brewerfan82

I doubt the Brewers have what it would take to get him. I wouldn't be surprised if he's packaged to get Giancarlo Stanton at some point now.

I figured those were the most relevant to the pick we'd be losing. Be my guest in looking up the other 12,000 or so players drafted in those years and picking out which ones you'd rather have over Lohse, but I suspect the hit rate decreases greatly from the 30-33% I found narrowing the search to comparable picks. If you're more confident in all our younger options than Lohse, then it's obviously a waste to sign him, draft pick or not. But between feeling fairly confident in Lohse having at least an "okay" season and the likelihood that one or more of our young pitchers won't turn in a successful 2013 campaign, I'm okay with a Lohse acquisition to solidify the rotation a bit. I don't know that it would be the "right" move, I just don't think it'd be the disaster people are making it out to be. Now if they sign him for 4 years at $40+ mil... *vomit soup*

I think people are over-valuing draft picks. I understand the reward on hitting on one, but I think you're more likely to hit on a prospect coming back on a potential mid-season trade of a Lohse-type than on that 17th overall pick we'd give up for him. Here are the 16th-18th overall picks from 1999-2008: [pre]Year 16th pick 17th pick 18th pick 1999 Jason Jennings Rick Asadoorian Richard Stahl 2000 Billy Trabor Ben Diggins Miguel Negron 2001 Gabe Gross Kris Honel Dan Denham 2002 Nick Swisher Cole Hamels Royce Ring 2003 Jeff Allison David Murphy Brad Snyder 2004 David Purcey Scott Elbert Josh Fields 2005 Chris Volstad C.J. Henry Cesar Carrillo 2006 Jeremy Jeffress Matt Antonelli Kyle Drabek 2007 Kevin Ahrens Blake Beavan Peter Kozma 2008 Brett Lawrie David Cooper Ike Davis[/pre] Of those 30 players, I'd take 6 years of maybe 9-10 of them (30-33%) over 2 years of Lohse. And that's assuming he doesn't pitch well enough for us to be compensated after two years or to get something back in a trade before then. I understand if you just think he's going suck over the next two years, but otherwise, it wouldn't be the end of the world like some are making it out to be.

As far as pitching talent, added rotation dependability, and "veteran-ness" goes, I really wouldn't mind slotting Lohse in behind Gallardo this year and possibly even next year. No one seems to think there's a possibility that, assuming his demands drop to a decent contract over 1 or 2 years, that he pitches well enough in that time to offer him a qualifying offer and get a pick back after his time here. To me, that's a big factor that could help negate the lost draft pick. Given a 3-4 year deal I wouldn't count on getting that back, but I think he could put up 1-2 productive years.

If nothing else, I'm hoping Braun's innocent just because the way it unfolds will be much more interesting than him finally admitting he's just been lying the whole time. I imagine Bosch COULD have just been a preliminary consultant even if they knew he wouldn't be a good witness to bring to trial. He may have provided them with information and ideas to present to more legitimate consultants. As far as the large bill, I seem to remember Braun's defense team bringing up that they had performed (or tried to perform) different experiments of sorts to reproduce how a clean urine sample could be mishandled to show a false positive. Perhaps Bosch's clinic was somehow involved in these potentially costly trials?

I think MLB is trying too hard to A.) make small market teams try to resign their FA (by only making them eligible for compensation by making a risky QO) and B.) punish teams for signing free agents (by losing picks for signing them). Couldn't this all be simpler? If a team signs a player for more than a yearly/total contract threshhold, then the team that lost the player gets a compensation pick at the end of the 1st round. Don't punish the team that does sign the player (which ultimately punishes the FA as well by diminishing their value), don't force teams without the financial resources to risk taking on a contract larger than they can feasibly accept, and don't base the compensation (ie. what pick in the 1st/2nd round the team gets) "randomly" on what team happens to sign their FA.

Tim Kurkjian didn't vote for the NL so he couldn't have voted for Kimbrel. Tracy Ringolsby voted Kimbrel 2nd and John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press voted Jim Johnson 3rd. It was cringeworthy to listen to Kurkjian on SportsCenter talk about how he voted for Cabrera. He said he thought Trout was easily the best player who had the best season but he voted for Cabrera because his team made the playoffs and Trout's team finished 3rd even though he said that wasn't Trout's fault. The logic some of these guys use makes you wonder how they ever got writing jobs in the first place. Spidey was referencing the Cy Young voting results.

