Fear The Chorizo

It's not really shifting the goalposts considering Hiura has to be an above average hitter to be a major league player... 2022 MLB average OPS - 0.706 2022 Hiura OPS (with that 42% K rate you love to mention) - 0.765 Joey Gallo had a 0.638 OPS over 410 plate appearances last season, btw.

so now you're shifting the goal posts to "above average hitter in this league" instead of "major league player"?? defense has nothing to do with a leg up at the DH position, btw...and Gallo has been allowed to slog through full seasons of ABs (when healthy) to put up his numbers - Hiura goes through a 10-game slump and he's gone for months back down to the minors. All the while, the current Brewers' 2023 DH production could probably have been outproduced by letting a healthy Brandon Woodruff take those ABs.

I didn't say K% is arbitrary, and I do value contact more than some other posters on this board...What is arbitrary is you setting a specific K% number on what Hiura needs to be at or below in order to be a major league player. So if Hiura over the course of a 600 plate appearance regular season hit 35+ HR and drove in close to 100, while OPSing around 0.800 also struck out 35.2% of the time (211 Ks), he's not a MLB player in your book? Would he be a MLB player if he found a way to strike out two fewer times over the course of 600 plate appearances to lower that K rate to 34.8%?

I stated between 30-35% in the post you initially quoted, and you stated 'at or near' 35%...if I replaced extra base hits with a dozen or more Ks from those 2019 numbers to lower his average, slugging, etc. and bring his 2019 K rate to ~35%, he would've still been around a 0.900 OPS player that season. saying "gotta" and "absolutely has to" around 1 single stat (K%) for a player to have an extended big league career is foolish. If Hiura would get his K rate below 30%, he'd have the potential to be an all star at the DH position...so striking out at higher rate than some arbitrary threshold rate doesn't automatically disqualify Hiura from being a major league player.

His 2019 MLB production (mid-900's OPS with a K rate around 31%) says otherwise

Hypothetically, at what point would you consider his callup a success? Likewise, what would be considered a failure? IMO it will be a success if he's called up over the AS Break and proceeds to get everyday at bats as the DH, so the Brewers will have ~2.5 months of a regular season to assess whether it's worth plugging Hiura in as the Opening Day 2024 DH for this team or if they part ways with Hiura and wish him well elsewhere (whether that's in a Korean/Japanese league ala Thames or with a different MLB organization). Stats-specific, if Hiura can hit mid-200s and maintain a mid-upper 700s OPS I think he's worth bringing back next season and frankly that's plenty of production to improve their offense this season compared to what they've gotten from DH so far...and I think Hiura still has a higher ceiling than that. It will be a failure if Hiura is called up and not given an extended shot at everyday ABs and the Brewers are left without a clear decision to make with Keston moving forward - or if they shuttle him to random defensive positions to keep his bat in the lineup (1B/OF/2B)...if Hiura is going to have a lengthy MLB career it will be as a DH that has righthanded pop. He'll probably always have a higher than average MLB K%, but if he keeps it between 30-35% he'll hit enough to justify an everyday spot in the lineup.

Feels like they're too slow to drop prospects they've previously elevated, and because of that there's no room to elevate prospects who deserve to be much higher - especially when they tend to try and give every organization at least 1 or 2 prospects in that top 100. Misiorowski at 89 is about as bad as Quero at 75...and Black has done plenty offensively at the AA level to be rated in the top 75 even with defensive question marks.

Is this statement to describe Hiura or 90% of the current Brewer MLB roster? I think Keston would've been up a month ago if not for his injury - if and when he does get called up, it needs to be for an extended full time role as this team's DH. If Counsel plans on trying to utilize him again in some sort of platoon role where he faces more LHP than RHP, then he'd be better off staying down in AAA. I also think the reverse splits Hiura has are a bit overstated due to sample size, but I do think he hits righties at least a bit better than lefties because of his natural instinct to let the ball travel to him and use his hands. If he'd get nothing but sliders from RHP at the MLB level, he'd OPS north of 1.500. Obviously he'll need to prove that his swing adjustments have allowed him to handle high in the zone gas more effectively at the MLB level, because that's all he'll get until he proves he's not the auto out he used to be in that zone with velocity. There's only one way to find out, and it's not letting Hiura continue mashing down in Nashville.

I think most of us would be happy getting significantly better offensive production from the DH spot in the batting order than what we'd expect from pitchers hitting. Hiura is the logical in house option the Brewers can add to their roster, and all it takes is DFA-ing one of the underperforming vets to get him on the 40 man roster for the rest of this season.

