The Brewers could pursue Josh Hamilton this offseason if the free agent outfielder doesn’t get any offers for four-plus years and more than $100MM, ESPN.com's Buster Olney writes. Here are more notes from Olney’s column…
- The Brewers aren’t positioned to give Hamilton a massive contract, but they can offer him a comfortable place to play where he’d be supported. Johnny Narron, his former mentor, works as Milwaukee’s hitting coach, and Brewers bench coach Jerry Narron also knows the 31-year-old. While many outsiders lack detailed information about Hamilton’s off-field issues, the Narron brothers know the outfielder well enough to make a determination about his ability to continue producing.
- At this point the Brewers intend to pursue multiple starters this offseason.
- General managers expect free agent starting pitchers to do well this year, since there’s a shortage of viable options at a time that many teams are flush with dollars. The Blue Jays, Royals, Cubs and Angels are among the many teams known to be seeking starting pitching.
- Some agents and general managers believe free agent starter Kyle Lohse could command a deal in the $60-75MM range, Olney reports.
there’s a 0% chance he’s a brewer. end of story
Yeah! And Cliff Lee is going to sign with the Yankees, and Pujols will never leave St. Louis!
…and Jayson Werth will never get $126 million and no one would deal for a contract as ugly as that of Vernon Wells.
And nobody is going to go 9 years and $200+ M for Prince Fielder.
And Jered Weaver, being a Boras client, would never take a discount…
And other things that are not expected, but end up happening!
How ironic that would be for Hamilton to be on a team named after beer
Hamilton has a Brewer would be pretty interesting, but I just don’t see it happening.
I think alot of teams could pursue Hamilton if he doesn’t get anything over 4/100
which would cause the length and price to go up
Yep, which I think it is kinda pointless saying the Brewers will get on the bidding for him if his price falls. Every team would get in on the bidding if it fell to the price they can afford.
The point is that they can use the Narron brothers, who are very close friends/mentors to Hamilton, as an incentive to come to the Brewers.
Isn’t the great city of Milwaukee incentive enough?
if hamilton plays for free i think a lot of teams would be interested in him!
Heck, if Chone Figgins plays for free, a lot of teams…err, nevermind.
i dont see hamilton a brewer n lohse aint worth that much
He gets within 20m and had better have a huge stadium and land in the NL to be even close to worth it.
I wonder if there’s one MLBTR post about Kyle Lohse that you haven’t got on to comment about how bad he is. Yet he just keeps on performing no matter where he’s pitching or who the opponent is.
But the NL is terrible, man. Forget that they share the exact same talent pool.
they do, its just that NL pitchers dont face the same quality of hitters. you arent arguing that NL pitchers hit as well as AL DH’s are you?
His argument never seems to stem from the DH discrepancy, but from the quality of the players.
The difference is that the major market teams in the AL had good ownership willing to spend big bucks while the NL was stuck with poor ownership in NY, LA and Houston. Now that the Dodgers are under new mgt that could change. if the Mets had new ownership the difference would be even less pronounce.
Yep.. And when he performs in the AL? I will be a believer.
As for the other post below? Ted Lilly, Derek Lowe, Javy Vazquez.. Burnett finding new life.. The list is long…
And which of those guys did NOT have success in the AL as well? You might be able to make a case that they are successful AT FIRST, due to facing a whole host of hitters that haven’t seen them, but it’s silly to continue to hold belief that someone who’s successful in the NL, couldn’t then translate that success to a league which features a DH.
Most generally had success in the AL, then were declining in usefulness as in Derek Lowe, AJ Burnet and Vazquez, while Lilly was never more than a back end innings pitcher at best and Lohse not even that.
Some say it’s the DH, but it goes deeper IMO. Matsuzaka and Carl Pavano IMO are prime candidates for a swap of leagues this winter.
It is more than that. But only in the AL East where they play in ridiculous little ballpark made for homeruns. If he went to the AL Central for AL West, its really not much tougher.
I’ll go with that to a certain degree.
Lowe and Burnett for instance were top of the rotation SP for a short time in the AL East, not to mention Lowe was even a good closer after he won 20G for Boston.. But they were at peak performance then also.. Once they started to slip.. They had to get out and Vazquez?? AL Central where he had success.
I do think that Pavano especially has some use in the NL, back end SP.. No more.. Though it’s going to have to be somewhere like CitiField, or Petco. I doubt LA takes a flier on him and both Pavano and Matsuzaka are going to end up with minor league deals.
