klwillis45:

Torrealba just got bought out. I'd like to see DM take a run at him.

I saw that too. He would be an intriguing option.

radio silence:

So, maybe they just don't have the money to sign people?

Seriously, I get that they want $$$ for pitching, but going on the cheap at CF, SS, and C?

They've got the money.  3M attendance and a renegotiated TV contract.

I pretty seriously doubt that they've renegotiated it downward, so the cash is there.

They must be planning on making a splash in free agency.

brewhawk:

radio silence:

So, maybe they just don't have the money to sign people?

Seriously, I get that they want $$$ for pitching, but going on the cheap at CF, SS, and C?

They've got the money.  3M attendance and a renegotiated TV contract.

I pretty seriously doubt that they've renegotiated it downward, so the cash is there.

They must be planning on making a splash in free agency.

The cash to do what?

Anything? Fill all the needs? Make a few well placed moves?

I don't disagree that they have some cash to play with, but there are obviously serious limits on exactly what they can do.

brewhawk:

radio silence:

So, maybe they just don't have the money to sign people?

Seriously, I get that they want $$$ for pitching, but going on the cheap at CF, SS, and C?

They've got the money.  3M attendance and a renegotiated TV contract.

I pretty seriously doubt that they've renegotiated it downward, so the cash is there.

They must be planning on making a splash in free agency.

 

That's frightening.

Einsteinhood:

The cash to do what?

Anything? Fill all the needs? Make a few well placed moves?

I don't disagree that they have some cash to play with, but there are obviously serious limits on exactly what they can do.

Knowing that they have Cain to be a solid CF in the near future, I would have liked to see them use Hardy/Hart in a trade to get pitching.  Work with putting Gamel in the OF to fill the void in RF.  Get a 1-2year veteran CF until Cain is up.  Spend money on a pitcher within means because after this year and next there will be a lot of money off the books:  Soup, Hall, Fielder, etc.  I know arby will cut into that, but thats not your typical chunk of salary being gained from departing players.

There's plenty of room for Melvin to be creative, but it looks like he's refusing to look at anything other than what he feels are by-the-book moves.  That's something that a team like the Brewers can't afford (not in $$ terms).

Einsteinhood:

brewhawk:

radio silence:

So, maybe they just don't have the money to sign people?

Seriously, I get that they want $$$ for pitching, but going on the cheap at CF, SS, and C?

They've got the money.  3M attendance and a renegotiated TV contract.

I pretty seriously doubt that they've renegotiated it downward, so the cash is there.

They must be planning on making a splash in free agency.

The cash to do what?

Anything? Fill all the needs? Make a few well placed moves?

I don't disagree that they have some cash to play with, but there are obviously serious limits on exactly what they can do.

Slow down there, Tiger.  I took the underlined part to be a question of whether the Brewers were making moves because they had to reduce payroll.  That seems to me to be pretty clearly not the case, which is what I can point out.  But they've now cleared off about $15M from 2009, and you have to figure they are looking to replace Looper and now it appears Kendall, which means they've cleared $25M, with Bush and Hart the only 2 arby guys off the top of my head.

All signs point to major free agent pitching signings, not a pure Marlins-style salary dump. 

brewhawk:

Einsteinhood:

brewhawk:

radio silence:

So, maybe they just don't have the money to sign people?

Seriously, I get that they want $$$ for pitching, but going on the cheap at CF, SS, and C?

They've got the money.  3M attendance and a renegotiated TV contract.

I pretty seriously doubt that they've renegotiated it downward, so the cash is there.

They must be planning on making a splash in free agency.

The cash to do what?

Anything? Fill all the needs? Make a few well placed moves?

I don't disagree that they have some cash to play with, but there are obviously serious limits on exactly what they can do.

