Brewers! Brewers! Keep Turnin’ Up the Heat!

Posted by Steve

I am pretty relieved to see that it no longer appears the Brewers will be trading Mike Cameron for Melky Cabrera. That simply wouldn’t have been a good return for Cameron, even with the salary relief. I don’t understand why the Brewers were open to Cabrera as the main piece; if he was coming back with a decent pitcher it would be fine. But Cabrera alone? That’s a substantial downgrade offensively and defensively—a downgrade too large to make up for saving $10 million for one season. If that’s all the Brewers could get for Cameron, he’s more valuable playing center field for them in 2009 than in a trade.

I am clinging to any remaining hope of the Brewers re-signing Ben Sheets. A piece by SI’s John Heyman speculates that the Brewers are “likely” expressing interest. I’m not sure if Donovan has inside info on that or is just speculating, but it’s at least a sign of life.

Additionally, I’d still love to have Adam Dunn, but the Brewers should be competitive even if they don’t make a big trade or signing. I’d feel pretty good about the team if they made two “mid-level” signings—for example, either Randy Johnson or John Smoltz and decent reliever would put them in good position.

I expect the offense to improve even without major personnel changes. As I illustrated a few weeks ago, Hart, Braun, Weeks, Fielder and Hall all fell short of their projections last year. For all of them to have underperforming years again is quite unlikely.

The pitching will certainly drop off without Sabathia, and even more without Sheets. It’s not all doom and gloom there either, though. It may be easy to forget the Brewers were controlling the wildcard before Sabathia arrived and without Yovani Gallardo. In other words, their only clear-cut above average starter was Sheets. Well, they’ll enter this season with one clear-cut above average starter once again in Gallardo. They do need to add a pitcher who’s clearly better than, say Jeff Suppan and Seth McClung (think Dave Bush caliber or better). If that pitcher is Ben Sheets, that’s great. If it’s Randy Johnson, John Smoltz (if healthy) or someone via trade, that’s good too.