Yep, that was it. I posted a question about it in the comments and the author responded with "the question referred to the fact that he was once traded for Hank Aaron." Kind of disappointing. I too was hoping for something more interesting, perhaps even "weird."

For a left-handed bat that's hit 25-43 HRs and OPS'd .882-1.044 the past three seasons, I'd gladly take him if "at most" they're spending $25m/yr for 4 years. It's a lot, but it's not a long-term, crippling contract for adding another perennial MVP alongside Braun.

Trout lead the league in WAR, Runs, SB, and OPS+ Cabrera lead the league in BA, SLG, OPS, TB, HR, RBI, RC, Extra Base Hits I'd lean towards Trout leading more meaningful categories, but both had incredible years and I can't fault giving the award to either.

Ya, but it was either Rollins or Ramirez. And they have done about the same this year. So in the end, both were bad ideas (so far) I think you're exaggerating how bad Ramirez' year has been... Ramirez - 27 R, 3 HR, 25 RBI, 2 SB, .231/.302/.400/.702 Rollins - 22 R. 1 HR, 7 RBI, 9 SB, .229/.295/.283/.578 Unless you're only looking at average or you REALLY value stolen bases, I think it's clear we've gotten more production from A-Ram. You could argue we'd be better off not signing either of them and just going with Green at third, but I think the real bullet dodged was letting McGehee go: McGehee - 6 R, 0 HR, 5 RBI. 1 SB. .186/.279/.247/.527 Wooof...

I believe Aoki would be an unrestricted free agent after next season. He's better off going back to Japan if we low ball him. He can then pick the best situation for himself next year - financially and professionally. Ah, thanks for the clarification. I still wonder what he's looking at making back in Japan if he goes that route. It probably only makes sense to take a low, one year deal from the Brewers if he thinks he'll get enough playing time to prove himself in the States for his next contract then.

I think some are overestimating Aoki's negotiating power here. $1.5 million seems a little low, but I think he'd have to get paid significantly more in Japan to pass up playing in the majors for one year and becoming a free agent for all 30 teams to bid on in a year. If he went back to Japan, wouldn't he get stuck in the same situation next year? Considering no other team bid higher than $2.5 million for his posting fee, I'm not sure he'd have any better luck with whichever team he got stuck negotiating with next year.

Past three seasons: Betancourt: 1680 PAs, 35 HRs, .252/.277/.381 -33.1 UZR, -.07 WAR Gonzalez: 1662 PAs, 46 HRs, .244/.281/.397 12.5 UZR, 5.0 WAR Minimal boost in offense without the horrendous defense.

Glad for Verlander. He definitely earned it. It's too bad the Hank Aaron Award isn't as celebrated as the Cy Young and MVP awards, it would put an end to this whole MVP being a hitter's award argument. Although it does make it more fun to debate http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif One of the most annoying arguments to me is the "I can't give it to someone that doesn't play everyday" stance against pitchers. Out of curiosity I looked up the number of batters Verlander faced this year... 969! Jacoby Ellsbury led the majors with 732 plate appearances. Even factoring in that Verlander still only plays defense for 7.4 innings every 5th day, it's hard to say he doesn't have at least a similar impact on the game as your average hitter.

If the Brewers win 5 of their final 9 games in August (2 of 4 in PIT, 2 of 3 from the sCrubs, 1 of 2 from the Cards), they will have 81 wins securing a non-losing season and at least as many wins as they'd had in all but 2 of their previous 18 seasons... WITH A MONTH LEFT IN THE SEASON! i like this team.

Agreed. I think Kuroda is a significant upgrade from Narveson and even Wolf for that matter: Since the beginning of last season:Kuroda: 323 1/3 IP, 3.31 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 7.1 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 ('10 ERA+: 112, '11 ERA+: 113) Wolf: 347 1/3 IP, 3.96 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, 6.0 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 ('10 ERA+: 98, '11 ERA+: 109)Narveson: 283 IP, 4.77 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 7.5 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 ('10 ERA+: 82, '11 ERA+: 89)

