MessiahRp

I think the fear has to be now that by not wanting to extend Marcum early and by not pushing harder to get an extension with Greinke done now they're going to go into Free Agency without a shot at re-signing either of them and with the money the Brewers generally spend in Free Agency, chances are good that next year's rotation is going to be brutal.

I understand where you're coming from regarding your hatred for Boras, but Prince Fielder does not equal Ryan Madson.In a way he definitely does. Boras has been selling Prince on a 10 year/$200-250 million deal. It's clear that he is not going to get anywhere near close to either of those numbers. Madson's value deflation is at least in part due to Boras negotiating strategy of going for as much as possible every time because it's very likely he was pricing Madson at or above levels of the other major closers in the market (since he was asking for Papelbon money from the start). If Prince has his hopes up, the amount of interested teams is dwindling and with the big market clubs all apparently out on him and the Nationals and Marlins the suitors that appear to be left, he's going to get far less than either he or his overestimating agent assume. I'd be surprised if he got more than 6 years from anyone and I think 5 years is more realistic. $150-170 million tops and $170 is quite generous. Right now there's talk of him doing a 3 year deal so he can hit FA again. What does that say about Boras' negotiating abilities this offseason?

Yikes, with that list all the 1980s guys are finished. Let's hope the Veteran's Committee gives those guys some love. The next three years all but guarantee those guys zero votes since it will be easy to see 10 people to vote for just in the first two years alone.

Yep. And a lot of people seem to think next year is his year. I would see if that thought process is pervasive around the league and deal Gomez for a prospect. To me Morgan is the better player. He's proven he can hit in the bigs, even if it's more prevalent against Righties. Gomez doesn't even do that. Schaefer likely could fill in his spot and there's Aoki whom could be quite helpful on this roster. Gomez is the odd man out IMO, so might as well use whatever higher opinions of him still exist and extract something of value for him.

$1.75 million is all he got? It would seem he would have been a bargain for the Crew if they had retained him.... http://www.mlbtraderumors...-sign-takashi-saito.html

It'd still be nice if the crew could retain Saito to bolster the pen just a little bit more. I don't know about anyone here but the idea of spending a decent chunk of money over 4 years for Aramis Ramirez sounds terrifying. Years 3-4 of that deal seem like they won't be very beneficial. Sounded like Carlos Beltran's price may be lower than he thought. What about the Brewers signing Beltran and sliding Hart to 1B? Is Gamel completely done as a potential 3B if McGehee falters again?

I actually really liked Bowden's divisional realignment. As a Boston fan who recognizes that it is unfair that all the money tends to be divided out amongst the northeastern teams, making the Yankees, Mets, Sox and Phillies have to compete to basically eliminate each other every year sort of makes it more fair for everyone else. Also I may be in the minority but I love the idea of the Brewers back in the AL and the two Chicago teams and Cards being in that same division with them. Seems like an incredibly intense division and quite a lot of fun games to watch there. His playoff and schedule ideas weren't that great though. I could live with expansion to 6 teams each but imagine if the two teams with the top records in a league were the division winner and the wild card... so the Wild Card with a great record plays in the first round when potentially an 85-90 win team gets the second bye? Yikes. I'm cool with two byes if they go to best record, not best record IF you won the division.

Willie "Mays" Hayes, possibly. Especially from the first Major League movie.

That might be the case if Gammons even worked for ESPN anymore, which he has not for quite some time now.

That might be true in the NFL but if a MLB team can't win a best of 5 or best of 7 then they weren't the best team. It's not like there is a possibility of a one game fluke elimination in Baseball.

5 yrs/$50 million is worth it for Weeks IMO. Sure there's an injury risk but there's too much upside there to not sign him long term. Especially when there just aren't that many really great Second Basemen out there.

How about Ben Sheets? He's still out there! :-P

If the Angels take on that entire contract, this has to be one of the best moves in baseball history. The Wells deal has been panned as one of the top 5 worst signings ever. Up until this point the contract was widely regarded as the most untradeable contract in the league. To dump that deal and get a serviceable bat in return in Napoli and potentially Juan Rivera as well, both will equal out to a total of $11.35 million this year tops (which I don't believe would need to be carried past this year) and move $86 million in return is absolutely amazing. Props to Alex Anthopolous for this move.

