paul253

(one who profiled as a 3/4 in AAA and one with a higher ceiling in A or so) for Fielder and a low end prospect for Hart. Forget it. If all you can get is a possible 3/4 pitcher in AAA plus a low level prospect for Prince, you may as well let him walk for the picks because you could probably draft two pitchers with more total upside than that with the compensation picks you'd receive. It would just be a little riskier and would take longer. I am sick of all these 3/4 or 4/5 type starters we have. We need more Odorizzi's and Heckathorn's and less Dave Bush's and Chris Narveson's. Same with Corey Hart. If all you're going to get is a low end prospect, you may as well offer him arbitration with his time comes and get a pick or two out of him. Or maybe Corey Hart has actually figured it out at the plate and he can move back to first base once Prince is traded.

How about anything to suggest that one has anything to do with the other? Thanks for admitting there is nothing like that though. It should be pretty clear that neither Heether nor Stern factored into the Brewers future any more than Jeff Suppan does. My problem is with people lamenting the loss of players that were never going to matter to the Brewers, being the result of some sort of grand scheme by Doug Melvin to hang onto Jeff Suppan, when there is frankly nothing to indicate that is the case. You're missing the point. What we are saying is that between Heether and Suppan, the one who is more valuable to the future of the Brewers (if you had to pick one) is Heether. I named 6 guys who can do what Suppan is doing, and I could probably name 4 more. While nobody is suggesting Heether is going to be making any NL All-Star teams anytime soon, it seems foolish to continue spending over a million dollars a year on backups like Craig Counsell when someone like Heether could assume the backup role for a third of the price. Jeff Suppan not only brings nothing to this team, he actually hurts them when he comes in and pitches. So what we're really saying is why would you even consider putting someone like Heether on waivers when you could finally relieve yourself of a pitcher who is hurting the team? It doesn't make any sense. Beside, if Heether was never going to be of any help to Milwaukee, why did they even bother to put him on the 40 man to begin with? Have these first 50 games of 2010 really changed their minds about him so much that they don't even care if they lose him anymore? Apparently so.

You really have to wonder how capable Melvin is to this organization is anymore. Not that Heether is that big of a loss, but as someone else already point out, he is literally doing everything possible to keep Suppan on the team. It's like he's afraid to admit his mistake, and is not making mistake after mistake as a result. With Chris Capuano, Dave Bush, Chris Narveson, Manny Parra, Kameron Loe and Marco Estrada all capable of doing what Suppan is doing, there is absolutely no use for him. I really have lost faith in Melvin because I feel like he is panicing. I'm just waiting for him to announce an extension to Suppan now.

I agree with TLB. Parra needs to be in the rotation and stay in the rotation. At this point, we need to know what he brings to the table. The guy is still young enough and has enough potential to improve and if he does then it will fill a huge hole. That being said, Parra needs to step up and be more aggressive. He is better than he is pitching and it's up to him to improve.

Ah....shows how well I was paying attention.

Looking at the organization, who are some of the players that you all hope get bumped up a level around the all start break? Wisconsin: I'd like to see Heckathorn, Odorizzi, and Kristopher Davis move up. Heckathorn and Davis are college guys and don't need to spend an entire year in low A ball when they've shown success. Odorizzi is putting up good numbers and he's already been brought along fairly slowly. Plus, moving up two starters will allow for some of the pitchers in Wisconsin to get more starts. A BC rotation of Odorizzi, Heckathorn, Peralta, Fiers, and Scarpetta would be very fun to follow BC: Honestly not a lot here. Probably just some roster filler to allow spaces for the others to become available. Huntsville: Cain: Why on earth is he still in Huntsville? Rivas: Why not? He's doing well in AA, although his K's are down. See what he can do in Nashville and maybe he'll have an outside chance at the fifth starters spot in Milwaukee next season. Mike McClendon: Know nothing about him but very good numbers as a reliever.

There is just SO much wrong with the draft. This compensation thing is just the tip of the iceberg. Greg Zaun is a decent player. Not an all star, but a decent player. That being said, should losing him to free agency garner a draft pick before the second round? I really don't think so. The fact most mlb draft picks never make it makes the higher picks all that more important to have. I agree with CheezWiz...something more comparable to the NFL would be fine by me. But no compensation picks before the 5th round.

I don't know much about Alex Wimmers, but I don't like the terms "raw stuff" and "reasonable price tag". Not that I don't hope his price tag is reasonable, but I hate the idea of drafting someone just because he'd be easier to sign.

