brewerfan82

I would say he is 6th on the depth chart right now. Hall, Hart, Jenks, Mench, and Clark ahead of him. What about Gross?

J.J.! On a sidenote: Worst. Homerun Call. Ever.

I'd be for this trade. I'm not sure if the Brewers would be looking at him to further stabilize the starting rotation or to fill the Dave Burba/Rick Helling role out of the bullpen, but either way he would be a welcome addition to the pitching staff. If he's used as the fifth starter, his projections at FanGraphs are favorable compared to Vargas': ERA WHIP James CHONE Marcel Zips James CHONE Marcel Zips Lieber 3.98 4.36 4.72 4.43 1.26 1.31 1.34 1.27 Vargas 4.80 4.47 5.04 5.03 1.39 1.39 1.44 1.38 If he's used out of the pen, that could stabilize some of our concerns there. Mench also seems to be the prime candidate to move to alleviate the outfield crunch. Clark and Gross seem more fit (and more willing) for roles off the bench, so I would be happy with those as our primary backups. Not to mention they provide much better defense than Mench has shown us.

It's listed as being on FSN in Madison, unfortunately, I'm at work.... boo!

Badgers tie it up at 47 after getting down 4-23

Brewer pitching has given up two hits in their last 13 innings... (includes 8th inning of Wednesday's game)

PRINCE!

Unbelievable. GONE!

From his profile on the Brewers website: Doesn't women's basketball have it bad enough as it is??

Weeks single and Hardy RBI double to start it off! Keep it up boys!

If Anderson's there, why are they allowing Kent to do play-by-play? Ack!

Audio's working now

From Adam McCalvy's notes last night: Hard to say there is "no way" he'll bat third. I'm warming up to the idea of a lineup like this: 2B Rickie Weeks SS JJ Hardy RF Corey Hart 1B Prince Fielder CF Bill Hall C Johnny Estrada LF Geoff Jenkins 3B Tony Graffanino/Counsell/Braun That's a pretty well constructed and potent lineup based on each player's potential strengths.

What's the deal with Sarfate? Wasn't he dealing in the AFL? Edit: or was that a winter league?

Hall GONE!!

Prince GONE!!

Free webcast is now working from brewers.com! -- Edit: my link didn't work, but go to the homepage and click the free webcast link there

Does anyone have the Baseball America projected roster for 2007 from a few years ago? It'd be interesting to see how they projected our roster back then.

Good call! Scratch that idea then

According to the Elias Sports Bureau who determines free agent compensation every year. I was making a point about what we could get back for him by offering him arbitration at the end of the year... USA Today's report on this offseason's rankings So basically, you just reiterated my point that we won't get as much for him in a trade as we will by keeping him the whole year and taking our draft picks...

The more I think of it, the more I want Jenkins in this lineup for his contract year. Even this offseason, Jenkins was still considered a Type A player. I doubt we'll be able to trade him for anything better than his production for this season plus the two draft picks we'll hopefully get at the end of the year. Then again who's going to give up a pick to sign Jenkins and what's the chance that he'd accept arbitration with us? I guess that all depends on how well he plays this year.

If Weeks ends this season with those stats, the Brewers are in very good shape and I'm pretty sure he will be my favorite player. I'd expect something closer to .280/.350/.450/.800 15 HR 30 SB, which is still pretty darn good!

I wouldn't trade Jenkins to the Cubs, since with all their additions this offseason, they may actually be contenders. But why not the Pirates? I don't think Pittsburgh will be competing with us for a playoff spot, so why does it matter if we give them Jenkins? Are you afraid of him, alone, taking a game away from the Brewers? Heck, maybe improving them ever so slightly will help us over the season as the Pirates take on the Cardinals, Astros, Cubs and Reds.

