TheCrew07

I would have liked Hardy and Fielder signed earlier, each after their breakout season. Fielder may not have signed though I think he had good reason to given his tax issues at the time, I don't know why Hardy wouldn't have. Weeks would have been a good candidate after this season if he would have continued to hit with power all season, nothing major, but a deal buying out a year or 1 or 2 of FA wouldn't have been the end of the world. At the very least it would have increased the trade value of all players having them under control for 3+ more seasons. I'm glad Hart rejected the offer, but it probably came too late as he's already into arbitration as well. Personally I'm very disappointed with Corey as I've championed him his whole career. I would have gladly welcomed him signing a long-term deal when it was offered last season, but I would have been wrong. He still has plenty of time to turn things around at the plate and in his career, but he's become replaceable. edit. 1 thing I forgot to mention previously is that I think it's a quite a bit easier for a team like Milwaukee to plug position holes in FA rather than rotation slots. I don't think it would have been the end of the world to dump a player like Hart or Hardy for pitching along the way. Even Hall after his 2006 season would have been a good choice given the team was committed to Hardy at SS. Given that Fielder's tenure is winding down I'd be alright moving him for pitching as well, I'd trade him for Feliz+ in a heartbeat, but as I said in the transaction forum, I don't believe anyone else on the forum would be willing to make that deal.

Because it's a partnership... what's good for Huntsville is good for the Brewers. A new stadium means better facilities for the players... from the start it appeared that the Milwaukee brass is lending a hand to Prentice and Rogers to jump start the talk around town. Milwaukee can simply choose not to resign with Huntsville so the organization doesn't have a great stake in what's going on other than to offer a warning to the general public that the way things are going Huntsville won't have a team period in the not so distant future. I don't see this as the Brewers pushing I see this as calculated assistance. Would anyone be talking about a stadium if Ash hadn't said what he did?

I don't recall Capellan being ranked in the top 25 in all of baseball at the time of the trade, that may be true. I do recall being very disappointed in him from the start as his results and stuff didn't match his scouting reports. He was supposed to work in the upper 90s and he wasn't even close. Cody Adams is like the second coming of Capellan. I would think our scouts would have had accurate readings and their own reports on him. If Melvin thought he was top of the line talent then he was truly swindled. Jackson never had top of the rotation stuff, even a lefty has to be able to hit the mid 90s on occasion to be considered top of the rotation talent. It was apparent from the start of his tenure in AAA with us that he wasn't the pitcher he had been billed as. I wouldn't even care about Melvin's lack of moves for top of the rotation talent if he didn't bring up Jones and Rogers getting hurt in his interviews about pitching. He was in a position to do something about it and didn't, so it's an empty excuse to me. The root problem here is that they simply didn't have enough pitching depth in the system, so when a couple of guys got hurt there was nothing left. They hit on a ton of hitters they drafted and only 2 pitchers, and for awhile I'm not sure that anyone thought Parra would make it back to pitch for Milwaukee. Hitting is a organization position of strength, so it would have made sense to trade off some hitting for pitching knowing we didn't have much talent out there. I guess it depends on what's Melvin's intentions were... if getting to the playoffs was the goal all along then he assembled enough pitching talent to get us that far. However if the World Series is the goal, then he needed to be more aggressive to acquire better pitching. He did a great job building a respectable rotation, the question though is how a team like Milwaukee takes it to the next level. Sheets and 4 average pitchers or Yo and 4 average pitchers doesn't cut it in the playoffs. I'm not sure exactly how my personal goals aligned with the organization's... I've always been looking at a WS appearance, but maybe the organization was just looking to get to the postseason... either way, now that they made the post season, the bar has been raised, so the question becomes to acquire enough pitching talent to get to the next level. My biggest issue with Melvin isn't even the pitching, it's the year to year way he's managed the contracts with the majority of our players. I want him to identify who his core players are and extend them as far as possible, which extends our competitive window as far as possible. I've beat that to death in a couple of other posts in the thread though but I just wanted to be clear about my position.

There is simply no way that you'll ever convince any sane poster on this forum that Davis is worth Gamel. I have to believe that your end game here is actually to reacquire Gillespie. Green and Gamel are not competing for the same spot on the roster today, or maybe ever. I'm firmly entrenched on the Green bandwagon, but he's not the hitter that Gamel is, nor will he be. Gamel could move to the OF or 1B... I don't see Green having that same positional flexibility. Green is a fantastic backup plan if Gamel is unable to stick at 3B, I'd rather let it play itself out and see where everyone ends up. I see no good reason to move Gamel to create space for Green. As far as Gillespie goes... the ship has sailed. Accept it, embrace it, move on. Cody may not be the pitcher you claimed he was either...

