Matt Breen

Yuni should be gone. I don't really care who plays 1B, but he shouldn't. Cut Yuni. Bring up Halton or Morris or whatever. Anything but Yuni. Bianchi is fine as the back up SS. We don't need a guy like Yuni taking up at bats.

I have nothing to back this up, but from seeing Carlos this year, it just seems that he's laying off crappy pitches more. He's still aggressive - going after anything that's close - but he's just recognizing the pitches a little better. As TooLive noted, he's seeing more pitches than ever. That's great. It's not really translating into more walks. It just means he's swinging at better pitches. It's fun to watch him.

I guess I'm not going to hold my breath on any of this until I see more. I'm sorry, but all the best guesses, accusations, speculation and personal feelings don't trump proof. For everyone of these guys, it should be about proof. If Bosch brings proof to the table - email, phone recordings, etc. - then go ahead and hang them. But if it's Bosch saying he sold drug X and drug Y, along with a handwritten notebook - that's a stretch in my book. Some people say where there's smoke there's fire - that's often times true. But if MLB goes after these guys and burns them all - and even one of them isn't guilty - it's a travesty. If MLB gets hard proof that some or all of these guys did PEDs, they can and should move forward with suspensions. But let's see the proof before we torch anyone.

I thought this was pretty interesting. Disciples of Uecker have a look at some of our top prospects and how they've done so far this year. Exciting to here people talking about Arcia being a Top 100 guy. Jungmann is disappointing. I thought he'd break out this year. Tough to read one scout wonder if he's even a major league arm. Haniger looking like a nice pick. The article only covers 10 guys. Would have been nice to hear about some of the other guys - Bradley, Reed, etc. http://disciplesofuecker.com/scouting-updates-on-top-brewers-prospects/11287

I would keep Rickie in the lineup because: 1. If Weeks can rebound, he's better than Scooter ever will be. 2. Rickie can't get better sitting on the bench. 3. Right now, no one would trade for Weeks. He's got negative value. We'd either just have to cut the guy or eat 90-95% of his contract in a trade. 4. If you let Rickie play, and he does well, he has some trade value in the off season. I wouldn't expect someone to take on his entire salary, but more than a token amount. 5. This team isn't very good right now. Even if Rickie continues to stink all year, Scooter isn't going to make us a contender. This team needs Rickie to seriously rebound if it can even think about getting back into the playoff race. And not just Rickie, but our pitching needs to take some major steps if we can save 2013. If this team was playing well, I would think you'd have to seriously consider making some move with regard to Weeks. But it's not. We have the fourth worst record in baseball. We are sucking, and we'll continue to suck with either Rickie or Scooter (or Bianchi or Yuni) at 2B. So, keep playing Rickie. Hope he gets back his game. Look to trade him in the offseason. If he has a terrible 2013, perhaps you cut/trade him. But the cost is the same if you cut/trade him now, or do so in the offseason (unless he can do better and regain some value). I guess I'm playing from a cynical hand. I don't think this team is very good, and we aren't going to get much better in 2013. So I don't see the problem trying to rebuild some of Weeks' value, and deal him for salary relief and/or a young asset.

A .500 team (or sub-.500 team) is boring. As several people have pointed out, this team just isn't that good. It's hard to get excited about a team that you don't think is going to be very good. Sure there's some good looking players - especially with our hitters - but the pitching is bad and doesn't look like it'll get better. The other reason the team might appear a bit dull is that people don't see an exciting future with it. This is not like have Weeks, Fielder, Braun and Hardy coming up around the same time - giving us an exciting infield (at the time) for the next few years. Face it, the minor league system is mediocre (at best). Most fans aren't sitting at home waiting for Tyler Thornburg to get the call to the big leagues and save our season. Personality comes from doing something special. This team is mediocre (at this point). I think the one thing that could happen to inject the team with some excitement would be for the offense to simply go insane. That happens if Braun, Segura and Gomez keep playing great. If Aoki keeps getting on base like he is. If A-Ram can play like last year, now that he's back. If Hart comes back and starts launching bombs. If Lucroy and Weeks start playing better - like they have shown in he past. If that happens, you could have one of the best offenses in the league. So, at best, we'd probably be a great offense with mediocre/bad pitching. It might not make for a playoff team, but it would give people hope that it could happen.

