monty57

The Brewers could afford him, but it would likely come at the cost of some of the younger talent. With the Tulo deal and Howard getting $10MM in the first year of arby, the talk coming out of the camp seems to be about the possibility of locking up Braun and Fielder (and possibly others) long term. I'm happy that the team's salary has been going up, but I can't imagine that they'd be able to pay Sheets $18+MM / year and still be able to pay Fielder, Braun and Yo $10+MM in arby each plus keep Hardy, Hart and the rest. Who knows, by the time Braun hits arby, he may get $15MM in his first year. I'd guess "Sheets' money" will go to lock up other players, and Ben will pitch elsewhere next year, leaving us with two draft picks, unless something goes drastically wrong this season, enabling the Brewers to trade him at deadline. It's early, but a likely scenario may be to control their costs by locking up some of the younger talent long term, eliminating the possibility of a surprise arby raise like Howard's $9.1MM pay raise. If there are no significant injuries, Parra and maybe even Villanueva could play much of this season in AAA, giving the Brewers another year of their service. Meanwhile, Sheets, Yo, Suppan, Cappy and Bush will fill out the rotation with Vargas as a backup starter / long man out of the pen. At this point, keeping Parra and Villy an extra season makes sense, as they have other capable starters on the roster. This could easily change if either someone on the Brewers gets injured, necessitating a trade of a starter for a replacement, or if a starter on another team gets injured, forcing another team to make a decent trade offer for Cappy Bush or Vargas. Of course, if they were able to trade Suppan and Sheets were willing to sign a two-year deal, it could happen, but that doesn't seem very likely.

I still don't understand why you have to bargain to halt an illegal act. The sale, possession and use of these drugs is illegal, so anyone selling, using or even possessing these drugs should be punished. Somewhere along the way this became a "bargaining chip." What's next, someone goes on a shooting binge in a clubhouse and the Union says that person can't be punished because it wasn't expressly forbidden in the CBA? If there is evidence that illegal drugs are being used, and I don't think anyone can argue there's not significant evidence, players should be tested, it shouldn't have to be written into a contract. I'm not a government intervention kind of guy, but if there is evidence of illegal activity, and baseball won't police itself, the next step is going to be more government intervention and players getting arrested and thrown in jail. The best step baseball can take, and it seems to be the way things are going, is to make the penalty for doing PEDs so severe that it is not worth the risk. Also, since the players, the union and baseball in general have lost so much credibility on this subject, random drug testing has essentially become necessary, and it will probably have to be a neutral, outside company that manages the testing. You're never going to completely get rid of them, but you can make it much less of a problem. As a final point, I don't think most players would have any objection to more stringent drug testing. The main reason for anyone to have a problem with it is that they have something to lose, aka they're doing drugs. Unfortunately, since the Union feels drug testing is a major bargaining chip, no players can openly discuss their displeasure with the current system, which increases distrust. When Clemens mentioned that the Union pressured players not to talk with Mitchell, some on the Congressional panel got furious, and basically asked "what are they trying to hide?"

My knees aren't even close to Major League baseball player caliber knees, and I could stand on a mound after months of inactivity, throw heaters and not tear cartilage in my knees requiring surgery. (though i'd probably blow out my shoulder after a while). I'm not trying to stir the pot I'm just wondering. During Spring Training, especially early in ST, pitchers work a lot on defensive skills, such as fielding bunts and covering bases. When I read about the injury it sounded to me like he was doing fielding drills, and did not hurt it while pitching.

While I think the back problems gave him fits.... the thing is I think the Club wins here because the panel looks at the 3 seasons and he had a bad rookie year, an injured 2nd year and a good 3rd year...... He has had a history of injuries even in the Minors.... so I would not be to quick to offer him a long contract...take him year by year... and we dont know if Hardy's group did not want to Settle or what.....maybe he just wants to try his hand at the higher amount and big deal if he loses....its a 50/50 shot. I think the club wins this one though...but I dont see this being a big deal Only way its a big deal is if it was like the Howard sitution and they are off by 3 million dollars....NOT 650K I don't think it's the money differences that would cause a problem, it's that the Brewers will have to convince the arbitrator why Hardy is not worth what he's asking. In other words, they will have to rip apart Hardy while he and/or his agent is sitting in the room. Many teams dislike arbitration because players remember what was said about them when it comes time to negotiate again.

