Building the 2010 Brewers: Who do we deal and what/who do we look for?

[Animal100]

Is there any way we could get Roy Halladay by trading some or all of Hardy, Hart, Gamel and Jeffress? With Riccardi gone, does that increase our chances? Halladay is exactly what this team needs...especially if we could get him signed to an extension for two or three more years. We need a front-line pitcher to lead the group and show Gallardo how to last more than five innings (right now Gallardo is really only a good #2/3 pitcher until he learns how to limit his pitches and throw a complete game once in a while).

Please no more Looper or Suppan in the starting rotation. I cannot stand to watch those two pitch. I would think a starting five of Halladay, Gallardo, Bush, Parra and Narveson/Butler/Whomever would be a monsterous improvement over this year. Yes, I do still have some faith in Bush and Parra being sub-5 ERA pitchers if they have someone behind the plate who is a little less predictable calling pitches.

Also, I actually would rather we trade Gamel over McGehee as I don't think his defense/work ethic will ever come around enough to have an established position and I think McGehee is more than a one year wonder.

[804Sox]

Is there any way we could get Roy Halladay by trading some or all of Hardy, Hart, Gamel and Jeffress?

Sure . . . But you'd need to add several of Escobar, Parra, Lawrie, Scarpetta, Peralta, Anundsen, Odorizzi, etc. too.

[Animal100]

I'm sure the Blue Jays would probably want another pitcher added to the list in a trade for Halladay (probably instead of Hart), but from what I have been reading on the Toronto papers, it's almost a foregone conclusion that he will be traded this offseason and now is worth about 40-50% less than what he could have returned to them at the trade deadline. Riccardi really messed that situation up.

 

I think the Brewers could put together a package of players to get him without hurting our team: Hardy and Gamel fit a couple of their needs and we already have their replacements on the MLB team; Jeffress does still have a ton of potential which their new GM might get "high" on; and if we have to give up another pitcher, it may not hurt too much because we have a whole group of equal potentials that are about two years away.

[804Sox]

I still think Halladay would cost 2 of Escobar, Gamel, and Lawrie

[joepepsi]

If the Brewers would agree to take Vernon Wells they could probably get him and Halladay for Mike Rivera.

[NievesNoNO]

It would probably make more sense for the Brewers to outbid everyone for Lackey as opposed to trading for Halladay.

[804Sox]

It would probably make more sense for the Brewers to outbid everyone for Lackey as opposed to trading for Halladay.

Agreed, however a 4-5 yr deal for Lackey takes money away from the resign Prince fund.

[marty22]

It would probably make more sense for the Brewers to outbid everyone for Lackey as opposed to trading for Halladay.

What 804sox said is obviously true.

 

Aside from that, I really feel like the brewcrew might go hard after Lackey this offseason; either that or Harden. When Melvin said, "We'll probably take some risks that we usually wouldn't take," I read that as, "We'll stretch the payroll for a pitcher or take more fliers on incentivized contracts to injury risks (Harden)." I don't really like the Lackey idea Long-Term, but it would be instant gratification and make the team better next year, and I'm confident it wouldn't turn into Suppan II. Harden is an idea that I'm a big fan of, on a two-year, high-incentive deal if he's willing to take one, of course. But, along with him, we'd have to accumulate VIABLE depth at SP, not just Mike Burns/CV/Mike Jones/Chase Wright.

[igor67]

I'm wondering how many of these injury prone pitchers we could snag relatively cheap? Say Bedard, Webb, and Sheets? It's way too many pitchers if everyone is healthy, but I'm not worried about Suppan or Looper being annoyed if they start the year in the pen. You know that your going to have these guys going down at some point, but there's also a good chance of getting stretches of of very good pitching out of more people than just Yo without hoping we can find the perfect match up to trade Hardy. It's not as clean of a solution as picking up another ace type guy, but it gets more talent in the rotation.

[Never Outhustled]

I'm wondering how many of these injury prone pitchers we could snag relatively cheap?