You must enjoy trying to spin my own lines back against me. JDLR wasn't a top propsect, nor was Jackson, nor was Capellan, nor was Villy, and Cappy never had top of the rotation talent. Being in the top 10 in an organization according to BP doesn't make you a top of the rotation talent. I swear you read what you want to read. I go on at length about how Melvin built a respectable rotation but didn't acquire top of the rotation talent and that's what you come back with? The only guy on that list that had it was JDLR, and he wasn't even directly traded for he was included in Melvin's blockbuster deal for Sexson in 2003. As an aside, the BoSox dumping him as part of the Shilling deal was genious. Back on topic, If trading for one player with top of the rotation stuff between 2003 and the present, when all we had was Sheets at MLB, Yo coming up through the minors, with injured pitchers in Jones, Parra, and Rogers is actively pursuing top of the rotation talent then you are correct, Melvin went out of his way to acquire pitching.. Granted in the one paragraph of one post you're referring I didn't make it a point to use "top" prospect, but it should have been clear regardless the kind of talent I was attempting to discuss. Since I sincerely doubt you believe the players you mentioned were top of the rotation candidates, I'm left with the notion that you're being contrary for the sake of being contrary. As for the TB discussion, I'm not sure what's even to debate or why people don't get the point. TB proved that a team cab go out and acquire top of the rotation talent if they shrewd and willing part to with some key pieces. The deals are there... they traded for Kazmir, Garza, and Jackson, while they developed Shields, Sonnanstine, Niemann, and Price. By any measure coming into last off-season they had some serious pitching depth, top of the rotation talents mixed with good mid rotation talent. I've been whining about acquiring Shields for over a year, too bad the guy I should have been trying to get was Jackson as he was actually attainable and could have probably been had for Hart + looking at the deal. Did Melvin even look into acquiring Jackson? We will never know. Again, I believe Melvin is an above average GM, but he's not without his warts. I've also said numerous times that if I were to build a team I'd start with the rotation, so it shouldn't be surprising that I while I respect the fact he built a workable rotation up from nothing, I think it's fair to criticize him for not aquiring any SP significant talent in the last 5 years. Comparing the guys endaround mentioned to what TB did is a joke at best... Kazmir and Garza were as dominant as dominant gets in the minors in and Edwin Jackson was in AAA by the time he was 20 years old... when JDLR is the only projectable top of the rotation talent an organization acquires in 6 years, it shouldn't be surprising when there isn't enough quality pitching depth.

As far as the deals Melvin should have made, that's really an impossible question to answer because we don't know what was available. I made my point on that but maybe it got lost. It's very difficult to acquire top of the rotation MLB pitching once they are in MLB, and it's clear that Melvin isn't into trading for prospects when he makes deals, he want's MLB players back. Making those trades he's only got to get serviceable starters, not top of the rotation talent. I have no issues with Bush, Cappy, Vargas, Ohka, and not really even Suppan, we went from an atrocious rotation to a respectable rotation. The problem is getting to the next level...We didn't have much pitching top of the rotation pitching depth in the entire organization, and then 2 of our 1st round pitchers get hurt, it would stand to reason that maybe he should have been looking to acquire pitchers to replace that talent. The problem is, he doesn't deal for prospects, he deals for MLB players... Is there always going to be a deal available? No way... which is why I said he needs to opportunistic and jump at the opportunities when they present themselves. What if people are right about Braddock and Peralta being relievers? Where are we then? It chaps my rear when DM brings up Jones and Rogers when talking about the pitching depth, because he must have known who was available and had opportunities to address the issue but didn't. Z clearly didn't get enough high ceiling talent into the organization till the end of his stay, but DM certain had his chances to address the situation and no moves were made. As a site we tend to lean towards the hitters, and most people prefer to fills holes 1 at a time and through FA the way the more publicized teams do. I know I'm going against the flow here, but I think that's that the worst possible way to build a team. The way I see it, every move DM has made has shortened the window with the first wave, and the moves many posters want to make will shorten the window even further. I've probably heavily influenced by my father who always believed that good pitching beats good hitting, but that's what I see when I watch games, the pitcher always has the initiative if he'll take it. My primary concern is figuring out a way to build the best rotation in the division, we still have plenty of hitters on the way... with Adams and Jeffress suspended, Braddock back on the DL, and people who's opinion's I really respect suggesting Peralta is a reliever, I don't feel anywhere near as good about the young pitching as I did 2 weeks ago. My posts get long enough so I tend to skip past some ideas that I think are pretty obvious, but the reason extending players early creates flexibility is because it increases their trade value if they are moved mid contract, provides cost certainty, and extends their service time in Milwaukee out as far as the player is willing to go. On that type of deal we're also typically underpaying for their services, they come much cheaper during the best years of their career. Let the larger markets overpay them and regret the big contracts later. It sort of irks me that I'm always trying to juggle production vs cost trying to come up with relative value. When that value is already defined for the life of a contract, it truly can make decisions about talent as opposed to a combination of talent and cost. There will certainly be situations where a team might want to go with the cheaper prospect, just because he's cheaper, but I think having the costs accurately defined make those decisions much easier. Hardy/Escobar is an excellent example, is Hardy a 5 mil, 8 mil, 10 mil, 12 mil, 18 mil player? We can guess, but we really don't know what his fair market would be in FA, so it makes the entire debate that much more cloudy from the start. I hope this makes sense, most of the time I know exactly what I'm trying to say, but then when you all read what I wrote my posts tend to get taken a different direction than I intended because I don't express myself very well.