At least the Brewers don't have to see him anymore than they would have had he remained in MN. Good point, except that they may now have to face him in the playoffs. This move should make the Mets the preseason favorite to win the NL

Judging by the bonus levels in his contract, Kendall expects to play 130+ games. Plus he won't need to be pinch-run for like Estrada, so hopefully the backup catcher will only see 150 or so ABs. If Braun is indeed moved to LF, we have three starters who will play virtually everyday, so the backups shouldn't get too many ABs other than in defensive replacement roles. Prince plays nearly everyday. That leaves Weeks and Hardy as the two positions needing to be covered the most and right now Counsell is the guy to do it. As has been said, he's fine to give a guy a day off and to pinch hit, but if Rickie or JJ go down for an extended period (which they have done in the past), I'd like to have another backup. Is Dillon a 2B or is he simply a 3B/OF? If he plays a decent 2B, than I'm more comfortable with the situation. Also, I'd like to see another right-handed bat, preferably one with some power who could play 1B on days Prince needs a break. That way, we'd have Gross and Counsell from the left side and Dillon / new guy from the right side to go along with the backup catcher whom Yost will not use as a pinch hitter. Of course, in that situation Gross would be the defensive replacement for Braun, which is the biggest reason I think Gwynn could end up on the roster. Gross plays average defense, Dillon probably below average LF defense, so I'd guess they'll opt for a solid defender over my wish for a RH bat.

Gwynn would give speed to the lineup. If he batted 2nd, ahead of Braun and Fielder, he'd see fastballs almost exclusively and I think he'd hit close to .300. He wouldn't walk much because he's not a power threat and pitchers will come right after him. But with a .300 BA, it doesn't take many walks to get that OBP to respectable .340-.350 level. There are quite a few pitchers in baseball who can throw pitches other than fastballs for strikes. I agree that he has some value to a major league team, mainly as a backup outfielder / defensive replacement / pinch runner. He could even be on the Brewers, but I don't see him getting much playing time. Hart & Hall will play nearly everyday and Melvin has been pretty straightforward in saying he's going to trade for either a LF or a 3B, moving Braun to LF. Barring injury, that's not going to leave much playing time for the backup OF, so I don't see them carrying Gross, Dillon & Gwynn unless they either see Dillon as more of a backup IF, or if they really want to utilize Gwynn as a pinch runner. The one big opening for PT would be if they move Braun to LF and decide to bring in a defensive replacement in the same way they did last year when Braun was at third. Last year, they brought in Counsell. Gwynn would bring better defense in this situation. However, as Counsell coming to the plate after the switch last year probably cost us a couple of games, I may still like putting Gross in as defensive replacement. He plays decent defense and is more of an offensive threat than Gwynn. I think it's likely that Gwynn will be a secondary part of a bigger trade this offseason, as he may provide more value to another team than he does the Brewers.

I would have to say that if a 3B/LF isn't found in the trading market, the LF platoon would be Gross / Dillon rather than Gwynn / Dillon. With the Brewers' need to divest themselves of excess starting pitchers, I think that the odds are pretty high that a trade will be made. I won't wager a bet on whether it will be a 3B or a LF that's picked up, so Braun may indeed man 3B next season. Gwynn's name has been thrown around in trade rumors. I'd say that if Gwynn gets any substantial playing time next season, it will be for another team, as he's at best a 5th OF for the Brewers right now behind Hall, Hart and the Gross / Dillon platoon. If we pick up a 3B, I doubt Gwynn will even break camp with the Brewers.

The Mets have made it very well known that they were going after a catcher. They have also made it very well known that Milledge was on the market. I'm sure they've shopped around and this is the best deal available. That's a problem with "head case" players. If they essentially force a trade by upsetting enough people, most of the rest of baseball will know the situation, and you won't get as much in return as you otherwise may have. Randy Moss was traded for what, a 4th round pick? The Brewers are fortunate that all of their players seem to be good people (I think this has a lot to do with their scouting). When they are in the situation to trade some of their now-young players, they should get much more than the Mets got in return.

To answer the original post, Schroeder was nominated for the Frick Award, so I doubt he's going anywhere soon.

There will always be small market teams competing. However, the same group of big spenders wins every year, while the small market teams cycle, depending on whose draft picks worked out the best. That said, there are some things that are making a difference. Much of the revenue is now shared amongst the teams. I'm particularly intrigued by things like MLB.tv and Gameday Audio. The Brewers don't sell that many fewer seats than most of the big market teams, so most of the discrepency among big vs. small markets comes from the TV deals. If Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and the like are correct (which I'd bet they are), we will soon get much of our television programming directly through the internet routed straight onto our TV screen. As it is currently set up, every team shares the MLB.tv (and I believe all internet) revenue equally. This may be a few years off, but if everyone gets their baseball programming off of MLB.tv or another internet source rather than watching them on FSN or the YES network, most of the revenue discrepencies will be gone. This could be tough to pass, as there are legalities that need to be considered, and it may mean that some people without internet access would not be able to watch baseball, so they could alienate some fans. However, it would infuse a lot of revenue directly into MLB's hands, and that revenue would go evenly to all teams in baseball.

