danzig6767

That would be ideal. We really didn't have a long reliever in the bullpen and that seems a perfect role for Suter. Eat up innings when the team is leading or losing by three plus runs vs taxing the arms of more important relief pitchers. Just a bummer with Thames, he's been great vs righthanded pitchers in that platoon.

It remains to be seen if Nottingham can hit major league pitching, but three things have struck me in this tiny sample so far. 1. His plate discipline has been good, especially for a guy getting his first big league at bats. 2. While he han't had to throw yet, he looked great blocking balls in the dirt. 3. As much as anything, man does he look the part physically. This is my first time paying close attention to him and his frame, mixed with athletic ability are something you'd sculpt your ideal catcher to look like.

I do too. It's pretty amazing that arguably your two "worst" relievers when everyone is healthy have career FIPs around 3.5 and k rates around 10. I've always suspected that people are letting the emotions of a couple bad outings dictate what they think of the player's ability in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Everyone's knee-jerk reactions to last night's game proves it, especially given all the nuances of the situation (Barnes has been getting too much work due to injuries and Drake is a LOOGY or 1-inning guy at best, forced into multiple innings and facing 2 RHB's to start his outing because of how taxed the pen is). It's not knee jerk for me when it comes to Drake. I couldn't stand him last year and was annoyed that he made the roster again this year. I hate mediocre to worse veteran relievers who walk to many hitters, it's just a recipe for problems. Find a lefty to face lefthanded hitters and get this scrub off the team. As for Barnes, i'm much more willing to show patience because he has a fabulous arm. Unlike Drake who will always be at best a fringe reliever trying to stay in the majors, Barnes has some chance to be an upper tier reliever if he can just get his command right. Prior the last year, Knebel was only another reliever with a fabulous arm, but he hadn't been able to get the type of command to match his stuff. I have similar hope at least for Barnes because there are plenty of times where he can look dominant, the consistency just isn't there. Maybe it never fully clicks for Barnes, but IMO he deserves a pretty long leash, Drake not so much. Give someone else his job and hope for better than a 4 plus ERA and 1.5 WHIP.

I just brought that up because over many years reading forums, fans often complain about hitting coaches when a team struggles to hit and sometimes a change does get made, yet i just don't recall it ever having much, if any impact. Take guys like Arcia and Perez. I think it's safe to assume that hitting coaches for them in the minors and now in the majors have regularly told them that if they ever want to be really good big league hitters, they have to stop swinging at the junk off the plate, yet they never do and likely never will. I'm not saying hitting coaches are irrelevant, but i haven't seem much to believe that they are all that impactful either.

Well, tmwiese55 brought up Sale. I'm not against turning Hadar back into a starter, i just wonder if he did struggle to keep his velocity up, would he then go from being a dominant reliever to just a decent starter who needed to be pulled by the 5th or 6th inning? One thing which i think helps Hadar be so dominant in relief is not just that he can let loose and throw 95-96, it's also that hitters generally only see him once per game and the arm angle which he throws from. Have big league hitters though see him three times in a game and the velocity be down in those 2nd/3rd at bats, will Hadar start getting hit harder, especially given he only has two pitches?

What evidence is there that hitting coaches really matter much and actually have a proven impact pro or con on how well teams hit because i haven't seen it? Impatient/dumb hitters tend to remain that way and patient/smarter hitters tend to remain this way because these habits, good or bad were developed long before these guys ever reached the majors.

Seriously, this If you paid attention to the radar gun during that outing, by his last inning as he hit around 30-35 pitches, Hadar's fastball was down to 91-92mph. Maybe if he was stretched as a starter he could keep his velocity up, but i recall this happened another time or two last year once Hadar got into that 35ish pitch range and his velocity was already declining. What makes Sale special is that he can remain a high velocity pitcher deep into games, something i'm not so sure Hadar can.

Yea, Stanton is batting .167 with a whopping 20 K's in only 42 at bats. Braun clearly is in his declining years, but in watching him so far this season, i think the biggest reason for his struggles is poor plate discipline. To often he's been swinging at garbage. Some upper tier hitters can get away with poor plate discipline and at times Braun could also while in his prime, but he no longer is 2011 or 2012 Braun. Swing at better pitches and i think he'll be productive.

