Hey the Yankees are in last place in the AL East and their salary is around 220 million. At least we're only at 82 million for our product.

We also have the baseball draft coming up on June 5th with 6 picks in the first 2 rounds. We should definitely package a combination of some of those picks, minor league prospects and/or some cash to immediately improve our team.

Also is it too late to give back Mike Cameron? Or get the man some amphetamines? And get Gagne to return maybe 7 million? And get Claudio Vargas back? And pay Fielder a little more "minimum" salary this year to stop his whining? And force feed him a friggin Filet Mignon? And bring back the Home Run Beer Mug in outfield? And get Bill Hall some Lasik surgery cause his contact lenses ain't workin'. And START WINNING!

Hi guys. I'm an avid Brewer fan and blogger who heard about this blog from someone familiar with you guys. I just started reading, and I had to point out some things that are bothering me. I hope this isn't too negative, but I'm sure you can handle it.

I've read now several comments on the upcoming Brewer draft and their bevvy of draft picks. More to the point, I've read reccomendations that the Crew should "package" a few of their draft picks to help the team in the short haul.

The problem is, the MLB is not the NFL. trading picks is BANNED by MLB. It's why you NEVER read about it happening. Ever. It's been like that for some time, too. Here's a USA Today article from 2003. (see-2nd paragraph)
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/draft/2003-06-03-draft-qanda.htm

Also, a few others have suggested trading Hart, Gwynn, Kapler, Dillon and guys like that to bolster the pen/bench. I would agree you could get a lot for Hart, but I feel he's part of the long term plan here and not going anywhere. Still, that's a possibility. As for those other guys, they are all low paid, low value reserves and "off the bench" guys. What value could they possibly have? Kapler was retired last year. Dillon was out of baseball for a while too. Gwynn has been completely undervalued by the Brewers his entire career, and when it looked like there was an opening for him in CF, they signed Cameron for a lot of money even though he was suspended for 25 games. These guys are like Mench, and Brady Clark, and Ben Greive. They just have no value, or at least, not enough to net a return worth mentioning.

My long winded point is this, you have to give something to get something. They had to give Carlos Lee to get Cordero. The guys above have almost zero trade vale (aside from Hart), especially since guys like Dillon & Kapler aree free agents after this year. Why would another team give up something of value for a guy with little value who they could just sign next year and give up nothing?

Unfortunately, there are only a few ways the Brewers can improve. Free agents are still an option, and no matter how crazy it seems (very crazy) Kenny Lofton and Barry Bonds are both currently unemployed. They could trade Sheets (final year of contract) or Hall (Utility player/good platoon VS LHP) or Hart (upside). They could either trade their top prospects (Matt Gamel, Matt LaPorta, or Escobar) or even call them up to the big club to get their feet wet like they did with Prince batting DH in interleague play in '05. That's it. That's all they can do. The more likely way to fix it is to have some of the talent already here perform at an acceptable level. Which they are not.

Again, sorry for the length, and sorry for the "attitude". It just seemed like there was some pretty far fetched ideas being tossed around. I tend to get worked up when talking Brewers. As always, any Brewer fan is OK by me. Go Brewers.

AP

Thanks for stopping buy man. I appreciate your comments, thats the thing I like best about this site is talking some Brewers baseball.

I didn't know you couldn't trade draft picks in Baseball, that will have to factor into future commentary ^^

As for trades, I am not advocating trading anyone, but I think someone will be traded before the season is over. I think Hart, Gwynn, and Dillon all have good trade value, and in that order.

I agree, Gwynn is undervalued on the Brewers, but they just don't have room for him. I think most teams that look at him can see his value, and hopefully if he was traded the Brewers could get that value.

I didn't know Dillon was out of baseball, and I don't follow the minors too much, but I sure like what I see when he is up here. Even if this is the last year of his contract, someone might be able to use him and give us value.

Hart is obviously the best of the lot, and I would hate to see him go, but we would get the best value there.

Although, if I remember right, we only have Cameron for one year, so the Brewers probably don't mind being a little thick in the field right now.

Don't worry about the attitude, we like to throw around wild ideas, and given the fact I thought the Brewers would take the Central and they are now in the cellar, it might be a good time for wild ideas.

Yeah, Dillon was out of baseball for the 2006 season due to back problems. He was coaching either in the minors or college when he came across some new medical procedure. He had the surgery, and he quickly moved through the minor leagues on his way back to baseball. Still though, in limited AB's he currently ranks just behind Craig Counsell in OPS on the team. I wouldn't call Counsell an offensive weapon by any stretch, and as for his value there are probably 50 different guys in MLB or AAA who could produce a .680 OPS and do nothing but pinch hit. He's fine in his role, but trading the 25th guy on your roster isn't going to improve us too much. Again, he's a free agent in 6 months also.

The Brewers do have a club option on Cameron for '09 at 10MM per year if they choose. If they choose to let him walk, they still owe him a 750K buyout no matter what, so bringing him back next season really only costs us 9.25MM. FYI, if you ever need to know anyones contract status, just type "Cot's Contracts" into Google. It's a handy tool, and it'll let you know the status of pretty much everyone in the orginization of any importance.

Do you think Cameron is worth that money?

Randy, I suppose it would depend on who the replacements are for Cameron next year. If the option is making Tony Gwynn Jr. an everyday outfielder, then yes I do think Cameron is worth it. Cameron has more HR's in the last 72 hours than TGjr has in his entire MLB career.

If there is some other option either in the orginization or in free agency, then possibly not. I do know that Andruw Jones makes 18 mil a year this year & next year and he sucks. That's the going rate for FA CF's. I really don't see the Crew finding a cheaper/better CF next yeasr in free agency.