liveforoctober

4 man bench could be a thread of its own. Make this roster fit a 4 man bench on offense. If Brauns "I'm not playing 1st often" comment is legit? Yikes. Whats the 4-5 starters 7-8 pen makeup. Piggyback stuff on the way? Suter wilkerson split squad day 1... welcome back baseball? Hey it could be Gallardo miley so I'll shut up. 12 position players: Yelich, Cain, Braun, Shaw, Arcia, Sogard, Thames, Pina, Perez, Vogt, Phillips. Last spot to either Santana if he's not traded or Aguilar. Broxton gets optioned but comes up when Phillips needs some regular ABs. They'll basically share a spot with one staying sharp in AAA. You are missing Villar. If Braun is not going to play a lot of 1B, Aguilar has to stay and both Phillips and Broxton are in AAA or traded as we don't need a 5th OF. If Braun IS going to play a lot of 1B - then Aguilar is a casualty and Phillips is the last man as the 4th OF.

Is anyone, other than the most optimistic Brewers fans here, NOT going to predict a Washington, Chicago, LA division champion triad?

It'll be such a blessing if all 3 of Santana, Yelich, and Cain make it 150+ games. I'm hoping we have the problem of Thames sitting on the bench too much because of that. My guess is each of the 3 above will have aches and pains that require multiple days off or something along those lines and Braun will be needed in the outfield for multiple days so Thames will get his games in.

Re: Keon Broxton, I have a question for those of you who might know better than me. I'm in agreement his trade value is really low right now and our return on him would be insignificant. Couldn't it help his trade value to send him to AAA for the first half of the year and let him produce? If he can hit and show his power/speed/defense trifecta in the minors for 3 months - wouldn't that make him much more attractive to someone who would take a chance he has turned things around? I know this is a Santana thread, but I didn't want to start a whole new thread on Keon - and considering our log jam in the outfield currently ... this seemed relevant enough.

Thames put up a .933 OPS against righties last year. .265/.382/.551 I think some people actually swung way too far on the negative perception of him because of the brutal stretch he went in mid season... IF the Braun thing works out in the infield, a Braun/Thames platoon at 1B with Braun taking additional starts in the outfield to stay in the lineup would be a very good thing for the offense I think.

It didn’t? Seems like he got a good contract even if Boras said that with a straight face. He reportedly was offered $100 million right away. Martinez countered at $210 million...and was able to squeeze out $10 million more. He probably could have gotten that $10 million in December if he gave the impression he was close to picking Boston. But if he was offered 5/100 (20 million per) and he countered with 7/210 (30 million per) ... and they settled on 5/110 with an opt out after year 2 and a front loaded contract paying him 2/50 (25 million per) in the first two seasons ... it seems like his counter offer got him 25% more per season than originally offered with the ability to opt out and get a new contract after those 2 years. I think his counter did exactly what he wanted.

Not as big of a "come down to earth" deal for Martinez to be honest. He gets $25 mil per season these next 2 and if he rakes similarly to last year ... he can drop out of that contract and try to negotiate another 4 or 5 year deal worth the same amount at age 32. Still a good negotiation for Boston though.

I was just going to ask how this is enforced. If a catcher runs out to the mound after 6 visits ... is the catcher thrown out? Does a pitching change have to be made?

Why do people say that guys like Miley are insurance? Insurance for what? It would have to be an absolute catastrophe for him to appear in a Brewers uniform this season, and we have plenty of guys that deserve a shot before he does. Insurance to me is when you have a guy like Sogard to back up Villar if/when he falters. Wade Miley is far from insurance, he is a bum that truly serves no purpose. None. This. If things get bad enough that Wade Miley needs to be an important part of our rotation, Suter or Wilkerson should be getting a shot over him. You are assuming they are talking about insurance for the Major League team I think, they could just as well be talking about insurance for the AAA squad. There is value in allowing all of our AA guys the time and innings they need to develop properly at the AA level. So if we break camp and we sustain injuries to the AAA staff, having a guy like Miley in camp to fill the AAA rotation for the first month + so we can keep our AA guys where their progression dictates is, indeed, insurance. Miley is looking for a chance to prove he can still pitch. The Brewers are looking for camp arms that are expendable/no cost at the end of camp if they are not needed - who can compete at the AAA level if they are. Seems like a win for both sides. I'm not sure why everyone has to get upset about every signing that doesn't immediately fill the biggest needs on the Major League team?

Suter's responses were pretty good. Very team oriented responses "really excited for the team, even if it means I have to spend some time in AAA to help out or something if it helps us win" or some version of that.

Would rather have Mat Adams at < 5% of whatever that contract ends up being... what a weird world we live in.

Let the "making room for Santana" talk begin..

Way too many "ifs". The problem is that we are not competing against hypothetical definitions of where a pitcher slots in to a rotation. We are competing against teams that have better, deeper rotations than we do. I'm not even convinced we have the second or third best rotation in the division much less the league. if you are expecting to compete you don't go into the season hoping guys like Wilkerson and Suter can hold down the fifth spot. This is a slightly pessimistic take on how we can be successful this season. The Brewers were 1 game out of the division last year and won 86 games. The Cubs rotation is definitely better than last year AND the Brewers had a lot of great things happen last season (Shaw, Knebel, Nelson, Anderson, Davies, Pina, etc) But... Do you all remember how much went WRONG last year? - Our starting closer (Feliz) was released after 2ish months because he was a shade worse than terrible. - Our #4 starter (Peralta) was demoted and released because at one point we thought Michael Blazek was a better option to start than him. - 1st half Villar happened. - Our #3 hitter (Braun), a guy who still garnered MVP votes 2 years ago, missed 1/3 of the season due to injury. - Our opening day starter (Guerra) never made it out of start #1 due to a freak batting accident and was more or less a non factor the rest of the year. - