Ball And Glove

And that's two veterans they'll be relying on leaving without big-time impact players to replace them. I had forgotten about Gamel, but he won't be an offensive force during the current window anyway. Basically, a mid-market team that's not right on the edge of being really good gave up a ton of cheap production for a two year shot at winning and then their next window won't come until those draft picks develop (3-5 years?). If they were the Rays where they were right on the edge of being great and Greinke/Marcum put them over the top, that'd be one thing. But in their position, I don't see the reward being high enough to give up all they did for a good improvement (Greinke) and a mediocre one (Marcum). FWIW, extension talks with Weeks have been ongoing throughout the winter. He's at least been open about his desire to stay, which is more than we can say about Fielder. It's probably in Weeks' best interests to sign a short extension to prove he can stay healthy, anyway. Losing Lawrie hurt because there's no apparent heir to Weeks at 2B (at least one that's close), but the argument could be made that Lawrie's not a 2B, anyway. He's worse defensively there than Weeks ever was. I'm definitely uncomfortable with the farm system losing its impact players and nothing but potential role players left behind, but at least the division is relatively wide open. Everyone here is absolutely right that this doesn't guarantee the Brewers anything, but it at least puts them in the discussion at the start of the year, which is probably the best the organization can hope for. It's probably not best for the long-term health of the organization, but Attanasio's shown he's willing to lose money for a year or two if the team is competing, and Melvin is desperate to keep his job. It does make the next couple drafts very important, though. They really need to hit on quite a few of their high picks if the downswing after 2012 is going to last for less than a couple years. If they bomb or only manage to get a slew of 3-star guys like they have the past couple years, they'll probably end up like the Astros.

The good news for the Brewers' farm system is that they have two first round picks in what's considered a loaded draft, thanks to not signing Covey last year. They absolutely have to hit on those picks (and more) in this year's draft, though, otherwise they'll have to resort to trading the likes of Braun and Gallardo in 2013/2014 to rebuild the farm system.

He took out DeWitt. Was that the 9th? Yup it was the 9th and Pat and Ron said DeWitt was shook up. If thats the case I really hope someone plunks his fat ass. If I had to guess, Fielder going hard into second probably had to do with the 3 HBP's earlier in the game. I doubt many (if any) of them were intentional, but the Brewers are starting to get a bit touchy about the huge number of HBP's they're racking up this year. Since Ken Macha claims to be against retaliating by throwing back at the other team, it seems like Fielder's been trying to take matters into his own hands lately. There was a similar situation in Atlanta where he went into second extremely hard, and then in Pittsburgh he tried to kill the catcher on a play at the plate where he probably knew there was like a 5% chance of scoring. Macha's claim that the Brewers don't throw back at the other team is pretty ridiculous, though. He whined about his team constantly getting thrown at, then Kameron Loe goes out at drills Alex Gonzalez in one game, they hit Jason Heyward in another, and Todd Coffey threw behind Jose Tabata before hitting him on the next pitch. It's just stupid.

I was wondering how long it would take for a team to experiment with a giveaway like this. It makes sense for the Marlins -- you're only drawing 10,000 a night, so why not do something that you would think would create more noise? Of course, if you just spend the entire game blowing on them without regard to game situation or who you may be distracting, it's an epic fail.

I'd laugh about this, but we're probably a few days away from the same story coming out about the Brewers and Jeff Suppan. :banghead:

Haven't been around much, but just wanted to pop in to say congrats. The Cubs outplayed the Brewers in every game this series (and really, every game this year). I hope the Cubs fan that fell from the stands during BP is okay.

