Brewers' Hardy on edge as Winter Meetings begin

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Milwaukee Brewers shortstop J.J. Hardy had a message for general manager Doug Melvin & Co. as Milwaukee's contingent prepared to stroll the lobby of the Bellagio this week:
Please don't trade me, according to MLB.com.
"I want to be a Brewer," Hardy said from his Tempe, Ariz., home. "If something happens, then I'll deal with that, but I've always wanted to be a Brewer."
Hardy would be happy to read published comments from Melvin on Sunday indicating he wants his shortstop to stay put. But Hardy nonetheless figures to see his name in print beginning Monday, when the baseball world converges in Las Vegas for the wheeling and dealing that dominates the annual Winter Meetings.
Hardy, 26, whose cost will bump up from the $2.65 million he earned last season because he's arbitration-eligible for the second time. Hardy has been churned around the rumor mill already this winter, because he's still two seasons shy of free agency, because the Brewers have a prospect — the slick-fielding Alcides Escobar — who plays Hardy's position, and most of all because All-Star shortstops are in high demand.
Melvin has said he is not "shopping" Hardy, a sentiment he echoed in Sunday's editions of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
"I don't want to give up either one of our shortstops," Melvin told the newspaper. "That's a premium position. J.J. has two years left [before he's a free agent]. It's just too hard to find shortstops. ... If we went with Escobar, he might struggle for a year or so offensively."
Source: MLB.com




Every female in Wisconsin wants him to stay too.