paul253

Assuming Braun is suspended, take Hart from this lineup and the 2010 Giants look like Murderer's Row by comparison. With Jair Jurrjens, who put up a sub 3 ERA last season, as your #4 starter your rotation also looks like the 2010 Giants. And as I recall, the 2010 Giants did ok. Plus it provides insurance if Wolf, Greinke and Marcum walk next season. I'd personally prefer one of the Braves younger starters, but I'd take Jurrjens for Hart. This team lives and dies with pitching. As excited as I am about Peralta and Fiers, neither have had any major league success yet. And Bradley and Jungmann haven't even thrown a pitch in the minor leagues yet. And Rogers has yet to show he can stay healthy. If by chance a Hart for Jurrjens deal happens, I'd look to move Wolf or Narveson. It is nice to have depth but Narveson shouldn't be pitching out of the bullpen. You can probably get a decent, lower level positional prospect for Narveson.

I like your list but I'd take Rickie Weeks off of it and add Grienke and Axford. I think Weeks needs to stay and I don't think Greinke will resign if we are selling off players. Just imagine how much we could get in return for the other guys. Let's say for some odd reason the Brewers have some injuries or just don't play all that well. Trading Marcum and Greinke alone should be able to get you some decent players in return. I think those would be your best bets to get some decent prospects back. Hart and KRod may get you some decent guys back. I think for Morgan and Narveson you'd have to settle for a low level, mid ceiling prospect. But the key would be getting pitching and a shortstop back in return. Assuming you trade all 6 of them, I'd expect AT LEAST three mid to high ceiling, high level pitching prospects, one shortstop prospect and at least three other prospect position players in return.

Do you guys watch outfielders on other teams? I don't think what other teams' players do have any sort of effect on whether or not Hart plays good defense. If I score a 30% on a test, the fact that five people scored worse than me doesn't mean that my 30% was a good score. I never thought his defense was that bad until this past year. He just made some awful plays. Maybe they stood out because of when they happened, but he's just one more guy that causes me to hold my breath every time the ball is hit to him (Weeks is another guy). And his complete inability to hit when he bats 5th or 6th just boggles my mind. It really makes me wonder if he only hits well when people like Braun and Fielder are behind him and pitchers don't want to put guys on base for them. I think Hart is a good "sell high" candidate right now and if we can get decent pitching in return for him we should jump all over it. A talented young pitcher under control for 6 years is a lot harder to find that 20-30 home run a year right fielder who plays below average defense and costs $9 million a year. Just my opinion.

i can't envision any trade at all that would bring back the value per dollar that Hart already gives us. I think any trade that brings back a pitching prospect with 2-3 type stuff would be a fair deal. That's why I like Atlanta as a trade partner. Whether or not Atlanta would trade any of their pitchers (Beachy, Minor, Delgado, Teheran, Vizcaino etc) is another question.

Moving Hart only made sense when we didnt have any pitching. Like after next year? I actually want him traded for a few reasons. Yes he is a good hitter, but I've never seen someone struggle so much hitting 5th only to succeed hitting first or second. Is this because Braun and Fielder were behind him and he saw better pitches? Who knows, but I think his inability to hit 5th or 6th hurts his offensive value. I also think his defense is terrible. And it looked like it got worse this past year. Plus, his value is still pretty high. Teams that are looking for an outfielder may feel the same way most of you feel about him and overpay for him. I don't think anyone wants to trade him just to trade him. If you can get good value back. The Brewers are going to need pitching after this season. Jungmann and Bradley are probably three years away and that's assuming they both turn out. I've always thought Atlanta would make a good trade partner because they want an outfielder and they have a ton of pitching. Finally, the few positional prospects we have at the top of the system are all outfielders. Schafer and Gindl could probably compete for a position now. I think Khris Davis will turn it around next season in AA and he could ready soon. Plus Gamel could always play right field. And that Japanese guy if he signs. And freeing up that $20 million or so he is still owed could go a long way towards helping us stay competitive. So for me, it's not one major reason I want to trade him. It's like four or five that kind of add up.

