Matt Breen

Dan O'Dowd out as GM in Colorado. 15 years. That's an amazing run for a team that hasn't been that successful. I guess the World Series appearance bought him a long hook. If I remember right, the Brewers were interested in O'Dowd back in '99, but Colorado was more appealing. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11663630/dan-odowd-colorado-rockies-general-manager-15-seasons

What happened to Carp last year? A .175 BA and zero HR. Crazy awful. I guess a minor league deal isn't bad, especially if it's open competition.

Sorry for the gaffe. You'll notice that I made no significant comment to offer on the list. That's because I was mentally exhausted after the 2 hours it took me too compile it. Spacing is tricky. Halfway through I wanted to quit. If someone knows of a more efficient way to do lists, making columns match up, etc...I'm all ears. The little comment I did make concerning "inconsistencies" was the Yanks (2nd). Red Sox (4th) not being close to the playoffs, and the Pirates (27th) making it. All good. I appreciate you putting in the time. Just thought I'd mention it.

Two hits for Ramirez. And he went yard. I'm excited to see box scores again, even if it doesn't mean a whole lot.

Boog Powell is playing for Mesa! Comeback at age 73!

Unless you can keep a steady flow of young (and cheap and talented) players going to the big league club. You don't need to extend every player or fill holes with an expensive free agent. You fill from within, trade surplus assets, keep an eye on the bargain bins. And you can't be afraid to turn proven players into prospects. Of course, easier said than done, but that's the ticket. Very true. But at the same time it becomes harder to do when you don't get the high draft picks every year. It's doable but not a given. Especially if teams who have higher revenue also spend more on scouting and player development. Correct. As I said, easier said than done. St. Louis has managed to do it for a while. Tampa as well. No matter how hard you try, you're not going to win every year. You might even be awful every now and then. But hopefully you rebound quicker and are more nimble when needed. Ideally, it leads to longer, sustained stretches of success.

Trade with Boston for Garin Cecchini. The guy isn't perfect, but he could be a high OBP type 3B, hit you 10-12 HR. http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=cecchi001--- He was great in 2013 (.915 OPS, .443 OBP between High A and AA), but dipped last year at AAA with a .263 BA and an OPS of .712. Prior to 2014, he was ranked around 55-70 on top prospect by publications like Baseball America. However, after a mediocre 2014, he might drop a little. Why would Boston trade him? First, he's not a classic power hitting 3B, so he's not everyone's favorite. Second, Boston has said they are going to be aggressive in adding proven guys this off season. They felt burned when they relied on too many rookies last year and they failed. 3B was a black hole with Middlebrooks. Brock Holt is not a long term solution - more a super sub guy. The club is set at 2B (Pedroia), SS (Bogaerts, although he could shift to 3B if necessary), 1B (Napoli), DH (Ortiz), and OF (Mookie Betts, Cespedes, Allen Craig, Victorinno, Nava and Rusney Castillo, who they just signed). That leaves 3B as a place to add an impact bat. Some players linked to Boston include free agent Pablo Sandoval, and Josh Donaldson (who would have to be traded for). Cecchini would have nowhere to play if someone like Sandoval or Donaldson was brought in. Third, Milwaukee could offer a starting pitcher such as Lohse, Gallardo or Garza. The Red Sox starters are very thin. Right now, only Joe Kelly and Clay Buchholz are locks. They figure to add a top flight starter (a lot of people think James Shields will be their primary target). And they even have some nice minor league prospects. But a veteran like Lohse or Yo or Garza would add some stability to the middle of the rotation without overpaying in years and dollars for another free agent starter (and it prevents you from coughing up another draft pick if the FA has a QO attached to him). For Milwaukee, you say goodbye to A-Ram and hand the job to the kid. Like I said, he's probably not a 20 HR type guy, but he could be a very nice player with a solid BA and a lot of walks.

Kudos, John, for the outside the box suggestion. I don't know much about Nelson specifically, but if A-Ram goes, we'll have to consider all our options. I'd rather try a guy like Nelson than just bring back Mark Reynolds or add a fading vet like Kelly Johnson.

Unless you can keep a steady flow of young (and cheap and talented) players going to the big league club. You don't need to extend every player or fill holes with an expensive free agent. You fill from within, trade surplus assets, keep an eye on the bargain bins. And you can't be afraid to turn proven players into prospects. Of course, easier said than done, but that's the ticket.

Note: 'Tampa' and 'Rays' are listed each in the NL East and AL East. Marlins are missing.