Agreed, and I'll try to quantify it somewhat. The Brewers' starters this season have pitched 674.1 out of 1020 total innings. That's 66.11% of the innings this season. In other words, on average the bullpen has had to pitch 33% of the innings, or three innings for each game. Currently, Cordero, Shouse, Turnbow, Villanueva and Wise are on pace for 70-80 appearances each this season. That means they all throw just about every other game, which leads to a lot of dead arms, and it means that, in order to give some of the guys rest, Yost has been forced to throw the "25th man" out there in tight situations far too often this season. I normally would be happy that the staff has some pitchers who haven't gotten injured and have routinely put up 5-6 inning starts. However, that's what the Brewers get every night... 5-6 innings. They never have anyone pitch over 6 innings. When they try, they get shelled in the 7th. The last time someone pitched eight effective innings (Vargas), he was so tired five days later that he could only go 2.2 innings. He did go seven two days ago, which helped the pen, but he gave up 6 ER early, and the Brewers were never in the game. If you can have someone go 7+ innings even once every time through the rotation, it reduces the strain on the bullpen, and helps keep the bullpen from blowing up. Sheets was someone who could do that. Unfortunately the rest of the Brewers' starters have not been able to do that this season. In the last 50 starts, going back to the beginning of June the current starters (non-Sheets) have had eight starts that went 7+ innings. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Until the Brewers starters can begin putting together some 7-8 inning starts on a somewhat routine basis (even 1-2 times through a 5 man rotation), we will continue to lose games that we "should have won." We can't rely on three different bullpen arms to be "on" every night. So, since it doesn't appear anyone's going to step up and fill this role until Sheets comes back, I'd say that losing Sheets has had a much more detrimental effect on the Brewers as a whole than losing Soriano will have on the Cubs.

I have to agree with bjkrautk. Spending is once again going to skyrocket, and I believe that we will see Jenkins as the left-handed part of a LF platoon once again next season. Jenkins' salary isn't that out of line anymore for his production. Pair him with a league-minimum righty that can hit lefties reasonably well, and I think we'll be alright until LaPorte's debut. Byrnes is a fan-favorite and is putting together a good season, but $10MM/year seems like a lot of money for what he's done over his career. I cringe when I think of what Prince and Braun are going to receive even in their arby years.

It's obvious that Wise is not himself, and that presents a problem for Yost/Melvin. If they could just put him on the DL, I'm sure they would. However, every team in the Majors knows what the situation is, so I don't think that's going to fly. I disagree with the idea that no one would pick him up. Quality relievers are hard to come by, as was shown when the Brewers gave up three good young arms to get Linebrink. Wise has a good enough track record that some team would grab him off of waivers in a heartbeat if the Brewers tried to ship him to the minors. Therefore, what do you do with him? The Brewers haven't been a part of many blowouts this season, so I thought Yost was being prudent by putting him in to start the ninth inning with a five run lead, and then having Coco ready to go as soon as Wise blew up. Wise either has to pitch or they have to let him go. One thing stats will never be able to show is how different players react to the mental challanges facing them, so it's completely unknown when, if ever, Wise will "be himself." It's a very tough call. I just hope that Matt gets over it, both for the Brewers and for himself... I'm sure this is effecting other aspects of his life as well.

Is there a DL classification for "Mentally unable to throw a strike because head screwed up after beaning someone in the face?"