With the tag team thing, I dig it. WCW did a similar thing way back in the day (Battle Bowl, I believe). It's a way to get some guys that aren't involved in anything storyline-wise into some feuds. The tag team champs are just a random pairing, anyhow. Samoa Joe is who I am thinking of here. I like the idea of building up the tag team division, but I hate the WWE attitude of just throwing two singles wrestlers together and calling them a tag team. TNA still could put together some decent teams if they wanted but instead they are tearing them apart. The olden days of the WWF with actual tag teams like Demolition, The Hart Foundation, The Rockers, LOD, The British Bulldogs, etc, was perfect in my opinion. The tag team belts actually meant something because there was strong competition. Samoa Joe shouldn't be wasting away in the tag team division. Neither should Crimson. What's the point of building him up as undefeated only to stick him in the tag team ranks? TNA could put out four or five decent tag teams in the British Invasion, Mexican America, Ink Inc and the Motor City Machine Guns once Chris Sabin comes back. You could throw together a team from Immortal and maybe even a team from Fortune if they get a 4th guy. Two or three more tag teams and have a legitimate division where the same two teams aren't wrestling over and over again. But TNA just seems intent on letting all the teams, and Fortune, rot away into nothingness.

A big fat no, If he didn't get out of the 8th inning role when he did, we may not have won the division. Kameron Loe pitched in 46 of the 92 games before the all star break. I don't care who you are. If you are a reliever pitching once every two games eventually you're going to wear down. After the break, he pitched in 26 of the 68 games and posted an ERA under 2. Like others have said, if Roenecke ever figures out how to use his bullpen Loe will be fine.

I don't understand the whole AJ Styles-Robert Roode thing. Why make this big deal about having sudden death after the first ot if you're just going to end it 10 seconds later? I am getting very turned off by the story lines. I haven't gone back to WWE yet, but it's starting to tempt me. The random tag team deal is just about the stupidest thing I've ever seen in wrestling.

I think it'll be the Cubs

A 5-year contract does not accomplish that How do you know? He will be 36 by then. 36 is very old for a major leaguer, even for someone of his caliber. Not to mention that he can retire if he wants and still be financially set up for like 10 generations. If he is so determined to be a Cardinal for life but the Cardinals don't offer him a contract after his 5 year deal runs out he could just retire. the Cards were saying, "We want you to be a Cardinal for life...but...um...only if you're still good and not hurt after 5 years. So, like, we'll see. Hug it out, bro?" And what he and his wife were saying was "I want guaranteed money for 10 years regardless of how I perform. Even if I start to suck after 7 years you still have to pay me like I'm an all star for 3 years. Deal?" Why are the Cardinals the bad guys here? There were doing the exact same thing that Pujols was doing: make a deal that is as friendly for their side as possible. Maybe they were insulted by a 31 year old demanding a 10 year contract.

But Xavier's have as well, and it all started with Xavier's guy talking smack before halftime, then shoving the guy that instigates the melee Just to be clear, I didn't mean to make it sound like I was blaming Cincinnati. Xavier was very much at fault as well. The "gangstas" comment was just embarrassing. They are a Jesuit School for pete's sake. If I were the head of that school I'd throw him off the team myself. A read a comment on a Cincinnati board where one of the posters said something like "this is what happens when the athletic teams are not at all representative of the actual student body". As far as starting it, I don't know. The Xavier and Cincinnati players were arguing. To me it looked like just before the Xavier guy shoved the Cincinnati player to the ground, the Cincinnati player actually put his hands on the Xavier player first. I'm not saying that the response was even close to being reasonable, but I do think the Cincinnati guy actually started the physical aspect of it all.

The Cards made an offer that was way below market value. Why wouldn't that be an insult? $26 million a year is not below market value. That's more than he ended up signing for. Can "years" be counted towards market value? The market value is how much a player is worth on the open market. Do years factor in on worth? Either way, she obviously thought 5 years wasn't long enough which is fine. If she had just clarified that the years offered was insulting I would have been ok with it. But to say the entire offer was insulting was selfish and shows how out of touch with reality she is.

