RFB Offseason Roundtable: Winter Meetings

This Week’s Topic: How was Winter Meetings Week for you?

Joe -

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This year’s Winter Meetings, for me, were…well…fine. That’s it. My emotions never got “down” and they certainly didn’t get high.

I’m sure many fans are pretty upset about losing CC, but my reaction to that is “what did you expect?” Sure, there was definitely a part of me that was really hoping he’d sign, but I knew better. Discounts are very few and far between in Major League Baseball. I’ll always be a CC fan. P.S. I fricking hate the Yankees. More on that later.

I don’t really have much of an opinion on the likely trade of Cameron for Melky Cabrera that gained a lot of speed towards the end of the Meetings. I think a straight one-for-one trade is good for the Brewers, but I agree it may mean the Brewers are looking past this year.

Cameron is hands down the better option in center this coming year, but Melky has great upside and could be huge for the Brewers in the not-so-distant future. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Melvin can manage to make Hall part of the deal and get Ian Kennedy. I don’t see the Brewers getting Philip Hughes, but that would be great in my opinion.

I’m hoping Melvin can manage to get the pieces necessary for the Brewers to again be competitive this year. We’ll just have to sit back and see what happens. As for right now, I’m remaining level headed and patient.

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Jared -

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The Winter Meeting Week has sort of been like middle school for me. My body (or, in this case, team) is changing rapidly and I’m not sure what to expect. My voice is changing (Ned Yost to Ken Macha). My old friends (Sheets, Gagne, Shouse, Torres) are leaving only to be replaced by new, less reliable friends (Julio, Swindle, Melky Cabrera?).

I was dating the hottest girl in school (CC Sabathia) and I thought things were getting serious, but when I asked her to go steady (contract offer) she cut me loose for that douchebag with money (New York Yankees). My dad (Doug Melvin) says everything will be fine and that I should try going after the older, more experienced girls (Smoltz, Johnson, Wolf, Moyer), but I don’t think I have much of a chance with them either.

They’ve been flirting with the trendy guys with the flashy Trapper Keepers (West coast/East coast teams). It feels like I’ll never be kissed again (Wild Card), much less get handsy (division title) or do the things I’ve really been thinking about (World Series). But, hey, things could be worse (I could be a Cubs fan…).

And at least I’m not that smelly kid sitting in the corner that everyone makes fun of (Pittsburgh Pirates).

OK, so that’s not exactly what the Winter Meetings week has been like for me and I really just took that convoluted illustration way, way, way too far (and, trust me, this awkward kid definitely never got any kind of middle school action), but you get the point...It’s been a frustrating week.

I can see that Melvin and company are working towards something, but I’m not sure what it is and I’m not sure I like it at this point. I’ll give management the benefit of the doubt for now though and say I hope/expect some significant activity from the Crew in the coming weeks.

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Bryan -

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Winter meetings week is usually fun, what with all the tossing around of names and destinations. For awhile it was fun. I was constantly checking the every rumor blog update site I could find.

One thing that has really brought me back to reality this week was that almost every big name can be traced back to New York. I almost forgot what it was like to have New York absolutely DOMINATE major league free agency, but now I remember…it blows for those who don’t get the YES network.

As far as the Brewers go, I appreciate the offer they gave to C.C. We all knew it probably wasn’t going to happen; we’re used to it. I’ll still be a C.C. fan, just not a Yankee one. I’m sad to see him go, but he did more than we could have asked in the short time he was around. I’m actually worried for him, that he might fall apart like Alex Rodriguez and I honestly hope that doesn’t happen to the guy. He deserves better.

The Cameron/Cabrera rumor that popped up was an interesting one. I’d like to keep Cam; I think he’s a great with the Brewers’ young outfielders, but you can’t deny it’s interesting to think about having another young outfielder who has proven he can play in the largest media market to some extent and the Brewers could have him until 2013 if they wanted.

That said, I’m glad it hasn’t gone down especially with the Bill Hall, Kei Igawa, Brewers picking up Cam’s tab rumors. C’mon Yankees…you’re going to spend a quarter of a billion dollars this offseason! What’s a measley ten million more? It’s like we say at the bar, if you’re gonna go…go all out!

The fact that I’m talking more about the Yankees than the Brewers can tell you how the Winter Meetings went down this week. Now I can get back to my regularly scheduled offseason.

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Tyler -

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The four-plus day span that was my Winter Meetings week to this point was OK. I woke up early like an overgrown and out-of-shape child on Christmas day to read the latest news, views and speculation on what teams were up to, who would sign where and how the chips fell.

As you might be aware, I used my four consecutive days of 20-hour conciousness to scribe numerous up-to-date posts on both this fine Web site and HERE. I was so preoccupied that I thrice forgot to shave and subconciously weened self gratification to an almost prudish five to six times a day. The week was like one long religious holiday, except one for intelligent people who invested their interest in something worthwhile.

As far as the Brewers go, what can be said? I expected CC to go, and vowed to be happy for him no matter where he decided. His choice of the Yankees is a bit tougher to swallow than, say, any non-Cubs franchise, but I would’ve done the same thing if I had any flash of skill at a valued task. In all, I’m just happy to officially know his destiny so the Brewers front office can move on in their quest to field a decent team.

I love the Todd Coffey signing, like the Eduardo Morlan Rule 5 pickup, feel numb and bored just thinking about the Mike Lamb re-sign, and—in all—feel like the groundwork has been placed for a modest signing and/or huge trade in the coming days,weeks or month.

In terms of feelings, I am sad that moments after this is posted, the Brewers will likely trade Mike Cameron and this thing I spent like 12 minutes writing will be stale and outdated. But, as is the case in almost every time wasting thing I choose to do in my unfufilling existence, I’m still happy I was involved…and that I probably did better than Jared.

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