Bauers to Red Sox 4/58M

[treego14]

5 minutes ago, owbc said:

Here's a fun fact I read the other day -- 40.7% of fWAR was produced by pre-arb players. Yet, last year, pre-arb players earned just 9.4% of all player salaries.

Conversely, from 2019-25, free agents earned 61.4% of all player salaries and produced just 28.8% of fWAR.

The Brewers have plenty of money now, they have basically no disadvantage in the current system. There's no scenario where they were giving out a 4/$58M contract to Bauers, even if they had the Dodgers' budget. 

You cannot convince me the Brewers would NOT have retained Jake Bauers if we had the resources of a big market team, based on what Jake Bauers meant to this 2026 championship team!

[treego14]

6 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Feel free to go back to doing so, it’ll greatly reduce the hypocrisy around here. 

Go Brewers!  Defeat the MLB again!

Level the Playing Field | MLB.com
https://www.mlb.com/level-the-playing-field

[liveforoctober]

I'm going to keep this thread about Bauers. I can't believe I wrote a tribute poem during the World Series now though knowing what I know. 

Happy for Jake. Happy for us. A really good win/win/win scenario for Jake, the Brewers, and now presumably Andrew Vaughn.

[adambr2]

9 minutes ago, treego14 said:

You cannot convince me the Brewers would NOT have retained Jake Bauers if we had the resources of a big market team, based on what Jake Bauers meant to this 2026 championship team!

You know enough about the Brewers to know that they could have given a 4 year contract for 14.5M a year to Bauers if they would have wanted to. 

They didn’t do it because they’re fortunately run by smart, forward thinking people. You don’t just run it back every season with the same group. That’s not how it works.

If you had your way, Willy Adames would still be here. Meaning, no Cooper Pratt. 

Change is literally part of every contending team from year to year.

 

[adambr2]

8 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

I'm going to keep this thread about Bauers. I can't believe I wrote a tribute poem during the World Series now though knowing what I know. 

Happy for Jake. Happy for us. A really good win/win/win scenario for Jake, the Brewers, and now presumably Andrew Vaughn.

A lot of names being thrown around as potential 1B replacements. I have no idea why Andrew Vaughn wouldn’t be the first man up. 

Even against righties , anyone wanting to see Black over Vaughn on most days? C’mon.

There are some potential platoon partners in the system but we may not see them til midseason next year. 

[TigerUppercut]

1 hour ago, treego14 said:

I cannot believe so many here cannot see the playing field is UN-level in the MLB.  MLB.com even says it is.  

The NFL system is very "level" and how many titles has Green Bay won this century?  To imply that a "level" playing field would have led to more titles is laughable.  It just as easily could have led to zero titles.  

[treego14]

4 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

You know enough about the Brewers to know that they could have given a 4 year contract for 14.5M a year to Bauers if they would have wanted to. 

They didn’t do it because they’re fortunately run by smart, forward thinking people. You don’t just run it back every season with the same group. That’s not how it works.

If you had your way, Willy Adames would still be here. Meaning, no Cooper Pratt. 

Change is literally part of every contending team from year to year.

 

Jake Bauers was our team MVP!  We just won a championship with him having 2 historic long at-bats in the playoffs and we decide to simply move on?  I am not buying it.  It was a financial decision by a small market team.  If we were a larger market, Bauers would still be a Brewer and we would be better than we presently are without him.

[wallus]

Gee thanks to everyone derailing the **** out of this thread. 

[MillerParkSouth]

Good for Jake.  This was the smart play all along.  As everyone has said, there's no reason for the Brewers to be giving 4 years to a 31 year old coming off of his only good season in his career, especially when we have coverage.

 

Unrelatedly, is there a way to block/hide users?  

[treego14]

1 minute ago, TigerUppercut said:

The NFL system is very "level" and how many titles has Green Bay won this century?  To imply that a "level" playing field would have led to more titles is laughable.  It just as easily could have led to zero titles.  

The Packers don’t wait 69 years to win a title.

[cragi]

Just now, treego14 said:

Jake Bauers was our team MVP!  

Was he though? 
Turang and Miz finished top 5 in actual MVP voting
Miz wins CY
Turan and Chourio gold gloves 
Contreras WSS MVP
we had 4 guys on the all MLB teams and none were Bauers

[treego14]

1 minute ago, cragi said:

Was he though? 
Turang and Miz finished top 5 in actual MVP voting
Miz wins CY
Turan and Chourio gold gloves 
Contreras WSS MVP
we had 4 guys on the all MLB teams and none were Bauers

Yes!