As brewersbrewers tried to explain, there wasn't much shady about it. League approval went down to the wire (there's that old story about the equipment trucks sitting in Denver after Spring Training, waiting to learn if they were driving to Seattle or Milwaukee), but it wasn't shady. A lot of people forget that Selig almost bought the Chicago White Sox with the intention of moving them to Milwaukee before that. The rest of the American League owners refused to approve the sale, though, because they didn't want Chicago to become an NL-only town. As for the statue, he deserves credit for bringing baseball back to a city that was heartbroken when the Braves left, running a great organization in the 80's, and brokering the Miller Park deal before handing over control of the franchise to his daughter. I'm sure you'll find many Brewer fans who would say letting Wendy Selig run the team into the ground is reason enough to not have a statue, but I prefer to look past that. ;)

Ugh. Fine if he's coming off the bench, I guess, but he's going around saying the Brewers promised him a chance to play every day against right-handers and starts when corner outfielders get days off. Carlos Gomez may be a worse hitter than Jason Kendall, but at least he can play defense. An outfield of Braun-Edmonds-Hart? Maybe PECOTA was right about the Brewers' 75 wins and 18 million runs allowed.

thankfully they don't have mike cameron any more. At least you guys can still enjoy the last year of Jeff Suppan. Derrek Lee is still OPSing something like 12 million against him, if memory serves. :)

Sheets would be a fantastic addition for the Cubs, and probably a Brewers fan's worst nightmare. For all the crap he got from Milwaukee fans while he was with the team, I still think he can be a very good pitcher -- I don't see him losing much effectiveness other than just rust from not being on a mound. From the Brewers' perspective, it's a shame that all the bridges seem to be burned. I do hope he finds success elsewhere, though, as he's an extremely likable guy and one of the best talents in the game when he's on. I just hope the success is with Texas, New York, Tokyo...anywhere but Chicago. :lol:

Losing the 29th pick stinks for them, sure, but I think they were more willing to bite the bullet considering they're getting the 20th pick from Atlanta for Billy Wagner. They essentially moved up 9 spots in the draft order and found a short-term solution for one of their weakest areas of production...if I'm a Boston fan, I could live with it.

I wouldn't count on it. With only a month left in the season, there's not much incentive for any team to give the Brewers much value for those players, especially with guys like Hoffman who will probably be a Type A in the offseason. Guys like Kendall and Looper I'd give up for a bag of baseballs, though. Someone has to want a heavily tattooed scary looking back up catcher who "calls a good game," right?

Things have gotten so bad that you could almost field a full roster of injured Mets. I heard someone in New York (I think it was Francesa) saying that they had 14 major injuries this year, and that's not counting injuries to highly touted guys in the minors. That's more than half of an active roster, for crying out loud. Maybe they'll pull a Yankees and just fire their strength and conditioning coach or trainer's staff...I remember that being Steinbrenner's solution a couple years ago when the Yanks suffered a slew of injuries.

Dunn's 3TO numbers this year are off the charts. 32 HR, 92 BB, 136 K. 51% of his plate appearances have ended with a HR, BB, or K. I think the only player with a higher 3TO% is Mark Reynolds (38 HR, 60 BB, 169 K).

Yost was fired with about 2 weeks left in the season, IIRC. Randolph never seemed like the yelling-and-screaming type in New York, but didn't the Mets retain Manuel because he was more laid back? From what I remember of Randolph, he wasn't much for public criticisms, but he ran a very structured clubhouse after operating under Joe Torre for so long. Maybe the Brewers will look at him as a possible replacement, but it's hard to tell what Melvin will do at this point. I only brought up the possibility of retaining Randolph because he was doing a lot of good work with Rickie Weeks before Weeks got hurt, and he seemed to connect with some of the younger players on the team. In Bill Hall news, apparently Doug Melvin has a couple interested teams and expects to complete a trade before the DFA deadline on Friday. Cincinnati is said to be interested and looking to shed ridiculous contracts of their own. I'd love to get Harang for Hall and some other pieces, but I wouldn't be too happy if Arroyo was coming to Milwaukee in that deal. Seems like either Harang or Arroyo are the two best possibilities.