I think they know exactly what kind of player he is (aging, suffering from injuries, declining production), but they'll sign him anyways. They'll sign A-Ram and LaRoche and hope and pray that they can defy age and injuries for another year or two. It's not impossible - just improbable. It's the 'if everything goes right' syndrome that afflicts the Brewers most seasons (and a lot of other clubs). I can say right now that if Braun returns to his 2012 form, Luc, Scooter and Gomez repeat, Davis improves, Segura rebounds to his 2013 form, A-Ram (and the rest of the team) stays healthy, and we sign a guy like LaRoche and he can hit 25HR with a .260BA, we'll have a pretty good offense. But that's not how things usually work. 2014: Luc has a great year - Braun has a bad year. Scooter and Davis have good years - Segura, Reynolds and Overbay do not. Things tend to work that way, and counting on good luck is a poor way of running a franchise. You might actually get lucky one in ten times - but all the rest is failure. Perhaps I'm wrong to be a cynic. Players and management and ownership want to win - now. And so do fans. Saying 'wait a few years' doesn't cut it with a lot of people. I just think it keeps the franchise stuck in mediocrity.

MLB Trade Rumors did a free agent profile on A-Ram: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/10/free-agent-profile-aramis-ramirez.html They predict he'll come back to Milwaukee on a two-year, $26 million deal.

MLB Trade Rumors did a free agency look at Francisco Rodriguez. They estimate he'll get a 2-year/$14 million deal. That's similar to deals landed by guys like Fernando Rodney and Joaquin Benoit last off season. If you could land K-Rod for $7 million a year for two years, would you do it? http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/10/free-agent-profile-francisco-rodriguez.html

I'm thinking that Melvin's way to 'turn around' this franchise will be to extend A-Ram for a couple of years, then sign left handed hitting 1B Adam LaRoche for 2-years at $12-14 million a year. Melvin was lamenting how the team isn't hitting HRs like it used to. So I'm thinking he he'll try and add a HR hitting type (enter LaRoche). This is a risky move. LaRoche will be 35, can't hit lefties very well, runs poorly and isn't anything special at 1B. He's been a somewhat inconsistent hitter in his career. He's had issues with his shoulder, back and oblique over the past few years, although the shoulder injury was the only serious problem (surgery after the 2011 season appears to have fixed it). He's at an age where his weaknesses are going to become amplified. Add back in A-Ram, and you have two older hitters who are slugs on the base paths. If LaRoche isn't attainable, I wouldn't be shocked to see Melvin go after right hander Mike Morse. Morse wouldn't cost as much, but he's a wildly inconsistent player who if often on the DL. At 33, he's a little younger than LaRoche. He rarely walks and is a poor baserunner. As a defender, he needs to be put at 1B. He's a terrible OF. No matter who is brought in, the biggest thing we can hope for a return to form from Ryan Braun.

Certainly sounds like RF in the destination. I was hoping 3B, but I'm happy it isn't 1B.

In 2014, Brewer relievers gave up the 2nd most HRs in the NL, the 3rd most triples, had the 3rd worst BA against, and gave up the 4th most total bases, while throwing the 4th least innings. Our lack of depth early on hurt us as our best guys got overworked and by mid season it showed (Duke, K-Rod and Smith had ERAs between 3.97 and 4.91 after the all-star break). Perhaps it contributed some early injuries (that's just speculation). Not having to work around Wang's inability to pitch will really help next year. Next year will be interesting. From comments from Melvin and ownership, we aren't going to reboot this team. We'll 'go for it' for another year or two. If that's the case, we need a lights out bullpen to go with our good, but not great rotation. And we'll need depth in the bullpen, since injuries (and the fickle nature of relievers) are part of the game. The moment we have guys like Vinny Chulk taking the mound, you can pretty much fold the hand. We need to replace 190+ innings that Duke, K-Rod, Gorzelanny and Estrada had last season (people might not realize that Marco did really well after getting banished to the bullpen - 2.89 ERA in 43.2 IP). That will be tough. Broxton and Jeffress will be around for a full season. Henderson and Thornburg will hopefully be back (but it's hard to count on them at this point). I like Ariel Pena in the pen - I think his stuff will play well there. Jimmy Nelson might end up in the pen as well. Not a lot after that, unless Rob Wooten excites you (I do like David Goforth, but he probably needs at least a half season in AAA). But in the end, we need to be better. We need to avoid overusing guys and believe that our relief staff has 5-6 quality arms that you trust with a lead - not just 2-3 guys. I wouldn't be surprised if Melvin added veteran arm. A guy like Luke Gregerson would be perfect. He won't be cheap, but he's not a 'closer' so his price won't be as high as a guy like K-Rod. I also wouldn't be shocked if K-Rod comes back. If someone gives him $10+ million a year - then no. But if Melvin can get him for 2-3 years at $7-8 million, he might jump. I hope not, but it's Melvin. Fernando Rodney, coming off a 37 save/3.43 ERA season, got $14 million over two years last year. So there's no guarantee that K-Rod breaks the bank. He had a nice season, but the 14 HRs is worrisome. Not to mention he's had some off field issues, which teams will be very careful about in the wake of the NFL /Ray Rice fiasco.

