Nov 28th 2008 6:15PM by Will Brinson (author feed)
Prince Fielder has talked extensively about his distaste for his own father, the former home run slugging Cecil Fielder. Some of this stems around Big C’s behavior as Cecil was a young child, and some of it revolves around the older tater king’s inability to successfully manage a budget.

So it should come as no huge surprise that Cecil finds himself on the wrong end of an IRS lien (like there’s a right end). From the TaxWatchdog at .
Former Detroit Tigers star Cecil Fielder owes $273,123.29 in federal taxes, the latest financial issue facing a slugger who has had a slew of money problems in recent years, records show.

The lien against Cecil, 45, comes five months after the Tax Watchdog first revealed that the IRS had filed a $409,149 tax lien against his estranged son, Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder.
Well, at least it’s genetic. What? If you don’t find unfunny hereditary tax jokes at least kind of laughable, I don’t want to know you anyway.

But seriously, it’s a sad thing to watch a guy that enthralled our country for at least a year of my childhood as he wailed away at the record books, launching bombs and making fat kids everywhere feel better about themselves.

But then again, it’s not surprising that a guy who played like Cecil did (a “my performance ain’t perfect but it’s loud and it’s fast” kind of way) finds himself in this sort of hot water, really. And given the economic times, I think we’ll be less and less surprised to see who ends up in the same boat.

Nov 20th 2008 10:25PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
Right now, everyone knows the numbers CC Sabathia has on his table. The Brewers have offered CC $100 million over four years. The Yankees have offered him $140 million over six. These offers are, of course, liable to change, especially if another team gets involved in the bidding. For now, though, everyone’s been focusing on the big number thrown out by the Yankees and whether Sabathia will spurn the city he says he fell in love with for they money.

As always, though, there’s more to things than the numbers. Jeff Sackmann at Brew Crew Ball breaks down the two offers and considers cost of living in New York and Milwaukee, as well as the effect of contract length on future earning potential and determines that the Yanks’ offer might not be as great as people think.

Jeff makes some great points, but I’d like to extend his point about contract length and future earning potential a bit. If Sabathia signs in Milwaukee, he’s going to be one of the best pitchers on the planet. In the AL, he was a Cy Young winner. In the NL, he was an alien beamed in from outer space with the sole purpose of eliminating hitters from the face of the planet.Continue Reading

Nov 17th 2008 11:34AM by Will Brinson (author feed)
In and around the city of Cleveland, there’s a great deal of consternation regarding the fanhood of one LeBron James. He is, as has been noted in the past, a “huge” Yankees “fan”. Okay, he’s actually definitely a pinstripper, but most people (myself included) are a little distraught over the bandwagony nature of his pulling for the Yankees.

However, that doesn’t make his opinion about whether the Bombers can land CC Sabathia any less interesting.
The Yankees have formulated a proposal to Sabathia that would exceed Johan Santana’s $137.5 million, six-year contract with the New York Mets both in total and average.

Asked before Cleveland’s game against Utah on Saturday night if he thought the Yankees would win the Sabathia sweepstakes, James smiled and said, “We’re gonna get him. Absolutely.”
Now, to me, it’s particularly interesting because CC is essentially facing a similar situation to what Bron will deal with in the future, i.e. TONS of money to go play in New York, or a little less money to kick it in the midwest.

Obviously, CC’s not on the same level as James, and he has much less at stake, personally, with his previous team (Milwaukee) than Bron does with the Cavaliers. But that doesn’t make the Big Apple any less enticing.

You also have to wonder, if LeBron is saying these things, whether or not he’s made any calls in CC’s direction, requesting his presence in New York. It might be a stretch, but if he’s making himself inherently more invested in the state of things in NYC, well, I can’t possibly consider that good news for anyone in and around Cleveland.

Nov 16th 2008 4:00PM by Mullet (author feed)
Brewers GM Bob Melvin thought he had a shot at re-signing CC Sabathia with a five year $100 million deal … only to find that the Yankees have seen that offer and raised the Brewers another season and another $40 million. Melvin, selfishly, and with a twinge of sour grapes, doesn’t think that the Yankees need to go quite that high.”It sounds like they’re overbidding,” Melvin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “If the speculation is true that we’ve offered CC $100 million, why would you offer $140 million? Why wouldn’t you offer $110 million?”I’ll tell you why. Because the Yankees decided they wanted Sabathia long before the Brewers unexpectedly decided to make a strong offer. They’re not bidding against them, they’re bidding against the previous standard for lefty starters (Johan Santana’s Mets contract.) I mean, can you picture the Yankees sitting around their Tampa offices muttering to themselves, “Let’s wait and see what the Brewers do”? It doesn’t work that way in the Bronx.Continue Reading

Nov 16th 2008 10:48PM by B (author feed)
Great, now we’re getting to that point in the offseason where every news update is about how the Yankees are “interested in” the big free agents and how some guy from some network interviewed them and they totally said they’d love to play for the Yankees, and on and on and blah blah blah. We’ve been doing this comic long enough to know the two great truths about the Yankees, and they are presented to you in chatroom form below.

