paul253

Greinke is a legitmate ace. And the Brewers gave up two B prospects and one C prospect for him for two years. Odorizzi is a B prospect? And not to mention if we don't ask for 4 players in return the quality will surely go up. This was a Richie Sexson type trade for KC. They had a ton of holes to fill and needed a lot of bodies. Had they asked strictly for high ceiling prospects we wouldn't have what it would take to get him. And quite honestly, not that KC would do this, but if Milwaukee was out of it at the all star break I' may very well take Odorizzi straight up for Greinke. I'd rather have him then taking my chances with 2 draft picks.

This team has a chance to be competitive, and I'd rather let Marcum and Greinke walk with draft-pick compensation than get less-than stellar AA/AAA prospects. I think all of us could agree with this. Where I would disagree is that you only get a less than stellar player in return for Greinke. The guy is a legitimate ace in my opinion. His ERA is sitting at 3.13. And that is with 2 horrible starts (April 12 in Chicago and May 26 in Arizona). Without those two starts his ERA is a dominant 1.36. If we trade him we better get an elite prospect. Marcum too. While he obviously won't bring back what Greinke will he should net you a decent player. And if you don't demand pitching you could probably get someone a little better. As for the topic itself. I still say if you don't trade Marcum I'd be willing to offer him the one year deal you need to offer him to get comp picks. I don't know if he'll take it or not but I'm hesitant to give him anything more than a one year deal. If he turns it down you get two draft picks. If he accepts you let Wolf go and you are only paying Marcum a little more than you'd pay Wolf.

Logan Schafer. Caleb Gindl. Khris Davis. This on top of Aoki, Hart, Braun and Gomez.

Why would you get rid of a guy for nothing when he's worth far more to our team than the junk we would get in return? Because we already have three guys that can play his position (two on the current roster and one in AAA). And at this point I question how much he is actually worth to this team. You don't always have to trade someone only to get a top prospect in return. You can also trade them to open a spot for someone else. In this case it would be Aoki, whom I think has more than earned a full time job. What are going to do next year when everyone is healthy again? Throw Schafer back in AAA so he can follow Gamel and Green's career path? Keep Aoki as your fifth option in the outfield? You may ask what good trading him does. I ask what good keeping him does. Even when his trade value is "high" you aren't going to get much for him. But you never know. You could get lucky and nab a minor leaguer who turns into a decent bullpen option in the future. I just see no reason to keep him anymore.

Kidding. They need to rebuild so badly it's not even funny. What are you talking about? They almost made the playoffs this year. I think this year all they need is a veteran scorer. We don't need to worry about his makeup or attitude as he won't be a distraction.

Teams need 5 OFers, the Brewers have 5 OFers. That is not an excess. But they don't necessarily need 5 that can be considered every day players. And I didn't mention the guys in AAA that could conceivably be ready at some point next year too in Schafer, Gindl and/or Khris Davis. If you have a guy on the bench (Aoki) that can play just as well, if not better than the guy ahead of him on the depth chart (Morgan) what is the point in keeping Morgan?

Milwaukee can still be a "winner" next year but they need to play it smart. They will have an excess of major league ready outfielders (Braun, Morgan, Gomez, Hart, Aoki) and a shortage of pitching so it would make sense to trade an outfielder for a pitcher. Trading Hart would probably bring back the most but I'd be willing to bet my house than Melvin won't trade him. This is why some people have frustrations with Melvin refusing to look more than a year down the road. It's why Ramirez is our third basemen right now instead of Green. It's why Corey Hart was re-signed instead of being traded to Atlanta who really wanted him a few years ago (Am I remembering correctly that they offered us Beachy for him?). It's why we cannot find an adequate, long term solution for shortstop. It's ok to miss the playoffs but if we are going to I'd like at the very least to see us making moves that will improve the future of the team. Keeping KRod, Marcum, and Greinke so we can finish 5 games out of first instead of 8 games makes no sense to me when trading them could bring you very valuable pieces in return. Similarly, trading them for guys who will be free agents in two years as opposed to prospects you control for 6 years would be foolish. Greinke is, dare I say it, having a Cy Young type season so far (looking like he's about to go to 7-2 with an ERA around 3). Just because he will be a free agent next doesn't mean we won't get anything for him. Without playing Monday Morning Quarterback look at what we gave up for Sabathia. LaPorta was our top prospect at the time and he was mashing in the minors. And I really didn't want to give up Brantley (and don't forget Cleveland could have taken Green, Lucroy or Cain instead of Brantley). Then two pitchers on top of it. We'll get someone good for Greinke and should be able to get something good for Marcum. So if we get the sense that we aren't going to keep Greinke and are still behind 3 teams in our own division come all star break, what good does it do to keep these guys?

I am more and more worried about Melvin trading not for a high ceiling prospect but instead for an established major league player. I have the feeling that if we trade Greinke it'll be similar to the Carlos Lee trade where we got no legit prospect and a bunch of useless spare parts (referring to Mench and Nix. Cordero was solid but why we traded for a closer still boggles my mind). Man I hope he proves me wrong. We have gone heavy outfield again with the position players so far this draft. A third basemen or shortstop prospect would look great in return for Greinke.

What would it take to get Lahair from Chicago? I'm not sold that he'll be a future star but he seems to have potential at least. With Anthony Rizzo ready to go the Cubs can't ask too much for him because teams know they'll have to move him eventually (similar to when we had Lyle Overbay). I like Gamel but if we can get Lahair at a decent price it might be worth considering. I'd still like to trade Hart this offseason (or sooner) so Gamel could always be an option for RF if Lahair holds down 1B.

