Brewer update

Our Brewer editor has been awol since, well…a long time.  So we’ll add a few tidbits.

While it is unlikely to happen, should Mark Attanasio fire Doug Melvin, he won’t have to worry about writing a speech at the press conference.  He can just borrow the one Tom Hicks, owner of the Texas Rangers used after he fired Melvin after seven years.  I quote:

Doug Melvin built three division championship teams as general manager of the Texas Rangers, but he was unable to develop enough good young pitching for owner Tom Hicks. That cost Melvin his job when Hicks fired him Sunday after seven years.

One only need look at the recent draft selection of Eric Arnett (and Evan Frederickson and Seth Lintz, etc…) as cases in point.

On a side note: when you consider the qualities of effective leaders…does Ken Macha have any of them?

Brewers Hot Stove

I’m back, baby, I am back! Quite the HS football season, but now it is time to blog a little Brewer Blog. This should be quite the offseason for Melvin and the Brewers. The recent JJ Hardy trade cleared a little more than $14 million dollars off the book, gave us a Legitimate Defensive CF to replace an aging Mike Cameron, and the hope for a Starting rotation that doesn’t serve up the Home Runs like a buffet serving up Mangino.

First and foremost, thank you JJ Hardy for being one of the classiest Brewers to ever wear a uniform. 99% of MLB players and agents would have thrown an infantile tirade about his demotion 1 day shy of getting an extra year of service. He lost one year on his chance to cash in for the big bucks. We salute JJ on his class and honor. On the field, his effort and attitude were second to none. The guy was known as a defensive player, but still had some monster hits in his career and quite frankly was the blue collar type player that Milwaukee covets. That being said, it was time for him to move on as Escobar looks like the real deal. Speed is one of the toughest things to defend on a baseball diamond and the kid Escobar has tons of it. He will not hit for Power like JJ but will certainly get on base and cause some havoc while increasing our range at SS. We have dramatically increased our speed up the middle.

As for the new found $. What pitchers will we spend it on. Here are my hopes and wishes. First of all, Edwin Jackson from Detroit has always been on my wish list. Four years ago, the Brewers had talks with the Dodgers that included Matt Kemp and Edwin Jackson…Dude, could you imagine that. What kind of package would we have to entertain for Jackson is the question. Detroit has plenty of ML starters…we have none…so we should be a great match up for a trade. Is Matt Gamel worthy of this trade. I say, whole heartedly, YES!! Jackson is only 26 years old and has improved every year in the Majors.

Pitching Statistics

Career: Batting | Pitching | Fielding
SEASON	TEAM	G	GS	CG	SHO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	W	L	SV	HLD	BLSV	ERA
2003	LA	4	3	0	0	22.0	17	6	6	2	11	19	2	1	0	0	—	2.46
2004	LA	8	5	0	0	24.2	31	20	20	7	11	16	2	1	0	0	—	7.30
2005	LA	7	6	0	0	28.2	31	22	20	2	17	13	2	2	0	0	—	6.28
2006	TB	23	1	0	0	36.1	42	27	22	2	25	27	0	0	0	0	—	5.45
2007	TB	32	31	1	1	161.0	195	116	103	19	88	128	5	15	0	0	—	5.76
2008	TB	32	31	0	0	183.1	199	91	90	23	77	108	14	11	0	0	1	4.42
2009	Det	33	33	1	0	214.0	200	93	86	27	70	161	13	9	0	0	—	3.62
Total	—	139	110	2	1	670.0	715	375	347	82	299	472	38	39	0	0	1	4.66

You put Gallardo and Jackson at the front of your rotation….we are now back in the wild card race.

 We are not done yet, however. I would really like to see add two more pitchers. First of all, Mark Mulder, John Smoltz, or Bartolo Colon. They are all veterans of big games and none of them will cost a whole lot. Mulder is the favorite as he has a relationship with new pitching coach Rick Peterson, but the Brewers have nothing to lose on any of these guys.

Finally, I would like them to add one mid-level free agent. I hope to God it is not Doug Davis. I just fell asleep thinking about it. Hell no! John Garland, Jarrod Washburn, Joel Piniero, or even Carl Pavano.

These moves would really clean up the rotation and give us the needed shot in the arm to possible keep Prince around for a few more years.

While we are at it, why don’t we offer Prince the $100 million for 5 years???

All Brewers…All the Time– PRINCE

Finally, I can rant about the Beloved Brew Crew to thousands(well hundreds) rather than 2. Go ROTQ.
First of all, I would like to say that I enjoy every single second watching Prince Fielder. He is a top 3 everyday Brewer of all-time. According to Melvin, we get to enjoy Prince in the middle of the lineup for a minimum of 2 more years. Which means we have a 37.7% chance that he is traded by December 15th. Let’s hope that this tremendous middle of the lineup of Braun and Fielder for the next two years will be given the opportunity to make a legitimate pennant run. This of course will done with some pitching. PLEASE MELVIN give us a shot. Not to mention the fact, that the only way we will keep Prince around is if we are winning. Very competitive young man. My wish list includes a #1…ie Matt Cain, Dan Haren, Felix Hernandes and a solid #3…ie Jonathan Sanchez, Brian Bannister. I also wouln’t mind a shot at maybe 3 oldies but possibilities…Ian Snell, Carl Pavano etc, with the hope that they will turn into a Piniero/Carpenter.
Go Brew Crew