What would be the most preferable combination of 2B, 3B, and SS starters for the 2009 Brewers, taking both offense and defense into account? I like the idea of Gamel at 3B and Escobar at 2B ... It would add another LH bat in the lineup, and Escobar's defensive skills would offset Gamel's lack of defensive skills.  I would hate to move Hardy to 3B, only to have Gamel arrive shortly thereafter.  

That's just my opinion ... Vote for your preference in the poll! 

sorry about that, but I just found Christina Kahrl's take on the Brewers' off season.  Again, no link possible, so enjoy

What Do They Need? They need pitching, especially starting pitching. Despite pushing their way into the playoff picture the last two seasons, the Brewers' bid on future contention is highly contingent on their ability to retain or replace at least one of their free-agent aces, CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets. The despair creeping into GM Doug Melvin's public pronouncements on the subject of Sabathia betray a sense of how fragile their immediate odds on keeping up with the Cubs are.

What Do They Have? Even if last year's decision to go for broke didn't engender some fondness for Beertown in Sabathia, there's enough good stuff in-house or on the way up to nevertheless leave Brewers fans relatively optimistic about the picture over the next several seasons, if not so much over 2009. With shortstop Alcides Escobar, catcher Angel Salome, and slugger Mat Gamel all nearly ready, an outstanding young core in the lineup is about to become better still.

What Are They Likely To Do? They'll offer every cent they can to try and keep Sabathia, because Sheets won't fill the bill, nor will any of the other realistic alternatives on the market. Failing that, 2009 becomes a bit of a re-gearing year for the the franchise. Either way, they'll dangle Escobar because they already have a slick-fielding shortstop with some sock in J.J. Hardy, and offering either around would be their best tack in trade talks. Whatever the outcome on Sabathia, they'll wind up taking their chances on the lead-gloved Gamel as their third baseman, and await the arrival of Salome to provide an upgrade on Jason Kendall behind the plate.

What Should They Do? Signing Kerry Wood to make the rivalry with Wrigleyville's nine that much more of a grudge match would make things interesting. With the surplus of young talent in the organization, sneaking into the Peavy negotiations might be plausible, if only because the Padres need young talent. As far as additional action items, they need to make Mike Cameron a Yankee before the Bombers think the better of it. If they settle for young pitching and Melky Cabrera, they're still left to deal with the question of whether and when Rickie Weeks is ever going to settle in; if they put together a package to get Robinson Cano, they can solve that by making Weeks their center fielder. Whether they keep Sabathia or not, they need to take a risk on a journeyman starter from among Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, or Jon Lieber to help round out a rotation otherwise stocked with question marks.

When he's not pushing for a windfall tax on Big Oil or complaining about the free ride Sarah Palin got in the 2008 election, Rambling Al will sometimes talk about the Brewers and baseball.  Every now and again, he'll bring up David DeJesus, like he did recently when Kansas City traded CoCo Crispy to the Red Sox.  This is what MLBTradeRumors.com said about the deal:

The Red Sox trim payroll here, as Ramirez is not yet arbitration-eligible.  He will not reach free agency until after the 2012 season, so the Red Sox impressively acquired four years of his services.  The 27 year-old posted a 2.64 ERA in 71.2 innings this year while whiffing 70.  The Royals might have to add a reliever to compensate for his absence, though they're now at their payroll limit.  They're also a bit heavy on outfielders at this point.

Too many outfielders in Kansas City, you say?  That's too bad.  Whom do they have on the 40-man roster?

For one, I'm not sure why they felt the need to trade for CoCo Crisp, who (granted) is good with the glove and posted a not-horrible-for-centerfield .750 OPS last season.  Still they gave up a pitcher with decent stats under team control for a few years yet.

Regardless, I'd like to think that the emergence of Count Chocula in center means that David DeJesus, who plays left field and center, might be a little more available.  This is why I bring him up: he has a career OBP of .360.  He's not superfast (last season's 11 SBs are a career high) or has a lot of power (last season's 12 homers are also a career high), but he gets on base.  Did I mention that he hits left-handed?

Do you know of any teams that could use a left-handed leadoff hitter who plays centerfield and has a high OBP?  One under team control through 2011 for cheap?

DeJesus had already been on Moustache's radar last December, a few weeks before the Brewers signed Cameron.  Right around that time, a reporter for the Kansas City Star opined that DeJesus could be had:

The Royals are willing to trade him because they have a reasonable alternative in Joey Gathright and have two solid CF prospects (Jose Duarte and Derrick Robinson) who played last year in A-ball. But the only way they trade DeJesus is if they get similar value in return -- a young, proven, reliable player with a favorable contract.

That could be a No. 3 starter -- someone closer to a No. 2 than a No. 4; a corner-position player with some pop; or a long-term fit at catcher. Personally, I don't see that deal out there at the moment, but the Royals are willing to listen.

I can't imagine we'd have pitching to trade, and nothing jumps out at me for a power corner outfielder (though, I admit, my first thought immediately went to DeJesus + Grienke for Hart).  However, in Angel Salome and Jonathan Lucroy, we have two catchers in our system who, IIRC, are well-regarded offensively, plus I think Lawrie (who is absent on our Asatte Ultra Strike corner on BCB!) is also spending time behind the dish.  I wonder if one of them could pry DeJesus, especially given the extra CF the Royals have already.

Admittedly, this idea made a lot more sense before we picked up Cameron's option for 2009.  However, given our current options for CF in 2010 (or in 2009 if Cameron gets hurt) --- TG Jr and, well, TG Jr --- I think it's worth pursuing.  Even moreso if we can revive the Yankees' interest in Cameron and stock up on some much-needed pitching.

According to Tom H, the Giants and Angels are going to throw out bids for the services of one Giant Hot Dog (in Prince's eyes). 

via www.theonion.com

Now in my estimation, the bidding is going to get beyond the crew's means. It may be time to start seriously consider plan B... sign a #2 for behind Gallardo and a closer.  Who that might be, I have no clue.  I'm focused on Football right now, so I'll leave it to the rest of you to postulate

I'd put a link if I could, but I'm not allowed to on here.  It's on the JS's Brewers Blog.  Enjoy

Play around with this, critique it all you want, tell me what it's missing.  Do what you want, rip it to shreds, what do I care, it's what I do instead of working.

Biggest factor affecting the PVs is the PV of the NEXT contract CC will sign, and when he'll sign it.  The built in assumptions are that he stays healthy, and will be able to sign a bigger deal (in terms of PV) in 5 years than he will in 6 years.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=piOl0m1moh_9sSdNpeelZQw

Yahoo! Sports is reporting a pretty bland "Twins are interested in JJ Hardy" rumor (via the Chicago Tribune), but there's a throwaway line in there that likely is far more interesting to the BCB faithful:

Milwaukee Brewers general manager Doug Melvin says there hasn't been much interest from other teams in Hardy, who could be available because of the progress of prospect Alcides Escobar. The current plan is to have Escobar work with new coach Willie Randolph at second base during the spring.

All along, the impression I've had of Escobar is that his skills will warrant being an MLB starter, and not bench material, and that he is spectacular defensively.  I'd assume shortstop would be a better use of Escobar's range, but maybe it's simply a matter of you don't ask your all-star shortstop to switch positions to make room for a rookie.

Regardless, Rickie Weeks can't like this news.  Personally, I'm not 100% sold that Escobar's offense is for real.  Still, I'm going to assume that Escobar can make the switch to second base pretty easily --- heck, right now, he's probably a better defensive second baseman than Weeks is. 

Assuming this plan is accurate, I doubt that the Brewers are going to have Escobar (who hasn't played at AAA yet) break camp with the major league club and start at a new position over Weeks.  However, I can see Escobar starting at second base for Nashville in 2009.  If we reach the end of May and Escobar is playing well in AAA while the notoriously slow-starting Rickie is struggling in Milwaukee...well, I'd be surprised if a move weren't made then.

At the very least, I'd think the supporters of the "Move Rickie to Centerfield" campaign would see this as an encouraging sign.

In today's Mug, Ol Pete referred to Peter Abraham's take on the CC Sweepstakes:

It has been nearly five days since the Yankees made him a record-setting offer and not one other team has stepped forward with a rebuttal. The only other offer on the table is the paltry (ha!) $100 million from Milwaukee.

The biggest thing that has bothered me between this comparison is the 6th year.  The Yankees' offer is for 6 years, $140 million, whereas the Brewers is allegedly for $100 million over 5 years.  I think people get caught up in the 140/100 numbers, whereas the big difference to me is the 6/5.

Right now, the Yankees are offering CC an average of $23.333 million a season, whereas the Brewers' offer is $20 million a season.  In this comparison, the per-season numbers don't seem so far apart. 

In fact, let's say that the Brewers respond with a 6th year for $22 million.  The difference between the two offers then becomes $3 million per season.  That may be a lot to me and you and the Rally Lobster, but in MLB-Land, that's about 3/5ths of  a 2009 Kapler.  When you're making $22 million a season, you can lose $3 million in the cushions on your couch.

This is especially on-point if you take the big guy at his word:

I loved it here. It's one of the most fun times I've had in my life. It was definitely a blessing to be traded here.

Now signing pitchers to long-term contracts is fraught with peril (see Zito, Barry).  What I'm unclear about is the danger in going to a 6th year when you're already at 5 (especially when the Brewers would undoubtedly buy insurance on him).  I'm assuming it's all injury risk related --- at the end of the deal, he'd still be only 33/34 years old.  (And it's worth mentioning that it might be academic, as the Yankees could simply raise their offer to well past the Brewers' means.) 

However, I think he truly liked playing for the Brewers, which could be a big advantage we'd have over the Yankees --- I'd go so far to say that as long as the money is close, he'd choose us.  That probably won't happen so long that the difference is between $140 million and $100 million.  But if we're talking $23.3 million versus $20.3 million...I think he might stick with Cream City, and pass on the Yankees' record-setting offer.

So what do you think: how big is the leap to go from the 5th year to a 6th year?  Would that be enough to keep you from pursuing CC?  Be sure to check out the poll, and let long-time BCB reader* Doug Melvin know what you think.

__________

*This has not been proven to be true.

No...nothing to link to, more of a hairbrained idea on my part and I wanted to get the opinions of others.  I was wondering how the Brewers were going to get a LH bat into their lineup with most of the position players established RH bats.  Looking at Keith Law's top 50 FA's the other day, it crossed my mind that Adam Dunn could fit niecly in the brewers lineup.  While he wouldn't have a position right now, if the Crew were to trade Corey Hart, I'd love to see Dunn in LF, with Braun moving to RF.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Corey Hart, and his final month doesn't concern me as much as others.  But, The brewers have a decent number of OF prospects (Cain, Gillespie, maybe Gamel) who have proven that they may be ready by 2010 (or earlier in Gamel's case, maybe Gillespie too).  Dunn could slot into LF if Hart is traded, and then move to 1B when Fielder leaves, or is traded, at which point Gillespie or Cain could fill into the OF.

I realize that CF is where we'd all like to have Cain, and Cameron isn't a long term solution, so maybe trading Hart would make a hole in the future.  But, I really like the idea of Braun, Fielder, Dunn in some combo in the middle of our lineup.  Also, I think Dunn is one FA who could actually be a bargain because of his K and BA numbers, which, most of us realize, are relatively unimportant, but still seem to matter to many GM's.

So, in closing, sorry to speculate/dream, but I'd really like to see Dunn in Royal and Gold, assuming we could still get fair value for Hart.  Thoughts?

At the surface, it seems like the Brewers have lost quite a bit. Torres saved 28 games for the Brewers with a 3.49 ERA and gave at least a little bit of stabilization to the later innings (although not a whole lot, as any Brewer fan can attest to) after the failure of the Eric Gagne Project. Torres retired last week, and this leaves the Brewer bullpen slightly naked at the back end. But really, did Torres have that great of a season? How many runs did he really save for the Brewers?

Continue reading this post »

• Cubs acquire Kevin Gregg from the Marlins for prospect Jose Ceda
• Yankees acquire Nick Swisher and a minor league pitcher from the White Sox for Wilson Betemit and two minor league pitchers.