Crash2303

I was a huge hundley supporter but dude has had plenty of opportunity to improve and at this point prob for the most part he is who he is. So why not at least give Callahan a chance? Especially in this game in the third or fourth quarter? Hundley had done nothing what is there to lose? Don't u want to at least see what u got in him going into next season? But I guess that just shows u what they must think of him if he still hasn't seen the field. Conspiracy part of me wonders what a fiend of mine thinks that McCarthy is not playing him at this point because if callahan did play well people would question why he didn't play him earlier in the season. Could McCarthy be that stubborn?

i can't help but think this thread was in part responsible for Dillard's re-signing. props everyone- good teamwork. and now comes his back 9 renaissance.

both the Red Sox and Indians have been rumored to be looking for a first baseman/DH this offseason. Let's trade Thames & Aguilar to them and clear the way for Garrett Cooper take over. oh wait... joking aside. I like Aguilar. I think his hitting and power potential is still not tapped much in the same way i feel about Santana. I think Thames is who he always was- a 4th OF/1B/PH platoon option. If any team is willing to bite on Thames at all- i say do it. Let Aguilar take over full time this year at first base. watch him slug 40 home runs then trade him next offseason and put either Braun or Santana at 1B for 2019.

1. Lewis Brinson 2. Luis Ortiz 3. Brett Phillips 4. Corbin Burnes 5. Brandon Woodruff 6. Freddy Peralta 7. Keston Hiura 8 .Monte Harrison 9. Mauricio Dubon 10. Phil Bickford 11. Taylor Williams 12. Jacob Gatewood 13. Trent Clark 14. Marcos Diplan 15. Tristen Lutz 16. Jordan Yamamoto 17. Lucas Erceg 18. Kodi Medeiros 19. Corey Ray 20. Jacob Nottingham 21. Trey Supak 22. Mario Feliciano 23. Isan Diaz 24. Tyrone Taylor 25. Cody Ponce 26. Troy Stokes 27. Jorge Lopez 28. Adrian Houser 29. Kirby- wait and see about recovery 30. Dev- wait and see about recovery

based only off of performance in the postseason- here's my starting 9 + 1 reliever. agree/disagree? 1B- Coop - his gw single in game 5 of 82 ALCS will forever be stitched in brewer honor as it sent us to our only world series appearance. 2B- Gantner- more by default, just doin what he do- hit an empty .275 w/ solid D SS- Yount - hit .316 in 19 AB in '81 and followed that up with hitting .356 with a .931 OPS in 48 ABs while playing stellar D 3B- Molitor - he hit a HR in '81 but his fine hitting in '82 is what places him here, highlighted by his 5 hitter in game 1 of the WS. C- Moore - being a little liberal here, as Simmons' backup catcher (apologies Yost) he played OF the entire '82 series to keep his hot bat in the lineup as he did hit .385, so... RF- Oglivie - pretty dormant in 81 & 82. but did hit 2 HR in 82. because there's not really anyone else- RF is yours Ben. CF- Morgan/Gomez - despite hitting pretty poorly throughout the play-offs, Morgan's game winning hit to launch the brewers into the ALCS only added to his cult-status. and it would be remiss if we did not add his CF platoon partner, Gomey, who is the one who wheeled at blazing speed from 2B to score the winning run, and also ended up hitting a not too shaby .357 with a HR in only 16 AB. LF- Braun - hit .313 in 16 AB in 2008, but it was his monstrous 2011 postseason that showed why he was the NL MVP as he carried the Brewers with an incredible 1.182 OPS with 2 HR and 7 doubles in 42 AB. not to mention (and not considered) his gwhr to clinch a spot in the play-offs. man- he was awesome that year. P- Gallardo- coming off of a season long injury in 2008, he was a boon by not allowing an ER in his 2 appearances. Then in 2011, despite his disappointing dud in his only NLCS appearance, he is a big reason of what got the brewers there with two dominating appearances in the NLDS. RP- Axford- gotta give it up to resiliency. after blowing the save in the 9th, for the 2011 ALDS, he came back out and shut the side down to enable the brewers to go on to win in that dramatic extra-inning game. Honorable Mention Hairston- despite hitting .385 in the 2011 postseason including 6 2B in 39 AB, unfortunately it was his crucial error at 3B in a tide-turning game 5 of the ALCS that leaves him off the starting 9. Hardy- hit .429 in 2008 ALDS, but only in 14 AB. not going to overcome the alltime greatest brewer.

