Ranking the GMs

[joepepsi]

Davis appeared to be a soft tosser in steep decline at the time Doug traded him. There is much gnashing of teeth on this site about trading a player while they are at peak value. In the 3-1/2 seasons Sharpie was a Brewer his ERA went from 2.58 to 4.91. He gained a full walk per 9 over that time. His K:BB ratio was a pathetic 1.56:1 that last season. Before coming to Milwaukee he was a guy struggling to build a career, with very limited success in the majors and a poor K:BB ratio. At the time of the trade it looked like Melvin had gotten the best Davis was ever going to offer as a MLB starting pitcher, so it was wise to trade him before the bottom fell out.

 

Vargas was nearly 3 years younger and coming off a better season than Davis while pitching in a hitter's park. Criticizing the trade in retrospect is revisionist.

[Invader3K]

I'd point out that while Estrada was not great, he was probably still an upgrade over Damian Miller as the starting catcher.

[Oldcity]

The sad thing is both Ed Wade and Dayton Moore were just extended.

[RobertR]

Davis appeared to be a soft tosser in steep decline at the time Doug traded him. There is much gnashing of teeth on this site about trading a player while they are at peak value. In the 3-1/2 seasons Sharpie was a Brewer his ERA went from 2.58 to 4.91. He gained a full walk per 9 over that time. His K:BB ratio was a pathetic 1.56:1 that last season. Before coming to Milwaukee he was a guy struggling to build a career, with very limited success in the majors and a poor K:BB ratio. At the time of the trade it looked like Melvin had gotten the best Davis was ever going to offer as a MLB starting pitcher, so it was wise to trade him before the bottom fell out.

 

Vargas was nearly 3 years younger and coming off a better season than Davis while pitching in a hitter's park. Criticizing the trade in retrospect is revisionist.

I criticized the trade at the time.

 

And, I think it's a mistake to only look at a guy's previous year. And, for that matter, I don't agree that Vargas had a better year previously. Especially if you ignore that Davis threw significantly more innings. And had a better K rate.

 

And, it's not like Davis was old coming off his age 30 year. Year, there were decline risks, but there was also a good likelihood that he would bounce back to throw around 200 innings of mid-4 ERA ball, which he did and Vargas has never approached.

 

As for Estrada, factoring in defense he was replacement level. Heck, if you factor in baserunning, he was likely below replacement level. And replacement level for a catcher is very low. You don't need to trade for replacement level.

 

That was a bad trade with obvious downsides at the time. (There's seldom a good trade where you give up the best player and the guy with the best long term potential.) Melvin is lucky that Eveland didn't reach his potential.

 

Robert

 

[snyttri]

I'm not sure how Ken Williams is ranked 9th. He's made some pretty awful trades in the past 5 years (Lee for Podsednick/Vizcaino, acquiring Rios's bad contract, etc), and the book is still out on the Peavy trade. Sure his team got hot and won a World Series not too long ago, but that might have been in spite of Ken Wiliams.

Ken Williams is pretty much wholly responsible for the 2005 team that lead wire to wire and lost only one game in the post-season and the Lee for Podsednik and Vizcaino deal was a key part of the Sox success. The Sox were limited to a medium size 75M budget when they won the Series. Trading Lee's 8M salary for two very useful minimally paid players helped Williams sign several bargain free agents that off season including Dye for 4M, Pierzynski for 2.25M, Iguchi for 2.3M, El Duque for 3.5M and Hermanson (34 saves) for 2M.

Williams seems to be ranked where he usually is. Iguchi was essentially donated by the White Sox to the Phillies because the Phillies got nothing from the Garcia for Floyd trade. McCarthy for Danks and Borchard for Thornton were one-sided. Williams traded for Garcia, Contreras and Vazquez. Williams has been able to acquire starting pitching without a highly regarded farm system.

Rios is a 29 year old former All-Star. I think the jury is out.

http://content.usatoday.c...spx?team=4&year=2005

[RobertR]

Yeah, I agree that the Lee trade wasn't a disaster at all when you figure in salary. It was basically a reallocation of resources. FWIW, I think it was a deal that worked out for both teams. The Brewers got a middle of the order stick that they couldn't get through free agency and the White Sox got salary flexibility.

 

Robert

[mletto157]

I criticized the trade at the time.

 

And, I think it's a mistake to only look at a guy's previous year. And, for that matter, I don't agree that Vargas had a better year previously. Especially if you ignore that Davis threw significantly more innings. And had a better K rate.

