JohnBriggs12

Ok, so Hiura let's assume he continues to hit the last 10 days in Arizona and makes the club. Barring an injury somewhere, finding enough AB's for him to test how it carries over is a real problem. Taylor's been just as hot and he needs ABs somewhere too. Spelling Cutch at DH vs RH makes some sense. Then the question comes how long do you give him? Till Mother's Day? What if he's really raking? Who do you sit? Do you think about dealing Wong and sacrifice defense? I guess you platoon McCutcheon and Tellez.

Ok, they've loaded up with RH bats. Except that last season, other than Hiura, the RH bats performed rather well. Adames, Urias, Taylor, Pina and Garcia all had decent seasons. They seem to have adequately replaced Garcia and Pina with Renfroe and Severino, and they already had Taylor to take some of the AB's that went to Bradley On the other hand except for Wong when he was healthy, a strong first half by Navarez and a third of a year by Tellez, some timely hitting by Peterson, the LH bats greatly underachieved. Bradley, Yelich, Shaw and Vogelbach all underachieved to one extent or another and Navarez had a lousy second half. Unless you count Dahl, they haven't added a significant LH bat, There's a lot of pressure on Tellez and Yelich to provide power from the left side. I would have preferred a corner OF/DH to provide LH power. In a perfect world, that would have been Schwarber but there were other cheaper guys that fit that bill as well.

Ok, they've loaded up with RH bats. Except that last season, other than Hiura, the RH bats performed rather well. Adames, Urias, Taylor, Pina and Garcia all had decent seasons. They seem to have adequately replaced Garcia and Pina with Renfroe and Severino, and they already had Taylor to take some of the AB's that went to Bradley On the other hand except for Wong when he was healthy, a strong first half by Navarez and a third of a year by Tellez, some timely hitting by Peterson, the LH bats greatly underachieved. Bradley, Yelich, Shaw and Vogelbach all underachieved to one extent or another and Navarez had a lousy second half. Unless you count Dahl, they haven't added a significant LH bat, There's a lot of pressure on Tellez and Yelich to provide power from the left side. I would have preferred a corner OF/DH to provide LH power. In a perfect world, that would have been Schwarber but there were other cheaper guys that fit that bill as well.

Who would you rather have? Jace Peterson, a .230 career hitter with a career .367 slugging percentage who is out of options or Beaty who's been a useful player in the best lineup in the NL for the past 3 seasons? Beaty doesn't have big time power, but he's slugged .425 in 556 PA in the big leagues, and has a career OPS+ of 101 compared to Peterson's 80. Yes Peterson had a nice (for him) 2021 season, but he'll be 32 in May and he's reached his ceiling as a big leaguer. I know Counsell loves scrappy career bench guys, but Beaty could be an everyday player on some major league teams.

It's not going to happen but if it did, then they find a taker for Wong and Cain with next to nothing in return other than salary relief

Agreed on the defense, but as far as his power not matching up is that based on his 2018 scouting report? Taylor had more HR in fewer PA last year than Tellez had in more (between Toronto and Milwaukee) and many of them were bombs to CF. The real question is why the Brewers are comfortable with Tellez getting 500-600 PA but apparently not comfortable with Taylor getting that many when Tellez has a career .770 OPS and Taylor has a .791 career OPS. Don't construe this as being down on Tellez. This could be his breakout year and he performed on the big stage in the playoffs. But as long as they are going to roll the dice with Tellez and to a certain extent Urias, there's no reason they shouldn't be ready to roll the dice on Taylor as well. Taylor is probably a good enough athlete to fill in at 1B. If it means getting his bat in the lineup, it's at least worth a look in Arizona

They seem to be content with Jace Peterson as that guy. I'm not in that camp. He did do some good things but he's not a power bat and another lefty power bat seems like a need. Joc Peterson would cost more and it's unlikely now they signed another outfielder but he would have been my choice

They seem to be content with Jace Peterson as that guy. I'm not in that camp. He did do some good things but he's not a power bat and another lefty power bat seems like a need.

