Are The Brewers Losing To Many Talented Players For The Sake Of Winning Now

When do you say enough is enough when it comes to trading your young talent away.Sometimes you have to wonder If Brewers GM Doug Melvin is trading away too much of the Brewers talent. In 2010 and 2011, the Brewers have lost a lot of talented players all for the sake of winning it in 2011. On December 6, 2010 the Brewers traded Brett Lawrie to Toronto for Shaun Marcum. Lawrie is a top talent and will be in the Majors in the not too distant future. Shaun Marcum has pitched well, so you cannot fault that trade at all.

December 19, 2010 the Brewers traded Jake Odorizzi (minors), Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar and Jeremy Jeffress to Kansas City for Yuniesky Betancourt, Zack Greinke and cash. Now Greinke has not been great by any means, and Betancourt has struggled all season long for the most part. Losing Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar in my opinion was huge and so far this trade has been about even. The talent the Brewers gave away in this trade was too much in my opinion.

On March 27, 2011 Brewers traded Cutter Dykstra (minors) and cash to the Washington Nationals. Received Nyjer Morgan. This was one of the trades that the Brewers did well on. Morgan has been more than the Brewers could have hoped for. July 12, 2011 Brewers traded two players to be named to the New York Mets and received Francisco Rodriguez and cash. This was another trade that was good all dependent on who the Brewers have to give back to the Mets. This was an interesting trade, but the question will be what happens next year and down the road.

Now today the Brewers acquired Jerry Hairston Jr who is 36 years old from the Washington Nationals. Who did the Brewers give up in return for this journeyman Erik Komatsu, 23, was batting .294 in 93 games with Double-A Huntsville this season. He was taken in the eighth round of the 2008 draft, and was the Brewers' minor league player of the year last season. Now this is just too talent to lose all for the sake of winning right now when there are no guarantees. GM Doug Melvin has gambled everything on this season, and if it does not work he has really hurt the Brewers for years to come. There is always a price to pay when you trade away talent. I hope the Brewers do not pay a price later down the road.

Is It Time To Pay Prince Fielder?

Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers is having another very good season, and one way or another it looks like someone will give him a big fat contract. My question is he worth a big fat contract. He does have many things going in his favor. He is only 27 years old and in seven seasons has hit over 200 home runs already. Prince is a good RBI man and a decent fielder as well. He has cut down on his strikeouts this season and he always walks a lot which you like to see.

All those things mentioned above seems to qualify him for a big fat contract in many GM's eyes. Being a Brewers fan I do love Prince Fielder a lot, but he is not worth the kind of money that he will be asking in the off-season. Now if he wants a less than the 150-180 million that has been thrown around then he would be a good pickup for a team.

The truth is Prince has one big drawback which makes me not want him long-term, and that is his struggles against top competition. This season Fielder has had chances to deliver in the clutch or make a statement against someone and he has not. Ryan Braun time after time this season has and that is why he got a long term deal from the Brewers. Stats are great Prince, but you need a guy to deliver in the clutch all the time and you have not proven that just yet.