LouisEly

Yeah, if you are building exclusively through the draft you have 24 spots to fill and given the relatively short careers and high injury rates you will need at least four starters from every draft if not five. If I'm prioritizing the Packers free agents, this is the list: 1) Jared Cook - because field-stretching TEs are not that common, and he flourished with Rodgers 2) Nick Perry - because if you don't have good corners you better have a good pass rush 3) TJ Lang - because he is one of the best pass blocking guards in the league, even if guards are replaceable, and because the Packers have very little OL depth 4) Micah Hyde - because even if they are deep at safety, they need him in the slot 5) JC Tretter - because he can play anywhere along the line adequately, which saves a roster spot 6) Julius Peppers - see Nick Perry, but will he accept a one-year deal? Maybe it's better to see if he's on the street in late October when injuries start piling up 7) Eddie Lacy - because when healthy he was really good, and when GB puts 3 WRs on the field and forces the other team into a nickel package you have DBs trying to tackle a 240 lb RB... but when is he healthy? 8) Jayrone Elliott (RFA) - because he's worth $1.6M tender, and if Peppers and Perry bolt they will need depth 9) Brett Goode - because he's good(e) but getting long in the tooth - can he still cover adequately on punts? 10) Christine Michael - because he's adequate for a backup but nothing special 11) Jordan Tripp (RFA) - (see Christine Michael) 12) Datone Jones - because he's not a good fit for the 3-4 13) Don Barclay - because he is replacement level Exclusive-rights FAs: Locks: Allison, Thomas, Schum Good bets: Crockett, Ringo

Yeah, if you are building exclusively through the draft you have 24 spots to fill and given the relatively short careers and high injury rates you will need at least four starters from every draft if not five. If I'm prioritizing the Packers free agents, this is the list: 1) Jared Cook - because field-stretching TEs are not that common, and he flourished with Rodgers 2) Nick Perry - because if you don't have good corners you better have a good pass rush 3) TJ Lang - because he is one of the best pass blocking guards in the league, even if guards are replaceable, and because the Packers have very little OL depth 4) Micah Hyde - because even if they are deep at safety, they need him in the slot 5) JC Tretter - because he can play anywhere along the line adequately, which saves a roster spot 6) Julius Peppers - see Nick Perry, but will he accept a one-year deal? Maybe it's better to see if he's on the street in late October. 7) Eddie Lacy - because when healthy he was really good, and when GB puts 3 WRs on the field and forces the other team into a nickel package you have DBs trying to tackle a 240 lb RB... but when is he healthy? 8) Jayrone Elliott (RFA) - because he's worth $1.6M tender, and if Peppers and Perry bolt they will need depth 9) Brett Goode - because he's good(e) but getting long in the tooth - can he still cover adequately on punts? 10) Christine Michael - because he's adequate for a backup but nothing special 11) Jordan Tripp (RFA) - (see Christine Michael) 12) Datone Jones - because he's not a good fit for the 3-4 13) Don Barclay - because he is replacement level Exclusive-rights FAs: Locks: Allison, Thomas, Schum Good bets: Crockett, Ringo

Bob McGinn with some fairly harsh words for TT: http://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/mcginn/2017/01/28/mcginn-ted-thompsons-formula-success-fizzles/97136720/ Some quotes from the article: How could Thompson, after watching the defense get ripped apart by the Falcons, even look McCarthy, his coaches and his players in the eye? “Hats off to the coaching staff,” one general manager said last week. “For keeping it together playing with that crap for the last seven or eight weeks.” “We all make mistakes,” said one former GM. “Maybe you can’t get better. Maybe the guy you want you can’t get, but at least you’re trying. I always felt obligation to the head coach to try. But that’s their (the Packers’) philosophy, and it’s worked for them because they’ve had 25 fricking years of great quarterbacks. Of course it works. Try it without a special quarterback.” So the ball rests squarely in Thompson’s court. For Packers fans, it must be depressing to know it’s likely little or nothing will change in the way he puts the team together.

