1/4 of the way analysis

[Frisbee Slider]

1 hour ago, liveforoctober said:

My whole deal with him is if not now, when?

The best way to maintain roster flexibility is to do nothing with the roster, thereby maintaining roster flexibility. 🙂

[Turning2]

It's just another close but no cigar roster. They have just enough talent, chemistry, coaching to compete, to sell tickets, to keep fans invested and buying merch, and most importantly ... to keep the books of the investment group in the black and withing the targeted profit margin. 

It was my contention that this season was a deferral to get past the lockout and to reach the maturation of a handful of prospects. The lack of meaningful offensive offseason upgrades supports that. They made roster changes, but didn't alter the makeup of the roster. They mostly switched guys out for other guys of the same makeup. Those moves perhaps added incremental upgrades overall. Again, I believe they are hoping those incremental upgrades blossom simultaneously with the maturation of some prospects, and thus ... kind of a placeholder season. 

Truly competing for a championship this season would require moves to upgrade for known offensive talent. They need at least one outfield position upgrade and probably 2. Obviously they need more competitive offense from either 3B or SS. And that's not going to happen this year. 

I'm mostly content that they can compete and be entertaining for several months in a league financial framework that is stacked against them. As long as they don't become dogs (in the 10+ games below .500 range) with no hope I can continue to tepidly support the MLB INC / Player's Union machine. 

 

[owbc]

46 minutes ago, Turning2 said:

It's just another close but no cigar roster. They have just enough talent, chemistry, coaching to compete, to sell tickets, to keep fans invested and buying merch, and most importantly ... to keep the books of the investment group in the black and withing the targeted profit margin. 

It was my contention that this season was a deferral to get past the lockout and to reach the maturation of a handful of prospects. The lack of meaningful offensive offseason upgrades supports that. They made changes but didn't change the makeup of the roster. They just mostly switched guys out for other guys of the same makeup. Those moves perhaps added incremental upgrades. Again, I believe they are hoping those incremental upgrades blossom simultaneously with the maturation of the some prospects, and thus ... kind of a placeholder season. 

Truly competing for a championship this season would require moves to upgrade known offensive talent at least one outfield position (probably 2) and either 3B or SS. And that's not going to happen. 

Be content to compete and be entertained. As long as they don't become dogs  in the 10+ games below .500 range. 

 

I'll gladly take a "close but no cigar" team if they continue to play at a 95 win pace and finish runners up to a team with a $400 million payroll. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, liveforoctober said:

I think so, yes. He would need exposure to waivers if sent back down.

My whole deal with him is if not now, when? He isn't going to be a long term option for us, so his opportunity to help the big league club is now. Otherwise we are saying he is a "break glass in case of emergency" guy for us... which is fine if true but I feel we can utilize the asset better?

If he comes up and shows well, he has created a small trade value that could be capitalized upon if we need to send him back down. If he comes up and doesn't show well, he either clears waivers ala Greg Jones/Luis Matos or we lose him to a waiver claim - in which case he wasn't going to get another call up in that instance anyway and we will need a spot or two available for promotions to AAA as it is.

The only reason to hold him full season without an early season opportunity is in case we suffer multiple injuries late in the year ... but by then both Jett and Pratt will be the next in line for a RH hitting infield/outfield option to be brought up.

He is hitting well and we could use another RH bat ... we haven't hit LHP well at all this year. I feel like he can help and his opportunity to help is now IMHO.
 

Good points all. I would add that he could possibly be added as an extra bat after the rosters get expanded (although people who would like to see him here understandably don't want to hear that since it's 3.5 months from now). 

You could say the organization has been a bit blindsided by this. A career .270 hitter in an 8-year minor league career who has never had this productive a start to his season. It reminds me a little of Garrett Cooper from almost ten years ago & I wouldn't be surprised if the result is similar----that Leonard is involved in a trade, possibly for a minor-league arm that they think may help them at some point. It would be a cool story if he made it up here but flexibility is important in this FO & I think the lack of options is going to be a brick wall.

[liveforoctober]

16 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Good points all. I would add that he could possibly be added as an extra bat after the rosters get expanded (although people who would like to see him here understandably don't want to hear that since it's 3.5 months from now). 