Is it possible that this entire topic touched a nerve and you're just glossing over posts? Let me try to explain this a different way... I want a GM to identify a "core" set of players. I'm not interested in retaining our best players for a measly 6 years, I want years of FA bought out, I want to control those guys 7,8,9 years. No one in this first wave of players was extended because Melvin just plugged holes and spent money, but didn't necessarily spend it wisely. There aren't any crippling contracts besides Hall. Yes I know I've hated on Hall since he first came up, he's just not my guy. Suppan is at least a decent back of the rotation starter, Hall isn't anything. Instead of extending the core and extending the window with them, he went year to year in arbitration. Would Fielder have signed a Braun deal in that first season? I have no idea, but I think the chances were better when he was a rookie than were last season or this off-season. I realize those contracts include a great deal of risk in the event of injury or poor performance, but it was clear from the start that players like Braun and Fielder would be special offensive players. I want those guys extended out as long as they are willing to sign. That's all I'm saying. I would like some of the pitchers extended to contracts like James Shields signed in TB, what a wonderful deal that is. The thing is, DM can't sit on his hands waiting for them to prove their value for multiple years, you have to get them early when they are making league minimum. As the big payday approaches players are less inclined to sign that type of deal. The longer you extend your core, the easier roster management becomes, and the more value your players have. When have players signed to reasonable long-term deals you can make decisions based mostly on talent. If you have a prospect who's ready but blocked, you can move him to a different position, trade him, or trade the exisiting MLB player based purely on talent and who's the best fit for the team. Melvin's approach taking it one year at time limits a player's service time in Milwaukee and makes the financial concerns as important as the talent. I hope I'm explaining what I mean so people can understand me. I want money spent on the core of the team first, our talent, then fill in the rest of the holes as best as you can. Paying Suppan 12+ bothers me only because he's the highest paid player on the team and he's a 5th starter. It's a fair market deal, but I want no part of paying pitchers fair market value because the only pitchers we can afford the way the team is operates is league average type guys, and as I already have stated numerous times I do not like paying for mediocrity. As an aside. Kazmir, Garza, and Jackson weren't homegrown players for the Rays, but all of them have top of the rotation stuff. Melvin did a great job building an average pitching staff, he acquired numerous capable MLB pitchers, but he didn't acquire anyone of significant talent. Jack Z got one shot to draft a kid, and then DM has numerous opportunities to trade or fill in the gaps left by the drafting. When Jones and then Rogers got hurt, the team should have been looking to make moves then, not trying to plug holes now. I've taken Z to task for his drafting of pitchers in the past, but I think they are both responsible for the derth of high ceiling pitching talent in the organization. DM had his chances to aggressively fix the situation along the way and hasn't. He seems to prefer dealing for proven MLB players, and I truly hate to keep pointing at the Rays, but they built that pitching staff exactly the way I've wanted DM to build ours. The have a team that has money being spent in the correct places, a team ripe with talent, and a very economical team to boot. Yes drafting at the top didn't hurt, but that's how the Brewers acquring Weeks, Fielder, and Braun... we've been in a similar place in the past. The amount of pitching talent they've stockpiled is truly impressive. It's not about spending 90 million because that's the budget, it's about spending 90 million in the best way possible. It drive me nuts when people take the Packers to task for being under the salary cap. Who made a rule that you have to spend the money because it's available? Just because many people operate that way with their personal finances doesn't make it sound financial planning. In the same I don't want DM making moves and spending money for the sake of doing it. Have a long-term plan, lock up our key assets early, create flexibility and value, simplify roster management, and extend the competitive window as long as possible.