 

 

Boston picked up just about every injured pitcher available last offseason. The result? They wasted a ton of money. I'm not saying you can't catch lightening in a bottle, but its extremely risky. My guess is the team trades for an expensive pitcher, and then a few more pitchers.

[And That]

I'll take a shot...

 

1)Cut Corey Patterson ASAP

2)Trade Hart, Brendan Katin and a Michael Bowman-type prospect to the Royals for David DeJesus

3)Trade Hardy to the Orioles for Guthrie and Liz

4)Trade McGehee and Iribarren to the Twins for Anthony Swarzak, Philip Humber and a Chris Parmelee-type prospect

5)Sign Rich Harden

6)Sign Brian Schneider

7)Sign Jamey Carroll or more simply, add Adam Heether to the 40-man

8)Re-sign Cameron, Counsell and Catalanotto

9)Don't pick up Looper's or Weathers' option and non-tender McClung and possibly Bush*

 

Everyday lineup:

LF - DeJesus (L)

2B - Weeks

RF - Braun

1B - Fielder (L)

CF - Cameron

3B - Gamel (L)

SS - Escobar

C - Schneider (L)/Rivera platoon

 

Bench: Counsell, Carroll/Heether, Catalanotto, Gerut, the other catcher

 

Rotation: Gallardo/Harden/Guthrie/and two of Parra/Suppan/Bush/Narveson/Swarzak/Butler, probably in that order of likelihood

Bullpen: Coffey, Stetter, DiFelice, Vargas, Narveson, Villanueva, and one of Bush/Smith/Axford, probably in that order of likelihood

Closer: Hoffman

 

*I guess I can see the motivation behind non-tendering Bush, but only if you know you're going to bring in enough depth to cover it.

 

The AAA rotation would be Swarzak/Butler/Humber/Cody/Liz, along with Axford, Wooten, Hinton, Bramhall, Welch, Johnson and Baron in the bullpen. Not too bad for depth and potential.

[TooLiveBrew]

Is it too late to petition for Toby to replace Melvin this offseason?

[804Sox]

I'm wondering how many of these injury prone pitchers we could snag relatively cheap?

 

 

Boston picked up just about every injured pitcher available last offseason. The result? They wasted a ton of money. I'm not saying you can't catch lightening in a bottle, but its extremely risky. My guess is the team trades for an expensive pitcher, and then a few more pitchers.

For what it's worth, Penny and Smoltz both dominated in the NL this season. The year before, Piniero was the reclamation project, and HE pitched well after being traded to STL.

[MNBrew]

While at times the guy has driven me (and many of you) nuts, I'd exercise the option on Looper & hope he does the same. The guy was appreciably better than Suppan & Bush, plus he pulled of what he did on a crap knee all year. I'm guessing that impacted him worse than we know and may have had something to do with "finishing" his pitches -- or failing to do so -- since so many were left up & were hammered halfway to the Summerfest grounds.

 

From the "just playing" dept.:

 

Brewers get:

Halladay & Vernon Wells (& some serious salary relief from Toronto, too -- that's one ugly contract for injured-Hart-level production)

 

Jays get:

Hardy, Gamel, Jeffress or other A-ball/young stud pitcher, & Suppan

 

In other words, some version of the Halladay trade, but include Wells & Suppan in the deal.

[trwi7]

I don't think anyone will take Wells and I don't think the Jays will want to de-value the asset of Halladay by attaching Wells to the deal and also pay a bunch of Wells' salary.

[craigharmann]

Is it too late to petition for Toby to replace Melvin this offseason?

Only if he fires Macha. But seconded. Great moves. Would definitely love to see them happen!

[TooLiveBrew]

Trading McGehee away is like partially firing Macha. Sort of.

[TooLiveBrew]

Looking ahead to next season, no one at the Brewers will settle for the status quo. We have begun a thorough top-to-bottom review of all aspects of our business and baseball operations, and we will work diligently to improve our roster. We know how important it is for a team in our market size to develop homegrown talent, and we believe our farm system is well positioned to do that.

 

At the Major League level, Doug Melvin and his staff have already taken several steps toward ensuring a strong foundation for next season. Bringing back closer Trevor Hoffman, who is approaching his 600th career save, is the most visible move, and much more is happening behind the scenes.

That's from Mark A's annual open letter to Brewers fans. I just wanted to say (once again) how excited I am for this offseason, and I'd give just about anything to be a fly on the wall around Miller Park right about now. The comment I have in bold just gets me all hot & bothered! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif I know Attanasio isn't just going to say, 'We're doing squat right now!' -- but still.

 

I wonder which teams have contacted Melvin about Hardy/McGehee/etc. ... I wonder what trade avenues Melvin & Co. are currently exploring ... which pitchers are being targeted in terms of trades. Yeah. I'm a "freaking geek"

[marty22]

I don't know if there are any options on players like Jason Hammel, players that are out of options that don't have a spot, but we NEED to capitalize on these types of opportunities. Does anyone have any ideas on players like this?

[yoshii8]

http://ussmariner.com/200...es-2010-off-season-plan/

 

Dave at the USS Mariner says the Mariners should trade Brandon Morrow for J.J. Hardy, an idea that I suggested earlier. I would love to see that happen, although I think that we could possibly get another pitcher in that deal.

[Hate those Rodents]

I can't see us doing a trade with Seattle in which JackZ doesn't want it expanded to include a farm guy or two. So, yes I do agree Yoshi that any deal with them might be expanded to get us at least another pitcher as well.

[schmidty]

I know this is a little behind everyone else, but folks have been putting predictions for their teams up on facebook so I'll give it a shot. Sign Jarrod Washburn to a 3 Yr/22 Mill Deal Sign Doug Davis to a 2 Yr/10 Mill Deal Sign M. Mulder to a 1 Yr/2 Mill Deal Sign Matt Stairs to a 1 Yr/1.5 Mill Deal Sign Craig Counsell to a 1 Yr/2 Mill Deal Sign Jason Grilli to a 2 Yr/3.5 Mill Deal Trade Gamel,Parra,and Rob Wooten to the Red Sox for Buchholtz,Kottaras, and PTBNL Trade Telly Hughes,Bag of Crap aka Jeff Suppan for Melanie Collins and a 10 Pound bag of Skittles for Prince Lineup:A.Escobar,Weeks,Braun,Fielder,Mcgehee,Kottaras,Pitcher,Gomez Rotation: Yo,Washburn,Clay,Bush,DD Bullpen: Hoffman,Coffey,Difelice,Stetter, and Mcclung Bench;Gerut, Rivera,Cat,Counsell,Stairs

[nate82]

Rotation: Yo,Washburn,Clay,Bush,DD

Yuck. Washburn is washed up and so is Davis. That trade for Buchholtz wouldn't be enough Wooten has very little value and Parra is rebuilding his value and Gamel is the only player the Red Sox would actually be interested in.

 

The rotation would be horrible you just basically switched out Suppan with Washburn and Looper with Davis. Washburn is the left handed version of Suppan and Davis is just Davis.

[schmidty]

Yuck. Washburn is washed up and so is Davis. That trade for Buchholtz wouldn't be enough Wooten has very little value and Parra is rebuilding his value and Gamel is the only player the Red Sox would actually be interested in.

 

The rotation would be horrible you just basically switched out Suppan with Washburn and Looper with Davis. Washburn is the left handed version of Suppan and Davis is just Davis.

 

Washburn isn't that bad....... and you don't think I didn't give enough to get Clay and Kottaras?

[nate82]

Washburn isn't that bad....... and you don't think I didn't give enough to get Clay and Kottaras?

Have you looked at Washburn's GB/FB rate? It worse than Looper's and Suppan's and look what they did last year. Having a bad GB/FB rate in the NL Central wouldn't be a good idea. The FB's that were outs in Seattle and even Detroit will be HR's in nearly every park in the NL Central.

 

As for Clay it would take Gamel, Lawrie, Scarpetta/Odorizzi, and a PTBNL. You are not going to be getting Clay on anything less than that.