Fear The Chorizo

That's why you raise the height of the screened rail by the foot or so it would need to be to prevent anything hit hard flying into the dugout (or you lower the front portion of the dugout enough for players and coach sitting at the rail are completely below it with a line of sight through the screen - some other ballpark dugouts are set up that way). If a player is sitting on the dugout bench, their head sits below the yellow Sargento ad line running across the wall. Any hard hit ball that would scream over the existing rail would hit the back wall probably 2-3 feet over a player's head in that scenario until the ball hit the wall, lost a ton of force, and started ricocheting around at a speed that could still hurt like heck but not be potentially life-altering if it does wind up hitting someone. The guy in blue is standing up in this photo - even he'd be well clear of any line drive going over the rail and into the dugout...although he could also really use a closed swing gate along the rail, too. And there were exactly zero players/coaches sitting or even walking in the dugout behind Adames or any of the Brewers hanging over the rail to potentially get smoked had that ball missed Adames' temple. I'd have more consideration for guys up there if the dugout below was cramped/full, but it was literally empty and close to half the uniformed roster spends most of the game in the bullpen, not the dugout. I get that players make their own decisions on how to avoid the risk of injuries, hopefully seeing how bad things could have wound up had that foul ball hit Adames an inch or so closer to his eyesocket will lead to them changing where they spend time watching the game when they aren't on the field.

It's a bench along the railing that was most likely put in at the players request - take it down and put a swing gate on that fence on the home plate side of each dugout and force them to actually use the bench that's protected inside the dugout. There's about a 1-foot vertical difference between the top of the existing fence and the roof of the dugout - it would also be very easy to extend that railing fence up a slight bit to match the height of the the dugout roof and make a hard-hit line drive virtually impossible to get into the dugout. All that being said and if they actually take these steps for player safety, players will probably find a way to bring step ladders in to stand on them and get their heads above the protective fencing anyways...I've seen plenty of guys literally sitting/sprawled out in the gaps between the fence where players enter/exit the dugouts during the game. It's just comical to me thinking it was only a couple summers ago when MLB played an abbreviated season with no fans and with players/coaches having to wear masks in dugouts/bullpens in the spirit of player health/safety, and these same dudes would have any sort of heartburn being better protected from 100+ mph projectiles flying at their heads when they're not expecting it.

Honest question - who on this current Brewers roster would you consider to be an impact talent worthy of a longterm contract extension anywhere close to the market setting rate at their position? Burnes has pitched like a #3 starter since last July, Woodruff is injured and already on the wrong side of 30 for a pitcher, Adames is injured and batting just over 0.200....and those are probably the top 3 candidates talked about most for a huge extension. IMO the only guy on the roster worth giving a top dollar extension offer to that would make him reconsider going to free agency would be Devin Williams, who they happen to control through the 2025 season via arbitration.

Dugouts are definitely pinned in closer to the playing surface in effort to cram as many premium field level seats into ballparks that all happen to be protected by netting - I think if the existing dugout safety design features were used/respected more by players/coaches this wouldn't be an issue, and it shouldn't take someone very long to add some minor safety features to virtually write off this risk altogether. Endless youth and amateur ballfields have dugouts much, much closer to the field of play than MLB ballparks - they're largely protected by floor to roof chainlink screens and the entrance/exit points are set up where it's virtually impossible for a hard-hit ball to get inside them. When the only times the bottom of the dugout is used by players is largely between innings or when a player comes back in the dugout for a team HR celebration, it's not really serving its intended purpose.

Counting his signing bonus from the draft in 2012, Winker has made roughly $20M playing baseball over the past 10 years and his neck condition was minor enough where he still plays baseball at the highest level. By almost every perspective that's a pretty damn good career even if he has to retire immediately. Sure, it's sucks for him if the neck issue is what prevents him from a longer MLB career, but it's also not like he's in a wheel chair or unable to play with his daughter. Winker himself would likely be among the first to say as much, too.