JJ, You are hung up on length of contract... and there aren't really facts, just opinions. I actually liked Clark as player, in fact I've said it many times around here, I just wouldn't have paid to keep him around. Gagne was a bad signing, although it was only 1 year, that wasn't money well spent. Riske was another bad signing, one that I didn't care for at the time. Shortening the contract length mitigates the risk, but doesn't mean the money was spent wisely. Risk and value are 2 separate ideas... value wise the signings weren't even horrible until you get to Suppan, Riske, Gagne, and Hall, but those players all had significant warts. If we could have signed Weeks and Hardy to Braun type deals instead of spending the money where we did that would have been money spent more wisely. We'd have greater flexibility roster wise today with our most talented players. For example, having Hardy for more 2 years through 2012 would make Escobar expendable, or greatly increase Hardy's trade value. I would have much rather extended Hardy than Hall... or extended Hardy instead of paying Riske, Turnbow, Helms, etc. I want DM to spend money on the truly talented players. And for the record, I'm not into paying for mediocrity... ever. Spend the money on the true talent, do the best you can with the rest. This team has way too much dead money invested in players that aren't performing.

While they are similar, the Phillies are still better by any measure... SP ERA, SP FIP, Team ERA... and are significantly better when we take out Bush and add in a replacement level pitcher. Their offense is also 52 runs better in 3 less games. If we're talking the post season, objectively I like their offense vs our pitching more than I like our offense vs their pitching. That's not a match-up I'd be excited about. I don't see this team outscoring people 9-7 on it's way to a championship.

I think he's done alright, but he's not overly creative as a problem solver. Under his watch the team has done a great job mining nuggets out of nowhere and spinning them for more value. The Sexson trade is still his single best move and continues to reap benefits for the organization. He recognized talent in Z, overhauled some glaring problems within the organization, and generally has done a good job getting the correct people in the correct jobs. I like that he's into sabermetric evaluation of MLB players, I like that prefers a good mix of analysis and scouting when it comes to prospects. Some things that annoy me about him... 1. His obsession with previous talent, like the retreads from the Texas organization we keep getting. I wonder if some day he'll be recycling Brewer talent through his next organization? 2. In my opinion he spends too much money on the bullpen 3. Bad contracts to players like Suppan, Hall, Clark, and Helms. 4. Knowing he didn't have enough pitching in the system and not aggressively pursuing it. People around here will say there weren't any deals available because nothing was done... we don't know that's factually correct, and why did we have to wait until this last off-season to make a deal? Last year TB had Kazmir, Garza, and Jackson in the rotation, and none of those players were developed by TB. Melvin prefers to make safe moves like the Sabathia trade, where he's trading surplus talent the team won't miss for the best proven talent MLB that's available. It's pretty much the same thing he did in both Lee deals as well. He's acquired pitching talent, but it's been pitching talent with a limited ceiling in Cappy, Bush, Vargas... players that can be effective MLB pitchers, but don't have the talent to be top of the rotation starters. The one player he did acquire with that kind of stuff in JDLR always had command issues and just recently turned his career around. 5. I thought Yost was a decent choice as a manager for team trying to build something, but if Macha proves to be reluctant to play prospects then he's hired the wrong manager. We're going to have to break in a prospect or two every season to remain competitive, I'm concerned with what Macha has done this year in regard to Yo and Gamel. I don't have a warm and fuzzy in regards Macha effectively being able to help develop young talent, and it appears he's more likely to Dusty Baker young arms than Yost was. Overall I view him as an effective but conservative GM, and I like what he's done on the whole, I just wish he'd be more aggressive signing the correct players to long-term deals at the opportune moments in addition to being on "johnny on the spot" when deals for young pitchers are available. Sieze the opportunities when they present themselves... I like him signing Braun, I hope to see Yo locked up "health permitting" prior to next season and Gamel locked up prior to 2011.

If you think Hamel's true talent is that of a 4.72 ERA pitcher then you might be on to something. I have no problem thinking that age may have finally caught up to Moyer, but Hamels is still an Ace pitcher. Philly has the better staff and the better offense.

