Ennder

My comment was mostly in jest but more about the rankings and the people who do the rankings than the organization or the players themselves. Was there anyone on this board, other than his dad, that expected much out of Ben Hendrickson? People who judge a player by his ERA and not by anything else pretty much. Nobody who believed in advanced stats thought Hendrickson would ever produce a full season in the majors. He was never a real prospect.

He can easily be traded mid season if he is healthy and productive. Mid season there are always teams more worried about winning now than what it means the rest of the contract.

Hardy actually displayed 30+ HR power every time he was healthy, that power spike wasn't just a fluke His seasons were derailed by chronic injuries including the one you mentioned. It won't surprise me if Davis hits 30+ this year, his power is for real. I don't mind this deal but it certainly could blow up on us if Davis starts hot. He could have been worth a lot more by the all star break. Of course he could also start cold and lose value. He is a tricky player to evaluate since he has been so streaky.

Hmm. I would consider doing this if they were fielding a team worth watching this season. Maybe I'll go for it next year when the talent starts to come up.

Not a big fan of hindsight views of trades because way too many variables that come into play to just simplify it this much. Nelson Cruz took years after he was traded to be productive, he was waived at one point. He got busted for steroids and he only ever really hit at home in big hitters parks. How on earth do you evaluate the final product here? Looking at WAR and nothing else doesn't really tell a compelling story here as to how much he was worth at the day of trade. If the Browns release Manziel tomorrow, it scares him straight and he refocuses himself down the line and actually becomes a viable QB, I don't think the Browns somehow were wrong. They did the right thing and then things outside of their control took over. Both of these trades put us in a position to field World Series potential teams so hard to ever say they were failures.

Middlebrooks is actually the guy who intrigues me most. Nothing in his deeper stats suggests he is getting worse than his productive year, in fact he has improved in a few areas like K%. His career has been derailed by injuries and his last season looks somewhat injured by a park that was just awful for him. These are the types of players that actually sometimes do have miraculous comeback years. The glut of weak hitting MI and 4th OF just seem like filler guys we got because you have to get enough AB to keep your prospects in the minors. They are well rounded players so it won't be a complete disaster but i also don't see much future value coming out of any of them.

The really scary part is his hard contact stats declining so much. Scooter does not have the tools to get on base with weak contact. He has trended down in almost every stat to be honest.

Id think with Scooter you play him and hope he has a good start to build trade value. Someone will need a 2b come trade deadline.

I believe some portion of Peralta, Nelson and Jungmann will be traded as part of the rebuild. I don't know how many or which ones but I just think they won't all be part of the next playoff caliber Brewer team.

It is a broken system right now but what you suggest is also a broken system. I'd say some sort of algorithm that takes into account the past X number of seasons instead of just 1 season probably makes the most sense. Though to be honest in most cases that is just bailing out a team that has had consistent bad decision making more than anything else. The Browns are bad for a reason as an example, it is because they continuously make awful choices.

Carter has fine plate discipline, he just lacks the ability to make contact. in general swinging at pitches out of the strike zone and hitting them is worse than swinging at pitches in the strike zone and missing them. Unless you are say Vladamir Guerrero or Kung Fu Panda~.

I think Anderson is better than his stats suggest last year. He pitched through a sore arm and once he came back from the DL he was significantly better. He had a 5 game stretch before going on the DL where he pitched 25 IP with 26 ER, 9 HR, with just 5.61 K/9 and 3.16 BB/9. The rest of his starts before and after that stretch look a whole lot like the 2014 and minor league numbers. It will not surprise me if he is the Brewers 2nd or 3rd best Starter next year.

Royals won 95 games and a World Series last year without an Ace. It isn't actually a requirement. They didn't really have a stud hitter that stands out either. Just a whole lot of well rounded players.

I've never heard of half of these guys, and the ones I do know are way past their prime. This guy here is dead! 1. Gennett, 2B 2. Lucroy, C 3. Braun, RF 4. Davis, LF 5. Carter, 1B 6. Broxton, CF 7. Villar, 3B 8. Counsell, SS Been a while but it is time to bring back the player manager.

I disagree with this statement. There was nothing wrong with the Brewers shooting for a consistent .500 team considering where the team was when Melvin took over, how many losing seasons they had in a row, how mediocre the farm system was and how dejected the fan base was. That was why I said I hope that Stearns doesn't cut corners the way Melvin did. It made total sense for Melvin to try to get a winning team on the field as fast as possible, that isn't something Stearns needs to do. This isn't a desperate fan base in need of rebuilding/saving like Melvin had. Shooting for a .500 season and adding talent if you got off to a good start was totally viable though. Heck 2 of the 3 World Series that the Giants won recently were with .500 talent teams that just got hot late. Only one of those was a legit great team. That is why every other year they totally tank, it just isn't an amazing roster but when it goes right it happened to go really right for them. There was no way you trade off pieces in 2012 coming off of a 96 win team. When we lost Braun in 2013 you could argue we should have started a rebuild. 2014 was the hot start so if the plan was to trade guys off at all star break the hot start neutered any chance at that. There hasn't really been a lot of good times to start even a mini rebuild until mid season last year. Melvin also got unlucky the Sabathia/Sheets season. What should have been two really nice supplemental picks lost because of who Sabathia signed with and Sheets getting hurt. He also lost plausible playoff seasons to Brauns injuries/suspension. I would say going into last year the team definitely lacked any sort of depth so it was pretty obvious that barring an amazing start they were going to have to rebuild. Maybe it was a year or two too late but it is certainly debatable.

A year ago today they were still in the playoff hunt according to most of the projection systems though likely to fall short because of a strong division. Last year was just a disaster year. Things happen in the game. The team has had a playoff plausible roster every season since 2005 until this year. Just some years go better than others.

This is what I'm hoping they don't do unless these guys are mostly September callups. Bringing up the next wave of guys starts the clock going. Keep them in the minors and eat this year, get them a cup of coffee in September and start bringing them up mid 2017 at the earliest. Weeks, Hardy and Fielder were all called up at least a half a year too early just to get fans in the seats, try not to repeat that choice.

Hopefully they don't rush it just to appease the common fan. When Melvin did his rebuild we desperately needed a winning team but he cut some corners to make it happen that hurt the team long term. I totally get why he did it and I even support the decision but we've had recent success so now there isn't as much desperation. Error on the side of leaving players in the minors too long, not rushing them up. Error on the side of filling holes with home grown prospects and not trading prospects for hole fillers. I'd rather they take 4 or 5 years and build a solid organization from top to bottom than to rush it just to get a 2-3 year window of winning teams.

Pitcher do not get enough AB to keep them hitting anymore. Hitting is one of the hardest things to do in any sport and asking someone to do it when get get 3 AB a week and limited batting practice just isn't realistic anymore. Back when pitchers pitched complete games and they had 4 man rotations it made a lot more sense. As others have said, the way the schedule is now they have to get the leagues o. The same ruleset one way or the other.

Carter is an upgrade over Rogers and has some trade value if he has a decent start. Nothing but a positive turn of events.

15 of the last 25 World Series were won by teams in hitters parks. STL and SF being dominant recently doesn't really suggest you have to be a pitchers park to win.

Thank you. One of the worst players to wear the uniform is finally gone.

This is just completely false.

A #2 or #3 for that contract is a great deal. Suppan was just an awful deal and we all knew it the moment it was signed. Lohse would have been fine if he was as young as Leake was when we signed him, age caught up with him which is what everyone worried about. Wolf was more of a hope he is healthy style risk.

I'd rather have leake than lackey so I feel they upgraded. Put up solid numbers in a hitters park while skipping most of the minors.