I realize that I have been lacking a bit on the interviews as of late, but today brings you a brand new interview.  David Pinto of Baseball Musings was nice enough to answer a few questions for Bernie's Crew about Milwaukee's offseason plans.  Here is a bit about Mr. Pinto (straight from his website):

In college, I discovered both Strat-O-Matic and Bill James, both helped me think anew about the game. Through the Abstracts, I started scoring games for Project Scoresheet and STATS, Inc. The latter led me to joining STATS in 1990 as their liason to ESPN, where I served for 10 years as the chief researcher for Baseball Tonight.

In 2001, I hosted Baseball Tonight Online for ESPN. When that was not renewed, I joined the blogging revolution and started Baseball Musings. I now blog full time and love every minute of it.

Let's get to the interview.

Bernie's Crew: What is Doug Melvin's plan this offseason?

David Pinto: Melvin’s plan is not clear to me.  His pursuit of Sabathia indicated he wanted to keep the team competitive, but attempt to trade Mike Cameron indicated he might be cutting salary.

The Brewers are in a difficult position.  Their push to the playoffs should bring in more fans for next season.  That’s what usually happens when a team wins.  The team, however, faces two challenges in that regard, the faltering economy and a team that is clearly not improving with the loss of Sheets and Sabathia.  So it seems to me the Brewers are in a holding pattern, seeing how much money they can spend and how much other teams and free agents are going to demand.

D. Pinto: Ben Sheets should be on the Brewers radar.  Of course, they know him better than any other team, but if they think he’s healthy, they should be able to get him at a relatively low price, much cheaper than Sabathia.  The market for Derek Lowe is developing slowly as well.  The Brewers put together a pretty good defense in 2008, which is what you want behind Derek.  Again, they can get him for much less per year than they offered CC.

Jake Peavy is obviously available.  The Brewers own young talent, so I would think a trade would be possible, unless of course Jake put Milwaukee on his no-trade list.

D. Pinto: I think so.  He’s a better option for a year than Melky Cabrera.  I do, however, see why the Brewers would want to try out Melky.  He’s still young and might develop into a useful player.

D. Pinto: Is there really much of a market this year for first basemen and corner outfielders?  All these players are in or approaching arbitration, which is good since the team acquiring them would be able to control them for a few years.  But if my choice is Dunn or Burrell for a couple of years without giving up anything, I’ll take the free agents.  The Padres are looking for a shortstop, however, so Hardy to the Padres might work.  Also, if the Angels fail to sign Teixeira, they’ll be looking for a first baseman.

(Note, I’m combining 5 & 6 here)

D. Pinto: Brian Fuentes.  The closer market is very soft.  This is a chance to Milwaukee to improve a trouble spot without breaking the bank.

D. Pinto: I haven’t see a lot of improvement by NL Central teams this winter.  The Brewers, however, took a step back with the loss of both Sabathia and Sheets.  They have a chance to contend simply because they’re still likely the second or third best team in the division.  It will take either a spate of injuries to the Cubs or a collective falloff from some of their older players to get the Brewers into contention for the top spot at this point.

David Pinto does great work at his site, Baseball Musings.  Stop by the site, say hi and thank him for the interview.