1st base options

[mancl]

It's likely that the Fielder won't be Brewers lst baseman in a few years given his contract situation and he is a better DH prospect than a lst base guy. One option to replace him is Gamel tho some think he is a better fit in the outfield or even 3rd base. There really aren't any top notch lst base candidates in the farm system meaning that free agency or trades will be the way to go. Who is out there who can be the Brewers long term lst baseman?

[Oldcity]

I suppose it could even be someone they haven't drafted yet, if they take a college first baseman. LaPorta rose quickly.

[Hate those Rodents]

I wonder what Brad Nelson could do. Maybe he never gets a chance, but say (knock on wood) Fielder goes down in early May. I wonder if he can hit .280, hit 25 homers and get 85 rbis and walk a bit. I have been impressed with him. Some people actually get better in the majors and he strikes me as a guy that might improve his play and numbers once he gets there. At least I'm hoping that is the case.

[sbrylski]

Why do you type lst with a lowercase L rather than 1st with a 1?

 

And Hate those Rodents is posting from two years ago, wow.

[ELCABALLO45]

Ok, If we HAD to trade Prince (And yes I know we don't have to and probably shouldnt and wont)...

 

Brewers trade P. Fielder to Giants for SP Matt Cain and another prospect.

 

Brewers don't sign CC.

 

Brewers trade Rickie Weeks, Bill Hall and PTBL to BAL for 2B B. Roberts

 

Brewers sign FA 1B Mark Teixeira

 

Brewers move SS JJ Hardy to 3rd Base.

 

Brewers 2009 Line up

 

2B Roberts

3B Hardy

LF Braun

1B Teixeira

CF Cameron

RF Hart

SS Escobar

C Kendall

 

P-Gallardo,Cain,Parra,Bush,Suppan.

 

And yes, I KNOW it will never happen and half of those trades wont work. But let me dream. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

I wouldn't mind Brad Nelson as my opening day 2009 1B. Especially if we got top shelf pitching from another team for Prince. How is Brad Nelson's defense at 1B?

[yoshii8]

Brad Nelson would be a huge downgrade from Prince Fielder offensively. I don't want to see the Braun, Fielder combo get broken up unless we absolutely know for sure that Fielder won't resign in 2 seasons, they are a very good middle of the order. If anything, I think we should be looking to upgrade the #5 spot in the order to give Prince some protection.

[southpaw121505]

There is no way we resign him, he's this bad defensively at this young of an age...I'm not saying trade him NOW, I wouldn't mind giving him an off season to try and lose some of that weight he gained and TRY to become a better defender. But, I don't see either happening and if they don't I can't see the Brewers even wanting to sign him long term. It's either trade him now or hope he has a good year next year without gaining anymore weight and moving him next off season.

[dadofandrew]

No doubt Brad is a 3-5 win decline from Prince offensively. That switch alone would probably lower the Crew from 7th in runs scored to 10th or 11th.

 

Nothing fans hate more than losing 3-2 and 2-1 either.

 

With solid options like Hatteberg available for nothing, Nelson is unlikely to be an option for a team that won 90 games last year.

[logan82]

I don't think Teixeira is a realistic option. We would probably have to give up our first round pick. He is a Boras client and likely to get crazy money. Other than that, I like him.

[endaround]

Not sure in what universe is a 39 year old Hatteburg coming off a 493 OPS season a solid option. Yes small sample but still 39 years old.

[JohnBriggs12]

Eric Hinske could give you a nice bang for your buck. Rays got an awful lot of production from him (.798 OPS) for an $800,000 investment. If say they did that Fielder proposal and picked up Mora and Roberts, Brewers would have statistically the number 2 3B in the division and the top SS and 2B assuming they held on to Hardy another year. Then they could go with a Hinske or even a Lamb platoon at first with (you guessed it) Bill Hall. That's not a bad infield.

[dadofandrew]

It's far from a good one though, and Mora and Roberts are stopgaps. Prince has 3 years left before free agency, I don't see them in a hurry to trade him.

 

And, needless to say I could care little how Hatteberg did in 52 AB's last year. He's a nice bench guy, and I'd just as soon go with him as Nelson or Lamb. Again, if you lose 40 runs at 1B, I'm not sure where you expect to make them up...Beltre was 25 runs better than the 2008 3B production, and he'd cost $12M. You just can't lose 40 runs and make it up 5 at a time.

[TheCrew07]

In my opinion the issue isn't if Fielder will be dealt, it's when. He's destined to be a DH, he's a Boras client, and he's not going to take any sort of home town discount or he would have taken the offer this spring. Talking about a loss of production after he's gone is a given regardless, it shouldn't factor into the equation. Al you're figuring runs created which is fine, but you also have to figure in how many runs his defense cost the team. Not only that, but in my opinion his shoddy defense cost a full season of Yo, which may also have a negative impact next season if he isn't able to throw enough pitches to get 200 innings, how many runs was/will that be worth in the end? If Yo doesn't get hurt, maybe they use the same prospects for a different deal this off-season, what would that have been worth? In addition if we're discussing trading Fielder for pitching, it's relevant to discuss how many runs a quality starting pitcher like Shields/Santana would save vs the alternative, and also the financial ramifications of having a cheap talented young pitcher vs a Suppan type for another 15 million. Unless I missed it no one is discussing trading Prince for another 1B, so it's not as simple as runs created.

 

Whenever Fielder goes, I would like the best possible return, that's all I ask. Whomever is replacing him doesn't have to be an all-star, he just has to be average and good with the glove. LH, RH doesn't mean much to me... just a solid player who's a solid defender and competent receiver at 1B. So maybe the net result of losing Fielder is 1-3 less wins in 2009, I'm not sure how to equate everything other than to make an educated guess. If the offense plays to expectations across the board and the young kids continue to improve we might break even 2009, the big dividend will come in 2010 and 2011 as Gamel vs current 3b/Hart, Escobar vs Weeks, Salome/Lucroy vs Kendell, Jeffress vs Suppan, and so on. There is a ton of hitting of talent that will start next year in AAA and AA, so I don't see the need to do anything drastic with the hitters, the offense will improve over time as the cream rises to the top, the team will have plenty of options. It's definitely possible to make up that 40 run difference a little bit at time with improvements in the rotation and replacement of failing parts of the offense. Who's to say that Hall and Weeks don't suddenly break out again? Just those 2 guys could cover Prince if they played to their talent level.

 

The one place there aren't any in house options in the near future is the rotation, which I'd rather not address through FA.

 

My point is simply this, the team might take a small step back in 2009 by trading Fielder who's leaving anyway at some point, but it will be 2 steps ahead by 2011 and maybe as soon as 2010. Taking comp picks for him down the road doesn't address any of the most the glaring holes in the team, and certainly doesn't help the team before Yo and Braun are gone. I'd much rather sign Teixeira for $15/per than sign a Lowe type FA pitcher for $15/per, there's much more value and less risk in signing a position player. I don't really care about losing the draft pick at the end of the first round since we're picking up 2 in the same range and 2 sandwich picks.

[Diskono]

Why do you type lst with a lowercase L rather than 1st with a 1?

Maybe he managed to get a typewriter to connect to the internet?

[3Putt]

Mike Rivera looked solid at first albeit it was a small sample size. It would be nice to have at least one .300 average in the starting line up.

[dadofandrew]

Rivera's OBP in AAA was about .300. The odds of him hitting .300 over any length of time is nonexistent.

[JohnBriggs12]

Just for discussion, let me throw another name out there: Dmitri Young. If he can get his health issues under control (I realize that might be a big if) I think he'd be a nice fit. He is the epitome of a professional hitter the Brewers have been lacking. He really doesn't have a spot to play in Washington if Johnson is healthy. I don't think it would take much to get him in a deal and his $5 million salary for 09 is not a back breaker.

 

Besides, all you'd have to do is take Fielder's name off the jersey and replace it with Young.

 

Another "out there" possibility, is to bring back Durham and play him at 1B in a platoon with Hall, assuming you've moved Hardy to 3B.

[dadofandrew]

While I don't think trading Prince will happen this offseason at all, trading Prince and replacing him with a platoon of middle infielders or a guy who can barely play 1B, or Brad Nelson for that matter, seems like pure folly. Now, if Prince could be dealt for Cano and Hughes, and a stopgap like an Overbay or Giambi brought in, there's an idea that could be debated.

 

Right now though, the talk of trading Prince and opening up one hole as you fill another, simply is not the way Doug does business. MLBTR lists a few 1B that may be available, and one option that intrigued me was Adam LaRoche. I don't see PIT wanting Prince though, so it'd probably be an unlikely, hard to imagine swap.

 

Just glancing around, I only really see the Angels and Yankees as a "match".

[jjfanec]

Would the Dodgers be a potential trade partner? I know it seems like Prince is destined for a AL team, but the Dodgers may think they are one guy away from making it to the series and Prince would be an upgrade from James Loney. I really dont know what they would be willing to trade but what about Prince for Loney and an arm?

It is hard to tell what the Dodgers are going to look to do this year with a lot of free agents including Manny, Furcal, Kent, Garciaparra, Lowe, Blake, and probably Brad Penny. I probably answered my own question because maybe a Prince trade would not work because they have so many needs, but they can address some in free agency with the money they have. JJ or Escobar could make sense there though? Maybe even Bill Hall as a utility guy?

[endaround]

Giambi is far from a stopgap. That said its a bad year to trade Fielder given the FA market. You have Texeria at the top and then Giambi as true 1b/DH options. But after that you have a bunch of OFers who probably should move to 1B/DH in Dunn, Ibanez, and Burrell. Then you may have Jones moving to 1B to keep him healthy. And Washignton is looking to move Young and Johnson.

[sbrylski]

Just for discussion, let me throw another name out there: Dmitri Young. If he can get his health issues under control (I realize that might be a big if) I think he'd be a nice fit. He is the epitome of a professional hitter the Brewers have been lacking. He really doesn't have a spot to play in Washington if Johnson is healthy. I don't think it would take much to get him in a deal and his $5 million salary for 09 is not a back breaker.

 

Besides, all you'd have to do is take Fielder's name off the jersey and replace it with Young.

 

Another "out there" possibility, is to bring back Durham and play him at 1B in a platoon with Hall, assuming you've moved Hardy to 3B.

 

The Nats have already said they're looking to bring in a new 1B - I say we target Nick Johnson.

[dadofandrew]

I like Nick J, but you need to have another 1B on hand to play 40-60 games that Johnson is hurt. No one even considers Prince's durability, but if he's 40 runs over replacement level, he's +40...while I'd say Johnson is 20-25, so if he plays 100 and Nelson/Dillon play 60, that's what +12?

[sbrylski]

I like Nick J, but you need to have another 1B on hand to play 40-60 games that Johnson is hurt. No one even considers Prince's durability, but if he's 40 runs over replacement level, he's +40...while I'd say Johnson is 20-25, so if he plays 100 and Nelson/Dillon play 60, that's what +12?

 

So you think we should target Dimitri Young, but you have concerns with Nick Johnson because of his durability?

[dadofandrew]

Nope. Young would also be a massive downgrade from Prince.