monty57

I don't expect much out of Aoki myself because MLB is a power and patience game and those aren't his strengths. But it's morphing into a defense and OBP game, and those are his strengths. At least they're supposed to be... we'll have to see how it actually plays out. Personally, I doubt he'll get enough PAs this year to prove anything one way or the other. Roenicke has already said he plans on playing Morgan in RF and Gomez in CF while (if) Hart is out. Switch-hitting Conrad is rumored to be on the short-list to make the 25-man roster, so he will be the #1 bat off the bench. Why did we spend so much money to sign Aoki to a multi-year deal to be a 5th OF? On a side note, I think with Fielder gone, Morgan is going to LOOGY'd to death this season. I wouldn't doubt if close to 1/3 of his PA's come against LHP, especially if Roenicke continues his late-2011 trend of using Gomez and Morgan as late-inning defensive replacements for Hart.

They must not be confident in Izturis anymore. They must have actually watched him play :-) Seriously, I think they knew he couldn't hit, but it seems he's played pretty poor defense so far this spring, so it doesn't surprise me that they'd be shopping. ...capable of filling in for Weeks or Gonzalez I would hope that if Weeks (or Ramirez) were to go down Green would get full time duty, but it wouldn't surprise me to see them pick up a 45-year-old who would play over a rookie. They do need a capable backup SS, but it seems everyone not based in Atlanta is shopping for a backup SS.

de la Cruz probably won't be a huge loss, but I liked him. He was a starter at AAA, so he could go multiple innings if needed, and seemed to have decent "stuff." I'd have kept him over Dillard, and still see no reason we're using up a roster spot on Bianchi to be our AA shortstop.

No doubt the talent is much better over here. I just think it's funny that people (nationally, I'm not picking on anyone here) are so high on the top pitcher, but so low on the top hitter. As I mentioned, I'm not looking for miracles from Aoki. From what I've heard, I'm kind of envisioning something similar to a Nyjer Morgan who can hold his own against LHP. Defense is defense, so if he played phenomonal defense in Japan, I expect the same here. He supposedly has a weak arm, makes good contact and gets on base, but has limited power. I just wonder why we signed the Japanese version of Nyjer Morgan when we already have Nyjer Morgan. By the way, welcome to Brewerfan.

I agree that we wouldn't have made the playoffs without Marcum, but I look back on the trade now and think "could we trade Marcum for Bryce Harper?" Since Melvin would get laughed out of the room for even contemplating that thought combined with the fact that other GM's were quoted as saying things like "I wish I'd have known Lawrie was on the market," makes me think we could probably have gotten a better return for one of the best prospects in the game. Just a hypothetical, but Oakland traded Gio Gonzalez and Trevor Cahill this offseason. It's entirely possible that Beane would have liked Lawrie enough last offseason to part with Gonzalez a year earlier, and we would have received three year's service time and a pitcher who doesn't have a serious history of arm troubles. My guess is that we would have made the playoffs last year if we had someone like Gonzalez in the rotation instead of Marcum. Again, this is just a made up scenario, but it seems to me that there may have been some better offers if Melvin had done all his due diligence. Or, taking a different tack, what could we have received in trade for Rickie Weeks? Lawrie certainly appered MLB ready last year when Toronto brought him up. We could have traded Weeks for a major load of talent, plugged Lawrie into second base for the next six years, saved a lot of money and probably still made the playoffs last season... but that would have required us to actually put some faith into a rookie. I'd guess that the annals of history will show the Brewers to be big-time losers in the Lawrie-Marcum trade. He looks like he could be a Braun-type talent, which we gave up for two years of a good-but-not-great pitcher who appears to have somewhat of a bum shoulder.