Slow down there, Tiger.  I took the underlined part to be a question of whether the Brewers were making moves because they had to reduce payroll.  That seems to me to be pretty clearly not the case, which is what I can point out.  But they've now cleared off about $15M from 2009, and you have to figure they are looking to replace Looper and now it appears Kendall, which means they've cleared $25M, with Bush and Hart the only 2 arby guys off the top of my head.

All signs point to major free agent pitching signings, not a pure Marlins-style salary dump. 

My mistake.

I didn't read enough into that connection though you clearly made it by underlining what he wrote and what you were responding too.

I agree with your overall premise too, though I don't think we would agree down the line on how to spend that money, probably.

Giving Doug Melvin $10 million to work with in a weak free agent pitching market is like giving a 5-year old kid a loaded gun.

 

It just can't end well.

 

btw, I say $10 mil because they dumped Cameron ($10) and Hardy (about $5), but Fielder is getting a $4 million raise and Riske (.250), Hall ($2.5), Hoffman ($2), Weeks, Hart and Bush are getting raises in 2010.

brewguru:

Giving Doug Melvin $10 million to work with in a weak free agent pitching market is like giving a 5-year old kid a loaded gun.

 

It just can't end well.

 

btw, I say $10 mil because they dumped Cameron ($10) and Hardy (about $5), but Fielder is getting a $4 million raise and Riske (.250), Hall ($2.5), Hoffman ($2), Weeks, Hart and Bush are getting raises in 2010.

Lets say Salome comes out this year and looks much improved, any chance hes Lucroys backup this year?

brewhas28:

Lets say Salome comes out this year and looks much improved, any chance hes Lucroys backup this year?

I hope not. A quality catching prospect with many years of control would garner quite a bit, I believe, in a trade if he's packaged in the right deal.

 

brewguru:

Giving Doug Melvin $10 million to work with in a weak free agent pitching market is like giving a 5-year old kid a loaded gun.

 

It just can't end well.

 

btw, I say $10 mil because they dumped Cameron ($10) and Hardy (about $5), but Fielder is getting a $4 million raise and Riske (.250), Hall ($2.5), Hoffman ($2), Weeks, Hart and Bush are getting raises in 2010.

They're getting most of that Hall raise back from Seattle.  Hoffman's was actually more like $1M.  Bush probably won't get too a big bump, but Hart will probably get a noticable one.  Kendall and Looper account for about $10M, and Ned Yost actually accounts for $2M.  I'd say they're probably around $15 to 17M below last year as of right now

Okay, so then Melvin has $15-$17 million to spend on mediocre pitching.

radio silence:

Okay, so then Melvin has $15-$17 million to spend on mediocre pitching.

Or trade for a guy who's good and the Brewers could lock up for a good contract.

 Is the only way to spend in your opinion at this moment through FA?

radio silence:

Okay, so then Melvin has $15-$17 million to spend on mediocre pitching.

Yeah, he's probably doing this backwards.

I'm starting to get the feeling that he's going to do a lot of things I disagree with this offseason. If that happens, then I'm going to be in the position of needing to be proven wrong on the field next year or I'll be joining CPK in the pitchfork and torch parade. Only with some sort of substance to the arguement....

;-)

radio silence:

Okay, so then Melvin has $15-$17 million to spend on mediocre pitching.

And probably a catcher.

But if you look at Cot's, we are assuming that they keep the payroll at the 2009 opening day level, which was actually a tiny bit lower than the 2008 opening day level, at $80.1M.

I can easily see this gettting bumped to $85M and even closer to $90M, which is about where they ended up at the end of 2009.  Again, you have to factor in 3M attendance for 2 years in a row, an increased Tv contract, and another increase in overall ticket prices for 2010.

So it wouldn't be entirely far-fetched to say that Melvin could spend up to $25M-ish on two starters, a catcher, a backup IF and a backup OF.

However, what I expect ot happen is sign a higher level FA pitcher, plus one reclamation project, leaving enough room for a mod season acquisition.  This gives him a chance to see what his reclamation project, Parra, and Bush are going to do, before overcommitting resources.