Answers to this kind of question are rarely simple. Usually it is a combination of things that contributes to the issue. 1. Poor scouting - face it, we've made some bad decisions. I will assume (and that's just me assuming) that there are guys we should have seen red flags on. Again, in hindsight, we probably should have seen some issues with guys that would have made us not make the pick. And on the flip side - we didn't see the value in a some guys that we passed on for whatever reason. Again, in retrospect, there are probably guys the Brewers (and other teams) should have taken greater notice of. Maybe more money in the scouting department would help this situation (see item #2). 2. Not wanting to spend money - again, face it, we have made decisions based on money. The team has rarely gone over slot. I don't think it's that big of deal anymore with the slotting system. However, in the past, it was a huge deal. We rarely took risks and drafted guys with signability issues. This kind of attitude kept us from getting some quality players. This comes into play in the international arena as well. The Brewers never rolled the dice on a big time Latin players. Lots of these guys have been busts, but others have been very good. I don't know how our spending in the scouting department is compared to other teams. 3. Bad luck. Again, we have to chalk some of the problems to bad luck. Who could have known our top pick would find out he was a diabetic the day he was supposed to sign? That's crazy bad luck. Sometimes thing just don't fall your way. It's part of life. 4. Amateur pitchers are difficult to assess, while hitters are simply easier to project. That's a blanket statement that I don't have stats on, but I believe others have done studies on it. Amateur pitching - especially high school pitching - is the hardest thing to predict. All of these things become intertwined. Why don't we sign good players from Latin America? Because we don't spend enough money to make good scouting decisions, which leads to poor decision - or doing nothing. When we limit our pool of talent (not taking expensive draft picks, or signing expensive amateur free agents), it's makes every decision more difficult. Pitching is already hard enough to predict, but when you aren't even allowed to consider some very talented pitchers, that makes it all the more difficult to nail your pick. Also, do we spend enough money on scouting? Would we make better choices if we had more scouts, better scouts, etc. I don't know this answer - just a thought. But it does come down to money (again). Like I said from the start, I don't think there is any one thing that reflects our poor development of pitchers. It's a myriad of items.

Regarding the Boston media - I don't see a problem with them speculating about Gallardo or anyone else. Look at the Red Sox the last few years: Signed Carl Crawford Signed Shane Victorino Traded for Andrew Bailey Traded for Joel Hanrahan Signed Ryan Dempster Signed John Lackey Trade for Adrian Gonzalez And those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. They have the money to do stuff that Milwaukee doesn't. Quite a few of these moves are salary dumps from small market teams. And Boston has a well regarded minor league system - so I'd probably be speculating if I covered the team as well. PS - this list is a good testament as to why to avoid big dollar free agents

If the Brewers trade Yo, that's the sign that rebuilding is under way. In that case, you move Weeks, A-Ram and Hart as well. You'd go for high upside prospects, which we sorely lack, and target 2015 or 2016 as a possible year to be relevant again. In all honesty, if the team made such a move, they should consider trading Aoki and Gomez as well. I don't think they'd ever trade Braun. He'd bring a ton back, however. But he's the face of the franchise, and even in 3 years, should still be a good player. I'm not saying we do this. I'm just saying that if we tank 2013 really badly and start considering the future realistically, the team could consider dealing Yo. That would start the chips falling and rebuilding would be underway. But I doubt the our owner and GM would blow up this team. It would take a major collapse for it to happen.

This is probably the call for me. Axford is pitching awful. We have guys at AAA who can come up. Do it.

He can get a 100k bonus if he makes a play going to his right. He gets 50k if he makes the appearance of even trying for one.

I can here the announcer now: "Batting 5th and playing shortstop, Yuniesky Betancourt....."

Borrowed from dlk9s after finding out Jennings signed in Minnesota. http://i.imgur.com/423QT7X.gif awesome. the signing is worth just to see all the .gifs

Well, if anything, we are a better team for 2013. Are we a playoff team? Maybe, if we can avoid more injuries and some other guys step up. If Lohse can get us 30-32 starts and a sub 4.00 ERA, he'll be a good addition. His age makes you worry, not to mention the simple fact that he's been really inconsistent over his career. He's a much better pitcher than Suppan ever was. The team must really be worried about the rotation with this signing. I guess I can't blame them.

Maybe he couldn't have been had for $11mil/yr 3 weeks ago. He was initially looking for $15mil/yr. this is probably the answer. his price finally came into a range the Crew felt was worth it.

At least we didn't trade for Vernon Well - and pick up $13 million of what's owed the guy.

correct. it will be the 28th pick.

fiers hasn't exactly looked great this spring. i wonder if they'll ship him to AAA to get straightened out.

i'm betting 2 years with an option for a 3rd. $9 million/year. just a guess.

I feared this day would come.

three-year, $33MM contract $1MM in performance bonuses http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/03/brewers-to-sign-kyle-lohse.html

Move Braun to 1B. Just an idea. He'd be great there.

So true. Joe Winkelsas was a fun moment - but just for a moment. The strikeout rate last year for Henderson was encouraging. But the guy has been all over the map in his career. I hope he 'figured it out' for us, but if he bombs, I wouldn't be surprised at all.

Interesting read on Fangraphs about Carlos. An interesting tidbit: The author has lots of questions (questions we all have), but there are good signs that that Carlos of 2012 will be the Carlos we get the next few years. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/carlos-gomez-extended-will-the-power-come-with/

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2013/3/13/4095252/minor-league-ball-top-150-prospects-for-2013-john-sickels Peralta at 90 Coulter at 120 Roche at 123 Thornburg at 129 I'm a bit surprised Jungmann isn't in the top 150. I know he didn't blow anyone away last year, but I thought he'd make it. I expect him to step up at AA this year, and we'll be looking at a bunch of Top 100 guys next year (at least, that's my hope).