Matt Breen

i liked how braunie - in his post game - accepted the fact that he played badly today. His 'worst game' he said. Great at bat by Braun.

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I think davey Nelson is the worst announcer ever.

We give up more infield hits than league of 10 year olds.

Frigging nick punto

I have 40 years of following the Brewers and have never lost interest, no matter how bad they have been. And they have been bad. Strikes have been the worst thing for me. I just get frustrated by millionaires and billionaires fighting over gobs and gobs of money. The Brewers leaving Milwaukee would probably not kill baseball for me. But the Crew have been my team for so long, I don't really know how I'd react. I know my club is going to struggle at times, and I can accept that. Being the 30th sized market (or whatever we are) is just going to limit us. I just hope ownership and management are smart and minimize the down times.

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I sat in Miller Park with my son while the Brewers clinched their first playoff appearance in 25+ years. I've seen the team develop some great players, like Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun. I'm hoping to see my team win its first division in 29 years. I can live with that. With the way finances are set up in baseball, I expect more downs than ups, but that's part of life. We can't all be the Yankees. It's been a great year to be a Brewer fan. Perhaps I'll curse the mustached one in the distant future (although I have never brought up Harry Dalton in a negative fashion - for what it's worth), but Melvin has helped deliver far more success than Sal ever did.

I'm upset that people are upset that I'm upset.

There is a team option for 2013 of $10M (buyout $1.5M, so net $8.5M cost). If he pitches like he has this year in 2012, that option will have value.good point. something we forget. is wolf at 2 and $20 million worth it to someone? i'm not a fan of trading wolf at this time. I think he can add strong value in the #4 slot, and i don't really know if we have guys ready to replace him. Still, his value will be high this off season. and he's not getting any younger.

To this day I curse Sal Bando. I tell anyone who listens about his sins. I got the urge today to share my ravings, so I thought I'd post it here. In October 1991, the Brewers made one of the worst decisions in franchise history - naming Sal Bando general manager. For the next eight years, Bando's ineptness would doom the Brewers to more than a decade of bad and mediocre clubs. Only one team - the 1992 club - was over .500 - and that was a team he had little to do with. I'm not talking about his decisions filling out the major league roster - those were bad enough, such as letting Paul Molitor walk. I'm talking about the draft. Eight years of pathetic draft selections doomed the Crew to a run of losing records that would reach 15 years. It took a new regime and a new draft czar - Jack Z - to bring the Crew back to a winning record. I realize that Bando was hamstrung by inept ownership. The scouting department was bare bones and the Seligs did not invest in growing from within. This lead to mediocre teams with band-aid fixes year after year. And injuries didn't help either. that's always a risk with athletes. But every team has its challenges. Back to Sal and draft. How bad was he? Here's how bad - this is a list of the players he picked that provided a moderate level of production in the majors: 1992 - Scott Karl - 6th 1993 - D'Amico, Jeff - 1st Loretta, Mark - 7th 1994 - Belliard, Ronnie - 8th 1995 - Jenkins, Geoff - 1st 1998 - Hall, Bill - 6th 1999 - Sheets, Ben - 1st Yep, seven guys. Perhaps I missed someone. But 7 guys in eight years is not good. In comparison, let's look at the 1992-1999 Twins. I picked the Twins because they are a team many people use as a model for a small market team succeeding. Here's their draft record for the same time frame: 1993 - Hunter, Torii - 1st Varitek, Jason - 1st (didn't sign) Cora, Alex - 12th (didn't sign) Kolb, Dan - 17th (didn't sign) 1994 - Walker, Todd - 1st Pierzynski, A.J. - 3rd Dellucci, David - 11th (didn't sign) Koskie, Corey - 26th 1995 - Redman, Mark - 1st Hinch, A.J. - 3rd (didn't sign) Mientkiewicz, Doug - 5th 1996 - Lee, Travis - 1st (didn't sign) Moeller, Chad - 7th Lamb, Mike - 31 (didn't sign) 1997 - Cuddyer, Michael - 1st LeCroy, Matthew - 2nd Romero, J.C. - 21st Punto, Nick - 33rd 1998 - Putz, J.J. - 17th (didn't sign) 1999 - Morneau, Justin - 3rd Neshek, Pat - 45th Obviously, this is just one team in comparison (I will say that the number of good players the Twins didn't sign is pretty amazing). But it displays how amazingly bad Bando and his team drafted. The Brewers added two very good players in eight years - Sheets and Jenkins. Hall, Belliard and Loretta were solid players, some longer than others. But there are no perennial all stars. No MVPs. The Brewers also missed out on the prime picks - only three 1st round picks did any good. And they certainly didn't mine for nuggets, considering the the 8th round was the last round they got a decent guy. Finally, you can simply look at the 1st picks of the Brewers that failed - Kenny Felder, Antone Williamson (4th overall pick - i remember reading years later a scout for another team said he gasped when he heard the pick - he had Williamson as a 3rd rounder type guy), Chad Green. Most were flawed from the outset - the types of players most people would have shied away from that high in the draft. So thanks a lot, Sal. Your crappy drafts doomed me to sitting through countless seasons of guys like Jimmy Haynes and Lou Collier. I enjoyed watching saves from Mike DeJean. And I loved watching a washed up Marquis Grissom get 600 ABs with a sub .300 OBP. I will say, thank you Dean Taylor for hiring Jack Z. Rebuilding the farm system was the first order for Taylor, and it has paid off. All those bad seasons and terrible drafts only make me appreciate winning even more. Sean Berry was quite the keeper. That's it. Thank for reading my rant.

