Some things to read while waiting for your Calvin & Hobbes model toboggan ... One small step was taken towards payroll certainty yesterday, as the Brewers reached an agreement with J.J. Hardy on a one year deal worth $4.65 million. It's been noted in the comments, but it's still worth noting how far the arbitration process is from assessing a player's actual value: This is Hardy's second arbitration year, and yet he will still make less than two-thirds of what Prince Fielder will make in his
Some things to read while savoring the experience of typing a sentence ... My apologies for being unable to write Friday. A lot has been said about the Hoffman deal since Thursday, so it's time to bust out the bullet points: Michael Street of Baseball Digest Daily says Hoffman will be good but not great, and likely won't stay long in Milwaukee ... Eric Karabell of ESPN says Hoffman's run as a Brewer may not be pretty, and compares Hoffman to Todd Jones at the end of his career, but thinks he'll
No opening joke today ... So Ken Rosenthal and The Official Site are reporting that the Brewers are close to a deal with Trevor Hoffman. Oddly, one site is reporting Hoffman as being close to a deal with the Dodgers instead. Rumorville has been all over this ... I'm still not sure I like the move. Sure, Hoffman gives the Brewers the cool entrance they've been lacking. (That entrance is so cool its sunglasses are wearing sunglasses.) But the team's biggest need (starting pitching) is still
Some things to read while waiting for bread to rise ... Perhaps the biggest Brewer news today is the ending of news: The Brewers reportedly aren't actually interested in Derek Lowe or Mark Mulder. It's always possible Doug Melvin is just throwing reporters off the track in an effort to look mysterious, but it seems more likely that Boston Globe reporter Nick Cafardo, the same guy who reported the Brewers were "close" to signing Braden Looper, has led us off the trail again. As noted in the