Don't get nervous, Brewers fans, Ryan Braun isn't asking out of Milwaukee. Quite the opposite, actually. He's asking that general manager Doug Melvin try to pull off something like he did a year ago Tuesday when the Brewers landed CC Sabathia in a deal that helped propel them to the postseason for the first time since 1982.
The timing of Braun's request is understandable. The Brewers just dropped three of four games at Wrigley Field to the recently revived Cubs, and two of those games featured poor starts from Mike Burns and Seth McClung. Those aren't names you'll find starting games for too many playoff teams, something Braun would like the Brewers to be this season.
The manager who has never had a losing season -- not as a minor league manager, major league coach or major league manager -- has the Brewers playing some of the best baseball in the big leagues.
As they head into this weekend's series with the Cardinals, who are tied with the Brewers for first in the NL Central, the Brewers have won 18 of their last 24.
While Macha would be the first to tell you that the players are more responsible for winning than the manager, this team has Macha's fingerprints all over it.
FanHouse continues it 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Brewers are a really interesting team. Last March, everyone expected them to make a run at the playoffs, and they expected them to do so without any knowledge of the CC Sabathia trade and with the assumption that Ben Sheets would spend some time on the disabled list. In the end, they did make the playoffs, but they did it with half of a season of Sabathia and almost 200 innings from Sheets. Now those two are gone, and everyone expects the Brewers to take a step back this year.
As the clock ticks closer and closer to the day that pitchers and catchers report, I assume that Brewer fans are starting to get a bit nervous about their starting rotation. As it stands, Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra are holding down the top two spots and while they've got high ceilings, they're pretty unproven. Behind them it only gets worse with Dave Bush followed by the fading Jeff Suppan followed by Seth McClung. And that's it.
Accordingly, it seems like the Brewers are finding their names attached to rumors involving just about every free agent pitcher left. Unfortunately, Jon Garland is now off the market and today GM Doug Melvin pointedly refuted the Oliver Perez rumors being floated around Milwaukee right now. Apparently, Milwaukee would rather keep some payroll flexibility for the season should they need to make some kind of trade once the season starts.
For a while it seemed that the Brewers and Prince Fielder were going to be heading to arbitration to hammer out a deal for Fielder in 2009. Fielder wanted $8 million, the Brewers were willing to go to $6 million, and in between the two Scott Boras sat like Mr. Burns tapping his fingers together while plotting evil schemes to block out the sun in Milwaukee until Prince got his money.
While there was also some talk that the Brewers may trade Fielder -- he could help fill some other needs the team has -- general manager Doug Melvin denied any chance of that happening, and now the chances of a trade seem even more remote. That's because according to Jon Heyman at SI.com, the two sides are on the verge of agreeing to a two-year deal.
For the past couple weeks, word out of Milwaukee has been that the distance between the money Prince Fielder wants and what the Brewers want to pay him was insurmountable. Right now, there's about $2 million between Fielder's demand ($8 million) and MIlwaukee's offer ($6 million). Given the size of the gap and the fact that Scott Boras is Fielder's agent, an arbitration hearing seems inevitable.
Doug Melvin, though, seems optimistic that can be avoided and he told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel so this morning. He says that he's been talking to Boras and good progress is being made towards a deal. That's more or less the complete opposite of the indignation shown by Boras and Fielder when the figures were exchanged, but they've still got a while to talk before they go to a hearing.
For a brief minute last week it seemed certain that Mike Cameron and Melky Cabrera would switch teams, but Brewers GM Doug Melvin confirmed that the proposed trade with the Yankees has officially died. What happened? Apparently both sides took the "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" mantra a little too far, refusing to follow up discussions that began during the Winter Meetings with a phone call.
Melvin told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "I haven't heard from (Yankees general manager) Brian Cashman, and I haven't called him. Cashman confirmed as much to the New York Post, saying "He hasn't told us, we haven't talked since Vegas.
Pick up the phone, fellas, there's still time to get this deal done! Or ... maybe not. Talks first began to stall when the Yankees asked the Brewers to either pay a portion of Cameron's $10 million salary or take on the remaining $12 million Kei Igawa is owed over the next three years. The Brewers balked, and uless they have a change of heart, this deal will likely stay dead. As a Yankees official told the New York Daily News:
"Maybe he thinks we'll be upset and jump back in," the official said when informed of Melvin's comments. "We didn't think Cameron was worth $10 million - and we still don't. I guess (Melvin) finally got the message."
It sounds to me like the Yankees drew a line in the sand. Unless Melvin suddenly feels like subsidizing the Yankees' outfield, this one probably isn't going to happen.
Objectively speaking, it makes sense: the Yankees are giving up a 24-year-old hitter with potential for a guy who turns 36 next month who's almost certainly going to be a one-year rental. Long-term, there's no question the Brewers are getting the better end of the deal, so asking Milwaukee to chip in a few dollars doesn't seem unreasonable.
That said, it's the freaking Yankees! After doling out $161 million for CC Sabathia (dashing Milwaukee's hopes in the process), arguing about a few dollars now seems insulting. It's kind of like a yard sale: everyone is expected to haggle a little bit, but if you pull up in a Lexus and can only pay with hundred dollar bills, you're paying full price.
As it happens, it seems the Yankees finally came around: talks eventually picked back up yesterday afternoon via phone and ended with Brian Cashman and Doug Melvin agreeing to resume talks today.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.
It's hard to think of a team that's been on more of a rollercoaster than the Milwaukee Brewers have the past five months. In June, they acquired CC Sabathia and started steamrolling towards what looked like a certain playoff berth. In September, they collapsed and nearly lost what looked like a sure wild-card berth. Then they fired Ned Yost and slid into the playoffs anyways. In October, they were knocked out by the eventual world champion Phillies. Now they've hired Ken Macha and Willie Randolph, but CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets have filed for free agency.
Of course, the important thing for the Brewers and their fans to remember is that they're going to be in good shape next year, even without Sheets and Sabathia. They've still got a great offense, they've still got Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra, and hey, Eric Gagne's gone! They're going to be a different team next year, yes. But that doesn't mean they're going to be worse.
This kind of seems like a weird move, because it's almost certainly made by Melvin, even though the bench coach is usually picked by the manager. Randolph was one of the other finalists for the Brewers job before it went to Macha. Apparenly Melvin liked Randolph's interview and Willie decided that he'd rather be a bench coach again than go somewhere like Seattle, so here we are.
I thought for a few minutes that having three managers on your coaching staff was weird, but then I remembered the ex-Pittsburgh Pirate manager reunion in Detroit where Gene Lamont and Lloyd McClendon have worked with Jim Leyland the past few years. The theme of Melvin's hiring process has been "experience" and though Randolph and Sveum weren't managers for that long, he's certainly packing as much experience as he can into this coaching staff.
Don't get nervous, Brewers fans, Ryan Braun isn't asking out of Milwaukee. Quite the opposite, actually. He's asking that general manager Doug Melvin try to pull off something like he did a year ago Tuesday when the Brewers landed CC Sabathia in a deal that helped propel them to the postseason for the first time since 1982. 
As the clock ticks closer and closer to the day that pitchers and catchers report, I assume that Brewer fans are starting to get a bit nervous about their starting rotation. As it stands, 
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