GAME05

My immediate assumption is that Mark Walter's TWG Group owns large shares of both Disney and Paramount.

I'm of the mind MLB loves the Dodgers powerhouse for ratings purposes, and MLBPA loves that they set the bar for salaries. That maybe it's only fans who actually care, and it hasn't mattered what we think for decades now. Pay a fine for the lost revenue sharing and carry on?

I completely agree that positive clubhouse guys are almost a necessity on a team, but we're also stuck taking guesses at who those people are and that there aren't other guys who are or would step up. Or also the ability of a manager to create those guys. Or maybe there's a backup-backup INF or mopup reliever who can fill that role instead of paying Bauers $25m to do the same job. And maybe the locker room is just fine right now but the team has been together for 5.5 months now nearly every day and it's been 95 degrees out and they're just exhausted because 162 games so that 40% of teams still make the playoffs is stupid.

Goodman from the Rockies is my top 'wanna get' player, too. Should add a lot of power to the lineup with hopes that the Brewers can improve his defense a little. Think we'd have to add more than Crow+Contreras, though, especially with Contreras' decline on both sides. No reason for the Rockies to make that trade unless some impact player comes back and not a couple of mid-tier prospects. I'd really like a different player than Frelick/Mitchell in the corner OF, though. Is this where you flip Jett? Not sure who that'd be, but some more SLG in the corner would be great. edit: I also wonder if maybe the timing is better if you just roll with what we've got in RF for next year. If we're stable enough at 2b between Made and/or Jett and/or Pena, that would be a good time to trade Turang with two years of control left and probably be able to get a pretty decent corner OF in return.

Dodgers in the playoffs mean good playoff ratings. If it's a Dodgers/Yankees World Series, that's the best ratings possible. Nobody but us would actually watch a Brewers/Royals World Series. The current system ensures the most popular teams have the best chance of succeeding, as well as the least amount of time possible spent as a bad team. Only fans complaining are the small markets, and who cares about them?

You're not gonna make me want Rengifo back, no thank you.

As far as I can see he's not on the 40-man roster, so someone would have to be DFA'd for the sake of bringing someone up for a small amount of time. Plus if there's a lockout next year, he wouldn't be able to play and keep developing for being on the 40-man. Off it he could mash in AAA while everyone else whines they're not rich enough.

A lifetime of watching sports: 10: Maybe one day I'll be able to do that 20: I betcha I could do that 30: Sure not the crazy stuff, but I could totally do the basics 40: I sure can't do that anymore 50: Who am I kidding, I could never have done that 60: Sure they're good, but not compared to the ones in my day 70: They're superhuman these days, we were never doing stuff like that

I don't like that joke any one bit! :)

We struck gold with Chourio and Made and can't realistically expect to keep doing that. Sure we could flip a lot of the prospects we've got, but I'd rather be a good team for the next ten years than add another 20% to our WS odds for one year. And it's not like the CBA will set a cap at $150m. More like $250m and the Brewers will be operating the same as now. You know the Commissioner would be thrilled at a Dodgers/Yankees WS every single year.

Also an advantage at the deadline. Dodgers can load up or cover for in-season injuries because a lost prospect is replaced with a free agent. Of the two, the Brewers would be the only ones having to trade away future wins. Our prospects are inherently more valuable than the Dodgers' prospects. My vision is a guaranteed minimal income for owners (since their value is the great investment of owning a team) with financial incentives related to attendance. Full revenue sharing, cap and floor, with some guaranteed % going to players with a semi-regular League financial audit done and something done with any unspent cap money going to the players. Added early-side year or two of arbitration with any unspent player money pooled and distributed and a cap-incentive when re-signing players to promote more "one team for life" players. I would be happy if there were some flexibility for teams to spend more/less on Intl and development projects.

I know which possibility Ohtani's translator will be rooting for. But really it's all up to FanDuel to decide what will happen.

So I guess this means Tyler Glasnow will probably be the odd man out come October and no longer good enough to make the postseason starting rotation. What a bum.

The Players Union will love it, too.

I'm not sure it's really the pre-injury Skubal the Dodgers traded for.

Gabe Gross. Remember how upset we all were that he was traded and that the return for him was terrible considering his upside?

I rate the trade a "whatever". We get ourselves a backup catcher for next year if needs be for two AAAA guys who were only going to see the Majors in a break-glass emergency, anyway. Sure Yoho could be great, but we can say that about pretty well every young player, just as we can say that about Naylor if we can manage to tweak whatever needs tweaking. Or he's AAA depth. Either way, whatever.

If you tell your kids about how great the 80s were, it's the same as your grandparents telling you about the 1940s.

If they've re-opened any hiking trails through the burnt-out areas, definitely go hiking. It's so strange walking through right after a fire, like you're walking through a world in the 1940 before color was invented.

Boy the amount of flopping and crying that's going to come from one single team next year...

Even though they're probably going to have a pretty bad team, I think I'm more excited for this season than the past many. I don't know much about the non-Herro guys we got and I can't remember when I've been this anxious to see a draft pick play. Oh my goodness I had to look it up and the last particularly exciting draft pick was Thon Maker a decade ago. I really liked that guy even though he was the worst rebounder I've ever seen. But it does feel like we have the makings, even if it's not a complete team yet. Like we've just completely restocked our role-player squad. Now all we need is to trade for that guy Giannis in Miami and we'll be set!

Just watched the trailer because of these comments. Normally talking animals is an immediate no from me, but it looks like I'd be in the wrong to not see it. So the shepherd dying doesn't put a pall over the rest of what's clearly supposed to be a feel-good movie?

I used to have a house that was on a military flightpath. I've yet to meet the man who doesn't always look up in the sky to see them because it's so awesome.

Only increasing in size and heat of individual fires, but the total number of fires is way way down. More development, more clearing land for agriculture and to a smaller degree some amount of activism which protests against controlled burns because of CO2 emissions (like Australia). Also fewer resources in a lot of places to set regular burns. I suspect arson is way up, too, along with idiots who don't control a campfire. I suspect encroachment, development and management or lack thereof has contributed to a lot of the change in numbers which have also only been computer-modeled past 30 years ago. I'll work big fires like that every now and again as a part of my job. It's an odd combination of fun, danger and exhaustion. One of the people killed in a recent one (Montana?) used to work for us. I'd met her before at a training and she was really impressive.

I don't think the Brewers are about to give Contreras $30m and that Quero isn't a surefire starter after the injury. I'd like for them to target someone like Hunter Goodman from the Rockies for maybe Drohan+Henderson or Jett++ assuming they want an MLB-ready return (they'd probably need more). Plus if Milwaukee even has $30m, I see them opting for extensions of current guys or even overpaying to extend a guy like Made mostly on the good chance of max-length contracts becoming a thing with the CBA. I think the Brewers are going to really crave some HRs in the lineup next year especially with losing Bauers. Smallball is great in the regular season but consistent contact is tough against postseason SPs. Even if Frelick returns to form he's not that guy, so something has to be done in RF. There doesn't seem to be a prospect in waiting here but I'm not sure who'd be a good target. I don't know if I see them wanting to give substantial ABs to both a rookie 1b and a rookie 3b in the lineup. That's a lot of risk for a contending team. I could definitely see bringing in another version of Renfroe for some security. Maybe one of Barger or Clement from Toronto. The back-end SP depth is great this year but we can't keep that up next year and just have to roll the dice with someone. It also makes for good trade fodder. I also don't see Jett here next year since he's a bit blocked and suffers from that problem of "If you play every position you have no position". Probably also enough prospect depth to start trading from that 5-10 range without sacrificing the future roster.