Robideaux

I can't believe the best we have in terms of bench hitters are Kotsay and Almonte.

I am less than confident. Prove me wrong Carlos.

It would be nice if we had at least one bench player with any semblance of power.

Well, it worked there, but I still think it is a low percentage play with the 8 and 9 hitters coming up.

I hate the sac bunt there.

The oblique is a big muscle, and we have no idea what grade the tear was or where exactly it was located. Swinging a bat is a relatively violent motion that requires a lot of core strength. I'm sure Corey wants to be back on the field more than you do. Calling an injured athlete soft or mentally soft without specific knowledge of the injury isn't a classy move, in my opinion.

This series was huge. I know the season is young, but you never want to dig a huge hole in April. Now if we can just get Greinke, Hart, and Lucroy healthy.

I know you have been ringing the Gomez bell all through spring training, but why are "150 or so AB's" in 2011 a "true test" but the 1300 ABs he's had prior to this year not a true test? The guy has been a terrible hitter for four years. There is no reason to believe he will magically turn it around this year. The same goes for Betancourt. He is what he is. They are what they are. Expecting anything else is blind faith, and while that is fine for fans, it is not a good way to run a baseball team.

I don't know who is "available, " per se, but I was in charge of the Brewers I'd be kicking the tires on just about every non-starter on other teams with a warm pulse. The guy I think is intriguing is Everth Cabrera. Blocked by Jason Bartlett in SD and is in AAA right now. I gotta believe he is better than Betancourt, perhaps by a lot.

A walk for Gomez!! Pigs do fly. The reds TV announcer commented after the walk that Gomez is "a guy who's almost impossible to walk."

What about Everth Cabrera? He's still young (24) and I am assuming he is signed to a cheap contract. The Padres seem to have soured on him and replaced him with Jason Bartlett. His fielding is a question mark at this point--the metrics don't love him, though its a pretty small sample size. His hitting is a question mark as well (high strikeout rate, no power), but he does have some history of getting on base (.340+ OBP his rookie year, .384 career minor league OBP). I have absolutely no idea what it would cost the Brewers to acquire him, but I can't imagine the price would be astronomical. I'd rather take a chance on a 24 year old with question marks than a 29 year old that we know is terrible. At the very least, if we got him, we could jettison Kotsay or Almonte and use him in the utility role until Yuniesky falls on his face.

I am excited about the season and trying really, really hard to be optimistic. I love that Melvin aggressively overhauled the rotation, but almost every move involving the bench or SS has completely baffled me. Sure, the Brewers have finite resources and all, but I don't recall any league mandate that we fill every bench spot with a bunch of guys who can't hit or field. Did Melvin lose a bet or something?

Have the Brewers indicated how they plan on divvying up playing time? I don't know the politics involved, but it seems like Morgan would be a great lefthanded half of a CF platoon. Morgan's career slash line against RHP is .308/.361/.387. His career versus lefties is .200/.292/.269. Gomez has pretty much stunk versus all pitchers equally, but his numbers against lefties are slightly better than Morgan: .234/.284/.357, and he arguably has more room for growth.

I don't get this. The best part about not locking up a player like Casey is if he falters they could eat the contract... As others have said, a multi-year deal just doesn't make sense unless it is at a significant discount from his projected arbitration numbers. The impetus for the long-term deal/buying out arby years is generally shared risk between team and player. The team risks the player getting hurt or declining. The player risks missing out on even more money if his health and good play continues. I don't see that here.

What good does sneaking into the playoffs as the 8 seed do? Basketball isn't baseball (where the best teams win 6 out of 10) or football (where each playoff round is one game). All an 8-seed means is a first-round exit and no chance at the lottery. We would have been better off (from a macro) perspective if we didn't make the late run last year. It erroneously convinced Hammond/Kohl that we were better than we are, so rebuilding went out the door and bloated contracts (Maggette, Gooden, Salmons) came in. In the NBA, unless you are a free-agent destination, the only way to get good is to first get really bad. 35-40 wins and a playoff birth might help boost gate receipts, but it portends sustained mediocrity.

I need to vent after watching Carmelo torch Milwaukee last night (sorry): I was a huge Bucks fan as a kid, but the team has been floundering for 20 years now (save for one good playoff run). I just feel apathetic/ resigned to the fact that they will be bad/mediocre into perpetuity. What is the way out? I know they are in salary cap hell, but even if they had all the cap space in the world, they aren't signing a superstar. The don't have a prayer at landing a marquee free agent, so the only chance they will ever have at actually competing for a title is to have an incredible string of luck: (1) Win the draft lottery, (2) in a year where there is a transcendent player available, (3) take the right player (read: not Bogut or Big Dog), (4) have the player almost immediately flourish into a superstar, (5) fill out the team with enough complementary pieces to win the title before said superstar's rookie contract is up and he demands trade to LA, NY, Miami, Chicago, etc. I suppose you could get the rare American athlete--or more likely a European player-- who wouldn't mind toiling away in the NBA hinterlands, but I wouldn't bet on it. For what it is worth, I don't think the Bucks are long for Milwaukee. The team will stay local as long as Kohl is in charge. But he is 76, and I am not aware of another Milwaukee/Wisconsin based prospective owner. If the Bucks move, I'm done with the NBA. ps. I know Hammond stinks, and that bad management has contributed greatly to the current state of things, but save for drafting Chris Paul over Bogut in 2005, I can't think of another move that was/wasn't made that really could have made the Bucks a legit contender.

Absolutely. I would rather have an MLS team than the Bucks. I have my doubts whether Milwaukee could support a team though, even if there were a potential ownership group.

Kotsay can't hit, field, or run. Aside from that, he's a great player.

If Melvin asked for Yuniesky Betancourt to be a part of the Greinke deal, I don't want him as GM of the Brewers.

I seriously doubt it. Just about any organization out there could easily top that offer. It's Odorizzi + Gamel + spare parts, really. And that's probably only because I'm a big Gamel backer. Most people would probably see it as Odorizzi + filler. You are probably right that it is not enough, though I think/hope Gamel still has some value. His bat should play, assuming he can find a position other than 1st base. Heck, he'd probably be their best hitting outfielder, if he could play a corner spot. The "any other prospect other than Cain, Jeffress, or Rogers" is also more than filler. That would likely be Ken. Davis, Peralta, Rivas, or Heckathorn, depending on what strikes KC's fancy. Still probably not enough. I guess I just feel as a small market franchise, you need to know when to put your chips on the table and go for it. I'd rather be a serious contender for 2 years and suffer through a few rebuilding/retooling years, than settle for sustained mediocrity.

I would tend to agree with the prevailing wisdom that Melvin tried to get Greinke, realized the price was too high, and settled on Marcum instead. Now that we've traded Lawrie, I don't know if we have what it takes to get Greinke. That being said, if I'm Melvin, I'd probably double down on this season and the next and unload the top half of my prospect list to get Greinke. If Melvin offers Odorizzi, Gamel, Parra, Gomez, and any other prospect in the system other than Jeffress, Rodgers, or Cain, is that enough for two years of Greinke? If so, I'd pull the trigger and shoot for the playoffs this season. Then let Prince walk, throw $10-15 million of what you would have paid Prince (read: less than one year of his salary) into the draft, and shoot for the moon on the all the extra first round picks and sandwich picks you have over the next three drafts--assuming Greinke leaves as a FA after the next season.. Don't shy away from Boras clients. Take the most talented player available. So, a win-now strategy combined with aggressively cultivating another wave of talent that will (hopefully) hit the majors around 2015.

My wife and I moved out of state a few years ago, but I'm coming into town in a few weeks, and I want to make sure I get nice seats (as opposed to the terrace reserved seats I always got as a poor college student). I've been checking out Stubhub, and it looks like I have a few options: Loge Infield 220, Row 8 Field Infield 122, Row 15 Loge Diamond Box 224, Row 2 I haven't had good seats at Miller Park for a few years, so I'm not sure how the sightlines compare. Any suggestions from folks who know the stadium better than I would be great. Thanks!

I realize the argument is moot at this point, but name one thing Hart does better than Werth (other than the fact that he is younger)? Jason Werth's slash line (BA/OBP/SLG) over last 4 seasons: .279/.378/.499 Corey Hart's slash line (BA/OBP/SLG) over last 4 seasons: .278/.331/.490 So, the batting average and slugging are essentially a wash, but the 45 points of OBP means Corey Hart makes a ton more outs than Jason Werth. Werth is also a much better base stealer than Hart and is a much better defensive player. So, Werth is better at hitting, basestealing, and defense. That would seem to fit any definition of superior. Werth is older, but I'd put money on the fact that he will be more valuable than Hart over the next three seasons (the length of the newly minted contract). AKA Pete wrote: Even if Hart's offensive production slips some, its a value signing. What would be an imaginative signing? I didn't say imaginative signing. I said that resigning an average player at the exact moment when their value is at its greatest point is unimaginative. It is also, in fact, the very opposite of a value signing. (How is $9 million a year for a guy with a .330 career OBP a value signing?) In my opinion, imaginative would have been turning Hart and Fielder + ? into prospects, some of whom you flip for Zack Grienke. But that is a different thread...

Werth is better than Hart is every aspect of the game of baseball. The only advantage Hart has over Werth is age. That being said, there is no guarantee (at all) that the Brewers would be able to sign Werth, even if they offered the highest contract. Because of that, I've changed my stance a bit. My first reaction to the signing was that it was really dumb, because you could replace Hart's production for less money with free agent X, but after seeing the less than stellar list of free agents, I realized that there is no guarantee that anybody other than Crawford or Werth would be better than Hart. So, even though I think the Hart contract is just another instance of Melvin buying high, I now don't think the contract is really dumb, just unimaginative, and another brick in the wall in the push for sustained mediocrity.

I agree that you'd be buying really high on Hunter. Hunter's record is extremely luck-based. He's not nearly as good as his W-L and ERA indicate. Decent fangraphs article posted today about him: "Hunter is currently experiencing one of the greatest combinations for pitcher performance: low BABIP and high strand rate. Since he has kept his strikeout and walk rates low he allows many balls in play — of the 251 batters he has faced 194 have hit the ball into fair play. Yet only 44 of those 194 have fallen in for hits, leaving him with a .234 BABIP, second lowest among AL pitchers with 60 IP. When those runners do reach base, they tend to stay there. Hunter has allowed 44 non-homer hits, has hit three, and has walked 15. Of those baserunners, 86.2 have been stranded on the base paths. This, too, is the highest mark in the AL." http://www.fangraphs.com/...done-one-way-or-another/