Matt Breen

Hall actually has negative trade value with his contract. no way KC would consider something like this.

Really disheartening. Any one else, we get the yanks pick. At least it's the american league. it really does make you wonder about the system - I generally don't whine about it -- it is what it is -- but when they drop $400 million on three guys - averaging about $20/year - it's disheartening.

As much as we want a premium FA pitcher, Looper is on the high end of what I expected from the Brewers this off season. They'll live with what they have and bring in someone to provide innings. Looper does have flexibility - can start or relieve - and hits well. And he's not a reclamation project (my prediction had been our 'big' starting pitcher signing would have been a bargain guy coming back from injury or someone who had a miserable year but still had potential). The club is sitting around $70 million in salary after arbitration awards. I just don't see them spending $12-15 million on a starter. The club would be banking on Parra and Gallardo stepping up, Bush being more consistent, and then 6 innings of mediocre ball from Looper and Suppan. McClung goes to the pen and there to start if there are injuries. Perhaps Capuano can come back in the second half of the season for depth. The critical element is improvement from the young players. If we do sign Looper, I hope it's reasonable and no more than a couple of years.

The problem with comparing Cameron to Griffey and Williams is that the latter two suffered injuries that dramatically affected their playing ability. Williams hurt his knee and Griffey has had numerous injuries - back, knees, if I recall. Cameron, however, has not (his only major injury didn't affect his arm or legs). And while he doesn't run like he did 10 years ago, he's still pretty good. Brewers rated him 6th best CF in the league last year. He's going to take a dive sooner or later - but for now, he's pretty much what he has shown - a .250ish hitter with good power, good speed and above average defense, who will strikeout 140+ times a year.

Poor front office work by the Phillies. The only way I'd have wanted Ibanez at $10 million a season was if he would be if he was converted to 1B. His defense is really bad in the outfield. Probably worse than Burrell. He costs the team a first round pick - and they compound it by not offering arby to Burrell and blowing two high draft picks (or if Burrell accepted, they'd have had him for a one year deal, which I feel was the best scenario for Philly). Perhaps the Phillies are planning on trading Howard in the next year - in that case, Ibanez would (I assume), be an acceptable 1B. I always thought that if the Crew traded Fielder, that Ibanez could have been considered as a replacement.

Sign dunn, put him in the OF, trade for Beltre. Who cares about Ks! To heck with pitching! Nevermind defense! Bring on the long ball, baby!

It's about scoring runs. If a team hits 200 HR and scores 750 runs, or hits 100 and scores 750, the end result in the same over the course of 162 games. One team got their runs with more power (SLG), the other (we'll assume) through higher OBP, BA. But in the end, it's the same number of runs. We were 7th in NL last year in runs scored, as people point out. We did this with Fielder, Weeks, Hart, Hall and even Braun hitting worse than 2007. Only Hardy was better. We didn't have Cameron for a full season. We can, without being too optimistic, hope to see some guys improve in 2009 - and hopefully that will mean more runs. Of course, you could argue that the dominance of right handed batters will allow more and more teams to stack righthanded pitchers against us through the course of the year. Perhaps this could happen to a small degree, but on the whole, I believe things like that tend to even out over the course of such a long season (a short playoff series is another matter). But to say we lost because we only hit home runs just doesn't fly. The Phillies were first in HR, 7th in OBP. They won pretty similar to how we did - only they got hot when we didn't. I'm not saying the offense is perfect - far from it. I'd love to see a reliable lefthanded bat to balance out things. But I think wholesale changes are premature. Let the young players continue to mature - see if they step up. That, more than anything, will mark how this team does in 2009.

great job. thanks. I love it when you can do things like this.

Brewers put Gamel at 3B. Leave Weeks at 2B, Prince at 1B. Sign Adam Dunn to play RF. Move Hart to CF. Trade Cameron for whatever. It's the greatest defense in history of the league. If only we could swap Hardy for Jeter.

Rob Neyer over at ESPN talks about this also -- http://sports.espn.go.com...710934&name=Neyer_Rob Makes his case for Mauer - which I happen to agree with. Pedoria's a fine player, but a bit of a stretch as MVP. Kind of a weird year, however, in the AL.

I generally don't care much about bashing Hardicourt, but man, that was an awful ballot he submitted. At least he put it out there and explained it - no matter how faulty. Still, just terrible.

Thanks, Josh. I had heard some talk he might be moving to 2B, so I was curious if there was anything beyond that.

Could someone give me a rundown on Getz? Don't really know anything about him, and would love a scouting report, etc.

Simple idea: Trade Hart for relief pitching or a young starter. I'm not sure of his value, but see what you can get. Resign lamb and bank that he can rebound, get a .800 OPS as your lefty platoon bat at 3B with Bill Hall as your righthanded bat. Let Gamel go to RF. Our defense is probably pretty bad in this configuration, but you have three decent lefties (when playing righthanded pitchers). Again, this is a gamble that Lamb comes back and Gamel can play RF (I haven't seen him, so I don't know if he would profile there well).

Few items with the larger swap. Aybar has had some personal issues - alcohol abuse type thing if I recall (please don't take that as gospel, however). Something to be wary of. Also, Aybar, even though he's switch hitter, has also hit lefties much better in his career (.705 OPS hitting righties, while .839 vs lefties). Perez K's a ton (156 last year), although he's shown a solid walk rate (he managed 8 in 60 MLB at bats, which is good). Makes me worry, though, we'd have to go through lots of growing pains. And Perez's numbers at AAA showed he hit lefties better than righties (.705 OPS vs Rigties vs .818 OPS vs lefties). My worry is that our lefty line up would be Perez, Aybar and Gamel. The first two haven't shown great hitting vs righties (which is what we are needing). i'm just going by looking at stats of the players - I haven't really seen either play much. None of these guys would be a power lefty like prince. It's an interesting idea - I know nothing is going to be perfect. I just worry we'd be as weak as last season, without true standout lefthanded hitter. Not that all these guys can't be good someday -- just not lots to back it up at this point with them being so young. We would be better defensively, losing Weeks and Fielder - I wouldn't mind that at all. But Fielder's bat is hard to give up. i do like how it restocks the pitching staff with three new guys. That would be sweet.

Josh, have you heard what the brewers intend for Taylor next year - 2B or 3B? Just curious. Thanks.

i remember when Hermida came up - he had a 100+ walks at AA at age 21, and i thought he was going to 20 HR, .290 hitter with tons of walks. I thought he was going to be special. I don't know what happened to him (I haven't really watched him much in the bigs and haven't read scouting reports). He's still pretty young. I read that FLA folks felt he wasn't that passionate about the game, and he got moody/disinterested when he did poorly or he didn't start.

I don't think there's any question about Wood still be a quality pitcher - and worth the money he's going to get - so long as he stays healthy. That's the crux of the matter, however, who wants to risk $10+ million on a guy with his history of injuries. I could see something like a two year deal - with an option if he pitches a certain number of innings. But more than that is pretty risky. However, as John Briggs noted, I would rather risk it on a guy like cruz for 1/2 the price.

Hillenbrand was a pretty mediocre to bad fielder and he's likely lost more range with age. Maybe a backup 1B/3B/PH - perhaps a corner OF slot - I think he ran okay, but I don't recall. He's a good contact guy, however, but doesn't take any walks. As pointed out, worse than Hart.

I suspect the Pads won't offer Hoffman arbitration, because he could easily get $8-10 million by accepting (which he could easily do). And they couldn't trade him, if I'm correct, because he's a 10-5 guy. The Pads don't want to get caught with a big contract, so they'll probably not offer arby for fear Hoffman could accept.

out of curiosity, what would it take to get Giles (assuming he'd approve a trade). You'd be getting him for only one year, and his contract goes from $9 million to $11 million. You'd at least get two picks if he left after the season. Would you deal Hart for him? Would the Pads even want hart, or would we have to dip into the minor league system - perhaps a few good, but not great, prospects. I'm not saying spare parts - Tony Gwynn and Brad Nelson types won't cut it.

I believe Vargas got $3.6 million in a similar situation and he was worse in most areas than Bush. I'd say around $4.5 million. $5 million tops, $4 million the low end.