Just about every free agent is going to provide more value than your average 42nd pick. Why not give compensation for every player who leaves via free agency? My point really has nothing to do specifically with Zaun. It's that while trying to compensate teams for players that they, in a lot of cases, choose not to re-sign, you are undermining the entire process of the draft, which is supposed to give the worst teams a chance to improve. How does that happen when the Angels pick 5 times before the Pirates pick twice? There are a lot of players in currently in the majors who got picked after the 42nd pick.

I don't see a strong motivation for Weeks to sign an extension at this point. I agree with HiandTight. With his injury history and the fact that a lot of free agents aren't getting nearly what they thought they would, he may jump on the job security for another three years. Just once, I want to see him out of the leadoff spot to see what he can do. If this season gets away from us, which it looks like it will, Macha should bat Gomez first to see if he can handle it, and move Weeks down to 5 of 6 to see what he can do when he doesn't bat leadoff.

Most 42nd picks are't going to provide any value Well that's true, but all in all there were 12 type B picks handed out, meaning the teams that don't have any comp picks have to watch 12 more players disappear before the get to pick again. I'm sure any team you ask would rather pick say 40th than 52nd regardless of how likely it is that that 40th pick is eventually going to be a major league player. How does Tampa gaining this pick indicate there is anything wrong with the draft? Because teams losing free agents who are more or less average players are getting comp picks and end up having more picks than teams who are bad and actually need good players. It's not just Tampa getting this pick for Zaun, it's the way comp picks are handed out in general. Perfect example. The Pirates, who finished 37 games under .500 have the number 2 pick in the draft. The Angels, who finished 28 games over .500, then pick 5 times before the Pirates get to pick again. Yes, the Angels obviously lost some good players, but they also have a lot more available resources than the Pirates do to sign FA's. And oh yeah, they were 28 games over .500! Tampa Bay, who finished 6 games over .500, has three picks before the Pirates get their second pick. Boston, who actually moved up 9 spots in the first round by signing John Lackey and losing Bill Wagner, also has 3 picks before the Pirates get their second. In fact, the 7 worst teams in baseball (Washington, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, KC, Cleveland, Arizona, and the Mets), and 12 of the worst 14 teams (add in SD, Cincy, Oakland, Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee) all have to watch teams with winning records (Boston, LAA, Tampa, Texas, Colorado, and St. Louis) all get multiple picks (other than Colorado they all get at least 3 picks) before they get to make their second pick. The whole system is flawed. The fact the Tampa gets the 42nd pick for losing a 38 year old catcher who hit a combined .259 with 8 home runs and 27 rbi is to me an absolute joke. There are so many things wrong with the MLB draft that if teams like Milwaukee didn't have to rely so heavily on it for sustained success I would just completely blow it off.

Another bit of good news. If Angel can put it together offensively in AAA, they Brewers might have some good trading chips this off season involving the catchers with Salome, Lucroy, and Kottaras.

Good luck to Mark. Hopefully he can find some control in Nashville. We could really use another hard throwing, cheap right hander in the rotation in Milwaukee.

I'd like to see him moved up at the break. He is already in his third season with the club isn't he? At this point, what harm would it do? It would open up a spot so some other of these Wisconsin pitchers can get more starts.

Why would we give up Matt LaPorta after we took a chance on him and he really started to pan out, or Michael Brantley who looked fantastic for us, or Rob Bryson who was striking out nearly 12 per 9 for us as a 20 year old in West Virgina? Because we were taking a chance to win a World Series. That's totally different. The Brewers got one of the best pitchers in all of baseball in return for those three. They also gave up mostly position players, which is a lot easier to deal with. As far as Perkins goes, it's not that he's pitching poorly. Its that he's pitching terribly...in Triple A. An ERA of almost 9. 56 hits allowed in under 40 innings. A whip of 1.83. In his best year he had an era of almost 4.5. What exactly would we do with him? It's not like he is some 22 year old kid who is struggling in his first go at AAA. He's 27 and getting rocked. We can't even give Manny Parra a shot in the rotation without injuries. If I am going to trade two major league every day players, one who is likely to be an all-star this year, I don't want Perkins as part of the deal. Perkins is someone, if I wanted him, that I'd trade a low minor leaguer for, someone like Del Howell or Caleb Thielbar or something. Player W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR HB BB SO WHIP HLD GF Glen Perkins068.479900039.15645377316381.8300

I think the Brewers would be fools not to trade Hart while his value is up. Especially the way Lorenzo Cain is playing down in Huntsville. I think Cain should be promoted to give him some AB's against more advanced pitching. It took Lucroy awhile to adjust so I'm assuming the same can be expected with Cain. Kyle Gibson is a guy I like, but I don't know why Minnesota would trade him. They took a big chance drafting him and it's really paying off. I don't see why they'd give him up so quickly. Perkins is really struggling in AAA this year. I'm not sure I'd want to take a chance on him right now, especially for an every day major league player. As far as McGehee goes though, I am still hoping they don't trade him. He is a big part of the future, and we'll need him once Fielder is traded. Plus who is going to replace him? Gamel hasn't had any major league success yet. I wouldn't want to just hand him the third base job with no other real options.

