Invader3K

I have never heard that before, at least that I can remember. Wikipedia claims a version of the song is played after player introductions at Lambeau Field. Here are the apparent lyrics, courtesy of Google: Hail, hail the gang's all here to yell for you, And keep you going in your winning ways, Hail, hail the gang's all here to tell you too, That win or lose, we'll always sing your praises Packers; Go, you Packers, go and get 'em, Go, you fighting fools upset 'em, Smash their line with all your might, A touchdown, Packers, Fight, Fight, Fight, Fight! On, you Green and Gold, to glory, Win this game the same old story, Fight, you Packers, Fight, and bring the bacon home to Old Green Bay.

When my wife turned in our cable modem last month because we bought our own, not wanting to pay the lease charge anymore. Then of course it's still listed on our bill. Then I try calling the Charter and get stuck in phone menu hell. No, I really don't want my account balance, just tell me how to get the charge removed. Of course I can't get connected to an actual person.

An excellent article by Maury Brown, expounding on the reason Scott Boras flap regarding teams hoarding their revenue sharing money: As far as the other ideas, their are pros and cons to all of them. I just hope MLB takes a serious look at doing something when the next CBA comes up, instead of just going through a friendly renew around the same basic terms like last time.

Pavano would probably be an upgrade over Looper. I would just hope he isn't the biggest acquisition of the off-season.

That seems to be typical the last couple years. I assume we won't see any big player movement until the likes of John Lackey and Matt Holliday are signed. It could be a a somewhat long off-season again as players hold out for more money and teams hold ground on shorter term deals. Haudricourt sent a tweet yesterday quoting an agent that said basically "All teams are wanting to offer guys one year deals while their agents want multiple years." That may seem simplistic, but I think the issue has become exacerbated since last off-season. The smart GMs will be trying to snatch up smaller pieces like Counsell in the meantime so they aren't scrambling to fill in the gaps in spring training, I think.

that would be the worst thing doug melvin could do.If it's just a two year deal, and he's only getting say $1 million/per with some healthy incentives, I don't see the big risk.

I'm guessing if they are going to try to extend Prince at all, it's going to be for more than just what in reality is one more year of control. I'm also guessing that about $20 million is the upper limit of what they would offer him for a single season. You absolutely will not see them allocate over 30% of their payroll to one player.

I think Melvin has said they don't scout Asia because it's too expensive for them. They've found they're better served focusing their resources on Latin America. I think they share their academy down there with the Orioles, so that helps them save money, too.

I too am not crazy on the idea of trading Lawrie at this point. Do we have any real way of knowing what kind of player Weeks will be going forward? Based on his playing history, he is unfortunately closer to "bust" than "break out" at this point. Don't get me wrong, I hope Weeks comes into the season fully healthy and plays like he did in his short 2009 campaign...I just wouldn't bet any significant amount of money on that happening. We may need Lawrie to fill in for Weeks again in the near future.

Some good points made in this article which was linked to in another thread. The idea of an earlier trading deadline is one that hadn't occurred to me before, and I think makes some sense based on the logic the author puts forth. One of the commenters also raises the idea of a European/Japanese style of free agency compensation, where in addition to a compensation draft pick, the team that signs the FA would give his former team cash as compensation. I bet something like that would level the playing field a lot, especially if it was a significant amount, like 10-20% of the total contract they sign the FA to.

I would have no problem with that personally. It just seems like we haven't gotten any indication something like that is on the table, though. Otherwise I would think they would be going after someone like John Lackey very hard, which doesn't seem to be the case.

I think it basically comes down to there's no doubt that Pujols will win it, and he likely should. The real debate is in who was #2, #3, etc. Prince did have a very dominant year, though, and there's no taking that away. I think him winning the Home Run Derby probably caused a lot of heads to turn his way as well.

I know some people are cynical and think Melvin has been talking up Lucroy in order to possibly trade him this off-season, but the fact that Salome has barely been mentioned makes me think Melvin is indeed looking at Lucroy for the MLB Opening Day roster in 2010.

Not to pick on you specifically, brewmann, but I'm sure that's what everyone wants. It almost seems like some people here really think Melvin is actively looking for soft tossing vets. I really doubt that is the case. There isn't that much out there on the free agent market in guys that have overly dominant stuff. Plus it's worth pointing out that Gallardo and Parra are both closer to the "flame thrower" category than "soft tosser." I woudln't call Dave Bush necessarily a soft tosser, and Chris Narveson also has a pretty good fastball, IIRC. I think people have become jaded due to Looper and Suppan.