 

And, it's not like Davis was old coming off his age 30 year. Year, there were decline risks, but there was also a good likelihood that he would bounce back to throw around 200 innings of mid-4 ERA ball, which he did and Vargas has never approached.

 

As for Estrada, factoring in defense he was replacement level. Heck, if you factor in baserunning, he was likely below replacement level. And replacement level for a catcher is very low. You don't need to trade for replacement level.

 

That was a bad trade with obvious downsides at the time. (There's seldom a good trade where you give up the best player and the guy with the best long term potential.) Melvin is lucky that Eveland didn't reach his potential.

 

Robert

I really don't think any GM could win on this site. We criticize him for keeping players too long; even though it's extremely hard to predict someone like Hardy is going to have a terrible year after two very good ones. We criticize him for letting to of players too early; even when there's no evidence to suggest said player would keep producing at a decent level for years to come. I could keep going... but you get the point. Basically no matter how good a move seemed at the time, if it doesn't work out perfectly, he gets chastized. Come on, that's not even close to fair. No one can truely know what's going to happen with a specific player. We just have to take the evidence and work with it. And regarding the above trade; I think the evidence could have easily suggested that we would have made out better in this trade. That didn't happen because of many things outside of DM's control - and I really don't think he should be getting reamed because of it. At the time, it wasn't a blockbuster trade, but it should have been at least considered a solid move. And I think for the most part it was. Yeah, some people criticized it at the time; but you'll have that with any move... because some people are just more pessimistic in nature - plus then they get to tell everyone they were right when it does fail.

[RobertR]

There's plenty of threads where DM's been praised. But, there's also been legitimate debate over some of his moves and there's no point to claim that there's no winning. The Vargas - Estrada deal had some detractors at the time and the detractors were right.

 

Here, I'll toss in Baseball Prospectus' take on the deal.

 

Replacing Davis in the rotation is the other element of this particular dare, Claudio Vargas. He's effectively the guy on the spot to become the club's fourth starter, behind Ben Sheets, Chris Capuano, and Dave Bush. (No, that doesn't sound like a contender's rotation to me either, but this is the NL Central.) Although Vargas couldn't average six starts per inning, this was his first season with 30 starts as a pro, and he did manage to strike out 6.6 per nine, so you could reasonably wonder if he doesn't have some capacity for breakout potential. Add in a near-run and a half difference between his home and road ERAs (5.60 at home, 4.12 on the road), and you could even start thinking the guy's a good stealth candidate for a breakout season now that he's in friendlier Miller Park instead of the former BOB. He throws hard, and his slider works more often than not. So, why can't I shake this feeling he might just be the right-handed Glendon Rusch, circa 2002, but without the same track record for durability? The man's always been very homer-prone, and that hasn't all been the ballparks he's pitched in, allowing 13 homers in 87.1 innings just this past season, for instance. You can see what Doug Melvin sees as far as the potential upside, but there's also the possibility that this is his ceiling, and like Rusch, he might just be a nice utility pitcher as opposed to somebody you can really win with. I like getting him, but in the context of giving up Davis and Eveland, I don't like it that well. For this deal to really work, the Brewers need Estrada to hit around his career averages, and for Vargas to surprise a few people. It's possible.

"It's possible" is a pretty lukewarm take on the deal from a neutral party. But, the basic point being that Melvin was hardly getting ringing endorsements on it.

 

So, yeah, I think it's fair to hold him accountable for that deal since the downsides of the deal were apparent to most observers.

 

Mind you, I think Melvin is a good GM. He's rebuilt the Brewers and his track record in Texas is solid as well. But he does make mistakes, as does every GM, and deserves to be held accountable when they happen. Jack Z also has to do more than get the Mariners on the right track from awful. And if Jack Z takes credit for the Brewer farm system, he also has to take blame for the recent lack of pitching prospects. Mind you, I think he's a smart guy, but he's got a lot more work to do before he can really be rated higher than GMs that have actually won something.

 

Robert

[RobertR]

BTW, looking at the list, let me add that I think Mozeliak and Smith are too low and Hendry is too high. The Cubs are poised for an epic collapse of bad contracts given to old players. Maybe not this year, but soon.

 

Robert

[Baldkin]

BTW, looking at the list, let me add that I think Mozeliak and Smith are too low and Hendry is too high. The Cubs are poised for an epic collapse of bad contracts given to old players. Maybe not this year, but soon.

