Brewers Re-Sign Corey Hart, Keep Their Nighttime Sunglasses

The Milwaukee Brewers looked like doofuses at the trade deadline over the weekend.

Of course, I'd like to think most of their fans were smart enough not to worry too much about it.

The Brewers are hopelessly out of the National League playoff race. There is no reason for them to continue acting as if they can make a run, because this dreadful team has no chance. They're way too inconsistent in all phases of the game -- offense, pitching, defense -- to be considered a legitimate threat to the Cincinnati Reds or St. Louis Cardinals top their division.

With three major players eligible for free agency after the 2011 season, general manager Doug Melvin had some decisions to make at the deadline. With all three positions players tied to the team for another year, though, he had no urgency.

It's understandable why the Brewers didn't deal Prince Fielder. He's going for 70 cents on the dollar no matter when they trade him, but they have a better chance of getting more value for him if they wait until after the season, when current non-contenders can be fooled into hopeless optimism for next season.

Rickie Weeks is a guy many teams will want to prove himself for another calendar year. He's having a really nice season, but he is a butcher defensively and his bat didn't start coming around until 2009. Then he got hurt and missed most of the season, making injury concerns another problem. If the Brewers want to deal Weeks, it won't be until next summer, it seems.

What about Corey Hart?

Well, the Brewers have a better idea than trading an emerging star right fielder.

They signed him to a three-year deal Monday.

While his name was being bandied about on the trade rumor mill in recent weeks, Hart repeatedly said he wanted to stay with the Brewers and sign a contract extension rather than being dealt to another club.

That wish came true Monday morning when the Brewers announced that Hart agreed to a three-year extension through the 2013 season. The deal buys out the final year of the 28-year-old right fielder’s arbitration eligibility in 2011 as well as his first two years of free agency.

No financial terms were released but the deal is probably worth close to $25 million. Hart is making $4.8 million this season, and probably would have been in line for a $6-7 million salary in 2011 after a big 2010 season.

Hart bounced back from an awful spring training and irregular playing time in the early weeks of season to put together his most productive campaign. In 92 games, he is batting .288 with 23 home runs and a team-high 72 RBI, with a .565 slugging percentage and .346 on-base percentage.

From a guy benched for his team's season opener to the best hitter they have right now ... it's quite the transformation.

This is a good move by the team. Hart is a good hitter who has found his swing this year. He'll still produce some awful at-bats from time to time, but he can be counted on to hit for power and provide some speed.

Now, it's on to Fielder and Weeks. Neither should be serious candidates for long-term deals at this point. Fielder would be stupid to sign one at this point, and Weeks probably needs to finish the year strong before his people can talk to Melvin.

The season has been a disaster in a lot of ways, but if Melvin can make the right signings, he can position Milwaukee well for the future.

Louis Leblanc Signing Adds to NCAA's Problems

Earlier this week, two Minnesota Gophers left school early to play hockey for money.

Now, the NCAA has taken another mid-summer hit, as Harvard sophomore Louis Leblanc has decided to bolt from college for pro hockey.

Leblanc signed a three-year, entry-level deal with the Montreal Canadiens Friday. The contract means Leblanc is no longer eligible for hockey, and it sounds like he will play for the Montreal Juniors of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

There have been a lot of college players who have left school since June 1. As I wrote when Ryan McDonagh of Wisconsin decided to turn pro in June, this is an issue for the NCAA, whether they want to admit it or not.

Yes, coaches are typically prepared for these departures. They recruit players for commitments years in advance, and they are often able to bring players in a year earlier than planned of developments merit such a move.

In the case of Leblanc, it seems highly unlikely that Harvard coach Ted Donato can reach into the future to fill this void. After all, it's Harvard. Players don't get athletic scholarships there, and they don't sign letters of intent as a result. They also don't get highly-touted players like Leblanc very often anymore, so even if they can fill his roster spot, they can't make up for the loss of a talented player this late in the offseason.

It's an argument for what I now believe college hockey needs: a firm deadline after which players can no longer leave early to turn pro. I also think I have a floating date that will be agreeable to all parties.

Yes, I said "a floating date," implying that it's not a hard, line-in-the-sand sort of thing.

My proposal -- for now -- is to impose a rule giving pro teams 60 days from the end of a team's season to sign players with remaining eligibility.

For example, UMD's season ended March 21, when they weren't selected for the NCAA Tournament, an even they were eligible for because they finished the season with a winning record. Any of the teams in Division I who end their season over .500 and don't qualify for the NCAAs will have their 60-day window begin on this day.

Teams finishing under .500 begin their 60-day clock on the day they play their last game.

The 16 teams in the NCAAs will start their clock on the day they lose and are eliminated, or on the day they win the national championship.

This means the window will close on a different day for many teams. It means the Frozen Four teams will have to sweat out early departures until early June.

It's probably not a perfect idea, but it's better than the system we have in place now. It's unlike what you see in any other sport.

In football, players have until a specified date to declare their eligibility for the NFL Draft. They don't get to leave early after that date unless there are extenuating circumstances (academically ineligible, kicked out of school, etc.). In the NBA, there is a similar date, and players can actually return to school before the NBA Draft if they don't hire an agent. In baseball, drafted players can't wait forever to sign with their team.

They shouldn't be able to in hockey, either.

The NCAA needs to fight for a drop-dead date on early signings. It would help the sanity of their head coaches, and it would pressure NHL teams to make up their minds about the future of their prospects.

Of course, this could hurt the NCAA in the end, too, because there is no such drop-dead date in major juniors, and teams could simply push their college prospects to go major junior so they have more control over them deeper into the summer and fall.

So maybe this drop-dead date isn't such a good idea after all.

Ugh. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.

Miss Him Yet?

(Minneapolis Star Tribune photo)

Let's think about that for a second.

No.

On the bright side, I won't miss the current guy when he's gone, either. I also don't think he's all that and a bag of chips. So it's really not personal, Dubya.