They could use a left-handed bat to accompany Braun, Ramirez, and Hart, but I believe Hamilton is going to be too expensive, even with his “issues.” Also, TWO starters? I hope not – I’d like to see Peralta in the rotation on opening day, and hope that Thornburg can be there for a good chunk of the season – assuming Gallardo and Fiers are locks, and Estrada being close to one, that only leaves two spots to fill. With Narveson, Rogers, Peralta, Thornburg, and maybe even Burgos in the mix for those spots, I’d say they should make a run at one guy that can act as a number two. They’d be overpaying with someone like Lohse, so I’m guessing another trade will be in the works. Preferably for a lefty – Derek Holland? Are the Rangers down on him?
The Rangers aren’t down on Holland, they just signed him to a 5 year(I think) deal. Holland did have a down year though, he had some injury issues, missed a lot of time and seemed to always have that one “big and bad” inning but the Rangers really like Holland, they’ve had several offers for him and never bit.
if the Brewers somehow get Hamilton, I think that means they move Corey Hart. Can’t afford both of them, plus adding pitching, and they have some internal options (Mat Gamel, Hunter Morris) they could turn to.
Barring the Hamilton pipe dream, the reason I think Hart sticks is because he’s made it clear in the past that he’d like to, which in turn means he may be open to a reasonable extension. Unless Morris absolutely rakes like Braun did to start off his Triple A campaign, he’ll probably be there most of the year. It’ll be interesting to see if Aoki and Gomez can continue to produce, if so Hart definitely becomes expendable, assuming Morris is the real deal. Gamel will probably need to settle for corner IF backup for the time being.
So, not expendable, no matter the offer? Rangers fans were pretty high on Perez when the Greinke deal was about to go down. I’m assuming the enthusiasm has waned? He does have a friendly deal, assuming he stays healthy – two team options as well.
One thing I’ve learned from watching Jon Daniels is that you can’t gauge what he is going to do based on whether fans are “high” or not on certain players either on the team or other teams. I doubt that Texas is actively seeking to trade Holland, but if they were able to use him to upgrade to a young ace, I’m sure he’s not untouchable. But that’s a pretty tall order, so I would expect they’ll go with Holland again in 2013. He’s young, he’s cheap, and really the homers were the only problem last year. He gave up a lot of 3 run jobs that jacked his era up – but his walks and hits allowed and BAA all improved in 2012. And he’s a lefty who can punch guys out.
im not sold on Rogers, Peralta, Thornburg at moment i think they have work to do not saying there bad or cant just dont look to be ready yet would rather see rodgers as a relif pitcher think he could be great there and hamilton with braun and rami damn thats would be scary for other teams
Peralta has had plenty of time in the minors though, so I almost feel like it’s now or never. Thornburg could probably use a year at Triple A, I agree on that point. Rogers just needs to prove he can stay healthy, because he hasn’t. At all. Back end of the bullpen arm could happen, but if you can trot out two guys in Peralta and Rogers, routinely throwing in the mid 90’s… well, I’d like to see that. Too many Suppan and Wolf starts in the recent past for me to not appreciate a starter that can throw heat.
Throwing him and Braun out there back-to-back 130 times a year would be interesting…
That’s if you think Hamilton can be that durable.
Well he’s averaged 134 games over the last three years, so he probably could be that durable again.
Signing Hamilton would probably result in the Brewers either nearly exclusively relying on young pitchers in the starting rotation to keep costs down or trading Rickie, Hart, or Ramirez to clear payroll for Hamilton and/or more pitching.
It’s possible that we could sign him, but highly unlikely. Somebody will offer him a big contract, and he’ll be too much for our payroll. Not to mention, as someone else noted here, going to a team that is so highly tied to alcohol wouldn’t exactly be good for his image.
What if the Angels re-sign Greinke and sign Kyle Lohse? Weaver,Greinke,Lohse,Haren,Richards..may be asking for too much but you never know?
For all Josh Hamilton’s undoubted ability, anyone signing him to a huge contract will be taking a huge gamble – one that a small-market team like the Brewers simply couldn’t afford to lose.
A new bullpen and a veteran SP (Ryan Dempster would be ideal, IMHO) should be the Crews’ off-season priorities. The offense was pretty darned good last year, even without Mr. Hamilton.
This rumor was floated around at mid-season as well.
I don’t see it as likely. Only if Hamilton were to approach them with interest, and signing a deal similar to Braun.
Hamilton would be more of a luxury to the Brewers, whereas they definitely need at least a couple dependable top flight bullpen arms, and a top of the rotation SP.
They could probably afford him. After next year, teams should be getting an additional $26 mil from the national tv deal, and Hart would be coming off the books.