its Hundley's time to shine! just wish we had some better (healthier) protection to offer the young QB.

yeah and 2013, at the QB position with rodgers, tolzien, wallace and then picked up flynn to get us through. so many pundits were calling for TTs head for not carrying more and better backups on the team. it's a tough call and no one can know what to predict. and speaking of 2013, the brewers actually had decent depth at 1B. then Corey Hart gets injured out for the year in January, but silver lining was that it would finally open the door for Mat Gamel to show what he's got, only for him to get re-injured and again out for another year that spring. another option in the mix could have been Taylor Green who had a huge 2011 in AAA and decent followup in 2012, but also got injured for the year. at that point in the spring, there weren't many outside options and the brewers decided to continue go in-house with Alex Gonzalez opening the season at 1B with the thinking that a SS would provide superior defensive ability to mitigate has weak offense, and was only a year removed from cracking 23 HR so wasn't thought to be a total slouch. oops- wrong on both regards. then Melvin takes action and trades for Juan Francisco- who started out hot, but was abysmal defensively. (and i think might have also gotten hurt?). at some point around this time, they started experimenting with Maldy & LuCroy at first. also add in Halton and Lalli who saw some limited time there. but, most infamous, of course was the extended play that Yuni got at 1B that launched him in to a status all his own. Melvin was put on the hot seat for not doing more to address the situation at first. but, really- what more could he have done? who could have predicted that two starting caliber first basemen would go down?

So my 25 man would look like this (which includes the trade proposed in my above post): STARTERS 2B- Villar (S) SS- Arcia LF- Braun 3B- Shaw (L) 1B- Aguilar CF- Brinson (would wait to bring up until after super 2) RF- Phillips (L) C- Pina ------------------ BENCH OF- Broxton U- Perez UI- Sogard (L) C- Bandy ------------------ ROTATION TOR acquired through trade (see above post) Nelson (Injured) Anderson Davies Hader (L) Woodruff ------------------- BULLPEN Knebel Guerra (if Hader or Woodruff falters in the rotation switch out) T. Williams Barnes Suter (L) Jeffress Webb (L) or Wang (L) open competition for last spot - let's be fun and say Barrios