Objectivity... wait, this is a fan MB isn't it? Or did I somehow stumble onto a national media site where I am magically a baseball columnist. I see far less objectivity towards the Cubs around here but they're the hated rival so I suppose that's okay. I don't think any of what I said was an overreach. Montero has been dangled out there at least enough times to realize they aren't going to get an ace in return for him and considering the long term track record of most of NY's prospects, I wouldn't believe the hype no matter how many people connected to the organization scream of his worth... I guess it's a wait and see... and generally teams want players of defensive value in return. Future DH's don't exactly motivate people. (See: Prince Fielder's trade value as well). If you don't think paying a reliever $30 million into his mid-40s is a bad investment, I don't know what to say. The Sox set the price on that with their offer and the Yankees bit and if the wheels fall off, which they tend to do on over 40 year old pitchers (unless they are using PEDs or something) they're stuck holding the bag. As for pretty much everything else, agree to disagree.... but the objectivity request, on a fan board. It's a case of taking ourselves so seriously that we're not allowing free flowing discussion to occur at that point. I understand the points about clean language and posting in the right section, not duplicating topics, etc. I get that. But if you're asking us to not be fans who by the way tend to use their heart/gut/emotion sometimes in making assessments on other teams (and by the way your assessment is just as much an opinion as my own) then what is the point of this site? To be a sterile environment for a handful of Brewers' fans that are allowed to make their points which are to be taken as gold and for everyone else to quietly nod in agreement? Seriously, it's a MB. Not CNN. Rp

To be honest, Saito WAS a bargain... versus pretty much any of the other RP signings especially. Soriano is an incredibly overpriced setup man. If I am a Yankees fan I look at this offseason and worry a bit. This was the year where people turned them down no matter how much more money they offered (Wood, Lee), couldn't stop their competitors from improving by running interference like they usually do and running up the prices on the market, couldn't use any of their supposedly solid minor league prospects as valuable trade chips to improve pitching via trade, nearly lost their star, HOF closer to the hated rivals and had to dramatically overpay to keep him, seriously damaged relations with the star face of the franchise (Jeter), couldn't convince an aging pitcher to stay unretired for the team AND still had to give up a first round pick on a Type A who isn't going to be a major factor ultimately if their starting pitching can't go 5 deep. Most of the Yankees best moves in building the championship teams came via trading their prospects (overhyped garbage, most of them but still) and acquiring all stars. That's going to be more difficult to do if you keep giving away Type A picks and the farm system you have now isn't getting a dramatic amount of suitors for any of the players in it. Heck, their best prospect is a DH-projected guy. No wonder teams weren't running out to steal that guy away. Then when you add in the free agent mutiny... I mean sure, there will always be guys that want to get paid and nothing more... but the bloom is off the rose and people are starting to weigh the value of the money versus the environment of playing in NY. Yankees fans have to be seriously worried about that. And I for one hope that bears out in the future and they get to eat some more offseason misery. Serves them right. Rp

I agree with the poster above about Adcock and Logan. I also think Al Simmons should be added to the ballot. He's the greatest player ever from Milwaukee and while he never played for a Major League Milwaukee team (since there were none), he played for the original Milwaukee Brewers from 1922-1923 and I think he just sort of deserves some Milwaukee love. (Buried in St. Adalbert's on 6th) Rp

Ugh Gomez was atrocious last year. Frankly I just don't see the need for a PR/Defensive Replacement when it's clear he can't hit and doesn't do enough things well to warrant a roster spot. When you think of the Johan Santana to the Mets deal, is that not one of the biggest swindles of all time? Gomez is absolute junk. Can't hit, has no power, is not even 4th OF worthy Deolis Guerra is still in the minors with an ERA between 5 and 6. Philip Humber just got DFA'd... by Kansas City. Kevin Mulvey was a sort of worthless PTBNL in the Jon Rauch trade. If Santana had stayed healthy we could be talking about one of the more historic one sided swaps in history.