Have the Yankees considered getting new uniforms? It works for everybody else. Maybe they can get a mascot. Make him a vague, shaggy grey thing named “OPS the Dog!”

Tonight’s giant-sized Dugout is after the jump.Continue Reading

Nov 11th 2008 1:00PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
It’s hard to think of a team that’s been on more of a rollercoaster than the Milwaukee Brewers have the past five months. In June, they acquired CC Sabathia and started steamrolling towards what looked like a certain playoff berth. In September, they collapsed and nearly lost what looked like a sure wild-card berth. Then they fired Ned Yost and slid into the playoffs anyways. In October, they were knocked out by the eventual world champion Phillies. Now they’ve hired Ken Macha and Willie Randolph, but CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets have filed for free agency.

Of course, the important thing for the Brewers and their fans to remember is that they’re going to be in good shape next year, even without Sheets and Sabathia. They’ve still got a great offense, they’ve still got Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra, and hey, Eric Gagne’s gone! They’re going to be a different team next year, yes. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to be worse.Continue Reading

Nov 11th 2008 3:44PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
With the date that the free agency market opens quickly approaching, the Brewers had been trying to decide what to do with Salomon Torres. They hold a $3.75 million option on him with a Saturday deadline to exercise it and given the current depth problems Brewers’ pen, it seemed pretty certain that they would pick up the option after Torres had a solid 2008. That’s off the table now, because Torres has instead elected to retire. When Tom Haudricort asked for a statement, this is what Torres had to say:

“I wanted to make it easy for him,” said Torres, 36, reached at home in Pittsburgh. “I already had made up my mind and wanted to tell him this was my last season.”
Torres, a deeply religious man, said he wanted to devote more time to his wife and three children as well as his faith.
“It’s time for me to dedicate more time to my family and my religion,” said Torres. “Doug was very understanding, which I appreciate. I had a wonderful experience in Milwaukee but he knows I am serious about it.”
In the post at the Brewers’ Blog Haudricort says he’s surprised, but he really shouldn’t be. Torres seriously contemplated retirement last winter after being traded to Milwaukee, but finally elected to accept the trade to Milwaukee. This is actually Torres’ second retirement. He was a promising prospect for the Giants in the early ’90s, but was crushed when he took the loss in 1993s NL West one-game playoff. He bounced around and retired in 1997, He came back with the Pirates in 2002 and found a niche in the bullpen there. His turnaround since the first half of his career has been remarkable and he’s earned the right to go out on his own terms this time around.

Nov 8th 2008 4:10PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
When the Brewers hired Ken Macha and moved Dale Sveum to the position of hitting coach, it seemed like they had plenty of managerial experience on their coaching staff. Apparently Doug Melvin didn’t agree with that sentiment because the Brewers named Macha’s bench coach today; former Mets’ manager Willie Randolph.

This kind of seems like a weird move, because it’s almost certainly made by Melvin, even though the bench coach is usually picked by the manager. Randolph was one of the other finalists for the Brewers job before it went to Macha. Apparenly Melvin liked Randolph’s interview and Willie decided that he’d rather be a bench coach again than go somewhere like Seattle, so here we are.

I thought for a few minutes that having three managers on your coaching staff was weird, but then I remembered the ex-Pittsburgh Pirate manager reunion in Detroit where Gene Lamont and Lloyd McClendon have worked with Jim Leyland the past few years. The theme of Melvin’s hiring process has been “experience” and though Randolph and Sveum weren’t managers for that long, he’s certainly packing as much experience as he can into this coaching staff.

Nov 9th 2008 12:25AM by B (author feed)
It was reported in the middle of the night during a West Coast road trip that former New York Mets head coach Willie Randolph will join former New York Mets coaching instructor/electronics salesman/candle salesman Tom Nieto in the wonderful world of gainful baseball employment. He has been named “bench coach” for the Milwaukee Brewers under new manager Ken Macha. As a lifelong follower of the American League whose only working knowledge of the Mets is Faith and Fear in Flushing, two questions spraing to mind:

Why did Willie Randolph settle for bench coach when he probably (probably) could’ve gotten a better coaching job elsewhere, and
Does Getty Images have a hatless picture of Willie Randolph?

The answers are simple. I don’t know, and yes! Tonight’s Dugout is after the jump.Continue Reading

Nov 3rd 2008 1:27PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
The last two months or so for Dale Sveum have been very interesting. When September began, he was the third base coach for the Milwaukee Brewers. He was elevated to manager for the final 14 games of the season, lead the Brewers to a wild card berth, lost to the eventual World Champs in the NLDS, saw the Brewers hire someone else as manager, and decided to stay with the team in a seemingly reduced capacity as hitting coach.

There is one catch to the whole thing though — Sveum asked for the job as hitting coach, even though Milwaukee was willing to consider him in the other two roles he’s held with the team — bench coach and third base coach.

He simply said he wanted a new challenge and that hitting has always been his passion, so he talked new manager Ken Macha into giving him the job. But Sveum is going to be a manager somewhere, and soon. Continue Reading