Or, how about just everyone pay it back? Teachers are far from the only positions with high demand/low supply, so I don't think they should get preferential treatment for loans they may need to take out to get a 4-yr degree. I grew up in a rural part of WI where teacher salaries weren't great - but even then their benefits were what incentivized that position in a community they could still comfortably live in on those salaries if they stayed within their financial means. I've also lived around Chicago and Minneapolis, and the teachers I knew at various public school districts all made more than me plus had insanely good benefits and time off compared to my position in an engineering consulting firm as a licensed P.E. I know there are parts of the country and districts where it's damn hard to be a teacher - both mentally and financially. Hell, I know I'm not cut out for that type of job and I'd be a terrible teacher. But, the same can be said for jobs across all fields, public and private sector. I'd also argue a big part of the current student loan problem isn't a glut of elementary school teachers somewhere in the panhandle making $35K a year with $100K in student loan debt - it has alot more to do with students taking out years' worth of pricey loans to attain advanced degrees in universities beyond a bachelors program that accumulate to balances over what their financial means will be in the career path and the geographic location they've chosen to live and work in. Finally, from 2002-2022, the total consumer price index increased 65%, while average tuition increased between 134% (private) and 175% (public in-state) on average over that same time period. There needs to be reform at the university level to restructure costs to solve this problem, or frankly the higher education system we currently know will collapse - it's already pricing out a huge chunk of the country, and eventually there will be a tipping point. One may be structuring tuition amounts at universities based on earning potential of undergraduate degree fields. For example, if a liberal arts major or social worker with a 4 year degree isn't expected to make as much as a computer engineer right out of school, their tuition costs to obtain that degree shouldn't be as high upfront.

I think just about any broad student loan forgiveness policy change/update needs to utilize university endowments as sources of forgiveness funds, or push to tie further tuition growth directly to a baseline inflation figure - until the main sources of ballooning student loan debt are held accountable (skyrocketing tuition due in large part to university largesse and excessive administrative costs, and large loans provided to students seeking degrees whose typical jobs don't pay close to the amount of salary needed for them to readily repay them without it severely handcuffing them financially for decades), this problem will only keep getting worse. Public sector student loan forgiveness policy will drive people insane, and frankly that sort of thing should also be eliminated - a big reason it started out in the first place was to dampen the effect of rising tuition costs at universities by incentivizing students to take out larger loans upfront than they otherwise would, particularly for fields where you don't need to attend a 4-year university at $25K+ in tuition annually to get a degree and ultimately a job.

A fully firing Winker from 3 or so seasons ago is an upgrade to what Hiura provided at the MLB level in 2022, but a chronically injured and diminished Winker is most certainly not...which is what it appears the Brewers currently have on the MLB roster. Winker's current "hot" streak is frankly still not good enough to guarantee him a longer leash as this team's primary DH. And it makes no sense to include Hiura as a 1B option just because he played there a few seasons ago while his own offensive production suffered (and played it poorly, btw) - he's been in AAA playing LF, so Hiura should either be a DH or spot start corner outfielder if he's in MLB. Tellez has stunk up the joint most of this season and the Brewers are getting laughable production from 1B because of it, but that shouldn't mean square-pegging Hiura back at that position on what would AGAIN become a part time role for him. To improve 1st base offensive production this season, the Brewers need to acquire a better offensive 1B than Tellez. To improve DH production this season, the Brewers need to DFA Winker or option Miller and get Hiura back in Milwaukee ASAP so they can see if he can sustain what he's been up to in AAA when healthy this year, or otherwise they could look into the trade market at the deadline.

This thread originated after Hiura was sent down in July of last season just 5 games before the all star break in the midst of one of his hot streaks because the Brewers needed another arm in their bullpen and he was the guy with an option to shuttle back and forth - they sent their hottest hitter from a roster who struggles with offense down to bring up Connor Sadzeck who gave them 3 innings of 9.00 ERA/1.7WHIP production from the mound because the Brewers need to seemingly keep 20-something pitchers on their MLB roster...so yes the thread title is a little bit aged - Right now, Hiura absolutely needs to be this roster's primary DH for the rest of the season, and it should come at the expense of DFA-ing one of the unproductive veteran hitters who have taken up DH at bats so far this season...

When the choices are to utilize the existing unemployment system to pay people forced out of work by government mandated business shutdowns, or to pay them under another government program hastily created and full of loopholes for fraud with printed money that accelerates debt spending not to replace unemployment but in addition to it, I'd imagine libertarians would be in favor of unemployment benefits, yes.

Sorry, but I paid the last of my student loans down by early 2021, admittedly was close to the end of my repayment anyway when the government decided to let them slide interest free...I'd do that every damn time again so I didn't have the extra $150 a month bill knowing where inflation was taking prices regardless of when payments had to resume. Anyone who didn't see prices skyrocketing while the govt was printing money was kidding themselves. For the people who stopped paying and will need to resume, I'm sure it will be a jolt because everything costs more today than it did 3 years ago. Will that cripple their discretionary spending if they have a large loan balance? Yes it probably will, and frankly it should so they can get their own financial house in order. Those payments have to resume sometime. As for investing the monthly payments and then making a bulk payment when it finally does resume, in a perfect world sure, but you run the risk of losing money on the investment or having it tied up somewhere where you can't immediately take it out without taxes or other penalties. If you can eliminate a debt payment, in my book you eliminate it.

Lamet isn't a mlb pitcher anymore - he still throws hard but his numbers have proven he sucks. Getting Gasser alone and the 6 years of mlb control the Brewers will have from him whenever he is called up makes this trade a win for the Brewers. Throw in they wound up with their starting catcher for the next 5 years and a quality reliever option, and I don't see how people are still upset Hader was traded last year when he was in the midst of blowing up just about every appearance and his contract was only going to get pricier.

Should have been more specific, as these sales replace a fraction of the 23M barrels of additional oil released from the SPR in early 2023 that was congressionally mandated from previous legislation, which wasn't at all part of the ~200M barrel siphoning done last year. So they'll need to buy 7 more similar volumes to the article you cited to get back to where things were end of 2022. And I'd imagine there's another mandated sale from the reserve set to happen in early 2024. If they wanted to replenish the reserve, there'd be alot more oil getting bought by the government.

3 million barrels is nothing...and this was supposed to start happening early this year at a much higher rate but they are hesitant to put any extra strain on oil markets that would drive its price higher and cause more pain at the pump. The SPR is actually down this year compared to where it was when they stopped drawing it down late last year. It's a fine line to walk until they get another 150-200 million barrels back into the reserve hoping there isn't a significant geopolitical event or natural disaster that creates a need to rapidly draw down the reserve for daily supply needs.

Very true...at least directly. Gas going up a quarter thins the margins for all products delivered or provided, which leads to price increases in other ways though. Gas prices as a whole have been stagnant this summer...but the SPR also hasn't been replenished one bit and remains at levels not seen since the early 1980s....probably a wise thing at the moment but the govt is also wasting a golden opportunity to replenish when prices are reasonably low due to diminished global oil demand because of floundering economic growth.

But it also shouldn't be substantial in terms of macroeconomics for a nation of ~350 million people, many of which already paid their loans back or never went to a college to take on that debt. The fact that now 40 million people will have to resume paying a couple hundred bucks a month (on average, of course) to pay back a loan they voluntarily agreed to instead of making an extra run to a big box store or night out to dinner could significantly alter economic growth is a problem...not one that the stock market really cares about (at least until it realizes the ramifications of consumer spending being that stressed), but that's the reason I view the current economic climate as precarious at best.

The fact that borrowers with current student loan balances, a relatively small percentage of the overall American population, simply have to resume repaying loans they've had over 3 years of a grace period to make payments on (when they could've actually paid them off during this period anyways), is likely to have any sort of impact on economic growth/consumer spending should tell you how precarious things are.

Assuming the labor participation rate remains stagnant at a level well below where it was before the pandemic, if the unemployment rate of people actively trying to work crawls back up over 5% it's going to happen well after you'd probably start listening to the Bears you know.

When this all finally goes south, and it will, it's going to go south painfully fast. A recession hasn't yet techincally happened, but neither has substantial growth/expansion - to me it feels like treading water out in the middle of an ocean with a chunk of floating debris propping you up...ok for now to survive, but you're still in the middle of an ocean full of sharks with very limited options on how to improve your situation. Bank balance sheets are still in very rough shape from decisions made several years ago when the cost of debt was basically nil - now the current interest rate outlook makes it all but impossible to clean up. The last bad recession driven by normal economic ebbs and flows was caused by the housing market bubble, this one will be caused by commercial real estate and the current bloated personal credit card debt bubble - at some point all the levers currently propping up a sputtering economy in the face of rising interest rates and persistent inflation are going to give, and there isn't much of anything left to soften the blow.

Hiring Stearns would likely give the Mets the jump over the Padres on winning the 2023-2024 offseason, something these two clubs have been battling over the past few seasons....get your popcorn ready! If this is the case, I hope Cohen understands that would mean most of the players currently on the ridiculously expensive Met roster will either be retired or playing elsewhere by the time Opening Day 2025 rolls around - only way a guy like Stearns comes in is if he's given a blank slate to build a MLB roster.

This team is so bad against LHP...even LHP with an ERA approaching 8. That's not a change in approach, it's just more of the same crap