That's a legitimate point. As much as I'd like to see them retain Fielder beyond 2011, I remember hearing similar discussions when the C.C. puruit was going on last off-season. Tom Haudricourt, I believe, pointed out that the most you would like for any player to take up on your payroll is about 15%. For a special marquee player, I think he said teams usually have the thinking that they can stretch it to 20%. If the Brewers stay around $80 million the next few years, I have a hard time seeing them give Prince approximately 25% of their on field budget. It seems like the ideal would be for the team to get up around $100 million in payroll, as those teams seem to have a much better chance of being competitive and retaining their players year in and year out. Maybe that can happen in a few years, but by then Prince will be long gone.

If I had more money lying around and those dates worked for me, I'd consider it. There are some nice extras in that package, including tickets to Opening Day. I'm still trying to plan our trip for the final week in March...basically having trouble finding a hotel that isn't going to destroy our budget staying out there for a week.

I agree. The only other catching move I can see for the Brewers at this point is deciding to re-sign Kendall for much less money. I hope Melvin doesn't go that way and sees if some combination of Lucroy/Rivera/Kottaras can stick.

Yes, Cappy on another minor league deal as well. I'm not going to hold out hope he's even in the majors next year.

It's a minor league deal, so it's basically a no brainer for the Brewers. Hopefully he can break through and be productive. Everyone knows the Brewers need as much SP help as they can get right now.

Still by far and away my favorite website, even if this year was a bit of a let down "baseball-wise". It was a memorable year, getting to meet a few of you finally. Here's a tip of the cap to Brian and all the staff for providing such a great resource for Brewers fans. And here's to hoping we get to celebrate another playoff appearance in 2010.

OK, you clarified your points and I can appreciate that. Part of my statement on "giving the middle finger to the big markets", was motivated by the constant coveting of Prince I see displayed by fans of the Red Sox, etc. I realize you can't make moves to spite other teams' fans, but it does get frustrated being a small market fan, sometimes. It's so much easier to be a fan of a big market team, and it gets tiresome sometimes feeling like a second class citizen in MLB-dom. But that's neither here nor there. The whole decision in regards to Fielder is complicated, no doubt. But with all the hoopla of all these good young players we had coming into their own just three to four years ago, only really Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder have lived up to the hype (or in their cases, exceeded them). I guess you could put Gallardo in that category as well, but let's keep pitching and hitting as a separate discussion for now. Hardy was just traded, Hall ended up as a boat anchor we had to give away, Hart is looking more and more like a disappointment, and we still have no idea what kind of player Weeks actually is. It would be nice to think that with this lauded group of young players, more than just Braun will be here past 2011 in some significant roll with the team. At some point a franchise has to keep at least a couple of their core players to build around. If any sort of reasonable deal is possible with Fielder (and I realize "reasonable" is a very relative term when discussing MLB contracts), I would like to think the Brewers would look at the big picture and get it done. When are we going to win if Braun is surrounded by the likes of Gomez, Escobar, Cain, Lawrie, Lucroy, etc? Maybe they will all turn into nice young players, but they will probably take 3-4 years to mature as MLB players...right about the time Braun's contract is getting close to done. I realize nothing is a sure thing either way, but it bothers me to think Braun is the only solid position player we have to build around past 2011. People throw out seemingly half baked ideas (no offense intended to any posters here) like moving Gamel or McGehee to 1B in the future, but I think we can confidently say neither would come close to matching Fielder's hitting dominance. I say that not trying to slight either player. Prince is just that darn good with the bat. We don't have anyone waiting in the minors to take his place, either. It's easy to say "It's not that hard to find a good first baseman", but how long did this franchise go without a really good one firmly in place? We already saw Sexson and Overbay traded away. It would be nice to keep a first baseman and not worry about that position for a few more years. Ultimately I would still wager that the odds of Fielder being a Brewer after 2011 are quite low, but it heartens me to know that Melvin and company are at least exploring the idea. Just a few years back, Fielder would have already been traded by now and we'd be talking about seeing our next "window of opportunity" in 2015 or thereabouts.

It seems like most of what you wrote about is the reality of the internet these days. Just like in real life, any large collection of people is going to have some jerks and some nice folks...hopefully more of the latter than the former. I would hope most people coming onto an internet forum have skin thicker than an egg shell.

Have any local politicians or others actually put forth this idea, or is it just something discussed here?

Nothing to get excited about, but if he ends up contributing in any kind of positive way, it's a nice bonus for a no risk type move.

Those bobbles actually look really well done.