 

Robert

Don't tell Cubs fans that. Remember, last year was all Milton Bradley's fault.

 

Not, y'know, their 33 year old LF who's signed through 2014 hitting .241/.303/.423/.726 and leading the league in errors.

[endaround]

Yep both Robert and I did not like the deal at the time. And Eveland didn't have to break out to make it bad, they sold low on Eveland because Yost and Maddux just did not like him (not saying there weren't reasons, but he was obviously not going to get a fair shot in Milwaukee). Eveland was a main part in the Haren deal like I said. He had value outside how he ended up pitching.

[TheCrew07]

I really don't think any GM could win on this site. We criticize him for keeping players too long; even though it's extremely hard to predict someone like Hardy is going to have a terrible year after two very good ones. We criticize him for letting to of players too early; even when there's no evidence to suggest said player would keep producing at a decent level for years to come. I could keep going... but you get the point.

I guess if you expect all of us to agree 100% on any particular topic then yes, no GM can win, no single player can win, and in fact no point of view can win. That's the nature of the beast with these sites.

 

I don't think you'll find many people that don't believe Melvin did a great job turning the Brewers from a miserable franchise into an average MLB franchise, which I believe is where we are today. The question becomes how to get to that next level and of course this is where the vast majority of the debate arises surrounding Melvin. I've beat around the bush on this next idea because I have no way to prove it, it's just my gut feeling, but I honestly think that Melvin was burned trading for a couple of projectable pitchers between Texas and Milwaukee and has become gun-shy. His track record suggests to me that he's now into high floor players.... those players mitigate the risk somewhat, but generally speaking those players also have low ceilings. I'm just not able to get behind his pitching philosophy, especially when it's been an organization wide issue since he took over. He didn't work to assemble similar pitching talent to the hitting talent, and that's why we took a step backwards last season

 

I think his deadline deals open him up to criticism as well... were Lopez and Linebrink going to be the guys that pushed the Brewers over the top? How was Linebrink going to have a meaningful impact in less than 30 IP? Was offense the problem last season? It's not about him making trades, the team has to make trades to plug holes because FA isn't an option. I have a real hard time believing he genuinely thought that either trade was going to make a difference, at least with Linebrink we were getting comp picks on the backend, with Lopez there was nothing. My cynical take is that those deals were more about PR than they were about significantly improving the MLB team. From where I'm sitting he pissed away assets for little return and I say that even though Evan Frederickson is one of the MiLB players I follow religiously, he's one of my boys.

 

Finally, I think it's very fair to criticize the return he gets on his FA signings. Cameron was a great move.... but the way he burns money on the bullpen and for averagish starting pitching irritates me greatly. I've been on the record for quite a while now that I believe there is better value in signing position players than pitchers, and DM seems to have a knack for identifying hitters, so I'd rather he focus on trading for pitching and keep the continual stream of guys like Pods, Branyan, McGehee, Kapler, and so on coming.

 

I guess if I had to sum up Melvin in one sentence I would say that he's an excellent evaluator of hitters who struggles to identify pitchers with significant upside and doesn't spend money very efficiently.

 

I also think these lists are always completely subjective and it makes no difference to me if Melvin was rated 1 or 32, I'd still feel the same way about him. His ranking doesn't validate or disprove anyone's opinion, including my own. Without going into great detail I'll just say that Melvin isn't close to my personal top 10. Personally, I think he's in the middle teens some place and Jack Z would be right there with him. Z seems to have a similar approach but also has more money to spend. If I had to pick one guy to be the GM of my team it would be Andrew Freidman from the Rays, a young guy who seems to be a good mix of the old and the new, and I love how he built his team from the rotation up. In fact, there isn't one move that organization has made that I would disapprove of... even though the Burrell move has backfired so far, they didn't overpay for him and it's a short deal, and as I've said I fully expect every GM to miss on contracts from time to time.

[mletto157]

I probably could have predicted that you'd pick the Rays GM. You talk a lot about liking what the Rays have done. And while I can't really argue with you on most points... it seems like part of it that you gloss over is that a TON of the talent they have they've gotten by being the worst team in the league (or close to it) for years. They stock-piled high 1st round draft picks and got a ton of talent. Yes, they had to make the right picks and evaluate the talent - but I think you might overrate him slightly. I agree he is a good GM, but I wouldn't put him at #1.