Yeah he'd better play more than once every 5 games.

Is Zimmerman pitching yet? Didn't he have TJ surgery last year?

I wouldn't trade Mcgehee, but I'd trade CV and Hart. The reason why is that for one, Hart is a lot more expensive than McGehee and if you want him back you're going to have to give him a contract. If he stays hot he'll probably ask for close to $8 million or so. Also though, Hart and CV are a lot less consistent than McGehee is. I'd trust McGehee to keep playing like he is more than I would the other two.

And that's whats wrong with the draft. No offense to Zaun, but losing him should not be worth the 42nd pick.

Coffey-I'm a big Coffey fan, but is he a part of our future? I would have liked to see him given the closers role once Hoffman got demoted. I think he's been misused very badly by Macha. He pitches way too much. Pitches in games when we are down by 5 in the 5th inning, then he'll also pitch in games when we are up by one in the 7th. He has no clear cut role. I think he should be the 8th inning guy or a guy that comes in when the games is very close. I think Marco Estrada needs to go back down and continue to start. I hate calling up all of these starters from Nashville to have them pitch out of the pen. Now that Capuano is up, Suppan needs to go. There is just no excuse anymore. He isn't needed as a long man because Vargas can fill his role. Melvin needs to win back the confidence of the fans and releasing Suppan would be a very good start.

Nice article but I disagree with one thing. Mat Gamel should not be the Brewer's third basemen right now. Casey McGehee has more than earned that position. Mat Gamel should be in Nashville, learning a new position.

Of course he does. Just as he already knows that Hoffman will not be able to be an effective pitcher for the rest of the season. Sheethead, you really should start marketing that time machine technology, you could make a heap of money! It's a long season obviously but a lot of guys are going to have to improve in order for this to be considered a success. Based on the teams play so far, it's hard to envision this happening. The fact is, I disagree with a lot of people in that I don't think this team ever was very good. They had a good run in 2008, but quite frankly were lucky to make the playoffs and without the play of one of the better pitchers in baseball it wouldn't have been close. For the enormous talent they've had on offense the past few years, they've never had the pitching to go with it. And unfortunately with the way the team is set up now it's hard to see them having the pitching any sooner than 2-3 years. Unless Prince Fielder is traded for a very good young pitcher, which he could be I suppose, it's hard to imagine our rotation getting significantly better before 2012 or 2013 when we should finally have some of our own prospects pitching.

So we are talking about trading players like Braun or Fielder. Well we are going to trade Fielder so he'll have his shot. I think he's had his shot before but chose to go in other directions when he traded Sexson and Lee. Now knowing that he's probably going to have to trade Fielder, are you confident that he'll bring in a good return for him? Based on his history of trades involving our marquee guys (Sexson, Lee, and to a lesser extent Overbay and Hardy), I am not.

This remains to be seen. Homer Bailey has a career ERA of 5.46 to this point and has struggled with injury problems including a shoulder problem this year (hmm, just as the Brewer's scouting team guessed would happen). His injuries have been nothing compared to injuries to the guy we drafted instead of hm. Maybe they guesses right that Bailey would have shoulder problems, but then they certainly guessed wrong about Rogers. Plus, Bailey's era may be poor, but at least he made it. He threw a complete game shut out not too long ago so the potential is obviously there. And he lowered his era by over a run and a half since April, so he is getting a little better it seems. Mark Rogers is still in AA having difficulty throwing strikes. And I don't want to make it seem like I am down on Rogers. I follow his stats every week and pray he makes it. But between Bailey and Rogers, can you honestly say at this point you'd still rather have Rogers? You could add to that list F. Cordero as well. We traded a 2 time all star outfielder to get Cordero, a reliever. There are a lot of people who think that was a bad trade. In some respects, the fact that these three pitchers have not made it to this point is just bad luck, not bad GMing. Even if I give you these three as bad luck, what about all of the other ones drafted on his watch that didn't make it? Honestly I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but after 8 years I just don't see how you can defend his record on pitching. I just can't get over the fact that of all the pitchers drafted in his 8 drafts, only 2 of them have started a game for the Brewers.