I really wanted Piscotty or Gallo. It just figures that St. Louis would take Piscotty and I have to imagine they didn't pick Gallo because of the new bonus rules. I would have rather had a HS pitcher with this pick.

Oh....and come someone tell me how Roache compares to Khris Davis?

Any chance Joey Gallo makes it to 38?

Just to play devil's advocate yes we are only 3.5 games behind St. Louis for third place, but we're also only on game ahead of Houston to stay out of 5th place. I'd feel more confident about the series against the Houstons, San Diegos and Minnesotas if we hadn't already lost series to them. Like I said before, it's not that we can't turn it around. I just haven't seen anything out of this team yet that makes me confident that they will.

What drove the original post was seeing the Brewers sweeping the Dodgers on the road in a 4 games series. And L.A. may not be the best team but they are a good team. So I say to myself, alright maybe things are starting to turn around a bit and Milwaukee can make a run. Then they come home and lose 2 of 3 to a Pittsburgh team that, on paper at least, they are far more talented than. And you're right, one series isn't enough to draw a conclusion. This one series just reminded me of all the other series in the first third of the season that got them to the point where they are. Losing series to the Astros. The Twins. The Pirates. The Padres. They are not a playoff team. And since they are not a playoff team they would be smart to get what they can for guys that aren't going to be on the team next season, especially those that can get you a pretty decent player in return.

It seems like this year's draft is going to turn out a lot like last year for me in that the guys I want most who early on looked like real possibilities are going to be gone before we pick. Last year I really wanted Lindor or Baez and both were gone. How good would Lindor have looked in Milwaukee's system? This year the guy I really want is Russell and it's looking like he's going to be gone. This mock has Gallo being gone as well. Either of those guys would look good in Milwaukee's system.

They need to sell because the Brewers' #7 starter lost to the Pirates' #1 starter in a one run game with the 2 best hitting Brewer starters out? OK. No they need to sell because: - a third of the way through the season they are in 4th place, 6 games under .500 and have the fifth worst record in the NL - have suffered season ending injuries to three starters and serious injuries to several others - have one of the worst team ERAs in the league - have one of the wost team batting averages in the league - will likely lose one of the better pitchers in all of baseball, along with several other major contributors, after this year and get only 2 draft picks in return - have one of the worst minor league systems in all of baseball and could use an infusion on talented players, the type of talented players you get by trading guys like Greinke, Hart, Marcum, KRod and/or Axford. Can things be turned around? Or course they can. But what about this team, other than maybe the sweep of the Dodgers, has shown you that it is likely that they actually will?

This series against the Pirates to me shows the need to sell and start over. They go out and sweep the best team in baseball, on the road no less, then come home and lose 2 of 3 to the Pirates. This is not a playoff team and they are probably going to lose a lot of key players this offseason. I may be willing to hang onto Marcum now, depending on what you get offered for him of course. I think I'd offer him that one year deal to get draft picks for him if we aren't offered much in return for a trade. But I think for sure KRod and Greinke need to be traded. I'd also strongly consider trading Corey Hart due to the presence of Aoki. I'd also throw Axford's name out there to see what we get offered back. If someone offers a pitcher with #1 or #2 potential, I think you have to take it.

Could someone explain the reasoning for starting him off all the way up in Huntsville? He was drafted last year out of HS. I understand the Brewers are high on him, and I do like aggressively promoting our players, but Huntsville seems a little fast for him especially if he is going to sit on the bench most of the time. Why don't the Brewers start him off in Helena this year and then promote him based on his play? Or is this Huntsville thing just a temporary move until the Helena season starts?

I think one of the picks is definitely going to be a "safe" pick. Maybe two HS picks and one college player who is easier to sign. This might be a fairly conservative draft all around until teams get a better handle on how these new rules are going to play out.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm getting excited for the draft. I am really hoping Russell is available when we pick.

Jankowski is likely to go somewhere in the 25-35 range, so no, he's not a reach. I was just wondering because BA has him ranked all the way down at #68. I don't follow many draft player rankings. Is he ranked higher by most other publications?

It's not arbitration but I think I'd now be willing to offer him that one year deal that we need to offer him to get picks in return for losing him. If we lose him and Greinke (whom I'm positive we'll offer the one year deal to) that'll net us four extra picks in a draft where there should be far fewer comp picks given out. If he accepts you simply cut Wolf lose and go with a young guy like Fiers to offset the cost.

the only positions that aren't holes on the projected MLB team in 4 years are LF and C. Simply take anyone that might have a chance to hit anywhere near the middle of the order in the future. I realize that Lucroy is signed long term but who else do we have at catcher that is going to be around in 4 years? I don't see any legitimate prospects in the system. At least not any in full season ball. If Coulter can stick at catcher I'd say absolutely keep him there. His value is higher there than it is in RF.

Is Jankowski at 27 a bit of a reach? Is this a signability pick?

I've decided to buy a ping pong table and need a little help picking one out. It's for an upstairs rec room and it's not going to be moved very often. I also don't want to spend an arm and a leg for a new table. The two I have found that I am considering are these:http://forum.brewerfan.net/posting.php?mode=post&f=67 http://www.sportsauthority.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3812577&kw=3812577&sr=1&origkw=3812577 http://www.dunhamssports.com/products/sportcraft-baseline-table-tennis/ I was wondering if somebody in the know could comment on which one of these they think is the better table. The prices are close enough where it isn't really an issue unless they are essentially equal.