Harold Hutchison

I'm not interested in the politics of a player. I'm interested in what he does on the field and in the clubhouse.

Right, that's what I'm saying. I'm not really worried about the contract but the fact that Cameron was so effective at 35 doesn't make me think Cain will be. Cameron was the exception. If Cain is that good in 3 years, that will just be a bonus. Cain will be very good. Not in the same way as Cameron, whose offensive profile was power and OBP, with his speed fading. Cain's more likely to be a batting average/speed guy, with OBP improving as the speed fades. I don't think Cain's skills are as frangible as Camerons, and if the OBP is improving, I think he is well worth the contract.

At this point, you cannot look desperate to make a deal. If I was Stearns, I'd be making that kind of noise all along. I'd have Braun taking grounders at first, second, third. He's in left, he's in right. I'm working various outfield combos. And I listen to all sorts of offers - for Thames, Shaw, Aguilar, in addition to Santana.

Dunno, but the more I see, the more I like, especially when the Brewers coaches DO get the most out of folks. His BB/9, ERA+, FIP, and K/BB ratios are all going in the right direction over the last three years. He is controlled through 2021. The attitude after he threw those five innings in relief is a good one, too. In a way, I think Bauer could be a good addition and obviate the need for an expensive free agent. Deal Aguilar and Bickford for him.

His peripherals are ticking up though, looks to me like a late bloomer. K's through the roof last year, ERA+ steadily increasing, FIP declining, BB's down. This seems like a Stearns buy low to me considering he has had the past pedigree of ace stuff. A "buy low" of Aguilar/Bickford for Bauer? SWEEEEEEET

If not a closer, he might be a seventh or eighth inning guy. And he can even pinch hit....in a pinch. If he proves to be a capable MLB-caliber reliever, don't discount this. Kieschnick flamed out pretty quickly with the Brewers, but he had some very good pitching appearances with the team, and hit several clutch bombs. I always thought his use was mismanaged by Yost as well. I think someone like Ramirez or Kieschnick is useful as a 3-5 inning pitcher. Their jobs are to save the rest of the bullpen in either a blowout game or in extra innings, largely by not needing to be pinch-hit for. Say Anderson has one of those days, only goes three innings. you put in Ramirez to get most of the rest of the game. His bat won't kill a rally, and there is the chance the Crew can make a comeback. Similarly, in extra innings, you can put Ramirez in, and have him go for a while - and his bat just might get you ahead OR keep a good bench bat available to take advantage of a lefty-righty split.

All well and good, but I am more interested in on-base plus slugging. Will Braun and Santana top the .900 plateau? If they do, great. That means Yelich, Cain, Villar, and others are scoring a lot of runs.

Let's be honest ... with last week's moves, there is no way they go into the season with this rotation. Attanasio even said as much, saying they have the payroll flexibility to add a starter. I like Suter as a pitcher, and I think he's got a roll on the team. I think it's likely as a long man/injury replacement swing guy, though, or as rotation insurance at Colorado Springs. If that was the Cubs rotation, we'd all be sitting here saying Anderson's last 1 1/2 year run was a fluke and, even if it wasn't, that the guy has never even gotten to 153 major league innings in a single season. That comment would be followed with the idea that the rest of the starters are #4's and #5's. Still puzzled that the Brewers would make huge investments in outfielders, when the only real outfield problem was OBP out of centerfield and it was likely the richest talent area in the entire organization. Pitching was better than the hitting last year and certainly got the job done, but I don't blame outsiders one bit for throwing a little doubt in the direction of the pitching staff. That's what bugged me, too. I don't think RF or LF were "broken" between Santana, Braun, and a Phillips/Perez platoon as 4th OF. Keeping both lines open - trading for Yelich and signing Cain - was prudent. But if the Yelich trade went through, why add Cain as well? Or if you got a deal with Cain, tell the Marlins, "Thanks, but no thanks" for the interest. As to your point if the Cubs had this rotation... I think that we as Brewers fans, DO oversell "our" guys a bit. We think of Jake Arietta as aging and on the downswing. We see them as not very deep and falling apart. Our guys are really good. Heck, we'd take Hernan Perez over anyone on the Scrubs roster. Even in our "internal debates" on this forum, that dynamic plays out... we each have players we love, and players we'd just as soon seen dealt. Sometimes there is a general consensus (like DFAing Susac). Other times... not so much. Even with the players we like and think can contribute, we have disagreements on how to use them. I think Brent Suter can be a solid starter, and have for a while. Others think he's better off in the pen. I think Braun could contribute at third, the rest of the board says "Hell no." So, yeah, maybe we do. Still, I'm confident in the young pitching the Crew has. Woodruff and Davies are going to improve, Suter's looking solid (I think if he does stretch out, he'll be good - plus, he was a Cub-killer in 2017). Anderson has managed to take a step up. Nelson was good before he got hurt. Chacin's certainly a solid addition. Burnes, Derby, Ventura, and Ortiz all look promising.