Good point. The "problem" for the Brewers is that they have decent players to cover most positions: (2021 OPS+) C: Narvaez, 99 OPS+ 1B: Tellez, 116 OPS+ 2B: Wong, 108 OPS+ SS: Adames, 135 OPS+ 3B: Urias, 111 OPS+ LF: Yelich, 99 OPS+ CF: Cain, 95 OPS+ RF: Renfroe, 112 OPS+ 4th OF: Taylor, 106 OPS+ Util: Peterson, 93 OPS+ That certainly doesn't tell the whole story, but the point is that it's not cheap or easy to find a big offensive upgrade. Without a lot of money to spend, the upgrade would probably have to come from trade and that probably means weakening the pitching staff to some degree. With this being the "buy low FA" thread, I think it's going to be hard to find a "buy low" position player that will be penciled in as a starter over the guys we already have. Maybe a RH 1B, but we're probably not going to replace any of our other starters with a bounce-back candidate. Any "buy low" guys will likely be in the bullpen or competing for a bench/role player spot. Peterson has a career 80 OPS+ and has designated for assignment a number of times in his career. Wong had arguably a career year, but he spent two stints on the DL and slumped noticeably over the last couple months (.238 BA and .308 OBP) and had an awful series against Atlanta. Can he hold up and be productive over 150-155 games? Tellez' sample size as a Brewer is still relatively small. He's had good and bad stretches overall. Taylor showed a lot of flashes but needs to show he can avoid slumps and be a productive hitter with 450-500 AB's. Cain is probably best used as a guy who makes 4 starts a week. Is Adames capable of repeating his 2021 season? The roster looks mostly complete but it's a long season and the money they saved by dealing away Bradley should be invested in another bat that could provide solid production when the inevitable injuries and players not performing to expectations occurs. I have no illusions that they can afford a guy that will step in day one and be a middle of the order hitter. But they should be able to find a guy who'll get enough AB's to show if he has value in the range of $5-10 million range.

Yeah, I have a feeling Taylor is going to get as many starts in the OF as anyone. If they don't add another bat to bolster the DH spot, both Cain and Yelich will likely do a lot of DH'ing to preserve their bodies and keep their bats in the lineup.

Why not Rizzo assuming the DH is a done deal? He's not going to get anything near what Schwarber is asking. He might have to settle for something in the range of 3/42. Rotate him between 1B and DH with Tellez. Not having to play every day in the field might negate some of his back issues, though he did manage to play in 141 games last year. Overall numbers took a dip, but he's still a tough out with the game on the line, and even though it seems like he's been around forever, he's still just 32. I think he'd add to the clubhouse and be a sounding board for Yelich.

Not particularly cheap but Joe Kelly would look awfully good as the third lockdown late inning reliever.

I think 75-80% of the country will be rooting for the Bengals. Has nothing to do with the teams per se, but the which fanbase most people identify with. Bengals fans, are long suffering and loyal. Easy to root for them.

Bruce Levine on The Score in Chicago was quite encouraging yesterday. The big progress started this week when the players dropped their demand for FA after 5 years. He said the key is getting more money for younger players, and that includes a pool of money to be used as bonuses for young players who perform at a high level according to WAR. He used Corbin Burnes as an example. Burnes earned just over $600K last year as a pre-arby player. Under what is being discussed, he would have earned something like $2.5 million with the extra coming from bonus pool. Levine, who is pretty well connected, is predicting a mid February agreement, followed by 10 days to 2 weeks for teams to sign and fill rosters, then a slightly shortened spring training. His basic reasoning is sound that if the players manage to get more money to younger players in whatever form it takes, they will view it as a success, and if owners preserve the timeline to FA and arbitration, they too will view it as success. The other key is carving out a system that discourages midseason tanking. To that end a draft lottery seems inevitable.

I think trading Houser serves two purposes. It should bring a decent bat, and it frees up a rotation spot for Ashby rather than have him in the bullpen or AAA. Trading Houser now is selling high. Remember he'll be 29 soon, is coming off his best year and has never had a season with more than 142 innings. McNeil was extremely productive in his first thousand major league AB's. Yeah he fell off last year but I'd certainly take a chance of him returning to his form. Besides Wong was in the injured list twice last year, bombed out in the postseason, and he might be a guy you look to deal at the deadline if you decide you won't pick up his option.

As a whole, you'd probably have to say both Box and Strickland had seasons out of the Pen that exceeded expectations. For the most part, Boxberger was a glue guy who held the Pen together during various stretches - extremely reliable for long stretches in various high-leverage roles. Strickland was a guy I expected nothing from, honestly, and he turned into an adequate inning eater in Middle reli While it's true that Boxberger and Strickland exceeded expectations, both have had success prior to last year so it wasn't that big of a surprise. The big question is whether Cousins can come close to repeating the numbers he put up as a 26 year old rookie last year. Whether it's one of those guys or another veteran, I think adding a veteran reliever with a track record is a must.