In the last 28 days (22 games) Betancourt is batting .315 with a .777 OPS ...unfortunately he is still terrible at taking walks, as his OBP is only 10 points higher than his BA Do I think he's "turned the corner"? No . Do I think he should still be replaced? Yes, please. Just pointing out its been more than 7 days. In the last 7 days he's hitting .474 with a 1.342 OPS... even in the last 14 days he's hitting .367 with a 1.020 OPS ! However, you can't just tack on [x] days prior to a 7 game hot streak and say he's been hitting well for a month because his cumulative stats (including that hot streak) during that time period still looks good. Take the last 7 games out of that 28 day period you quoted and he was hitting .275/.278/.333/.611 with no homeruns in a 15 games stretch. Your 14 day stats just tack on 2 games prior to this streak where he went 2 for 8. Even HiandTight's 7 game "hot streak" time period is being generous, as Yuni was only 1 for 6 (no walks, no extra base hits) in the first 3 games of that stretch. So really it's been 4 games, starting with that 2 homerun game that's skewing everything.

Gosh heck it. Hart, Green, Gamel, and whatever else it takes for Beltran, Reyes and Wright... hmmm...

I'm guessing it means how many parks the ball hit would have been a homerun in?

I believe so, but in that case he's pitching against the Brewers and he's not our concern anyways http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif However, I imagine it also still counts as finishing the game if he closes out the 8th and the Brewers fail to tie/take the lead in the top of the 9th.

Possibly, from a player for player standpoint, but if the Brewers win the World Series this year or next year, in hindsight, I take that deal 100% of the time, no questions asked.

I was listening to some talk radio today comparing the excitement level among fans between the Sabathia trade a couple years ago and the Greinke trade (which was completely unfair considering the Sabathia trade was made during a midseason pennant run and this one was made during the offseason when nothing but Packer talk is going on, but that's another debate). But it seems like people are favoring that Sabathia was more of a bonafide ace upon his arrival to Milwaukee than Greinke is (mostly due to Greinke's ERA last year). Anyways, it made me wonder how their stats actually compared pre-Brewers and thought this was actually pretty interesting (previous 3 years followed by full career before Brewers): GS CG W L SHO IP H BB ERA K/9 BB/9 HR/9 K/BB WHIP Sabathia 2005-07 93 11 46 28 3 630.33 605 143 3.47 7.70 2.00 0.80 3.79 1.19 Sabathia 2005-08* 96 14 46 32 5 657.00 630 146 3.41 8.20 2.00 0.82 4.09 1.18 Greinke 2008-10 98 10 39 32 3 651.67 616 162 3.25 8.40 2.20 0.69 3.74 1.19 Sabathia 2001-07 219 16 100 63 5 1406.67 1318 464 3.83 7.30 3.00 0.84 2.46 1.27 Sabathia 2001-08** 237 19 106 71 7 1529.00 1435 498 3.83 7.40 2.90 0.85 2.54 1.26 Greinke 2004-10 169 12 60 67 3 1108.00 1121 280 3.82 7.60 2.30 0.91 3.33 1.26 * July 2, 2005 to July 2, 2008 ** Beginning of career to July 2, 2008 Pretty similar! Especially considering they were both in their age 27 season when joining the Brewers. In fact, I'd give Greinke the edge on those numbers. With that said, obviously Greinke hasn't been quite as consistant, but going into his age 27 season, I think we can be pretty optimistic about our new ace for the next couple years.

If the Brewers had the Yankees pocketbooks they could take on the following recent contracts and go undefeated for around $215m this year: C Victor Martinez 4/50 (~13 per) SS Derek Jeter 3/51 (~17 per) 3B Alex Rodriguez 10/275 (~28 per) OF Carl Crawford 7/142 (~21 per) SP CC Sabathia 7/161 (~23 per) RP Mariano Rivera 2/30 (~15 per) RP Francisco Rodriguez 3/37 (~13 per) LINEUP --------------------- CF Crawford SS Jeter 3B Rodriguez LF Braun 1B Fielder C Martinez RF Hart 2B Weeks BENCH --------------------- C Lucroy IF McGehee IF Counsell OF Gomez OF Dickerson/Gamel ROTATION --------------------- SP Sabathia SP Greinke SP Gallardo SP Marcum SP Wolf BULLPEN --------------------- CL Rivera RP Rodriguez RP Axford RP Braddock RP Hawkins RP Loe RP Narveson/Parra/McClendon

I hope we throw Greinke, Gallardo and Marcum at the Reds and punch them in the mouth right off the bat. I don't see the need to save pitchers to showcase them at the home opener.