Lets give Mike Cameron some love

[Baldkin]

I just want to thank the San Francisco Giants, for out bidding us on Dave Roberts, which eventually led to Cameron coming to Milwaukee.

 

And thank you, Mr Cashman, you famed "Genius Yankees GM" for not calling Doug back and trying to jerk Doug around in the Melky for Mike deal.

[Diskono]

That is a very interesting way of looking at it, joepepsi. I haven't really thought of it that way but you are correct, great defense, work ethic, and of course some pop at the plate. During almost every one of his at bats I can't help but sing "Kissed by a Rose" by Seal. I have some of my fellow grounds crew buddies doing the same, I think he is Seal's long lost brother!

Ha! I thought I was the only one.

 

Last August, I started telling people he might deserve some MVP votes if he kept hitting through the end of the season. He didn't, but still had an excellent season. I was surprised there were so many people against bringing him back.

[Outlander]

I was at the game today and didn't think it was on the scoreboard but his HR today was his 1,500 hit of his career.

[TooLiveBrew]

ESPN's bottom line had that tidbit... which made me disappointed that the FSN (in-game) broadcast did not.

[phxMILWfan]

The Cameron-Hunter comparison is really interesting and really close. I never realized how similar their stats are. I believe Cameron has 3 gold gloves and Hunter has 6. I know a lot of times that can be a popularity contest or their hitting factors in. How close are they in the field? I'm trying to find defensive stats on them but I'm actually more interested in peoples opinion.

[endaround]

Cameron right now is better and its not really close. Hunter hasn't been the same since his foot injury. Hunter hasn't had a positive UZR/150 since 2005 and last year he was at -13.0 while Cameron was at +15.6.

[RobDeer 45]

I will throw lots of love Cam's way! He has been a very important piece to this team. I don't think you just look at stats with a guy like this but also how much he brings to a young team.

[PlayerHader]

He's so good in CF that I actually enjoy watching him out there. Can't say that about too many defenders.

[LaprilOne]

More love.

 

It is a pleasure to follow the arc of the ball, and then check Cameron's route as he nicely intersects with the ball. You almost feel that if the ball stays in the park, he will get it. His defense kept us in position to win Sunday (of course, in addition to his offense).

[Invader3K]

So, any speculation on what the Brewers might do in regards to Cameron after this season? I assume they'll at least offer him arbitration.

 

http://www.brewcrewball.c...you-do-with-mike-cameron has an interesting take.

[kramnoj]

The problem with any kind of estimate on what a FA will get is that you need to do a true market anaylsis of which teams would pay for a CF, how much money those teams would have to spend for the 2010 season, and how much they prioritize CF as their need compared to all other needs. Otherwise you have people saying that Orlando Hudson would get 4/$40M this past year, because that's what he was worth according to Fangraphs, and that's what teams usually give to players like that.

 

That's one of the things the Brewers hopefully do, and is a fair amount of work for a fan or a blogger to do. I don't envy Melvin's job looking at the next offseason. Do the Brewers trade Hardy for the best package they can get? What does he set as a minimum return before it's better to try and lock Hardy up or let him go and hope that he is a Type A and gets some draft picks in return? What do the Brewers do for C in 2010? Do they sign a veteran backup for a mil or less and split duties between him and Rivera, waiting for Salome to come up at some point? Do you try to retain Hoffman if he does well for the season? There are so many moving parts.

 

As for my opinion without doing all the research I just recommended, I think I would offer arbitration. Endy Chavez is actually an option as he is a a good CF defensively, but I wouldn't pay more than a few million on a one year deal. And if you let Cameron go and have Endy targeted as a backup and some other team outbids you, you're up a creek without a paddle.

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

If Cain comes back after his injury and is productive for the remaining part of this season, I'd have no problem with him being our everyday CF next year. He'd play good defense and maybe put up a mid 700's OPS. That would be an optimistic outlook, but if anything, it would give him a year of experience in the big leagues on a team that might have to do some rebuilding anyways. I'd definitely look into trading Hardy if we can bring back a high quality CF or SP. It isn't inconceivable, though, that we could have 3 rookies as everyday players next year so it might be a rough year.

[Hate those Rodents]

One thing I have noticed Doug doing is going with veterans about one year longer than we anticipate. I remember thinking Fielder would be up a year before and Overbay traded a year before, which didn't happen. I recall Hart having to wait longer than I'd anticipated. I think Gamel spends this entire year in AAA when most of us could pencil him in as a starter at 3B by now. I think Doug really doesn't want to put rookies in the mix as starters unless he's absolutely positive they'll be an upgrade (given we are basically a contending team).

 

With that in mind, I'd pretty much guarantee Cam is offered arby if he keeps anything close to this up.

 

I also think Kendall is resigned and we have somewhat of a three player battle for the two catching spots.

 

Do we have an option on Looper's contract?

[Hate those Rodents]

As far as three rookies maybe starting, it'd be interesting to know in a year what the offensive productions of Gamel-Escobar-Salome vs. Hall-Hardy-Kendall would be. We no doubt take a hit at C and 3B defensively though too, but we'd save a lot of money and probably add two nice arms to hopefully offset that.

[Ennder]

One thing I have noticed Doug doing is going with veterans about one year longer than we anticipate. I remember thinking Fielder would be up a year before and Overbay traded a year before, which didn't happen

 

Can't say I agree with this, I think we brought up almost every one of our players about half a season too early. That is why most of them are going to walk before they even hit their primes.

[Hate those Rodents]

Yeah, I guess Hardy/Weeks/Braun/Yo maybe could be thrown in that category. And as long as we can resign Yo to add to Braun, I am pretty sure we don't need to panic about your last sentence. We should be able to deal the rest of them for plenty of talent to step in and help those two out and keep us competing for the playoffs pretty regularly.

[Ennder]

The timing on Braun and Gallardo was ok in my opinion, especially since we were legit contenders when they came up. We brought up Hardy half a season too early for no good reason and burned a year of arbitration on him. We probably brought up Weeks a season too early, we weren't going to compete that year regardless of the hot start and he had plenty of defensive warts to fix still. Fielder also probably should have spent another partial season in the minors, he was up in mid June and only got 62 PA at age 21, how much would another half season of work on his defense and hitting vs LH have helped him instead of rotting on our bench in a year where we were lucky to be .500.

 

Most of the moves I just mentioned were meant to get butts in the seats so maybe they were 'worth' it in the short run but in the long run we are paying for it over the next couple years by paying extra cash to keep our players and losing some of them a full season earlier than we should have.

[endaround]

Weeks was brought up because Melvin robbed the Nats of Ohka. If that didn't happen he wouldn't have come up. But its not like he was super young anyway. Fielder was up for 3 weeks to DH and went back down and then came back up at the end of AAA. He was in 103 AAA games that year so he missed like all of 30 AAA games.

 

Hardy yeah shouldn't have been up especially since by May he became a part time player.

[Invader3K]

Yeah, the Ohka/Spivey trade ended up working out well for the Brewers...it just necessitated bringing up Weeks, which may have been a bit premature. Though that the time pretty much every Brewers fan I talked to or saw post on this board thought he was ready.

[JohnBriggs12]

Weeks was brought up because Melvin robbed the Nats of Ohka. If that didn't happen he wouldn't have come up. But its not like he was super young anyway. Fielder was up for 3 weeks to DH and went back down and then came back up at the end of AAA. He was in 103 AAA games that year so he missed like all of 30 AAA games.

 

Hardy yeah shouldn't have been up especially since by May he became a part time player.

Spivey wasn't producing anyway in 2005. If you recall that year there was a big emphasis on ending the streak of losing seasons and not finishing like they did in 2004 when the team fell apart with a lot of veterans on it. Weeks, even in 2005, was an improvement over Spivey. Weeks was already down to 1 remaining option in 2005. He was going to get thrown in there one way or the other. As it turns out, they were able to use that one option in 2007 to send Weeks down when he was slumping badly. Hardy got the job because the prior year starter, Counsell was gone and Hall had a poor year in 2004. They long had ticketed Hardy as the starting SS in 2005. A huge reason he started so slow that year was because he missed most of 2004 at AAA.

[phxMILWfan]

Anthony Witrado blogged about Cameron entering the 250-250 club.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/45970002.html

 

Cameron is only the 20th player to ever accomplish this and has a legit shot at being the 7th player (unless I'm overlooking someone else beating him to it) to enter the 300-300 club. If Cameron can stay healthy and hit 50 more home runs and steal 9 more bases he will be in the 300-300 club. If you add that to his 3 gold gloves does he have a shot at the HOF? I've never looked at Cameron as a HOFer but maybe I'm wrong. The other players in the 300-300 club include Willie Mays, Bobby Bonds, Barry Bonds, Andre Dawson, Steve Finley and Reggie Sanders. Seems like an odd combination of players for a rare accomplishment. I'm not bringing up the other players to make a case for or against Cameron I just thought it was interesting. Just wanted to add that it looks like A-Rod and Soriano have a legit shot at the 300-300 club too. Carlos Beltran might be able to get there too.