Johnny Damon

[pogokat]

Appears the Yankees might trade Damon...he's owed 26 million for the next two years, but rotoworld seems to think the yankees would kick in a few million.. so, the brewers could probably get damon for something like lorenzo Cain and omar aguilar...maybe not even that much... I like damon because he's fairly consistant...he's a break even player stealing bags, but he should get on at a .350 clip, hit 10-18 bombs and bat .280 plus... he's overpaid, sure...but if he was only 10 million a year he wouldn't hurt the brewers...that's much cheaper than menchkins... he could play cf or lf, so there's plenty of space for him... i still want fukudome or austin kearns, but damon would be satisfying i think

[colbyjack]

I'd rather give that kind of money to sign a player like Fukudome while losing nothing in return, but Damon is an interesting option.

 

One thing I have been meaning to bring up, and this provides me an opportunity to do so, I'm assuming the Yankees would move Damon to either pursue one of the bigger name CFs on the market or to create an everyday opening for Melky Cabrera. If it is the latter, my question is why do the Yankees, and subsequently fans (I see his name brought up in a lot of trade proposals as a major negotiating chip), think Cabrera is any good? Unless he is expected to get signficantly better, he shouldn't be getting as much playing time as he has the past two seasons.

[dadofandrew]

I don't see him producing what a Jenkins/Mench platoon would give you. He's old and just not a corner OF.

[pogokat]

he'll carry a better obp and cost a few million less

[mothershipconnection]

The only way I'd really see it working is if Damon became our CF and Hall moved to 3B while Braun moved to LF (and the staff is confident he'll be competent there). Otherwise, you potentially have two OF's who don't hit enough to justify putting them in a corner spot.

 

I know these players "aren't moving", but I still think that's stupid if Braun can play passable, even just a notch above Dunn or Burrell defense.

[brewerfan82]

How does moving players around on the field effect the lineup?

[mothershipconnection]

How does moving players around on the field effect the lineup?

 

It affects the number of runs your defense allows which offsets the offensive production achieved. Moving Bill Hall to a corner OF spot would be ugly if he replicated his 2007 offensive production. Hall at third and a passable OF in Braun would be more valuable than Hall in OF and a Braun hack-job at 3B.

[brewerfan82]

I totally understand why the defense may improve with those moves, however, I don't buy that it improves the offense at all. In fact, if you're worried about Hall's offensive production, I would argue that it would be easier to replace him as a leftfielder than as a third baseman.

[PeaveyFury]

The Brewers really didn't have trouble scoring runs this year, their problems were with the pitching and defense.

[lukevan]

If you're going to spend money AND move Braun to LF you might as well sign Mike Lowell and keep Hall in CF IMHO. I don't view Damon's overall defense as any better than Hall's as far as projecting the next 2-3 seasons is concerned.

[mothershipconnection]

If you're going to spend money AND move Braun to LF you might as well sign Mike Lowell and keep Hall in CF IMHO. I don't view Damon's overall defense as any better than Hall's as far as projecting the next 2-3 seasons is concerned.

 

Agreed, that's why getting Damon just wouldn't be a great move, since you'd then have Hall without a position where he hits well enough (he'd be corner OF), so there'd need to be a related move, such as a position switch or trading Hall for a corner OF to someone who could use him on the left side of the infield. Making a chain of trades to solidify your team is harder than it sounds, since you need two teams to agree to deals that work out in your favor.

 

 

I totally understand why the defense may improve with those moves, however, I don't buy that it improves the offense at all. In fact, if you're worried about Hall's offensive production, I would argue that it would be easier to replace him as a leftfielder than as a third baseman.

 

It probably wouldn't do anything to offense, but you still don't want players at positions where their defense is crap or their offense doesn't justify having them there - you may as well get another player. You could replace Hall as an OF, but you'd need to hope for a good trade to come along, and you still have Braun playing poorly at third.

[PKBadger]

Another important aspect to remember is that Damon throws as well as my grandmother.

[Katuluu]

You're probably selling your grandmother short.

[splitterpfj]

It's the throwing arm that makes me shy away from Damon, otherwise, he's a good fit for what Melvin is looking to add.