I do think other busted players learned a lesson from guys like Braun and Palmeiro. They saw the heavy backlash which came from defiantly proclaiming your innocence in front of TV cameras vs simply putting out a canned statement/lie saying they must have unknowingly taken something which triggered a positive test. Even though everybody knows that these statements are a lie about unknowingly taking something which triggered a positive test, and the apology for doing so is only being said for PR reasons, it just is a way smarter path to take for handling a PED bust than holding a press conference and defiantly claiming complete innocence. Mix in the implying that the Fed Ex guy may have tampered with his urine sample, Braun couldn't have handled the situation any worse than if he was purposely trying to ruin his reputation forever. Other players and their PR guys saw how this played out and realized that this was exactly the opposite way in which their players should handle a PED bust. Instead, just put out a generic statement, pretend to be sorry, and answer as few questions about it as possible.

No he really didn't Most who get busted, they put out a generic statement/lie saying that they must have unknowingly taken something which triggered a positive test, but they apologize for not being more careful and accept any punishment coming their way. By doing this, they smartly avoid what Braun stepped into by him holding a press conference where he defiantly claimed total innocence and also implied that the guy who handled his urine may have framed him. There is a difference between those ways of handling a positive PED test and it's why Braun received so much more backlash compared to others who got busted. Braun let his pride and ego get in the way of handling the situation smarter, and thus has paid a bigger price for getting busted than other players have.

Anderson’s velocities from his first start were lower than at any point last season. Below are his monthly velocity averages from last year and those from his lone start this year at the bottom of the chart. He did split the center of the plate though on two of the homers.

Yep All he had to do was put out a canned statement like numerous other players who have gotten busted by saying he must have unknowingly taken a substance which caused a positive test, but he apologizes for not being more careful and he accepts any punishment given to him. Sure, Braun would have received some negative press and fan backlash at the time, but as with the numerous other players who put out a statement like the one above, there wouldn't be the level of permanent vitriol which he now has to live with for instead handling things the way he did. I've largely gotten over my disgust with him and Braun does seem humbled, but i'll never entirely forgive him for how he handled this. It simply was to much of a douche-bag move to forgive completely, even as time has tempered my anger towards him.

Exactly. They would have had about the same chance of having an effective closer signing a few lower level pitchers and a few NRI's and seeing what stuck. I get the idea of needing a closer for a team that has playoff hopes but throwing money at someone just because they did it once upon a time doesn't automatically fill the void. Nor is it the best way to attempt to fill it. I don't like the draft pick part for the Cardinals, but as we saw last year, playoff berths can be decided by a single game. If Holland comes in and is very effective for them and they get into the playoffs, that 14 million is nothing St. Louis will care about vs rolling the dice on some NRI's who could blow a number of games, and cost them a playoff berth. Now, if this was a multi-year deal at big money, then i'd hate it if i was a Cardinals fan.

Holland and Boras earlier turned down the 3yr/52 million from Colorado that they then gave to Wade Davis because Boras reportedly wanted a 4th year.

Don't forget about Thames. Let's say Braun can play reasonably decent defense at firstbase. Sure, it's supposed to be a pretty strict platoon there for now, but if Thames were to go into those heavy slumps with tons of K's, i envision Braun taking some starts vs righthanded starters until Thames got back on track. If healthy, Cain and Yelich will start 150 games or more. It's likely going to be Santana, Braun, and Thames who will battle for starts by their production.

I see no point in keeping Choi over Aguilar. Both would mainly be just pinch hitters, but at least Aguilar would be around to platoon at first if/when Braun has to miss games via some injury vs having another lefthanded firstbaseman on the roster. To me, it only makes sense to either keep Aguilar or neither of the two.

Agents can only give advice. At some point it's up to the player to accept or decline offers thrown his way. Look at Lance Lynn. It's safe to assume that he was bummed out that the big multi-year contract he was hoping for never materialized, but 12 million dollars for one year is still 12 million dollars, and he can be a free agent again next year. We have no idea about the kind of offers Cobb and his agent have received, but in the end, it's his call, not the agent as to when Cobb finally accepts an offer.

