TheCrew07

It's not just Yo. The top ten Brewers in fWAR during the Melvin era are Braun, Sheets, Fielder, Gallardo, Gomez, Weeks, Lucroy, Hart, Jenkins and Hardy. Outside of Lucroy everyone on that list has gotten plenty of grief on BF.NET (& elsewhere on the interwebs) over the years. Apparently a percentage of fans think even the best players on their favorite team are terrible. Or maybe others are just willing to walk away from a guy after 6-7 years? Which of course is where most of that discussion came up, it wasn't about what the player had done, but rather what they would do in the future. When it comes to discussing contract extensions and a player's ultimate value then all things positive and negative should be taken into account. Weeks and Gomez are polarizing... I will of course admit that, I personally liked Weeks for what he was but was against his extension and am not a fan of Gomez other than his production on the field.

We should do one before the season starts, I'd personally wait until March, but it doesn't really matter.

Unless he's completely overhauled his mechanics, why would the Brewers even bother?

I've said this many times on the MiLB forum, but I'll just say one more time that I could care less how Mayo rates someone, I don't have much respect for him as a prospect evaluator. As an example he thought Jungmann had 3 plus pitches prior to draft and my personal opinion was that he didn't have one. The only guy with any real credibility doing that work for MLB is Jim Callis, Bernie Pleskoff is alright but most everything he writes reads like the parents of the young man wrote the article. Arcia is a toothpick right now, but has surprising pull power for his size, his brother has a much different natural build. If Orlando fills out a little bit he'll be a 10 HR/year guy. Like all players I wish he was spending his off season in the weight room working on his athleticism instead of playing winter ball, but that it is what it is. The one thing I continually tried to point out about Arcia in the Link Reports when he was in WI was how he impressed me with his contact skills. He would swing at bad pitches and manage to put them play, the kind of bad pitches that most hitters just swing through entirely. When he swung at pitches in the zone he hit line drives to all fields... He's capable of being a .300 hitter with better pitch selection, and it is improving, regardless of his size. While all hitters tend to get themselves out, Orlando was especially susceptible with his aggressive approach and contact skills with those early in the count weak grounders on horrible hitter's pitches.

I don't see much drop off from Gallardo to Nelson performance wise, and Nelson throws harder these days. All of the young men acquired are intriguing for various reasons but I'm not really one to jump on the bandwagon of hard throwers with control and injury issues anymore, I was on the bandwagon of players like Luis Pena and Omar Aguilar in the past. Diplan is far and away the most interesting player from where I'm sitting, here's hoping he's our version of Neftali Feliz. I don't think the big league team is better or worse off for this trade, that depends on how the relief pitching shakes out. Maybe Knebel factors in, maybe he doesn't, but clearing Yo's salary allows the team to consider FA relief options which are still available. I will say that I like Diplan much more than either Hellweg or Pena from the Greinke trade. I think this trade adds depth where it is needed for 2015, I'm not sure there is any impact potential in there at this time, but Gallardo just isn't what he was either, I think it was pretty reasonable deal on paper.

Ya I'm going to have to disagree with that bolded portion. #1) CC Sabathia for LaPorta (zero), Rob Bryson (zero), Zach Jackson (total zero), and Brantley (Good player) --> Trade nets Brewers first postseason berth in 26 years #2) Shaun Marcum for Brett Lawrie, who is still unproven. --> Marcum was serviceable (~3.6ERA 1.15WHIP) until injuries did him in. #3) Zack Greinke for Alcides Escobar (meh), Lorenzo Cain (league average OF), Odorizzi (jury still out), and Jeremy Jeffress, who is now back on the team --> Greinke again led the Brewers to the postseason, not far from a World Series #4) Zack Greinke traded for Jean Segura, Hellweg(unproven), Pena(bullpen piece?) --> Jury out on Segura, but we got a young controllable talent who has flashed big upside, and two boom/bust prospects. I'm sure I am missing something, but what would you be disagreeing with? Well I don't see the Sabathia, Greinke, and Marcum trades as big wins... because we didn't win anything. As to Melvin's trade history... This is now just his second deal to include any kind of legitimate young cost controlled talent coming back, and I'm using that term loosely for Sardinas. I'm not into stop gap solutions which lead to more problems down the road like Sabathia, Marcum, and Greinke. All too often around here trades are based on what the players given up have done, rather than the ultimate value received. I'm tired of the lack of patience this organization has displayed and trades for "mlb contributors". DM and MA haven't built solid depth, they've repeatedly spent prospects on marginal upgrades or short term solutions, none of which has gotten the Brewers over the hump. As to the other trades I've absolutely despised off the top of my head.... The Lyle Overbay trade was awful. The Carlos Lee trade was awful. The Doug Davis trade with AZ was awful. Scott Linebrink was a worthless trade, because 1 reliever isn't going to turn anyone's season around. I wasn't a fan of the Tony Graffanino trade, another old stop gap.. Shipping off Grant Balfour after just 3 appearances ticked me off. Felipe Lopez was another move for the sake of making a move. Acquiring K-Rod multiple times has repeatedly drawn my ire. Finally, his record in FA has largely been awful. One 2 contracts look good on paper so far, Cameron and Lohse (fingers crossed he doesn't pull a Wolf). However the Brewers haven't made the playoffs with Lohse on the roster and his signing cost him the team a draft pick and the corresponding draft pool amount which is a bigger deal. So in quick summation, the Brewers have traded a ton of assets for very little tangible return over the years. Trading all those players for 3 months of Sabathia, 7 months of good Greinke, and 6 months of good Marcum was largely a waste of resources from a talent perspective. I won't debate ticket sales and all of the intangibles that came with them, those things mean nothing to me, I've been focused on the relative talent level of the entire organization... I've looking to build legitimate depth, not ride the profitability line every year with nothing behind the players on the MLB roster. I don't care about the players given up, I care that the return in those trades never permanently solved a single issue. The only 2 FA contracts which have worked out well (so far) are Lohse and

Ya I'm going to have to disagree with that bolded portion.

