Why would be pissed… it isn’t like he played his way back

I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this…it’s not as though his quality of play didn’t merit the trip down, but this just sets a bad precedent, I think.

He should take a page from Brandon Marshall before he comes back with a bad attitude. The Brewers don’t have to trade him or play him, and getting buried on the bench or in AAA next year won’t help his free agent value.

How is it ‘cold blooded’. JJ’s bat sent him to AAA – manglement just arranged the travel?

Last time I checked, teams are still judged by wins and loses – not compassion. JJ had plenty of opportunity to keep himself in the majors. He didn’t need hit .330 and slug 30 HRs a season… just hit his .250-.275 and he would still be with the club.

Doug Melvin needs to put the best pieces on the field every day – and JJ wasn’t the best SS on the team… hell even Craigers was out performing him and I think that it is reasonable to speculate that if Rickie hadn’t gone down, a change would have been made sooner.

2005 and 2006, I think.

And that Craig Counsell is a better, more flexible backup, making AAA the best place for Hardy to be right now?

Seriously, indentured servitude? Let’s have some perspective here. The baseball system limits the income of players until they have established themselves at a major league level for 6 years. I’d be overjoyed to make over $300,000 per year for 3 years, and then somewhere around a couple million a year for a few years, before I could FINALLY make a little money to support my family.

As mentioned above, Hardy already missed an entire year with the flu, and he gets credit for that year. He’s being penalized for not playing well, and it should have happened a lot sooner than it did. Maybe if it happened back in July, it wouldn’t be such a hot button now.

He’s not a servant by any means at all. He gets paid millions of dollars, good performance or not, to play freaking baseball. And I’m assuming you’re saying that a “couple days of work last week with the flu” somehow translates well with him playing poorly basically all year. It doesn’t help the team at all for JJ to be riding the bench in the majors now while he’s slumping for so long. It’s called professionalism. He’s not down there to be punished and he’s certainly not remaining there to be punished. He seems like a smart, level-headed guy and if he is, along with Melvin, he’ll be professional and courteous about it knowing it’s nothing against him.

Then see who is complaining about salaries.

At what point does sending a player down to AAA pass from being good for his development, an acceptable move for the team, or whatever you want to call it, to violating the spirit of the agreement?

Just ignore the ‘how’ in the subject line.

I’d have to think that an extra year of control helps his trade value, though.

but the fact that they pretty much have to trade him now would definitely decrease his trade value.

Would that change things?

Remember, they dumped Hall on the same day. It seems like the service time issue is a secondary factor.

Also, I don’t think Hardy’s value is such that teams are going to be beating down his door, even with the extra year of control. He simply hasn’t performed at the MLB level.

On the other hand, I could see how this gives the team a good year to evaluate Escobar, and to bring Hardy back with an extra year of control. But that’s how the minor leagues work. If it happens early, or in the middle of the process, no one notices. It’s still part of the process, though, and it doesn’t mean the team is exploiting his situation. It means he has been unlucky enough to play poorly at the wrong time.