Our AAA SS is likely going to be journeyman Edwin Maysonet. Josh Prince hit for a .718 OPS in high-A last year, but the Brewers don't seem to be too high on him, as they signed Bianchi and are slating him as the AA starter unless someone cliams him off waivers when he is (probably) taken off the 40-man roster to clear space for a more talented and useful player. Outside of a trade, our current hopes lie with 19-year old Yadiel Rivera who spent last year between rookie ball (.248 avg / .285 OBP / .406 SLG / .691 OPS in 330 AB) and low A (.194 avg / .224 OBP / .262 SLG / .486 OPS in 103 AB), and if he falters, 17-year old Orlando Arcia in the Dominican League. Sadly, this means we'll either have to trade for someone or continue to fill the SS position through free agency for the foreseeable future. Since Milwaukee only seems to trade prospects for veterans and not the other way around, I guess we get to hope & pray that in 5 or 6 years Arcia will be a mainstay in a Brewers' uniform. Until then, we get guys like Yuni or Gonzalez, who seems to be Yuni with defense.

It's kind of funny that Yu Darvish is considered the second coming due to his play in Japan, but when it comes to Aoki it's looked upon as if he's never played past little league. He was a superstar in Japan, and although there may be an adjustment period he should be a decent player. That said, I like him much more as a CF than a RF, as his skillset seems to be good defense but weak arm, good OBP but little power... not really your prototypical MLB RF. While I like Aoki, his signing confuses me. He seems to have been signed at least partially due to the Braun situation, but now that Braun's playing but Hart may miss some time, Morgan is being slated as the starting RF with Gomez in CF and Aoki on the bench. Briggs could well be right that Aoki will be "this year's Kotsay," but why commit around $10MM when "this year's Kotsay" probably could have been had for one-year/$800k? To me, Aoki's potential is to be a better Nyjer Morgan who can also hit lefties, but since we already have Morgan and Gomez, with Schafer probably MLB ready right now, Aoki seems to me to be an odd signing. Again, I like Aoki, but if all he is is a 5th OF/pinch hitter/defensive sub, I would far rather have signed a RH corner OF for $800k or so. Since we signed Aoki, and have Gomez on the roster and Schafer in AAA, I'm for trading Morgan and picking up (either in the Morgan trade or elsewhere) a RH hitting corner OF. Gomez and Aoki could then platoon in CF until the Brewers are ready to bring Schafer up (I wouldn't mind playing Schafer now, but I highly doubt that happens), and the RH corner OF and Gindl could platoon in RF for the week or so that Hart may miss, and then Gindl can go back to AAA and the RH corner OF can be our #1 bat off the bench. Instead, we'll put Gomez full time in CF and Morgan full time in RF and the Brewerfan board will light up every time Gomez faces a righty or Morgan faces a lefty. Aoki can collect his $2.5MM/yaer to pick up 200 or so PAs a year.

I think extensions like this, Yuni continuing to be employed and Bianchi being plucked off waivers a couple of times shows the lack of quality SS around these days. Good for Escobar to get this security. If KC's happy with him, good for them. They've got a lot of good young talent, so it's probably good for them to lock some of it up.

I wathced some of the Braves game on MLBtv last night. Simmons started, and all the talk was about the SS race and how good Simmons has looked. There's a good chance that he's the starter in Atlanta from Opening Day. I don't know whether this would make Pastornicky available, or what it would cost, but this is certainly worth looking into. Our well's pretty dry at SS, and I'd love to have someone at AAA ready to take over. Off topic, watching that game made me a bit jealous of Atlanta. They're playoff caliber now, and have a lot of really good at-or-near MLB-ready prospects. Good problems to have. Off topic(2), I love MLBtv. They're playing 150 Spring Training games this month! Everytime I turn on the TV, no matter what time of day, there's another game on.

I don't remember where I heard it (TV telecast or gameday live telecast), but it sounds like the organization is looking at putting Bianchi at AA, with Maysonet at AAA. If the announcer was correct, he's purely here because of the organization's lack of depth at SS throughout the system, so I don't know that he is deserving of a 40-man spot. If it comes down to potentially losing Bianchi, who will likely never see Miller Park without buying a ticket, or losing someone who could help the team (Dillard, de la Cruz, Izturis, etc), I'd rather take the chance on losing Bianchi.

"Think of the Internet or your smart phone as a big microphone placed in the middle of town square and everything you say into it is heard by everyone." That's from the NBC author, and is a pretty good way to sum it up. The players can't hide behind an anonymous screen name. What they say can and will be held against them over and over and over again. As far as the "no linking" rule, I'd guess it has something to do with an implied endorsement from MLB, which the attorneys who wrote this up would want to avoid. The player could write something objectionable and then link to mlb.com, which could lead some to believe that MLB also believes in the objectionable content. It may seem far-fetched, but attorneys put these things in for a reason.

