Fear The Chorizo

I didn't see anything in that article about the trade taking the "will" of the team being the reason they didn't get red hot down the stretch - pretty much the bullpen treaded water despite all the moves, too many starters got injured and missed time to thin the staff out even more, and the team wasn't good enough offensively to overcome it. Would they have fared better had they not traded Hader away and left him continue imploding for the next 6 weeks of the season blowing more wins than saving them? Something tells me that would also look like taking the "will" of the team. Or, was it better having Hader around at the back end of the Brewer bullpen to lose playoff games like the one that ended their 2021 playoff hopes?

That was filthy, Devin...what a nasty strikeout pitch

That wasn't because they traded away a closer who couldn't get anyone out in July before the trade or in August and most of September after the trade. The Brewers just weren't that good last season.

I think a batting tee would have an ERA under 4 if it only had to face hitters 4-8 in this Brewer lineup

Ashcraft for the cg shutout? Jeez...

Or milwaukee

Yes, and it should be with 2 outs on a base hit

Understood and i wasn't implying you were a Winker superfan either...just added the quote to provide context to my post.

When your LH hitting primary DH doesn't start against a marginal RHP in order for your everyday RH hitting catcher to get in the lineup, your primary DH should be DFA'd.

Not to mention proof that solid state batteries are a viable option (both economically and performance) for much more widespread EV use - one thing that's always been a big issue with solid state batteries is they're not great in climates with large temperature fluctuations, namely cold... I personally think the automotive industry should push hard into hydrogen fuel cell options for personal vehicles and leave EV as a more niche segment. When considering ramifications of scaling various technologies to fit global demand, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are really the only current option to significantly replace ICE vehicles without creating a bunch of unintended environmental and power grid capacity problems. Once the technology is fully developed to utilize hydrogen as a fuel, I think the infrastructure changes (both nationally and globally) could happen much more easily than what it would take to support a 50%+ fleet of battery-powered EVs on the planet.

Burnes' actual honest answer would be "Look, we play in a terrible division and both us and the Reds have major warts. We currently don't hit enough and the Reds don't pitch well enough to be considered postseason threats besides the fact one of us will likely wind up winning the division. We aren't huge market teams and are unlikely to trade impact prospects away for the quality and quantity of hitting/pitching rentals to significantly upgrade our weaknesses, so it's likely going to be a grind down to the wire to see who winds up winning the division." Frankly, what he did say shouldn't be considered bulletin board material, it's just stating the obvious. The Reds have been on fire lately, but they also racked up a good percentage of those wins against dreg teams or teams that were scuffling in general when they played them. With the exception of other NL Central opponents, Cincy's 2nd half schedule is pretty rough. Their out of division opponent series include SF, Dbacks, Dodgers, nats, marlins, Cleveland, Blue Jays, Angels, Dbacks, SF, Mariners, Tigers, Mets, Twins, and Cleveland in that order, so there aren't many scrub teams they'll be facing. If the Brewers do well against the Reds over their last 6 head to head matchups and get them started on a bit of a slump, I think the Cubs still pose a bigger risk to take the division because they have better pitching, a much softer 2nd half schedule, ammo/budget to be buyers at the deadline, and 6 more games against the Brewers themselves.

Ruiz wasn't the centerpiece - Gasser was....and the closer the Brewers got from San Diego actually outperformed Hader for most of the remaining 2022 season because Hader sucked most of August. Gasser will make that trade worth it on his own compared to 1.5 seasons of Hader at about $18M in total salary, the fact they were able to turn Ruiz into Contreras and Payamps is some special gravy. Ruiz is 24 yrs old and holding his own as a rookie - way too soon to label him an awful ballplayer when his batting average is over all other Brewers with a qualified amount of at bats besides Yelich and Contreras. Ruiz lacks power and is still learning to play outfield (he was a 2B/IF for most of his minor league career), but Oakland is the perfect place for him to figure out how to play outfield. When the trade was made the debate was about how the Brewers were able to make the deal with their 4th best high minors OF prospect - reality is that due to injuries and inconsistency, Wiemer is the only one of the three (Wiemer, Mitchell, Frelick) that has arguably outperformed Ruiz this season...and that's entirely due to his hitting power and more developed outfield defense. If Mitchell could stay healthy I think he's the best of all of them, but the one consistent thing with him is he can't seem to stay on the field. I think Frelick will be an everyday major leaguer but he's not as close to making a MLB impact as what many assumed at this point last season. I'm glad they've kept Wiemer up to let him sort through MLB growing pains at the plate - really like what he could become as a right fielder even though he's been really good defensively in center.

Yeah with a prospect like Quero, I don't think burning an option is a concern at all - they'll protect him from Rule V when they need to and delaying the start of his MLB service time a season or even two would make alot of sense so the years of team control keep him in MIlwaukee into his late 20's, which are the likely prime years for a catcher.

If I'm a high school pitcher with enough projectable talent that doesn't get drafted as high as I'd like for a big enough signing bonus, I'd think long and hard about going to a juco instead of a 4 year university so I'd be draft eligible the very next year instead of having to wait 3 more drafts to potentially get my name called again.