Let's be honest ... with last week's moves, there is no way they go into the season with this rotation. Attanasio even said as much, saying they have the payroll flexibility to add a starter. I like Suter as a pitcher, and I think he's got a roll on the team. I think it's likely as a long man/injury replacement swing guy, though, or as rotation insurance at Colorado Springs. We are still waiting to see how that starter comes (if the starter comes). Until then, I think it's prudent to assume nothing happens. Is it a free agent? That creates one situation. Is it a trade? If so, does that trade involve Davies, Woodruff, or both?

If Suter is starting 30 games, I'd imagine they would be close to 77 wins, too. Because it means a lot went wrong. Not necessarily. Right now, the rotation looks like Anderson, Davies, Chacin, Woodruff, and Suter - with Nelson coming back relatively soon (no later than June 1) to presumably replace one of Woodruff or Suter. I think it is safe to say the Brewers will keep whichever of Suter and Woodruff is performing better in their starts in the starting rotation. If it is Suter, Woodruff gets optioned to AAA. If it is Woodruff, Suter will likely move to the pen. So, if Suter is getting 30 starts as a #5, given that he's posted a 3.42 ERA last year and a FIP of 3.75... that's pretty darn good. A lot of things going wrong would have Gallardo and Guerra getting a fair bit of starts this season.

And all the talk was how he came back limiting his repertoire and attacking. He's on a rp track. He may relieve for a bit before being stretched out. Who says the Sale approach can't work for a righty as well?

Suter's ERA in 2017 was 3.42. [sarcasm]Yeah, he'll be over 1.5 runs worse in that stat.[/sarcasm]

I think this is what happened. The Brewers "rebuilt" earlier than expected. Part of it was they hit gold on some trades, part of it was finding some folks on the free-agent market who hit big. Some of it was a gem or two from the farm system.

May I add some more? 15. Will Troy Stokes continue to improve as much as he did in 2017? 16. Is Drake Owenby likely to become the next great lefty prospect in the system? 17. Is Cody Beckman a relief ace in the making? 18. Can Ronnie Gideon bounce back from his struggles in 2017? 19. Will Dallas Carroll emerge from Lucas Erceg's shadow as a 3B prospect? 20. Is Gabriel Garcia a catcher, or a utility player with a good bat?

If someone in the NL Central is gonna deplete their farm system or deal young players... I'd rather it be the Cubs. :D

Based on my Top 25 ballot, here's how I see the pitching prospects still with the Crew: Burnes - #2 starter, possibly TOR Woodruff - #3 starter Perrin - #4 starter, possibly #3 Derby - #4/#5 starter Ponce - #4 starter, possibly #3 Peralta - bullpen ace, righty Hader Ortiz - #4 starter as floor Ramirez - lefty reliever - "Toolshed" type player Greip - closer Owenby - starter, possible #2/#3 Beckman - reliever

I've been OK with dealing Aguilar for a while... and Broxton as well. Santana's bat will be very good, though. I'd like to keep him around. Dealing Aguilar makes the most sense, but even then, that's 50 games? Unless you want to move Thames to a more part-time role. Thames, though, led the Crew in walks in about 100 fewer ABs than Santana...

