John Smoltz

[miggs721]

Also on MLBTR, I wouldn't mind him at all, but I suspect St. Louis will bring him back

[Hate those Rodents]

Yep, I doubt we get him. Pavano we might though. I almost get the feeling we actually might get Prince signed and the plan then is going to be to get starters that are good but quite old that we'd only have to sign for like two years. With that in mind, I get the feeling we are going to wait for the starting pitching that should be at AA next year and would rather avoid a longterm, expensive contract with any free agent.

[HiAndTight]

It'd be shocked if we got Prince signed simply because of the Boras issue.

 

What would it take for Boras to say it was alright for Prince to give up his right to test the open market? 22 million per year over 5? 25 over 5? I don't know, but I don't think it'd be wise.

 

I do agree Mark A is going to try and possibly get Prince signed when he becomes a Free Agent, I just don't believe it's in our best interest.

 

As far as Smoltz, I'd love to sign him. I wanted to sign him last year as a FA. I really like the idea of going after 2-3 of those types, John Smoltz, Duke from the A's, Mulder for the price of 1, even Ben Sheets, and then going after one legit, more reliable starters.

 

Trade for Lowe in a deal in which the Brewers pay him maybe 10 this year and 12 from there on, sign Sheets for 1 year 4.5 with 3 in incentives, a team option for 14 next year or a 1.5 buyout, maybe a mutual option, Mulder for 1 million on a FA deal, and Smoltz or Duke for 3 million. That's 18.5 million, and from there on our, you just hope to get equal to one starter out of Sheets, Smoltz/Duke, and Mulder. A pretty safe bet IMO. Most likely Mulder won't do anything, Sheets will be lucky to throw 175, which would be incredible for us, and Smoltz possibly ends up as a reliever.

 

 

But I think that's the type of approach, however aggressive it may sound, for the Brewers to address their pitching without really locking themselves into anything long term.

 

 

Then after next season you have Suppan, Riske and Hall off the books, and most importantly, Mark Rogers, Cody Scarpetta, Mike Jones, Amaury Rivas, Eric Arnett, Rob Wooten, Zach Braddock, Willy Peralta, Alexandre Periard and Evan Anundsen are all either up in the big leagues, or at least knocking on the door(with the caveat that there will likely be injuries and set backs) giving us our next wave of big league pitching.

 

 

It just depends on how badly the Brewers want to try and bridge that gap with a competitive team and how aggressive they are willing to be in order to get that accomplished.

[yoshii8]

I would love to see Smoltz sign w/ the Brewers. I know Melvin was interested in him last off-season, so I would imagine he is probably still interested.