Brewcrewin07

The amount of excitement trades like this bring a lot of posters on Brewerfan.net, tells you all you need to know, really. Trades like this aren't needle movers in the least. No wonder Stearns is so desired in baseball circles, when he's making franchise changing moves like this. Someone wake me when he acquires some actual talent via trade or signs a Castellanos or something.

Tom @Haudricourt · 16m Asked about the speculation that the New York Mets are willing to wait a year to hire him to run their baseball ops, #Brewers president David Stearns said, "I'm gonna steer clear of that. I think everyone, myself included, prefers keeping the attention on the players."

From the Athletic tonight: New York has bigger plans for its head of baseball operations. Sources say the Mets’ primary target remains Milwaukee president of baseball operations David Stearns, even if they have to wait another season to land him. The Mets have pursued Stearns each of the last two winters to be their president of baseball operations, only to be denied permission to interview the 36-year-old by Brewers owner Mark Attanasio. But New York is operating under the belief that Stearns’ contract runs out after the 2022 season, and sources indicate that Stearns has serious interest in the position. Stearns is from Manhattan and grew up a Mets fan. (He once wrote for his college newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, that attending the Mets-Braves game on September 21, 2001 at Shea Stadium left him “convinced of the power of sports.”) Stearns served as an intern with the Mets in 2008, and he also worked in the commissioner’s office, with Cleveland and with Houston before landing the Brewers’ GM gig in 2015. He was promoted to president of baseball operations in Milwaukee ahead of the 2019 season, when he signed his most recent contract.

You guys worry way too much about defense. For that matter, so do the Brewers. You know how you overcome slightly bad defense?? A. Outslug the other team. That covers it up real quick.

Only if they choose to be handcuffed by it Ah yes, your belief that Milw works with NY and LADodger money to sign any and all they please to sign. I mean I suppose they can sign Castellanos to a 4 year deal but then when Arb awards all the Brewers biggest 3 we can just trade Woodruff or Burnes and move forward from great pitching for aging, defensively bad FAs. You know because large inappropriate contracts are easy to get away from. We'll just toss in 20Mil one year if/when Castellanos looks toast because we have that history doing such like NY and LADodgers. Just so you know, the Spotrac estimated payroll amount for 2022, is INCLUDING Arbitration figures. Assuming they are accurate(or close), total estimated payroll for 2022, is expected to be Slighty over 100 million. So if they can't add a substantial contract to that, then trade guys and rebuild. Period. Again, if you assume those numbers to be accurate, and you signed Castellanos to say 22 mill/yr aav, that still only puts payroll at 123 million for next year, and goes down the year after when Cain's 17 million comes off the books, and not only that, they can buy out JBJ's contract for 8 million as well, freeing up even more $$. So just like that, you already have two years of Castellanos's contract covered without adding to the payroll significantly beyond next year. So tell me again why they couldn't do that??

This is so easy it's not even funny...for a year the Brewers can boost the payroll..give Castellanos 3yrs 60 mill(I go 66 mill if I need to to get it done). Next year Cain comes off the books...that's 17 mill of that amount right there. So essentially they raise payroll by 5 million. Sportrac has them at 105 million for next year, if they can't raise it another 20-22 million for ONE year(essentially) then they might as well just start trading guys and punt. Except the Brewers will be hurting from Arbitration numbers. I don't know what projection was but obviously many Brewers in Arb will be getting the max on the projection or even higher when winning their case. I expect Castellanos to be signed well before Milw can make a play for him. Milw will be handcuffed awaiting the final tally on the Arb costs. Didn't Hader have a 6mil ask before losing? BRef has Burnes at approximately 4Mil. I would think that is light. Say he asks for 6.5Mil. They take it to the panel and Burnes wins? That is a whole different payroll moving forward for him. Same applies to Woodruff and Adames. If they don't come to an agreement that's typically a 2+Mil spread. Thats adding not just for 2022 but then 2-5Mil on 2023. 4-10Mil in in 2024. Brewers have legit 3 players that ark may occur. And whats the new CBA going to bring? Only if they choose to be handcuffed by it

So you are going to severely downgrade the team's starting pitching talent for an offensive improvement. That seems like it would be cutting off the head despite the face. Hardly "easy peasey". Unless you think that Ashby and/or Lauer can step in and replicate Freddy's production. They have Ashby/Lauer...I didn't think Freddy was THAT great anyway. Particularly after he came back from his injury. I mean hell yeah, I'll take Olson, if they will take emptying the farm, I'd rather do that if I don't have to touch the MLB team. My whole point is, fixing this lineup should NOT be that hard, I just showed you two ways it can be done. there are others that don't involve trading anyone. But people here are already having wincing over the idea that I wanted to increase the payroll by 20 mill for a season or two I can't imagine the horror if I were to suggest raising it even more(and sign another guy).

