Brewer fan here, who would like to go to the experts about a trade possibility.

I know it may be too early to talk about it, but if the Brewers continue to remain in the playoff hunt and the Indians are out of the wild card contention in July, would a trade of Mark DeRosa make sense? The Brewers most likely will be caught by the Cubs when there players get healthy, and the Brewers start cooling down and in need of that final push.

The Brewers did just suffer a major loss when Rickie Weeks went down, and are trying internal options for now, but if I were to estimate, the drop off will be significant, and a trade would be a possibility for Melvin. Options such as Ray Durham and Mark Grudz aren't that attract as they are aging players past their prime without the versatility of DeRosa.

Last years trade seemed to work out for both teams, getting the Brewers to the playoffs, and Laporta already called up in what should be a solid career. I am curious what package of players would it take? The Brewers top 2 prospects, Gamel and Escobar are untouchable. WIth your catching and farm system, I don't think our catching prospects Lucroy or Salome would be attractive to the Indians. Jeremy Jeffress our top pitching prospect is probably untouchable at this point to even though he just got demoted. Jake Odorizzi, Omar Agular, and Zach Braddock are all ranked between 2-5 for pitching prospects in the Brewers system and 9-16 overall. Perhaps a combination of some of these pitchers could get it done.

I beleive with DeRosa's year last year, he would be a fringe type A free agent and hopefully net the Brewers some picks in the event of a trade. Do you think the Tribe would be open to the idea of a trade near the deadline? Just trying to get some thoughts as we would love to stick it to the Cubs and take the division with Derosa.

Here is a link discussing the idea in a Chicago paper.

 

May 4, 1963 against the Chicago Cubs, Bob Shaw of the Milwaukee Braves set the all time balk record, which may never be broken, for balks in an inning (3) and a game (5), and Denny Lemaster recorded another balk in the 8th inning that brought the team total to 6.

Here is the boxscore

The most frustrating part must have been walking Billy Williams in the third inning and proceed to balk him around the bases and have him score.

Bob Shaw was ejected from the game, apparently arguing balls and strikes- the complete story can be found here. But the rule interpretation was at its strictist, causing the high frequency of calls. Al Barlick was the umpire and was later inducted to the Hall of Fame, and was known as a fair umpire who called everything to the letter of the law, and from other stories I heard made loudest strike calls with his deep voice.

Thought I would pass this along, and maybe post every once in awhile a relavant "This Day In History" fanshot, or maybe just include it as a comment in the Mug going forward.

I like the moves. Sheets may be considered "risky", but I think it is a deal if he takes arby and stays with the Brewers... but I am willing to bet someone will offer him more elsewhere. Sabathia move is meaningless but provides the chance to restock in the draft.

The real news is Shouse, who would be great to have back next year, perhaps more than the Brewers would like to pay, but I like the lefty.

 

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/35326299.html

If you look at the situation the Brewers are in it may not be pretty, but we are not out of our league with the Phillies, even though our record would indicate that thus far. In the 8th and 9th innings the last two games the winning or tying run came to the plate, and if you could call a pitch to Myers a K and catch a fly ball, the series might be a sweep the other way. But the Brewers are down 2-0 and nothing can change that.

 

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I know we have an illness in the BrewCrewBall family, but I need to see something up before the early game with a collection of links, so here is my attempt at it!

Fangraphs

BR boxscore

BDD Recaps

The Brewers continue to win, and although the Cubs keep winning, Yost in this article has the right attitude . You can't worry about how other teams are doing, just win your games. Last year the team was often caught watching the scoreboard, hopefully not this year!

Hope everyone gets to check out a preview of pitching prospects done by BrewersNation . Great work, looking forward to the mock draft coming up. Another draft related post here.

Baseball America lists Gamel as the #2 prospect behind only Jay Bruce who is lighting up the majors. I guess the question is, is it possible for a call up this year? I didn't think so, but you never know with Hall struggling. Also LaPorta is #11, so despite all of the recently promoted players, the Brewers are the only team with two in the top 11.

Despite my initial prediction that Cameron might be on this list with his high strikeout numbers, no Brewers make it. But if you look at the comment section below, Kapler is one of the free swingers (largest difference between swinging outside the zone vs inside the zone).

Right Field Bleachers  does it's own version of the Frosty Mug, which has plenty of links if these don't do.

Saw this video a few weeks ago on Youtube, and thought everyone would appreciate it, nothing to do with baseball, but it is incredible.