I think using FanGraph's monetary value is a slippery slope, because baseball has a sliding economic scale. 10 mil on a 90 mil payroll is entirely different than 10 million on a 200 mil payroll, or a 40 mil payroll. Talking about WAR is one thing, throwing arbitrary dollar figures is another. Look around the league, how many players are actually paid their value according to the website? The money just doesn't add at all, there's a disconnect here... baseball isn't played in a vacuum nor are salaries distributed in a vacuum so I don't feel comparing monetary values from FanGraphs is worthwhile at all. Most players even in FA are paid around 60 percent of their FanGraphs value, which I would call their fair market value. Those are paid close to their fangraphs value are the top FA players in the game... the FanGraph value will only approximate the actual market value for the top FA players in the game. If Hardy would have signed a FA contract last off-season there's no way he gets 18 mil per year... he's not an 18 or 20 mil player, he's not Teixeira... he's probably a 10-12 mil player though.

I've been holding out hope for a pitching move since the beginning of last season (not a rental), and I'm still doing the same, so I'm unwilling to commit to any sort of predictions until we get to ST and see what we actually have.

In honor of Dillard's performance, which I didn't believe he had in him I give you....

I would like to know how including Parra in any deal helps plug the hole in the rotation? It replaces our only other high ceiling pitcher on the staff with a short term solution. What's long term about 2010? Parra isn't the hole, Burns is the hole, I still believe Parra will be a good pitcher, I'm not willing to give up on him yet. So in the playoffs we go Halladay, Yo, and.... whom? Bush isn't even pitching anymore... I thought originally we'd be lucky to have him back by August, now we'll be lucky to have him back by September. If my other playoff options are Looper and Suppan consider me uninspired. It's the same problem I have with moving pitching for Peavy... we aren't in a position to move MLB pitching because we don't have enough. Trading a player we control for 4 years for a player that we'd control 2 doesn't plug the hole in the rotation and accelerates the need for a replacement. In my opinion the idea should be to balance on field production with long-term roster construction. This is not a World Series team no matter how many times people want to post "we just need to get in". Well true, you can't win the series if you don't make the post season... but the "we just need to get to the playoffs" argument is very thin, it's a purely superficial evaluation of what actually happens. The keys are the match ups, and whom do we match up well with in the playoffs, even with Halladay? In some ways I wonder if people took anything away from last season's playoff experience other than "it was fun to be there". The Brewers weren't unlucky, they were over matched, they gave runs away on defense and the pitching on the whole was average to poor even with Sabathia and Gallardo. We can make excuses for Sabathia about how we burnt him out to get there... well what about Yo this year? For heaven's sake he only pitched 24 innings last year, how about some objectivity in regards to where this team is actually at? Is it a bad team? Nope. Is it a great team? Nope. The only reason we're in contention is because the central is garbage... we needed a year to get some questions answered and let Yo get his feet under him. To make the playoffs we needed a couple of breaks to go our way, chiefly that Bush, Yo, and Parra had to stay healthy and effective all season. Sometimes it's just not going to be your year... I'm not throwing in the towel but I'm not convinced that acquiring Lopez and Halladay would make us a legit contender. We're an injury to Yo away from being out of it regardless what else Melvin does... I'll be honest, Yo's work load scares the hell out of me. I want him healthy and effective for years to come, not another Prior, Wood, or Neugebauer. We've made fun of Baker for years, but for some reason we don't see it when it's happening to our own guy. Finally, at what point is making a move just bailing water on a sinking ship? This team hasn't played well in 6 weeks and while there's plenty of season left, I'm not sold that Halladay would magically jump start the team. The slumping extends team wide, through all of the pitching and position players, there are key cogs slumping everywhere on the team. We caught lightening in a bottle with Sabathia, and the Mets still had to choke their way into giving us the wildcard, thinking that everything would fall into place for us to back into the playoffs 2 years in a row seems like a stretch to me.

I was hoping the Cards picked up all of Lugo's salary so I could laugh... unfortunately not.

Not exactly the AA move I was looking for, but interesting.