I actually came on here to link the same article. It's pathetic that any could actually feel insulted that their husband was "only" offered $26 million a year for 5 years. I feel so bad for Mrs Pujols. Here, please take some of my $45,000 a year salary to help ease your burden. You need to feed your family after all.

Finding a reliever than can put up a sub 3.00 ERA isn't easy. He did it in 2010 and did it in the second half of last season. If Roenecke figures out how to use him he could certainly see success again. But this also involves finding a lefty or two, something we lacked most of last year. Loe might also end up being valuable trade bait if the Brewers are out of it at the deadline. I'm just worried that they'll want to go the cheap route now that they've signed Ramirez to such a big contract.

I've seen all sorts of posters suggest we get rid of him because he isn't worth the money. I know Loe had a terrible first half last year, but he was severely overworked. After the all star break he posted an ERA of 1.93. We know he won't be the 8th inning guy with KRod back. I'm curious why people are so quick to write him off. Yeah he'll be fairly expensive, but I'd rather see him in tight games than Marco Estrada or Brandon Kintzler.

You have no idea what Atanassio has in mind for payroll etc. If it's your money then complain all you want, otherwise, I wish people would just shut their pie holes about how much their team spends on certain players. With all due respect you don't know what he is thinking either. I don't think people are saying that this for sure will not allow us to sign Greinke. I am saying that IF it doesn't allow us to sign Greinke I'm going to be pretty upset. And no it's not our money per se. But we are the ones who pay $10+ so we can park closer than a mile to the stadium. And we are the ones who have seen increase in ticket prices every time the Brewers have a decent season. If it weren't for our money, Mark A. wouldn't be making any money either. He needs us just as much as we need him. I am sorry some people don't like the idea of giving a 33 year old player a three year contract worth well over $30 million, especially when he have a prospect whom many of us would like to see be given a shot to play. You have to at least acknowledge that the Brewers have finite resources to pursue a winning team and need to spend them wisely. And you have to acknowledge that there are HUGE question marks after this season with the rotation. The Brewers have shown us in the past that they cannot win without good pitching. So what IF Marcum and Greinke leave because this deal limits Mark A.'s ability to offer them competitive deals? We don't know what he has in mind but neither do you. You can say the deal won't push us over the top with about as much certainty as someone else can say it will. In other words, none of us know. So instead of insulting people for thinking what they are thinking, do what everybody else and try to convince them they are wrong or their fears are overblown.

The only way I like this move is if it involves playing ARam at first, moving Gamel to right, and trading Hart to Atlanta for one of their many major league ready pitching prospects. Since none of that is going to happen, I don't really like the move. I get that ARam will improve the offense, but when did Milwaukee become a team that can rely on expensive veterans? We had a home grown, cheap player that should have been given a shot and now he's been relegated to a bench player for the next 3 years because Weeks sure isn't going anywhere. Now I have to wonder how much money is left to resign Marcum and/or Greinke because if we have to replace both of them we are back to being a .500 team. This move seems really shortsighted to me. I feel like it will handicap the team for the next few years while guys like Green and Gindl sit on the bench.

Ah that's right. I remember seeing the Chinese guys just pulverizing Georgetown's players. G'Town was outnumbered like 2-1 it seemed.

IF Braun gets suspended then I think we should trade Hart and Marcum. We have replacements for both and could bring back two or three pretty decent prospects for the two of them. You let Green, Gamel, Peralta/Fiers and Gindl play and see what we have in them. Then you try to convince Greinke that 2013 will be different and you make every effort to resign him. If he doesn't buy it, you see what you can get for him at the deadline. Same with KRod. The Brewers payroll is getting too unbalanced with the home grown veterans getting expensive and no home grown players coming up. We still have a really decent core in Gallardo, Braun, Weeks, and Lucroy and won't have to go into full fledged rebuilding mode. But I think you do need to maximize the trade value of guys like Hart and Marcum if you can.

