paul253

I read somewhere that the Marlin's offer to Reyes was 6 years for $90 million. If that's the case I think the Brewers could have topped that. They offered Fielder $100 for 5 years so I think they could have gone 6 years for $100 million for Reyes I think. But, I'm thinking Furcal is Melvin's #1 target.

I think with a lot of those cities it all depends on who is willing to build a stadium. I doubt the MLS wants an expansion team in an older football stadium with 30,000 empty seats. And who knows, some of them may not even want a team. The Midwest seems a little underrepresented in the MLS with only Chicago and Columbus having teams. Minneapolis would be a good option IF they build a stadium. As would St. Louis. But I really think if Milwaukee puts a serious proposal on the board they'd have to be considered a decent candidate.

I've looked, Milwaukee isn't even on top ten lists regarding MLS expansion/relocation. I think this has as much to do with lack of interest than anything. If Milwaukee actually put together a decent proposal including a new stadium, I have to think they'd move up that list. The land north of the Bradley Center that is owned by the Bradley Center and the land north of that that the county owns that they could buy. Neither piece of land is big enough to build an arena, but with some minor road work it could be done. Juneau Ave between 4th and 6th really isn't all that busy so they could close that. Then when/if they tear down the BC they could extend highland ave to make up for the loss of Juneau. I was actually thinking the exact same spot for the new soccer stadium actually. Build it between 3rd St. and 6th St east to west and from McKinley Ave to near where the BC ends from north to south, closing that three block stretch of Juneau Ave. It'd be great if we could get some private donations for $50 million in renovations to the BC and $50 million for a new soccer stadium. I'd gladly be willing to extend the 0.1% sales tax for that. .1% is a tiny amount and it is going to something that should help a lot of city businesses.

I'd like to see them treat Mark like a rule 5 guy. He can be the last man in the pen. The long man. At least until we figure out what we have in him. I contend his arm is still way to electric to let walk away. IF, and yes this is a huge if, he can return to form as a starter (maybe after healthy year in the pen where he pitches multiple innings at a time), he would be a huge addition to the club.

Just a little bump to this thread. MLS said the D.C. United could pursue relocation options if they can't get a new stadium in D.C. I think Milwaukee should try to get some private investors together a for a new stadium in Milwaukee. Looking at newer soccer stadiums, you could probably build a new soccer only stadium for somewhere between $80-$100 million. Obviously some of that could be raised through the sale of naming rights. And I'd even be willing to guess Marquette and/or UWM would pay some rent in order for their college teams to play there. I'd be ok with the Miller Park sales tax being extended for this if at least half of it is covered by private donations. This would be a boon to downtown. Downtown Milwaukee has improved a lot over the past decade or so, but a stadium down there bringing thousands more people there every game night would really help bars/restaurants/hotels. I was just wondering what people thought here. Would you be willing to have the Miller Park tax cover $50 million for this stadium if it brought an MLS team in?

We got to where by this strategy, homegrown talent for cheap. Well technically we were a .500 team until we traded for established pitchers but I see the point and I agree with it. I see Wily Peralta as our best chance to develop a good, young, CHEAP, pitcher who will actually have success since Yovani Gallardo. He should considered absolutely untouchable right now. I think Tyler Thornburg is our best chance behind Peralta. His numbers in A+ were pretty good and if he can limit the walks they should be even better. While I don't think he is untouchable I also don't think they should trade him unless he's part of package that brings back a legitimate all star caliber major leaguer. We can't just keep trading away all of our talented prospects, especially pitchers. We'll never succeed as a team relying solely on free agents and trades.

..and the Cardinals would get a 2nd round pick for losing the best player in baseball Which is why the compensation system in MLB is a joke.

I don't have a problem with Chase Headley at all. But we have three guys that can play third base (McGehee/Gamel/Green) already and have other holes to fill. Plus Headley is going to start getting expensive. We also have three starters that are set to be free agents after the season and aren't exactly brimming with top pitching prospects. I think we should be trying to trade for decent pitching prospects, not trading away the ones we have away. I don't want to give up yet another prospect for a guy who plays a position we already have three guys that can play (four if they resign Hairston).

After shortstop, the club is looking for a right-handed hitting corner outfield bat. If the Brewers can get one of Minor, Delgado, Beachy, or Vizcaino for Hart, I think you jump on it. I'd even offer to pay half of Hart's salary for one of them. I hope Melvin explores this.

I think with the right moves, good drafts, and a little luck, we'll be fine. I disagree with the assumption that both Marcum and Greinke will be gone. I think Marcum and Wolf will be gone, but I think Milwaukee will pony up for Greinke. As for the right moves: 1) I think you have to trade Marcum for a pitching prospect. NYY desperately needs pitching and they have good pitching prospects. A swap of Marcum for Bentaces or Banuelos would make a lot of sense for Milwaukee. Peralta and the one they get could immediately compete for the #5 spot next year. If the Yankees miss out on Wilson they may be willing to make this deal. What it accomplishes is obviously giving you a talented young pitcher who is under control for 6 years. 2) You need to see what Gamel and Green can do this year. It would be great if they both find success but if they don't you need to know now. 3) Resign Greinke. Needs to be done, period. 4) Find a solution at shortstop. Either by trade or free agent. Reyes would be great. I realize he'd be expensive but he'd be a solution for a few years and would really help the offense. 5) Trade Kottaras for a prospect. Kottaras is probably good enough to be a starter somewhere. We have Lucroy obviously and Maldonado can be the backup. Not sure what you can get for Kottaras but you should be able to get a decent, lower level prospect. 6) Beef up the bullpen. It'd be great if Braddock could contribute but you can't count on him. You need to find a capable 8th inning guy and a lefty who can get other lefties out. These moves, along with the continued progression of Peralta, Thornburg, Schafer, and Gindl and strong years by Bradley, Lopez, and Jungmann could prevent the need for a rebuild. However, let's just say the Brewers do rebuild. This will never happen but they have a ton of trading chips. Marcum could fetch something good. Greinke could as well. Hart could. Weeks. Axford. I highly doubt they'll do it, but IF they do I hope they go all out. You could probably get an all-star team of prospects for those 5 guys.

It seems like I recall some sort of "laundry" stipend for athletes, a minimal amount, like $15 a week. If that is true that's a little weird. Who spends $15 a week on laundry?

I'd give Greinke $15 million a year for four years. As of right now, the Brewers just don't have enough arms to remain competitive if Greinke leaves. Like Geezy said, Gallardo can't do it by himself. And what if he gets hurt again? A rotation of Narveson, Peralta, Fiers and Marco Estrada isn't going to cut it. They need to keep Greinke for now and hope Jungmann, Bradley, Thornburg, and Peralta turn out. Guys like Heckathorn and Scarpetta haven't really shown that they can be relied on to be successful major league pitchers. Not yet at least. This is also why I think they need to trade Marcum. Get a young, controllable and talented arm if you can.

He hit from day one his rookie year. No he didn't. In 2008 with Chicago he was 4 for 24. In April, 2009 with Milwaukee he was 2 for 8 as a bench player. In May, 2009 he was 7 for 30. It wasn't until June of 2009 that he really put it together. But before that he started the season going 9 for 38 (.236) with no HR's and 3 RBI. The difference I see between him and Gamel is that after Gamel struggled he was benched and demoted (not that he was ever really the starter). McGehee was given an every day job despite struggling off the bench for a month and a half.

Athletes can't earn more than $2000 during the academic year. Most college students spend the majority of their money on things like food and housing. Scholarship athletes don't have to worry about that. Their housing is free. Their meals are free. Even their books are free. $2000 can go a lot farther when you have no bills or tuition to spend it on.

trading a first-round pick to sign an expensive player into his 30s should be a practice generally avoided. Picks, even first round picks, are hit and miss. Especially in baseball. While I love picks as much as the next guy, I wouldn't base off-season transactions on them.

I keep reading the the Brewers have all sorts of interest in Reyes. I don't think it's likely they'll sign him, but I do think it's certainly a possibility. I'd actually like to see them sign Reyes then trade either Wolf or Marcum for a pitching prospect. I think Peralta deserves a chance at the #5 spot and that if he falters you are ok with either Fiers or Estrada or another veteran they can sign. I just think that with such a dearth of starting pitching on the FA market and teams like the Yankees trying hard to upgrade, you could probably get a decent return for Marcum even though he is only signed through next season.

If Hart doesn't like hitting 5th, how can you plug him into the #4 hole?

Um, then the restaurant owner wouldn't pay him that. And if the restaurant owner would pay him that, then he is worth that much.Yes, many of these athletes would benefit from such $200 tips. You're entirely missing my point. The owner is not paying him to do the work. The owner is paying him because he wants to reward the player for being an athlete for the school he likes. It has nothing to do with work. It would corrupt the system. If you're going to go that, you may as well just let athletes take free handouts. And this would lead to all sort of recruiting issues. It would be darn near impossible to regulate recruiting and it would become a matter of which school's boosters will give me the most free stuff.