I think Gamel is a .900 OPS hitter, Escobar might be an .850 OPS hitter if he works hard in the weight room. Offensively Gamel is a much better bet which makes Escobar the more expendable player. I say again the player to trade was Hardy this off-season, but the majority of people on this site were against that move. In the grand scheme considering payroll, service years, and so on, I don't believe you trade either. I could get on board with moving Escobar if we were getting a younger SS back in the deal though, it just depends on the trade. Prince is having a nice season in R+, but I worry about any college player that doesn't just own up the Pioneer league. I still also believe that many are trying to go about acquiring pitching the wrong way, the idea for the Brewers should be to acquire a Neftali Feliz before he's a super prospect. That sort of deal doesn't help us out right now, as we have an immediate need, but if we can ever get over the top with the SP, I wouldn't mind acquiring more high ceiling pitching prospects in the lower rungs of the minors. Today, I don't know, last year I could come up with a plethora of deals straight up, I would have looked silly with Marcum, McGowan, and Santana all getting hurt within a year of suggesting trades for them though. Now to get an impact arm we're probably better off looking at players in AA that could make the jump... it's a short list, and the teams that match up well limit the possibilities further, but I'd be looking for players at that level or ready to make the jump to AA. Buchholz and Feliz, the 2 best pitchers at AAA, are probably not good targets. Texas has learned some hard lessons and I would be surprised if they moved either young pitcher they acquired from Atlanta, plus they don't need another bat, and given Epstein's comments linked elsewhere I don't believe he's interested in moving Buchholz either.

I'm not dumping on the prospects traded or Lopez, this just wasn't a necessary move because we already had McGehee and Counsell at 2B... I'm not sure why people keep turning that debate into Gamel vs McGehee... McGehee and Counsell being nicked up seem to be perfect platoon partners for this season. Gamel will hit, just because he stunk in part time duty doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme. He had 4 HRs and 10 XBH in less than 30 Hits... yes he was striking out too much, but he's going to adjust, he's not a free swinger... and even so he was still outproducing Hall and Counsell. If he continues to get better, which I feel is a reasonable expectation, he'll blow Hall and Counsell away, and maybe McGehee. Mat is a very talented hitter, I'm struggling to come up with logical reasons why people think he's average or slightly above average, he's an impact player, the only question is at what defensive position?

It's not that JJ isn't capable of playing 3B, it's that he won't play 3B as he won't consider a position change. Gamel could play in the corner OF or corner IF. If you're trading a piece, you trade Escobar, Gamel is going to be a very valuable hitter.

Yea Little Ben sure tore it up when he was called up.

Braddock is currently back on the DL, I would love for him to be healthy, effective, and pitching the rotation, I just don't see it. All of the pitchers in A ball need work on their command, they won't be fast movers in the sense that they'll be ready in 2 years (Frederickson, Peralta, Scarpetta). Watten is great when the sinker is working, not so much otherwise, Adams got suspended and was inneffective, Merklinger... I'm not sure what to make of him, his stuff is decent for a LHP but he's not overpowering. In R+ Arnett doesn't look to be a fast mover either. Odorizzi, Bucci, and Krestalude are young kids and will move up 1 step at a time as well. In R ball Lintz's control is suspect at best but he's talented, I still like Lasker and Stosh, they have some other intriguing arms like Thielbar and Costello. Billings is a mystery to me, his peripherals just don't line up with his Hits allowed, it's like he either strikes a guy out or gives up a hit, similar to Tyson prior to this season. I do like Rivas and Bowman who don't get a lot of love around here but they probably top out as 3s best case... nothing to be ashamed of, just not top of the rotation. Cody.. who honestly knows how he'll do against MLB players. Anundsen, he's a RHP with an 86-87 mph fast ball... he gets outs, but can he get the people out 3 times through the rotation as he moves up? I have no idea what to make of Periard, I like his stuff, his results not so much... Jeffress was demoted then suspended, who knows if he'll ever be a viable option. I love our depth, I love having so many high ceiling arms, but I'm not sure we'll have any top of the rotation ready by 2011 if Braddock doesn't stay healthy and end up a SP. He's never pitched more than 80 innings in a season so he has quite a bit of work to do if he's going to get stretched out by then.

Sorry for the lack of Pre-Game audio lately, I've been entertaining guests and had to work the WFCA All-Star Football game over the weekend.? Hunstviille was delayed long enough that the 2 interviews segments were running at the same time, Brett was inteviewing Mike Bell, but Steve was interviewing Kristian Bueno, since I can only record one I went with the Brewer interview from Steve.? Then to top it all off, Houndbite was down last night.

I'm warming up to the idea of a buying Snell low, and I wouldn't mind the team making a run at Marcum or McGowan in the off-season in another "buy low" sort of move. If DM isn't looking to make a splash, then take a chance on some guys with talent but with issues, be it injuries or otherwise

Jones with 9Ks out of nowhere, that's good to see. Cain with his first AA hit as well, batting lead-off.