Yeah, I didn't think I'd have to state that re: Fernandez, but it's been well documented that he and his agent said they weren't signing with anyone except the Marlins (per Adam McCalvy) otherwise he would have went before Jungmann. What I'm getting at - and why I limited it to 2009 and later - is what you think would have the most value for the Brewers right now.

Just having a little fun with this. You can go back in time and change one Brewers draft pick, but here are the rules: 1) Pick must have been 2009 or later 2) For a first round pick, the player you pick instead must be one of the next five picks. For any other round it can be one of the next ten picks. 3) If you know a guy was a big oversign (applies to 2009-2011 drafts mostly) please exclude that player The first one that comes to mind is A.J. Reed, the pick immediately after Jake Gatewood in 2014. A big, young LH 1B stick would be nice to have right now... but I think the Brewers will have a bargain in Thames. Any of the five picks after Medeiros wouldn't be a bad call, but I haven't given up on Kodi yet. The Brewers could have already had Lewis Brinson, instead of drafting Coulter or Roache. But then what would they have gotten for Lucroy? Speaking of those picks... five picks after Coulter and four picks after Roache was Jose Berrios. His minor league numbers in 2014 and 2015 look eerily similar to Brandon Woodruff's from this past season. In the 24th round of the 2013 draft, two picks after Chris Razo, was Jose De Leon. But who can look that far into a draft? I'm going to go with the 2009 draft, and nine picks after Max Walla and eight picks after Cam Garfield was Kyle Seager. He will be 29 next year - maybe he would still be around/good when the Brewers compete again, but if not I think they could trade him for a haul as his contract is only through age 34 at most, 33 w/o the option, and a LHH All-Star 3B is a heck of an asset.

What bothers me is how it has been a recurring theme that they carry over a significant amount of cap space from year to year. This year it was $8M. I know that the trade deadline is unnecessarily early in the NFL, but injuries hit the secondary early enough that they could have pulled off a trade for a pretty darned good CB with that cap space. It's harder to pick up offensive players because of the complexity of the offense and how Rodgers calls audibles, but playing corner isn't that different from team to team. Man-to-man, zone, cover 2, cover 3... that's about it. The more scouting reports I read the more it sounds like Sidney Jones will be gone by their pick, but Gaeron Conley and Cordrea Tankersley should be there, Adoree Jackson might be there, and Howard Wilson could slip to their 2nd round pick. Jourdan Lewis I think will come up a bit shorter than his listed 5'11"... Lewis might not measure to 5'10".

Nope. Some might be, but some of them are too big to be condensation drippings (especially considering they clean them multiple times a day), and some of them - like the one this afternoon - are not directly underneath the urinal.

Love the Spahn and Sain reference to his Oklahoma State days... Law forgot to say that it must have rained the other games.

Just watched about a month ago and this is exactly what I thought, especially the second comment about it being rushed. Tried to put too much in without developing it. Not as bad as anything with Jar Jar though, but I was rather disappointed.

It's not uncommon for me to go into the restroom at work and see small puddles (occasionally a moderate one) underneath one of the urinals. It's not like I work at a fast food restaurant or a bus stop and have a broad spectrum of humanity passing through the restroom. I work at one of the largest bio-pharma companies in the world, and you need to be pretty darned smart just to be allowed to walk in the door. How in the hell do you miss a urinal?!?

I'm in the "it will shake out in spring training" camp. Right now I'd say Nelson is the odd man out, given how he finished poorly and has options, but it could change. Milone will be the next Gorzelanny/Zach Duke bullpen lefty, but not a starter unless emergency. If I'm ranking them: 1) Guerra - earned it, and if he can come anywhere near what he did in 2016 he will be a very valuable trade chip 2) Peralta - downright dominant 2.92 ERA the 2nd half of 2016, got back to hitting 97/98 3) Davies - the most consistent (and will give a different look to hitters after seeing Peralta's 97/98 the day before) 4) Garza - finished strong, if he can replicate his 2nd half he could bring back a quality prospect or two 5) Anderson - by virtue of finishing strong, 3.02 ERA 2nd half of 2016, but Counsell needs to find confidence in him going more than five innings 6) Nelson - sending Peralta down helped, maybe it can help Nelson too 7) Jungmann - pretty darned good in AA when he got his confidence back, 2015 was pretty good too; Colorado Springs will not do him any good 8) Woodruff - not because he's better than Hader, but because he can go more innings in 2017 (158 innings in 2016) 9) Hader - might see early in the year if there are injuries, but only 126 innings in 2016 - I think Brewers will focus on building his innings with an eye on 2018 instead of yanking him back and forth between the minors 10) Lopez (see: Jungmann) 11) Wang 12) Wilkerson

