he were hitting 5th because I don't think Gomez is nearly as good a hitter.

Sparky is an idiot. The Brewers just lost 2 of 3 to Houston...at home. If they win 3 of 4 in St Louis all of a sudden they are a contender? The Brewers biggest problem is that they don't face facts. This team is not a playoff team. Prince Fielder is not going to re-sign. They have an opportunity to get some good young pitchers in trades if they only make an attempt. If they trade Hart, Fielder, and maybe some relievers like Coffey and/or Hoffman, they can probably get at least 4 mid to high ceiling pitching prospects.

It is about stinkin' time Cain gets moved up. If he has a good second half you'd have to consider him a dark horse to be in the opening day lineup next season, either in center field or in right field. It also makes me wonder yet again why Melvin traded for Carlos Gomez.

Couldn't ticket brokers reserve massive amounts of tickets for all the games then jack up the prices to continue reaping in the money.

I hope they keep him as a reliever. I don't understand this. This guy has more upside than any pitcher in the system. If he can throw strikes, which he seems to be doing fairly well so far, he could be absolutely dominating. I'm still a little irritated they won't move Braddock to the rotation. I'd be downright furious if they keep Jeffress in the the bullpen. Talk about a waste of talent. If anything the success of Axford and Lowe this season shows that finding reliable relievers in MUCH easier than finding reliable starters. No offense Diggr but I really hope you are wrong.

Odorizzi has really been dominating lately. Any chance he moves up to A+ soon? He is already in his third professional season isn't he?

No way would I ever want the Brewers to sign Corey Hart for 6 years.....Weeks either. Neither of them have shown enough consistency to warrant such a deal. If they were to re-sign either, I'd go no more than 4 years. I'm still hoping they trade Hart though. The guy's value has never been higher. It'd be nice to see Melvin sell high for once. there is nothing about McGehee that is special enough that he can't be replaced I'm surprised people are so down on McGehee. If Mat Gamel came up and put up the exact same numbers we'd all be thrilled. Why not hang on to him for awhile? He seems to be relatively consistent and is on pace to drive in over 100 runs in just his second full year in the majors. He's the type of player we need so we can save money to spend on pitching.

Has anyone seen the movie Green Zone? Any comments on it?

I was wondering if someone could help me out here. I'll try to not exaggerate my point so that I can hopefully get a more accurate answer. I drive to work every day and I take Hwy 41 in Milwaukee (that little 2 or 3 mile freeway spur directly north of Miller Park). In both the northbound and southbound directions, the far left lane is blocked off by construction barrels for about 500 yards or so. There is an arrow pointing out that the lane is closed, then barrels in the left lane. My question is this. The lanes have been blocked off for at least two weeks but I can't figure out why. There is no other construction equipment around. There are no major potholes or anything that is visibly in need of repair. It's not a major freeway so it's not a huge deal, but it's really annoying having to switch lanes for that 500 yards for work that isn't being done. Are there any construction people out there who can think of why they'd need to block off the lanes for so long before they actually start the work, assuming they are actually going to be doing something?

Perhaps Texas is looking for offense?

I suppose that'd be an ok haul, though Sanchez is going to get expensive soon. How much longer would he be under control? Also Neal seems like a nice power hitter, but outfielder is hardly a position of need. Any chance he could move over to first base?

TB is quickly falling out of contention. They only need to stay in the top 2 in their division as it looks like the AL East will get the wildcard. I'd love to see them take on both Fielder and Hart. They have a very young, deep rotation and they also have a lot of good pitching prospects. They could flip both Hart and Prince at the end of the year if they wanted to to get some of their prospects back. Or they could keep Hart, though he'll be expensive, and let him walk after 2011 to get the draft picks. I just hope Melvin makes the deals. We finally see a glimmer of hope and then the Crew goes off and looses 2 out of 3 at home to Houston. The team is not a contender Doug. Get that in your head. And unless you significantly upgrade the pitching with guys who are young and cheap, you won't ever be a consistent contender. Back a few years ago Milwaukee had the top ranked farm system in all of baseball. Guys like Weeks, Fielder, Hardy, Hart, and Gallardo made that possible. Well all of the position players have come and are about to get to the point where they can go and what do we have to show for it? One playoff appearance made only because of Sabathia. 2 seasons over .500. It's not working. And it's not working because there is no pitching. It's nice to see them finally recognize that out slugging everyone doesn't work, but unless they actually do something about it recognizing it means nothing. It's getting so frustrating watching this team but it's even more frustrating watching Doug Melvin and Mark A. act like we are still contenders and are one or two aging veterans away from making the playoffs. We are in the unique position of having enough of a young core signed (Braun, Gallardo, Escobar, Lucroy, Braddock, Axford, McGehee) plus decent prospects close (Gamel, Cain, Lawrie, Gindl) available to replace people who are traded, that we can trade two of our better players (Hart and Fielder) and not have to go into a full fledged rebuilding process. It's like the fans are the only ones who see it though. Corey Hart's trade value will probably never be as high as it is right this second, but they'd rather take the chance that he continues to hit like he has for the past two months instead of the way he's hit for the 3 years prior. Maybe he has turned the corner, but when you have zero pitching are can probably get a good pitching prospect or two for him now, is that really a chance they should take? Not to mention they'll have to sign him to a huge contract after next season if the intend to keep him. Prince too. He's not coming back. His value is only going to decrease now as every day is one less game he'll play for his new team. He should be actively shopping both players now and should jump on the first good offer. The fans will understand.

