adambr2

All I can ask of Melvin is don't over-react to a season where almost every player on the team has underperformed and make a stupid rash decision and give up on the next few years just because baseball is an insanely streaky game. Trading our best players for prospects because the team under performs for half a seasons would be terrible. Well for one, I think you are overestimating the talent level on this year's team. This team as currently constructed simply isn't nearly as good as the 2011 team. Guys like Weeks and Morgan have underperformed and should improve, but I would be surprised if this team had an insanely hot August in them like last year. Not saying it's out of the question, but there are some areas talent-wise where we have severely regressed. Also, no one is talking about trading Braun, Gallardo, Lucroy, etc. Greinke and Marcum, yes, but these are guys who aren't under contract beyond this year anyway, so trading them certainly wouldn't be construed as giving up on the next few years. And as I said right at the beginning, "if the season continues to go downhill". I wasn't talking about having a fire sale in May.

Aramis with a groundbreaking revelation after the game: "We just have to get better in every category, offensively, defensively, and we've got to pitch better."

Just wondering who you think Izturis is going to be replaced by when you say he won't be around all year. There is no one better in the system to replace him, and if they're not contending it really wouldn't make much sense to go seek a SS in trade. I'd love to share your confidence, but guys like Chulk and Dillard are here because we don't have anyone better to replace them, not because they are temporarily fill-ins on a 15 day DL. Sure, Conrad will be gone, but guys like Ishikawa, Dillard, Izturis, etc, are more than likely here for the long haul. Pretty much what we see is what we get right now. I don't know what you mean when you say this isn't the same group of players that we'll see a month from now, because what we have out there is basically the best we have right now and I don't know who would be coming in other than Gomez, to replace anyone else.

Couple grand slams and we are right back in this.

First base ump called Ishikawa safe when he was out, and last inning called Braun out when he was safe. Maybe he'll get one right by dumb luck eventually.

All I ask of Melvin (and Mark A.) is that if this season continues to go downhill, just accept that what it is, move on, and try to put yourself in the best position to win in the future. Don't compound the problem by unloading one of your system arms for a stopgap SS or 1B in July when you're 10 games under .500 just to try to create the illusion that you still think you can win this year.

Facing Komatsu again.... Komatsu was waived by the Cardinals this season, and he was the #3 prospect in our minor league system last season. That's depressing, as if today hasn't been depressing enough.

Not that it matters much, but Braun beat that throw easily...just another exhibit in the growing gallery of MLB umpire incompetence.

His mistakes are going to be a lot more glaring since there is currently a lot less talent on this team compared to last year's to cover up his mistakes. At this point we are looking like about a 75-80 win team this year, which would be the second worst thing to happen to this team this year in light of the Roenicke long-term extension.

Brian: "Frustrating night at the ballpark for the Brewers". Should be our 2012 team motto.

Well, that's a wrap. Even the 12-26 Twins at Miller Park are too much for this team to handle.

At least Conrad can go ahead and start making dinner reservations in Nashville next week.

By 1 and 2 games. It's May. The Angels are also looking up at Oakland, the Phillies and Red Sox are in last place, and the Diamondbacks are looking a lot like the Brewers. The standings are worthless right now. While I agree with this, I just don't think this team has the horses that last years team did to turn this thing around and be contending in late September.

It must be a comfort for opposing managers to know that if we get a couple runners on to threaten a big inning, our manager will generously donate an out or two to lessen that threat.

I think RR's deficiencies are going to be a lot more glaring this year, because the talent simply isn't there to cover it up this time.

Yay for squashing any big inning possibilities brought forth by 1st and 2nd, nobody out, via reckless baserunning!

Overreact much? With Gamel, Gonzalez, and a normal Weeks and Ramirez this is a playoff team. The injuries combined with a lack of depth combined with under-performing all-star caliber players has made for some ugly games recently, but it's not nearly as bad as what everybody is making it out to be right now. I know there was a lot of complaints about the bench even before the slow start, and those complaints are somewhat justified, but you can only do so much as a small market team. If there are going to be weak points on the roster, I want them to be on the bench. It just so happened that injuries have turned the bench into the starting lineup and made the bench that much worse. It'll get better. I agree with a lot of this, but I think we play the "small market team" card too often. We have a $100M+ payroll. That is top 10 in MLB. There are plenty of teams doing more with less money.

