BritInWI

You make his point for him since you missed the entire point of his post. It wasn't Sal Bando somehow dissing Molitor for just being a DH and thus not being worth real money because he was 'just a DH and not worth anything', it was him commenting that they viewed him as mostly a DH and that is what they were projecting him as. No, I'm not making his point and I didn't miss anything. You missed the entire point of my post. It's not about Bando's intent when he uttered that ill-chosen phrase. My point originally was to address the comparison of the departure of Molitor with that of Fielder (two completely opposite scenarios, IMO) and for my trouble I was told that I had misunderstood and taken it out of context (in a pretty condescending manner, too), and that was backed up by a reference to a line of questioning which was not reported in any broadcast I saw, ever heard of in the past nine years and just made no sense at all to me. I simply pointed out why his claim of the context made no sense to me at all, and asked for some proof that I was the one misunderstanding (seeing as he'd gone to to the extent of calling my view "amazing")...

I doubt that rather seriously. 1992: 108 games at DH, 48 games at 1B, no games at 3B 1991: 112 games at DH, 46 games at 1B, no games at 3B 1990: 60 games at 2B, 37 games at 1B, 4 games at DH, 2 games at 3B Do you have a source for that claim? I have a hard time believing that any local journalist could have possibly not noticed the fact that Molitor hadn't been a third baseman for three years... http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif

Yes, but they had no interest in keeping him unless he took a pay cut of almost 25%, so I'm not sure how much they really wanted to keep him. They were more interested in trimming payroll at the time than staying competitive. At least The Brewers made a good faith effort to retain Prince. What burned me the most about that situation was Bando's angry proclamation in his own defense that "he's just a DH", and then promptly went out and got the cheap but truly awful Kevin Reimer (who I wish had played nothing but DH - he was a poor OF the few times he was out there - for one season) and we watched Molitor be the runner up for the MVP and World Series MVP the next year and play in total for six more years at a high level, winning two silver slugger awards. I still cringe when I think of what Bando did to this team - even if he was under orders for some of it. Sorry to get off topic but that's still a sore spot with me...

I hope you're both right. I guess I've become spoiled and have become used to seeing sarcasm here in blue... http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Nope, he is Suppan 2.0. Just ask most here.Don't ask me though because I won't agree with that one bit. Suppan 2.0? Seriously? After last season?

Nasty Hammondses stealing the precioussss (salary)... http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSvOuFXdi6nHF0MvvJfDruJIt4R5lfGy3eJpmZHt8fqI5_y3pCb5PMXHnCu

To be fair, Lorenzo Cain deserves to be in that discussion too (6 for 22 with KC and .312/.380/.497 in AAA). Odorizzi struggled somewhat at AA last year but I agree that he still shows promise. Last I heard, Cain is pencilled in as the starter in CF for 2011 and, honestly, if they didn't want him to start I would be happy to see the Brewers reacquire him and give him a chance to play regularly again.

At the risk of being totally unoriginal, I saw the details of the deal and though "what a great deal" for the Cards. It's really a perfect fit with Berkman moving to first. You can't replace Pujols, but this reduces the impact of his loss. The Brewers should be so lucky in replacing Fielder.

Marshall's a very good setup man who might be able to close for the Reds, but Wood has been a really good pitcher in the minors (and 2010 with the Reds). Last year he regressed a little but given that Marshall is a free agent after this season and Wood is bound to his club for several years, it doesn't matter who the prospects are - the Cubs win in this trade by a country mile (at least on paper). The only thing that I can think is that the Reds are in "win now" mode and feel that Marshall puts them over the top - but all I can think of is the Doyle Alexander trade (only not as good)...

