Fear The Chorizo

well the Cubs are currently well below their 2023 team payroll at the moment, too - maybe the Ricketts and Mark A are having a contest to see who's the cheapest??

I'm pumped about Love's development this season, where no matter what happens in the postseason this will be an offseason where the Packers don't have to center their offseason plans about what to do at QB (besides most likely gear up for what Love's next extension looks like once the new league year begins).... I don't like the matchup with Dallas, primarily because I think their offense could really make hay against a Packer defense and GB's youth on offense will get exposed a bit on the road in a playoff game against a talented defense. Dallas is one of those teams that doesn't need to blitz to generate pressure, and can play coverage on the back end with some ballhawks in the secondary (even with Diggs out) - some of those back foot throws Love has excelled with throwing receivers into open space on blitzes just aren't going to be there. That being said, the Packers do have a puncher's chance in this game because I think they can get into a shootout and win, and I also think Dallas has proven capable of laying postseason eggs in prior years. Too early to really start sorting things out...but the sheer number of young pass catchers currently on the roster really shapes up to have trade fodder in the next season or two - there's always a reason to draft at least one receiver or TE most drafts and the Packers could easily deal a couple of these young guys to strengthen the roster elsewhere or add draft capital instead of having to just cut guys down the road.

Gute had himself one helluva draft in 2023. And 2022. 2021, not so much 2020 was meh, besides getting that 1st round pick 1,000% right.

Honestly, if the Packers win the super bowl and we spend more time complaining about Barry being the d coordinator because of it, we've got serious Fandom issues. I don't expect either to happen, but would take Barry reupping his contract if it meant a Lombardi trophy in Love's 1st year as a starter - just to see all the "well yeah, but Gute shouldn't have moved up in round 1 3-4drafts ago to pick Love!" crowd explode

Yeah, now that I have an idea I still wholeheartedly disagree with it....and 3 years is longterm for a pitcher over 30 who likely won't pitch during the next MLB season because he just got done getting his shoulder sliced on.

I look at it as the money they won't be paying Burnes after he's traded. If the Brewers are trading away their best starter for 2024, they shouldn't be turning around and paying a similar amount of money to a free agent 1B on a relatively short term contract - because in trading away their best pitcher they're signaling they aren't planning to contend next season. Assuming Burnes and Williams are back, one other option the Brewers could do is trade Adames and then pool that payroll savings of him + Woodruff into a corner IF/DH bat, while still keeping Burnes as your rotation anchor for one more season. Slide Turang over to SS and then sort out a 2B platoon with Dunn and Capra, maybe even Black unless they want to keep him at 3rd? I just think Hoskins is going to get significantly more than what has been speculated so far.

It's true the Packers play a ton of zone. The issue is it feels like their zones get stretched a ton based on the scheme/formation, routinely seeing safeties drop way off in coverage and LBs get sucked up on playfakes - leaving enormous holes that short and intermediate passes don't have to fit through tight windows or have schemes that fool quarterbacks into throwing into coverage designed to pick a pass off. It's like a 2 deep shell where the 2 deep are way too deep, and the shell has cracks in it. Teams really don't even bother with throwing vertically deep against the Packers, because they can gouge them in 20-30 yard bursts in the passing game with high percentage throws that only have to travel 10-15 yards downfield into open spaces. It's why it always feels like the Packers' defense is playing with 9 or 10 players - because there's always at least 1 or 2 guys on the field covering space that opponents never bother to send receivers.

Hoskins' agent is Scott Boras....if he could be had for 2 yrs, 32-36 million he would've been signed weeks ago. I guarantee you right now that interested teams are being told it will take twice the amount of years and more than twice the amount of salary in the range people are expecting to get him to sign a contract. Hoskins will be among the last notable free agent players to sign this offseason because of who his agent is, and because there are a number of large market team Boras is going to continue selling him to despite him missing last season with a knee injury. I'm expecting Hoskins to wind up signing a 3-4 year deal in the neighborhood of $20-21M per season that has some sort of player opt out after 1 or 2 seasons - which I think prices Milwaukee out of the picture, and rightfully so. It's why I think Santana + spending at DH for a righthanded slugger makes more sense for the 2024 roster if they plan to keep key pitchers for another season (Burnes/Williams).