I'm not sure what you are saying here. If a team puts a player on waivers and another team picks him up, the team that picked him up pays the rest of the contract in its entirety. There is no risk in putting him on waivers if your goal is to dump his salary.

Interesting scenario: Suppose Weeks continued a poor season, say maybe around .200 mid-season. Say we're out of contention, he's put on waivers in August, and somebody claims him and the remainder of his contract. Has he fallen that far where you let him walk for nothing but salary relief like the Jays did with Rios a couple years ago? Or do you pull him back and hope things turn around the next 3 years?

To sum it up: Ramirez/Izturis is probably about equally bad offensively as McGehee/Betancourt. Ishikawa is a massive, massive dropoff from Prince. Everywhere else is pretty much the same, but Weeks and Morgan, who were important parts of the offense last year, are shells of their 2011 selves. About the only good news is that Braun is still Braun, but he's a one man show. Hart and Lucroy do enough to be solid contributors, but the rest of the lineup is far too bad for one star and two solid contributors to make up for.

You can, but is it really going to matter? You can plug Lucroy at the #2 spot in the order, you can try Hart at cleanup, you can experiment with Green, Mayonset, Aoki, etc, all getting a lot of reps, but no matter how many ways you put lipstick on this pig, they're just not very good. Injuries have been a part of that, but I think we're giving this current roster too much credit. They're a far cry from last year's team, at this point.

Hearing Rock tell us about how there's not much you can do other than "tip your cap" to JA Happ is just salt in the wound. I'm fairly confident that 65 year old Nolan Ryan could come in and pitch a shutout against this team. We seem to be "tipping our caps" a lot to opposing starting pitchers.

I don't see us going down this road, but if we end up double digit games below .500 in June/July, I really would hope it's a route we'd consider. First, the core of the team that we wouldn't trade, is Braun, Gallardo, Axford, and Lucroy. These are guys under contract and/or club control through at least 2015 that we can feel confident building around. That's about it. Next are the guys that would have such little value on the trade block, that their return really provides minimal incentive to trade them. Sadly, it's a long list. Morgan, Aoki, Gomez, Loe, K-Rod, Veras, Chulk, Izturis, Ishikawa, Conrad, Dillard, Mayonset, Green, Kottaras, Parra, Wolf, and Estrada. That's the majority of the team -- all guys that if traded, really couldn't expect to bring even a high-end prospect back. You could make a mild case for guys like Gomez and Estrada, but they're still not guys that are going to bring that high-end piece to build around for the future. Then there are guys who have too big of a contract to make them attractive in a trade, Ramirez and Weeks. A year ago, Weeks' value had pretty much peaked, but I'm convinced that injury concerns and just an atrocious season so far have put a tremendous dent into that. While it's undeniable that Weeks is still talented, his performance this year along with the 8+ figures a year he's owed the next several years would definitely be enough to scare off some suitors. That leaves Greinke, Marcum, and Hart. Hart isn't an extremely lucrative trading piece, but his power and OPS might be enough to net a nice pitching prospect for him. Marcum is a guy to dangle out there at the block to teams looking to fill a spot in their rotation and might bring back a similar return. Greinke is by far our biggest trading piece, but signing him is really the only hope we have of trying to get back to regrouping next year and remaining a contender. If it's becoming obvious that that's not going to happen, seeing what we can get for him isn't the worst thing in the world. The flip side to that in the public eye is that it's the equivalent of throwing in the towel, which would really be a step in the direction that Mark A. and Melvin really don't want to take.

I think this season so far is a pretty good example that it's not as much about how big your payroll is at it is about how good your investments are. This team has 25% of it's payroll tied up in a struggling setup man, a soft-tossing starter that is pitching like a bad #5, and an aging 3rd baseman. A combination of a bad farm system and a habit of trading away what's left in the farm in an effort to try to plug up the remaining holes has forced the team to overuse free agency to patch up the team, and it's just not a sustainable strategy.

No, he hasn't been as bad as Suppan, it just gets me when I hear people talk about what a fantastic FA value he has been. He has been about what was expected (til this year), a middle of the rotation pitcher, which is not a great investment for $10M a year, particularly for a mid-market team. Strong pitching-rich farm systems generate middle of the rotation pitchers so you can better invest that $10M a year elsewhere.