Brewers 2009 Payroll Taking Shape

With the submission of arbitration numbers by Prince, Weeks and Hart, we now have a pretty good idea of where the Brewers' payroll is going to be in 2009 given the players who are currently in the picture.

Thanks to the incomparable Cot's Baseball Contracts, the known 2009 salaries of the Brewers are as follows:

Jeff Suppan: $12.5 M (!)
Mike Cameron: $10 M
Bill Hall: $6.8 M
Trevor Hoffmann: $ 6 M
J.J. Hardy: $4.65 M
Jason Kendall: $4.6 M
David Riske: $4.25 M
Dave Bush: $4 M
Seth McClung: $1.66M
Jorge Julio: $.95 M
Todd Coffey: $.8 M
Ryan Braun: $.745 M
RJ Swindle: $.4 M
Mike Lamb: $.4 M

The midpoint for the arbitration figures submitted by the Brewers and Prince, Weeks and Hall (which is a fair estimate of where those salaries will end up) is as follows:

Prince Fielder: $7 M
Rickie Weeks: $2.4 M
Corey Hart: $3.25 M*

*(gracias, AP)

Add all that up, and you get to just over $70.4 M for 17 players.

Then you add in renewal salaries for Villanueva, Gallardo, Tony Gwynn Jr., Mike Rivera, Manny Parra, Mitch Stetter, maybe that Morlan guy to get to the Brewers payroll for their 25-man roster. Trot Nixon and Chris Capuano are also possibilities - they're on minor league deals at the moment.

Figure those guys will average $.5 M a man (which is too high, probably, but we'll go with that for argument's sake) and the Brewers payroll will come in at around $74.5 M without adding anybody else.

We've heard that Milwaukee's budget is around $80 M for 2009. If that's accurate, I don't see room for Ben Sheets (or any other significant addition) in this picture without a corresponding move to shed some salary.

Counting Is Hard

Oops

The Chinese-language version of Sports Illustrated is reporting New Jersey Nets forward Yi Jianlian is one of 36 Chinese basketball players whose age is wrong on official documents. His official records state his birth date– and as far as the Nets know – is 10/24/1987. The magazine alleges Yi was actually born in 1984. That would tell us Yi is either 24 or 21.

My issue of the Chinese SI hasn't come in the mail yet, so I'll trust this website.

PAYROLL DUMP!

Ladies and Gentlemen...introducing your 1998 Florida Marlins...errr...I mean your new and improved 2009 Milwaukee Brewers!

So now with CC officially K Bye, I wake up this morning to find some subsequent K byes to hand out: starting first with the old Cameron for Cabrera trade which appears to be a done deal.

But then...clicking over to see if Tom H. has confirmed the rumors, he says that the Yankees want Cameron...and get this...BILL HALL.

Ummm...ok...I didn't expect that. Fascinating indeed.

So assuming these moves go through, the Brewers will have either lost in free agency or traded 5 out of their top 7 salaries from 2008 (Sabathia and Braun not on this list). Sabathia, Sheets, Gagne, Cameron, & Hall made around a combined $40M last year.

Ummm...who have we signed to replace them?

Blink...stare...(crickets in background). Lamb & Coffey are making peanuts...they don't count.

Take a closer look at that payroll list. Counsell, Mota, Torres, Turnblow, Capuano, Shouse...they're all gone and there's another $18M right there!

I know the arbitration raises are going to suck up some of this money...but there appears to be a relatively large gap here that is unaccounted for.

Melvin has stated that he doesn't think he is going to be making any more big splashes in free agency...so could Brad's conspiracy theory be true?

The numbers don't add up. Make a move Doug.

From The Chuckie_Hacks@Yahoo.Com Inbox...

...comes this gem from Garcia.



According to wonderful accuscore from ESPN, the seattle mariners have a better chance of winning tonight against the Red Sox than the crew has against the Cards. Seattle has RA Dickey pitching! Is Suppan that bad? Accuscore also says that Rick Ankiel will more than likely hit a home run tonight!

~~Garcia