- Adam McCalvy does his preview of the corner infielders. About a sentence on Prince Fielder, then copious amounts of worry about third base. Corey Koskie is not as ready as we have been led to believe. He might not be ready at all. And all the while, we're preparing to use Bill Hall in the outfield. To recap (thanks Marty), here are a few of the options to replace Corey:
- Ryan Braun (who has spent two months above A-ball)
- Craig Counsell (who, I was surprised to learn, has played over 200 games at third in his career)
- Tony Graffanino (career slugging average, .396)
- Vinny Rottino (I really love the guy...as a third catcher/utility man)
- The Cardinals finally signed another pitcher: Mark Mulder got a two-year, $13M deal. This with the fact that he may or may not be ready for opening day. Mulder hasn't been really good since 2003, and wasn't good at all last year. Then again, I expect he'll bounce back from that ERA+ of 62. Here's the take on it at Viva El Birdos.
- Speaking of bad: the Cards also signed Ryan Franklin. All those projection systems we've been discussing lately? Take those Brewers HR numbers, and add 10.
- David Hannes follows up on his arbitration preview with his salary predictions for our six eligible guys. I think he's on the high side on most of these. Especially in Kevin Mench's case, he will not get a raise if there is any justice in the world.
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Here's a nice bio on our new TV guy, courtesy of the J-S.
- The Good Phight ranks team fielding positions by offense. That is--he figured out what each team hit at each position (total of all players, not just the main guy) and threw them all in one big list. The Brewers don't show up until #53 on the list, where our first basemen are. We're also in the top 100 at 63 (left field), 72 (third base), and 80 (shortstop). Thanks, Billy!
- This article has some quotes from Billy about his role in next year's outfield. Nothing groundbreaking, but Ned seems to expect that little will happen between now and spring training. Thus, I deduce: Hall in center, with Mench, Geoff Jenkins, and Brady Clark still around. I have to wonder: what of Gabe Gross? A team with two backup infielders can't carry six outfielders, and Hall, Mench, Jenkins, Clark, and Corey Hart makes five. Gross isn't going to make or break this team, but he hasn't done anything to deserve a demotion, so it would be a shame for it to come to that.
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