St. Louis was in the cellar of this division last season - they needed to completely retool their pitching staff this offseason just to even think of finishing over 0.500, and I don't think what they've done is nearly enough at this point. Cincinnati has made some moves around the fringes, but they will need to bank on young pitching staying healthy and young position players continuing to develop in order to take another step towards 90 wins. The Cubs gave a mountain of money to CC to manage a club who has yet to replace its best hitter (Bellinger), best trade acquisition (Candelario), and Opening Day starter (Stroman) from its 2023 team that eeked out a record barely over 0.500. Besides that, they've done nothing - zilch - squadoosh. They have to make a series of significant moves just to get back to being fringe contenders. The Pirates are, well, the Pirates. I'd argue the moves the Brewers have already made this offseason related to nontender/release of veteran players who collectively had awful 2023 seasons or were too injured to contribute in 2024 have improved a roster that won 92 games last season and won the division. Canha and Santana are included in the article like they were borderline silver sluggers for the entire 2023 regular season in Milwaukee and their loss is crippling to their offense...they were here two months and it took both close to a month before they started hitting. Plus, Santana is a likely option to wind up back in Milwaukee at 1B, and adding Chourio to the young OF mix basically leaves Canha without a spot on the field to play with Yelich still in LF. Woodruff is a loss? Guessing if the over/under on 2024 innings pitched at the MLB level is 1, most people would bet the under for him at this point. The holes on this roster that still could use dramatic improvement still have a bunch of free agents at the DH and corner IF positions who haven't signed anywhere else, either....or they could be filled by young Brewer prospects (Gasser, Black on top of Chourio) who may very well be ready for everyday playing time at the MLB level.

Oh there will be plenty of seemingly good fits at qb where MN sits in the draft if they want to pick one. And they should really want to pick one. I'll take solace knowing all those qbs going off early will allow the Packers to find a franchise LT with their 1st pick before loading up on more defense to bolster Saleh's defense after Rodgers fires him for no good reason;)

I don't know...if it's apparent the Bears decide to stick with Fields, it seems like many of the other teams clamoring for a franchise qb in the draft will already be in that top 5 pick range, and there are seemingly alot of qbs worth a top 15 pick in next years draft. If the Bears ask for too much for that top overall pick they may wind up stuck with it. Unless a team coming from the middle if the nfl blob gets nuts and blows their socks off with a trade package. I don't see a huge pick package coming from a team already in the top 5 looking to move up a few spots for a qb in this draft. Btw, I agree that the Bears' best plan would be to trade Fields and then draft Williams, and think it'd be foolish for them to have to start paying Fields like a franchise qb with a contract extension at this point.

A big difference, at least IMO, and likely reason why he wasn't signed by a MLB team at all last season after the Dodgers released him was the fact that until the end of the 2023 season it wasn't publicly apparent that the primary reason he was suspended in the first place was fraudulent. As you pointed out, it's one thing to not be charged / convicted for sexual assault in the court of law and find a way to skate clear of that - but if what came out this fall was available back in January 2023 the Dodgers probably wouldn't have released him - or if they did somebody else would have signed him. And all one needs to do to find a good number of players who have led seedy private lives and/or come off as narcissistic d-bags is walk through the halls of Cooperstown. We will see what happens, but I'm expecting some MLB team to sign Bauer before Opening Day.

