trwi7

Oh Glendon Rusch and Jorge De la Rosa in the same rotation. How fun!

Baseball America ranked LaRoche as the Dodgers second best prospect, Hu their third best prospect and Young their ninth best prospect. It's really hard to guage their values though. LaRoche and Hu have gotten callups and haven't been good at all. Young has performed decently but he's 26. How much growth does he really have left? Lambo is going to be 20 and is hitting .285/.341/.472/.813 in A ball. I guess it really just depends on what the Indians think. If it was me I would take the Brewers offer (though I might be biased http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif ) based on them being younger and having more potential than the Dodgers group. I would also pause when looking at Hu, LaRoche and Young. All have had major league callups and haven't performed very well, maybe a change of scenery would help but there's always concern that their bad production wasn't a fluke and then you face the fans' wrath of "How could you not know they were bad? They were awful playing for the Dodgers! How could you trade the reigning Cy Young winner for them!" That would have to be the most concerning thing in the mind of Shapiro. At least he wouldn't have to worry about that with the Brewers offer.

Umm I hope you realize that some players throw right handed (which is what you're talking about here) and hit left handed. Taylor Green was drafted as a second baseman and hits left handed. Brian Roberts is a switch hitter. Reid Brignac, a shortstop prospect for the Rays hits left handed, Dioner Navarro, the Rays catcher is a switch hitter, Jason Varitek hits left handed. There are plenty of examples of this.

I can't see Cleveland doing the Cubs deal unless one of the other two prospects is Vitters. So, is Shapiro paying Stark or something? The Dodgers have offered a nice package, it would be nice to know who. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

The Bob Melvin part had me laughing. The trade proposals he made had me crying tears of laughter.

A possible ironic twist of fate?

One of the best comments I've heard about all these Sabathia rumors is this quote from an Indians fan. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif

That's exactly right. If Parra nibbles with two on and nobody out he can throw a 95 mph heater either right past a guy or make him late on it and do nothing with it. If Villanueva nibbles with two on and nobody out he comes back over the plate with an 89 mph heater that's really hittable.

I saw one Cubs fan on another site say something like "I would offer anybody in the minors other than Vitters. That would surely beat the Brewers offer."

The Brewers petitioned that the sun in Arizona was too bright yesterday causing them to implode in the 9th inning. Selig bought it and awarded the win to the Brewers.

I guess he could but has he ever played there? First base isn't exactly rocket science. He should pick it up fairly quickly if the Brewers decide to move him there. Maybe have Gamel in AAA next year to learn 1B and have Nelson up at 1B next year. I'm almost positive that they would keep Prince next year if they were having Gamel learn first base in Nashville.

Interesting. I would love it if it was Rafael Perez but I'm guessing it's either Kobayashi or Betancourt as a change of scenery.

I can't be the only one who thought he was terribly overrated even before this crash down to earth.

Rosenthal is just relaying what he heard from the two guys he talked to within other organizations who are also competing for Sabathia. The guy wasn't even sure Escobar was part of the deal. He just said he "could" be part of the deal. Rosenthal is just writing down quotes from these guys, he's not saying Escobar is part of the trade.

Ugh listening to the Doug Russell Show talk about Sabathia is brutal, although I think this is yesterday's show and they're just replaying it. They're saying Gamel is a butcher at third, okay fine. Then the caller goes on to say that Salome has defensive issues as well. Again, we all agree. Then the caller goes on to say that he doesn't want to give up Escobar to which Doug Russell replies, ehh but he's not that good of a defender either or something like that. AHHHHHHHHHHH! Read brewerfan.net more, Doug. You might learn something. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

You sure about that? Weeks had a minor league OPS (not including last year) of .889, LaPorta is much better at 1.041 but Gamel has a career .885 OPS and that includes this year. Weeks also put up a .320/.435/.655/1.090 line in his second full year as a 22 year old in AAA. So while you could make the case that Weeks didn't perform as well as LaPorta for an extended period you can't say the same about Gamel.

Well if Sheets leaves next year do we even have a playoff caliber rotation with Gallardo coming off of major knee surgery, Parra, the mediocreness of Suppan, McClung and the less than mediocreness of Bush? That's why many feel the time to go for it is now. Sheets is a free agent after this year, he likely won't be back. The young hitters are getting older, we won't be able to afford to keep all of them so what do you do if you're Melvin? Just stand pat and hope every single thing breaks right, Sheets re-signs, Gallardo returns to his awesomeness before the injury, Parra keeps improving and McClung stays with a low to mid 4's ERA? That's the type of thing that gets GM's fired. Could this trade end up coming back to bite us in the ass? Definitely. If LaPorta turns into Braun it doesn't look good that we gave up six years of him for a rental. But what if LaPorta is a bust, Sabathia leads us to the playoffs or better yet the World Series and the players we draft with our compensation picks turn out to be good major leaguers? Looks like a pretty sweet deal for us then. Hell, this deal could still look great for us even if LaPorta turns out to be a stud.

If we aquired Sabathia and we didn't make the playoffs (which we won't) What's with this? We're currently 4.5 games out of the division and two games out of the wildcard. You can argue the merits of giving up six years of a LaPorta or a Gamel but saying for sure we won't make the playoffs is a weak argument. Now if you're talking about trading Rickie Weeks for Brian Roberts or something like that...I'm down. We need a lead off hitter...that will drastically improve our team. And C.C. Sabathia starting in place of Dave Bush or Seth McClung won't improve the team? They are going to be stars. Just like Andy Marte was going to be a star. Look, I know we need to keep the farm system stocked with replacements and that we aren't the Yankees and can't go out and sign big name free agents but we haven't been to the playoffs in over 25 years. We have a ton of depth in the farm system and we're withing 5 games of the division lead and two games of the wildcard. With Sheets' impending free agency and the likelihood that he won't be back NOW is the time to make a big trade to go all in. If we lose Sheets after the year and don't make the playoffs this year and go into next year with a rotation of Gallardo/Parra/Suppan/McClung/Bush what are fans going to say? And it's not like we won't get draft picks to restock the farm system. Could they be busts? Yes. Could LaPorta or any other prospect we trade for Sabathia be a bust? Yes. Is it more likely that LaPorta becomes a solid major leaguer than a guy we draft with one of the picks next year? Probably. Is the risk worth the potential reward of watching your favorite baseball team in the playoffs for the first time in 26 years and in some cases for the first time ever? Definitely.

I really don't know what to do here. I want to go to sleep and wake up to the headline "Sabathia traded to the Brewers." but I also want to be awake when/if it happens. So I guess it would probably be a good idea to go to bed now since I doubt they're going to announce trades at 2 in the morning. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

And I say as a birthday present to America the Indians trade Sabathia to us for Mota, Gwynn and Jackson. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

I could've sworn I read page 18. Apparently I didn't, I'm an idiot. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

A 1.56 WHIP and over 6 walks per 9 innings in the minors is fantastic? Apparently you and I have two different meanings of that word.

If we could get Sabathia without giving up Gamel or LaPorta like it kind of hints at in Haudricourt's blog I will make out with Ann Carroll.

But our bullpens have been below average Melvin's whole tenure. That could just be dumb luck but it looks like it's a terrible job of putting together a good bullpen by Melvin. You would think one of these years we would luck out and have at least a top 10 bullpen. Hell, back in 2001 I believe our bullpen ERA was 10th in the majors.

This is from a Cubs fan on another board. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/devil.gif Unreal. I can't believe that clown didn't walk the bases loaded to create a force at every base and allow the infield to play at double play depth but instead, with second and third and the winning run at second he decides to play the infield in to try to get the runner at home on a grounder. Just terrible managing.