No, the Brewers problem was more than a CF hole. The Brewers have a serious strikeout problem and they needed to fix that. Lewis Brinson was not going to help that and I think that was a big part of what transpired here. It is much much more than OBP. Cain and Yelich will massively decrease the amount of strikeouts as a team. If Brinson wasn't a big K guy I could see them committing to him at one of the spots, but the reality was he is also a high K guy. Stearn made a wise decision to improve on that by revamping the OF. This was not about filling the CF hole. This was about fixing an offense painfully dependent on HRs with high K rates. We didn't have a CF hole. We had two top prospects(arguably Top 100 in baseball) ready to man CF with great defense....except both featured really high K rates. We need a diversified offense and Stearns saw a huge problem in the outfield. He made moves to reduce the amount of strikeouts while overall improving the defense. Win-Win. The big problem was the main CF, Broxton, was a big K machine. We're talking super-bad there. Phillips was better, but very young, and had 34 K in 87 AB but also 9 walks. Corners were OK. Braun in left had shown a return to form in 2016. Santana led the team in OBP while playing right. Shaw was solid at third. Arcia was an OBP problem at short. Villar slumped badly at second, Neil Walker did turn things around there. Thames led the Crew in walks, but didn't play as many games. Pina was OK, but his OBP skills aren't the best. On the bench, Perez has poor OBP, but is able to play seven positions. Sogard brings good OBP skills. Aguilar has power, but his OBP skills aren't there. Vogt doesn't have OBP skills, either. So, the biggest upgrades needed, in my mind were: Broxton, Villar, and Arcia among the starters. Aguilar and Vogt on the bench. I don't see why the Brewers needed both Cain and Yelich. Sign Cain or trade for Yelich. Doing both...

I was thinking the same thing. I'm going to have a lot of work to do on the next list. For me, it was #7, #9, #11, #13: 7. 2B/SS Isan Diaz - 62 BB in 383 ABs. 9. RHP Jordan Yamamoto - While everyone was excited about Corbin Burnes, he emerged as a solid rotation candidate 11. OF Lewis Brinson - Looks like he and Phillips will platoon in CF 13. OF Monte Harrison - Superb season and put it all together... but stuck behind Stokes, Phillips, Brinson, and Santana Last year, I felt three guys in the minors really flashed very good OBP skills: Diaz, Trent Clark (Grisham), and Michael Reed. Reed left as a six-year free agent. Diaz was dealt.

The team just traded arguably their two top OF prospects. I think the onus is on Grisham and Ray to start fulfilling their potential. I imagine both will be at AA this year. Time to put up or shut up. Exactly. Let's see how these guys can do. The OF is fine for a few years - they can be ready when they are ready (if ever). Do not forget Troy Stokes. That guy just had a spot open for him at Colorado Springs. He's had good OBP skills and speed, plus he started developing some pop.

Man. You love guys who get on base. I thought for sure you would be happy. The 2017 Brewers had OBP issues, but Santana wasn't part of that problem. Santana drew 73 walks last season, second on the team (Thames had 75 to lead the team), on the way to leading all Brewers with 300 or more plate appearances. That's in addition to a .505 SLG. Braun was in LF. They had Phillips as the 4th outfielder or part of a platoon with Brinson in center. That may not have been ideal, but it was a workable plan, especially if they dealt Broxton for some low-level prospects. They needed help in CF, so one of Yelich or Cain would have sufficed. If Cain agreed to terms, then the right move was to walk away from the Marlins offer. If the Brewers and Marlins reached agreement on a deal before Cain signed, then walk away from those negotiations.

I don't get this deal still. I can understand working something out with Cain in case the Yelich trade fell through. But trading for Yelich AND signing Cain? We went from a logjam of prospects to a logjam of reasonably proven outfielders.

I'm hoping for better than Salazar as well. If he is acquired I guess I'll be hoping for the moving from AL to NL effect. Even better would be Archer and the AL to NL effect. No interest in Salazar on my end. None.

So what if he doesn't? C'mon man... You completely missed my point. It wasn't a dig on him. I didn't know who it was without looking it up. KJ Harrison Braden Webb Nash Walters Cy Sneed Barrett Astin Zach Quintana Drew Gagnon Those were our last 7 third round picks. They usually don't amount to a hill of beans and don't move the needle whatsoever on the scale of whether you decide to invest $80M on a player. It's not like it used to be where you automatically give up a 1st rounder... Cy Sneed was traded for Jonathan Villar, who had a pretty awesome 2016. Despite him falling off in 2017, I'd call that a fair bit more than a hill of beans.

And Yelich is an All-Star corner outfielder who is capable of playing CF, not an All-Star CF The addition of Yelich & Cain is a tremendous jump in defense, OBP, and contact rate. The question now looms. Can santana go to 1st. Can Braun. Do we push the defense even more and start Braun in right and defensive sub in phillips regularly. Gg LF yelich... very good defensive CF in cain... we can hide that RF a great deal. With phillips... that OF is defensive elite. Need to produce runs to win. Santana does that.