I'm starting to believe that our best option for CF right now may be Logan Schafer. Barring massive injuries, he isn't going to be our starter this year, but add his name to the "logjam." That's more reason for me to think that Morgan will be traded at some point. Now seems a good time to me, as we could play Aoki/Gomez in CF and bring Schafer up when we're sure he's ready. If not now, maybe it'll be at trade deadline or next offseason. I like Morgan (which is why I think he has some trade value), but he shouldn't hold Schafer back much longer. As far as Matt Cain goes, he is deep into extension talks with San Fran. I watched one of their games this spring where they interviewed him, and he made it sound like he's there for the long haul. If not, then I'd absolutely love to have him, but I don't think he'll hit free agency. As far as our minor league pitching options, I think Peralta will get some time at AAA and will then be the first option if a SP goes down with injury (Estrada's Option #1 now, but Peralta should be #1 soon). I'm sure he will be cemented in the starting rotation next year, but I can't see the Brewers starting two, much less three rookies in one season. If Peralta gets a good dose of MLB starting experience this season, which I think is probable as someone will get hurt at some point, and we can extend Greinke, then we should be able to field a rotation of Yo, Greinke, Peralta, Narveson, {Thornburg, Jungmann, Bradley} if one of the final three has a great season this year and "forces" the Brewers' hand. If they don't force the Brewers' hand, it is possible we'd exercise Wolf's option. If Greinke doesn't extend, then we are probably going to have to either have a "fire sale" (unlikely) or hit the FA market for a SP, which hasn't been Melvin's forte.

I think the numbers can only go up and up for Greinke. Unless he blows out his arm this year. He has risk right now that he could get injured before free agency, which is why we could lock him up for a little less than it would take if he reaches free agency. Imagine that you are offered $750,000 right now, or you can swim across a river known to contain crocodiles, where you can get $1,000,000. If you don't get bit, you make more money. It all depends on whether you want to take that risk. The contract Greinke could get now is very good, if he risks injury and goes for free agency, the contract will probably be better. My take is that we should make every effort to sign him to a fair deal now, but if we don't sign him prior to the end of Spring Training, I will assume he is gone at the end of the year. If that occurs, the Brewers have to be willing to trade him away if we're not at or near the top of the division come July. If we're in third place near trade deadline, we could probably get a good, MLB-ready SP from a contender for someone of Greinke's caliber. Let him push that team to victory, while we get a mainstay in our rotation (or maybe at SS) for the next six years.

Offensively, Gonzalez will probably be similar to Yuni, as a SS with mid-teen HR power and sub-.300 OBP. Defensively he should be a big upgrade, so overall he will be an upgrade for the team. I saw the same ST plays as RobDeer45. One of them was a grounder up the middle, which last year was an automatic single, and Gonzalez made it a routine play. While I feel our offense will be fine this year, our 2012 fate rests on our pitching staff, and Gonzalez makes the pitching staff better. I would like to have a long-term option at SS, but for now at least we have a stopgap upgrade.

I heard Carp was shut down (at least for a ST start) last week and was pondering how to comment on it without bringing a world of bad karma onto us. The 'explain to his son' meme was fun while it lasted, but jebus, look how their 2011 season turned out. Perhaps he borrowed Jeff Suppan's hotel room pillow? Has he publicly blamed anyone from the Brewers' organization yet? I haven't felt thrown under the bus in a while. Could the bulging disk be a result of too much cussing? OK, I'm done. Did he play an offseason father/son game in Cincinnati?