now that the brewers are all but mathematically eliminated (c'mon Brewers- prove me wrong!) i can justify adding to this thread. So here are my off-season moves that might impact the 25 man roster: FREE AGENCY I would prefer that the Brewers remain inactive in FA this off-season, because i love our in-house talent and believe its important for our younger guys to be given an opportunity to see what we have in them. the only 'hole' i see that this team has next season is the absence of a young, true TOR and there is no one in free agency that fits that description. and the only TORs out there are on the wrong side of 30 who we'd have to sign to a dangerous, big, long term deal. If we're going to bring someone in like that i think it is going to happen next year or through a trade (a la greinke). In terms of signing a strong, mid-rotation FA guy like Cobb or Chatwood, I see our young pitchers like Woodruff and Hader with the potential to match anything those guys do next season and for that matter the same with 2019 rookie hopefuls L.Ortiz, F.Peralta, & Burnes (who could realistically be up next year), but would be blocked. i think if the brewers wanted to go after a reclamation project like Pineda (low risk, high reward) that would be fine, but nothing long-term. I'd also love for them to sign Hosmer, especially with his defensive value, but first- he is going to sign a huge, long term deal and second, we'd probably have to unload both Aguilar and Thames, which would dilute an already diluted pool of available low-end 1B, and third i still think that Braun (or Santana for that matter) is a possibility down the road at 1B if he's still on the team, and there's a good chance he will be. So, i would lay-off and keep it in-house. TRADE Vogt - he has been awesome this year both in the clubhouse and the field. but, his defense is only getting worse and he's only getting older. Bandy doesn't have any options next year, and i don't see us keeping 3 catchers on the 25 man roster. although his second half was as cold as ice, he showed enough of his potential early on and is young enough that he should only be getting better. I think he should provide more than enough to backup Pina next year, and with Susac still having an option left and Heineman also in house, we should be fine at catcher. and Bandy to boot, adds his own charismatic personality to the clubhouse. We could probably trade Vogt for some young, relief pitching depth. Either Broxton or Santana - whoever the team can get more for. Broxton probably has a little bigger upside and would play a much better RF and can also back up the other two positions superbly, but his offensive inconsistency is a concern, whereas Santana has consistently hit well all-season in his first healthy year and should only get better. with Phillips and Brinson in the wings- my preference would be to keep both of them. Phillips provides defensive value and along with his left-handed bat provides a greater span of flexibility. I think Brinson is going to be a star, both from the eye test and from his minor league stats (particular the continued adjustments he's made up the ladder). Braun's contract and health leave him anchored to the Crew (which isn't necessarily a bad thing)- so the four OFs we keep should get plenty of ABs each. but, five is a crowd. although i think Santana is better than Broxton, i think you also could get a tremendous return for him that would be too attractive to turn down. DANGLE Hughes - has been a consistent, quality reliever over the past six seasons and this season, is putting up at or better numbers than most of his career avgs. But at 32 years old how long can he keep up this production? better to trade a year too early than too late- and this offseason, i think could bring back a nice return. plus, we have a plethora of young arms with higher upside who could plug in the bullpen. with that said, hughes would be hard to lose as consistent bullpen depth is valuable and is probably similar to what the brewers would look to acquire at the deadline. and since we already have him on a nice deal- there is no need to trade him unless he is packaged in a deal that brings back someone significant. Thames - This is more about what i believe we have in Aguilar than a knock on Thames. I think Aguilar has big-time power potential that he is still growing into and Thames is keeping him from that consistent playing time. And speaking of which Thames is who he always has been. Take away his April and his numbers this season are almost identical to his career numbers before he went to Korea. I normally agree with the notion that you can't arbitrarily just take away a player's best or worst month and say, "now look at his numbers." but, this isn't a normal situation. First, he was gone from the majors for two years and second, it was the first month of the year. if a player has a hot first month and then is cold the rest of the year, that is probably pointing more to a trend than if the month was in the middle of the summer. and to the first point, pitchers didn't have much of a scouting report on him. but, once they adjusted and built a profile for him, he subsequently proved unable to make further successful adjustments. i think going forward his numbers (minus April) are a stronger predictor for his performance in the next two years of his contract than his full season stats. that and his overall pretty lousy defense at 1B and worse defense in the OF, are good reasons to dangle him out there and see what we can get. but, there's no pressing need to get rid of him, so if there's not much interest, keep him and at worst he is an awesome bench bat and at best- well he's babe ruthesq lol on a team-friendly contract. PROPOSED TRADE PACKAGE FOR A YOUNG TOR- (probably more appropriate in the Transactions/Rumors thread, but since it relates to the above trades listed above- i'm putting it here) Thames, Santana/Broxton (recipients choice), Vogt, Hughes, Jungmann (out of options- and long shot to make the team [double side-note, really wish he had been called up in September- believe he could have helped the team down the stretch and helped his own cause too- especially in those late-inning games against the Cubs)] and a low-level lottery ticket like Carlos Luna for a true Ace, under 30 and under team contract for at least three years. RE-SIGN Sogard - hopefully he doesn't have to start too many games, but think we could get him on a fair, 2-3 year contract for him to back up, along with Perez, the middle infield. great clubhouse guy fwiw and is nice to have the defensive flexibility and another veteran on the team. If we don't re-sign him, i think Orf should be given a shot and could fill in all over as the 25th man (provided he's re-signed, see below) LET WALK Swarzak - relievers are notoriously inconsistent year to year. unless your name is Andrew Miller or can throw 105 mph, i don't see giving big payouts to relievers as wise (and even then i'm not sure it's worth the cost), but a better option is to instead fill with a swarm of decent arms still under rookie contracts (seeing what sticks). Swarzak has been everything and so much more for the brewers during the stretch run and after his breakout season this year he'll be looking for a big, multi-year pay day. but prior to this year he only had one good season out of seven, back in 2013, and the rest were mediocre at best. And at 32 years old, his sudden ability to miss bats (10.7 k/9 compared to career 6 k/9 and hit rate way down this year) is questionable. but, guys like Guerra and Pina have made similar late-aged adjustments and show that it can be possible. if he put up numbers during his contract like this season, he could be worth it, but i think it's a more prudent move to look at younger, in house options- of which there are plenty. Walker - i posted about him already in a post above. He is a solid hitter and provides value at 2B. but with his age and the attractive rebound possibility of Villar already under contract- i think it would be better to let Walker walk. Garza- I don't care if his option was only for $1 million. I don't want him back next year and he would only take away playing time from the younger arms. good bye Garza. SIX, RULE V ELIGIBLE PLAYERS TO PROTECT (already posted this in the Rule V thread, so this is just an updated summary as it relates to current 25 man-ners) Protected Six - Freddy Peralta, Marcos Diplan, Mauricio Dubon, Nottingham, Tyrone Taylor, Nathan Orf DFA Three - Quintin Berry, Oliver Drake, Carlos Torres (no explanation necessary, would be nice though if they pass through waivers and were re-signed to minor league deals) the three other spots opened from the free agency of Swarzak, Walker and Garza IN-HOUSE MINOR LEAGUE FREE AGENTS TO RE-SIGN (in preferential order) Yhonathan Barrios, Nick Ramirez, Sean Nolin, Angel Ventura, Michael Reed, Tim Dillard, Ivan DeJesus, Hiram Burgos, Yadiel Rivera, Kyle Wren, Jorge Ortega, Parker Berberet, Dustin Houle The rest of the MiFA i would love to have back, too- but see as interchangeable with the myriad of other MiFAs out there and imagine we'll re-sign a bunch as always, of who the team has an eye on, particularly pitchers to compete for the last bullpen spot or two. *EDIT- apologies to Wily Peralta- but you need a fresh start

