And That

Major league payroll is determined by any players a team is paying a major league salary to, be it on the 25-man roster, 40-man roster, or someone not currently in the organization that they still owe money to. I suspect the final payroll number will be lower if CC is not signed, perhaps around $80 mil again.

I like Swisher as much as the next guy but with an OF of Braun, Hart and Swisher who plays CF? The drop off defensively from Cameron to any of those guys might be drastic.

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p182/kelseyandherdogs/Random%20Shtuff/CautionStupidDogsLiveHere.jpg Speaking of redundancy... The cats I've had all have responded well to cat nip. If you rub some cat nip between your fingers and rub the sides of your bed/around your bed with it, the cat might well no longer want anything to do with peeing there. Same thing for scratching posts... rub cat nip on anything they scratch, and they do not scratch it anymore. It might not work, but a bed peeing cat is better than an anything dog in my book.

Hoffman is a Type A free agent. If the Padres offer him arbitration, he'll cost the signing team their top available draft pick. Is he (or Wood) worth the Brewers' first rounder? Yah, probably.

IATL~~~~~~~~

I don't think his family has to give up a draft pick for re-acquiring him. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

To echo TLB, our bullpen wasn't bad last year. There were a few bad performances, but every bullpen has those. Best wishes to Torres. He sure had a passion for the game and it was fun to watch him pitch. I'm happy to say I got to watch him in the last game that he pitched in. I don't know if Torres' retirement mandates signing Hoffman, Fuentes or K-Rod, or trading for a Bobby Jenks or Huston Street, but that sure seems more likely now. Not to mention the Brewers now have $3.75 mil to play with, which could obviously go directly towards an arm or two in the bullpen.

Not true. Hoffman has one of the best changeups in the history of baseball. He's a Type A free agent assuming the Padres offer him arbitration, which is not a lock. If the Brewers don't have to give up a draft pick, it's a no-brainer to offer him a two year deal with an option for a third. Even if they do have to give up a draft choice, it's certainly more than worth thinking about. The draft pick would be the only downside.

All affiliated minor leagues under class AA use the DH in 100% of their games. Pitchers only start hitting in AA.

All affiliated minor leagues under class AA use the DH in 100% of their games. Pitchers only start hitting in AA.

I get your point, but I think Randolph would be a fine bench coach, just like Ned Yost might be a fine bench coach. Not to mention the pain in the butt of hiring a bench coach, only to have to hire another one a few weeks later. It is best to get your staff settled as soon as possible.

From the JS Online Randolph article: Macha has to hire a bullpen coach to complete his staff. He said he had interviewed two internal candidates, Class AAA Nashville pitching coach Stan Kyles and minor league pitching coordinator Jim Rooney. I'm a Stan Kyles fan. I think that would be an excellent selection. Huntsville's pitching coach Chris Hook is a younger guy who did good work with the Stars last year... he'd be a good selection too. Also from the same article, this hasn't been mentioned: Randolph, fired on June 17 as manager of the New York Mets, won't necessarily work as the Brewers' bench coach. The understanding when he accepted the offer was that he'd be released from the position should he be offered the job as Seattle's manager. Jack Z. could loot the Brewers' organization one more time.

Good for Bill Castro, he's over-deserving of a permanent shot. I'm very happy for him. Let the bullpen coach speculation begin... Marcus Hanel? What is Mike Fetters up to?

This crosses the condescension line. Please play nice.

Willie Randolph, Jim Tracy and Larry Bowa are the names that come immediately to my mind when I hear "NL manager with success" though I guess he could have sucked in the NL and done well in the AL.

Then why wait until the last day? He could have announced it then. It was reported that the Brewers held meetings on the topic. If he was so sure, why hold a meeting? Why act until you have to? Say for some reason Sabathia wanted to re-sign right away, but signing him precluded the team from keeping Cameron around due to salary. And I'm sure they held meetings because spending $10 mil on one dude is kind of a big deal. It's not like Melvin walks around Brewers offices like a town cryer, calling transactions into existence at his whim. It's a gigantic leap of logic to go from "they waited until the last day" to "Melvin had to think long and hard." You don't know. Many of us thought that was a mistake. Well, according to the Cameron thread approximately 3-5 of you though it was a mistake. The term "many" is often not associated with a small minority.