If you are in a 'non revenue' sport, you have nothing to complain about really, but if you are a Heisman candidate, that's got to be a little rough to swallow when ABC/ESPN, etc. are getting fat (not to mention the schools) while you are risking life and limb. Look at the sweetheart deals that the coaches get with all the shoe/camp/endorsement perks. If you are a Heisman candidate then you are most likely going to be drafted into the NFL. It's because of the opportunity that the school gave them that they got the chance to win the Heisman and make it to the pros. How many players in the past 20 years have gone onto the NFL without first being given a chance to play college football? Probably close to 0%. Minimum salary for one year in the NFL is something like $340k. That's about equivalent to 6 years of an average paying job that all other athletes have to settle for. I realize the chances of getting drafted by an NFL team are pretty small, but they are higher than a swimmer, track athlete, or volleyball player being drafted. or college basketball player, it's pretty much impossible to get even a part time job to buy Christmas presents for your family.... not to mention pizza/beer money They are still way, way better off than they would be otherwise. Assuming they even got into the school, which many of them wouldn't because a lot of football and basketball players are dumber than a box of rocks, they'd have 4 years worth of tuition to pay off. They could work, but changes are pretty slim they'd make more money working than they'd save by being given a scholarship.

So he'd be getting paid what the market establishes he's worth. And that's a bad thing how? What he's worth to who? He's certainly not worth $25 an hour to the restaurant owner who is paying him. I'd be willing to guess very few people working at restaurants make that kind of money, especially college aged kids who wouldn't be able to work that often. Also think about the $200 "tips" other boosters would leave them. Or, how about they just get rid of stupid age limits for professional sports? The limits were negotiated by the unions and the league. I have no problem with an age limit for football players and wish it were higher for the NBA. I look at the NBA and I see a bunch of money hungry immature kids who are so quick to make the money that they overestimate their talents, drop out of school, and are never heard from again. There was a former player, I wanna say Kwame Brown, who once said he actually threw away his suits after he wore them once because he didn't know how to get them cleaned. Hockey's is actually the best system in my opinion. A player goes to Juniors or college, gets drafted. Then the drafting team can sign him or let him go back to school but they retain his rights for a number of years until the decision is made for him to turn pro. I wish baseball and basketball would go to that kind of system.

Minor league football and basketball should be treated just like minor league baseball, or like the lower levels of soccer in the rest of the world. It should be club and it should be pro. But they also have college baseball where they don't get paid. No matter how many leagues you have going on, you're still going to have college football and college basketball. And people are going to pay to watch it and it's going to make money for the school. The one thing I'd be ok with is allowing the athletes to get a job, but that may be a slippery slope. Let's say Joe Football wants a job and applies at a local restaurant where the owner is a booster and a huge fan. What prevents him from giving this player $25 an hour and doesn't make him do any work? That could lead to huge recruiting violations. I think those cases would be few and far between but I can definitely see it happening. But I think the athlete should be able to work if he wants. People hit it on the head when they say the athletes get free tuition, but don't forget the scholarship covers everything, including books and meals. They get everything they need. The only thing an athlete needs money for is entertainment and extra food for himself. No way should what basically amounts to taxpayer money and money given to the school by non-athletes be handed to athletes so they can afford to go to McDonalds at night or buy a playstation. Yes, the school is gaining a lot by what the athlete does, but that athlete isn't exactly a slave to the situation here. On top of getting to showcase their talents on national tv and using the school as a possible stepping stone to professional sports, they get a free college degree. College degrees are becoming more and more important in order to find a well paying job nowadays. A lot of people are borrowing huge amounts of money to obtain the same thing. People shouldn't underestimate how important that opportunity for a degree actually is. In a lot of cases this is a chance they'd have never gotten if they weren't good at a sport.

I was going to start this topic on the political thread but I figure there's really nothing political about it so I could bring it up here. I've always been curious what the general consensus on this is. Should college athletes be paid for doing what they do? If so, all of them? Just football and basketball players? Any sports that makes a profit? How much should they be paid? I have a fairly strong opinion on this but I want to see what other people think first.

If we give Carlos Pena 2 years for $17 million I'm going to be pretty upset. You can Gamel for about 1/15th the cost. Heck I'd rather give K-Rod that contract even though we know he won't resign with us to be an 8th inning guy for two more years. And I agree with RoCo's take on Francis and Pinero? Why on earth would they sign either of those guys unless they traded Marcum or Wolf. And if they did trade someone I imagine it's because they feel that Peralta or Fiers is ready to take over.

Many of the proposals in this thread have been fairly unrealistic. I don't like when people say stuff like because it's all based on perception. Some people would jump at Jurrjens for Hart and some people wouldn't even consider it because they think Jurrjens is on his way down. If Atlanta is trying to dump salary you have to think they'd accept a little less for Jurrjens. Myers had a bit of down year in AA and Atlanta might be asking for more because he's not considered major league ready. Corey Hart obviously doesn't have that problem. He's a two time all star who hit 26 home runs last season. While people usually overvalue their own guys, sometimes they undervalue them to. Beside, just because Atlanta is asking for Cain and Myers doesn't mean they are going to get them.

The fact that the Braves want Cain AND Myers in the deal to even consider it makes me think that they wouldn't even entertain the thought of taking a straight up trade for Hart. I thought that deal included Prado too?