crewcrazy

Capellan's deal with the Rockies was for the league minimum, if not a full-blown Minor League deal, IIRC. Hendrickson spent last year in AAA Omaha, and he went 11-5 with a 4.12 ERA in 27 appearances (18 starts). His K/BB numbers were still pretty bad, though...66 K's compared to 54 BB's. He also had a WHIP of 1.40. At this point the Royals are probably hoping he can be an average middle reliever some day.

I'm not of even legal drinking age, and I personally can't stand the DH. Sure, it's fun to play with in video games, but in real baseball it just makes the games more tedious -- it seems like every Yankees/Red Sox game is 4 1/2 hours long...at least games stay reasonably short in the NL with pitchers sacrificing whenever possible. Plus, like it was mentioned before, NL rules fit better for small-market clubs...you don't have to pay an extra $8 million a year to a guy who gets off the bench 4 times a game (which is why it doesn't surprise me that the Royals want to make the switch). The game seems to flow better in the NL games, and maybe that's why the inventors of baseball made it that way. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

On paper, it looks like it would help the Cubs a ton, but teams have tried to move him down in the order for short periods of time the past couple years and he didn't produce as well. It could be a psychological thing (Soriano himself says he hits better when he leads off, so it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts), or it could just be freakishly small sample sizes. Hitting outside of the leadoff spot is something he hasn't really done since coming over to the National League. Just for fun, here's a look at what he's done the past few years in terms of where he hits: 2007 (Chicago) G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS Batting 1st 125 542 92 167 40 4 33 69 28 121 18 6 .308 .345 .579 .924 Batting 3rd 7 28 5 5 1 1 0 1 3 6 1 0 .179 .258 .286 .544 Batting 5th 2 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 Batting 8th 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 2.000 3.000 2006 (Washington) G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS Batting 1st 131 541 102 159 38 2 39 81 58 130 38 16 .294 .368 .588 .956 Batting 3rd 18 72 12 11 1 0 4 7 7 23 1 1 .153 .235 .333 .568 Batting 4th 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 Batting 5th 8 29 5 9 2 0 3 7 2 5 2 0 .310 .375 .690 1.065 Batting 8th 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 2005 (Texas) G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS Batting 1st 22 98 16 27 8 0 4 7 4 20 4 0 .276 .301 .480 .781 Batting 4th 9 37 3 8 2 0 2 3 2 11 2 0 .216 .250 .432 .682 Batting 5th 123 497 82 134 32 2 30 93 27 93 24 2 .270 .315 .523 .838 Batting 6th 1 4 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 .250 .250 .500 .750 Batting 9th 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 2.000 2004 (Texas) G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS Batting 1st 16 67 10 18 7 0 5 6 4 9 2 1 .269 .310 .597 .907 Batting 3rd 116 485 61 136 21 4 22 78 27 102 11 4 .280 .328 .476 .804 Batting 5th 11 47 6 13 3 0 1 7 2 10 5 0 .277 .300 .404 .704 Batting 6th 2 9 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .444 .778

I can understand ESPN's love of Red Sox and Yankees coverage on the air, because that's what gets them the most ratings -- since they're owned by Disney, all that matters is how much cash they make. I just wish that they would try to provide good analysis online that isn't tucked behind the "Insider" logo. Unless you're looking for game recaps or game photos, ESPN.com is pretty much useless if you don't have Insider, and it's really a shame because it's not like they don't have the resources to improve that area. Lately they're shelling out huge bucks to bring in all these investigative reporters like T.J. Quinn, Mark Fainaru-Wada (I probably butchered that spelling, but he's one of the guys who co-wrote Game of Shadows), etc. but they could just as easily use that money to improve their basic baseball coverage. Honestly, they have the money where they could assign a beat writer to each team like MLB.com if they really wanted to. As a person who's not a fan of the MLB.com beat writers (nothing against McCalvy, who's a very good writer, but I just feel like they're pressured to be very optimistic considering it's the team's official site), I would love to see something like that, especially since the J-S leaves a lot to be desired as far as coverage goes during the season. But I suppose I'm getting too worked up about these season previews considering they're just throwaway columns that are a result of not having anything to write about for the next week. I'm sure I'll be a lot more upset with Sports Illustrated's Brewers preview than I am with Karabell's fantasy preview. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Karabell loving Bush doesn't surprise me much...a lot of the fantasy experts have been high on Bush for the past couple years due to his K rate stats, which can make him a valuable fantasy pitcher depending on what kind of league you play in.