Back in 1980, both sides agreed to punt as a strike loomed, putting off the issue for another year by extending the contract in effect for one year. It turned out all that did was harden their positions and the 1981 season was disrupted in the middle of summer with a 2 and a half month strike. I just hope they can get some kind of agreement before any of the season is lost. There's certainly middle ground on the substantive issues. Baseball only has so much goodwill left.

I know the modern view is to say there's no such thing as hitting in the clutch that RBI are all a function of how many guys get on base in front of you. Yeah but with a guy like Seager, my guess is it's not that he's a better hitter in high leverage situations, but he gets better results because he's prone to giving away AB's when the game is not on the line and when it's a big AB, he doesn't give it away.

Unlike most if not all of you, I actually saw Kaat pitch. So he wasn't Sandy Koufax, but not many guys in those days were, but he managed to stay healthy and be a quality starter with a very heavy workload into his late 30's. He made 41 starts as a 36 year old with the White Sox and logged over 300 innings. The most underrated ability of professional athletes is durability and Kaat was a marvel. I'll also point out that he was the best defensive pitcher I've ever seen and it's not close and he was a career .185 hitter with 16 HR and 106 RBI. I'll also point out that if you went to one of the 180 games he went the distance, chances are the game lasted under 2 hours and 15 minutes. In fact on July 7,1975 in a 2-1 loss to the Tigers, the time of game was 1 hour 38 minutes. He was Brent Suter before there was a Brent Suter.

Sorta the phrase stopgap? We have those 1st rd OF picks that could(small pct) progress on to the team come Sept 1st. But may need in to 2023 before inserting themselves in the lineup. Lets just remember a part of this trade is due to Garcia being able to opt out. Fully believe Bradley and Garcia were targeted to be the stopgaps. Also Bradley's move came post 2020 knowledge of a Cain opt-out, that I think was protection to the 2021 Cain. We are almost done with 2/3rds of the expensive OFs when these guys in the minors make it to the team. Taylor has a backup at CF covered but doesn't have the middle of order thump Renfroe replaces what Garcia fortunately brought in 2021. The fact that Stearns may be able to remove the cost of Bradley's buyout with a non-tender potential to Renfroe in 2023 if all comes together? Cain will be gone. That could grant an ability to extend the best deal among Woodruff, Burnes, Adames, Urias or to a FA signing is the genius on the move. The ability to allocate the money in to a more deserving player. Agree with most of what you said, but I see Taylor as the primary CF starter, not the backup. Cain's entering the final year of his deal and turns 36 in April. Ideally he's a part time player who is a big contributor but not an every day player. We need to see what Taylor can do with 500 PA. His ceiling right now is higher than a 36 year old Cain.

Both sides will get anxious around Feb 15 but it will take 3 more weeks to iron out a deal. The real cutoff date for a full season is 3 weeks prior to start of regular season. I'm confident they are all working on that timeline.

Taylor actually moved up fairly quickly. He had a solid year as a 20 year old at High A, and followed that up at age 21 at AA by hitting a respectable .260. He regressed the following year and then injuries took a toll, but by the end of 2018 he broke out at Colorado Springs, adding power to his game. He was still just 24. He needed time to add strength and develop power, but he was never a big swing and miss guy. Whitley fanned 122 times in 358 AB's at low A when he was 20 and 163 times at high A two years later, and has never hit more than 13 HR in a season. I'm having a hard time finding an upside here. Yeah his HR rate took a big jump in 200 AA AB's last year, but he didn't much at all after being promoted to AAA.

Look at what the Cubs got out of Patrick Wisdom and Frank Schwindel last year. White has better career AAA OPS (.929) than either of those two.

The 5th outfield spot now presumably belongs to Peterson, but since he doubles as infield insurance, and is not particularly great defensively in the outfield nor doesn't have much power, having a guy like Dahl on the 40 man with an option could make him a guy who ends up spending a large chunk of the season on the active roster even if he doesn't make the opening day roster. Peterson certainly had some nice stretches but still only slugged .367 (a career high). That's hardly corner outfield type production.

The article correctly points out that Kyle Seager is just sitting out there in FA. I would focus on Seager. I've had a suspicion Brewers would explore the Kolton Wong trade market, move Urias to 2B and sign a power hitting LH bat to play 3B. If he's healthy, Moose could fill that role too