Bush's last ten outings (IP): 5.1, 6.0, 6.0, 7.0, 6.0, 2.0, 7.0, 6.1, 4.1, 6.0 Capuano: 6.1, 8.0, 7.0, 3.0, 5.1, 3.1, 4.0, 7.0, 7.0, 4.0 Gallardo: 5.0, 6.2, 6.0 Suppan: 5.0, 5.0, 6.0, 5.0, 5.0, 6.0, 5.0, 4.2, 6.1, 5.0 Vargas: 8.0, 6.0, 5.0, 6.0, 5.0, 5.0, 6.0, 5.1, 6.0 Out of the 42 starts listed above, seven of them have been 7+ innings. That's not even one for every turn through the rotation. Assuming nine inning games, that means the bullpen has pitched 144 of the last 378 innings, or 38% of the inning in the above-listed starts. No one expected Vargas to pitch deep into games, and I had no problem with him being at the end of the rotation, because Sheets, Bush, Suppan and Capuano should have been able to eat up more innings. However, Sheets is down, and when no member of your staff can go over 5-6 innings on even a semi-regular basis, it puts tremendous strain on your bullpen...especially when we've been playing a lot of close games, and especially when you have 18 games in 17 days. Every night, you have to assume you will need to use three or four different relievers, creating about 20+ appearances / week for the 'pen. It's hard to expect every reliever to be "on" every night, so it makes it very likely that at least one of the relievers will blow it. It also means that Ned is forced to use the "mop up" guy(s) in tight situations so as not to have his better arms pitch six times a week. People complain about our bullpen. I think they've done a heck of a good job considering what's been expected of them. Our starting pitching was supposed to be our biggest strength coming into the season, and I think it's time for them to live up to the billing. I don't care what the "peripherals" look like, if you can only pitch five innings at a time, you're not a top-line starter. Right now, we've got a lot of potentially good starters pitching like average to below average starters. If we want to beat out the Cubs and win this division, our starters have to pitch to their capabilities. One suggestion is switching Villy and Yo. Carlos is pitching as well as anyone, and isn't limited in innings. As far as the rest of the starters, I don't know what needs to be done to give them a kick in the pants to get them going. Sorry if this sounds like a rant, I just get frustrated watching the starters hit a wall after 5 innings with the lead, only to see that lead gradually whittled away.

Al, do you think two innings or work per week would be enough to keep Yo sharp? I would think that would likely make him less effective when he eventually got called back up to the bigs in September. Also, might going from full workload to 2 IP/wk back to full workload have a detrimental effect on the arm? I know very little about how to "nurse" a young arm, but it seems logical that steady work would be easier on the arm than the alternative. 2 IP/ week is very little work, considering he's not a one-inning-per-outing type of guy

I'd have no problem with Parra getting those three starts, but sending Yo down would only mean he'd log more innings, as he would be a starter in AAA, where his spot wouldn't be skipped. As I mentioned in another thread, one of the Brewers' biggest problems is that their starters are having a hard time going over 5-6 innings. I think Yo should be moved back to the pen, as his innings limit is hurting the bullpen, and either Parra or Villy should take his spot in the starting lineup. That being said, we also need as many "long guys" in the pen as we can get, so I'm for keeping Villy, Yo and Parra on the major league roster. I'm sick of the starters going out with a lead after five and having to rely on four different relievers to be "on" that day in order to get the win. Maybe when Sheets is back, we can have a "dual" starting rotation. Sheets will go his normal 7-8 innings. Then Cappy/Yo will pitch day two, Suppan/Parra will pitch day three, Bush/Villy day four and Vargas/rest of pen will pitch day five.

They may want to find a starting pitcher than can go more than five innings. I think flipping Villy with Yo would be a good idea right now. Yo's pitched well, but his innings limit, along with Bush, Vargas, Cappy and Suppan rarely making it past 5-6 innings have put a lot of pressure on the bullpen. Parra threw a strong six innings in his only start, maybe he's an answer as well. Our bullpen is pretty strong, but we need our starters to put up 7-8 inning starts on a somewhat regular basis or we're going to end the season behind the Cardinals. As far as Coco... would it be unthinkable to make him the "home closer" and make Turnbow the "road closer?" It's hard to believe it's the same pitcher when you look at Cordero at home vs. on the road.

I'll agree with Joe Hova. The first thing I thought of when I heard this trade was going through is that the Brewers' chances of making the playoffs just got a lot worse. The wildcard spot is now going to be harder to get than the division. We're essentially tied with the Cubs right now, so our playoff berth has come down to the Brewers playing better than the Cubs for the rest of the season...sounds easy, right.

Backupcatchers, your MLB ranks for the Brewers w/ RISP would seem to show that the Brewers try to hit the 2- 3- or 4- run HR rather than simply hitting the ball, leading to low numbers in everything except slugging. I think that's evident while watching them, but your numbers seem to back it up.