That's fine, if he wants 4 years, you give him four years. And, thank you to all who are finally starting to realize that payroll NEEDS to be raised for a season or two while the pitching is still controllable. As turborickey said "if not now, then when"?? I can fix this team with two moves..Signing Castellanos(as I said) and then trading Freddy and Rowdy(gotta give to get) to the A's for Matt Olson. Done and done. Now look at the lineup and how much better it is, just by adding two guys. All you gave up was some $$ and a player at a position where you have some depth. Easy peasey

This is so easy it's not even funny...for a year the Brewers can boost the payroll..give Castellanos 3yrs 60 mill(I go 66 mill if I need to to get it done). Next year Cain comes off the books...that's 17 mill of that amount right there. So essentially they raise payroll by 5 million. Sportrac has them at 105 million for next year, if they can't raise it another 20-22 million for ONE year(essentially) then they might as well just start trading guys and punt.

There is a specific person who posts on here who would of called that dumpster diving as they are not a big named player. Two of the 4 OF's that the Braves acquired the Brewers tried acquiring during the off season also. Wrong, that's not at all dumpster diving, in my book. You know what it is?? It's being aggressive. Look what happened because the Braves decided to get aggressive. They are still playing. John Curtiss and Daniel Norris, is NOT being aggressive. They were nothing moves, other than to add some depth to the bullpen. Very Meh moves. How'd they work out??

Sure, it's not that easy, everyone knows that. But in any walk of life, whether it's business, sports, whatever it is, isn't the idea to maximize your opportunity when it presents itself and put yourself in the BEST possible position to be the best in the end?? You invest in the opportunity to be great, not the guarantee you will be(there is no guarantee). It can only go one of two ways...it will either work, or it won't. It's that simple. But I can tell you this, when you DON'T do everything that you possibly can to even put yourself in that position, the opportunity to be the best, the odds that you'll become the best in the end are...minimal at best. How is what you are describing different from the way the Brewers currently operate? This is literally their plan. They are the most opportunistic team in MLB. They have gone against the mold more often than not with generally successful results. Your beef starts and ends with the amount of money that Mark Attanasio is willing to spend. That's a completely separate topic from what's being done from Stearns/Arnold and down. No, I disagree, I don't think they do everything they possibly can to put themselves in the best position to win a title. Is some of it about spending more, yes...sure, of course it is. But that's not the only thing it's about. For example(and this is just one example), they still have all their top prospects. DS seems extremely hesitant to trade any of them, let alone emptying the farm, I'm not necessarily saying he should empty the farm, but let's be honest, trading top prospects(for major league pieces) theoretically puts you in a better position for the current year that you do it in. I think that's indisputable. Again, it's not guaranteed to work, but I think it does at least on the surface "maximize" or takes a step towards minimizing the need for "everything to go right", in order to win a WS.

Sure, it's not that easy, everyone knows that. But in any walk of life, whether it's business, sports, whatever it is, isn't the idea to maximize your opportunity when it presents itself and put yourself in the BEST possible position to be the best in the end?? You invest in the opportunity to be great, not the guarantee you will be(there is no guarantee). It can only go one of two ways...it will either work, or it won't. It's that simple. But I can tell you this, when you DON'T do everything that you possibly can to even put yourself in that position, the opportunity to be the best, the odds that you'll become the best in the end are...minimal at best. How is what you are describing different from the way the Brewers currently operate? This is literally their plan. They are the most opportunistic team in MLB. They have gone against the mold more often than not with generally successful results. Your beef starts and ends with the amount of money that Mark Attanasio is willing to spend. That's a completely separate topic from what's being done from Stearns/Arnold and down. I'm sure I will get push back on this, But I just have a feeling Mark A would be willing to spend more, but DS, always thinking he's the smartest man in the room, is being more frugal then necessary. That would totally fit his personality. Of course I have no proof of this, other than a strong hunch

Sure, it's not that easy, everyone knows that. But in any walk of life, whether it's business, sports, whatever it is, isn't the idea to maximize your opportunity when it presents itself and put yourself in the BEST possible position to be the best in the end?? You invest in the opportunity to be great, not the guarantee you will be(there is no guarantee). It can only go one of two ways...it will either work, or it won't. It's that simple. But I can tell you this, when you DON'T do everything that you possibly can to even put yourself in that position, the opportunity to be the best, the odds that you'll become the best in the end are...minimal at best.

