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A complete list of 2008 offseason free agents, not those necc better than Braden Looper, just the complete list.Kris Benson PHI A.J. Burnett TOR (may opt out) Paul Byrd BOS Ryan Dempster CHC Jon Garland LAA Tom Glavine ATL Mike Hampton * ATL Rich Harden * CHC Orlando Hernandez NYM Jason Jennings TEX Randy Johnson ARZ Esteban Loaiza CHW Braden Looper STL Derek Lowe LAD Pedro Martinez NYM Mike Mussina NYY Jamie Moyer PHI Mark Mulder * STL Carl Pavano NYY Brad Penny * LAD Odalis Perez WAS Oliver Perez NYM Andy Pettitte NYY Mark Prior SD Horacio Ramirez CHW C.C. Sabathia MIL Ben Sheets MIL John Smoltz * ATL Julian Tavarez ATL Steve Trachsel BAL Brett Tomko SD Claudio Vargas MIL Randy Wolf HOU I'm privy to some other information that I'll PM you about. Maybe then you won't be so hard on me and my stance http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/ohwell.gif

1 for 3. 1 of only two Brewers hits.

I am looking to buy or trade for two (will take one if you have 1), ticket stubs from last season's Brewers vs Astros game at Miller Park on July 26th, 2008. My father passed away suddenly at the age of 48 on that day. I had given him my tickets to the game that day as I had to work the game, however he never made it obviously. I don't know what happened to the tickets I gave him, I've never found them amongst his belongings. I am making a few shadowboxes and other things involving the things we used to do together, etc and would really like to find two stubs from this game. I have several items for trade, will pay cash or provide future compensation should somebody want something from me in the future. Thanks in advance for anybody who checks their collection and does or doesnt find them, I appreciate it.

Davis and Lopez from the D-Backs, for example.Not saying it's impossible, but that would mean that no additional players in that trade would also be on the Brewers 40-man, correct? Otherwise that would mean a 3rd opening, 4th opening, etc. If we are getting two guys that need to be protected and only two guys (Davis/Lopez), that means the players going to AZ would not be on the 40-man currently? Do I understand that correctly? Who could that be to net Davis/Lopez? I dont have a list of the 40-man in front of me. That's why I think a Parra move, in conjunction with the Koshansky opening is unrelated. Parra could be moved, I just don't think it's in the same transaction for which we are gaining 2 MLB'ers in need of protection. Not arguing what you are saying, I'm trying to understand the implications of freeing up this spot as it relates to a potential trade coupled with the speculation that Parra is part of a trade.

If Parra is part of the trade, the Brewers are getting back two players that are either two major leaguers, or atleast one that must be protected. Parra is on the 40-man, so moving Koshansky AND PARRA frees up two spots. I therefore doubt Parra is part of a trade, but it's not out of the realm. I just dont think we are getting two players back in any trade that need to be protected. Unless we are sellers that is.

Maybe it's a free agent pitching acquisition such as Tom Glavine

In addition to that Fondy, what he said was in essence, "Hey Boss, we need some help here. Some employees are not pulling their weight and performing below expectations for this type of job. There are some great men out there that do this job very well and I hope we can get one of them." It's tough pulling them from their current boss as we'd have to give up some pretty good men from another department, but hey, our department is the most important of this whole industry and company. It's tough having to pull our weight when we have to pull their weight and catch up from their poor work before we can even get started. I'll admit, the past month, it's been so burdensome carrying their weight, that some days, we come in and cant get motivated to do our own job well enough. Please Boss, get us some help. The problem lies when you express that message to the media and not the boss himself. It's hardly an insubordinate issue, it's a cry for help.

Braddock, Lawrie, Escobar, and Green/Lucroy for Halladay ~~nate82 I'm not good at putting potential trades together, but if that is indeed reasonable to the Blue Jays, than why not? Braddock has been turned reliever it seems, so not a huge loss. Green is seemingly blocked by Gamel. Salome still remains if you let Lucroy go. Sure, it sucks losing Escobar and Lawrie, but you get a return of Halladay and solve the logjam at SS. You're not mortgaging your entire future. If you still believe in Rickie Weeks, then Lawrie is expendable. There is still depth there with Heether or Dykstra. I'd do this move in a heartbeat and I dont think it mortgages a significant part of 2012-2014.