Walker plays both 1b and 3b, fyi. Signing Walker and making no other roster moves is going to seriously hurt our chances of getting Villar back on track and getting his value back. 'plays' is a dubious distinction for Walker at those positions, which is why i put 'lock' in apostrophes. in his 1000+ games as a major leaguer, he has started only 17 games at 3B and 7 games at 1B. the latter of which mostly came this year as a necessity to get his bat in the lineup during a stretch where he and the other 2B were all lighting it up.

I would be very wary of moving Villar this off-season. You don't trade young(ish) talent like that after just one year removed from his extraordinary 2016- not only because of the hope that he rebounds, but also because of the little value you would get back in return. He still should be considered the 2B of the future (at least until he becomes a FA after 2020) and given another year to re-establish and find himself. and i still think he has potential to be above average defensively at second. However, i don't think this rules out re-signing Walker this off-season. Although i don't think we need to, and would prefer to have Perez and another utility infielder (ie sogard/orf) backing up the infield, I think it could work. Walker has been a modicum of consistency the last three seasons and at 31 isn't that old to where age should severely decline his production in the next two seasons as a stop-gap for another guy in case Villar, who would be used as another super-utility guy off the bench, doesn't regain his form. Walker's positional 'lock' to 2B limits his versatility off the bench, so if Villar does start hitting well next season, Walker doesn't profile as an expensive bench bat, but could be an attractive trade piece to package with some prospects to bring in an extra arm down the stretch next year. But, the picture not to lose sign of, is that Villar should be given a chance to rebound next year, which would be difficult with Walker hitting well at 2B.

