danzig6767

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I was so proud of Harper when he basically called out Papelbon after he did that pathetic throwing at Machado who did nothing which was deserving of being thrown at, much less a 90mph pitch high near the head. I just wish way more players showed the same courage as Harper did in calling out this ridiculous practice in baseball of throwing at hitters over silly perceived slights. Nothing in baseball annoys me more than all of these socalled unwritten rules which certain managers and players feel gives them the right to have a pitcher fire a baseball at a batter, and sometimes not even the batter who did the perceived slight. It would be awesome if one time when a hitter charged the mound after being hit on purpose, he ended up knocking the pitcher flat out cold. Maybe then baseball would start taking this nonsense more seriously. It's crazy to me that baseball continues to punish so lightly a dangerous act where a batter potentially could be seriously injured over nothing more than a perceived slight.

Hanley is talented, but he's also a terrible fielder, injury prone (games played over the last five years - 92, 157, 86, 128 and 105), makes a ton of money, erratic at the plate (his OPS has been in the .700s three of the last five years - as low as .712 - but also over 1.000) and - at 32 this December - at the point where all his skills will start deteriorating. If i was to look all around baseball and tried making up a list of say the 10 players which i'd least like the Brewers to make an attempt to trade for, off the top of my head, Hanley Ramirez would likely be on that list. Not only is he probably in decline, has an ugly contract, injury prone, and bad defensively, he's been reported to have attitude issues at more than one stop. Given where the Brewers are in the contention cycle and the super tough division the NL Central currently is, i gotta believe/pray that our new GM wouldn't even consider trading for Ramirez under almost any circumstances, with good reason.

I'm not saying this out of Cubs hate, but that isn't anywhere remotely close to being one of the best plays you'll see a shortstop makes. Various guys at that position make similar diving plays like that with a quick flip to secondbase all of the time. A quick search on youtube and here are just two Ozzie Smith numerous gems, one from Vizquel, and even one from Segura which i think is tougher.

The only way i can envision Lind not being traded this offseason by our new GM is if Attanasio is still playing his quasi-GM role along with being owner. I'm very pleased to see a new GM in place and hopefully Montgomery is kept in his job, but the biggest question for me still is just how much influence Attanasio will keep exerting on say if Stearns would prefer rebuilding longer than Attanasio might prefer, what kinds of moves trade wise he'll allow Stearns to make if Attanasio would prefer not trading a certain player/players, and will Attanasio stop being so involved in free agent signings? I get that he owns the team and if i owned a professional sports franchise, it could be hard for me to just sit on the sidelines if my GM wanted to do something which i wasn't thrilled with. That said, owners hire a GM because that guy is supposed to know more about the sport than you do. So it would be nice to stop reading stories in the paper where the Brewers GM is asked about the status of a free agent the team is rumored to be going after and the GM says, ask Mark, he's handling that. Or no more stories of Attanasio talking about his long negotiating sessions with various agents during free agency and eventually a free agent is signed.

I agree that in general, hitters with a below average OBP for their position are below average hitters, but there can be one caveat to that. Power. So if a hitter is only in that say a little above .300 OBP area, but has lower level power, then yea, he won't have much value. If though a guy has power to where his SLG is roughly .450 to .500 plus, many teams will want that in their lineup, even more so today where power numbers are way down compared to the steroid days. It's nearing the end of the season and only two NL outfielder have 30 or more home runs. Davis currently has a .322 OBP which isn't ideal, but isn't really brutal either. Mix in his .496 SLG, he's got an .818 OPS. Granted, he won't spend the rest of his career hitting home runs at the blazing rate he's been hitting them through August/September, but this run isn't pure fluke either. Davis has legit power in that bat and his walk rate is up quite a bit from last year. A walk rate more like he showed in the minors. If he had enough at bats to qualify, his .813 OPS would tie him for 7th among all NL outfielders.

That's probably the most undervalued (and important) commodity in all of baseball. Whatever mix of "scout vs SABR" you're using, if your plan is to find undervalued players, you'd better have good people and systems in place for assigning value. I am still awed by the fact that teams spend hundreds of millions on players, and even managers, but they pay a relative pittance to the guys who are charged with valuing the players and putting a winning team together. A player can help or hurt a team for a short period, while a GM (and his staff) can build a build a dynasty or destroy a franchise. I've long felt the same way, especially for GM's with a history of success. Take Friedman for example when he was with Tampa. There were/are tons of one inning pitchers in bullpens and mediocre at best position players across the league making way more money than him even though Friedman had the Rays as a consistent winning team on a tiny budget and in a division which had the mega revenue Yankees and Red Sox. Hell, just one terrible decision by a GM can cost a team 10 to 100 plus million dollars. Make multiple bad moves and it's akin to having a bonfire with a pile of many millions of dollars as a team loses with a payroll anywhere from 50 to 150 plus million dollars. Yet, most GM's are paid less than say a solid veteran setup man in the bullpen, including winning GM's. I don't get it. When the A's were consistently making the playoffs on a small budget, why weren't struggling franchises lining up to offer him some 8 to 10 million per year deal? That amount can get blown on a closer who could get replaced cheaper.