[TooLiveBrew]

I agree strongly with Crew07 on Friedman. I think he's the best in the league by a relatively wide margin.

[Ennder]

I probably could have predicted that you'd pick the Rays GM. You talk a lot about liking what the Rays have done. And while I can't really argue with you on most points... it seems like part of it that you gloss over is that a TON of the talent they have they've gotten by being the worst team in the league (or close to it) for years. They stock-piled high 1st round draft picks and got a ton of talent. Yes, they had to make the right picks and evaluate the talent - but I think you might overrate him slightly. I agree he is a good GM, but I wouldn't put him at #1.

He did manage to turn Delmon Young into Matt Garza though, gotta give him a lot of credit for that.

[Invader3K]

The thing is, sure the Rays and Marlins' GMs should get credit for making chicken salad out of chicken-you-know-what. The problem is, look at their crowds. The Rays' owner just said they may be slashing payroll next season. Basically they've been able to capitalize off of being bottom feeders, and forced to trade star players for prospects. While that leads to very short runs of success, the model doesn't seem to sustainable.

[TooLiveBrew]

I like Friedman for more than the Rays' rise from the cellar. Imo he's operated very well so far in both trades & FA. I think that if there's anyone that can sustain success in Tampa, it's him.

[TheCrew07]

I hear you on the drafting argument, our resident BoSox fan has made that claim on multiple occasions, and I just don't agree.

 

Recently of course the Rays have drafted much higher than the Brewers, but it wasn't so long ago that both teams were regularly drafting in the top 10. Weeks, Fielder, and Braun were all top 10 picks. The difference that I've tried to highlight is that of organization philosophy... even while the Rays were drafting pitchers high, they were making some outstanding trades to acquire front line pitching. They knew they were not going to be able to compete player for player with the other teams in the division but they understood that pitching was king and they could compete by building the best rotation in the division. The Rays built from the starting rotation out, they were aggressive and jumped on opportunities to acquire pitching when they presented themselves. I'm not really talking about the steal that was Kazmir, I think any GM would have made that trade, more about the 2 Jackson moves and Garza. Young for Garza (and change both ways) was a pretty aggressive deal, and I think a pretty fair deal at the time. I feel badly for the Twins that Young has never panned out, maybe there was something to the PED talk though you'd think he would have gotten nailed for it at some point.

 

At any rate, there are some other organizations I admire around baseball... I know I talk about the Rays quite a bit, but that's because I view them similarly to Milwaukee, and they've done exactly what I've been preaching Milwaukee should do. Like I said in another post, I was shocked to discover that a team I had always written off had an awesome plan going prior to 2008 when I first really started thinking about payroll management and the best way to build a team. I was looking for organizations deep in pitching, then that led to how they acquired their talent, which led me to trade histories and draft analysis, and eventually led me to Cots and payroll analysis. That's why I started talking about trading for up and coming pitchers then, why I wanted to trade Fielder for Shields, and so on. I had these notions floating around that the team was going to stagnate that I couldn't put into words, and here was TB doing everything that I felt the Brewers should be doing. I never intended to beat the drum against Melvin's policies, it just sort of happened the more I studied what other organizations were doing... DM just isn't outside the box enough for me, he tends to follow market trends instead of set them, and I think a small market team has to be on the cutting edge.

 

I like what Cleveland is as an organization, I've heard glowing first hand accounts from a former player and Bryson's comments comparing Milwaukee to Cleveland were telling as well. Have I agreed with every move they've made? Not really, but I'm really into their organizational philosophies on a number of levels. I like what Colorado has done over the last 5 seasons, I love what Toronto is doing now, I think Cincy is on the right track (if Homer Bailey figures it out that rotation will be outstanding), and believe it or not I think the Nats are on the right track too. I have a hard time giving Cashman credit, he gave away 1 draft to acquire 3 all stars, that's a pretty obvious move... who wouldn't take 3 known players in the top 5-10% of all baseball over 3 draft picks? I do however agree that Epstein is pretty good, though they've made some puzzling moves lately, he's arguably done the best job of all the big market GMs in terms of payroll and building the farm system, Boston definitely has a good thing going. I'm not going to hold a contract like Ortiz against him... I do understand players with that body type tend to decline quickly, but it's pretty difficult to accurately predict when that was going to happen, which is part of the risk factor involved with Fielder.