Well, it's similar. There's no blind bidding process to earn exclusive rights to negotiate with a player. Typically teams holding a player's rights will name the price they want and other teams will either meet the price or counteroffer (or in some cases offer even more than was asked for if a rival club is about to have a bid accepted). Otherwise I see your point but I don't think it fits well into baseball. The biggest problem with that system is that the rich get richer. There are no salary caps. No luxury taxes. No financial help for struggling clubs. Rich industrialists buy big clubs not as investments but as playthings and some spend the sort of money that would make the Yankees seen like paupers. The rest of the clubs end up losing their best players on a regular basis, and then they start plucking the best players from the clubs who are less financially stable (or backed) than they are. Can you imagine that system in baseball? The Yankees, Red Sox etc would be able to buy whomever they wanted, even if they were under contract, and wouldn't even have to give up talent to get them - just cash. In soccer there are always smaller clubs to raid for talent to replace what you lost (perhaps not as good but better than what you have left). In baseball there just aren't enough teams to make that work. Additionally it encourages players and their agents to force a move to a particular team. The agent starts secretly negotiating contracts without the permission of the club who holds his rights (totally against the rules but happens all the time), agrees a contract with another team and then goes back to the player's current club, requests a "transfer" and then insists that his player won't play for the current club any more and won't accept a deal with anyone but the club the agent has already negotiated a deal with - denying, of course, that he's already negotiated a deal with that club. The current club often feels compelled to sell because they don't want a malcontent disrupting team chemistry. This allows the purchasing club to get away with making a lowball offer and paying much less than they should for a player. In many ways this reminds me of how Ken Griffey Jr. screwed the Mariners all those years ago by insisting on going to the Reds. I'm not saying that Griffey or his agent did anything against the rules, but everyone knew he was insisting on going to Cincinnati, including the Reds, so the Reds got a superstar player for way, way less than he should have cost in a trade. My apologies if I took things a little off topic there. I know a fair amount about baseball but I learn much more about it here from the many knowledgeable folks in this forum who know a lot more than I do, and now finally got the chance to talk about something I know a great deal more about than most and I got a bit carried away. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

When I first started visiting this country, the first games that I saw were in Baltimore. I went to a few games at Memorial Stadium and saw some amazing play by a great Orioles team that included Ripken Jr, Murray, Bumbry, Lowenstein, Dwyer, Singleton, Dempsey, Boddicker, Flanagan, Palmer, McGregor etc, etc, etc... Even though I've been living here for years now, I still have a soft spot for the Orioles and if Prince moves (and he will), I'd love to see him end up in Baltimore. I just don't see it happening if he's serious about wanting to play for a contender.

What I don't get through all of this is why the Marlins haven't been mentioned in the Fielder sweepstakes since they lost out on Pujols...? I understand that he's not the defensive player that Pujols is, isn't quite the bat the Pujols is, that there are concerns over his weight etc, but he is a "local" product and a big run producer - that should be a big draw. If the Marlins were prepared to offer a 10 year $200M+ deal to Pujols, surely Fielder is worth at least a 7 year $150M+ offer to them? What they really want it to fill those seats in the new stadium, right? Help me out - what am I missing here?

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/135835153.html I have no idea how one team's proposal can be revealed if the blind bidding isn't complete...?

I think this posting fee was more than the Yankees paid to talk to Nakajima. I strongly suspect that Melvin didn't bother bidding on Nakajima, in spite of the need for a SS, thinking the bidding would be way too high. But when he saw what the Yankees won with decided to give it a try. There may be some real caution about Japanese players right now in general. There have been some high posting fees paid but the only one who has been worth the fee and salary paid - IMHO - is Ichiro.

I've got to say that I think this is a great trade for the Pirates. Casey was outstanding at the plate in 2009 and 2010 - I would happily give up a 31 year old right-handed short reliever with a a career ERA of 4.11 to take a chance that Casey's bat is what we saw in 2009 and 2010. I think this is an OK trade for the Brewers but I would have been a lot more comfortable had Veras been left-handed. I guess that's a sign of just how bad the market was for Casey.I'm glad that the Brewers are on the other side of these trades now instead of taking on guys that they hope will bounce back.That's a fair enough point. I'm just unimpressed by the return - considering what the Pirates gave up, and that Casey's not likely to break the bank in arbitration after last season, I don't think they're taking much of a risk.