You could say the organization has been a bit blindsided by this. A career .270 hitter in an 8-year minor league career who has never had this productive a start to his season. It reminds me a little of Garrett Cooper from almost ten years ago & I wouldn't be surprised if the result is similar----that Leonard is involved in a trade, possibly for a minor-league arm that they think may help them at some point. It would be a cool story if he made it up here but flexibility is important in this FO & I think the lack of options is going to be a brick wall.

I don't disagree re: brick wall.

Best case scenario for me is we bring him up soon and he fills the Lockridge role and offers another RH bat off the bench for a month... he plays well and then sometime in late June/early July we can send him along with a low level ticket to some team that is already out of it for a bullpen arm or something.

[Turning2]

58 minutes ago, owbc said:

I'll gladly take a "close but no cigar" team if they continue to play at a 95 win pace and finish runners up to a team with a $400 million payroll. 

Maybe you don't understand the overall gist of my post. I have edited it a bit. I enjoy the team. I give them credit for fighting the intellectually insulting uphill battle they face against the league financial framework. They are competitive and contenders which is far better than being a perpetual cellar dweller with no hope. But the bridesmaid eventually wants to be the bride otherwise she stops being excited to be asked to be second in line. At some point, a man requires a climax to the situation or finds another interest. The Brewers are second only to the Padres in oldest franchises never to have won a World Series. The financial environment, the league playoff system and divisional set up has changed since SD was formed in '69 and the Brewers a year later. One helped the small market teams (expanded playoffs bracket), and one devastated them (the financial sea changes of the Players' Union driven CBAs).  At the end of the day... it's going to take a miraculous alignment of serendipity in order for MIL to win a championship. In today's world, attention spans grow shorter and shorter. Some of us old timers still hang in there, but MIL's business plan of stringing people along being "close but no cigar" will only play so long. There are a lot of younger generation Brewer "fans" who are only there for the spectacle, the attractions, the circus rather than the nuts and bolts of baseball. They will only be teased along for so long too before a brighter social media butterfly comes along. 

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

23 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

I don't disagree re: brick wall.

Best case scenario for me is we bring him up soon and he fills the Lockridge role and offers another RH bat off the bench for a month... he plays well and then sometime in late June/early July we can send him along with a low level ticket to some team that is already out of it for a bullpen arm or something.

Plausible.......IF the team we deal him to has at least a hint of a plan for him moving forward given the options situation. But that could work.

[owbc]

14 minutes ago, Turning2 said:

Maybe you don't understand the overall gist of my post. I have edited it a bit. I enjoy the team. I give them credit for fighting the intellectually insulting uphill battle they face against the league financial framework. They are competitive and contenders which is far better than being a perpetual cellar dweller with no hope. But the bridesmaid eventually wants to be the bride otherwise she stops being excited to be asked to be second in line. At some point, a man requires a climax to the situation or finds another interest. The Brewers are second only to the Padres in oldest franchises never to have won a World Series. The financial environment, the league playoff system and divisional set up has changed since SD was formed in '69 and the Brewers a year later. One helped the small market teams (expanded playoffs bracket), and one devastated them (the financial sea changes of the Players' Union driven CBAs).  At the end of the day... it's going to take a miraculous alignment of serendipity in order for MIL to win a championship. In today's world, attention spans grow shorter and shorter. Some of us old timers still hang in there, but MIL's business plan of stringing people along being "close but no cigar" will only play so long. There are a lot of younger generation Brewer "fans" who are only there for the spectacle, the attractions, the circus rather than the nuts and bolts of baseball. They will only be teased along for so long too before a brighter social media butterfly comes along. 

 

I get it but it's always the hypothetical "need an OF, 3B, and SS" but missing names or contracts that we should have signed. Pretty much all of the big FA signings have been meh this year and several teams that went for it have been total flops. Like you say, what we really need is for MLB to do something to stop the Dodgers. We've proven we can get past everyone else in the NL on a good day. 

I'm of the opinion that if we stick to the current plan the stars will eventually align. Keep getting a 1-2 seed and skipping the wild card round and eventually a favorable path will come together. I think it would have already happened if not for some bad luck in those wild card games/series.