At this point he's strictly a #4-5 type but I like him better than the Doug Davis acquisition last year. Obviously not the front end of the rotation guy they need but with Bush, Parra, Cappy, Davis all likely out, there will be backend holes to fill as well. From MLB TR:

He was responsible for the worst in-game managerial decision that I can ever recall seeing. Doesn't fill me with a great deal of confidence. True and as a Red Sox fan believe me I was screaming at the TV as loudly as you possibly could. However as a whole Grady's tenure wasn't too bad in Boston and he was doing decent in LA until Ned Colletti decided to scapegoat him to do some CYA. His players genuinely like him and play hard for him and this seems like the kind of media market where he could relax, do his thing and really take a young core of guys and help them get to the next level. I'd like to think that the Pedro decision was more an aberration than anything. Every manager has a few dumb calls they'd like to take back and if there's anyone you make a dumb call on with that team it had to be Pedro since for a 5 year span he was pretty much unhittable. Obviously there are times where you can ride the horse too far and Grady got burned for it but at least he wasn't doing something like that with some of the other starters on that team. It was unforgiveable to Sox fans to say the least but it's at least slightly more understandable when you realize it was Pedro and what Pedro had been to that point.

What about a guy like Grady Little? Sure he's had bigger budgets but his teams have never posted a losing record and he spent a ton of time managing in the minors (knows how to develop young players) and generally is well liked by his players (something Macha never has been). He's sort of off the radar at the moment but would he be someone that could work in Milwaukee?

I guess I don't see the harm in scouting him and giving him a minor league deal. Every year there are filler guys on AAA teams, really what would one slot hurt. And if he panned out, all the better.

Prior pitching to get noticed Seems like he's having success, albeit in limited innings and in a low talent level league. Would giving Prior a shot, maybe a ST invite be a bad move? Seems low risk, medium reward potentially. Rp

Isn't it spelled "Nyjer"? Anyway he got clocked with a huge clothesline after a rather futile, weak punch to Volstad's face so it didn't seem to be the smartest response. Rp

I cant handle both Parra and Narveson in the same rotation. Let Parra, Narveson, Rivas, and Butler fight for the 5th spot. For the Brewers to be competitive they need to bring in 2 pitcher as upgrades. Hopefully Fielder can be exchanged for one and sign a guy like Vazquez as a stop gap until Rivas, Scarpetta, Peralta, Heckathorn, Odorizzi are ready to produce."Dead arm" Vazquez? No thanks. I'm sort of interested to know, out of those QS, how many did Bush win and for the ones he lost, what was the run support/average runs allowed for them?

I didn't realize anyone was advocating for anything that drastic. But clearly, we have a lot of improving to do. We're 9 under right now and we've got Prince, we've got Hart, but we're still not close to being a contender. I don't know why it's farfetched to believe that we could actually trade Fielder and improve, and not have to wait until 2014 to do so. You get a near-MLB ready high upside starter for Fielder, you get him into your rotation, you go out and get a 1st basemen like Adam Dunn to take over for Prince in free agency, and suddenly, you've got new names but better results. You've lost little to no offensive production, and you've added a high upside starting pitcher that your team so desperately needs. I think I'd rather do something like that then just throw whatever money we have at the second-level FA pitchers on the market again next year, then wait for the bottom to fall out after 2011 when we didn't get anything for Prince OR Hart. Cliff Lee would cripple the Brewers for 3 years or so financially. I just don't see him as a smart move at all. I'd much rather trade Prince for a couple pitching prospects. Hopefully a MLB ready arm and a really good prospect with high upside. The longer the Crew holds him though the less he might be worth. I honestly don't like the idea of signing a guy who historical trends say will decline dramatically because of body-type alone in a few years. I'd much prefer we move him and go with the aforementioned Adam Dunn scenario. Also I have no issue moving Mat Gamel if they were able to acquire Dunn or some other solid 1B bat because I just don't believe that he's going to make much of a difference in Milwaukee. Especially if McGehee keeps playing well (800+ OPS). Hopefully his hype could help net a decent arm as well. As for Corey Hart, I suppose it would help to move him while he's hot but what would it cost to replace him at this point? The farm system doesn't seem to be crawling with replacements even for next year and then you'd have to spend in FA which could cost more than another year of Arby for Corey. It's going to be a bit of a tough road especially considering there isn't a lot of big time minor league pitching prospects to work with in this system and Melvin has to practically restock down there.