Let's keep all the Cameron trade rumors in this thread in the transaction rumors forum please. Thanks.

Ted Lilly? I might put Oliver Perez in the same category as Ted Lilly, but neither of them with Sabathia, Hamels or Santana. Not even close.

I'm going to tell Bob Brainerd you called him a hag. Good for her if it advances her career. She seems like a genuinely nice, intelligent and talented person.

The best point in this thread was made by the person who said that you can't sign him if you don't make him an offer. Maybe 5/100 is low, but I don't think he'll be offended by it. And who is to say that's the Brewers' best offer? Melvin wouldn't be doing himself any favors by going all-in on the initial offer.

Maybe if you throw enough money at Randy Johnson, he'd be willing to start for the first few months in order to get those five wins, and then transition into the bullpen. Then again, if he's pitching well, he's better served being in the rotation. I believe Omar Aguilar is going to be our closer before too long, but not at the start of '09. Brian Fuentes might be worth the draft pick. He's a really good pitcher. The money/length of contract would bother me more than the pick. I don't know why Beane would sell Street low, unless he has serious arm problems, in which case I'd be leery of Beane shopping him to me. Sal Torres is on the roster if he doesn't retire, so why not him?

I think end's point was that for a guy like Greinke where you can get substantially better at the major league level, if you can do that without giving up major league talent, that's the best way to go. And I think the Royals would be receptive to a load of prospects instead of Hardy. It makes the Brewers much better now and makes the Royals better later, albeit in the near future for them. Greinke and Hardy have similar value at MLB level I'd imagine, though Greinke might edge him out if he can go 200 IP next year with a sub-4 ERA. Moving Hardy creates a hole that IMO should not be filled by Escobar in '09. So you'd have to go out and fill the hole somehow, with someone who more than likely will be a downgrade from Hardy. Maybe you take a flyer on Edgar Rentaria on a 1 or 2 year deal?

It would take something closer to Gamel or Escobar, plus Salome, Periard or Anundsen, and Gillespie or Aguilar to get Greinke. The Royals would take Hardy I'm sure, but not by himself. Endaround is right - the Royals wants guys they can control for awhile.

1. They could bring back Kapler for a lot less and make him the regular CF. Sure, he's not likely to hit .300 playing everyday He's also not likely to stay healthy everyday. He's not reached the 400 AB plateau since 2001. If you make Kapler the starting CF, you need to bring in another guy to back up Kapler when he gets hurt. I don't think you want Bill Hall being Kapler's backup after having played the position for one year, and not having played the position for a year. 2. They could move Hall back to CF (his offense is similar to Cameron's and they have to pay him anyway), which opens up 3B for Gamel or another player in a deal. Bill Hall is probably a dramatic downgrade from Cameron in CF. He's also a likely downgrade offensively - they are similar players in that they strike out a lot and have some power, but otherwise they aren't very similar. For instance, Hall's career OBP is .315 and Cameron's career OBP is .340. 3. They could deal for a guy like Coco Crisp to play CF. Crisp has nominally the same OBP as Cameron, and much less power. Defensively they are a wash if you're being generous to Coco. At most, you're saving under $4 mil by trading for Crisp, plus the cost of attaining him. He's a guy to go after if they didn't have Cameron, but since they already have Cameron... 4. They could move Hart or Weeks to CF, opening up a spot for a LH bat. True, this move has risks but so does paying $10 million to a guy who might strike out 180 times. First, Cameron has never struck out 180 times in his career, and he's been over 160 exactly once. Second, it doesn't really matter. He's a productive offensive player by virtually any metric. Average to good OBP, above average slugging, above average walk rate, above average OPS. And he plays a good center field. Mike Cameron is not a weakness on this club. And as an added bonus, we're probably going to get draft compensation for him next year.

I apparently do not go east. http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/9d9355554f679be9d0659bd62ac2068e1bbf7c9.jpg