 

Going into last season I warned that the Brewers were rapidly approaching the point where they would have the worst rotation in the division, I just didn't think it would happen that fast or the Pirates would have yet another fire sale. STL and Chicago can address the rotation through FA in addition to having some very intriguing pitching prospects. The Cards have just drafted Shelby who sits atop their prospect list, a very projectable pitcher from Texas. Garcia pitched at AAA last season though he hasn't been durable he's been pretty effective when healthy, Lance Lynn looks to be a nice back of the rotation starter, and they seem to have a future closer in Eduardo Sanchez who also finished last season at AA. The lame Cubs have

Andrew Cashnerwho finished the year at AA, Jay Jackson who pitched himself all the way to AAA last season before a demotion for breaking team rules, and Chris Carpenter who was plagued by injuries during college but pitched his way to AA last season. Cincy has done a nice job acquiring talent and I hope for their sake that Volquez recovers because that situation was so thoroughly botched, and the rehab hasn't gone any better. Cincy also drafted Leake last season who has an outside chance of cracking the MLB rotation this season, but likely in 2011... as well as Travis Wood who tore up AA last season, Maloney who saw some MLB time but I'm not all that high on stuff wise (think Cody with a better arm), and Boxberger who was a supplemental pick out of USC last year and has the best fastball in the season. Houston has some intriguing arms, 5 of their top 7 prospects are pitchers of various projectability, not bad for an organization with a terrible farm system prior to 2008. I like some of the Pirates young arms like Brad Lincoln and Tim Alderson (from the Giants), but who knows what will happen with them, it seems like I always like Pittsburgh's young arms and they flame out, get hurt, or get traded. Even Alderson has some major red flags, like his K rate and declining FB velocity for example.

 

If we're realistic and assume that 1 out of every 3 or every 4 pitching prospects are going to succeed then it's pretty easy to see how perilously thin the Brewers could be at MLB going forward. An injury to Yo and we're sunk, fluke or not, we've have no other pitchers of that caliber ready to contribute. Our closest projectable pitcher who is stretched out enough to enter the rotation is Rivas who hasn't pitched in a regular season game above A ball yet. We're competing against 5 other teams, 1 of which is a major market team and 2 are iconic franchises, we need to arrive at a place where we we have better pitching and more of it than our immediate rivals. Nearly every player I listed for CIN, STL, CHC had success at AA or higher last season... our best pitcher above A ball last season was Butler and he's been hurt thus far this season. Surely not all of those guys will have great careers, but there's no guarantee any of our younger prospects will either.

[snyttri]

...The problem is, look at their crowds. The Rays' owner just said they may be slashing payroll next season. Basically they've been able to capitalize off of being bottom feeders, and forced to trade star players for prospects...

Although they have low attendance the Florida franchises are among the most profitable teams in baseball because the owners don't seem to spend the money they start the season with before any tickets are sold. Their dumping of star players is sometimes for reasons of strategy or greed (depending on how you look at it) rather than because they are forced to.

Florida Marlins Rev-Sharing - Payroll
Year	Rev-Sharing	EOY Payroll	Diff
02	$20,946,573	$40,822,536	$19,875,963
03	$21,030,000	$63,281,152	$42,251,152
05	$31,000,000	$56,273,212	$25,273,212

http://bizofbaseball.com/...editorials&Itemid=39

"...In response to our concerns that revenue sharing proceeds have not been used as required, the Marlins have assured the Union and the Commissioner’s Office that they plan to use such proceeds to increase player payroll annually as they move toward the opening of their new ballpark. Today’s agreement, which covers the period 2010 through 2012, calls for ongoing communication among the Marlins, the Commissioner’s Office and the Union as the Marlins proceed with that plan.”

 

[TooLiveBrew]

I may be just missing something obvious here, but what does the Marlins' payroll & revenue sharing income have to do with Tampa?

[trwi7]

They stock-piled high 1st round draft picks and got a ton of talent.

How is that any different from what the Brewers have done? Granted the Rays have picked higher, but it's not like the Brewers haven't had their share of top 10 picks (Fielder, Weeks, Sheets, LaPorta, Braun, Rogers).

 

And I would argue that the Rays have missed on their fair share of top picks. In their franchise history they have picked Josh Hamilton, Rocco Baldelli, Dewon Brazelton, B.J. Upton, Delmon Young, Jeff Niemann, Wade Townsend, Evan Longoria, David Price and Tim Beckham with top 10 picks.