Seems pretty obvious that this was done just to make sure Yost isn't seen as a Lame Duck Manager in the clubhouse. His job isn't any more secure past this season, IMO.

According to Jerry Crasnick, it's a minor league deal with Ensberg getting $1.75 million if he's added to the 40-man. He also has the potential to earn $2.25 million if he piles up 525 plate appearances. Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3224591. The Yankees' 40-man is currently full, but Carl Pavano, Humberto Sanchez, and Andrew Brackman are going to be moved to the 60-day DL in March, so Ensberg will likely get his cash then. He'll compete for the 1B job with guys like Shelley Duncan, Betemit, and Jason Giambi.

This is a nice deal for the Mets, but by no means guarantees that they'll make the playoffs, let alone the NLCS/WS. Pitching isn't what caused that gigantic collapse last season -- offense was. Jose Reyes was pretty bad throughout September and David Wright cooled off considerably as well. I'd be shocked if Luis Castillo and Moises Alou play as well as they did last year, especially at their age. You never really know what you're going to get from Carlos Beltran month to month, and that bullpen is still a huge question mark (they dumped Mota on the Brewers and didn't do much else). And they have Willie Randolph still managing out there, who could be considered a Ned Yost clone and is a guy that no one in New York has any faith in. As far as their rotation goes, I like Johan-Maine-Perez, but you don't know how much you'll be able to get out of Pedro this year (he pitched well coming back from rotator cuff surgery last year, but that was only 5 starts and something like 28 innings), El Duque is like 87 years old, and they just traded away whatever starting pitching depth they had in the minors. I could easily see the Mets faltering late in the year again, just as easily as I could see them winning the division by 5 games.

But Roberts is a *TRUE* leadoff hitter! On the subject of Seattle getting Bedard, I think it'll give them one of the best 1-2 punches in the majors, but they're still going to struggle to score many runs. Trading away your best hitting prospect (and possibly top two, since I've been seeing rumors that Clement might be included, too) probably isn't a good idea when you can't score runs and those players are nearly ML-ready.

Like Logan said, Santana has said that he will veto any trade to a team that can't sign him longterm. He's pretty much said that he's vetoing a trade to a team that's not named the Yankees, Red Sox, or Mets. Even if that wasn't in the way, I wouldn't like selling the farm for a few months of Santana...it'd be cool to see him in a Brewers uniform, for sure, but with how much you'd have to give up to get him, it would be nearly impossible for him to be worth it. That ESPNEWS clip is still classic, though. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

I was referring more to the Wendy years than anything...those were the tough years. I'll agree that Bud was pretty good as an owner before the financial landscape in MLB changed.

