Doug Melvin has been saved from himself

JD Drew?

He's brittle and he just turned 31.  Moreover, in odd-numbered years since being drafted in 1998, he hasn't played in more than 109 games.  (Even in the good years, he still misses 20 games or so a season.)

Plus, after hitting 100 RBI for the first time ever, he's going to command a fortune.  

If there was ever a guy to get a big contract, miss half the season with an injury, and then linger around as a shadow of his non-injured self, it's JD Drew.

(Plus, when drafted by the Phillies, he wouldn't sign --- even though the Phils offered him more money than they'd ever given anyone.  Instead, he went back in the draft next year.  Whenever you hear of someone throwing a battery at a player in the outfiled, think Phildelphia.  We started that trend, baby!  It's probably why he's hurt so much.)

On the plus side, if we sign him, I have some old batteries to get rid of...

Anyway, his stats are here.

with the number of Of we have, especially if Bill Hall is in that mix, we should be able to find some way to keep Drew in a corner and give him a couple of off days per month in the early going and the dog days to keep him fresh down the stretch.  

Maybe now that Roberts is off the market, Melvin will rethink the situation and figure that if Hall is going to the OF, it might as well be CF.  

a defensive 7-8-9 of Hart-Hall-Drew would not only minimize the letters in the last names of our outfielders, but also maximize the offense, which is what the team needs.  We'd finally be looking at an OF that can hit 90+ HR.

Also, I can't remember where the heck I read this, and if anyone read the same thing, let me know where it was, but the Red Sox might be interested in Hardy or Hall.  Matsuzaka for Hall?  LOL

all of these massive contracts have me a little worried about the brewers' ability to compete in 2007. an upgrade to the brewers lineup is needed, particularly in the power-hitting cleanup spot, but what are the brewers supposed to do about it? it seems like our only options are to overpay someone that may or may not turn out to be better than the guys we already have. in an earlier thread i evoked the name of jeffrey hammonds, because that's what all this dave roberts-juan pierre stuff reminds me of (not that those guys are power hitters, but you get the idea).

if we wanted to, we could rely on the guys on the roster now. but that would involving some praying - praying that fielder builds on last year to be "that guy." that weeks stays healthy for 162 games and delivers as an offensive force. that hall cuts down on his strikeouts. that hardy shows some signs of life. and so on and so on. i don't think that any of them are out of the question, but at the rate this offseason is going we would need so many things to go right to be a contender in '07.

it's only november, but i'm not optimistic.

This is from the ol' mailbag at the Brewers' mlb.com site:

I read somewhere the Finley was shortening his stroke to resuscitate his career last year, but I don't think it worked.  He hasn't slugged .400 since his magical season of 2004 (where, to his credit, he hit 36 HRs), and he'll be 42 when the season starts.  If we want to give him a shot to see if the past two years were a fluke, that's one thing.  But if we're going to bring in a guy as our starting centerfielder (TM), he had better have better numbers than TG.