The window of opportunity isn't 2 years. It's the foreseeable future. Unless of course you give up the next batch of players who can keep the team competitive in an all out effort to win now. I hope to God that isn't the case. We can win as easily with Gamel, Parra, YoGa, Cain and Escobar as we could with Prince, JJ, and Hart. The players may change but the level of play doesn't have to unless you get rid of the next generation to fix the shortcomings of this one. There is depth at the minor league level as earlier indicated. We are not saying exhaust it all, but definitely use some of it. Barring rule changes in the game of baseball, we can't have 10 guys play the infield at the MLB level. Hoarding at the MILB level can only take you so far. It's been long past time to start using the surplus hitting talent at the MILB level to gain you some pitching at the MLB level that you failed to acquire, for whatever reason, in the draft. There seems to be a contingent of folks that seem to think those that want to make a move would mean losing ALL of our future. I believe there to be a happy medium. It has to get a little old when a guy who has been as successful as Melvin has been has to listen to a 20 something kid tell him how to do his job. Being able to hit the ball well does not make one good at building a team. It just makes one a good hitter...and a millionaire. Just like he had to learn to lay off balls outside the zone he has to learn what his role is in the organization. Kid? This seems quite a bit demeaning. As a 27 year old, living in Florida, it gets a bit redundant hearing people in their 60-70's calling people in their 20's and 30's "kid". I won't get into the dictionary reference, but Ryan Braun is not some "kid" who needs to be submissive to his "master" or some "elder" simply because somebody has lived on this earth longer. I agree that Ryan Braun needs to respect Doug Melvin because that's his boss and that's his role in the organization as a player, but not because he's 20-something and Melvin's 50-something as your post seems to state. Braun is not some kid, who just moved onto the baseball scene. He has honed his craft and is not new the block when evaluating talent amongst his peers. It wasn't right for Braun to say, "Something stinks in Denmark" in the heat of the moment after some tough losses. He has invested himself and his career in the success of the Milwaukee Brewers for the long term, for as long as they want him barring trade. Both were wrong, but I'll reitirate that Ryan Braun has given his "career" to the Milwaukee Brewers to this point rather than sitting around like Fielder has done, like Hardy has done and play the arbitration game and seemingly waiting for their opportunity to move on. He seems personally invested in this team, this city, and the organization and that says a lot of a profe$$ional athlete in this day and age. I wish he hadn't said it, but I understand the passion and appreciate it.

I like DM, but perhaps had he been doing his job and not sitting on his hands still Ryan wouldn't have had to pop off. I don't buy this BS about there not being alot available. Almost EVERYONE is available for the right price. You just have to be willing to pay it, and apparently by DM saying he's not trading Escobar or Gamel, he's not willing to pay the price. You can't have it both ways Doug. ~~BrewCrewin07 Exactly how I feel. The infield is loaded with options. Move your surplus to cover the defiencies. Hall, Gamel, McGehee, Counsell, Irribarren, Escobar, Weeks, Hardy, Heether, Lawrie, Fielder. All these certainly have some form of trade value, varying in different ranges. All of them have the potential to be on the 2010 or 2011 roster. That would seem like quite a logjam. Certainly something could be done down the road, but why sacrifice a decent shot in 2009 for some coulds, perhaps, or maybe in 2012? Again, adding a #4 type in Looper when you had 3 other #4-5 types in Feb of 2009 is why I say Melvin was sitting on his hands. I relate it to being the runt of the wolf pack. You run in and get the scraps and pick the bones after the big dogs finish their feast. That is what Melvin did in the offseason when he signed Braden Looper. Now, you are hungry and the long summer is half over and you have no meat on your own bones. You are struggling to survive because you waited back so you could get scraps? It's time to be a hunter, or you can face being a runt for a very long time. This franchise is hungry, the fan base is hungry, the players that have invested their careers in your organization (Ryan Braun) are hungry. They're howling Doug. Throw them more than a used bone with fat deposits (Braden Looper). Use that infield depth and go get get a full lamb for harvest.

You cannot gamble away the future of the Brewers (Escobar-Gamel-Lawrie) for any one pitcher because any one pitcher is not going to make the Brewers a contender for a World Series championship. I agree to some extent. To another extent, getting to the playoffs is really all you need. Then you just need a hot 3 weeks and be 1 game better than your opponent for 3 series. It's not like the NBA where you know an 8 seed isn't going to win it all. All you need to do is get to the show and then see what happens. If 1 pitcher makes them better enough to make the show, then I think you have to make that move within reason.

TH just spoke with Doug Melvin. Melvin is reportedly golfing and shopping for X-mas presents for his kids after that. Inbetween stops at the Country Club and Saks, he is planning a six week vacation to commence Oct. 4th and end just before Thanksgiving. Rumour has it, he wont be busy.

Bats play in my opinion. You want to get his bat in there, you move him to RF. If I ran this team, I'd throw this out there for 2009 and 2010. Escobar SS Weeks 2B (McGehee in 2009) Braun LF Fielder 1B Gamel RF Cameron CF Hardy 3B (he'll do what he's told and can leave in FA if he so feels inclined) Kendall C (Lucroy/Salome in 2010) Victor Martinez would be ideal, in the 5 hole, and I move Gamel and Co down. Gallardo P

11.5M? Only if they take Bill Hall with whoever it is. IMO, Clay Buchholz is the best answer.