The articles I've read have mentioned the recent contracts signed by some other ace-quality pitchers, and it sounds like Greinke is pretty aware of what's out there. I'm not worried about the team "lowballing" him. I'm sure there's been some discussion between Melvin and Greinke using the recent deals as a baseline. As your last line states, if Greinke is interested in staying (or if Greinke isn't insistant on becoming a free agent), then I believe a deal will be done before Spring Training is over.

and Luc continues to develop into a hitter with great contact and strong OBP tools he showed in the minors I can't see him never moving up the lineup I think that works against him in Roenicke's lineup. He likes Lucroy's ability to get on base to get the pitcher up instead of leading off the next inning. He figures a guy with lower OBP / higher SLG is better at 6-7, where he can knock in the good hitters from the middle of the order. Lucroy really does, he showed it early in the season last year. Honestly, it really seemed like he wore down as the season went on. Considering he started the year on the DL, and still finished 5th in MLB in games caught, it's something to look at. There is no reason that Kottaras can't play against a tough RHP on occasion to give Luc another couple days off a month. I completely agree with you. I don't overly dislike the "Wolf's private catcher" thing, because if it helps Wolf pitch better, then I'm fine with it. However, that doesn't mean he can't play when Wolf's not on the mound. Last year, not only did Lucroy catch nearly every non-Wolf start (even if it was a day game after a night game), he also came into games for Kottaras when Wolf was taken out. If Kottaras is really that bad, then he needs to be gotten rid of in favor of Maldonado or someone else who can give Lucroy some time off.

I figure that he's moved up his "usual slow start" to Spring Training, so that he's going to get red hot as soon as the season starts :-)

I'd bet the house on Lucroy batting 8th this year, because Roenicke likes him there. So far this spring, Gonzalez has spent a lot of time in the 5 hole, which is probably where he'll be if Hart is out to start the season (if Gamel keeps mashing, he may convince Roenicke to bat him 5th, but I don't think Roenicke wants to put a "rookie" there). I think Roenicke views Gonzalez much like he viewed Yuni in the lineup last year, so he'll be in the 6 or 7 hole when everyone's healthy. I'm glad to have a good defender at SS, but you're right that many will get very frustrated with Gonzalez's bat throughout the season, especially those who like OBP.

Since he's representing himself, and said that he wouldn't hire an agent until the end of the year unless talks really progressed with the Brewers, what you're suggesting could really affect his pitching this season. I couldn't imagine that he or Melvin will try to negotiate a contract mid-season if he doesn't have an agent. Plus, what could he learn about the long-term success of the Brewers in a couple of months that he doesn't know now? It's not like they're going to trade away Braun, Yo or Weeks. I'm beginning to believe that we are going to hear about an extension soon, but I'd guess that if an extension isn't signed before the season starts he will be a free agent at season's end.

Bill & Brian said on the broadcast today that Hart is already on the exercise bike, which seems to be a good sign. However, they mentioned that Marcum's injury may cause him to not be on the Opening Day roster. There goes the "2-3 day" prognosis.

I wouldn't think about signing him unless someone got hurt, but if he wanted $5MM or so for half a season, they liked what they saw when the watched him throw and the medical staff cleared him, I'd definitely think about it. He actually seemed to pitch better in the 2nd half of the season last year, but for the season he posted a 3.69 ERA, with around a 3:1 K:BB ratio. Of course, the Brewers may not have an extra $5MM or so to spend, but Oswalt could be a savior if the Brewers were leading the division and then had some SP injuries. That would sure beat the Cardinals signing him in a tight race.

Would you guys hate this so much if the Brewers were in first place, lost a starting pitcher in July and were able to sign a rested Oswalt for the playoff run? If a player knows that he can no longer stand up to the strain of starting all season, but when rested can dominate, and a team is willing to pay him for a half-season's work, then I'm all for the player doing it. He's losing out on half a season's pay, so there's no way a pitcher would do it if he didn't feel he had to.

Aoki is not an adequate hitter in MLB and Schafer is thrust into the everyday lineup and CF Roenicke's the manager. The guy who stuck with McGehee until the final week of the season when we had Green in AAA with a .900+ OPS. I don't think we'd have to worry about Schafer getting too much PT. I'd be more worried that if Morgan were to be traded Roenicke would play Gomez every day while hitting him in the 2 hole.

Gamel was interviewed during the game yesterday. He was very quiet and every answer was one or two words. My wife's a reporter, and they hate when people "aren't good interviews." I could see how coaches may take that the wrong way as well. Maybe a lot of the "not caring" thing has been misconstrued, and really he's just shy/reserved. Personally, I don't care if he's mute, as long as he can play ball.