Sheets testing the market

[TooLiveBrew]

But, my stance on his health issues has been stated a hundred times on this thread and others. I think its over-blown... Of course, I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV.

 

Clearly you stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif I'm with you every step of the way except for that 5-yr./$100M contract. My concern really has very little to do with health concerns (we feel similarly about Sheets in that regard). I just worry about any kind of contract that's going to tie up ~ 25% of a team's payroll for that long... especially a team that isn't in a mega-market. If Sheets would sign for 3 or 4 seasons, great. But 5 years will probably be the minimum to land him, and any team that goes beyond 5 would have to have the inside track at signing him.

 

It's not that the Brewers can't afford him, or that he would necessarily cripple the payroll in any given season, but I just don't like the idea that a guaranteed ~25% of the payroll would be locked down for 5(+) consecutive seasons. However, as I've said before, if there ever were a player for a team like Milwaukee to do that with, it's Benny (imo).

[Tbadder]

This is exactly why Milwaukee is still a small market team. We'll always be "damn if we do and damned if we don't."

 

If we sign Sheets it'll take up so much salary that we'll be bulging at the seams budget-wise. Remember, Fielder, Hart, Weeks, Hardy are all in line for significant pay raises, so that gets rid of all that "oh we lose Gagne, Turnbow, etc., etc., salaries" argument. In addition the Suppan contract escalates, so forget about dumping him in a trade.

 

Also, don't forget that there will be other free agents to buy--there's no help in AAA unless you want to say "we're gonna stick with Dillard and Stetter and Defilice come hell or high water." All those studs in AA are at least a year and a half away, and they're duplicates, so trades will be needed to fill holes--is that an option or poor planning and unnecessay risk?

 

So lets sign Sheets because if we don't there's no way to make the playoffs--aces do not grow on trees, and they are not easily obtained. Ka-Ching 100 million for four years. How many more of those bullets are we gonna take? This answer I know--none. Zero. Nada. Every other player who deserves a significant salaries is now gone. We're screwed in other words. We're not screwed in the sense of North Korea, more like The Netherlands, there's only so much to do, eventually the damn will burst. Big market teams don't worry about the levee breaking.

 

Now, lets pretend Sheets gets hurt next year, and this time it's his arm/elbow/shoulder--we're screwed. Either way we are running a huge risk, financial or competitive-wise. Do large market teams have to think that way at all? No, if Sheets goes to New York or Boston or Detroit or Houston or LA they can go to plan B. There's no plan B with or without Sheets. We're simply damned.

 

It's not like we're the Twins--they just reload from their farm system and "who is this Santana guy anyways?" The Brewers can't do that. They simply don't develop pitchers the way Oakland, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, etc. does. We happen to be great at developing one-dimensional sluggers. It could be worse granted, but it could also be a lot better. Hopefully with this draft we've got a more sensible strategy--that is, take the big bat first and then stock up on pitchers until you've got nowhere to put them.

 

In the end it really is a hopeless situation. Do the Cubs even have to think twice anymore? No, they just sign Sheets next year and if he's hurt, well, the Brewers don't have him and they're still better--only this time a lot better. Oh, and if we do sign Sheet they just take C.C. and they're still a leg up on us, or they don't sign him and they're still better, just not so much.

 

In essence, what we don't want to admit, is that just a couple of players, namely Sheets and Fielder, have decided our fortune as they laugh at us when cashing their checks. How's that not finger-lickin' good?

[Bucky Rules]

Thank you for completely depressing me Tbadder. I guess we should just give up.

[zzzmanwitz]

Happy Friday Everyone! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[TheCrew07]

I think it isn't shocking that in his free agent year Sheets appears IMO to have shown up in much better shape. If you're not in shape, you most likely will have injuries that someone in shape doesn't have.

 

I can't say I find it shocking either. However, none of Sheet's injuries have appeared to have been due to being out of shape except one -- the pulled hamstring from last season. Literally every other injury he's had (to the best of my layman's knowledge) has had nothing to do with conditioning.

Various strength coaches have hit on this topic 3 out of the last 4 years at one of the football clinics I frequent. Studies have shown a strong correlation between being overweight and being injury prone. The body does not handle the extra stress very well, but of course everybody's body is different and will react differently. Now that I'm thinking about this for the first time, Baseball isn't exactly known for it's conditioning of athletes, guys are like Kapler are not the average MLB player. I wonder if that has something to do with the injury frequency in a relatively non contact sport? Very short duration but very stressful (joints and muscles) repetitive movements on athletes in questionable condition... remember the Brewer 60 yard dash trials and how 2 or 3 of the guys hurt themselves just sprinting? This has peaked my curiousity... about all I really know for sure is that now that I'm back down around 200 pounds I have a ton more energy and I recover much quicker from workouts, even at 33 years old. My body did not handle all of the extra weight very well.

 

I would agree that by non scientific eyeball approximation Sheets looks to have taken better care of himself this off season, and I don't believe it's a coincidence. I know this is very much like the "Is Prince getting fatter?" conversation earlier this month which I stayed away from, but everything I've read, have been told, and have witnessed personally leads to me to believe that there is a strong correlation between conditioning and injuries.

[LaprilOne]

but everything I've read, have been told, and have witnessed personally leads to me to believe that there is a strong correlation between conditioning and injuries.

 

Yet, blisters and inner ear syndromes, and even a lat pull (more about flexibility, not weight) (although a good stretching regimen helps, not including 12 ounce curls) have nothing to do with "in shape."

[TheCrew07]

Well conditioning includes stretching... you don't do one without the other... and in fact I haven't seen a MLB player that didn't stretch before a game, and when I go down to Miller Park I get there early enough to catch BP. Though I normally don't pay attention to the pitchers, but I'd assume they are stretching before their off day throwing programs. However I do agree with the spirit of your post.