To me, this deal makes or breaks on whether or not Koskie's good to go. With a healthy Koskie, I don't think the upgrade from Koskie to Ensberg is great enough to justify the deal. On the otherhand, if Koskie is done and we want to compete this year, I'd rather have a proven and very good Ensberg manning the hot corner than Braun. Throwing a very good centerfielder into the outfield also provides some defensive stability. I'm a believer that Hall CAN become a very good defensive centerfielder, but the fact is that he is still unproven there. If nothing else, this trade stabilizes two of our biggest question marks on defense going into the season. Our offense would look a bit more well rounded as well (using 3-year splits): -vs- Righties -vs- Lefties OBP SLG OPS OBP SLG OPS 2B Rickie Weeks .343 .388 .731 2B Rickie Weeks .366 .444 .810 C Johnny Estrada .355 .444 .799 SS JJ Hardy .345 .534 .879 CF Rocco Baldelli .320 .462 .782 CF Rocco Baldelli .367 .525 .892 1B Prince Fielder .352 .474 .826 1B Prince Fielder .321 .500 .821 3B Morgan Ensberg .360 .473 .833 3B Morgan Ensberg .412 .517 .929 LF Geoff Jenkins .366 .511 .877 LF Kevin Mench .379 .590 .969 RF Corey Hart .305 .454 .759 RF Corey Hart .336 .434 .770 SS JJ Hardy .310 .336 .646 C Damian Miller .344 .387 .731 C Damian Miller .330 .408 .738 C Johnny Estrada .296 .368 .664 3B Corey Koskie .357 .500 .857 3B Corey Koskie .297 .365 .662 IF Tony Graffanino .350 .395 .745 IF Tony Graffanino .346 .394 .740 IF Craig Counsell .340 .357 .697 IF Craig Counsell .328 .312 .640 OF Kevin Mench .305 .432 .737 OF Geoff Jenkins .307 .368 .675 OF Gabe Gross .360 .422 .782 OF Gabe Gross .250 .183 .436 OF Brady Clark .368 .387 .755 OF Brady Clark .370 .402 .772 We would absolutely crush lefties with that lineup and with the improvement of Weeks, Fielder, Hart and Hardy we should be able to hold our own against righties as well. We'd still need to shed an infielder and an outfielder before the season started, but it gives us one more piece to work with in a trade for some pitching help. I'll take Lidge over Turnbow 100 out of 100 times. And I'm not against trading Villanueva while his stock is high. I love having him as depth, but I'm not quite sold on his 2006 season yet. While we'd be taking on a little money, Ensberg and Lidge are in their 2nd years of arbitration and Baldelli is signed to a very nice contract (07: $0.75m, 08: $2.25m, 09: $6m, 10: $8m, 11: $9m). So we wouldn't be taking on any "bad" contracts. All in all, if Koskie can't go, I'd be all for this kind of swap. Otherwise, if there was any way to coax Houston into taking a Hardy + (Koskie? prospect?) package instead of Hall, that would create a monster lineup! -vs- Righties -vs- Lefties OBP SLG OPS OBP SLG OPS 2B Rickie Weeks .343 .388 .731 2B Rickie Weeks .366 .444 .810 CF Rocco Baldelli .320 .462 .782 CF Rocco Baldelli .367 .525 .892 3B Morgan Ensberg .360 .473 .833 3B Morgan Ensberg .412 .517 .929 1B Prince Fielder .352 .474 .826 1B Prince Fielder .321 .500 .821 SS Bill Hall .312 .471 .783 SS Bill Hall .365 .523 .888 LF Geoff Jenkins .366 .511 .877 LF Kevin Mench .379 .590 .969 RF Corey Hart .305 .454 .759 RF Corey Hart .336 .434 .770 C Johnny Estrada .355 .444 .799 C Damian Miller .344 .387 .731

No concerns here. I don't view either as long-term solutions for this club, so I'm not looking to get on their good sides for signing purposes. These guys have proven throughout their careers that they are only able to hit pitchers that throw with a certain arm. With the team's current makeup, this is the definition of doing what's best for the team.