Not Cravy - he's pretty close to a lock. He made some adjustments last year to hide the ball better. He got hit around at his spot start in Cincy, and granted last year was a small sample, but as a reliever last year he had a .452 OPS-A. He gave up three HRs last year, two during his spot start at Cincy with one to Votto and one to Phillips, and then one in the "bullpen day" start the last day of the year at Colorado to Charlie Blackmon (who hit 29 last year). That's going to skew his FIP, but he was outstanding in the bullpen, and there is no shame in giving up HRs to those guys in those parks. Funny the parallels between Walker and Jed Bradley, both picked up by the Orioles and added to and dropped from their 40-man roster, and what people think of each one.

7) Brandon Woodruff, RHP, Grade B: Age 23, 11th round pick in 2014 out of Mississippi State; breakthrough season in 2016 with 14-9, 2.68 ERA in 158 innings between High-A and Double-A, 173/40 K/BB, just 121 hits; huge increase in strikeout rate compared to past seasons; fastball reportedly ticked up from low-90s into mid-90s; command improved as well, mixes in average slider and change-up; often viewed as a reliever in the past but performed well enough to change that reputation in ’16; hasn’t received a lot of attention yet outside Brewers circles but that deserves to change. ETA late 2017. Hell, he doesn't even get a lot of attention inside Brewers circles. That''s a heck of a lot of C-grade players who last year were at low-A or rookie ball - 17 by my count - who have plenty of time to develop.

What this says to me is that players don't have to be consensus top 100 prospects in order to have a high ceiling. And while Rogers was drafted by the Brewers, there is no harm in signing a veteran on a one or two year deal to fill a hole - provided he isn't blocking a top prospect from getting experience - with the hope that he can be flipped at the deadline in a minor deal because minor deals can have big rewards. I'm not advocating spending big in free agency, but a guy like Neftali Feliz could bring back the next Keon Broxton.

I never understood the Datone Jones pick; even though every mock draft except mine had him going to the Packers, I never thought he was a good fit for a 3-4 defense - not big enough for a 5-technique, too big for OLB. Peppers is the rare big guy who is athletic enough to play OLB, but for all intents and purposes the Packers run a 3-3-5 as Peppers is more of a lineman. Randall was a safety in college, Rollins had only one year of college football experience after playing college basketball - they went for upside and we knew those guys would take a while to develop. Randall has been hurt this year and, like Adams last year, leg injuries do not help CBs or WRs in any way shape or form. I don't know how much that is impacting his performance, but I was pretty vocal about the Randall pick and passing up Eric Kendricks - the best cover LB in that draft - and letting him get to the Viqueens, as well as passing on Malcom Brown who was the 6th leading tackler for the Patriots this year. Fortunately this year is really deep at the top for CB. Marlon Humphrey, Teez Tabor, Quincy Wilson, Marshon Lattimore, Adoree Jackson, Cordrea Tankersley, Sidney Jones, Howard Wilson, Tre'Davious White, Gaeron Conley, maybe Desmond King and Jourdan Lewis all could be top-50 picks. One of them will be available when the Pack picks at the end of the 1st round. My guess - Sidney Jones, if he's available Adoree Jackson.

Embedding YouTube videos in BF.net posts is bugging me. It really slows down the page load time. I may or may not have purposely posted this knowing the thread was on #600, and that the next post would generate a new page.

Eovaldi had a pretty big spike in HR rate last year too, which is probably why the Yankees released him. He throws hard, but that's about it - career K rate of 6.6/9. Might be worth seeing if he can pick up a couple of mph moving into the pen - if he can get to 98/99 out of the pen that would get interesting. Looks like he tried picking up a split-finger fastball last year as fangraphs has him throwing that pitch 22% of the time but not previously in his career. Maybe that's what wasn't working for him. Bullpen with fastball/slider would be intriguing; maybe Guerra can show him how to throw the splitter better.

