adambr2

Disband the bullpen except for 2 arms and go with a 10 man rotation. Piggyback every starter so you have 2 starters pitching each day back to back. I'm only half kidding.

Worst Brewers bullpen I've ever seen. And I've seen some pretty bad ones since I started watching them in 1990.

Proof that Roenicke has given up: letting Izturis still hit here with the game on the line.

Looks like that big "talk" with the bullpen has made a world of difference.

How on earth was that not a strike on Harper? I despise MLB umpires.

Braun looks terrible today.

Is there even a point to watching a Cezar Izturis at-bat?

Even Rock sounds pissed about the bullpen, and he's usually a company man to the tee.

Or ever trade an elite, top prospect for 2 years of a soft tossing, good, but oft-injured veteran starting pitcher again.

Starting to wonder if we'll see Marcum ever pitch in a Brewers uniform again.

Hart will be a free agent after the 2013 season. Ramirez is overpaid (or, will be very overpaid in '13 & '14) and that money could be better spent in other places. Trading both of them could bring back some very good players. It is extremely unlikely that the Brewers will trade Hart or Ramirez at this time Major league ready players, as good as those two already are currently?? Because if not, you aren't getting their proper value. And if you are getting players that aren't as good, you aren't going to win as much. No thanks. too many here it seems look at youth and "manageable contracts". Yet, it's not our $$$ so who really cares how Mark A spends HIS $$$?? I'd be far more inclined as a fan, to go to the ball park when the team has some "stars" and win ball games, then I would be to go and watch some youth "develop" and lose 90 games a year for a couple years. Why do you think attendance has been 3 million plus?? Because the team has been successful. Not as many wins= not as many fans, that's simple logic. And with not as many fans, comes not as much revenue. With not as much revenue, comes a lessor payroll, which means a lesser talented team. It's all relative. So to say shedding contracts means attracting better Free agents. Not necessarily, because if big $$$ guys see talent that is below par, and don't feel they will win in Milwaukee, they won't come. The higher your payroll, the better the talent(usually, unless your a complete idiot of an owner), the better players get paid more. The better players are more talented, the better players means more wins. Is it really that hard to grasp?? You said that we should have demanded Mike Trout for Greinke or told the Angels to get bent, and suggest that we make a Zack Greinke type trade every year. You asking if something is that hard to grasp is a bit ironic.

I never understood why some people thought Kottaras had no value. Catchers with some pop in their bat who carry a high on base percentage have value. This is a good return for him, but I think it's deserved.

"Brewers will trade Wolf for nothing, if you take the salary" They won't.

Probably the most ignorant statement I've seen posted on this forum in a long time. His defense is more based on positioning and arm strength but his range has always been at least average. His range is miles ahead of guys like say Betancourt. His first year in the league, he was last in range factor in the league, so to say his range has "always" been at least average is wrong -- maybe you should research more than the last year or two before you make spewing your garbage about the "most ignorant statement". http://www.twinkietown.com/2009/11/8/1121907/how-good-is-j-j-hardys-defense This is from just after he was traded. He's come a long ways there, I was pretty obviously referring to his tenure as a Brewer, not 2012, and his "range" is based on his defensive positioning, which is NOT range.

Not that it really matters, but was it said whether the Brewers or Angels are picking up the tab for Greinke's salary the rest of the year? We're talking about roughly $5M of payroll for the season, so I'm just curious.

Agree to disagree, I guess. I don't think it's a "waste of time" when considering every possibility, even remote ones. I admit I don't know a whole lot about the surgery or potential recovery time, I've yet to hear anything that definitively discounts Narveson from being back next year, so I'll still consider it.

Well, we can get by with an Aoki/Gomez platoon next year, which might be exactly what we do. Aoki surely isn't going anywhere, and as much as I love Hart's defense at 1B, I would imagine they'll give Gamel the job back next year and stick Hart back in RF. Schafer probably makes the roster next year, but only as a 4th OF'er, which is probably his career path.