Yeah, the recent word is that the Mets want to cut payroll from $140 million to $100-110. They say they still want Reyes. As noted above, that means they aren't going to be able to take on salary. I assume they'll want young players. Not to mention it's Wolf for one year - considering the team probably won't be thinking contender, it doesn't make sense. I'm just not sure what Tejada would cost in trade. Looking at some old prospect lists, such as from John Sickels, Tejada is a C+ or B- type talent. His obvious lack of power is going to limit his upside. He's had some modest success this year, but this isn't Lawrie-type talent we're talking about. I was thinking more like a deal for a guy like Logan Schafer. The mets might need a CF (Pagan was pretty mediocre last year, and is in line to make upwards of $5 million) next year.

Thanks for the info. This is interesting stuff.

you said it better than i could have. thanks.

I want to throw out a discussion of Mets infielder Ruben Tejada, who may be available if the Mets resign Reyes. However, if Jose Reyes leaves the Mets, then Tejada would be needed to play SS - and the discussion would be ended. So lets assume Reyes resigns with the Mets. Is Tejada an option for the Brewers at SS in 2012? We saw the kid last month, and he looked like he had a good glove. But how good? What are the reports on him? Anyone seen him play more than a few games? Tejada has no power (0 HR, only 13 XBH in 250 ABs), but he has hit for some average (.278) and gotten on base (.364) in 2011. His minor league stats show the same thing. Little to no power, decent BA, and a good walk rate. He is only 21, so he might develop some punch, but I don't know. Gotta like that a kid that young can show good patience at the plate. Of course, the Mets might just move Tejada to 2B if they like him a lot. But his glove might be wasted there. I don't know much about Justin Turner, the guy who has gotten a lot of the ABs at 2B this year for them. Or if they have a young guy they like that plays the position. Would the Crew be interested if he was available? What would it take to get him? Even with Reyes, will the Mets just move him to 2B?

Considering how bad Houston will be the next few years, i will miss them if they get shipped to the AL. They are, however, the logical choice to move the AL West.

Had a question specifically about Casey's struggles this year vs. lefthanders. I noticed that .179 against them in 2011. In 2010 he hit .316 and in 2009 it was .303. If he was hitting closer to what he did 09-10 he'd probably be OPSing around .750 - not great, but much better than his .650ish performance this year. His performance even makes him a bad platoon guy with someone like Green or Gamel. I wanted to know if anyone has noted what has happened with regard to his failures against lefties? Have they simply figured him out? Are his mechanics just totally screwed up? What? We've talked about this with regard to McGehee - but I didn't see it specifically with his batting against lefties. The sudden drop against lefties doesn't jibe with McGehee's history - which might mean he's a strong rebound candidate next year (at least when it comes to hitting lefties). Of course, if lefties have suddenly found a hole in McGehee's swing, and he can't fix it, he's screwed. I was curious what others have noticed about his approach this year against lefties. Thanks.

The Brewers received comp pick(s) for Linebrink, right? What did he(they) turn out to be?I think one was Cutter Dykstra - who turned into Nyjer Morgan. Not 100% sure, but I think this was the case. not sure who the other pick was.

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