The 2010 Major League Baseball trade deadline is just under a month away with the deadline being its customary date of July 31st on a yearly basis.

Over the next month I will try and tackle every Major League team as the deadline approaches to see if they will be buyers, sellers or stick to their current roster.

I will be basing my assumptions on the direction the team is going, their record as of the date I post the article, possible roster injuries and so on and so forth.

I will provide the information about each team by division.

I began with the National League East’s Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Florida Marlins & Washington Nationals.

I began my look at the NL Central earlier in the week with the Cincinnati Reds, St.Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs.

Today I will move onto the Milwaukee Brewers.

Coming into play today the Brewers sat fourth in the NL Central with a record of 37-48, eleven and a half games behind the division leading Reds.

The Brewers feature one of the most intimidating young hitting duos in all of baseball in the form of sluggers Prince Fielder & Ryan Braun, who combine for massive power numbers on a yearly basis.

In the off-season the team focused on adding starting pitching, a weak spot which general manager Doug Melvin hoped to improve upon by diving into the free agent market.

Melvin began the off-season overspending on the left-handed Randy Wolf, signing the veteran to a three-year, $29.75 million contract with a 2013 club option.

The team also signed former Brewer and starting pitcher Doug Davis to a one-year deal worth $5.25 million with a 2011 mutual option.

Along with Wolf & Davis the team added veteran catcher Gregg Zaun (one-year, $2.15 million) to replace the departed Jason Kendall via free agency, signed veteran Jim Edmonds to a minor league deal, extended a new five-year, $30.1 million contract to ace Yovani Gallardo, claimed utility man Joe Inglett off waivers from the Texas Rangers, claimed pitcher Marco Estrada off waivers from the Washington Nationals, traded for new centre fielder Carlos Gomez in a deal with the Minnesota Twins for JJ Hardy and signed reliever LaTroy Hawkins to a two-year deal worth $7.5 million, as well as re-signed a ton of players from the previous season to new, higher paying contracts.

Melvin was a busy man over the off-season spending a lot of money to put a competitive product out on the field. The team payroll increased by over $10 million, yet the results are obviously not there as the end of the first half of the season approaches.

Braun will be going to another All-Star game and is customarily producing as he should hitting .286 with 11HR & 51RBI and Fielder is beginning to turn things around after a dreadful start which saw him go without a home run until April 22nd hitting only two home runs in all of the opening month of the season. Fielder is currently hitting .263 with 18HR & 36RBI and is in the last year of a contract extension that was signed at the beginning of 2009.

Having a resurgent turnaround season thus far is outfielder Corey Hart, who is in the top five in the NL in home runs (19) and RBI (61) while hitting .285 and making his second All-Star appearance after having a terrible 2009 which saw him hit .260 with 12HR & 48RBI.

Third baseman Casey McGehee is proving that his successful season in 2009 was no fluke, as he hits .272 with 13HR & 52RBI and second baseman Rickie Weeks is finally flashing the superstar potential the Brewers have been waiting for hitting .269 with 15HR & 51RBI thus far.

The team still lacks a legit threat in centre field, as Gomez has struggled in his first season with the Brewers hitting .225 with 5HR & 18RBI and only nine stolen bases for a player who was deemed one of the speediest in baseball just two seasons ago.

The team also has a major hole in the catching position with Zaun going down with a torn labrum in his right shoulder, relying on the inexperienced George Kottaras (.195, 6HR, 19RBI) to start with rookie Jonathan Lucroy (.267, 2HR, 5RBI) as his backup.

First year shortstop Alcides Escobar, the future at the position for the club, has not played as well as planned (.244, 2HR, 24RBI, 14 errors, .956 fielding percentage), but is still only 23 years of age.

The team’s bench consists of veterans such as Edmonds (.265, 4HR, 12RBI), Inglett (.339, 0HR, 2RBI) & Craig Counsell (.246, 1HR, 12RBI), but lacks much fire power for manager Ken Macha.

One of the team’s strengths in my opinion is their bullpen. All-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman has struggled this season (2-4, 7.96ERA, 5SV in 10SVO), but John Axford has come out of nowhere to take over the role (3-1, 2.74ERA, 9SV in 9SVO).

