adambr2

Very true. For most starting pitchers, 3 earned in 6 innings is somewhat of a disappointment. For Kyle Lohse, it is a solid outing.

"Young" help Pretty sure they aren't looking for a young MLB piece for K-Rod...as no team will give up that for an old closer. Not to mention trading our closer would not be a sign to improve for next year. OR the fact that there is no hole at 1B or CF for next year. OR the fact that any team trading for K-Rod is in it for this year and trading away a young MLB piece would not make sense. Valencia isn't that guy though. He's the definition of a journeyman. Not that I would want us to go after him either way.

Not that I think K-Rod is worth a ton on his own, but if our big deadline deal is the acquisition of a 31 year old journeyman infielder, I'm going to be sick. Not saying it's beyond any possibility but a guy like Valencia is pretty much the opposite of the direction I want to go. We won't get a top 50 prospect for K-Rod, no, but it doesn't mean we can't get young talent. Some talent down at the lower levels of the minors with potential upside but years away and not a sure thing, is a reasonable target.

I agree with BPA in every trade. If we're planning to blow it up and start from scratch, which I think we should, anything and everything might be a need in the next few years, depending on what we do with our trade assets. SS might be the only position that looks secure for the long haul right now, and still, if the top prospect offered in a trade, was a SS, I'd take it every time. We're not a borderline contender looking to plug a hole or two in the next couple years and get rolling. We are rebuilding and the worst thing we could do is be impatient about it.

If by dumping you mean trading, yes certainly people are advocating that, as we could certainly use as much of the remainder of his contract off our books as we can get while we head toward a rebuilding process. Even if Garza rebounds, what good does it do for us competitively? Its not like we are going to be in the playoff hunt the next couple years anyway. If by dumping you mean just releasing and eating the $30M left on his contract, no one is advocating for that. At least not that I've seen. Lohse maybe.

This would accomplish pretty much nothing. What is the saved money going to be used for? More aging free agents? This franchise doesn't need money it needs talent. To give up someone who might actually be able to bring talent back just to not have to pay Garza seems like a backwards move to me. It could accomplish plenty. They could invest more in international free agents and rookies. It doesn't need to be a move for immediacy. I'm fine with an approach where they go with a tiny payroll for a few years, bank the profits, and use them to make a move to bulk it up when they see a window, or use it to keep future stars that they might be drafting in the next couple years, like a Marlins model. Shedding dead weight payroll would be a huge part of the rebuilding process. I'm not talking about giving them Gomez or Segura. It's not like K-Rod is going to net us a major prospect anyway. Anyhow, the Jays would likely not do this anyway because as others have pointed out K-Rod does not have enough value to offset all of the negative equity we have in Garza.

I'd give them K-Rod and Garza for nothing if they take on both remaining contracts in their entirety.

Hey, a win!

Didn't we waive RA Dickey? Maybe not, I can't remember exactly what happened with him but I could swear he was with our organization at some level at one point in time in Melvin's tenure.

Liriano was 28 at the time, so I don't think anyone thought he was washed up, just injured and ineffective. The Pirates took a chance and it paid off. No one is suggesting giving up on Garza. We all know they can't. Too much money and too many years left. This is about his trade value, which at the moment is virtually nothing, to the point where I think they have to hold onto him for this deadline, let him try to rebound next year, and see if you can unload him in 2016.

Sorry, I don't follow. If what you're talking about is trading for "proven" talent that is 'MLB ready' or established, that's exactly what Melvin has done in his tenure here, rather than trading for unproven, highly-ranked prospects. Yeah, there have been some trades for the likes of Capellan or de la Rosa (who also were in the upper levels of the minors and made their MLB debuts quickly) but far more have been for younger, MLB ready assets like Segura, Capuano, Gomez, etc when he's traded a proven commodity. I'm referring to what we need to be doing going forward and referring to returns on our marketable veterans. Asset values of prospects need to be measured properly. When we kick around trade theories on this site, I get a kick out of some of the theoretical returns. You take a proven guy, an all star, and get a return of a top 80 prospect plus fodder. Well, Dominguez proves that top 80 prospects can be meaningless if they can't cross the sound barrier into proven MLB commodity. Beyond that, the really good managements understand asset valuation. How can I have another career and still like Gallo over Haniger and see the Gallo potential as an asset value at that draft slot, but the Brewers couldn't? How good would he look now? Haniger always had that 4th outfielder feel, while Gallo had limitless power coming out of Vegas. The Brewers took Haniger. Milwaukee has misused premium draft pick assets on low ceiling values like Arnett, Jungmann, and Bradley. It's like having the money for an Escalade and buying a Chevy. Its not a scouting failure. There is a decision tree on understanding the value of your resources. Last year, the Brewers had the 12th pick. That's pretty high, and took Medeiros. We are all rooting for him. But, again, it's a misuse of asset valuation. He's a guy with a weird arm slot with poor command. That's not what you want with the 12th overall pick. Is he going to be a top 30 prospect in the league eventually or a future reliever like Jeremy Jeffress, another first round pick who had questions about viability as a starter and ended up a reliever? Read the top 50 prospect lists and how they get there. They fit profiles by and large the Brewers don't focus on. All teams miss on picks. The Brewers miss regularly and there is a decision making systemic problem that goes beyond scouting. It goes to allocating value to assets. You have to profile guys that fit the value of the asset of the pick. The point is not second guessing the misses. It's second guessing missing the decision making. The ideas are wrong. I like Ray Montgomery. There was some good upside this year. Clark has skill. But they could have gotten a Clayton Kershaw type on an injury risk with Brady Aiken. He went two picks later so it was reasonable. At least Clark, unlike Medeiros, also figures to be a top league prospect. But, we need our Madison Bumgarner type who is home grown or we will never win big. It's just not going to happen until we get that guy. The guy who can go into a playoff series and is a lock for two wins. There's many factors that determine the value of a "proven" asset. Ability is obviously at the top of the list, with salary, age, and remaining club control also coming into play. With a prospect, their value is usually in their ceiling, and from how close they are to the majors. Further along you are on the farm, the more of a sure thing you likely are. I'm partly with you on your post. If you are saying they need to be concentrating more on upside than look for high floors and low ceiling college guys, I would absolutely agree. We aren't going to turn the corner by drafting pitchers with #3 ceilings. That said, just like you say a top 80 can bust, so can a top 10. You might draft a guy with a Kershaw ceiling, but you have to accept that there is a good chance that he may never make the majors. What types exactly are you looking for in return for our marketable vets? You say we can't get guys that will turn out to be Dominguez in return. If we knew what we were going to get in the future before we made a trade, it would make our job a lot easier. If the Indians knew that Matt Laporta would turn out to be a bust, I think they would have asked for something else for CC. There's nothing about Dominguez that should have scared us off when he was 18 and playing well in A ball. He was a high ceiling high school prospect with All-Star potential. He just didn't pan out, or at least not so far and most likely not ever. We can always review how we're evaluating prospects, but we can't prevent that kind of thing from ever happening. Take a chance on a high upside guy in A ball, there's always the chance he won't pan out. Go for a guy in AAA ball who is near the majors, and chances are you'll sacrifice some upside. Rarely do we ever see elite prospects that are seasoned in the minors and just about ready to make it to the big show get traded at that point.

It's almost comical to even gauge interest on guys like Garza, Lohse, Ramirez and Broxton. Why in the world would a team want to give up something and help pay a huge salary to acquire a player when they could probably get the same production from a random AAA call up?

Pst.....Doug...I figured out why your team is so bad. You have half of your payroll tied up in 4 replacement level players. Hope that helps.

Weird that we never hear a peep anymore about the open-ended contract that Melvin had on the table in April. Too late now as announcing a big multi-multi-year extension for Melvin right now in the midst of everything going on would look absolutely laughable.

Embrace the suck, Brewer fans. We're 67 games in, this is no fluke. Our team is what it is. Even Brian and Bill are saying this team isn't going anywhere this year.

You say that like it's not something really good to do in baseball. That's all he can do. Walk? Nope. Field? Not that great. Hit for average? Not really. So, great, you've got a guy who either gets out out or hits homers. Enjoy. I don't disagree with your main point, I would just never use the phrase "whoop de do" to describe hitting homeruns since it's a rather useful trait, but I agree he still doesn't carry enough OPS or glove to likely be a good long-term option, and his minors numbers don't indicate that he ever will be. In all likelihood they are just trying to plug a hole that they know they will have for cheap the next few years while they ride out the rebuild. At least I hope that's what they are doing.

You say that like it's not something really good to do in baseball.

2.3 or 2.4M is still pretty solid for a small market. Not many teams would draw 2.3M or 2.4M for the second worst team in baseball. Last year they were 8th in attendance, right now they're 11th, so I think if they can finish somewhere around the middle assuming their performance comtinues, they should be happy with that.

I agree that mid-June is way too early to be concerned about moves not being made. It's rare for any major moves to be made earlier than the last week or two before the deadline.

We are the second worst team in baseball and most likely in line for a top 5 pick next year. How much optimism do you expect to see?

Aa far as I'm concerned there isn't a single untouchable on this roster...or what some people would call untouchable. A young rising star that you want cemented as the cornerstone of your franchise. We don't have one. We really don't even have someone close to resembling one.

I'm kind of more outraged that we have to have an All-Star. Who deserves it? K-Rod by default I guess? Yeesh.

Lohse is worth absolutely nothing. We could release him and someone might pick him up and get us off the hook for the league minimum of about a half million. That's the most we're getting for him.

It's mid June and we have yet to win a single game at Miller Park with the roof open. Zero. If you show up for a game and the roof is open, you know you'll get to see a Brewer loss.

After watching tonight's game, I've got to give Melvin credit. He's done a heck of a job rebuilding this franchise. The Royals have really turned a corner with his moves.