adambr2

Would anyone really take it as a genuine move moreso than a PR move? Let's be honest, if Braun hadn't gotten backed into a corner and felt that a deal in a lost season was his best bet, he would still be lying about what happened. He's going to get booed in every visiting stadium for a long time. He's never going to be in the Hall of Fame now. Since they chose to keep him, the best they can do is just try to avoid the subject altogether and hope that time will at least lead to the situation just sort of fading into the past with only brief memories of it now and then.

That entire list combined probably cost less than what we paid Suppan in 2010 to pitch for the Cardinals. I also don't understand the point of making a list of our draft busts. Every team has them, does that mean no team should build through anything other than proven players? Some of these were 20 or more years ago, well before the current regime, and some were 3rd round or later, at which point frankly most draftees aren't going to go on to have careers in MLB. We are not the Yankees and cannot afford to patch every hole with expensive proven FA acquisitions..

From Baltimore's perspective, they have a good core of talented players, but they're in a division with Boston and New York which will always hamper them. So they know they're working with a limited window, and therefore, this deal makes a lot of sense. Some say this deal is a major risk, which it is, but if Jimenez recaptures his old form, it's a steal. He's got a higher ceiling than Garza, but a lower floor.

If I never hear the Thornburg for Ike Davis suggestion again, it'll be too soon. File that one right up there with the Jorge De La Rosa for Tony Graffanino trade.

Is it the option itself that drops to $1M, or just the Brewers fee to exercise it if it doesn't vest? It doesn't seem totally clear in the article. If it's just the Brewers fee to exercise it, they would still owe him $14M to exercise his option that year if it didn't vest ($13M option year price + $1M fee to exercise. If its the other way around it would still likely cost $6M for 2018 to exercise as his option most likely wouldn't vest on its own in that case ($1M option + $5M fee to exercise).

The Suppan signing was very easy to second guess at the time. A guy with very average stuff who was lucky enough to hit free agency at his career peak in an off-season with obscene contracts doled out. I agree that Garza is a better talent, and it's not even close. Looking back, I can't even imagine what we were thinking at the time, and I can't understand why anyone would have been excited about Suppan. Even at the time he was an average at best career starter who benefited from great defense in St. Louis, and I think even the most optimistic of fans wouldn't have thought we would get 4 good year out of Suppan. I agree that even the Wolf signing was much better at the time by comparison, much less the Garza signing. Suppan had to have been a product of an owner who just wanted to put his team on the map, I just wish he had done it with someone else.

That wasn't my point. Of course they can still sign big league free agents. It just doesn't get to the root of the problem. If I lose my job and can't pay my bills I can file for bankruptcy, but that won't solve the real problem which is my lack of income. We've invested almost $40M in our rotation this year. The Nationals by comparison, who arguably have the best rotation in baseball, have invested about $30M, despite having just one pre-arbitration starter (same as us). My point is that all the free agent signings in the world aren't going to do anything about Seid & Co. continuing to crank out bad draft picks year after year. And as long as that is going on, we'll have to go other routes to try to stay viable. But we're not the Yankees, and we can't afford to spend money every time we fail to develop our own. We NEED contributions from our pre-arby players. In our rotation, we only have one, and we still don't really know what we have out of him yet.

Hindsight now, but wouldn't it have been better to keep Aoki and move Braun to 1B? RF Aoki SS Segura 1B Braun 3B Ramirez C Lucroy CF Gomez LF Davis 2B Gennett/Weeks Having that lineup without the big hole at 1B seems more worthwhile to me than having Will Smith.

In the short term, I'm happy, because at least for now, it gives us some excitement for this season in regard to our chances. In the long term, I feel like signings like this don't address the root of the problem, which is our minor league scouting and development. I have to think that our MLB pitching staff is right up there as far as least homegrown players. I haven't checked that, though. The lack of homegrown players is what causes signings like this. In essence, I feel like Melvin and Mark A continue to build this team on a house of cards through backloaded deals and pricey pitching that they really can't afford, a foundation which is bound to collapse at some point.

Aside from the small effects of inflation, I never understood the reasoning behind backloading so many deals. To me, it reeks of financial irresponsibility. It's how you end up having to budget $16M for Aramis Ramirez for one season. Unless you expect your payroll to increase proportionately by that much, don't be constantly taking our mortgages on your future to pay for the present. It will catch up. If Garza is getting $13M a season, pay him $13M a season. These are guaranteed contracts. You're paying all of it one way or another.

I have no idea what the hype is for Ike Davis. I'm not sure he is even an upgrade from Reynolds. If we traded Thornburg for him, I'd be furious.

My only issue with this is that the Aoki trade now makes no sense at all. Improved the rotation while putting a hole in the lineup. Although I'm sure they are banking on Davis being or no downgrade.

The rotation could actually be pretty good. There isn't a starter among Gallardo, Lohse, Estrada, Peralta and Thornburg that at least potentially couldn't put up an ERA in the mid 3.00s. But, we did this last year as well. Fiers, Rogers, Peralta, all lit it up at the end of 2012, and we climbed all the way back from sellers to wild card contenders. We figured we were in pretty good shape for 2013, and we saw how that went. So I'm approaching this year hoping for the best but believing that a whole lot of things would have to go right, and not a lot of things could go wrong, for us to even come close to contending. It's not just us. The Cardinals, Reds, and Pirates are just that much better than us, unfortunately, and none of them are really trending downward. That's the payoff of taking your lumps and being patient during rebuilding years, having a long-term approach rather than a short-term one, and not holding the irrational belief every year that you are probably just a piece or two away from contention.

Of course I'll cheer for contention early on while it's still a possibility, but with the understanding that we all really have that it's a very remote possibility. Realistically, I'll be paying most attention to guys like Peralta, Thornburg, Nelson, and Burgos. How our starting pitching develops will go a long way to determining how we emerge from this. Assuming contention isn't realistic by the deadline, guys like Braun, Gallardo, Lohse, Ramirez and Gomez should certainly be available for the right price. In our situation, I like to ask whether these guys will help us beyond 3 years. Lohse and Ramirez won't be here or even effective at that point, and you might say the same for Gallardo. Gomez and Braun probably will, but it still might be a better gain in the long run if a lucrative return could be had. This is the first offseason in a long time that I feel that our FO actually has a realistic grip on where we stand in the division. I think the lack of activity this off-season is a good thing and shows that we are abandoning the "patch and pray" approach that we've used every year to try to put on a look of a pseudo-contender. Even if we are far under budget right now, I would much rather keep it that way, take a Marlins approach and store up extra savings for our team coffers than run the payroll up to the realistic limit just for the sake of doing so.

This team is in a rebuilding phase and 4th is their ceiling in the division for the near future. The cold hard truth is that we simply don't have the farm system to gain ground on the Cardinals, Reds, or Pirates. They're already better, and their reinforcements are better. The Cubs also have a vastly superior farm system so it'll be tough to even stay out of the cellar. Barring some sort of bizarre circumstance where Braun plays like an MVP, Ramirez, Segura, Lucroy and Gomez all play like all-stars, Gallardo re-emerges and young starters like Thornburg and Peralta dominate, it's unlikely to expect us to contend this year.

Everyone should have to play like they did in the 60's! On greenies and with no off season training or good nutrition! Heck, make them all take second jobs like the guys in the 30's! I don't understand the idea that there is some hard line to be drawn, and if you cross it, you are suddenly a horrible person. As for your other comments, he isn't stealing from other people. He isn't robbing a bank. He is an entertainer. Are you going to chastise Charlie Sheen for the steroids he took while filming Major League? Or Sylvester Stallone for what he took in Rocky? If you're relying on athletes to set an example for your children and teach them how to live, I'm going to tell you that you're raising your children wrong. 1) Children are going to watch/hear/talk about sports. That's a fact. 2) Children are going to emulate their favorite athletes. That's also a fact. 3) Many children are going to participate in sports. It's not really about relying on athletes to set examples. I'm not sure if you have children or not, but I sure wouldn't want mine thinking that cheating to get ahead in sports is acceptable. Nor would I want them doing harmful things to their own bodies. And yes, if professional athletes do it, it's more likely to be accepted by kids. These are illegal substances here. We're not talking about Braun smoking a cigarette. Where does one draw the line on that kind of activity? And telling a parent that they're raising their children wrong is about the worst and least tactful thing you can say to a parent. Even if there might be elements of truth in it at times.