This seems to be a very polarizing trade, and I fall on both sides of the issue. I absolutely feel that Linebrink helps out the bullpen this year. We have a lot of 5-inning starters, and therefore get a lot of use out of the pen. It would be nice, as has been stated, if Balfour and others "only pitched in 8-0 games," but I haven't seen many of them this year. Every game seems to be close, creating a lot of important bullpen innings. Take out the last month when Linebrink's wife was in the 8th month, and he's had a pretty good year. He will definitely upgrade the pen and therefore help our chances of making the playoffs, which have dwindled significantly in the last month or so as our 8.5 game lead has continuously shrunk. For those worried about Linebrink "Graffying" us and accepting arbitration, see the posts about people being worried about Balfour not clearing waivers. I thought it was crazy that Graffy was Type A, and was not surprised that no one would give up a 1st rounder. I don't think there is any chance other than injury that Linebrink won't get a contract. Now, on the other end, I hate losing Inman. Good starting pitching is ridiculously expensive, and Inman looks like he could be a good starting pitcher. Also, you would think that it wouldn't have taken too much more to land Chad Cordero, but maybe that's not the case. I also was surprised when I found out that Linebrink was a free agent after the season, as I thought any good bullpen arm we'd target would become next year's closer. Now, next season's bullpen is going to be a wreck. The offseason pitching moves (Cappy, Bush and/or Vargas) that I thought may net us a left fielder and upper-level minor league pitching will now have to be focused on finding major league relievers. I guess what it comes down to for me is that the Brewers are in danger of losing the Central lead, and possibly might not even make the wildcard - something that seemed incomprehensible a month ago. Balfour himself has blown two games in the last few days. If Linebrink turns one or two losses into wins over the rest of the season, he very well could be that last piece that gets us to the playoffs.

A sore hamstring shouldn't really affect a player's catching ability, other than possibly on throws to second, but probably not even then. It would really be a quad injury that wouldn't allow him to catch. I'm sure many of you have had pulled hammys, so I'm not telling you anything new, but for those that haven't, the only real cure is rest, and not re-pulling it. It will feel fine, but as soon as you run all-out, it will just pop and then you're back to square one. It is possible that Yost is using this as a front, but it is also very believeable that he's telling the truth. Being a catcher, the only way he's really going to hurt it worse is when he's running the bases. Yost said that he told Estrada not to run all out (much like he told Rickie to not try to hit to the other field when it hurt his wrist). It appeared to me on the play that he started slowly, then tried to run faster, then slowed back up... that would be telling that he is indeed hurting. In fact, he may have "put himself back to square one" by trying to run it out, necessitating his sitting on the bench for a few days, and possibly even visiting the DL. Now, the question is whether he should have been put on the DL two weeks ago, meaning that he'd probably be pretty close to full strength now. Even in hindsight, I don't know if there's a clear answer there. Would Miller/Rivera have done better than Estrada/Miller over the past few weeks? We don't know. It would seem to make sense to play Miller more to allow more rest for Estrada. As far as pulling Estrada in that situation, Ned has shown that he won't pinch hit for his catcher, even back when it was Moeller. That's one reason so many people have called for Rottino to be the 25th man. At least it would allow Miller to pinch hit and Estrada to be pinch hit for in situations like this.

I'm disappointed, but it's hard to say I'm surprised. It seems that Bud's drug plan for years now has been to heavily test the minor leaguers (who aren't "protected" by the union). Theoretically, if they're good enough to make it to the majors without steroids, they're less likely to start taking steroids once they get to the majors. Therefore, once the Steroid Generation (Bonds, Giambi, Sosa, Sheffield, etc) has retired, most of the next generation will be clean. I'm very glad that baseball is finally doing something to stop performance enhancing drugs, but I'm sure there are still a lot of players trying to do whatever they can to make it to the big leagues. I just hope that this is indeed a wake up call to both Angel and the rest of the Brewers' organization that it's not worth the risk. If he cleans up his act,losing 50 games is like him missing that time via injury,except for the stigma attached to taking whatever he did. I understand what you're saying, but as far as development goes, it's better than suffering an injury. He'll still be able to go out everyday and practice with the Brewers' staff in Arizona, so even though he's not seeing games, he will still be developing as a player. When you're injured, that's hard to do. Also, while he will have a stigma attached to him, he won't have lingering effects of an injury that could hamper him for the rest of his career. What could hurt his progression is that he'll likely have to find a job to pay the bills, limiting his time available to practice. However, having to do "real work" might be the kick in the butt he'll need to try even harder. As far as his standing in the organization, I had assumed (although I'm not nearly as in touch with this as many of you) that Lou would be in the running to be Estrada's back-up next year, but Angel was still at least a year off. I figured that once Estrada left after next season, Angel would then fight for a spot on the Brewers. This obviously doesn't help his chances, but it's still feasible that he'll be on that track.

Coco's two save day came early this year when the Brewers finished up a rain delayed game from the night before. I believe we were 3-6 going into the series, and it was kind of a turning point leading to the 24-10 start. As far as Gagne, there's really no way he's coming to Milwaukee, since he has publicly stated that he is only going to go to a team where he will be the closer. I'd love to have him, though.