Agreed, there would be nothing wrong with that. Just hoping for more based on Nichols' encouraging words. But a high end bullpen arm would be fine too. It's not like our bullpen couldn't use the help.

Would be a good time for a Power 50 update with the new additions.

Carlos Gomez has quietly put together a fairly nice season -- while the .300 OBP is still certainly nothing to write home about, the .759 OPS is perfectly respectable for a centerfielder, and when combined with elite defense, would make him a pretty decent starter. So has the time come to ride him out for the season and see if penciling him in as our every day CF'er is a possibility? I ask this mainly for two reasons -- 1) I'm pretty convinced at this point that Nyjer Morgan is not part of our future, and 2) Gomez is not really a platoon player in the true sense. This year and over his career, he shows no real preference or difference between facing right-handed or left-handed pitching. He is miscast at the top of the order, I think, but if you are willing to live with his low OBP, I think he's fine further down in the order, where he could be a 15-20 HR and possibly a 40 SB threat as an everyday player. He's never going to carry a high OBP, but he IS improving, and the strong defense in CF helps make up for the poor OBP. I'd even go a step further and say I'd be willing to offer him something like a 3 year, $11M dollar contract, buying out a couple years of free agency and at worst, giving us security in CF for a few years.

I didn't even end up projecting him into my 5 man rotation next year. It's unlikely he returns to start next year, but throwing his name in a big list of "possibilities at the back end of the rotation" is not "including him in our rotation plans" or unreasonable.

I can't even imagine what a huge X-factor it would be for the Brewers if he still managed to turn into a #2 starter or so for them. He's only 26, it's not like the best years of his career have passed him by.

Now that Greinke is gone, it still remains to be seen what the Brewers will do with Marcum. He's sure to be a much cheaper alternative to Greinke. That's not to say he won't be pricey, though the somewhat shaky injury history of Marcum does bring his value down a bit. I would peg his FA value right now to be at about 3 years, $33M, but that's just a guess on my part. It's affordable, but would it be worth it? Suppose it depends on whether we believe Marcum can be effective for another 3 years. If so, you still have Gallardo/Marcum/Fiers at the top of your rotation going forward, and have a ton of possibilities in the last two spots (Peralta, Thornburg, Estrada, Narveson, Hellweg, Rogers...plus more soon to come like Bradley, Jungmann, Nelson, etc). There really is a lot of minor league pitching talent in this system to the point, so it's just a matter of seeing what pans out. The other option is to make Marcum a 1 year qualifying offer for $13 million or so to try to lock in draft pick compensation. It's hard to say whether or not Marcum would accept -- most likely depends on his performance these last two months. It's probably an overpayment, but Marcum probably has only one shot left at a multi-year deal, and I'm not sure he would want to pass that up. I think you can count on Peralta in the rotation next year. Gallardo/Marcum/Fiers/Peralta/Estrada would be an okay rotation, but it's a lot of "ifs" from being a really good one.

Surprised it's not Peralta this time, who has looked much better lately.

I know I'm going to be in the minority, but I think I'm almost relieved in a way to not be re-signing Greinke. I feel like the market for Greinke has gotten out of control. In spring training, Doug was quoted as saying about 5 years/$85M was the rough market for Greinke at the time. And I think many of us agreed with that, at the time. Since then, Greinke's stock has gone through the roof -- but not because of exceptional performance above career norms, but because of large inflated contracts to Cain and Hamels. Do people really want us to be the team to give Greinke 6 years/$150M in the offseason? I don't want to be that team. $25M a year for Greinke? He's a great pitcher, but do people honestly feel he is worth that? I don't. The market fluctuates, and I don't think in this case we can let the market dictate what we offer, when there are other ways and it's probably best to just bow out of this one. We have an influx of young pitching talent coming soon -- so I personally think patience is the key until we see what we have there. I think there are other, better ways to do this and get back to being winners, than a huge market overpayment to Greinke.