At best he won a Cy Young award in 2020 and was off to a good enough start with the Dodgers in 2021 where he could've been in that conversation again, preventing Burnes from winning his, had he not been suspended. There's no questioning his ability as a MLB pitcher, and he proved during last season in Japan that he's not a pumpkin after the 2+ seasons he was forced to miss for something that he should not have been suspended for in the first place. Mookie Betts this last October: "My experience with Bauer is not anything remotely close to what everyone else's experience is. I love him. I think he's an awesome guy. The personal things? I have no control. I have no say. Obviously, nothing ever came from it. "He's an awesome pitcher. He's a great guy, somebody who wants to take the mound every fifth day. But, at the end of the day, I don't make the decision. That's a decision that's not as simple as baseball." That last sentence is indeed true - however the baggage revolving around Bauer should not include the fraudulent sexual assault allegations, but unfortunately it will. The other aspects of Bauer's off the field personality are worth scrutinizing...although those aspects weren't enough to prevent the Dodgers from giving him a 3 yr, 9 figure contract before the 2021 season began based on his onfield pitching ability.

Viking fans are beside themselves...it's like "do we throw $35+ million to Cousins and hope he's the same player a couple more years after blowing out his achilles mid-season, knowing we're already going to be hardpressed to extend Jefferson/Darrisaw and retain Hunter?" Or do we trade who we can and go full rebuild mode knowing the defensive personnel are thin and aging at key spots, give Jefferson a market-setting WR contract extension while having no longterm QB in the organization and hope the GM actually makes a good pick early in the draft? Then they turn around and see Love shredding them and mutter "of course" to themselves....it's glorious!

You mean Watson, I presume? I just want to see him back in a game situation - him on the field with the rest of the young receivers really spaces out the field, and a healthy him paired with Reed in the slot and the rest of the WRs/TEs is a handful if Love is distributing the ball to all of them. Love seemingly has been really good against teams dialing up blitzes to try and generate pressure, because the receivers have more open space to run to. Where Love still needs development is against defenses that can generate decent pressure rushing 4 and dropping into coverage - alot of those downfield jump throws leading receivers into wide open spaces won't be there and typically will have defenders closing from the back end instead of chasing in man coverage. Thinking of that Giants game that Love played poorly in for most of that contest. The offense's surge has been tied to improved Oline play (no surprises there) - if that keeps up I'm looking forward to an entertaining playoff game for a team I have no expectations on making run with nothing to lose.

Jorge Soler looks like a really good fit on this roster, especially if he's signed as the DH to go along with Santana to play 1B

Which is sad, because Bauer was among the best starting pitchers in the game before he got his MLB career taken away from him for something he was falsely accused of doing. Part of the lack of rumors with Bauer is probably all the other more prominent FA pitchers taking awhile to sign contracts that interested teams are still vying for (Snell, Montgomery, etc). I'm not saying Bauer is a saint, but he's a good, durable starting pitcher that will take the ball every 5th day and give the team he's pitching for a good chance to win, and I think a MLB team will sign him to a deal before the season starts. I actually think he would be a really good fit in Milwaukee in the middle of their rotation regardless of whether they trade Burnes or keep him into Opening Day. If nothing else, I don't see why a rebuilding team doesn't give Bauer a contract and then try to deal him for prospects at the deadline if he proves to still be an effective starter at the MLB level.

One thing I've done recently to further diversify from just the retirement account is throw a pile of my rainy day fund savings into CDs - my bank had 9 month and other short term CDs at 5% APR with the recent rate hikes. That's a pretty solid guaranteed return that doesn't tie up funds for too long, either. 2022 sucked for my retirement account (and probably for most of us since there was really nowhere to hide in stock or bond fund markets), but 2023 was a nice rebound....hoping the market isn't as volatile as I think it will be in 2024 so the gains we've all seen recently have a chance to stabilize the retirement account baselines. It does seem like the bond market is finally starting to crawl out of the hole it dug itself into the past few years, so making sure to have a decent percentage of the 401k tied to a bond fund or two makes alot of sense if you're at an age where the retirement finish line is at least starting to come into view.