Doesn't look like there'll be a trade. Arizona's still insisting on getting the equivalent of a 2nd round talent in return for Davis, matching the comp pick they'd otherwise get from him being a Type B FA after this season. If that's the case, I don't see the Brewers making a deal. If anything, they'll just take a chance on trying to sign him in the offseason. Giving up anything substantial in a trade at this point is probably pretty stupid.

I probably would've expected Hardy to return in September, but judging by the comments from Ken Macha and Doug Melvin (Melvin sat Macha down and told him that he's to start Escobar at least 4 times a week), it seems more likely that Hardy's gone in a trade before September even comes. I'll just be pissed if it's for Doug Davis, but it's not like Hardy did much to sustain his trade value. Even if Hardy doesn't get traded in August, he won't be on the Brewers roster on Opening Day 2010. Hall was probably a long time coming -- I don't see anyone taking him on waivers or trading for him, so it's likely the Brewers are going to have to eat the $8.5 million he's still owed. At least he won't be wasting a roster spot anymore, though. I wouldn't be surprised if the next head to roll is Macha's. It was pretty clear during the press conference that Melvin wasn't happy with the way Macha's been running the team, and we got that sense earlier in the year with the Mat Gamel situation (Melvin eventually had to send Gamel down because Macha just wasn't playing him and was wasting service time). He only signed a two year deal before this season, setting the Brewers up to have to make a decision this offseason -- they traditionally hate having their managers enter the final year of their contract and have to answer job security questions. Either Macha gets and extension this offseason or he gets fired, and I'm more willing to bet that Willie Randolph or someone else manages this team next year.

Yeah, who could have thought that losing Sabathia and Sheets would make the pitching staff bad? There were a few fans (I was one of them) that felt that having Yovani Gallardo for a full season would make up for at least losing Sheets, giving the Brewers a similar team to last year's pre-Sabathia squad. Of course, Sabathia pitched out of his mind for the Brewers, so it was going to be nearly impossible to replace that duo to begin with. I still felt this was an 85-win team if Dave Bush and Manny Parra could be 4-ish ERA starters. Bush landed on the DL, Parra imploded before getting demoted, and Braden Looper is shattering his career high for HR allowed. 85 wins is probably still possible, but they'll need to go 30-21 to finish out the year, and considering they've got a team ERA over 5 since like June 1 and went a month between winning series, that doesn't seem likely.

Things aren't great when there are posts on Brewerfan.net like, "Hey, Vicente Padilla was DFA'd! He'd be a great addition to the team!" The pitching is on pace to challenge the single season record for home runs allowed, Braun had a pretty bad July until that final week, the bullpen's been overworked from all the short starts, and they're getting absolutely nothing from their bench. Miraculously, they still have an outside chance at a playoff spot because they play in a division that no one wants to win, which leads to Doug Melvin making trades for Dave Weathers and Felipe Lopez when the team doesn't realistically have a chance. It reminds me of the 2008 Astros dealing for Randy Wolf thinking they had a chance at the playoffs, but everyone laughed at Ed Wade instead. I'm about ready to call it a season, but there's a part of me still clinging onto that weak schedule to finish August and the slew of head-to-head games in September. Part of me wishes the Brewers were far enough out of it at the deadline to explore trading the likes of Mike Cameron and Trevor Hoffman, who probably would've gotten decent returns in trades. I know Braun and Fielder are going about it the wrong way. But come on, it's no coincidence that the two guys lashing out are the two guys putting up the best numbers/are the most frustrated. This is a winning team with better pitching. Oh no doubt, and I can definitely understand their frustration. This is virtually the same team as last year's Wild Card group, minus Sabathia and Sheets (but with a better bullpen), and they're getting outscored at an alarming rate.

