Brewers Four Pack: Sheets, Turnbow, Branyan, and Chris Bosio?

Four nice juicy tidbits of Brewers information for you, some expected, some surprising, some completely out of the blue. Let's start with the big one.

First, it appears as if Ben Sheets is actually going to decline arbitration, contrary to popular belief that he would accept. If he were to accept from the Brewers, it would give him a one-year deal with a pretty nice salary, more than he was making last year. But Sheets and his agent are looking for a two-year deal, and will likely decline.

Since they are so quick to decline, it probably means Sheets has received high interest from at least one team. So for all intensive purposes, Sheets days as a Brewer are likely over. The Brewers will however get some draft picks out of the deal, so that's a plus.

In sadder news, Russell Branyan is also leaving Milwaukee. The unexpected choice to be the Brewers most productive third baseman in 2008 has signed with the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners, of course, just hired former Brewers scouting director Jack Zduriencik as their General Manager.

Also on the move could be Derrick Turnbow, who is engaged in talks with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Turnbow struggled mightily with the Brewers in the beginning of '08, before they finally placed him on waivers and then eventually with the Nashville Sounds. He was then injured in mid-July, and sat out the rest of the season.

And for one final segue, the Nashville Sounds have promoted Don Money to be their manager, after previously cutting ties with Frank Kremblas. Money was the manager last season for the Huntsville Stars, the Brewers Double-A affiliate.

And yes, the best part of this whole post is that former Brewers great (I use the term loosely, of course) Chris Bosio will be the pitching coach for Money and the Nashville Stars. Tom Haudricourt has the rest of the Brewers minor league staffing moves.