Milwaukee Brewers

Just two seasons ago, the Brewers were loaded with outfielders both on the roster and in their minor league system. They had names like Braun, Cameron, Hart, Gwynn Jr., and Gabe Gross on the roster.

In just two years time, the outfield has seen a major overhaul. Mike Cameron was allowed to leave via free agency this winter, Tony Gwynn Jr. was traded for Jody Gerut, and Gross was dealt as well.

When the Brewers cut ties with veteran catchers Jason Kendall and Mike Rivera this winter, it appeared they were poised to turn the catching reins over to their top two prospects at the position: Jonathan Lucroy and Angel Salome.

That's both a scary and dangerous risk for an organization to take, so Brewers' GM Doug Melvin went out and signed George Kottaras and Gregg Zaun.

Carlos Villanueva is in a very similar position to Manny Parra.

Both have the talent to be successful pitchers in the majors, but both are held back by either mental or physical roadblocks.

Part of Villanueva's problem has come from the rest of the pitching staff. He has bounced between the bullpen and starting rotation in each of his four seasons with the Brewers due to either injury orthe ineffectiveness of others.

How important is Manny Parra to the Milwaukee Brewers?

To many fans, he is nothing more than an erratic left-hander that will be lucky to make the starting rotation in 2010.

His 2009 stats bare that out to be true: Parra finished the season 11-11 with a 6.36 ERA in 140 innings, spending time in the minors due to ineffectiveness.

In three seasons with the Brewers, Parra has become the ultimate underachiever.

No one will argue with the talent the 27-year-old possesses, but he has yet to put together any significant stretches of success.

While fans of the Milwaukee Brewers are looking forward to the 2010 season, the majority of them are more worried about what could potentially happen after the 2011 season: Prince Fielder's departure.

In four full seasons with the Brewers, Fielder has cemented his place as one of the best power hitters in baseball. In that time, he has hit 158 home runs and knocked in 443 runs.

Fielder became the youngest player in baseball history to hit 50 home runs in a season at age 23 in 2007.

If I told you that you had to fill 34 starts throughout the course of a season and offered you the choice between the following stat lines, which one would you take?

11-7, 3.23 ERA, 214.1 IP, 178 H, 24 HR, 58 BB, 160 K, 1.101 WHIP, 24 Quality Starts

14-7, 5.22 ERA, 194.2 IP, 226 H, 39 HR, 64 BB, 100 K, 1.490 WHIP, 14 Quality Starts

Is there even the tiniest little chance that you'd select line two? I suppose that if you were selecting a starting pitcher for your chief rival, you might go that way.

On March 24, 2008, Claudio Vargas was a member of the Milwaukee Brewers and competing for a spot in the starting rotation. On March 25, 2008, Claudio Vargas lost that competition and was cut from the team altogether.

In reality, there were too many starters for not enough spots in that rotation...on March 25. Shortly after, Chris Capuano was injured and hasn't thrown a pitch in the Majors since. Thus is the tenuous nature of pitching. One day you can have an apparent surplus and the next you can have a severe dearth.

When Trevor Hoffman signed with the Milwaukee Brewers prior to the 2009 season, there were some people out there that actually weren't excited about it.

Hoffman is Major League Baseball's all-time saves leader, a sure-fire Hall of Fame member, and one of the best closers of all time, if not the best. After the debacle that the Eric Gagne signing turned out to be...shouldn't it have been sheer relief if nothing else from the fan base?

Even still, there were skeptics. Hoffman had no problem proving those people wrong.

When I have a couple of things to write about at the same time and don't feel like making separate posts about each one, I combine them under a heading I like to call Quick Hops.

Every now and then, I get some information passed along to me. You can take the information for what it's worth to you. At this point, after all, I am just a fan of the team that enjoys sharing his thoughts about it.

So, with that disclaimer out of the way, let me pass along what I've been told.

This is now the eighth installment in my series in which I am naming who I feel are the top ten players in the history of each MLB franchise.

With the Brewers struggles throughout the 1990s and most of the 2000s, this list is dominated by players from the 1980s, and there are seven players from the 1982 World Series team on this list.

Now that I have gotten into teams with a slightly larger talent pool, I need to set some restrictions on minimum Plate Appearances/Innings Pitched for the candidates.