Things aren't great when there are posts on Brewerfan.net like, "Hey, Vicente Padilla was DFA'd! He'd be a great addition to the team!" The pitching is on pace to challenge the single season record for home runs allowed, Braun had a pretty bad July until that final week, the bullpen's been overworked from all the short starts, and they're getting absolutely nothing from their bench. Miraculously, they still have an outside chance at a playoff spot because they play in a division that no one wants to win, which leads to Doug Melvin making trades for Dave Weathers and Felipe Lopez when the team doesn't realistically have a chance. It reminds me of the 2008 Astros dealing for Randy Wolf thinking they had a chance at the playoffs, but everyone laughed at Ed Wade instead. I'm about ready to call it a season, but there's a part of me still clinging onto that weak schedule to finish August and the slew of head-to-head games in September. Part of me wishes the Brewers were far enough out of it at the deadline to explore trading the likes of Mike Cameron and Trevor Hoffman, who probably would've gotten decent returns in trades.

To be fair to Prince, I'm sure every Brewers fan has wanted to punch Guillermo Mota at some point. ;) Ironically, this happened one year (to the day) after Prince and Manny Parra had their little slapfight in the Cincinnati dugout last season. Latest news that no one's getting suspended, but Mota and Fielder both get undisclosed fines. It seems kind of weird that the speculation is that if Fielder would've gone after Mota on the field, he would've been suspended, but doing it "behind the scenes" (even though a camera was present) likely aided him in avoiding the suspension. It doesn't make that much sense to me, but the league's always given out automatic suspensions for on-field fights. As far as being quiet lately, I've barely been able to keep up with my team the past few weeks, let alone the Cubs. It's nice to see the Cubs finally starting to play up to their talent level, even if it's at the expense of the Brewers. I'm probably a little biased, but I don't think the Brewers are quite out of it yet. They have a ton of head-to-head games against the Cubs and Cards in September, and finish August with series @ HOU, vs. SD, vs. HOU, @ PIT, @ WAS, vs. CIN, and vs. PIT. Of course, I'd feel a lot better about that soft stretch if they didn't spend the past couple weeks splitting series against the Nationals and losing series to the Pirates and Padres, but a guy can dream. I'm fully expecting the standings to ultimately end up the way they are now, but I do think the Brewers will be in the race long enough that I can avoid watching the trainwreck that's going to be the Packers trying to run a 3-4 for the first couple weeks of the NFL season. :)

The Brewers are more than one player away from pushing the Cubs/Cards in the division race. I wouldn't be against a Washburn trade if Dave Bush was coming back soon, but if he's not going to be back until mid-August, it means the Brewers have to replace two rotation spots instead of one. At that point, it's better to keep what you have and just hope for the best, and make any deals in the offseason to gear up for a run next year. If Hardy is involved, I sure hope Washburn's not the only thing coming back to the Brewers. If Escobar is involved in a Washburn trade, I'll probably shoot myself in the face.

Fielder got a generally positive reaction, but there were boos for Braun. They weren't as loud as they were for Lilly, but they were there.

Keith Law, via Twitter: :lol:

I wouldn't be opposed to trading Hart plus a decent-ish prospect (I'd suggest maybe Angel Salome, but they're already set at catcher) for Vazquez, but two problems would arise from that: - The Brewers would be effectively left with Jody Gerut or Frank Catalanotto getting extensive ABs out of right field. While Hart has been anything but consistent this year, he's still better than either of those options. - Due to Vazquez's 2010 salary, they would almost have to trade J.J. Hardy in the offseason in order to make room for him. The budget is set so that they could possibly take the remainder of this year's salary without too much of a problem, but if they're going to pay the full salary in 2010, they need to create room, and no one is going to take Bill Hall off their hands. Instead of hanging onto Hardy and letting Escobar get more ABs at AAA, they'd more or less be forced into starting Escobar at short next year, for better or worse. Considering how badly the Braves have been wanting to get rid of Frenchy, I guess you could expand the deal to Vazquez and Francoeur for Hart, a decent-ish prospect, and a throw in, but I'd rather see the Brewers give someone in AAA (like Katin) a chance over a lost cause like Francoeur.