I'm going to hijack the hijack... Since we only have one thread available for GBP here at BF.net, inserting different topics is really the only way to manage it. Thus, its not really a hijack unless you don't talk about GBP stuff. Since LL.net has died off, I've put in a request to make a section for Other Wisconsin Sports. Thus, we can have different threads for Packer, Bucks and Badger topics without having to dump it all into one thread per team. The request is going up to the BF.net owner for consideration as it may change costs due to extra traffic. Just thought I'd let you know that its being considered. We need to somehow save the Draft forum at LL.net...

Oh the money I wasted on CDs because there was one song I liked. The music industry has changed dramatically over the years. I have a couple of good friends who are in the business. Years ago you had a tour to support the release of an album; now you make pretty much nothing on albums, and you come out with albums to support a tour because the tour (and selling merchandise on the tour) is how you make any money now. If you can fill a 500-person music hall you are doing great. You do get a fraction of a cent for every YouTube video view. My friend and I calculated that the Robin Thicke video (the unrated version) had enough views that YouTube paid them roughly $600,000; but you have to have well over 100M views to get that kind of $. My friend's band had a song purchased by CBS for NCIS: New Orleans; they played in in a strip club at the beginning of the show for a minute and got about $30K. If you have strong appeal to millennials (and now Gen Z) you will make your millions on endorsements, not your music.

Oh for the good old days of WMAD back in the early-mid 90's. The Resurrection Lunch. Real modern rock/alternative. While not always, Q101 in Chicago will occasionally take requests (I think their 5pm rush hour programming is all requests, and most of it is not current music). Same with KROQ in LA. Both great radio stations that I forget I can listen to on-line, both still incorporate some local flair into their music, both will reach back and play stuff from the 00's and 90's more than most stations, both better than the alternative station on Sirius.

I'm going to take a wild stab and guess that this friend also drinks nothing but obscure IPAs and trashes anyone who drinks a light beer.

Agreed. The Cubs have plenty of young bats, but 4 of their 5 starting pitchers last year were over the age of 30 and three of them are free agents now or after next season. They gave KC Soler for potentially one year of Wade Davis, and while they traded for Montgomery they have nothing in the upper minors for SP prospects. They will need to compete with NYY, Boston, Atlanta, LAA, LAD, etc., for any free agent starters - they aren't guaranteed anything in free agency. And no depth means that if they have injuries they will be in deep doo-doo. Schwarber likely will be traded for pitching at some point - he makes Braun look like a Gold Glove OF - but with those defensive limitations what can they get for him? If they have to trade for pitching from their young bats that will weaken their offense.

What do you want to bet that those kids are either from the east coast or the north Chicago suburbs? It's the "I'm rich and you're not" exclusive brand of the winter. At least two of them last night at the bar, maybe more (there were parkas but couldn't see the arm patch), and neither of the guys took them off - kept them on even though they were INSIDE. Either showing off, or didn't want to risk getting them stolen (since it was a trendy restaurant/bar, people in groups staying at their table, I doubt that will happen), in which case you shouldn't be bringing it in the first place.

Smith has a career .827 OPS against RHP; not a bad bat to have in your lineup 75% of the time for $7M. Useless against LHP, but if you can find a cheap RHH to platoon with him you can get some good production for a moderate value.

Aaaaand changing the topic here... what's bugging me are the half dozen or more people I see every day walking around in their Canada Goose Arctic Project parkas. Apparently that's the cool kid brand now, and that patch on the sleeve proudly shows that you can spend $800-1000 on a winter coat. No, you're not in the Arctic, but apparently you shop at Nordstrom's/Sak's 5th Avenue/Barney's/etc. Maybe it keeps you warm, and maybe the Columbia ski jacket I wear is fashion faux-pas, but for what you paid for your Canada Goose jacket versus the $130 I paid for my jacket I stay pretty warm too and have enough left over to pay for a trip to Miami or LA for a long weekend. Enjoy your cold weekend in Chicago.