JimH5

I can't understand why any player would sign for less than their slot value. It will be such a long time before they have any negotiating leverage.

We saw that they stuck to their number, regardless of how small the difference between theirs and Burnes's. And we saw that they were willing to take whatever hard feelings came as a result. There was no deference made to accommodating a homegrown star. I suspect the same will be true for Adames, Woodruff, and everyone else. Their model is to have one face of the franchise guy and fill in the rest. I think the market for Woody and Adames will exceed the Brewers' willingness to spend. Though maybe not. We're all just speculating..

We just saw how they treated Burnes in arbitration. I'm doubtful they will handle Adames or Woodruff any diffently. They don't know if Bally Sports is going to make payments on local broadcast rights. Tickets are not being sold in the pre-pandemic volume. They chose not to do a Fanfest winter event. Attanasio just bought into a soccer team. They're already on the hook for sunk costs in the Yelich deal. Don't get your hopes up (or your ire up) on extending those guys. Signs are pointing the other way.

I don't think any one stat tells a complete picture of a player's contribution to the game, or of his Hall of Fame worthiness. Brock was a unique talent, worthy of his place in Cooperstown. But I don't think if he compiled the same statistics today he would be valued as he was in the 1960s and 1970s. He didn't walk. He was a below average defender. He was caught stealing too often. He produced little power. But he was a product of his times, compares very favorably to his peers, and was a compiler. I think he also gets favorable treatment from being associated with a historic franchise most of his career, and his end of the Brock for Broglio trade is a fun bit of legend. As for WAR, I think it works fine for bringing to attention the guys who are overlooked by traditional stats. 19th century pitchers putting up 15+ WAR seasons because they threw so many innings. . .guys like Gene Tenace and Eddie Yost who were OBP machines, superior defenders. . .WAR casts a brighter light on them than they might have otherwise gotten. Where WAR fails is with any postseason contributions players made. Those are completely ignored. WAR also treats every plate appearance as equal to every other plate appearance, and we know that baseball isn't played that way. That said, I agree with Sveum that it's a good starting point for discussion. I just wouldn't use it (especially fractions or WAR) as the only way to award MVP, Cy Young and HOF votes.

I am a huge fan of the pitch clock. The slow pace of play has bugged me for years. Look at the time of games for the 1982 Brewers. Almost all of the games were played in 2:20-2:45. Reaching 3 hours was rare, and usually meant extra innings. 1982 Milwaukee Brewers Schedule | Baseball-Reference.com

Lately I've been seeing online pics of restaurant gourmet burgers overloaded with ridiculous amounts of toppings. They're not unlike the behemoth bloody marys made with a platter of add-ons in and around the drink. The burgers are totally unmanageable, such that one would need to use a knife and fork to eat them. If you're ordering these stupid burger monstrosities, please stop. It's simply way too much food and if people stop ordering them, maybe restaurants will stop offering them.

I think I'm putting Briggs ahead of Vaughn for the #4 spot. He produced a 131 OPS+ for the Brewers while Vaughn's was 111. Vaughn took a long time to finally produce, and didn't really get going until after he was traded away. I don't have any memories of Briggs' defense--both have stat lines that are pretty dismal--though I do recall Vaughn struggling to even throw the ball overhand (??). Did he have a chronic shoulder problem during his time with the Brewers? Left field really demands a player with a productive bat, and Briggs was a consistent producer while Vaughn had several seasons of lesser play.

I think Clancy has this one totally right. Molitor Cirillo Money A Ramirez Harper I generally like to stand up for the 1970s Brewers, and Tommy Harper was a unique hitter, responsible for one of the top 5 offensive seasons in team history. But he wasn't here long enough to merit a higher spot, and his defense was certainly the worst of this group of players. And I can go back and forth on whether Cirillo or Don Money gets the 2/3 spots. Cirillo's 4 year stretch from 1996-99 was better than Money's peak, so I lean towards Jeff Cirillo at #2.

Indeed. It was a BIG deal for the lowly Brewers to land a star player like Bando. I was impressed that he lived out the rest of his post-Brewers days in the area. That's meaningful. He was involved in a lot of charity work, and by all accounts, was an upstanding guy.

I would put Cooper comfortably at the top of the list. Then I put George Scott 2nd. Twice lead the league in TB, 5 Gold Gloves and his 1973 season was among the best years for a position player in franchise history. Prince is a close 3rd. Then Sexson... And Jaha in the 5th spot.

Willie Mays is in the discussion for the greatest player of all time. He had a long career as a perennial MVP candidate. He was charismatic off the field. He seemed to have no weaknesses. He's my guy.

Ellie Rodriguez was an All Star & put up 8 WAR in his 3 seasons as a catcher on the 1971-73 teams. He was a high OBP guy with a rocket arm who threw out 50 percent of base stealers. I would choose my top 5 as: Lucroy Porter Surhoff Nilsson Rodriguez

No way. And if they did sign him, I'd stop buying tickets. It's bigger than baseball.

Good for Correa on getting paid. I don't think it's an excessive contract if you just think about it as $350M for the rest of his career. Maybe they made it 13 years to get the AAV down, thinking they could cut him after 10 or 11 years. In the end, he's still getting $350M.

I'm fine with the workaround of not eating their food, but part of the ballpark experience, whether I'm a 20+ games a year fan or just a couple times is sampling the food onsite. I've always enjoyed eating at whatever ballpark I've visited, though recently, the Brewers food experience has felt more like being price-gouged at an airport restaurant than what used to be a joyful experience.