By having their season end in the NLDS the Brewers gained more than 22 other teams (12 of which had higher opening payrolls for whatever that is or isn't worth), gained about the same as 3 other teams & gained less than 4 teams. There's certainly a lot more room for downward mobility that there is for upward mobility. So this is reason to celebrate?? That the Brewers gained more than 22 other teams, 12 of which had a higher payroll?? THAT'S what we celebrate around here?? I always love how people use the "compared to this team or that team" no matter the sport. Who gives a crap what other teams did or didn't do?? It has ZERO relevance on what the team you root for did. I personally think it's used by sports fans as a crutch when their team doesn't reach the ultimate goal as a way of saying "ah hell, it could have been much worse, look what team A did". Instead the proper way to look at it SHOULD be...the brewers are at home with those other 22 teams right now, and that's the bottom line. No different if the Packers lose the NFC championship game...so what, they made it to the NFC championship game, and you know what, they were at home watching the Super Bowl along with 29 other teams who's season just happened to end sooner than theirs did, but they all ended up in the same place in the end, didn't they??

His "aggressiveness" left them flailing in limbo, signing over-the-hill "name" players for a few years while sitting around .500 and out of the playoffs until the final collapse, which left Attanasio sitting in an interview with Bill & Brian with a dumbfounded look on his face saying "I don't know what happened, but something has to change." Along came Stearns and after a very short "rebuild/retooling," we've been back in the playoffs for four straight years. Melvin took over a system with a great judge of talent in Jack Z., and some really good prospects in the system. He added some talent and got them a couple of playoff appearances, but he drained the farm in some "go for it" moves that I think cost them more playoff appearances than they made during his tenure. It could be argued that with the prospect talent he inherited and the amount of excess payroll room he had to play with, they should have gotten more playoff berths than they did. Heck, the Royals went to two World Series, winning one of them, with much of the roster being built from Melvin's "aggressive" Greinke trade. He left the team in a mess, and I strongly believe that we would have had a long run of futility if he had stayed on as GM. To his credit, I do think that Attanasio was a different (more hands-on) owner during Melvin's tenure, and in listening to some of Melvin's interviews in his later years, I think there was a disagreement in the direction the organization should take. It's hard to say what, if anything, Melvin would have done differently if he had "today's Attanasio." I am glad that Attanasio had his epiphany, and I think Stearns and his team have done a great job as is evidenced by the team's performance during his time here. It probably sounds like I hate Melvin. I don't. After decades of futility, it was wonderful to see the team become relevant again, and Melvin had a lot to do with that. However, he didn't have as much success in his 13 years at the helm as Stearns has had in half that amount of time. So, as I suspected by most posts on Brewerfan.net, the consensus are happy with just making the playoffs. Now, we'll get people like RonRobinson and others coming along to shoot that down immediately, saying "we all want to win the WS". The problem with that is, it doesn't come through that way in the downright giddyness of most fans here when the Brewers simply make the playoffs. Has making the playoffs been fun, sure...but when their season ends before the NLCS, what was really gained. Is that something to really be excited for?? "Ah well, they gave it the old college try, let's go get em again next year". As the great Ron Wolf once said "we were nothing more than a fart in the wind". I mean, sure, different sport, different system, but same basic principal applies..does anyone need to look any further than to Green Bay to see what eventually happens when you have a "passive" GM?? You get star players that are upset, and with good reason. You have three young stud pitchers under control...the window keeps shrinking every year that goes by...I mean, if not now(as far as being really bold and aggressive), then when?? I suspect that if Melvin were still GM, he would have been far more aggressive at the trade deadline as far as getting big bats than Stearns has been. He wouldn't have been afraid to deal Turang, or Small or Mitchell to go get someone(s), he thought might put them over the top. Sure, it may not have worked, but that's the chance you take for a shot at greatness. You think about the prospects Melvin traded to get some of the bigger name guys he did, did any of them really go on to be anything special?? A couple...maybe. I've said it before on this board but "scared money don't make money". There's going to be risks involved without a doubt, but that's the price you sometimes pay for a shot at immortality and to reach the top of the mountain. But I know this...the way Stearns has built his offenses the last couple years is never going to work, I knew that starting last year and told anyone that would listen it wouldn't. It hasn't. So you can either keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results and keep using "hope" as your main strategy, or...you can roll the dice, let it rip and take your chances. I know how I'd rather live.