What to expect in the offseason

[brewmann04]

I thinking Melvin will Snag a top SS whether it be Reyes or Rollins and add a former closer in the 8th Inning role .This team will then be about Pitching and defense with some loss of Power.

[monty57]

I thinking Melvin will Snag a top SS whether it be Reyes or Rollins and add a former closer in the 8th Inning role .This team will then be about Pitching and defense with some loss of Power.

 

That would be the ideal situation, but Melvin seems to be hinting that we don't have much money to spend. I hope we can get someone like Furcal on a 1-2 year deal, but I don't know that <$4MM/year will land anything special at SS. I worry that putting a lot of money into the "8th inning guy" is going to mean we won't have an upgrade at SS. Therefore, we'll have no Fielder, a worse bullpen, a sideways move at SS and rookies starting at 1B & 3B. I like Green and Gamel, but my hopes in us taking the division again this year rested on us doing exactly what brewmann04 outlines in the above quote. If we don't do that, then we will probably go into this season with a less talented team than last year.

[brewmann04]

I looking hope the brewers offer Arby to both Prince and Krod we can use all those extra draft picks.

[MJLiverock]

Not sure where to put this but thought it was somewhat interesting to the Brewers situation. The rumor is that TCW (Trust Company of the West) may be put up for sale, this is the company where Mark Attanasio made his money and is a member of the board of directors. One aspect of the rumor is that the management team may purchase the company from SocGen. http://www.investmentnews.../20111129/FREE/111129891

 

If so this would probably tie up any extra cash Mr. Attanasio had or at least make him think hard about where to allocate his resources.

[CheezWizHed]

Since its highly unlikely that Mark A is spending any personal income on the Brewers, (and is legally impossible to take any of the Brewer's operating income to spend over there), I doubt this has any effect on the Brewers.

 

These are corporations we are talking about. Its not like he is deciding to eat generic Mac-n-Cheese 3 times a week because he wants a new car...

[MJLiverock]

It has been mentioned at times that he could or would increase the payroll by injecting personal money into the team. I've never really thought he would but it gets play just like people talk about deep pocketed owners. So I thought it interesting that any extra personal wealth he has could be tied up elsewhere or he could feel the need to generate a larger profit from the Brewers which does partially go into his pocket and by extension become available for him to use to pay other debts like participating in a buyout of his firm.

 

So yes we are talking about corporations, or actually in this case I think the Brewers are actually a LLP not a corporation. Either way since the Brewers are closely held or controlled by a small group, the profits can easily be disbursed among the owners each year. Not to mention the debt covenants that may or may not exist regarding the debt used by the ownership group (which also includes other TCW executives) may further place restrictions on the group regarding any personal guarantees of the debt they may have or require him to pay down the Brewer debt before taking on more debt elsewhere that he personally guarantees, which would also limit the funds for payroll. Believe me I've seen real estate developers loans with covenants restricting the developer from adding more personal debt elsewhere and if they do they have to either pay down the original debt or risk being put into default. Anything can be written into the covenants as long as both parties agree to it in the beginning and there usually are plenty of them when loans of $100's of millions are made.

 

It is actually quite easy and legal to use the cash flow of one one business to finance another business, it happens all the time. Business A makes profit, pays a dividend to the owners or in the case of an LLP the prorated share of the profits can appear on a k-1 statement right on the owners tax return. The owner can then take their profit and invest it in business B. The cash flow of Business A is then funding Business B, it just gets taxed as it passes through the common owner's pocket.

[brewmann04]

I think the Brewers our going with a older SS like Furcal or Gonzalez and maybe try to upgrade the 3rd position with a big Bat.

I thinking we see melvin add to his Bullpen later in the off season.

[kramnoj]

It has been mentioned at times that he could or would increase the payroll by injecting personal money into the team.

 

Has this been explicitly stated? I thought there was just a general idea that there are players that the Brewers will find money for. I don't recall it being stated that the extra money would be coming out of ownership accounts directly. Maybe it means that there are certain players that the Brewers would go over budget by getting an advance on a credit line they have (for example, the Mets got a $25M loan from MLB).