What does that mean? We would get picks back if we offered, say, Cam and Lopez arbitration and they declined. Or is he referring to something else?

The article mentions teams have until 10:59pm CT on Tuesday to offer arbitration.

And this may suggest McCalvy (and thus me, too) is jumping the gun by saying extending arbitration offers to everyone is unlikely:

Lopez is likely to seek a multiyear contract, and would have to decline an arbitration offer from the Brewers to get one.

[snip]

“You would love to have that depth,” Melvin said. "But is [Lopez] going to want to be a part-time player? He’s going to want to be an everyday player, and Rickie is going to want to be an everyday player.

Yes, those are compelling reasons to assume Lopez will accept arbitration.

Is he saying that teams shouldn’t cede a draft pick when they poach another team’s best player?

I think Melvin is totally in the wrong here too, but I maybe at least understand where he’s coming from. The case against offering Cameron arbitration is more clear, because even though we-of-post-1930s-stats know he’s well worth the $10+ million he’ll be making next year, I could foresee him accepting and being very difficult to trade.

As for Lopez, denying him arbitration makes much less sense, but maybe Melvin’s thinking 1) He’ll accept and get a huge pay raise through arbitration based on his career year in 2009 and 2) He’ll subsequently be very difficult to trade without eating some of his new salary (especially after arbitration hearings, when its late enough in the off-season that most teams have already filled positional needs)

But then again, clearly Lopez wouldn’t accept arbitration, and I also doubt even getting “stuck” with him would really handcuff the team’s payroll, as there are always reserve funds built in even after going out and getting starting pitching (to be used for things like, as in 2009, signing… Lopez)

And why did Sal Bando take over his body?

I’m going to have to start blogging about this again. I need more time, no idea how KL does it.

I sincerely hope he is pulling our chains, otherwise this offseason just keeps getting worse and worse. I at least hope there is a bit of a public backlash (outside of our little community) if he truly doesn’t offer any of the FAs arb.

I wonder if all this belly-aching Melvin’s been doing affects his ability to work with other GMs. Granted I never will be one, but if I was a GM I think I’d start to look at GM’s like Melvin as the whiny old snob that complains about everything instead finding a solution or way around the problem and someone I wouldn’t want to work with unless I have to.

And I ask in all curiosity.

1.) What “type A” FA were we seriously looking at signing? — Were we really in the running for Lackey? — and if so, I’d surrender a second round pick in a heartbeat. It seems to me that DM is just bitching about random shit again.

2.) The last few years we have made trades for players (Linebrink, Sabathia) with Melvin touting that the trade was made for the draft picks as well as the players. Last year with Sheets and Sabathia, DM was frothing at the mouth with all of the picks we were going to acquire, — and then some funky shit happened and all we got was Braden Looper. DM has benefited in the past from draft pick compensation, it doesn’t seem right to bitch about it this year.

3.) I can understand DM’s reluctance to offer Lopez arbitration, ONLY if Weeks is a 100% healthy and ready to play 140 games or so. I don’t think Lopez is going into a seller’s market — he has burned a lot of bridges, I do think that there is a high chance that Lopez would accept arbitration. DM wants to spend his money on pitching, I sort of get that.

These comments by DM are getting tiresome though, it is almost like Bud Selig has abducted his brain.

Cameron is not coming back now that we have Gomez - even if he would get more money in arbitration with us, he’s not going to ride the bench. He (justifiably) wants to start.

This statement/philosophy does not project a lot of confidence from the Brewer front office imo.

DM has been doing a lot of whining lately about the system and how it has damaged the Brewers chances at success (which I completely disagree with). Small market teams have succeeded and made playoff appearances consistently in this environment, so the only excuse any of them has for not winning is bad circumstance or bad management.

This statement takes me back to a few of the jobs Ive had where I was scared as heck to make mistakes. You tend to act very conservatively, do things very meticulously so as not to make a mistake. I wonder if this sort of thing is the result of a hard push by the ownership to make a playoff appearance/push every single year. If so, its a pretty unrealistic appraoch.

Even teams like the Marlins and Twins have to rebuild every few years to compete. I just wonder if there is a ton of pressure from the top to make next years squad a winner as well as money maker, thus prompting DM to do things that are not smart baseball moves.

Again, this could be a sign that the team is gearing up for a rebuild and that Prince is on his way out before the end of ’10.

you do have a way to get picks back.

I just don’t see any reason to not offer FeLo arby. He’s not going to accept it. My brain just can’t comprehend Melvin’s logic here.