Anyone into fanedits? If not check out fanedit.org sort of like IMDb. They re awesome re-edits on films that often aim to make the film better than the originals. Dont know many others who are into them.

first off, love this thread! so perfect. Swing & a Drive you're awesome. as you all know soon to be minor league free agent, Mr. Dillard will once again be looking for a home this off-season. After compiling a less than stellar 5.17 ERA and 1.52 WHIP this past season in his long-toothed 15th professional season, it could seem that Dilly might finally be done with the Crew...at least as a pitcher (announcer seat waiting). especially considering that this is coming after a 2016 campaign that yielded a 5.13 ERA / 1.44 WHIP which followed an even worse line of 5.50 ERA/1.54 WHIP in 2015. but, when one looks a little deeper behind the numbers i believe a strong case can be made to bring back Mr. Tim for year 16 and moreover, that used exclusively against right handed hitters in relief (think ROOGY), could even do well in the majors. yes, Colorado has not been kind to Tim, reflected in his Home/Away ERA splits this year of 6.50/3.38. but, overall, he actually has fared well there in his career, which may be one of the reasons that he has served as a sort of 'sacrificial lamb' during his tenure there. obviously known for its boon to hitters, the brewers may have been delicate about subjecting some of their top prospects to the slaughter that is Colorado's thin air whenever possible ie Hader who in his time with Colorado pitched only 11 games at home to his 15 games away. whereas most pitchers spend about an equal amount of games at home than away, conversely to Hader, Dillard eats up the majority of his innings at Colorado Springs, exemplified most in 2016 when he pitched three times as many games at home than away! out of his 84 games he's pitched for the Sky Sox, Dillard has only started in 11 games. with all but 2 of the starts coming at home. I can see Rick Sweet, "hey guys- we need a spot start today at home, any volunteers? no? okay, Dillard- you're up." and in those 11 games that Dillard has started- he's been TERRIBLE! sporting a 10.73 ERA in 41.1 IP- yikes. i did not find numbers to verify this, but i'd speculate that the majority of those runs came the second time through the lineup, when hitters start adjusting to his under-seen sidearm delivery, especially considering these following figures. Out of the bullpen he has consistently performed well even when including appearances at home. Over the last three years in 122.2 IP in relief with the Sky Sox, Dillard has a stalwart 3.46 ERA, 8.8 K/9, 1.23 WHIP and hitters have a meager .670 OPS against him- and again that's including home appearances! Even more encouraging are his RHH/LHH splits, represented here by OPS: 2015 - .686 OPS /.937 OPS 2016 - .579 OPS / .949 OPS 2017 - .766 OPS / .797 OPS his overall numbers are inflated by the number of left-handed hitters he faced (307), which eat him alive, compared to the 429 RHH he faced during that span. one wonders if his efforts at improving that disparity this year, cost him a little bit of his dominance against righties. regardless, that is still a 200 point differential! Remember, these handed splits include his egregious starter numbers, so if you can do the figuring, take those numbers out and see how much lower those splits would be. Okay, he fares pretty decent against AAA competition, but what about his less than stellar 4.70 ERA in the majors. well, in parts of the four seasons that he was with the Brewers he pitched 84 IP all out of the bullpen, basically a full season's worth for a relief pitcher. in that time, he held RHH to a .669 OPS (226 PA) and analogously LHH crushed him to the tune of a .969 OPS (145 PA). so, yeah, seems like he did okay against righties. When factoring only his appearances as a reliever and only against right-handed hitters, he actually has performed really well, consistently over the past three years, even in one of the toughest hitter's parks in all of baseball. this, combined with his well-documented clubhouse leadership and vivacious personality and entertaining social media presence that has made him a fan favorite, he is a valuable player to bring back for another go-round, if for nothing else than to be that sacrificial lamb and fun, clubhouse veteran, but at the most- to be given a legit shot at a glorified ROOGY role in spring training for the Brewers.

thanks for the info guys and also for the reminder about Choice. would have been nice to have had him down the stretch for Biloxi, or Colorado for that matter. but, props for him for getting paid while he can.