The only thing that needs to happen is for the entry/exit point on the homeplate end of the current dugouts to add a swing gate, and for players to sit on the bench of the dugout and not on the front of it on chairs where their heads are above the screen/netting. The dugout is designed to protect players from these type of injuries by setting it up below ground, and players have removed that safety feature for themselves by opting to sit where most of them do during the game. In short, if players want to stop getting hit in the head with line drive foul balls they can't avoid given how close they are to the field, they should use their head a little more. Every single one of the Brewer players/coaches are in line of fire in this image, yet the spots on the dugout bench that are completely safe are unoccupied.

His injury history is exactly why I wouldn't want to give him any sort of extension, so no thanks to extending a 30 yr old guy who can't stay healthy because he's a corner IF/OF option who's hitting about 0.250 and OPS-ing in the mid-700s - pretty much his career norms. The Brewers should be looking for ways to upgrade his roster spot moving forward, not solidify him into it.

Cardinals just cut DeAndre Hopkins....I think I'd prefer this type of veteran flyer this offseason compared to Sammy Watkins, just saying!

From a position player prospect standpoint, I'd argue Stearns actually started off terribly but him and successors have gotten dramatically better over the past 3-4 seasons in drafting/int'l signings in that department. IMO you're consistently pessimistic to the point of neglecting to acknowledge the bright spots across the organization and the varied ways talent has been acquired that contributes at the MLB level.

When Stearns and company took over, this organization couldn't develop any pitching and was set up to routinely find scrap heap veterans and #5 starters to overpay to fill out the bullpen and rotation, then trade prospects with value in effort to bring in impact starters (Sabathia, Greinke, Marcum) to try and put them over the hump. They did this because they had alot of success turning high draft picks into impact hitters, along with developing good hitting prospects throughout the organization in the early 2000s. The organizational philosophy and approach changed dramatically since then and they've being able to develop and mine young pitching talent through the draft and trades. Stearns and successors have tended to make impact prospect trades to bring in position players (Yelich, Adames, Urias, Tellez, Contreras) or sign veteran free agents (Cain). It's still far too early to write off youngsters like Turang, Wiemer, Mitchell - and I'd argue Hiura still has time and room to contribute longterm to the Brewers as a good hitter. Brewers patiently developed a guy like Grisham and right now they currently have the top overall prospect in baseball playing center field in AA and likely a top 50 prospect in Quero. There are others (Black, Frelick, Brown JR, among them) who will be major league starters when it's their turn, too. They've definitely missed on hitters drafted with several high picks (Ray stands out as the 5th overall pick who never truly put it together), but they've continued to go to the well in the draft and international signings with position players to fill a system that really was hollowed out after Melvin and company were consistently striking out in those departments since Braun was drafted back in 2005 - the list of 1st rounders (and sandwich picks) from 2006 through 2014 is abysmal, to put it mildly. Jeffress (2006) eventually went on to have a good career as a reliever, but ewww to the run from him through 2014.

Great HOF-caliber hitters aren't "developed"....they're drafted and everyone knows immediately they're going to hit well. If your standard is "why can't the Brewers draft a HOF hitter every other year", then most teams' front offices are going to be sorely lacking because there aren't multiple HOF-caliber players in every amateur draft. And to say the Brewers haven't hit on starting pitchers after rattling off 3/5 of their current rotation when healthy and failing to mention other young arms who are either currently injured (Ashby), or recently acquired/drafted with some promis (Gasser, Rodruiguez, Small, Misiorowski, etc) is just being too pessimistic, IMO. But yes, the solution should be to hire a 70-something guy who had to resign following the Braves' shady dealings in international player signings or a guy who now wants to tinker in managing soccer teams instead of gutting an organization at the MLB level for 5+seasons in effort to "rebuild" by amassing 1st overall draft picks for the better part of a decade.

I think his injured thumb and father time really limiting his mobility in and outside the pocket for the first time in his career actually did lead to Rodgers no longer being the field-tilting win with whatever's around him quarterback talent we had all grown to expect for ~15 seasons. That doesn't mean I think Love starting in 2022 would've meant the Packers were a better team, but it does mean that I think the dropoff in quarterback play isn't as steep as it would've been from what Rodgers did in 2020-2021 seasons when he was the league MVP. The Packers weren't a 2-win roster that the best quarterback in the league managed to get to 8 wins last season - I think they were a playoff caliber roster that was too inconsistent/injured to evolve into a contending team, quarterback included. Factor in the schedule for this season, and I don't think it's a huge stretch for this Packer team to finish above 0.500, even with all the youth/warts.

