Brewers sign former Ranger OF Brandon Boggs to major league deal

[gregmag]

Dickerson has hit .267/.356/.403 in 527 MLB PA. Boggs has hit .212/.318/.375 in 360 MLB PA. Boggs has barely sniffed the majors since 2008. I'm not saying that Dickerson is a lock or that Boggs is a chump. Boggs has some advantages; he's a year younger and has better secondary offensive skills. I like the pickup. But I think some folks are undervaluing Dickerson because he didn't do squat in Milwaukee. He had been hurt, he got traded, and most importantly he only had 61 PA, 106 total for the year, which is next to nothing. Dickerson has shown substantially more than Boggs (or Gomez) at the MLB level, and at this moment I think he is substantially more likely to help the Brewers in 2011.

[HiAndTight]

This seems to portend an end to the Carlos Gomez era in Milwaukee

And here's just one more reason to hate the JJ Hardy deal. A player like Boggs, who can seemingly produce at least Gomez-esque levels based on his 2008 Rangers season, can be had for peanuts. Yet we traded a mid-20s HR everyday middle infielder for Gomez.

 

Spilled milk I know but man...

Hardy has 17 HR's in his last TWO seasons, so I don't know if it's fair to refer to him as a "mid 20s HR everyday middle IF'er".

 

Obviously that trade didn't turn out to be what we wanted, but I'm not that upset that we took a risk and went for a guy as talented as Gomez for Hardy. It was a risk, but it had a great deal of upside at the time. Especially when you consider the best option we reportedly had instead of Gomez was Michael Bowden.

[HiAndTight]

I'm hoping this isn't the case, but could we see the 'Crew setting up to maybe trade Prince AND Casey? Matt obviously goes to 3rd and they sign a lower-level player for 1B and maybe the excess of OF get a shot at first as well? Budget saving for 2011?

Unless they believe that signing Prince is now more likely than it has been in the last couple years, I have absolutely no problem with trading McGehee, Prince AND Hart.

 

Replace them with Lawrie at 3rd, Gamel at 1st and then a platoon of perhaps Dickerson and a guy like Austin Kearns in RF(a guy I've been in favor of signing for about a year to provide us with a great platoon and a huge upgrade defensively).

 

You could get a nice return in pitching, improve the defense a lot, and it opens up that window for our young pitching prospects by a WIIIDE margin. Of course you only do this if you're of the opinion that I am that Lawrie's going to be a Braun like hitting savant, Gamel's going to be a .300/.380 type who hits 20-25 HR's a year and that Hart is going to regress while Dickerson and whoever else can match Hart's production when you factor in the defensive upgrade.

 

And with Prince, Hart and McGehee you would HAVE to assume you'd be getting a helluva return on the mound. With Gallardo, Wolf, the return from overhauling the roster with these trades and then Odorizzi, Peralta, Scarpetta, Rivas and all the rest it seems like this could really help this team turn over their roster with a greater emphasis on pitching and defense.

[MNBrew]

Bumping this up...

 

The 25-man roster thread contains many posts assuming Boggs is on the roster. Checking out his details, though, doesn't he really just size up as a switch-hitting Brady Clark?

 

I only ask because it doesn't seem that he does any one thing especially well. And he's got less than a full season's worth of MLB playing time. Hardly seems a sure thing to me.

[dadofandrew]

A switch hitting Brady Clark has a lot of value, especially as a cheap 5th OF.

[joepepsi]

Yeah, I'd take a Brady Clark type for the bench any year.

[monty57]

Since the only other potential RH hitters on our bench at this point would be Cruz and Nieves, I think Boggs will be expected to be our primary RH pinch hitter, and will probably split the few off days Hart & Braun take with Dickerson. Plus, with Gomez as the probable starting CF, I'm glad to have two other people on the roster who can play that position. It gives us some options if Gomez still refuses to change his approach at the plate.

 

Let's also consider the possibility that Melvin in his search for pitching is getting a lot of inquiries on Cain. Cain may be the best chip he has. If that's the case, he would want to fortify the OF.

 

Good call Briggs

[MNBrew]

Funny that some would be that eager for a new version of Brady Clark since so many were ready to run Brady out of town for a couple years before he was traded to LA. Then again, his skills were slipping and we were able to get a little something for him.

[monty57]

Maybe the affinity for Brady Clark is due to the dislike of Gomez by so many. Actually, if you were somehow able to merge Clark's positives with Gomez's positives, you'd have a really good player.

[Warning Track Power]

Funny that some would be that eager for a new version of Brady Clark since so many were ready to run Brady out of town for a couple years before he was traded to LA. Then again, his skills were slipping and we were able to get a little something for him.

Right now, Casey McGehee is the new Brady Clark without the skills slipping.