Finally, nothing like a good old fashioned brawl . This one started out different than most I would say!

Great article  on perhaps the future of how fans may think or talk about baseball.

The PitchFX data system provides an incredible wealth of information and quite a lot of disect. I think it will be especially valuable for teams in scouting of pitching and hitting tendencies.

Dixieflatline has done an great job breaking down from the data in the last year and a half, but we are just at the beginning. When you can track every pitcher over the course of his career, you will have a plethora of data on all these players. This may make the careers of pitchers even shorter. If hitters know what is coming before the pitch is thrown, and approximately what part of the plate the pitcher targets in that situation, it may be a huge advantage to the hitter. Of course it works both ways, and maybe some batters would be overthinking of exactly what the next pitch will be, instead of just swinging.

Although the article says it is the end of the box score, I don't think this will catch on to be in the average baseball fans vocabulary in the next 20 years. Maybe I am just too old fashioned, but I think with the incredible amount of data is very interesting, but does not appeal to a wide audience. That being said, it will change the game, whether fans understand it or not.

As the Brewers sit a game above .500 and look to the rest of the series with the Dodgers, and look forward to the series with the Red Sox, all things considered, the Brewers are in a good situation in terms of schedule.

Based off ESPN's SOS and RPI, the Brewers have had the toughest schedule thus far, with opponents win % at .527. This looks to only get harder as the Brewers play a top team in the Red Sox at Fenway. During the course of the year, I would imagine the Cubs will not win at the current pace they have, as well as the Marlins and Cardinals, so the SOS number will probably go down as the pace of 96 wins seems unlikely for all three. And playing in an arguably weaker division could bring down the SOS, even though I don't know if that stereotype of the Central being the worst division in baseball will hold out this year.

The good news is the schedule should get easier with more games vs the Reds (have played 6 of the 18) and Pirates (have played 0 of the 15 ) during the course of the year. Cardinals we have played 9 games, and they appear to be one of the better teams in the NL Central. Plus all 6 of the Cubs games have been at Wrigley so far.

I know this is not college basketball, but if it was, the Brewers could have a chance to grab the last #1 seed, as they are ranked #4 in the RPI which takes 25% of your team's record, 50% of opponents' record and 25% of your opponents' oppenents' record. The Brewers are behind the Rays, Cubs and Red Sox.

ESPN RPI

This is a good sign, last year the top 5 RPI's were the Red Sox, Indians, LAA, NYY and Rockies, all in the playoffs.

I know it is early in the year and the Crew have technically lost their #1B pitcher in Gallardo. But I don't expect Fielder to be a .250 hitter with 20 HRs, and continue to have our #1, #2 and #6 hitter all batting around .200. Even if they did, I think with the schedule the Brewers record would improve with the easier teams they are scheduled to play. If they improve on these numbers to along with the easier schedule, they could be in really good shape. I know it is a long season, but just trying to put things in perspective.

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This interesting piece on Cameron really looks into his emotional state. It sounds like he is very emotionally disturbed about this suspension and it crushed him. I hope the humiliation doesn't turn him "soft"... as the article mentioned he has been gardening and spending time with his children.

 

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Great chat wrap on ESPN with Jayson Stark, with an interesting question... which player would you choose to build your team around... Prince Fielder or Ryan Howard?

I think the weight issues was focused on too much, although it is important for a long term issue, I like the point on offensive lineman playing a much more brutal sport last well into their 30's.

After this year, the picture will be a lot clearer... If Prince hits another 45 and keeps his strikeouts lower than Howard, I would take Prince without question. Being younger and being able to get doubles and putting yourself in scoring position is a huge asset to the team, while Howard's strikeouts can kill innings.

Stark in the end goes with Howard... who would you go with?

One point you would probably have to consider, but was not brought up... the type of flexibility on the team's payroll are you working with... The Brewers don't have unlimited amounts of money, spent $72.7mln in '07 compared to $101mln for the Phillies... and Howard's in going through arbitration right now, and are discussing anywhere from $7-10 million this year, and it will quickly go up after that... Prince we still have under contract for sometime. Either team you are dealing with, you will spend less money on Prince in the next 3 years, and leave more money for other studs.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=18954&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos1

Poll

Who would you rather have?

88%

Prince Fielder

44 votes

12%

Ryan Howard

6 votes

50 votes | Poll has closed