I hate watching the guy but you have to give credit where credit is due. He is definitely a positive value base-runner despite all the miscues. It's frustrating to waste outs so stupidly, but as long as the team doesn't let it affect their performance, an out is an out, whether it's because a player makes dumb mistakes or just because he's too slow. I blame Counsell for some of the outs via stolen bases, especially the idiotic outs trying to steal third base at inopportune times. Counsell has to understand as a manager that Villar can be excessively aggressive when it comes to trying to steal bases, so if there are situations where Craig doesn't want Villar to risk trying to steal a base, throw up the stop sign and don't allow Villar to have the option to take off. It's really annoyed me over the last two years where Villar will get thrown out trying to steal a base at a time where the risk/reward of trying to steal isn't good, and Counsell will looked irritated in the dugout. Well Craig, you are the manager, remove the green light from Villar in those situations where trying to steal isn't worth the risk of getting caught. It's his job as manager to understand the strengths and weaknesses of his players, and clearly Villar has shown that if left a green light to steal whenever he pleases, he'll take off even in situations where the risk of getting caught isn't close to the reward of stealing the base.

He has a Knebel like arm, so i think the team wants to give him every chance to succeed. I'm not saying this will happen, but Knebel was also erratic in 2015/2016 before having his dominant season last year, maybe Barnes could break out also. That's the thing with relievers who have golden arms like Knebel and Barnes. The stuff is there to be really good or even dominant, but command of that stuff can be hard to predict when it will click or not. For me at least, Barnes would have to pitch his way out of a job in major league games before he wouldn't be on the roster if it was my call.

I don't buy the Walker would rather play in New York angle, so he took less money. About 7-10 days ago i read an article somewhere talking about the camp where free agents were at to get in baseball shape and Walker was a big focus of it. He sounded like a guy resigned to the fact that his dream of a big multi-year deal was gone and he just wanted a job somewhere. After last season he had nothing but good things to say about his time in Milwaukee and that he'd love to be back. My guess is Stearns simply is banking on Villar bouncing back this year, mixed in with he boxed himself in roster crunch wise by resigning Sogard. Can't have four guys on the roster who play second base, (Villar/Sogard/Perez/Walker), playing time at 1st base for Walker like last year is out the window, and Perez likely won't see nearly as much time in the outfield. Only so much room on a 25 man roster with an 8 man bullpen.

Braun is a year older and Santana should be entering his prime hitting years. Domingo posted an .875 OPS last year and i expect him to be in the .850-900 plus range this year. He hits for average, for power, and walks at an above average rate. Maybe Braun can keep pace with that at age 34, but i see the odds being against it. I would be glad to be shown wrong though by Ryan.

Same thing with Holland and Boras where they reportedly turned down 3yrs/52 million from Colorado, only to see the Rockies pivot and give that money to Wade Davis. Now Holland is still unsigned and won't get anywhere near that 52 million whenever he does get picked up.

People keep saying that. Villar is not better as an LHB. He is better as an RHB for his career. He only had ~120 pa's as an RHB last year. That is not nearly enough evidence to refute his career numbers, which are still much better as an RHB. Plus, i don't know how much we can read into what happened last year with Villar. It sure seemed like his struggles early on got into his head and maybe combined with his turning down the 25 million dollar extension, Villar often looked completely lost at the plate. I can see many fans not believing Villar will have another year at the plate like 2016 with a .370 OBP, 38 doubles, and 19 homers, but i don't think he's as bad as he was last year either. Hopefully he gets off to a good start of the season and his confidence gets back.

Wonder if it was his agent Boras that advised him to turn down the QO. If so, his agent has lost him a lot of money. I think Boras must be getting desperate, his old ways don't work anymore, and he still has several unemployed clients. I can now see Arrieta and Holland signing for much less, maybe this could be a buying opportunity for the Brewers. From what i've read, Holland very foolishly turned down 3yr/52 million from Colorado because they wanted a 4th year and the Rockies turned around and gave that 52 million to Wade Davis instead. Now Holland looks like he's gonna have to eventually accept a one or two year deal from someone and won't get near the 52 million he and Boras turned down from Colorado.

Cain had multiple suitors though, Moustakas and Boras from what i've read since free agency, has been looking to create a market and nothing materialized. The Brewers likely were the only team to offer Cain that fifth year, but he wasn't going to be had on a one year deal like Moustakas.