It's still better than the method of just getting the calls wrong, which has been the traditional method used in the past.

- Each manager will get one challenge, and earn another if they win the first. - Starting in the 7th and after the manager has used his challenges, the umpires can initiate review of a call. - Force plays, tag plays, trap plays in the outfield, batters being hit by a pitch, fair and foul plays in the outfield, and others, can all be reviewed. They will be reviewed by replay officials in New York, only if there is "clear and convincing evidence". (basically baseballs version of "indisputable evidence). I like this because I don't like the same crew who made the calls being the ones who have to decide to overturn it (avoid ego conflicts). - Those same replay officials will also decide where to place runners after an overturned call. I like it. I think it's long overdue. I certainly don't expect it to be perfect -- there will most likely be some kinks especially in the first year. But it's a lot better than having nothing, so I'm glad they've finally thrown away past excuses like tradition and how to go back and place runners, etc and have finally implemented real replay. I also think it will add an exciting late game element/wrinkle to the game.

I see more Yost in Roenicke than I ever have before. I think Roenicke gets more out of limited talent, but less out of good talent. With his most talented team in 2011, TLR managed circles around him in the NLCS. While he certainly did an admirable job keeping the team together post Braun suspension, he was also the man at the helm in the team's worst month in franchise history. It's hard for me to fathom how a team with Gallardo, Lohse, Braun, Ramirez, and Lucroy could pull this off. This was also during the time when Segura and Gomez were playing at MVP levels. I just don't have a lot of faith in him, but I don't think the problems start with him. Unfortunately, I think it's likely that the .500ish play since May will turn out to be more of a curse than a blessing as it's going to convince the organization that they are closer than they really are and that a blowup isn't necessary.

Looks like they are (much more appropriately) going to approach this in the offseason. A 7 year deal would buy out 2 FA years. Something like 7 years and $30-$35M would seem to be a pretty appropriate mix between financial security for Segura and a team friendly deal for the Brewers.

Revisiting this....this is why you don't give a guy a franchise player multi-year extension based on 2 months. Segura is down to a .786 OPS. Not bad, but a long, long ways from where he was in May. Don't get me wrong, Segura is a very nice talent and will be here for a long time to come. But you don't assume a guy is an elite talent and rush to pay him based on 2 months. There is no way Segura has a higher price tag now than he did back then, so it pays to wait and see.

I'm 100% with Monty on this one. 2008 was the last year that I felt this organization had a long-term, reasonable plan for success in the future. Because they had such a solid foundation, they were able to sustain bad contracts like Suppan and Hall and still put themselves in a position or success. The current franchise operates with almost no margin for error. Missing on FA deals, with no solid farm system to support it, can lead to disaster. The long-term plans have since been replaced by shorter, more impulsive plans. While the 2011 plan was a very strong move towards that short-term plan, we do now have to deal with the consequences now that the Greinke/Marcum era has passed. Not only are we already last in the division, but every division rival of ours has a much better farm system. The Cubs, Pirates, and Cardinals have top 5 systems. I can't invent reasons how we are going to be in a position to overtake them anytime in the near future with these situations. The math just isn't in our favor. Yet, the writing is already on the wall for next year. They're going to try to sell you that Gallardo will rebound, and paired with Lohse, an improved Peralta and Thornburg, and perhaps a FA acquisition, the rotation should rebound nicely. They're going to sell you that the lineup is going to feature a healthy Ramirez, and the return of Braun centerpieced around Gomez and Segura. They're going to sell you that the bullpen has already taken a huge step and hope you will believe that will continue. Most fans will buy it, because they want to believe that a winner is coming, and the odds are that around this time next year, we'll be having this same conversation, talking about what went wrong and why we're continuing to be dominated by division rivals with more patience, better farm systems with better scouting, drafting, and development, and far superior planning. And the FO will already be thinking about how they can convince you that 2015 is our year.

Looks like we are opting for the "band-aid" approach once again next year.

Baseball-related tasks that Francisco has failed at tonight: 1) Place either foot on any part of a 15 inch by 15 inch object. 2) With a baseball glove on, fail to catch a ball thrown to him.

Am I the only one that finds the whole tradition of chanting "oooooooo" for every such sounding name to be quite old and tired? It was old with Mark Chmura. It should have ended with Moose Johnston.