What's keeping the Brewers from promoting Quero to AAA already? Well, for starters having their current starting everyday catcher (Contreras) still being over a full season from entering salary arbitration is a good reason to let a 20 year old catching prospect continue developing in AA. I'd imagine the plan for Quero is to have him start in AAA next spring, and then if his production forces their hand they'd call him up during the season as a 21 year old catcher or possibly in 2025. Even if he was held back making his MLB debut until 2025, Quero would be the youngest everyday catcher in the majors by far. There's no rush.

So, of all these HS draftees picked in rounds 11-20 (not just for the Brewers, but for many teams), if they don't sign now they'll all next be draft eligible three, 4, or 5 years from now depending on how their collegiate careers go. Each of those draft years will also be filled up with a fresh group of high school talent along with other college players that may have developed into draftable players who weren't picked while they were in high school. There are no guarantees with injury, development, and timing for most of these guys planning to wait for the next time they're draft eligible. Particularly for high school pitchers that aren't considered top 200 talent in a draft year, it actually makes alot more sense to sign a professional contract now than roll the dice on improving their draft stock years down the road when the draft itself has been pared down to 20 rounds.

Not all of them - but it wouldn't surprise me to see more than half of them sign...there are more prep arms that go off to college and wind up going undrafted 3 years later than those who dramatically improve their draft stock. In these rounds all it takes is 1 unlikely signing turning into a quality prospect to make the risk worth the reward. Guessing the Brewers opted to load up on these guys in hopes they get some of them signed rather than using picks on guys they could wind up signing as UFAs anyway

Do MLB teams still incentivize high school draftees to pay for their college education after the fact if they do sign? Not that it would appear to matter to Mr. Letson, as I kind of doubt he has a plan to earn a degree in 3 years, lol.

gotcha - I guess one item I did do this past winter was keep the garden area largely cleared of snow, so the soil could be exposed as much as possible to the elements...hearing that their larvae can't withstand extended stretches of soil temps below 15 degrees got me motivated to shovel snow across a little extra area where they would've largely laid eggs in my yard last year. It also seems this year like we've got a much larger number of birds around that might be helping to keep their numbers down. I've tried traps before, but found they just seemed to attract more of them...but it is satisfying to empty out a bag of them every now and then.

May I ask where you live? Here in MN we've been hammered the past few years with Japanese Beetles chewing on our garden bean plants - this year I think I've picked 2 off the plants and didn't really do anything special...thinking the long winter we just had did a number on their larvae, although I probably just jinxed myself and a week from now I'll be picking them off by the bucketfull to feed our neighbor's chickens, lol

I think trading Adames may be something the Brewers look into this coming offseason, particularly if he has a decent 2nd half...he has been hitting a bit better lately. Can't see them trading their starting SS this season when they're in this division unless the wheels fall off after the AS break and they find themselves 5+ games back at the end of July.

I think there's some real talent in the arms they drafted the past couple days already that are going to fill in lower levels of the farm either late this year or next season, and some of the collegiate pitchers could move up quickly. They drafted 7 pitchers with their first 11 picks, 6 of them college. Woodruff was an 11th rounder. Burnes and Ashby were 4th rounders. Misiorowski a 2nd. The recent Brewers' front offices appear to have a knack for identifying college arms in the day 2 draft range who can become quality MLB pitchers.

I haven't watched it for years either - I always thought a cool format that would also move along much quicker would be a point scoring system, where different parts of the stadium would count for various point totals. hit a pull side HR that scrapes over the fence = 2 points. Hit a dead center HR = 5 points, Oppo HR = 5 points, 425+ foot HR = 7 points, etc.... Then you have a series of rounds where each hitter gets 10 or so swings to tally their score for that round, and the field is cut in half each round until you have a head to head final where each hitter hits as many HR's as they can while getting 10 or so "outs".

Misiorowski is the type of arm talent that if he keeps honing a repeatable delivery and avoids injury, he's never going to be considered a top prospect because he'll be pitching in the major leagues before too long. Scouting services always have to throw a dozen or so players just drafted into these top 100 lists soon with zero professional experience, too - where you are ranked has less to do with longterm MLB ability compared to tools/talent, and timing.

3PO...is that something from star wars? I think you mean 3TO...and I'd loosely agree with your point had Hiura not been hitting over 0.300 and K-ing well below 30% in AAA so far this season. We don't have any 2023 MLB stats for Hiura after swing and approach changes made this offseason, and I think he's producing enough in Nashville to deserve one last extended chance in Milwaukee. That's my main point, and I don't get the hangup over giving him another shot because of a high K rate in limited opportunities at the MLB level last season when the worst he would do now is provide better offensive output than what the Brewers have gotten the first ~400 or so DH plate appearances this season. The other aspect of this is he's in the organization now, and won't require any sort of significant trade involving other prospects to get onto the big league roster - it would be as simple as DFA-ing one of the other veteran scrubs. And no, OPS isn't the only thing that comes into play when evaluating whether or not Hiura's bat would benefit the Brewers at the MLB level compared to what their roster looks like right now...it's more valuable than K% IMO, but it's not the only thing. I really could care less what Hiura can or can't do defensively, because it doesn't factor in wanting him getting everyday DH at bats for a team that already has more than enough marginal offensive players whose calling card is positional versatility. In the end, Hiura might just be snakebit as a Brewer - getting injured earlier this season probably kept him from flat-out forcing the Brewers to give him another MLB opportunity weeks ago with how he was hitting. I hope he gets one more shot with the team that drafted him, but if it doesn't happen I'll root for him wherever he winds up.