Are Michael Choice & Michael Blazek minor league free agents this offseason too?

Although Walker has given us everything we hoped for since the trade and worth the seeming middling reliever who as CheezeWezHead said looks to be "not a lot". I would would give pause to that assessment. First of all he's a big 6'5", 220lb. it is not uncommon for taller pitchers to take a little longer in developing consistency as a lot more can be going on with their mechanics. but it's worth providing some context for his ERA mentioned above. I posted this elsewhere before, but it seemed appropriate to bring up again here. Hanhold moved to the bullpen this year after starting last season and began the year horrendously! in his first 5 appearances, he gave up the following earned runs 2, 2, 2, 3, 5, 8 respectively. but since May 18 after his disastrous 8 run appearance, he's held hitters to a paltry 1.37 ERA w/ a 9 K/9 and about a 1.00 WHIP. it looks like he's found his stride putting his talented, big arm to use. at 23, could be a fast mover next year. either way, I wish him good luck with the rest of his career!

well, Guerra looked pretty good outta the pen. there's that?

"They sabotaged the team when they called up all the stars that made the team a winner." didn't know if that should be in blue or not, but regardless- also hurt were the Cooper and Cordell trades fwiw. with that said, the redbirds had callups too, so.

and Nate Orf gets a nod too further down fwiw.

Not small-town mentality. What happens when Irving leaves is Giannis going to stay when he is the only superstar on the team or is he going to leave? I would rather risk losing Giannis walking by building a team that can consistently win than risking Giannis and Irving both leaving and the Bucks are then left with nothing but playing the lottery game. I believe the Bucks need to continue on the course that they are on and just build a winning franchise. couldn't agree more.

yes, after yesterday's performance, definitely had that sinking feeling. as one of the radio guys said a few weeks ago, the decision not to draft Watts will be second-guessed for years to come. but gotta admire Thompson's stones for knowing that and going with what he felt was best. like all wisco fans, loved watt, but also love biegel of course and king's upside. hopefully watt and Biegel/King all have long, excellent careers.

also a great season for Colorado Springs- great job boys. sorry it had to end like this. just a bit short. as others predicted, Brooks may not have been the wisest move to start the game- five runs in the first- but don't know what other options Rick had and its not like anyone in the bullpen did much better. either way, they went out swinging. Colorado has been fun, but can't wait til we're someplace else. Jungmann, you're free to go to Milwaukee now. really hopes he gets a 3rd? chance to start a couple games- seems like he's finally put it together- though we've felt that before. we'll see.

a part of my daily routine that I will miss this offseason, checking box scores, write-ups and comments from the link report. thank you for all of your efforts in providing fans with excellent and convenient followup coverage of affiliate games. we know it takes a lot of time and consistency but we hope you all know how much it is appreciated.

interesting article on BR about Delmonico that sheds a lot of light on his mysterious release from the Brewers. Glad to see him turn things around. inspiring story of recovery but also subtly hits at a growing problem with the medical/pharm industry prescribing dangerous, addictive drugs to address symptoms. as someone who struggles with addiction myself, i can sympathize w a lot of the things Nicky touches on- keeping things a secret, struggling with them on your own, letting yourself and others down, perpetuating a cycle of dependence. wish things could have turned out differently from a brewer fan perspective, but from a human perspective, happy to see him have success. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2732062-nicky-delmonicos-rollercoaster-trek-from-suspended-addict-to-rookie-mlb-stud

Capn lou!