At this point in time, I think the Reds are solidly the 2nd best team in the division because the Cubs have gotten markedly worse pending any additional roster moves (honestly, besides paying CC $40M to manage they've done squat besides see key bats for their 2023 roster in Candelario and Bellinger leave the roster, plus their 2023 Opening Day starter is also a free agent), and the Brewers have actually improved their roster from the 2023 club that won 92 games. If the Brewers truly do plan on rolling with Burnes during his free agent year and keep Adames/Williams in their roles to start 2024 instead of trading them, they are still the clear favorite to win the division with a ballclub capable of churning out 88-94 wins. And, I think they have a chance to make significant roster upgrades at 1B, DH, or 3B via free agency to further separate themselves from the Reds. The Cubs could obviously throw a ton of $$ at Bellinger, a starter, and a closer/reliever, but honestly if they did all 3 of those things it would basically get them back to where they were in 2023 in terms of win projections.

What are they going to do when Burnes is finally gone and they don't have the pitching to fall back on like they used to? Probably just insert more young starters from their organization into the MLB rotation that cost about $600K per season for a few years instead of $30M+, similar to what the Brewers did 5-7 years ago with Peralta, Woodruff, and Burnes (none of which were ever premier can't-miss TOR prospects...in fact Burnes was arguably the worst pitcher in baseball in 2019 as a starter). The current organizational model gets it right way more than it gets it wrong with pitching, so they've earned trust with regard to continued development of pitching....and if you'd look in the mid to upper minor league levels right now there are a couple guys who could slide into MLB rotation roles over the next 1-2 seasons, starting with Gasser. The Brewers are obviously banking on offensive improvement from some of their young OFs in 2024, and the offseason is far from over that they could bolster corner IF offensive production before Spring Training, too. Most of the veteran garbage that gobbled up a bunch of DH, 1B, and 3B at bats last season is no longer on the roster, so to say the Brewers aren't actively looking to upgrade those roster spots is wrong even if no other additions are made.

The NBA also has the huge advantage of teams only having to worry about 12 players on their roster, not 40 plus 5-6 minor league team rosters full of prospects and organizational depth. I think the nfl is more comparable to mlb, and despite massive revenue sharing their player contract system is awful compared to what mlb players have in terms of guaranteed contracts.

As long as there continues to be an amateur mlb draft and international signing process, well run organizations will find ways to field consistently competitive mlb ball clubs without having to print money to sign veteran free agents on the downslope of their careers. Baseball has and always will be a young man's game - but it also has the biggest hurdle between amateur and major league professional players and because of it their player development model is vastly different than the nfl or nba, where revenue sharing teams get their pick of league-ready talent every draft. Mlb clubs that excel at player development, talent evaluation in the draft, and mining underappreciated prospects from other teams can win at the MLB level consistently without carrying a $200m plus payroll. The revenue sharing that mlb does have actually is plenty of $ for organizations to draw from and build good ballclubs without needing to sign a 32 yr old outfielder to a longterm 9 figure contract who might give you a couple seasons of solid production before his body falls apart.

I have no idea why any Brewer fan would want to ink a pitcher over 30 yrs old to any sort of longterm deal who is coming off a shoulder injury that required him to miss most of last season and undergo surgery. I think Woodruff is going to have a hard time finding a team to sign him to a contract before this season starts, because teams are going to want to see him pitch after rehabbing to have a better idea what he is before guaranteeing anything. And posters want to offer him 4+ season extensions at this point? Maybe a huge market team that misses out on all the other prominent free agent starters that will actually pitch in MLB next season will throw Woodruff a 2 year flyer with a nominal amount of $ this season and a club option for 2025 if Woodruff enters next offseason healthy and ready to pitch at the MLB level again, but it also wouldn't surprise me if we're talking about a "Woodruff throwing session showcase" sometime in July or August that attempts to draw interest from teams to sign him for the stretch run or set up his free agency headed to the 2025 season.

They won't be paying Chourio like a middle of the order bat and starting CF with his current contract extension for another 5-6 calendar years. Had they called up chourio last August, his current contract extension would include at least one fewer option year and likely would have been closer to double the total cost compared to what the current contract value is. This hot stove rabbit hole makes zero sense, and I already regret venturing down it....but I can't help myself and would rather comment on this than reading the next article related to "could the Brewers trade Burnes to the Cubs for Ian Happ?"

As of now the Cubs are far worse on paper than they were last season with both bellinger and stroman currently being free agents