MessiahRp

One thing I think to take into consideration is, where will the market be for Prince to get the huge contract he and Boras surely believe they're getting. I don't know that with the economic climate not likely to improve much the next couple of years and with the Yankees having locked up 1B for quite some time, the money just won't be there. Also I don't see Boston (option #2 for a big contract) ponying up that kind of dough for someone who won't be able to play 1B very well defensively... he'll be a DH and I can't see them blowing $100 mil for a DH. It was one thing to consider moving Youkalis when Texeria was the option because he at least can play 1st well enough... it's another to get essentially another David Ortiz to play 1st and shift Youk over. Other than the LA teams who by the way have been rather frugal for the most part, there really isn't a big market option for him and I can't see other teams offering him the money he thinks he'll get. It could be that Boras has set Prince's mind on a number he'll never achieve... much like he did when he convinced Manny to sabotage his way out of Boston and now will be lucky to get a $50 million deal. Rp

I don't recall a whole lot of other teammate altercations... just the Bonds one. Seems like you have a bit of an axe to grind. On pure numbers it would be very difficult to argue him as a HOF. I don't know that him lying about how he was injured once should be some sort of disqualifier. Rp

*Sigh* This is the biggest loss of the offseason. The Brewers could revert to losing form but at least you knew Powell and Uke were calling the game so you could listen and tolerate how bad the Crew was. Now we're staring down the barrel of a disappointing season and we don't even have our security blanket to salvage it. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif We'll definitely miss you Jim. Rp

Hey 2 people voted for Jay Bell a couple of years ago... so this group has a bunch of complete idiots in it. From the beginning I have no idea how Cobb, Ruth, Williams, Mays, Aaron were not unanimous... Ricky to me should have been unanimous. Anyone who voted against him has a grudge. Lame. Rp

Melvin certainly made it sound like if we got a closer we would not go after a starter (and vice versa if we had gotten a starter) because he feels McClung can handle the load on the other end. This was from his 1250 WSSP Interview with Sparky a couple days back. Rp

They own the rights to the playoff games, they have to pay to air Baseball. That's likely the difference. I'd also like to see the classic Home Run Derby shown on here (although I own the entire series boxset) for younger fans who may have never seen them. Also it would be nice if they aired some of those cool team yearbooks that teams do, maybe spend a couple hours of a day on a specific player from the past (this could go endlessly) by featuring a video feature on them and a game or two that they stood out in. Maybe a better roundtable discussion show with sportswriters (aside from the hot stove), a fantasy baseball show (wouldn't doubt that it's in the works).... more classic games aside from one game being re-run 5 times a week... Other than that it's great, I've spent a considerable amount of time watching the station since it first went live. Rp

And if they got 8 Pavanos they might just have enough Pavanos to make through a full season. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

MLB Network said it's $1.5 million guaranteed with $5.3 million in incentives. Not so sure it's that great of a deal just yet.

Has any other pitcher ever recovered to full strength and shown the same abilities after a torn labrum? I would be very leery of getting any pitcher who has torn their labrum. As someone who has torn their labrum I can attest that you lose a lot of strength and mobility in the affected shoulder and it never quite feels the same. Oh and the whole Robb Nen thing scares me away even further: http://www.slate.com/id/2100895/ Rp

I hope to god neither of those guys ever end up as our closer, specifically Julio. McClung had a nice year last year but I am in the boat of believing that this was more of a fluke than anything and he seemed to struggle when he was in the pen as opposed to being a starter.

I advocated the Penny signing a while ago. He was low cost huge reward in that when he's healthy he has ace material stuff. At $5 million I'm sure the Brewers will not find a comparable bargain with the same type of upside. Rp

Dude what are you talking about? The Bengals still aren't paying players. They let every good player on the O-Line and Defense go away in free agency and their best attempt to acquire a RB after cutting Rudi Johnson was Cedric Benson. The Packers are getting heat for being $20 million under the cap but Thompson won't spend it. Seems to me what needs to happen is a Cap Ceiling and a Cap Floor that are reasonably close together. Say the cap is $90 million, the floor should be no less than $70 million. With all the Revenue Sharing going on even small market teams should be able to make $70 million. If not they should start working harder on finding ways to get fans in the seats. In places like KC giving people a losing product where you don't even really try is not going to build that revenue base. Same reason why the Rays are absolutely NOT the small market model anyone should follow. 12 years of last place losing meant a struggle to fill seats once they acquired enough top draft pick talent to start to contend. Rp

Where is the $81 million figure from? Weren't we around that last year before the CC trade? Haven't we already lost over $30 million off the books with Sheets, Gagne, Shouse, Torres, Mota, Counsell all coming off the books? Arby's not going to get anywhere close to what all those guys made even if Prince does get $6.5 million. Rp

I don't think this rotation can win 80 games. I think we need to remember that Gallardo has never pitched a full Major League season, Parra wore down considerably last year, Suppan is garbage, Bush is inconsistent and McClung is not exactly someone we can count on to repeat 2008. I think spending 2 yr/$12 million on Brad Penny would be a good risk especially since he's an ace when he's healthy. We need a top line starter pretty bad. Rp