Without even looking at the schedule, I'm going to guess that Cincinnati has 6 non conference games left. This is pathetic. Can't the NCAA do something and issue their own suspensions? Why is this up to the school?

I actually went to a UC message board on major recruiting website, and it was hilarious listening to some people try to rationalize this. I'd say probably half of the posters said the kind of stuff we said, about how stupid the players were, but others were actually defending the players. It was basically a "well they started it" type thing. Quite honestly both teams were equally at fault. This wasn't a one person thing. Xavier's guys were talking a lot of trash and one of their players initially threw down a UC player that caused the benches to empty. But it looked like the player he threw down was about to push or hit a Xavier. Either way, just stupid. I hope Gates is gone. There's no room for that kind of thuggery in college basketball.

Did anyone see this? Here is a youtube link to the story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgbvdFW5qoQ I realize this is college and not the NBA, but crap like this is why I'm so turned off by basketball. I don't remember this ever happening in college this bad but it's gone on in the pros a few times in recent memory. The thing that absolutely disgusts me most about this crap is that the people fight like a bunch of.....well the only word I can say on this board is wussies but you get my point. Watch Yancy Gates closely. First of all, he takes an absolute cheap shot at that Freese player from Xavier. Freese, as shown in the slow motion replay, wasn't even looking at Gates. Then, as soon as Gates punches him, he quickly takes three or four steps back to prevent anyone from hitting him back. Absolute garbage and the act of a coward. Another thing I noticed is some player from Cincinnati charging at a Xavier player who was just coming off the bench. I don't know what, if anything, this player said to the Cincinnati guy, but he turned around just in time to defend himself. Another cowardly act. As far as I'm concerned, Gates should be thrown off the team. At the absolute very least, suspended for the rest of the year. People always talk about fighting in hockey, but fighting in hockey doesn't even compare to this. In hockey, the vast majority of the time it's one on one. Teammates do not join in usually and will actually knock helmets and gloves away so the two fighting don't trip over them. Then, when someone hits the ice the fight is over and both players skate away. That's it. Nobody is swinging at someone from behind and then skating away before he gets hurt. Nobody is jumping off the bench. Every now and then you get a 5 on 5 thing going, but even that usually ends on it's own. And the best part about that is anyone who wants to take a shot at someone else can't just run away and hide behind his teammates like Yancy Gates did. I enjoy watching a good sports fight as much as the next guy, but swinging at someone who isn't looking at you and then running away isn't a fight.

If TB is willing to give up Davis for Moreland, maybe we should look into getting Davis? I know he is fairly expensive, but he's controllable for a good number of years. We could offer them Gamel plus a mid level prospect, maybe a Scarpetta or a Heckathorn. Moreland's numbers were pretty pedestrian last season. I know hes young and you expect improvement, but Gamel could easily match Moreland's numbers last season (.259 BA .320 OBP 16 home runs in 512 at bats) My plan would be to move Corey Hart to first, sign a cheap veteran to compete with Gindl for the RF job. Or you simply sign a Carlos Pena or Derek Lee to a one year deal to play first. Then since there is no room in the rotation for Davis you look to trade either Wolf or Marcum for a pitching prospect.

What are the odds he settles for a one or two year deal?

If so, I'd hardly expect them to get a haul for him, anyone could have signed him without compensation No they couldn't have, he was never a free agent. They could have signed him without compensation if he had declined arbitration. This is false. This is also why they should change that stupid "save" rule and make it apply to any relief situation. If KRod comes in in the 8th inning with the bases loaded, nobody out and a 3 run lead and strikes out 3 in a row he gets a "hold". But holds are also dumb and nobody pays attention to them. Then in the 9th inning, Axford comes in, walks a guy, gives a double, throws a wild pitch (1 run) strikes out a guy, gives up a single (two runs) gives up another single, then gets the final guy to hit into a double play ending the game, he gets a "save" even though he darn near blew a three run lead in one inning. Let's face it, if two pitchers have the exact same numbers but one of them has 40 saves and the other is an 8th inning pitcher, the guy with 40 saves is going to get twice as much. Stupid statistic.