Reaction to the Felipe Lopez Trade

The Brewers put their hat in the trade ring today by acquiring Felipe Lopez from the D-Backs for a couple minor leaguers.

While I would have preferred if they had gotten a starting pitcher from Arizona (Doug Davis), I still like the trade. Despite the Brewers struggles in the past month and a half, this trade proves that management has faith in this team and is willing to acquire players that can help the teams post-season hopes.

Point being, Lopez upgrades both the top of the line-up and the second base position. While Craig Counsell has filled-in admirably after Rickie Weeks went down for the season and is hitting better than normal, he has more value as a bench/platoon player than he does hitting first every day.

With Lopez the Brewers will get a decent average, a solid OBP and a little bit of pop in his bat (as evidenced by a .305/.368/.416 103 OPS+........the only draw-back to this trade is it makes it less likely that Casey McGehee will get into the starting line-up as he has played some second after the Weeks Injury......but that's a different rant for a different day

Either way, getting Lopez should infuse some fresh energy into this team and i'm looking forward to see what he can contribute to the Brewers pennant hopes........

The Jefferson Trade and the '10 Bucks

So the major NBA story today is the trade of Richard Jefferson to the Spurs for Bruce Bowen and Kurt Thomas

The article does a good job of reporting the broad elements of the trade (i.e. Jefferson's impact on Spurs, the salary incentive for the Bucks, and how it makes the re-signing of Villaneuva and/or  Sessions more likely)

Although it hurts to lose one of the Bucks better players, I still like this trade. While Jefferson's season wasn't overly memorable, an average season from Jefferson is still substantially better than a good season for the two overpaid scrubs he got traded for (Yi Julian and Bobby Simmons)....so the Bucks still got more production out of the deal...

In other words, while Jefferson was a nice player he does seem like a better fit for the Spurs than Milwaukee (and not quite high-caliber enough to justify the $15 million salary.)

Slowly but surely the Bucks are creeping towards being a playoff team and trading Jefferson(i.e. freeing up $15 mil) increases the chance (as the article mentions of re-signing Villaneuva and Sessions). While i'm not completely sold on Villaneuva, in non-contract years.......if I were the Bucks GM I would place a higher priority on signing Sessions.

Sure he might not be a future hall of-famer.......but he is a solid player who does lots of things well.......he's a decent scorer with the potential to occasionally drop 30+, he rebounds well for a guard and he can dish it out with the best in the league....if the Bucks don't re-sign Sessions they stand the risk of being  worse than even teams like the Kings and Clippers

I'm not sure if Sessions teaming with Micheal Redd and Andrew Bogut would make the Bucks a championship contender but if all three stay healthy a playoff spot and perhaps a trip to the second round (only b/c they play in the east) is at least conceivable (they had a legitimate playoff chance last year until Redd and Bogut's seasons were ended by injury) and in light of how bad the Bucks have been in past years, I would be happy with at least sneaking in to the 8 spot next year........