In two months' time my money is that one or both of these guys will be bad/injured...pretty much why the Brewers chose to move on from both. Just like it was a travesty to move on from Bickford even though he is now exactly what he was with the Brewers - an inconsistent back of the bullpen arm.

That just sucks

They get the Bears twice, the NFC South (which at this point all 4 look bad, but I guess someone will have to win that division), and neither the Lions or Vikings strike me as teams set to take a stranglehold on the division next year. Defensively I think they'll be good enough to have shots at winning low scoring games early on against teams that aren't going to set the world on fire offensively themselves. The way their schedule is structured I can see them stacking a bunch of wins early before they get smacked around a bit in November, then looking like a playoff threat as the season winds down in December/January. Green Bay still has alot of talent on their roster, and if Love is decent I think this team is going to surprise alot of national pundits who assumed it's been all Rodgers for the past few seasons. To me, assuming reasonable health it'd be a disappointment for them not to win 10 games with their schedule. Definitely will see some growing pains as there's a huge influx of young players cycling into the depth chart - but they remind me alot of the team after Rodgers' 1st full season as the Packers' starter that was a solid wild card squad but had a few key holes on the roster that got exploited by playoff-caliber teams.

Schedule plays out like the Packers could really get off to a good start if Love is ready to start - toughest stretch really is mid-November through Mid-December.

I think they should trade Houser for Suter and then extend Suter.

Mexico City has been somewhat spared from the drug cartel violence in many other parts of Mexico, primarily because most of the wealth in that country chooses to live in affluent parts of Mexico city. Cartel kingpins play relatively nice in a metropolis that size when they all have kin living there. Its not part of turf wars for smuggling routes to the states, either. Its a huge city that has the same problems as most other major metropolitan centers in the world, but it's not crime that will prevent a mlb team from calling Mexico city home.

Joey Wiemer belongs...guy looks like a 10 year corner OF starter and can also go get it in center. He's never going to win batting titles, but he'll have a few seasons hitting 30-40 bombs with plus defense and baserunning.

Cobb will be a 3rd and short security blanket for Rodgers for about half the season, and he'll miss the other half the season due to injury - while on the field, he'll excel at taking looks away from other more dynamic receivers because of familiarity with Rodgers and becoming a net negative to their offense. His biggest role will be Rodgers' dinner companion to help find all the best restaurants to hit up in the big Apple...and to stay in close contact as they sort out retirement planning decisions together. Can't blame Rodgers for wanting a few friends/familiar faces in the locker room with him - but he has a knack for wanting guys who can't play anymore.

It really is starting to look like the NL Central is going to be a dog of a division this season, with the winner likely winding up with between 85-90 wins and most of the division under the .500 mark - for as frustrating as watching the Brewers revert to a substandard offense with inconsistent pitching circa 2022, at least we're not off to the start the Cards are. Seems like the NL Central as a whole hasn't won a game in close to a week - bit of an exaggeration but not that much of one.

Not to mention the Packers drafting 13 players in the draft this year and likely wanting to keep most all of them on the roster/practice squad.

I would hate to have traded up to get the 1st overall pick in this year's draft, need a quarterback, and then realize the consensus top overall pick is a 5'10" quarterback. There are exceptions to every rule, and Bryce Young was a great college football player....but man he's small and the list of undersized QB's who draftniks say "play bigger than their stature in the pocket" that wind up busting is alot longer than the list who actually do at the NFL level.

He reminds me alot of Matt Jones

I think the question about that is if Richardson actually profiles as a QB at the NFL level or if a team tells him to get back into the WR room, which was his initial position coming into Florida - because his physical numbers are elite for a wideout, too. Big questions on his short and intermediate passing accuracy, which is something an NFL quarterback needs to be great at in order to be consistently successful.