Fielder and Hart to Tampa. Brewers get Shields and Crawford. Tampa gets two hitters, including a great lefthanded power hitter. We get a top of the rotation pitcher (with a very friendly contract for the next four years), and two years of a lead off man. Crawford goes to rightfield. Brewers move Gamel to 1B. Brewers then compliment move by signing Orlando Hudson - 4 years, $9-10 million a year. Go with Branyon or Lamb in a platoon with Hall (who, while we'd love to trade, no one will take because of his $6.8 million salary). Deal Weeks for whatever - prospect, relief pitcher, whatever. You get a switch hitter in Hudson, a lefthanders in Gamel and Crawford, and a platoon lefty in Branyon or Lamb. Defense gets better, line up more balanced. You can NEVER replace Fielder's power, but it gives you a rotation of Shields, Gallardo, Parra, Bush and Suppan - plus McClung as an extra.

How about this: Trade Fielder and Hart to Rays for Shields and Crawford. Trade Weeks for something - prospects, whatever. Sign Orlando Hudson - 4 years/$36-40 Resign branyon or lamb $1 million or so. Resign Kapler (assuming healthy) $1.5 million Resign Shouse - $2-2.5 million Sign Juan Cruz - 3 year, $18 million (is that over paying?) C - Kendall - $4.5 C- Rivera - $.5 1B - Gamel (or if not ready, sign Ken Griffey Jr. to play 1B - but only against righties - maybe at around $5 million for one year) 2B - Hudson - $10 million SS - Hardy - $5 million 3B - Hall/Branyon or Lamb platoon - $6.8 million and $1 million respectively INF - sign counsel or someone similar as all around backup - $1.5 million LF - Braun - $1 million RF - Crawford - $8.5 million CF - Cameron - $10 OF - Kapler - $1.5 OF - Gwynn or some other guy like this - $.5 million Starters Gallardo - .5 million Shields - 1.5 Bush - $5 Suppan - $12.5 Parra - $.5 million McClung - 1.5 (one guy to pen if all healthy - which rarely happens) Relievers Cruz - closer - $6 Torres - $4 Villanueva - .5 Riske - $4.5 Stetter - .4 Shouse - $2.5 Coffey or rookie - $1 million Capuano - don't count on until 2nd half of year - $1-1.5 million Total Salary is about $90 million - which might be rich for the brewers, and offer no flexibility to add someone during the season, like we did with CC. Crawford, Gamel, Branyon/Lamb are lefties. Hudson is a switch hitter. You'd have to live with gamel's growing pains. Or, you could splurge and add Ken Griffey as a 1B. At least as a platoon. It's a much more balanced lineup, but with lots less power. Defense would be far superior (assuming Gamel is okay at 1B). Hudson and Crawford would be upgrades. All around you'd have more athleticism, speed, better defense. Crawford offers a quality leadoff guy. I'd love to get rid of Hall's salary, but no one will take it, and he still has value for hitting righties, and his versitility. Capuano offers help in 2nd half, should guys falter or there are injuries. You'd not be setting yourself up to have too high of salary in 2010 and beyond, as increases to arby guys would be offset by salaries coming off books (hall, suppan, cameron, etc.). I've tried to be realistic in salaries, but it's just a guess at this point. I've rounded some players numbers off too, just for simplicity's sake.

The offense last year was 7th in the NL - slightly above average. But only one guy improved over 2007 - Hardy. Fielder, Weeks, Hall, Hart and even Braun - had worse years hitting in 2008. All these guys are approaching was should be their prime years - and there is real potential for all of them to improve. Is there a hole at 3B? Yes. But a lot of our guys can do better - and having Cameron a full year should help too. We'd have a chance to hit 230 HR like in 2007 instead of 198 like last year. Does this team strike out a lot? Absolutely. Is it frustrating at times? Absolutely. But if you jack 230 HR, I'll live with the Ks. Do we need a left handed bat? Again, yes. Maybe it's Branyon. Maybe we make a deal for Blalock. Don't know. But losing an above average CF who hits 25 HR and gets on base at a .330-.340 clip just because he Ks a lot - and replacing him with...what, a singles hitter... doesn't work. No team is perfect, and at times, our weaknesses make the club look foolish. But over the long haul, it's about scoring runs. The team is built for power. We should run with it. We can improve.