This trade has been covered everywhere, but it honestly blows my mind that the Brewers would do something like this. I like the Brewers, always have, but to me they’ve always had this “loser” quality to them. Maybe it’s because I grew in an era when Paul Molitor was long gone and wasn’t coming back, even to manage. Maybe it’s because the best players I ever saw on the team were Fernando Vina, Greg Vaughn and Richie Sexson. I don’t know why it is, but the Cubs have always been the “lovable losers” and the Brewers were always “just plain losers”. Which wasn’t a bad thing. It spoke to the quality of the ownership (Bud Selig) and the people he put in place there. It spoke to the reality of living in a free market where the richer teams will always get the best free agents and that’s that. Milwaukee is not a very big market and if you’ve ever been to a game there you know that more people care about the Packers than they ever will about the Brewers. Which is fine (and dumb because baseball rules), but there is money to be made there. Mark A figured that out when they built the team and now they are set to make a serious run, not only at the pennant but the World Series too. Seriously, Ben Sheets and CC Sabathia is a scary 1-2 punch in a playoff series.
The best part about the whole thing though is the way they did this. They gave up one sure thing bat (don’t really need it for a couple years) and a couple prospects for a rental pitcher who could win them the World Series. Then when he’s gone and Sheets leaves as well they are going to get four quality draft picks. Which if you subtract development time makes the deal basically a wash that saves you a lot of money. The Brewers are a very smart, well run team unlike the Mariners. Let’s hope something happens to change that. Until then it’s a good time to live in Wisconsin.
Side note: Greg Maddux for Tony Gwynn Jr almost makes too much sense. I think the only thing that would hold it up is Maddux’s apparent loyalty to the Cubs, but that’s pure speculation.
