Fear The Chorizo

I think it's alot more to do with the ~$2M contract the Brewers gave Hiura and the DFA happening right at the end of spring training when most of the teams were trying to get creative with their own 40 man roster maneuvers, with any interested organizations not wanting to open up a 40 man roster spot for a guy out of minor league options they could've stowed away on their own AAA squad for peanuts had the Brewers not retained him. If you polled MLB organizations right now, I'd guess a bunch of them would say if they could go back in time to late March they would have found a way to acquire Hiura - even if it meant jettisoning someone else on their own 40 man to get it done. If Hiura is healthy, he needs to be the fulltime DH in Milwaukee. He's the best option with who they have in the organization right now for that role and for all the positional flexibility the Brewers like to do with their roster, they need to prioritize DH to a bat first (even better bat only) player that they pencil into the lineup everyday. Until they give Keston that kind of extended opportunity at the MLB level, they won't know for sure if it's time to move on from him for good, and if I was Hiura if I didn't get that opportunity from the Brewers I'd look to move on after this season with a different MLB organization or sign a deal to play in a Japanese or Korean league ala Thames. If the Brewers were getting more than pitcher-level hitting production from the DH role so far this season from the players they've given those ABs to so far, then keeping Hiura off the 40 man and down on the farm as an insurance policy would make sense for a team striving to win a very winnable division - but even a slumping Hiura would outproduce what they're getting from the DH spot in Milwaukee right now, and the upside of a 0.800-0.900 OPS righthanded hitter in the DH spot should be enticing enough to roll the damn dice pretty soon.

Reds' recent hot streak and debate about when devil magic kicks in for the Cardinals have both overshadowed the Cubs, who have been playing much better of late and are the lone team in the NL Central sporting a positive run differential. That's a team with decent enough pitching to go on a sustained tear with better offense, and they could also be looking to add pitching and hitting at this year's deadline to separate themselves a bit from the rest of a seemingly muddled pack. For all the love the Reds are getting with their hot streak, it still has barely gotten them over 0.500 and their pitching has allowed 20 MORE runs than the Cardinals. There are still plenty of holes on Cincy's roster to expect an extended bad stretch for them as randomly as this 10 game win streak showed up. The Pirates appear to be going off the rails as fast as the Reds have gotten hot, and the Brewers seemingly are treading water as other NL Central teams take turns jumping over and then plummeting back under them in the standings.

Well, Davante found out pretty quickly he made the wrong choice and would've been much better off (and wealthier) had he signed that Packer contract offer. Heck, he may be getting traded again after 1 year in Vegas. I think much of this is hindsight explanation/reasoning for him opting to move on and the Packers actually trading him at peak value before it was obvious they were going to have a tagged WR who wasn't going to play for them anymore. From the Packers' perspective, at least in longterm cap health, they have to be breathing a sigh of relief it played out like it did. If the Packers truly knew and believed Adams wasn't coming back under any circumstances very early in the offseason, it would've been all over the league. Oftentimes, more lucrative contract offers wind up changing minds - in this instance that wasn't the case.

Baltimore actually is a pretty dinky baseball market, very similar to the Brewers, actually. They are right on top of Washington DC (Nats) and 40 miles away from Philly The Orioles got awful by trying to be more like the Red Sox and Yankees financially when they couldn't, and now are starting to see reward of sticking with an extended rebuild that saw some painful MLB cellar seasons like what the Astros did ~15 yrs ago.

Anybody throwing that hard is eventually going to have elbow trouble at some point...whether that's in two weeks or two decades or somewhere in between is the tricky part to sort out. Misiorowski has MLB top of the rotation stuff, but needs consistency in his mechanics to harness the command to become a true Ace. He's light years ahead of where he was coming out of college, which is a great sign in his development. If he looked anything like he does right now last June, he'd have been a top 5 draft pick in last year's draft.

This is an epic strawman point of view, unless you want to use 20/20 hindsight vision...kind of doubt many Brewers fans would have been ok with Arnold stating this past offseason after trading all 3 of these guys that "Adames is going to struggle to hit 0.200 this year and doesn't know how to sit in a dugout, Woodruff will miss a few months due to shoulder problems, and Burnes will have an uneven season and hurt his trade value in 2023....because the Cardinals are going to be unexpectedly awful we'll be able to slog through the season without these players at the top of the division" I'm also pretty sure WAR isn't a hard and fast stat that should be used to predict what the Brewers' record would or wouldn't be had they opted to deal away their top two starting pitchers and their shortstop who hits in the middle of their order before the season ever started.

I think the problem isnt too many hitting coaches - it's not enough hitters. Best hitting coach in the history of the game wouldn't look very good at his job with generally morbid and streaky at best hitters littering the clubhouse. Adames looks like he did with the Rays, which is why they traded him away for a pitcher with chicken wire holding his elbow together and another reliever. Many thought the Brewers' pitching would nosedive when Johnson left for the Reds post 2018 and they did just fine without him, because they collectively had pitching talent.

Yep, and it's primarily because every season the Brewers open with a bunch of supposed veteran everyday players that aren't good hitters, so the bench players get exposed. I don't blame guys like Miller and Anderson, I blame the likes of Adames, Tellez, Urias, Taylor, etc.

Gasser has a better chance of being called up down the stretch to help the Brewers this season than to be included in a deadline trade - he's essentially in season 2 of his minor league career and pitching pretty darn well in AAA right now as a 24 yr old. There's tremendous organizational value there.

The Brewers can't hit but the Cardinals can't pitch or play defense - and that's why the dirty birds are in the cellar of a weak division. And unless they dramatically get their pitching fixed, there's no extended hot streak for that team back up the standings - this isn't beer league softball where they can expect to win 15 out of every 20 games 10-8 for a few months. I've posted it in other threads - I absolutely despise Yadi Molina, but it's obvious to me how much he helped their pitching overperform their ability over the years. Not saying his absence behind the dish is the only reason their pitching sucks (many of their key arms are just not good enough anymore due to age/injuries), but it definitely is a big reason.

The Cubs are the biggest threat if they want to make moves at the deadline to improve their pitching and not be sellers. They've been playing better lately, too.

look at the division - it would have been a terrible decision to trade any of these guys away in a division that is still so easily winnable, let alone all 3. I'd also add that I think it would have been a terrible decision to extend any of these guys at the market rates being discussed this past offseason, too.

I get the point of trying to find a way to make a comparison, but I'd stray away from any sort of comparison between relievers whose actions wound up directly killing a person and physically assaulting people to a guy who put out a pair of ill-received posts on twitter (one of them being sharing a video he didn't himself create). To me a better comparison tweetwise would be Josh Hader - since Hader is better at being a relief pitcher than Bass, his inflammatory tweets from years gone by are an afterthought. Bass' tweet history is much more fresh . Because of that and because he hasn't pitched well this season, he was shown the door. I mean, I doubt the Dodgers are considering DFA-ing Kershaw for his recent public statements about the invite/disinvite/invite fiasco going on with their pride festivities. And this also reminds me of the John Rocker experience.

The Cubs went we will kill our farm system and we don't care we want a WS! The Cubs basically emptied their whole farm system for a one year run. After that one year run that organization is in absolute shambles. Not exactly - The Cubs were set up incredibly well for an extended run of contention, and they did make the playoffs for several more seasons after their WS run, they just didn't win it all. They didn't empty their farm system out all to win a WS title for one year - they made a move to get Chapman at the deadline that send Gleyber Torres to the Yankees. What ultimately led to their fizzle was the huge contracts they gave to Lester and Heyward aged very poorly, their seemingly endless chain of young position player impact talent didn't live up to the hype, and they spent several seasons after the WS win emptying their farm system chasing veteran pitching and drafting very poorly. Basically, Theo Epstein did the same thing to the Cubs that he did with the Red Sox after chasing a WS title to end a drought, and the Cubs didn't have deep enough pockets to complete a quick retool via free agency as what Boston did for their 2nd title

Some of those sliders...just filthy. That type of stuff coming from a 6'7" frame that's still figuring out command and consistency coupled with triple digit heat is borderline x-rated for pitching prospect watchers.

I'm getting an impression that this year's trade deadline is going to be a dud for teams hoping to sell high end talent with the expectation of getting huge prospect value back in return. Too many of the huge market clubs currently scuffling along just aren't going to sell impact players, and they also are so heavily invested into veteran players across most of their roster that there's no point of them to get aggressive and become buyers, either - I'm guessing they'll largely just play out the string with what they have in hopes they get healthy/hot and find a way to eek into a wide open playoff field. Additionally, mid to small market teams currently at the top of many of the divisions/in the playoff picture aren't going to want to trade bluechip prospects for middling veteran talent that may or may not make their team better - I can see a bunch of bullpen pieces being traded for lottery tickets or so-so blocked prospects from one team to another, but not much more. Maybe the Rangers make a splashy trade for more pitching now that DeGrom's done for the year - and I can see them wanting Bieber if Cleveland opts to sell. Because of this, and because the NL Central is incredibly winnable for this Brewers team even with no significant roster upgrades, I think Burnes gets dealt this offseason and they ride as far as he and Woody can take them this year in the postseason. Maybe the Pads fall on their face even further and try to restock their system with a Soto trade, too.

For a collegiate arm with any sort of MLB rotation-ready stuff, low A is the equivalent of a HS varsity pitcher facing freshmen team hitters, and high A is a step up in talent but they typically can mow through that level because the best hitting prospects at that level still need development. AA is where MLB-talent tends to gel with physical development for the best prospects and mixes with middling prospects who have alot more minor league experience, and the competition throughout lineups is much harder for a pitcher to navigate. If a starter performs well at AA, he's MLB-ready.

1 - I think those three aren't all coming back at the exact same time, and odds are decent that if Tehran continues pitching well there will be a spot for him to keep making starts for awhile longer - but I'd wager that the more he pitches the less good his results will be and we will be happy to see him phased out of the rotation. I think he'd be a valuable bullpen piece as a long man if the roster can support it. 2 - I have zero confidence the Cardinals' pitching is going to improve enough for them to go on an extended tear - for as much as I despise Yadi, I think we're seeing the positive impact he had with their pitching staff by watching their pitchers almost universally performing worse this season without him behind the dish. Some of that is several of their key rotation arms that were rotation anchors are past their best years and now pitching like marginal MLB starters. I actually think right this second that the Cubs are the more dangerous team than STL - particularly if they want to get aggressive at the deadline and try to fill a few roster holes via trade. If they continue scuffling through June, it's just as likely the Cubs turn into sellers at the deadline and become a total afterthought for the playoffs by the AS break. I'll also say that the Reds could make things interesting with the young talent they've got coming up, but it's difficult to put too much faith in new callups carrying teams into the playoffs when they don't have a solid roster of veterans to lean on when they go through the rookie struggles that are sure to happen. Honestly, if the Brewers can continue to work through the injury storm they've dealt with in April/May, they're going to win this division rather easily.

Joey Wiemer will get a fair amount of consideration for rookie of the year...he won't win it, but he's going to be one of the guys discussed as the year goes on. He has shown the ability to make adjustments at every level, and the defense/power hitting/baserunning combo carries value no matter what his batting average sits at when he's working through slump stretches. Great player to watch!

Actually, yes it is - you spent most of the offseason posting about how the Brewers should've been spending more on payroll to improve their team. You were happy the Twins signed Correa for $200M despite 2 other team concerns with his health/injury risk and he's currently OPSing below 0.700 with nagging back and foot issues before the AS Break in year 1 of that deal (not the foot teams were most concerned with, mind you). Orioles fans should be happy their team is currently positioned to retain their impact talent who is just now getting settled in as MLB everyday players, and their payroll will eventually climb back to what their "market size" can support (which is actually in the bottom 1/3rd overall in MLB and quite comparable to Milwaukee). For their market size and current position of their organizational rebuild, it would have been premature for them to splurge on free agent contracts this last offseason. I expect them to be active at the trade deadline in effort to fill current roster holes along with potentially calling up some more young talent - then this coming offseason I'd look for a few of their young stars to be offered longterm extensions and also a free agent signing/trade or two that adds to payroll in the short term before any mega extension dollars kick in. The Orioles' organization became historically bad on the field due to management chasing wins through free agency and farm system trades in a division where they should behave more like the Rays than the Yankees and Red Sox. Their current approach is the right one.

But man, if I was an Orioles fan, would I be pissed off at ownership. They finished 2022 strong and then sat on their hands all winter while holding fast to a payroll waayyyyy under their market size. And by doing so they've started this season strong in the toughest division in baseball because their young prearbitration talent collected over the years of MLB doldrum seasons is pretty damn good . If only they spent half a billion dollars like the Mets did to be playing 0.500 ball with a bunch of aging veterans, amirite?

This team, put simply, sucks against LHP - doesn't matter the quality of LHP, they just can't hit it well enough to win games. It's been their biggest flaw for multiple seasons and they can't seem to figure out how to fix it.

Would you agree that most of the statistical value you presented in the above is heavily weighted towards his 2021 season, when he was making a legitimate case for Cy Young consideration through most of the year until a shoulder injury limited him down the stretch? I'd also be curious to know where Peralta's 282 IP total from 2021-2023 seasons rank in that list of 104 pitchers. Don't get me wrong - that contract does carry value and the Brewers got the financial equivalent of equal to excess value just by Peralta's 2021 season alone up to this point...but at the rate he's performing I'd say it's a coin flip for the Brewers to want to execute either of Freddy's 2025 or 2026 team options that carry an annual $8M pricetag - he's got to stay healthy AND be a better pitcher when healthy than he's been since the calendar rolled into 2022 to justify that future cost.

He's been a below replacement level starter so far this season, and the Brewers have control of him for 3 more seasons. There's nothing indicating he's a really good trade asset besides Brewers' homer sunglasses and an affordable contract to give him a long leash to reestablish himself as a reliable and quality starting pitcher - honestly Peralta's collective body of work and injury history to this point actually makes the initial extension he signed look like a good move for him and a financially foolish one for the Brewers despite of how team-friendly it's been perceived to be. When the most valuable aspect of a player to an organization is the contract he's signed to and his best start remains his MLB debut about 5 calendar years ago, perhaps his on-field contributions are over-valued by that team because of it.

NO