The mayor of St. Louis replies to the article - and makes you want to hate the Cardinals (and St. Louis) even more: http://online.wsj.com/articles/st-louis-to-america-dont-be-jealous-1412273454 Writer at SB Nation has a fun look at the article - he hates them even more as well. http://www.sbnation.com/2014/10/2/6895281/mayor-st-louis-responds-cardinals-hateability-pompous-ass

The mayor of St. Louis replies to the article - and makes you want to hate the Cardinals (and St. Louis) even more: http://online.wsj.com/articles/st-louis-to-america-dont-be-jealous-1412273454

I'm good with all the ideas. Make it so!

I think our pitching is very average. This year, four of our five starters were very similar - ERAs from 3.50-3.80 - all slightly above average (as a whole, our starters had a 3.69 ERA while the NL starter's ERA was 3.74). I certainly think that can be repeated next year, maybe even improved upon it, depending on how how Fiers does over a full season and how Peralta develops. It's very solid - good enough to win. But our starters don't include guys like Kershaw or Greinke. We don't have any #1 or even #2 types. We have a bunch of #3s. That's fine, but that means you have to kick butt in other areas - hitting and/or with the bullpen. That's the problem. The bullpen was slightly below average last year (3.62 ERA while league average was 3.53). Our gaggle of #3 starters is just fine, but the relievers need to be lights out to raise our pitching from slightly above average to good or very good. We are slated to lose Duke and K-Rod (plus Gorzelanny) - that's about 150 innings of very good relief pitchings. Broxton can make up some of those innings. Hopefully, so can Jeffress too. Otherwise, we counting on improvements from other pitchers (Smith, Kintzler), guys coming off injuries (Thornburg, Henderson), and maybe a rookie or two (Ariel Pena, maybe Nelson). In my mind, things don't look that much better. There are too many question marks. All in all, I see a solid staff, but nothing great. That works if our hitters are really, really good. But I see too many holes in our offense.

Headley intrigues me somewhat. PETCO always has suppressed his hitting. From 2011-13, he had a .848 OPS away and a .760 at home. Last season was not good, but he certainly improved when he got away from SD. A few positives: no draft pick compensation, he's a very good defender, he's a switch hitter who hits lefties as well as righties (from 2011-13 his OPS was .805 as a left handed batter, .799 as a right handed batter). He also fills an organizational need. Headley reportedly turned down a three year offer from SD in the $11-13 million a year range. After his weak hitting in 2014, I don't know if anyone will offer him that much (but hey, it only takes one person). While no one expects Headley to hit like he did in 2012, I think getting out of PETCO will help a lot. I would guess he can hit .270 and get you 15 HR. And even if he doesn't quite do that, his glove will add value. A two year deal for $10-11 million a year wouldn't be a bad risk. I'm betting, however, that someone gives him three years. That's probably the max I would push any offer to Headley.

I always liked Rickie, despite his flaws. I loved how he wanted to be out there every day. I loved how he never complained. Loved his hard play. I remember the pitch he took to the side of his face. Didn't seem to faze him. Just shook it off and kept playing. Like everyone here, I think what frustrated people was he had so much talent, but Rickie never quite put it all together. The guy ended up with 148 HRs in 10 years, when he could easily have had 250 if he had avoided some injuries and been more consistent. I think the ankle injury a few years ago really hurt Rickie, especially on defense. He had made himself an average defender, but the injury really seems to have hurt his range. I wish him all the best - except for when he plays Milwaukee.

In some ways I think that by NOT immediately saying RRR is coming back the team is almost forced to let him go. Doubt has been instilled by the lack of support. If RRR is retained, every move and every loss will make people and players wonder when will the axe fall. Before the season ended I would have guessed that Roenicke would come back. I'm not so sure now. I think that by waiting, the team has caste a cloud over the guy. Tossing out the coaching staff might be the easiest way to give the team a bit of a reboot.

Gardenhire looks like a Wisconsin guy. The guy serving fish at the church fish fry or the guy sitting in the corner bar having a beer. Gardenhire's managerial skills aside, the Twins have given him terrible teams over the past few years. When a guy like Nick Blackburn is your ace, you're in trouble.

Congrats to Jose Altuve who won the batting title with a .341 BA. Houston wanted Altuve to sit out the finale to ensure he won (Victor Martinez as a few points behind him), but Altuve talked his way into the lineup and went 2-4. No Jose Reyes-type crap for Altuve. Kudos to the man.