[long ball]

32 minutes ago, cragi said:

That makes some sense. Gives you a lefty platoon and you can use Mitchell as DH wtih Lara and Frelick as LH in the OF

If they’re able to trot Yelich out at first base 2x/ week it definitely gives them a little roster flexibility. 
 

It also saves them from spending $4m on some stop gap lefty bat who inevitably doesn’t work and is replaced by June. 

[adambr2]

3 minutes ago, cragi said:

Was he though? 
Turang and Miz finished top 5 in actual MVP voting
Miz wins CY
Turan and Chourio gold gloves 
Contreras WSS MVP
we had 4 guys on the all MLB teams and none were Bauers

Correct, level headed take. 

Bauers had a nice season. He was the well deserved NLCS MVP.

For a season MVP, he’s clearly behind Turang, Miz, Chourio, and probably Contreras and other. 

This is at best on par with losing Peralta last year, they will be fine. 

[ErnieRilesBrianGiles]

8 minutes ago, MillerParkSouth said:

Unrelatedly, is there a way to block/hide users?  

Scroll over the person's name, and a box will appear. There is an "Ignore" button in the bottom right corner. Easy peasy...

[owbc]

34 minutes ago, treego14 said:

You cannot convince me the Brewers would NOT have retained Jake Bauers if we had the resources of a big market team, based on what Jake Bauers meant to this 2026 championship team!

Nope, they still wouldn't have done it based on how the Brewers run their organization. 2026 is over, they have other options at 1B and a 4 year contract means they would be blocking Fischer. 

If the Brewers had the resources of a big market team, they would be buying out arbitration for half of their minor leagues. 

[liveforoctober]

17 minutes ago, MillerParkSouth said:

 

Unrelatedly, is there a way to block/hide users?  

Brewerfan.net/ignore

[Eye Black]

Fangraphs Roster Resource page plugged Tyler Black in as the backup 1B option to Andrew Vaughn. I feel like Blake Burke is the most likely current in-house option to get the opening day nod as a platoon 1B next year, but plenty of other potential 1B options in the system including Andrew Fischer, Luke Adams, Eric Bitonti, etc. It’s not difficult to see why they didn’t want to make a long-term financial investment at first base. 

[willie key]

This Bauers thing shows how much of a team the brewers were.   He won the nlcs mvp with some memorable at bats and was an absolute liability in the World Series and we still won 4 games to 1.   
 

overall he might have objectively been our worst hitter in the playoffs.    He had a great year for the brewers and will be remembered though.    But the brewers don’t need to sign him for four years.    We got guys

[adambr2]

3 minutes ago, willie key said:

This Bauers thing shows how much of a team the brewers were.   He won the nlcs mvp with some memorable at bats and was an absolute liability in the World Series and we still won 4 games to 1.   
 

overall he might have objectively been our worst hitter in the playoffs.    He had a great year for the brewers and will be remembered though.    But the brewers don’t need to sign him for four years.    We got guys

Did not have a good World Series. But great in the NLCS. 

[RWeeksFan23]

1 hour ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

Good for Jake, and good for the Brewers not giving him this contract - there are more talented bats down on the farm deserving of that spot on the MLB roster whenever baseball does resume.  Not saying they will instantly outproduce Bauers' 2026 year, but they are more talented options who are ready for MLB and need the roster spot.  Having Vaughn there to stabilize any 1b platoon is a big luxury, too.

 

Just because you finally won the whole thing doesn't mean you've got to change your approach at building a roster and not reload to keep opening up that contention windo further!

None of our minor league 1B are more talented than Bauers, come on man.

[Tedaldtada]

Having witnessed how patience has payed off so many times, and knowing that prospect development isn’t linear, I’m still a Tyler Black fan. One would simply need to study the path Jake Bauers took to this day to know that the same could occur for Tyler Black. That’s said, he is more of a LF for me on the diamond. He can fill in at 1B but I believe this fully clears the runway for Blake Burke to land more than anything. We’ll see if they also clear the runway for Luke Adams by dealing Vaughnie. 

[Underachiever]

3 hours ago, treego14 said:

Just one ... then boo him for leaving us!

A standing boovation

[formerlybis]

So, first, I'm adding to the chorus of saying good for Jake. While sad our heroes move on, we're not toast without him (would not be the same convo if this were the catcher position).

Secondly, this situation is not really a good example of "the rigged league". Pretty much every pro league has teams that don't sign aging stars who are due a big payday - lots of reasons for that, but it happens even in leagues with a salary cap. There are other, better examples of why it is a rigged league, which we don't need to go into here. 

[wallus]

10 minutes ago, Underachiever said:

A standing boovation

I was saying Booauers