Brewers pick up some help

[Karps TA]

While on the hunt for a starting pitcher, Brewers general manager Doug Melvin decided to give his offense a boost today by trading for Arizona second baseman Felipe Lopez.

Melvin sent Class AAA Nashville outfielder Cole Gillespie and Class A Brevard County reliever Roque Mercedes to the Diamondbacks for Lopez, who should help fill the void created when second baseman Rickie Weeks was lost for the season with a wrist injury in mid-May.

Manager Ken Macha has struggled to find a right-handed hitter to put atop his lineup when the Brewers faced lefties, so the switch-hitting Lopez will fill that gap, also. Left-handed hitting Craig Counsell had been playing second base against right-handed pitching.

Lopez, 29, is batting .301 with 18 doubles, six homers, 25 RBI and a .367 OBP for the D-Backs. He is batting .313 from the right side of the plate and .298 left-handed. He is expected to join the Brewers tomorrow in Pittsburgh.

Lopez entered play Sunday ranked second in the NL with a .372 OBP from the top spot in the batting order. He is a free agent after the season

[PB86MCSS]

Not bad....I heard Gillespie was a decent prospect but nothing stellar. Lopez was rumored for awhile, should be a nice improvement. I like Counsell and all but hes not an everyday player. I do wonder why they didn't apparently have interest to bring back Durham...switch hitter, cheap, wouldn't have to give up a prospect. Lopez is a little better but not a whole lot, IMO.

[Karps TA]

And they sent Gamel back down, which IMO makes no sense. Get rid of Bill Hall. Atleast Gamel has an upside. Hall is as useless as Kendall is at the plate.

I hate when they'd pull Gamel in late innings and put Hall in for defense. That's a real confidence booster to a young player. They should then pull Kendall in late innings when they are behind and put in Riviera for offense.

[Deggy]

I think this was a very very good trade.
Hopefully this will give them a good kick in the ass and get their shit together.

[PB86MCSS]

Gamel needs to play everyday, I think he's the real deal even though his numbers are only mediocre. With McGhee playing well he deserves to play and see if he can maintain it. I wouldn't be surprised in a month if McGhee falls off Gamel is the regular every day 3B for good. I don't think Hall will see much more playing time due to this, a little but McGhee should be the starter now.

[Lash]

and they sent gamel back down, which imo makes no sense. Get rid of bill hall. Atleast gamel has an upside. Hall is as useless as kendall is at the plate.

qft!!!!!

[CobaltSSTuner]

Im kinda excited to see how lopez does...i still wish they would pick up a f'in pitcher.

[07ROUSHSTG3]

seems like a decent trade.

gamel>hall

[Jsho13]

Yeah but it's hard for them to swallow the 4mil that hall is making. No one will pick up that tab in a trade. Only thing I can see is maybe packaging him with another player for a trade . . . JJ Hardy??

[DirtyMax]

2 for 2 so far,

[DirtyMax]

LOL.. I think Kendall made Jeff Karstens tinkle himself... he looked skurred.

[PB86MCSS]

I think Kendall has a knife strapped with him sometimes just in case, heh.