Impossible to know right now if Stearns will make enough smart decisions to make the Brewers good, but for now at least, i just hope Attanasio lets his new GM set the direction for the team over the next few years and that includes letting Stearns trade pretty much any player he wants, even if Attanasio is against a move personally and Attanasio no longer playing a big role in free agent signings. I get Attanasio owns the team and a lot of these wealthy guys who buy pro sports teams are just going to to be involved in things because that's part of the fun of owning a professional sports team, but they hire a GM for a reason, because that guy should know way more about the sport than the owner does.

Marco Estrada with 8 shutout innings tonight. On the year now 13-8 3.14 ERA 1.07 WHIP I wondered how he'd do in the AL and a hitter friendly park, but he's been outstanding for the Blue Jays. Marco will always be home run prone, but outside of that, he a good pitcher. Hopefully Toronto holds on to win the division and Marco gets a chance to pitch in the postseason. I have a soft spot for players/pitchers like him who weren't blessed with a great arm and was stuck in the minors for awhile, but managed to become a quality MLB pitcher by developing command overall, along with a really good secondary pitch, his being a great changeup. Speaking of a changeup, when i watch Peralta pitch, i often find myself thinking man he could be really good if he just had a semi-reliable change to offset everything he throws being hard.

It goes without saying that trading Davis should only happen if an offer is fair. That's the case for pretty much any trade. I by no means want to just trade Davis for any offer presented, even if the offer sucks. My only point was that i'd certainly shop Davis in the offseason if i was GM given ideally Braun/Santana could then man the two corner OF spots, Davis should have value in the trade market since he is both cheap and has power, and we have glaring needs for a young corner infielder. So it would be nice if another team had a need for what Davis could offer them and at the same time was willing to part with a high quality corner infield prospect.

Cespedes is a better overall player than Davis, especially on the defensive side of things. As a hitter though, he hasn't been vastly superior, except for his silly good run so far with the Mets. To hit 14 home runs in only 36 games while their team is in a division race has been insane, but in 2013 and 2014, his OPS numbers of .737 and .751 weren't anything special. My guess is that after this crazy run he's on, whether it's the Mets or another team, someone will end up really overpaying him. Davis has a career .795 OPS over roughly 1000 at bats. He should be right around his physical prime years while being under team control the next three seasons. If he can keep his walk rate up to similar of this season and just raise his batting average in the .250 range, with his power he easily could be an .800 plus OPS guy the next few years and that doesn't require some big stretch of hoping for those numbers to happen. Hopefully another team feels similar and offers a quality pitching or corner outfield prospect, assuming our new GM is open to trading Davis.

Just goes to show how unpredictable and random baseball can be at times. Here the Pirates have the 2nd best record in all of baseball, but any chance that they desperately want of catching the Cardinals, winning the division, and thus avoiding the one game Wild Card play in game arguably could have been killed by losing 7 straight to the last place Brewers. They are going to hate us even more if the Pirates end up losing the division by only say two games and then lose to the Cubs in the Wild Card game.

At least he's stayed healthy and had a good season. He only has one year left on his contract, but it's cheap given his production. So hopefully whoever our new GM ends up being, that guy shops Lind in the offseason and a team needing a bat at first or DH offers up a pretty good prospect for him, preferably a corner infielder or pitcher.

With as good as Santana has looked, the OF depth in the minors, and Davis on this second half home run surge, it seems an ideal time for whoever the new GM ends up being to shop Davis hard for either a young corner infielder or pitching. Davis certainly has his flaws like a noodle throwing arm and back to back years with a sub-.250 batting average, but his walk rate is up and the guy has legit power during a time in baseball where power is scarce for some teams. I'm not going to spend time right now trying to search through all MLB rosters and various minor league systems to make up some pretend/hypothetical trades for Davis in the offseason which never end up happening, but there would have to be at least a few teams who would like to add power to their lineup come the offseason, along with it being a player on a cheap contract and thus every home run he keeps jacking makes Davis look better. People can argue whether in the past the Brewers have kept some of their players to long vs trying to trade them, but in the case of Davis, we have a younger replacement on the roster right now in Santana who has nothing left to prove in the minors and needs to play everyday come next year, preferably at a corner outfield spot vs playing him out of position in CF.

Agree. I think Lind will be traded in the offseason and one of Santana or Braun will be moved to first. Santana seems like he should be a decent OF, but that big frame would be a nice target at 1B. Leave Davis in LF where is bad defense does the least harm, and let some warm body fill in at CF until Phillips is ready. Since he is going to knock Santana out of CF anyhow, I would rather have the good player (Braun or Santana) make the position change in the offseason rather than mid-season. You would be wasting Santana's plus arm by moving him to 1B. Braun should be the one moving, and if he can't/won't then just trade Davis already. We can also keep Santana in CF for a year, it's just a rebuild season anyways. I'd like to see our whoever our new GM ends up being to try and see if he could trade Lind and/or Davis for a quality young third or firstbaseman. We all know that Davis has a terrible arm in LF, but he has legit power and is cheap, so i gotta think that there would be power hungry teams in the offseason who would like to add his bat to their lineup and if traded, we then could slide Santana into RF or LF and play Braun in the other corner spot vs trying to play him in the infield where he hasn't played in about 8 years.

Santana sure does look like an impressive physical specimen. For such a big guy he's really athletic and he has big time power given some of the long homers he's hit to right or right center on pitches on his hands. It's to early to know exactly how his career with the Brewers will unfold, but he at least has a chance to be really good. Mix in Phillips and how well Hader is pitching, this trade could prove to be a major theft by Melvin as he exits his GM duties. Watching Santana, i can see a potential young Corey Hart skillset wise except Santana would likely strike out a little more, walk a little more, and may not hit for as consistent a high batting average, but Santana did hit .296 in his last season at AAA and .282 overall as a minor league player. I'm so glad that Mets trade fell apart, just as Mets fans have to be given how great Cespedes has played for them.

The Reds are still playing Votto, Frazier, Phillips, and Bruce every day. Colorado is playing their regulars. Pretty much every team in baseball is still playing their regular players and not shutting down veteran closers, including a lot of teams who either have zero shot at making the playoffs or who would need a near miracle to make the playoffs. I agree with you that guys like Lind and K-Rod should be shopped hard in the offseason, but i don't think anything can happen in this last few weeks which would play a big factor on whether they are shopped. The Brewers will have a new GM soon. If Attanasio allows that new GM to set the direction for the franchise next year and beyond with little interference, that guy won't decide to trade or keep guys like K-Rod/Lind based on the last three weeks of this season, even if their playing time was reduced and younger guys got more action in those spots. That new GM could also have Attanasio tell him not to trade multiple productive veterans given it's very clear that Attanasio isn't the type of owner who mainly just let's his GM dictate things on his own. That GM hire and what degree of authority/power Attanasio allows is by far the most important thing which will happen this offseason and in turn will dictate what type of moves are made this offseason in a wide variety of ways. Between having a new GM, a much better farm system, young guys ready to compete for jobs next year, and a number of productive veterans like Lind, Lucroy, K-Rod, along with Segura/Davis who all could draw interest, this looks to be the most interesting offseason in a long time.

I think it goes without saying that if you were to ask Brewers fans, would you rather pick say 5th in the next draft or 12th, nearly all would say 5th. That said, a sizable percentage of sports fans simply can't cheer for their team to lose. It's just not in their DNA to do so and nothing will change their minds on that, even more so when young players like Davies and others are playing well in wins. You won't change their minds anymore than they'll get you to cheer for the Brewers to finish the season winning more games than they lose. If i had my way the younger players would play pretty well going forward, but the team would lose more close games than they won to improve the draft position. I won't fret that much though if the team wins more than losing mainly because it's baseball and not the NBA where in that sport, landing a near surefire star with a top 2-3 pick can turn around a franchise nearly by himself.

Ideally I'd rather the team lost a few extra close games going forward if it meant a higher pick, but you can't go about intentionally increasing the odds of losing games by sitting your better players. Losing has to come by simply losing because the teams you are facing play better. With Garza shelved, the rotation will be all younger pitchers. The bullpen can't be managed in a way to increase the odds of losing instead of winning, the players would pick up on that quickly. The issue in regards to wanting more losses is that this team just isn't terrible talent wise, so they weren't going to keep losing at a high rate as happened earlier in the season. Nothing can be done about that, so the team will finish where it finishes, but with the rest of September almost entirely filled with games against Pirates/Cubs/Cardinals, there likely will be more losses than wins.

We'll have a new GM come the end of the season, so it will be interesting to see both who Attanasio hires and if he let's that GM set the direction he chooses for next year and beyond. Trading Davis makes sense so that Santana can start everyday in LF or RF. Maybe that new GM would feel it makes sense to shop Lucroy, but what happens then if Attanasio disagrees? This dynamic between who Attaasio hires to be his new GM and just how much authority Attanasio gives that GM are the two most important things which will happen this offseason IMO.

One thing you don't seem to be considering is that from say the 6th inning on of a close game, what can seem to be the most important situation in a game could change multiple times for a variety of reasons. Take say the Royals who have Wade Davis and Holland who almost always just pitch the 8th/9th inning of close games. So hypothetically a Royals starter gets in trouble in the 6th inning of a close game and you bring in Davis because it seems like it will be in the most important situation in a game. Then the 7th or 8th inning roles around and an inferior reliever to Davis gets in trouble, but Davis is no longer available and Trout or Cabrera is due up. Now that's in the most important situation in a game compared to what seemed in the most important situation in a game an inning or two ago. Or what if you got Davis heated up in that 6th inning, but while doing so, the starter got out of trouble. Do you get him back up the next inning if trouble arises? FWIW, i also get frustrated at times by how so many managers today behave like robots when it comes to their bullpen, regardless of the current situation at hand. That said, while i do believe more managers shouldn't be so rigid in use of relievers, i do think your idea for usage comes with more pitfalls than you seem to be considering by saying it simple, just use any reliever whenever and the results will be obviously better.

Not only that, Greinke very well could have preferred living on the west coast vs Milwaukee. I certainly would have and i've lived most of my life in Wisconsin, but despise the climate here. He also has a wife who may have preferred living in LA vs Wisconsin for a variety of reasons besides climate. 2. If they have a family, do the wife and kids want to stay where they are, move elsewhere, or don't care that much either way. Stuff like this gets said all the time about players, but how many players actually live year round where they play? Seems like every road trip Rock says so and so lives here so they get to sleep in their own bed tonight. If playing where you live was that big of a deal shouldn't players be knocking down the door to play for the Diamondbacks? Athletes still spend six plus months in the city they play for, so i have no doubt that for some, not all athletes, where they sign a multi-year deal is a factor for them and their families. Playing in LA vs Milwaukee will simply be more appealing for some athletes if the money is relatively even. As for why players aren't all flocking to Arizona. Like i said in my third point, most upper tier athletes want to win also. When the Brewers were good over the last 5-6 years, free agents were more willing to consider Milwaukee compared to the past. So for Greinke, signing with the Dodgers made sense on multiple fronts. First they paid him well which was required for any team after his services. Besides that, he and his wife get to live in LA during the season and the Dodgers have vast revenue streams, so he knew his contact wouldn't hamper the team in the slightest from keeping a quality roster around him. On the flip side, one reason Aramis Ramirez said he picked the Brewers instead of the Angels was that Milwaukee was close to his home in Chicago

While i have no problem at all anymore with mostly set roles for at least the 8th/9th innings of close games, i do think it's a waste of money for non-legt contenders to spend say 5 million or more on a closer when a few extra blown saves won't have any impact on potentially missing a playoff berth by a single game or two, especially for lower revenue mediocre to bad teams as the Brewers look to be the next 2-3 years. In the case of those type of teams, i think they'd be far better served trying out young and cheap options in that closer role to see if one eventually sticks. So if one fails in that role, simply try another younger option. Sure, it can be really demoralizing for any team, even mediocre to bad ones if their unproven closer blows a number of close games, but if your team very likely had little to no chance at seriously contending for a playoff berth anyways, gotta just deal with that frustration and hope the next guy tried out is competent. Big difference instead between a high revenue team with a quality roster and in the playoff hunt, but their bullpen/late game pitcher by committee experiment isn't working out well and in the process, costing that team a few more precious losses when a playoff berth could end up being decided by a single game or two. So come the start of next season, there really is no reason that K-Rod should be closing games and not only because of his paycheck. A younger guy should be in that role trying to determine if he can handle it on the cheap for the next few years at least.

Not only that, Greinke very well could have preferred living on the west coast vs Milwaukee. I certainly would have and i've lived most of my life in Wisconsin, but despise the climate here. He also has a wife who may have preferred living in LA vs Wisconsin for a variety of reasons besides climate. When it comes to the upper tier of athletes in pro sports, clearly overall money usually plays a huge factor in where they choose to sign multi-year contracts, but they'll end up extremely wealthy regardless of where they sign. 1.So these guys often also factor in the city where they'll likely live for 3-4-5-6-7 years. 2. If they have a family, do the wife and kids want to stay where they are, move elsewhere, or don't care that much either way. 3. An elite athlete might look at if they took a big money contract from a lower revenue team, would that likely hamper that team from keeping and/or getting good players around him? My gut feeling is that Greinke likely wouldn't have stayed even if the Brewers had offered the exact same contract as the Dodgers did. Not that he hated his time here at all. In fact, he's had pretty much only nice things to say about his tenure in Milwaukee, but that doesn't mean he was also interested in signing a multi-year extension here.