 

Hamilton was let go because of drug addiction, Baldelli was never that impressive, Brazelton was a bust, Upton has been up and down just like Weeks, Young is a bust, Niemann has been pretty good, Townsend got hurt and then released, Longoria is a stud, Price is a great young talent who will probably be very good, very soon and Beckham has been less than impressive in two years in the minors.

 

That's pretty similar drafting, but when has Melvin ever gone out and traded for a pitcher like Matt Garza? When has he ever traded a good hitting prospect for a good pitching prospect?

[HiAndTight]

I probably could have predicted that you'd pick the Rays GM. You talk a lot about liking what the Rays have done. And while I can't really argue with you on most points... it seems like part of it that you gloss over is that a TON of the talent they have they've gotten by being the worst team in the league (or close to it) for years. They stock-piled high 1st round draft picks and got a ton of talent. Yes, they had to make the right picks and evaluate the talent - but I think you might overrate him slightly. I agree he is a good GM, but I wouldn't put him at #1.

He did manage to turn Delmon Young into Matt Garza though, gotta give him a lot of credit for that.

And Edwin Jackson into Matt Joyce....

[HiAndTight]

They stock-piled high 1st round draft picks and got a ton of talent.

How is that any different from what the Brewers have done? Granted the Rays have picked higher, but it's not like the Brewers haven't had their share of top 10 picks (Fielder, Weeks, Sheets, LaPorta, Braun, Rogers).

 

And I would argue that the Rays have missed on their fair share of top picks. In their franchise history they have picked Josh Hamilton, Rocco Baldelli, Dewon Brazelton, B.J. Upton, Delmon Young, Jeff Niemann, Wade Townsend, Evan Longoria, David Price and Tim Beckham with top 10 picks.

 

Hamilton was let go because of drug addiction, Baldelli was never that impressive, Brazelton was a bust, Upton has been up and down just like Weeks, Young is a bust, Niemann has been pretty good, Townsend got hurt and then released, Longoria is a stud, Price is a great young talent who will probably be very good, very soon and Beckham has been less than impressive in two years in the minors.

 

That's pretty similar drafting, but when has Melvin ever gone out and traded for a pitcher like Matt Garza? When has he ever traded a good hitting prospect for a good pitching prospect?

Well obviously Young the bust was traded for Garza, so Young wasn't a bust while in Tampa.

 

 

Pitching is about luck as much as anything. Some teams develop it better without a doubt, but some teams are lucky, some are not. The Brewers haven't been very lucky. Thats' the largest difference between the two.

 

You can point to two trades if you'd like, the Victor Zambrano trade for Kazmir that Duquette pulled off, but will ALWAYS for some unkown reason be blamed on Phillips, and the Garza trade. As was previously stated, anyone would have traded for Kazmir, but who would you have wanted to trade for Garza?

 

Weeks? That's about what it'd have taken at the time. Young was still highly regarded, though he'd lost some value, and the same could be said for Garza.

 

Finally, as for Tim Beckham, for an 18 and 19 year old Shortstop, he hasn't been bad at all.....

[snyttri]

I may be just missing something obvious here, but what does the Marlins' payroll & revenue sharing income have to do with Tampa?

Sorry for the confusion. From the article it appears that the low revenue teams are not as "forced" to trade stars as they portray themselves to be because they have a lot of revenue before ticket sales. The Marlins were made an example of when they publicly agreed to raise payroll in January but the payroll and revenue sharing situation is similar for several teams including the Rays.

[brewerguy71]

This is a private comment I made to TooLiveBrew regarding his statements about Theo Epstein, to which he replied I should put in the thread:

 

Saw your post about overrating Theo.

 

I personally think that his approach to player development and scouting has helped earn him the rep as one of the best in the game. He's running the Red Sox like a small market team and thats part of their success. Its only going to get better for them at this pace. I think that if the Brewers spent on player development and scouting the way the Sox did, they wouldnt have to waste money on Free Agents like Randy Wolf or Doug Davis.

 

Dont forget that their farm system ranks as one of the best in baseball. They sign kids that no one else wants to draft and proves the world wrong. And I personally dont think signign bonuses should be an issue there, since all of the teams are now dishing ot big money for draft picks. I thought the Brewers should have picked Casey Kelly back in 08 and his asking price wasnt that much higher than Lawrie and in the end he would have wound up helping the team more than the latter.