It should also be noted that the year Aquino *did* close for the D'Backs, they lost 111 games. Just sayin'. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Yeah, I think this is the year Suppan really starts to slip. I could see Capuano improving from last year (or at least getting luckier), but Suppan slipping a bit more. I'm also afraid that the casual fan base will be expecting at least .310-35 HR-90 RBI from Braun every year, and that could set a lot of people up for disappointment this year. Of course, he could duplicate last year's numbers and just prove to be one of those guys with ridiculously high BABIP's every year. I think Cameron will do fine, but will probably get off to a slow start since he'll be missing a solid month of play...I would gladly take 20 HR's from him, especially considering he'll be missing 25 games. As far as Gagne goes, I get the feeling that casual fans will treat him a lot like Turnbow -- they'll go nuts when he's on, but they'll turn on him the second he gets a 2-0 count. Aside from the $10 million deal (which a lot of people still think is a ton, even if it's a 1-year deal), the Mitchell Report thing probably doesn't sit well with the casual fan and they'll be looking for a reason to hate him. If we want to extend this to minor league players, I have a bad feeling that guys like LaPorta and Gamel won't improve as much as expected, and guys on suspension to start the year like Salome and Jeffress will lose a full year in their development, but maybe that's just more irrational fear than anything. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Chris Ray has had injury problems recently, and he pretty much lost the closer's job last year IIRC. He's a lot like Turnbow in that he throws gas, but it's very, very straight when he does find the strike zone. By the end of last season they were using Jamie Walker and Chad Bradford as closers. They threw a lot of money at their bullpen last season and they were just as bad as they were the season before...one of the reasons why I'm a little leery of the Brewers' new bullpen, but the biggest difference between the Orioles' BP acquisitions last year and the Brewers' acquisitions this year may be the difference between the AL East and the NL Central. I just feel really bad for Orioles fans. They have some young and promising players, but they know they have no chance. They spend all offseason talking themselves into believing they'll be a third place team with the chance of sneaking into a wildcard if everything goes right, and then something goes horribly wrong (whether it's getting no-hit by a rookie, giving up 30 runs in a single game, etc.). It may be blasphemy in Milwaukee, but I'll go as far to say that being an O's fan under Angelos is worse than being a Brewers fan under the Seligs. There's no hope of getting better anytime soon, and they have the added challenge of playing in the toughest division in baseball.

I can't wait to see Jose Capellan pitch at Coors Field.

I'm also going to go out on a limb and say this won't be the last time Milledge is traded for peanuts in his career. He's got Gary Sheffield written all over him, in more ways than one.

A Mets fan I know actually sees Milledge as being pretty overrated, and compares him to Delmon Young as far as his power not translating to the majors so far. He went as far to say that even if Milledge pans out, he won't end up with much better numbers than Ryan Church. I don't know if I'd go that far, but I think it shows that there's at least some Mets fans that aren't enamored with him anymore. But there are a lot of other Mets fans that are having traumatic flashbacks to the Scott Kazmir trade.

I'd say this means that Estrada's pretty much gone. Castro's their offensive guy and Schneider's their defensive guy. I like this deal short-term for the Mets, but if Milledge ever gets his head screwed on straight, the Mets could be regretting giving him away to a division opponent.

Miller was never allowed to be an official member of the union, but the union does include him in on retirement benefits and pensions, as far as I remember.

He had a very solid career if this is the end of the line, especially considering he didn't make his MLB debut until he was 27 -- a World Series ring, an All-Star game, and a good amount of money that he's been very, very smart with (baseball reference estimates just over $19M for his career). It wouldn't surprise me if he someday ended up coaching baseball at West Salem High or Viterbo University...he just seems like the kind of guy who'll always be around baseball in some capacity.

This kind of reminds me of last offseason when Rod Barajas was set to sign with Toronto, but backed out at the last second. It didn't end well for Barajas, and I don't see this ending well for Torrealba. Of course, he could be the defensive catcher that the Brewers are looking for... *shudder*

Kendall is about the only guy I can think of that hits worse than Estrada and plays defense worse than Estrada. But he's a gritty battling gamer! He doesn't even button his jersey all the way up he's so gritty! You'd have to think that even if you rushed Captain Lou to the majors this year he'd be able to put up Kendall's numbers at a fraction of the price, but I don't have the MLE's to be certain about that. I just have no idea why anyone would go near Kendall.

CC would have been my pick, but I would have been tempted to put John Lackey in second ahead of Josh Beckett, based on regular-season performance. Sabathia's K/BB ratio this year was just absolutely incredible, though (200 strikeouts and only 30-some walks).

Crazy stuff. Link: http://www.kansascity.com/744/story/334162.html Hillman is moving on to manage the Kansas City Royals next year, explaining why the KC Star was covering the Japan Series. I thought this was a cool story that you don't see very often. Now what will it take to get Yamai in a Brewers uni? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif

Alex Rodriguez also wins the AL Hank Aaron: link Not exactly an MVP, but a nice honor nonetheless for Prince. Here's to many, many more. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif