JohnBriggs12

The SEC is the only Power 5 school that plays just 8 conference games. They should be required to play 9. Beyond the top 3 the league was horrible. LSU, MSU and South Carolina were average, but the rest of the league was pathetic as evidence by Missouri being creamed by Purdue early in the year. It's all about getting in the playoffs. The Big Ten should have had one if not two teams in this year. The league was that much better. The committee is stacked with southerners too.

First, let's forget about Dave Aranda, or Jim Leonhard. Neither is ready to become an NFL defensive coordinator. Leonhard will eventually be a fine one if he chooses to but to hire him off one season at Wisconsin which had a talented veteran group on defense would make a nice story, but not necessarily a wise move. The guy to hire is Vic Fangio. The Bears finished 5-11 but they had close to a top 10 defense with an offense that couldn't sustain drives. Fangio was defensive coordinator when Harbaugh was coaching the 49ers and is a 3-4 coordinator.

Had Ohio State played Clemson and Wisconsin or Penn State played Oklahoma, the title game would have 2 Big Ten teams. Baker Mayfield was sick and played like it. Taylor would have rushed for 250 yards against Oklahoma and Hornibrook is every bit as good as the Georgia QB. Ohio State's defensive front is every bit as good as Alabama's and the OSU LB have improved dramatically since the Iowa fiasco and the Oklahoma game. OSU's QB is head and shoulders above Alabama's or Clemson's.

I wouldn't slough it off that easily. Comparing it to Harper? Be real. Stearns has stated publicly that they had offers on the table for guys they had interest in. I'm pretty certain that includes Cobb. He's not going to go fishing for Harper. Before the winter meetings, Cobb to the Cubs was reported as a mere formality. But the Cubs obviously balked as his asking price and now they seem to be focusing on Darvish. No other teams out there stepped up to meet his price either. Some teams want to avoid the luxury tax and others are either in early stages of rebuilds or trying to shed salary. That puts Brewers who have the salary room and the need in prime position if the price is right.

Jimmy Nelson was on MLB Network's Hot Stove this morning and is very, very optimistic about his rehab, saying "The rehab is going just about as well as it possibly could", and added "I'm just really anxious to start a throwing program and get to spring training". Doesn't sound like a guy who's written off 2018. Getting Nelson back for the 2nd half certainly can't be ruled out at this point, and who knows maybe even sooner. Time will tell, and the Brewers are correct in making moves assuming it will be later rather than sooner, but if he's healthy and throwing well, what a boost that would be.

Those three plus another arm like a Perrin or a lower level guy with serious upside. Woodruff absolutely makes sense. I got beat up pretty good for suggesting that's why they signed both Chacin and Gallardo to cover the spot left if they did include him in a deal. But it's realistic. Rays have a lot of innings to cover if they deal Archer. A rotation of Archer, Anderson, Davies, Chacin, and Gallardo/Suter/Guerra could be a very competitive one. Now if you deal for Archer and sign either Cobb or Lynn, now you're talking about a team serious about a run. In that case, they need to shore up the offense by getting Walker back in the fold if not more.

True, but all indications are that the current Brewers regime doesn't value him very highly. Otherwise he would have been promoted in September after a solid AAA season. At 28, all the his first round pick luster is gone and his 2015 run of success under the prior regime is getting smaller in the rear view mirror. Fiers rebounded the season following his sophomore slump. Adams was a reliever his entire career in minors and majors, and they tend to have career ups and downs.

Not sure if that applies to a team in a rebuild like the Rays. If Rays trade Archer, they are clearly in a total rebuild. Schwarber is Arby eligible next year. Ian Happ would make more sense, but in any deal involving Archer, they'll want a pitching prospect who's at least ranked in top 60 if not the top 40, and the Cubs simply have none. Montgomery and Happ won't get it done.

I put Hiura ahead of Isan Diaz as a prospect. Yeah Diaz can play SS, but not very well, and besides Arcia has the SS job locked down for a while. Plus after hitting .222 last year, Diaz' bat is in question too. Duffy in the NL could be a #2 and he's controlled though 2021. What's not to like? Merrifield is a cheap productive place holder until Hiura takes over, likely in 2020. There's definitely some risk in giving up Burnes and Harrison to be sure, but it's not like their system is devoid of pitching and outfield prospects or that they won't have guys they could deal themselves to bolster the system. The key would be Herrera. If he bounces back to a level closer to 2016, he can fill the 8th inning role and that could hasten Hader's move to rotation. On balance I like this deal for not just 2018, but certainly 2019.

Did you miss it? Vogt's already signed at $3 million for 2018. Barring a trade that includes either Pina or Vogt, they are set as the catching duo. Yes Vogt doesn't throw well, but other than Billy Hamilton and Starling Marte, and those guys can steal on anybody, there's not many big base stealing threats out there in the division. I don't believe Vogt's arm was 100% last year either. Career-wise he was only just a bit below average. Offensively, it's a strong duo and Vogt's a great clubhouse guy.

Did you forget LeMahiu? Arenado will get Harper/Stanton kind of money. I don't think the Rockies can afford that level no matter how little they are paying their starters. You also failed to mention Freeland among their pitchers.

Guerra's line in a very small sample as a reliever could be behind the Brewer strategy this offseason: 6 1/3 innings with 12 K's and a 6 to 1 K to BB ratio. If you discount that he allowed 2 HR out of the pen, both in games they were well ahead and he was simply pounding the middle of the zone, he might turn out to be a very viable late inning guy. He can miss bats and his fastball in relief was up a couple ticks.

I'm not a big believer in Davis and agree this contract is absurd. His FIP last year was more than a run higher than his ERA. I wish the Cubs would have kept him. He was on fumes at the end of 2017 and generally can't be used more than 2 days in a row. A couple of his saves at the end of the season were finished with catches up against the wall and we saw Arcia and Shaw take him deep in back to back innings. Rockies are paying the guy that posted a 0.94 ERA in 2015. He's not that guy anymore. He's already 32. If they don't win, good luck moving that contract.

They've all set unbelievably high prices that no team is willing to bite on. Cobb and Lynn are mid tier FA. Neither should sniff anything over $15 million per year. But they're out there thinking some team will come through with $18-20 million per year. Arrieta and Darvish too are unrealistic in their demands. Both want 5 or 6 year deals at around $25 million per. That isn't going to happen. They will both be lucky to crack $88 million over four years. Forget 5 or 6 years. That's not happening. Brewers are waiting. I'm not sure Stearns has the fortitude to pay the asking price in a trade for the likes of Archer. But if one of those 4 drops his price to a level that he's comfortable with, it wouldn't shock me in the least if he pulls the trigger. Payroll is still under $70 million for next year. Even if it goes up to close to $80 million by signing Walker, figure he still has $15-18 million per year to spend. I think that's part of the reason he didn't splurge on the bullpen. He wanted to save it for a starter.

When Guerra was fully healthy in 2016, he averaged over 6 IP per start. He's the rotation wild card just as he was then. Now everyone has Woodruff in the rotation and there's no doubt he'll start the year there, but he's got an option, so if 6-8 starts in he's struggling, he could find himself back in Colorado Springs in a worst case scenario. There's always the potential for injury or having whoever wins the 5th spot struggle too. Having Suter and Guerra start the year in the pen, and assuming they get fully stretched out in Arizona would allow Counsell to insert either one of them in that spot if need be early on. As the season goes on, and the benefit of the spring stretch-out wanes, if a rotation spot opens up, I think then we could see a piggy-back arrangement at least for a few starts involving those two.

I bought Schneider back in September when it was at $23 and it's up 23%. Bought me some Macy's on Black Friday, and that's up over 25% in just over a month. Who needs to go into the giant ponzi scheme of Bitcoin? Bitcoin has very little intrinsic value. If I wanted an investment with a huge upside, I'd go the silver route. Silver's sort of "out of fashion" now but it's cheap and has intrinsic value with very little downside.

I increasingly have the feeling that Brewers will jump in late and grab Alex Cobb. It was supposed to be a mere formality that Cobb would end up with the Cubs, but he apparently has overpriced himself considerably. Eventually he's going to have to settle and the big boys will already have filled their needs. I'm not sure Stearns can pull the trigger on a big time trade, and Cobb will be out there for the taking. He's not going to get anywhere near $20 million per year, but I could see 4 years and $60 million. That's still an overpay for essentially a #3, but his value to the Brewers if they see themselves one arm short will be too much to resist.

Both Gallardo and Chacin are threats with the bat too: Career: Chacin: .193/.214/.229 1 HR 20 RBI Yo: .202/.229/.336 12 HR 42 RBI

If I could sign one available FA it would be Eric Hosmer. Yes the Brewers got decent production at 1B last year. But if you put the Brewers lineup next to the Cubs lineup, the spot on the field where the Cubs have the biggest edge is still 1B. Hosmer isn't quite in Rizzo's class but he's a fine all around hitter that won't strike out all that much which is one of the Brewers biggest issues. What do you do then with Thames? I'd have him split time in LF with Braun. With both players fresh, you should get 40 HR or more from your LF. Six years 120 million (what the Pads are reported ready to offer) for Hosmer is steep, but the Brewers have plenty of payroll room and by the time Hosmer's on the back half of that deal, Braun will be off the books.

Vic Fangio, who'll be out of a job after Fox gets fired in Chicago makes the most sense in Green Bay. He's a 3-4 coach and the Bears have improved under him defensively. He's considered an excellent defensive coordinator.

I dunno, this might be the blunder of blunders that costs everyone their jobs. Rodgers did not suffer a new injury against Carolina and the rules stipulate that a player must suffer a new injury to be put back on IR. If it was a just a bruises in general, that explanation doesn't suffice. Would have to be a specific bruise that affected his ability to perform. No other team is going to complain about a back end of the roster type but with a star player? Packers clearly weren't thinking and it might cost them their franchise player.

I know this is a small sample (just 296 career PAs), but Miller Park has been Walker's best hitting venue, at least when you strip out ones where he has only a tiny amount of PAs. OPS+ of 128, with a line of .289/.361/.534/.895. There might be something to be said for his comfort level of hitting there. A Walker/Perez platoon should give you decent offense from 2B. I guess the question is whether it's worth spending 2/$20M-ish to re-sign Walker, & not just see if Villar can rediscover his stroke. My disclaimer is that I've liked Walker for a long time; always liked his PAs as a Pirate. I might not be unbiased here. You build a contender by eliminating as many of the "ifs" as possible and reducing the number of ifs that have to turn out positive to win. It won't cost them an arm and a leg to eliminate the one at 2B who's major league track record is one above average season out of 5 and shaky defense throughout. 2B isn't the only if position. CF is another. If Phillips or some combination of Phillips/Brinson or Broxton emerge to their potential that's a great thing. There are still ifs in the rotation and bullpen. No doubt that Walker is still hoping to land a 3 year deal, but the longer he goes unsigned the less likely that is and then the Brewers become favorites to land his services. My order preference is Phillips (.351 OBP in his first major league stint and .377 at AAA) leading off and Walker hitting 2nd. I'd be okay with that in reverse too, because having a man on first opens up the right side of the infield. I prefer Phillips because middle infield has to respect his ability to steal and Walker might be more effective executing the hit and run.

Right now though they have one #2, two #3's, guy who's unproven who could be either a 3, 4 or 5, a guy who in 2016 looked like a #2 but is in his 30's, a former #2 who's barely been passable as a #5 for two years, and a unique lefty who twice through the lineup passes as a #3. The big question is do they make the move and insert the one guy with ace potential into the rotation or deal some of their future for another #2 or #3?

That's a ton. Might be a bit too much from Brewer perspective. Substitute Nottingham for Dubon and include Villar and Guerra.

A team needing a 2B would still need a 2B after acquiring Villar.