Hey if there is a fire sale somewhere....why shouldn't we be buyers Because right now we are nowhere nowhere close to contending. I only want to be a buyer if it's going to be someone who is cheap and under control for a number of years....in other words, the exact type of player who won't be available to "buy" at the deadline. Just because we have a lot of expiring contacts this season doesn't mean we should take on some more bad contracts that might get us back to .500 Milwaukee needs to trade Fielder. The sooner the better. I think a team like Tampa would be willing to take him on this season and then flip in the off season to recoup some of their prospects. What about a deal moving Hart and Fielder to TB for a package starting with Hellickson and McGee? They'd could keep both for next season, trade both in the off season, keep one and trade one, etc. It'd be a good move for Tampa.

If you learn Arab (that's a language right?), you could get a job with the FBI like that...or so I hear anyway.

I'm going to be very ticked off if they trade Lawrie. If they can't get pitching by trading Fielder, Hart and/or Weeks, then Melvin and Ash should be fired.

I'd like to see him head to BC first. His success is based 100% on control, and he's already struggled mightily in Huntsville. I'd like to see him go up to BC, stretch out a little bit and see how his control is over 5-6 innings. Hopefully he can go up there and dominate for 6 or 7 starts and then move up to AA.

I’m not even sure if the Nats would trade Gallardo, Braun, and Fielder for Strasburg. Now PR moves aside, do you really think they'd turn down that deal? You are talking about three young, perennial all-stars, two of who are signed for at least four years for a very reasonable price. As good as Strasburg is, I don't really think he's worth three perennial all-stars, two of whom could be considered top 5 MVP caliber players and one of whom is definitely Cy Young caliber AND who are all in the prime of their careers. Assuming Washington would extend Fielder, they'd be fools to turn down that deal, just as big of fools as Milwaukee would be to offer it. It'd one thing to offer that deal if Braun, Fielder, and Gallardo are all in the minors as prospects, but if I were Washington I'd take that deal in a heartbeat.

I think the vast majority of people who suggest Lawrie moving mention first base or corner outfielder, not third base. If he moved to third base there'd be quite the logjam with gour players all at AA or higher. I don't get all the fantasies of him being a SS. All I ever hear from people when the idea of someone like Gamel or last year Hardy switching postions is "well his value wouldn't be as high if he switched positions". Wouldn't Gennett's value be much higher as a shortstop than it would be as a second basemen? he fact that he can't even get PT at SS for the T-Rats-a low A team with only George and Marseco ahead of him should speak loudly. He has gotten PT at shortstop though, they just somewhere along the line decided he'd be better of at second. I don't think the rest of the teams shortstops have anything to do with that. I think Pete hit it on the head. They didn't decide he couldn't be a shortstop. They decided he'd be better of playing second base. Maybe they think with his advanced bat that having to play a tougher position defensively would hold him back some, so they stuck him at second knowing he wouldn't have to concentrate as much on defense.

but he's not better than Gennett in any way so the only positions available to him are 3B or DH. It doesn't make sense to send him up to and put him in front of Gennett. They wouldn't be putting him in front of Gennett, the idea would be to move Gennett to shortstop, where he'd have nobody blocking him. I doubt Lawrie sticks at second base either. He's still in A ball so he'd have plenty of time to improve his defense. Weeks and Gamel weren't exactly gold glovers down in A ball but they've both improved enough to stick at the position.

Wow.....that's a nice shot in the arm. Salome and Schafer coming back with Jeffress and Anundsen on the way. The manager of Huntsville must be smiling, not to mention Lorenzo Cain.

The last update I heard was a few weeks ago, but I thought they said he wasn't close to being ready yet. I don't understand the reasoning for waiting to move up Cain. He's already in his third season in AA and is hitting very well. If there is a chance he could make the 25 man roster next year, wouldn't it make more sense to move him up now and let him get as many AB's against more advanced pitching as possible? If he does well he could make Corey Hart expendable, which save a lot of money. As far as Dykstra goes, I'd like to see him stay the year in Wisconsin. He is having his first sniff of success so far and I don't want him to move up a level and go back to hitting in the low 200's . Really though I wish they'd move Gennett to SS and Dykstra to 2B instead of having Dkystra play 3B and DH.

What would it take to get Hellickson? He seems to be exactly what we need and we have a few players the high levels who are blocked by other players. I don't know what TB needs, but how do they look at catcher and outfield? Those seem to be out two most well stocked positions.

Overall, I think the Brew Crew treated Heether pretty well. They gave him lots of ABs over the years. I disagree a bit. Heether earned a September call-up last year and at least a chance to see what it was like to play in the big leagues. The Brewers in September had nothing to play for and only called up like 4 or 5 guys. I thought it was real classless not to call him up last season. I also think it's pathetic....yes pathetic....that Jeff Suppan is still on the roster. Any excuse you can come up for that (they don't want to pay all that money for no production, don't want to begin service time on someone, etc) shows that the team isn't serious about winning. It started when Macha put him in the rotation when he clearly didn't earn it and it continues for each and every player that they have to put through waivers. I am very quickly losing faith in the front office just like I lost faith in Macha last season. Maybe at their stupid little pow-wow they can figure out who is going to take their jobs next season.

Yeah if they get someone like Roy Oswalt on top of the addition of Strasburg they could shoot up the standings pretty quickly. Not to mention they've been terrible for a good while now and may jump on the opportunity, no matter how small it is.

What about Scooter Gennett? My initial thought was to just let him play the year in Wisconsin since he is so young, but then I realized he really isn't that much younger than Brett Lawrie, who got pushed all the way up to Huntsville. Gennett certainly has earned it, and if he's going to be at second base then there won't be an issue with playing time with him and Josh Prince.