Wow you guys are really optimistic about a rotation that features Gallardo who has never pitched a full major league season, Parra who wore down badly and practically had to be shut down towards the end of last season, Suppan who was incredibly horrific, Bush who is inconsistent and you never know who you're going to have from one game to the next and.... who, McClung or Cappy? Does anyone think either of those guys will be reliable next year? Plus the comment about closers being a dime a dozen is not true. When the Brewers had poor performances out of their closers they lost plain and simple. Gagne and Turnbow (especially towards the end) lost this team games that would have made differences along the way. Having what is a pretty subpar rotation with a pretty pathetic bullpen... aside from Villy does not instill confidence in anybody but the most rose colored glasses wearing fans... which all appear to be in this thread. Unless the Crew picks up a real top of the rotation quality starter this team will be lucky to break .500 next year. Rp

Ok, I really hate to beat a dead horse. I know it's been mentioned several times. But it's not Cameron for Melky. It's Cameron for Melky + 9.5mil. (assuming no other players or cash is involved). Since Melky Cabrera sucks and is an equivalent to Tony Gwynn Jr. with slightly more power, it's like Cameron for $10mm. Now if we declined the option we were guaranteed to not have to pay Cameron the $10 million if that was the ultimate goal. Instead the Yankees want us to pay some of the contract and take a complete garbage replacement as the player coming back. This is just a bad overall trade and Melvin looks like he tried to gamble and got beat by the Yankees who can live without Cameron. Rp

I believe I saw this quote above: "Attanasio also said that the franchise turned a slight profit this past season, although he did not disclose specifics." So he didn't lose anything. Rp

I guess this fits here - Buster Olney: Brewers' time in the spotlight has, sadly, passed http://insider.espn.go.co...dex%3fname%3dolney_buster Rp

1250 for me. 540 has poor reception everywhere I drive and during the afternoon Homer's on and he's pretty much unlistenable to me. Rp

1250 for me. 540 has poor reception everywhere I drive and during the afternoon Homer's on and he's pretty much unlistenable to me. Rp

I really don't want to see Kapler playing centerfield unless it is a dire emergency. Kapler was fine in a part time role last year and arguably played above his head, I certainly wouldn't count on that same production this year especially if he get 100 more AB's or so Agreed. JohnBriggs12's Kapler point is not one I consider a valid reason to do the trade for Melky. Look, Kapler had a nice 2008 but I don't think he's ever going to be good enough to be more than a 4th OF and at this point in his career his numbers are far more likely to decline than improve. I'm surprised with the huge emphasis thrown around here on OPS that so many people seem to think a guy with a .703 career OPS is fine to be patrolling CF. I think Melky represents Tony Gwynn Jr. with slightly more power and that's not saying a lot. And to be honest with the way that we've approached this offseason thusfar, with the exception of offering CC $100-110 million (although they knew he was not going to take that) we're going bargain basement cheap and another salary dump doesn't exactly give me or probably most Brewers' fans confidence that they're going to spend that money elsewhere. There are guys out there that can help us but Melvin appears to have written off Hoffman who in a one year deal would be a solid pickup, seems hesitant on Fuentes and frankly has zero answers as to who he should acquire to be a SP and starting 3B (and no, Mike Lamb is not the answer). For our team's needs we could get a Brad Penny for a very reasonable price (2 years/$12 million?) and if he bounces back we have an ace for less than half the price of Suppan. We could spend one or even two years on Hoffman and pay less than we would with Fuentes. We could acquire an Adam Dunn which would make the Melky move a salary dump but one for a fourth OF, not a Starter. Or we could put Dunn at first and deal Prince/Hall for Beltre and Morrow where we have a possible third young gun for our rotation and our 3B needs are solved at least long enough for Gamel to be ready. The worry I think I have is that with all that money coming off the books from Sheets, Gagne, et al (and that should far eclipse the Arby raises), are the Brewers content to sit back on their heels and not spend money hoping that last year's success will at least carry over at the ticket counters? It seems like dumping salary to not acquire real quality players (which thusfar the moves that have made have not exactly been high quality) is a way for Attanasio to make back some of the money he lost last year. Although with the high level of season/playoff ticket sales I can't imagine he lost much. Rp

People always mention this but fail to mention the raises coming to Fielder, Hardy, Hart, Weeks, Bush, Suppan and Hall. True but I still think the money off the books will be more than total arbitration gains... Fielder and Hardy (probably Hart) should get hefty raises I'm not so sure about Weeks and everyone was aware of Suppan and Hall's higher salary this year (which is why I am 100% against backloaded contracts... if we're always building with an eye towards competing in the future, backloading contracts hurts us badly in those future years). Rp

I'd much rather take low cost deals on Hoffman and Brad Penny and then spend 4 years/$44-48 million for Adam Dunn then pay for Wolf or Abreu. In fact we should still be able to do so within the confines of the lower payroll we should have with all those players that came off the books. Then with Dunn in the fold, I seriously entertain offers for Prince or Cameron as well as Bill Hall. My thought process being if we were to move Prince for another top flight starter or some close to ready prospects, we have Dunn to play first. Or should we have Dunn maybe use him as a corner OF and move Corey Hart to CF. Honestly if we got Dunn, I'd more than entertain Prince/Hall/prospect for Beltre/Putz/pitching prospect. I know people think that teams will give up the farm for Prince but I don't think that will be the case. Sure he'll make a ton in FA but he has Boras for his agent, slumped a bit last year, scares people off with weight/defensive issues and there are a bunch of solid corners IFs to be had. Rp

We should have considerable money available though with Sheets, CC, Torres, Gagne, Mota, Shouse, etc off the books right? Where is our team salary at compared to last year? I think we should be able to spend something this offseason.

I think the big question about K-Rod declining was based on the drop in his velocity this year: http://mlbtr.blogs.sports...gs/entry/8691437/11724859 Rp