I agree and thanks to BadgerBob and AndrewsDaddy for finding some data to back this up. This team needs pitching, preferably a #2 starter capable of being retained beyond 2009. But as I've beaten the dead horse, the time to do so was February 2009. If this team wants hitters, it needs to look no further than it's own bench or in Tennessee. Doing so from their own bench would require them sending Bill Hall to the aforementioned Tennesse and letting Mat Gamel (rumoured to be a great hitter) do just that. You could bring up Alcides Escobar and let JJ Hardy go for some pitching, but that would upset some of the fan base and surely affect the numbers you bring in at the gate from the female delegation. Point is, there are hitters in our organization already and there is depth at hitting available to trade it to get the pitching we so desperately need. Again, that time has passed us by if we dont want to overpay, which nobody seems to want to do. Short answer: We need another hitter to play in the actual game. We don't need to go outside the organization to get one.

We needed to move prospects or a position player for a talented pitcher that we'd control for 3 or more years, and we did neither. I stated a couple of weeks ago that DM seemingly sat on his hands this offseason and I still got a red mouth from the lashing I took. The best way for this "small market" team to build and compete is through off-season moves. Once in 25 years, a CC Sabathia type opportunity will come along. I think that mid-season trade last season got some people assuming that DM can do anything when it comes to a deadline deal and that simply isnt true. Moves needed to be made in the off-season and they weren't, right or wrong, I don't want to debate that but anyone who thought this pitching staff was average to above average heading into this season had blinders on. And the hitting well, I can't believe anyone expected better out of that department as well. Too many hit or miss players that results in lots of 6 plus run outputs but also lots of 0/1 run outputs. Two major weaknesses heading into the season besides starting pitching were never addressed, another legit left handed bat and a player with a high on-base percentage who could lead-off. Well said Badger Bob, and because DM didn't adequately prepare during the 2009 off-season, we are now stuck in a position of having to overpay with prospects, which a majority of posters seem to think all of them are going to pan out and we cant give any of them away. The other majority think some schmuck GM out there is going to give up MLB starting pitching for a couple of guys in A ball, that doesn't happen either. Maybe none of that 2010-2011 starting pitching crop will pan out....just as our starters in MILB haven't panned out for the eternity of time. Why is the 2011 crop any different? So now, be prepared to either whine about DM overpaying with your beloved prospects, or whine about DM trading away your beloved favorites in JJ Hardy. I'll take the stance and whine that DM put himself in this position by not doing enough Circa April 2009. The Weeks injury hurt the hitting department. I think we'd be tops in runs scored if it wasn't for the Weeks injury. Starting pitching is the problem, but without healthy guys in contract years on rebuilding teams (ala Sabathia), it's just too late to do anything now.

Macha gave him no rope. Here's lets IBB Bradley and Soto... I'm so over this manager already.

Why was Gerut not running for Suppan in the late stages of the game earlier?

I don't think we're wheeling and dealing with the Cubs. Although cheap 4yrs/$9M, I don't want to give the Cubs 5 of our prospects for Rich Harden.

Just an irrational vent about having to watch Jody Gerut/Kendall/Counsell/ on a day you go for the kill. You steal one from their ace, then put out the namby pamby and give it right back when your ace is on the mound. Just frustrating.

Maybe a non little league lineup on a Sunday would help. Ned Yost always pulled that stunt as well.

The end of the blog says something to the effect of, "If he stays in the Majors (and doesn't get the normal playing time), the Brewers would consider sending him to the Fall League or Winter League (to get some more reps missed from not having regular playing time all Summer/Fall). Now that doesn't make sense. If this guy is penciled into a start for 2010, why risk the injury, etc getting him reps in the Winter. Let the man rest and rejuvenate and be ready for spring training.. no?

Other Brewers include Jeromy Burnitz, Gary Sheffield, Alex Sanchez, G. Mota, Eric Gagne also on that list

How long you going to wait to atleast talk to him Macha?? Gheesh. Sit on your hands some more Kenny!

I think there is a plan for Mat, I just don't like the plan. The plan is for him to spot-start twice per week and be a LH pinch hit bat. It serves it's purpose, but not the best option IMO. We'll just have to disagree that the coaching is better at Milwaukee than Nashville. Don Money has so many managing responsibilities as do the other coaches like TheCrew07 mentioned. Small sample size surely, but I think the time Randolph and Sveum have spent with him on a daily basis has paid off.