Agreed -- all the best to Casey & his crew. Decent buy-low guy for the Bucs.I've got to say that I think this is a great trade for the Pirates. Casey was outstanding at the plate in 2009 and 2010 - I would happily give up a 31 year old right-handed short reliever with a a career ERA of 4.11 to take a chance that Casey's bat is what we saw in 2009 and 2010. I think this is an OK trade for the Brewers but I would have been a lot more comfortable had Veras been left-handed. I guess that's a sign of just how bad the market was for Casey.

Well that's because at the time Hardy was struggling so badly, the Brewers had an in-house replacement they were excited about and eager to get playing time for (in Escobar). He didn't have the same for Yuni and probably was unsure about what he had behind McGehee (and that may still be the case).

I wasn't arguing that he doesn't really want to be a closer, but if he gets "good setup man" money over the following two years, his 3-year earnings would probably amount to at least what you proposed him signing for the next three years. Of course, you have to assume that he's confident and thinks he can do even better. Now if he's more attractive to teams on a one year contract (which you and I disagree on) and he can't get a 3-year deal for what he thinks he's worth, why not take this and roll the dice? The only reason I can think of is if he fears injury.

I'm not sure why KRod would take a deal like that when he can make half of that in one year from arbitration and then try again as a free agent after the season. I don't think he'd have any problem making more than the difference for following two years. If he expects to be a closer at the club the Brewers planned to trade him to, I couldn't really see him taking less than $30M for three years (and that might be a little low). I actually think a team would be more likely to trade for him if he was only on a one year deal. If he's great, they win. If not, they're only tied to him for the one season.

What surprised me was that Roy Halladay had 52 votes but Clayton Kershaw had just 29. Clayton won the Cy Young award over Halladay by a huge margin. Were the same writers chosen to vote on both the Cy Young and the MVP?

Whoops. Yes, you're correct. That's exactly what I was doing. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/embarassed.gif Still not seeing the problem with the trade though.

The .356 OBP Dickerson has put up over his small sample is better than we can probably expect from Gomez. Much, much better with slightly worse defense.Yeah but .222 and .250 over the past two years? Again, small sample size in terms of PAs, but the inflated OBP is based on what he did 3 and 4 years ago. If he were still 24 or 25, I would have more hope he was capable of bouncing back to that - but he's not. I still don't get it. I get the "meh" but not the hate for this trade.

Yikes. I started reading some of the bile here about this trade and thought "what, did they trade Weeks for him or something?" This is Dickerson we're talking about. He's 29 years old in a couple of weeks and has done absolutely nothing as a backup OF over the last two years.In fact, looking at the numbers he put up over that time (even taking into account the small sample size) the word that comes to mind is "yuck". I'm not excited about Mitre, but I'm also not unhappy to see the back of Dickerson. According to a source quoted by Jerry Crasnick at ESPN, the Yanks will send him straight to AAA. It sounds like, from their perspective, it's nothing more than a salary dump of a player who was otherwise going to be cut. It also seems like Melvin wanted to take a flyer on him and knew Dickerson wasn't going to make the team anyway. Honestly, I don't know why anyone cares that much...

Anthony Witrado - the Marvin the Paranoid Android of Brewers coverage. Thinks he has a brain the size of a planet but no-one else can stand listening to him. One more reason to ignore The Sporting News. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

It's interesting that the Cubs were one of two teams in the running. We may never know but I sit here wondering that if all else was equal (offer, opportunity to start etc) - and I don't know if it was or not - did he choose the Mets over the Cubs as a gesture to Brewers fans? We've been told that he'd be reading the thread where people posted messages to him, which says that he cares what the Brewers fans think, and many people there begged him to not choose the Cubs... If so - good for you Cappy. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif