2012-13 Offseason Thread

[ROY 2 MVP Braun]

I'd sell high on any of these minor league pitching the Brewers don't feel comfortable on. Not every one of these guys is going to pan out, it's just a matter of deciding WHICH are the best ones to take the gamble on.

I don't think Hammy may be that far out of the realm of possibility, people will be hesitant to pay the big $ they would with an Albert because of the addiction history, we have the ballpark and also his former mentors that saved his life.

i no we need pitching but for the right price it'd be hella worth it!!!!
hamilton
braun
hart
lucroy
gomes
weeks
ramirez
7 very good hitters

fill in short with a good defender that can hit the ball

find a 2-3 pitching option on a nice deal give the other spots to the guys mentioned above....

find a few dependable and reliable bullpen arms which is really a toss up year to year and we would be better the the cards and giants this year IMO

our pitching wouldnt be the greatest but our offense could carry us for the most part! also with a whole season under their belts the younger pitchers will be more solid by the end of the season next yr.....


really depends on price of hammy though

[jay87shot]

YEAH I we signed Hamilton, Greinke, Edwin Jackson, and the three best closers we would be set. Come on we have a little over 20 million to spend and your saying we should spend about 40. We arent the Yanks or even the cards, heck we aren't even in the putrid cubs payroll territory. The crew has to spend wisely, Braun will eat up about 10 mill more in 3 years or so we can't just spend with no regard for the future.

[Young2Kinsler]

Here's my new idea for the offseason.
Free Agents) Dan Haren (2 years 24 million) Mike Adams (2 years 10 million) Juan Carlos Ovideo (1 year 3 million+team options), Eric Hinske 1 yr 1.5 mil
Trade) Chone Figgins for Kentrail Davis, Mariners pay salary

Lineup
Aoki
Weeks
Braun
Ramirez
Hart
Lucroy
Gomez
Segura

Bench
Maldonado
Gamel
Figgins
Schafer
Hinske

Rotaion
Yoga
Haren
Estrada
Fiers
Peralta

Bullpen
Axford
Adams
Oviedo
Veras
Rogers
Narveson
Henderson

Dan Haren isn't a Free Agent, and if you land Mike Adams, one of the best 3 setup men/next closers in line in baseball for 2/10 then you got some amazing macig pixie dust.

[long ball]

Starters:
C: Lucroy ($.85mm)
1b: Hart ($10.33mm)
2b: Weeks ($11mm)
3b: Ramirez ($10mm)
ss: Segura ($.5mm)
lf: Braun ($9.5mm)
cf: Gomez (~$3.4mm)
rf: Aoki ($1.25mm)

Bench:
INF: Gamel ($.5mm)
of: Schafer ($.5mm)
c: Maldonado ($.5mm)
ss/inf: ?????
of: ??????

Rotation:
1: Gallardo ($8mm)
2: Estrada ($1.6)
3: Fiers ($.5)
4: ????? probably an internal option like Peralta, Narveson, or Rogers
5: $$$$ Free agent: Dempster, Jackson, Mccarthy, Sanchez (~$12mm)

Bullpen:
1: Axford (~$5.1)
2: Narveson (~$.9mm)
3: Rogers ($.5mm)
4: internal option ($.5mm)
5: internal option ($.5mm)
6: Free agent
7: free agent

Internal options in the pen most notably include Henderson and Kintzler. In this outline I've got Veras, Loe, and Parra all as non-tenders. I don't see more than one of them being tendered a contract.

This puts the Brewers are about $66mm. Assuming they have about a $90mm payroll to start the season that gives them $24mm in 2013 to allocate over 2 bench spots, 1 rotation spot, and 2 bullpen spots.

I think the starter will take up about half of than money. That leaves $12mm for the other 4 players.

[jay87shot]

Haren has a 15 million dollar team option that is widely believed to be declined. Adams is coming of a arm injury I doubt he gets a huge contract, but after seeing what the dodgers signed Leaugue for I can see that being a little low.

[crewfan13]

And that's the problem, people always overpay for things in free agency, and it seems arms are the worst for that. I'm a skeptic on the big name reliever signing, because its probably going to be a bad deal. In order to sign a decent reliever, you have to overpay, and when you overpay, everyone looks back on the deal in 2 years and says it was horrible.

[long ball]

Looks like they're clearing away most of the arbitration eligible guys. Morgan, loe, Veras, ishikawa. Parra could be next. Narveson is perhaps the most interesting choice.

Harem is officially a free agent so that's another solid starter available. I'm still leaning towards dempster because he might be open to a two year deal.

[tarheels11]

Brewers signed michael olmsted- 6'7 pitcher

[crewfan13]

I don't know what Melvin's obsession is with big pitchers, but he really loves him some 6'5"+ pitchers. I don't know much about this dude, so I can't really comment on the signing, but it seems every target we have is a big, hard-throwing guy.

[behnke2017]

Scouting Report: Large framed right-hander with a 3/4 delivery. Arsenal includes a low-90s fastball, a low-80s slider, and a low-70s curveball. Spent two seasons at the lower levels of the Mets' system before undergoing Tommy John surgery, then moving on to play in Japan.

http://www.soxprospects.com/players/olmsted-michael.htm

[brewboy288]

If we keep signing these no name relievers, we may as well go out and pay Hamilton. Weve tried the young guy nobody knows card. We need proven arms in the pen.

[long ball]

Relax. Free agency hasn't even started yet. This guy likely won't make the team out of spring.

[crewfan13]

If we keep signing these no name relievers, we may as well go out and pay Hamilton. Weve tried the young guy nobody knows card. We need proven arms in the pen.

Refer to all of my previous posts. I will continue to be a broken record until someone can prove me wrong. There really isn't such a thing as a "proven arm" out of the bullpen. Relief pitchers have up and down years every year and there's very little consistency. The only ones who tend to be somewhat consistent are the top of the line closers. We aren't signing one of those, but outside of that, there are very few "setup" quality guys who are consistently good year in and year out, and who won't be vastly overpaid in free agency.

Really the only way to get a great bullpen is to develop some arms from within or get a couple lucky minor league signings that turn out. The best bullpen in the league last year was the Reds. Outside of signing Chapman and trading for Broxton, the rest of the bullpen is made up of relatively unheralded signings and internal options who all put together good years at the same time. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Reds next year are middle of the pack or worse for bullpen pitching.

[behnke2017]

There's not many "proven" bullpen arms in the league. The only ones that exist will be hitting Cooperstown and right now the only active one off the top of my head is Mariano Rivera.

[jay87shot]

Im going to have to disagree on the proven bullpen arm theory. Relievers can have bad years but if you look at a guy who has a bad inning and works 60 innings in a year his era can go up a half run. Also there are plenty of proven relievers on the market in my opinion. There is no such thing as a sure thing but I think there are a lot of guys who can be solid over a 2 year contract. In my opinion no reliever sould be giving more than 2 years at a time. Here's some guys I would be confident in signing to reasonable deals as relievers.

Johnathan Broxton, Joakim Soria, Brett Myers, Ryan Madsen, Mike Adams, Juan Carlos Aviedo, Koji Uehera, Kyuji Fukikawa (probably), Sean Burnett, Joel Peralta, Jeremy Affeldt, and there are probably a couple starters that could move to the pen and do a good job.(I left Soriano becuase he will cost to much for sure)Jason Grilli, Matt Lindstrom, and Juan Cruz could potentially be added

If it were me I would spend around 10-12 million on the list above hopefully get 2 guys. Then look at some guys who could potentially battle for a spot and would come cheap. Guys like
Kyle Farnsworth, Joey Devine, Brad Penny, and a couple other starters