Combine Axford with the impressive young talent of 6’8 giant Kameron Loe (0-1, 1.74ERA), veterans Todd Coffey (2-2, 4.83ERA) & David Riske (0-0, 2.53ERA), bullpen workhorse Carlos Villanueva (0-0, 4.15ERA, 40 appearances) and lefties Zach Braddock (1-1, 4.91ERA) & Chris Capuano (0-1, 4.66ERA) and the team has a definitive strength.

The team rotation was set to be Gallardo, Wolf, Davis, Jeff Suppan and one of Dave Bush, Manny Parra or Chris Narveson, but things have really changed for the Brewers.

The rotation lost numerous pieces including Suppan in June, as the team released him picking up a large majority of his $12.5 million contract, Gallardo who was pitching well (8-4, 2.58ERA, 2CG, 2SHO) before hitting the disabled with a strained left ribcage just four days ago and is not eligible to come off until July 20th and Davis who has not pitched since May 10th as he battles a chest condition known as pericarditis, an acute inflammation of the lining around the heart.

The team had had to go with a rotation of Wolf, Bush, Narveson, Parra & Gallardo up to this point, but with Gallardo out the team will need another fifth option or pitch with a four man rotation until his return.

Wolf (6-8, 4.49ERA) is pitching decent, but not well enough for a player earning $9.25 million, Bush is average at best (3-6, 4.23ERA), Narveson (7-6, 6.02ERA) is doing his best despite not ever having been a regular Major League starter until recently & Parra (3-5, 4.45ERA) who has all the potential in the world is still not blossoming as many had expected.

The rotation needs a ton of work and the patchwork job that Melvin enforced in the off-season in the acquisitions of Wolf and Davis were in my mind overpaid veteran pick-ups that might not pan out as well as he had originally planned.

The team has the ability to be an exciting one offensively with the power bats of Fielder, Braun, Hart, Weeks & McGehee leading the way with the speed of Gomez & Escobar incorporated, but unless the team’s pitching staff turns things around the Brewers could be sellers at the July 31st trade deadline.

The biggest rumours involving the Brewers have involved the likes of Fielder & Hart. Coming into the season it was assumed that Fielder would not sign an extension with the Brewers and would be a big piece of trade bait at some point throughout the year. Those rumours have seemed to disappear, while the interest in Hart has drastically increased with him putting together such an excellent first half.

The San Francisco Giants are expressing a large amount of interest in Hart, despite already having an outfield consisting of Aaron Rowand, Andres Torres, Nate Schierholtz & Pat Burrell. Rowand is struggling offensively (.236, 7HR, 26RBI), Burrell is a poor defensive outfielder playing in a large park and Schierholtz is not an everyday answer for the team in right field. The team was using the hard-hitting Aubrey Huff in right field until they opened up first base by trading away catcher Bengie Molina to the Rangers and moving Buster Posey behind the plate from first.

A proposed package deal featuring pitcher Jonathan Sanchez (7-6, 3.15ERA), who once threw a no-hitter, for Hart has been floating around the rumour mills and could help both squads drastically. Hart is currently riding a one-year, $4.8 million deal and Sanchez is on a one-year deal worth $2.1 million. An even swap is out of the question as Milwaukee is looking for a lot in return for the All-Star Hart.

Could the Giants combine Sanchez with another young pitcher such as Dan Runzier or prospect Zach Wheeler to nab Hart?

Would giving up that much for a half season of Hart really be worth it for San Francisco?

The need for someone like Hart is apparent in San Francisco, but the Brewers asking price may be too high.

It has also been reported that chairman and principal owner Mark Attanasio is not ready to give approval to deal away his players until the team is legitimately out of the playoff race, so that too could affect any trade scenarios.

One thing is very apparent for the Brew Crew, the team needs starting pitching and without it there is no way they will be able to contend in the NL. A deal similar to the acquisition of CC Sabathia two seasons ago is completely out of the question, but perhaps dealing Hart will get them back a pitching piece plus a prospect or two that could aid in their current season as well as down the road.

The Brewers biggest trade chips are Fielder & Hart with Fielder being too big of a piece to lose so if the Brewers are going to be involved in a trade, expect Hart to be the bait.

We shall see if he or anyone moves for the Brewers come July 31st.

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