Invader3K

I probably missed something, but out of curiosity, what's up with the black & white photo use lately?

They should really be honest with themselves and cut bait with Suppan and Vargas if it means keeping Loe and Capuano. Both of the latter have been way too good in AAA to risk losing.

Not sure why people rip Ohka. He was a solid bottom of the rotation starter (which we actually needed mid-'05 when we traded a guy we didn't need anymore in Spivey for him). He eventually got hurt, and then was a FA. Not a huge success, but not a failure for the Brewers like some seem to imply.

It's hard for me to see McGehee making the All-Star game. There are just too many well known 3Bs throughout the NL that he's running up against. Braun seems like he should be a lock to start. I can't believe Rickie Weeks is second among 2Bs. His season overall hasn't exactly been good.

If he continues to struggle, Bush could be another candidate for a DFA. I hate to say it because I actually like him, but he just hasn't been the same since he got hit with that line drive.

All pretty good points, monty. While I don't feel there's much of a realistic chance to make the playoffs at this point, a winning season isn't entirely out of the question yet. Hopefully the team has put the worst behind itself and can play good baseball for the rest of the season, so the fans keep coming out to Miller Park.

I assume you mean Daniel Bard, right? That particular proposal has been suggested quite often. I don't know if we'll get quite that much for Fielder at this point, though I guess we could hope. The Red Sox seem to be re-inserting themselves into the AL East playoff picture, though they are still in fourth place and 6.5 back from the Rays.

Mark Attanasio has regularly stated that if the team is close during the trade deadline period, he will allow additional money to be spent to acquire a needed piece. Maybe that is different this season, but I remember reading comments alluding to that last year. Not sure why that is really up for debate in this conversation.

Brewers have not won a home series since the season opening one against the Rockies. Probably time to do something about that.

My feeling is that Braun is too athletic to be wasted at first base, kind of like logan said above. I think he will still develop and mature into being a pretty good defensive left fielder. I really see McGehee or Gamel as our future first baseman, barring some candidate from outside the organization.

I'll be booing him mercilessly if he doesn't throw a first pitch strike.

The media is often a "good ol' boys club." Guys get entrenched because they are former players and have been around long enough that they can coast by on their names and familiarity. I think a lot of these guys just show up, do their thing, and go home. They leave any research to their producers or others. I would say Schroeder falls under this category, though I don't hate him as much as some here. I think Anderson does seem to delve into the numbers a bit more. As far as our radio team, I think Provus and Uecker both do an excellent job. Uke seems to do some studying, or maybe his supporting cast just does a really good job feeding him info. Provus seems to know what's going on around baseball quite a bit.

Well, at this point I don't see too much changing in the next couple seasons, so I don't think it matters too much who is the GM. The obvious solution is staring us square in the face (trade Prince Fielder and whatever other pieces you can to get some decent cost controlled pitching), but I don't see it happening with Mark Attanasio at least partly calling the shots. He apparently does not want to make any move that signals the team is faltering or is going into any sort of rebuild mode. I don't see a new GM coming in and magically (that's basically what it would be at this juncture) finding a couple "good young high upside" pitchers at this point. The window of opportunity for this team has effectively shut with the horrible start this year. Yes, perhaps they could turn it around down the stretch, but does anyone honestly see that happening? They're 10 under .500, 8.5 back in the division. They would need to win 62% of their remaining games to reach 90 wins. The only team playing that kind of ball so far this year is the Tampa Bay Rays. I think we're going to have to wait until at least 2012 to be seriously competitive again. All Melvin's moves this off-season have backfired (other than arguably trading for Gomez), and it's going to cost the team this season and next. Maybe some deals can be made in the off-season. Free agency is not a real solution this winter as the pitching crop doesn't look that impressive and it's not like we're going to be the only franchise shopping around. I hope they'll be honest and look at the situation at hand, not hoping for the best case scenarios to play out; but with team revenue so heavily tied to ticket sales, I don't foresee that happening.

How's his defense? Maybe they could claim him and DFA Gerut or Edmonds.

I don't think Davey Nelson is that bad, but he is just a fill in guy anyway. My understanding is the three Twins guys cited are the permanent broadcasting team. Sounds like I'm not missing much by not tuning in to their games.

Melvin wanted to see if Sheets could stay healthy for the majority of a season after missing large portions of 2005, 2006, and 2007 with injuries (at least that is what I suspect). It's not like Sheets was getting younger. Committing to a large $60 million+ contract (as many here were advocating) with such a player would have been highly risky for a small market team. And I also recall Melvin and Co. did meet with Sheets and Casey Close the past two off-seasons, so it's not like they didn't test the waters.

I wonder if Melvin looks at picking him up again?

I doubt Stetter would have gotten us much more than a marginal minor league type. LOOGYs really aren't all that tough to come by. Not sure how all this trade talk developed in a thread about Capuano though.

Melvin has had some really bad luck though. A lot of guys have simply crashed after having peak seasons. Hardy, Hart, Turnbow, and Hall all come to mind. I guess you could argue that he should have seen it coming with Hall, but how many teams really trade a position player after a 35 HR, Team MVP season? And of course a guy who could play multiple positions too. I do think he should have traded some veterans in July or August of last season. I have to believe we could have gotten something for Cameron, Kendall, Hoffman, Counsell, etc. I'd think he could have cut a gentleman's deal with Counsell or Hoffman to bring them back in '10 if that's what he was worried about. He has sold high on others, though. Dan Kolb comes to mind. Doug Davis (sort of). Just because those trades didn't work out particularly well for the Brewers doesn't dismiss that he tried. Oh yeah, there was that Sexson deal too...

Capuano has been promising so far this year, but really, isn't rushing him back to the majors about the worst thing they could do at this point? I'd rather make sure he's really ready than promote him too quickly.

Right now I'm more worried about Weeks' hitting than his fielding: .236/.338/.374 this year so far in nearly 182 ABs. Macha really needs to give him an off day once in a while (hey, off day today!), or move him away from batting lead-off.

Apparently everyone wants me to have free Brewers tickets lately...I just won free tickets through a local radio station drawing this morning, and the Brewers sent me a letter over the weekend with a voucher for two free tickets as a past 9 pack holder.

Well, he is slugging .389, so "some." He really could stand to get his walk rate up. Only .289 OBP. With the way Hart has been hitting and getting on lately, I wonder if putting him in the 2 spot would be crazy? I'd also like to see someone else batting lead off, but I have no idea who. Rickie is just really slumping badly lately. Batting average is down to .236.

Yeah, I specficially remember he thanked guys like Chris Bosio but did not mention Macha even once.

Seems like there could be plenty of potential suitors out there now that I think more about it. Hopefully Hart can continue to stay hot until the All-Star break. I doubt Melvin pulls the trigger or explores any significant trades until then.