Gallardo to miss 4 weeks after knee surgery

This was reported By Tom Haudricourt:

"

Phoenix -- Right-hander Yovani Gallardo indeed does have torn cartilage in his left knee and will return to Milwaukee tomorrow to have arthroscopic surgery.

Gallardo is expected to be sidelined four weeks, virtually guaranteeing he will open the season on the disabled list. That would leave just two weeks in camp, not sufficient time for the 22-year-old right-hander to get ready for the regular season.

The official diagnosis on Gallardo is a lateral meniscus (cartilage) tear in the knee.

Gallardo apparently suffered the injury during a throwing session a few days ago. He experienced swelling in the knee afterward, and was examined by team physician William Raasch today as pitchers and catchers took physicals at the outset of spring camp.

Raasch will perform the arthroscopic surgery on Gallardo's knee on Tuesday, and he will return the next day to do his rehab with the club.

Gallardo was expected to assume one of the top spots in the Brewers' starting rotation this season after going 9-5 with a 3.67 ERA in 20 outings (17) starts last year as a rookie. He was one of eight candidates for five spots in the rotation, so that number already has been reduced to seven before the first official workout Monday.

"That's why you've got to be careful (about having extra pitching)," said general manager Doug Melvin. "You never want to trade somebody and have one injury, and you're too short (of pitching)."

And it appears catcher Lou Palmisano is headed for a similar fate. Palmisano will undergo an MRI examination Monday to confirm a lateral meniscus tear in his left knee."

This is not a good start to spring training for the Brewers it would be nice to get Yovani in some spring training games before the season starts so we can see how much he improved from last year.

Hardy's deal is for $2.65 million

Reported By Tom Haudricourt

"J.J. Hardy and Doug Melvin won't have to go to Florida this weekend after all.

The Brewers and Hardy just agreed on a one-year deal that will avoid an arbitration hearing Monday in St. Petersburg. I haven't gotten details of the contract yet but last I heard the sides were just below the midpoint of figures filed, which was $2.725 million.

Hardy had filed a salary arbitration request of $3.05 million, with the Brewers offering $2.4 million. Negotiations had stalled somewhat in recent days and Melvin, the club GM, was preparing to go to Florida for the hearing.

Now, Melvin keeps his record intact of never going to an arbitration hearing as Brewers' GM. Hardy had been the last player in arbitration with the club.

Hardy, 25, batted .277 with 26 homers and 80 RBI in 151 games last year and made the National League all-star team.
Just learned the details of J.J. Hardy's new one-year deal with the Brewers. He signed for $2.65 million.

Hardy filed for $3.05 million and the Brewers originally offered $2.4 million, so the midpoint was $2.725 million. Hardy signed for $75,000 less than that figure but certainly got a nice raise from his $400,000 salary of a year ago.

The sides appeared at odds Thursday night but the Brewers sweetened their offer a bit today to avoid a hearing in Florida on Monday."

This is great for the Brewers to get this out of the way now J.J. Hardy can concentrate on baseball and not his contract Negotiations.

Weeks' brother boosts his stock

As Reported by Tom Haudricourt
This is a article that Milwaukee Journal Sentinals Tom Haudricourt wrote about Rickie Weeks younger brother:

"When Rickie Weeks went undrafted as a high school senior, he went to Southern University and blossomed into one of the top players in the country. The Brewers took the second baseman with the second pick in the 2003 draft, which showed just how much Weeks improved over those three years.

Apparently, Weeks' brother, Jemile, has experienced a similar boost in ability and status by going to college.

The Brewers drafted Jemile Weeks, who also is a second baseman, in the eighth round of the 2005 draft out of high school. But he had a scholarship to the University of Miami and decided that was the best course for his future, so the sides amically broke off negotiations.

In its latest issue, Baseball America ranks Jemile Weeks as the No. 17 college player in the country. The magazine also includes Weeks in its 2008 Pre-Season All-America Team. Accordingly, depending how his season goes with the Hurricanes, Weeks could emerge as a first-round pick in June.

This is what BA says about Jemile Weeks, who is in his junior season at Miami:

"Weeks isn't as physically talented as his older brother, but he's not lacking for tools. He has 70 speed on the 20-80 scouting scale and unlike Rickie, he's a quality defender who leaves no doubt that he can play second base. His bat isn't as dynamic as his brother's, but he projects as a leadoff hitter and has occasional pop."

As I noted in an earlier blog today, the Brewers have six of the first 62 picks in the June draft. Wouldn't it be interesting if they used one of those picks to re-draft Jemile Weeks?

Of course, his path to the big leagues at second base would be blocked by his brother, so the Brewers might decide not to select Jemile. But scouting director Jack Zduriencik's philosophy is to draft the best player remaining on his board, so you never know."

Too bad the Brewers could not sign Jemile Weeks when they drafted him maybe they will have another shot at him in next years draft.

The Brewers picked up Ned Yosts option for 2009

The Milwaukee Brewer's picked up Ned Yost option for 2009. This is what Doug Melvin had to say, He's not on the last year," said Melvin. "I don't think it's good practice having people on the last year of their contract, having them perform that way." "(Owner) Mark (Attanasio) is in agreement with that." I still think if Yost has the finish like he did last year he will still get the boot from Melvin. Melvin was just trying to take some of the pressure off of Yost in my opinion.

Brewers signed Dave Bush to a 1 year $2.55 million deal

The Milwaukee Brewers avoided salary arbitration with Dave Bush today and signed Bush to a 1 year $2.55 million deal. Bush was seeking $3 million so I think the Brewers got the better end of the deal. Bush was the second last player to be signed now the brewers’ shortstop J.J. Hardy is the only remaining Brewer that needs to be signed to avoid arbitration. Bush will still have to fight his way into the starting lineup this year in spring training with the Brewers being so deep with starting pitching this year that is why I think they got this deal done without going before the court.

The Brewers Top 5 Prospects

Here are the Brewers top 5 prospects according to ESPN.com's Keith Law:

1. Matt LaPorta (37th overall)
2. Manny Parra (41st Overall)
3. SS Alcides Escobar
4. C Angel Salome
5. RHP Jeremy Jeffress

Matt Laporta
Laporta seems to be on the fast track to the majors I could see him on the Brewers big league club sometime in 2009. He already has 12 homeruns in his short minor league career. I expect him to play either Left or Right field depending on the Ryan Braun situation.

Manny Parra
Parra has a great chance to make the Brewers big league club as the 5th starter this year. If he is not a starter I would think he would either be a long reliever out of the pen or they would send him back down to the minors so he could get his work in every 5th game and be ready if a starter went down. Parra tossed a perfect game in his second career Triple-A start on 6/25 at Round Rock!

Alcides Escobar
It will be interesting to see what Melvin will do with Escobar he is currently blocked by J.J. Hardy and Rickie Weeks and I would expect him to be major league ready by 2009. He is a career .306 hitter in the minors and has great speed and is improving on his defense at Shortstop.

Angel Salome
Salome is still along way from being major league ready but he was the pioneer league MVP and .318 with 6 home runs. I expect to hear more about him in the future being that the Brewers never seem to find a catcher that fits well with the team.

Jeremy Jeffress
Jeffress was off to a great start but he is now suspended for 50 games do to a violation of the league's substance abuse policy. If all goes well he will be able to start pitching again in may I will get some new info up on Jeffress then.

Overall I think that the Brewers have done a fantastic job with there farm system and you can start to see that with there major league club (Fielder, Weeks, Hardy, Braun, Hall, Hart, and Garaldo all came from the farm system). I think the Brewers will be in good shape for years to come do to the fact that they are stacked in the minor leagues.

Escobar, Iribarren come to terms

Reported by: Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"The Brewers have agreed to terms with two players on their 40-man roster, shortstop Alcides Escobar and second baseman/outfielder Hernan Iribarren, on contracts for 2008.

Many of the Brewers' top prospects are lower in the system but Escobar and Iribarren both should play at Class AAA Nashville this season.

Escobar, 21, is ranked as the No. 3 prospect in the Brewers' system by Baseball America (in the interest of full disclosure, I work with BA on that list). He split last season between Class A Brevard County and Class AA Huntsville, batting a career-high .306 overall. He is a very slick fielder at short -- major-league ready in that area.

Iribarren, ranked No. 26, was exclusive a second baseman until last year. Because Iribarren is blocked at the big-league level by young Rickie Weeks, the Brewers have started giving him playing time in center field. He has the speed to play that position and is a carer .324 hitter in the minors.

Both players will be in the Brewers' big-league camp, as will all players on the 40-man roster."

Brewers are going bigtime

It looks like the Milwaukee Brewers are starting to draw some national attention 4 of there games have been moved to Fox. Here are the games:
May 10 vs. St. Louis, moved to 2:45 p.m
May 17 at Boston, moved to 2:55 p.m
Aug. 2 at Atlanta, moved to 2:55 p.m
Sept. 13, at Philadelphia, moved to 2:55 p.m

I think this is great for the Brewers to finally start getting some national attention. The people at Fox must expect the Brewers to be contenders late in the year. I think we will be right in the hunt at the end and this year we will prevail over the scrubs!

The Brewers Projected Starters

Here is a list of the projected Starters

Position Players
Catcher: Jason Kendall
First Base: Prince Fielder
Second Base: Rickie Weeks
Short Stop: J.J. Hardy
Third Base: Bill Hall (He might play a little bit of center because Cameron is suspended for the first 25 games)
Right Field: Corey Hart
Center Field: Mike Cameron (Suspended for the first 25 games)
Left Field: Ryan Braun (National League Rookie of the Year)

Starting Pitchers
First: Ben Sheets
Second: Jeff Suppan
Third: Yovani Gallardo
Fourth: Chris Capuano
Fifth: Dave Bush (As of now but its a tight race between Claudio Vargas, Manny Parra, and Carlos Villanueva)
Closer: Eric Gagne

I like the makeup of are team right now we still have a lot of young players but i think they will be able to hold up down the strech this year. It will be interesting to see are batting order and if Ned Yost will try to utilize the roster as much as he did last year. I guess we will have to wait and see!

The new milwaukee brewers blog

HI! I am a huge brewer's fan from Wisconsin i live about 1 hour North of Milwaukee. I try to go to 15-20 games a year and i watch or listen to the rest of the games. With this brewers blog i plan to give spring training updates, series recaps, player news and some interactive polls. So if you stumble upon this blog and are a brewers fan please subscribe to get the latest brewer news!