Ignore what BMI says. BMI is for a specific body type, if you're broad chested and muscular your BMI will be way off. Body fat % is a much better way to judge things. Bingo. People ask me all the time how much weight I've lost and I tell them I don't know, I'm chasing a body fat % and could care less about the rest, I'm down over 10% body fat, besides specific work out goals that's what matters to me. When I first started losing weight I was on the scale once a week to check the poundage to see what was working and what wasn't. Now that I have an established routine going on 3 years I haven't checked my weight in forever, it's constantly changing as I continue to put on muscle and lose fat anyway. I'm sure I'm back over 200 LBs but that doesn't bother me as I pursue my fitness goals.

Subscriber Content. Sampson Lands On His Feet With Reds January 16, 2015 by C. Trent Rosecrans

With the death of Taveras and multiple trades over the last 7 months this system doesn't look anywhere near as good it did at the start of 2014. 2015 St. Louis Cardinals Top 10 Prospects January 14, 2015 by Derrick Goold 2015 St. Louis Cardinals Top 10 Prospects Chat January 14, 2015 by Staff Report

I've been a huge Star Wars fan my entire life, I used to rotate around a series of Star Wars themed avatars but I haven't felt like it in many years and Darth Maul just happened to be the last change I made so he's been the guy.

2015 Pittsburgh Pirates Top 10 Prospects January 12, 2015 by John Perrotto 2015 Pittsburgh Pirates Top 10 Prospects Chat January 12, 2015 by Staff Report

Already covered elsewhere on the forum but I'll post it anyway for consistency's sake. 2015 Milwaukee Brewers Top 10 Prospects January 9, 2015 by Tom Haudricourt 2015 Milwaukee Brewers Top 10 Prospects Chat January 9, 2015 by Staff Report

2015 Cincinnati Reds Top 10 Prospects January 7, 2015 by J.J. Cooper 2015 Cincinnati Reds Top 10 Prospects Chat January 7, 2015 by Staff Report

Subscriber Content. Building From Mound Out Is Reds’ Plan For Success January 7, 2015 by C. Trent Rosecrans

2015 Chicago Cubs Top 10 Prospects January 5, 2015 by John Manuel 2015 Chicago Cubs Top 10 Prospects Chat January 5, 2015 by Staff Report

I said what I had to say about Medeiros during the draft discussions and I'm not going to continually beat that drum like I did with Jungmann, it's not worth the effort. TH gets a list from the Brewers and then BA tweaks the list, but Tom does the chat. All of the lists are referencing scouting reports from this past season, instructs, and the AFL. Kodi didn't exactly set the world on fire out of the gate or in instructs, neither did the other 1st rounder Gatewood and he's not in this top 10 list either, Sickels had Gatewood all the way down at #18. As far as Gatewood goes, I made my thoughts quite clear on him prior to the draft as well. Lara was apparently very impressive during instructs as was previously noted around here, I believe MH linked tweets about him being stateside but I don't remember when as I typically read that stuff at work. Unfortunately all social media is blocked when I do so.

Gomez is going to price himself out of Milwaukee, Taylor and Gomez will not be in the same outfield together. Regardless in 2018 Gomez will be 32 and it's highly unlikely he'll be running even as well as he does now.

Subscriber Content. Reds Have Had Their Eyes On Crawford December 27, 2014 by C. Trent Rosecrans

Subscriber content, interesting story here as the Cubs' selected Aerial Ovando in the MiLB rule 5 draft solely to convert him to a pitcher. Mound Move For Ovando December 27, 2014 by Gordon Wittenmyer

Subscriber content, some unflattering words regarding the past OFs. Brewers Have Holes To Fill December 27, 2014 by Tom Haudricourt

Subscriber Content regarding Casey Sadler from the Pirates' system. Sadler Happy To Have Low Profile December 28, 2014 by John Perrotto

In general most baseball people just assume that if someone gets heavier they will become slower, but that is completely dependent on what kind of weight the athlete is putting on. It's like assuming NFL receivers will get slower if they put on weight... If it's muscle, and done properly by maintaining or improving flexibility, there's no issue with the weight. In fact you get a more powerful and more dynamic athlete, usually able to maintain or make some speed gains. Of course if the athlete just gets fatter he's going to get slower, but it's distressing how little so many people around baseball know about athlete building (without the PED discussion).

Subscriber content but here's BA's scouting report on Kang: Pirates Win Bidding For Korean Shortstop Kang

Well we did have "Shoe Gate" which I found somewhat humorous because my whole life I've gotten discounts that other people couldn't get because my dad was a coach, life is kind of about who you know... Other than that the Badger programs have appeared to be pretty clean from the outside looking in.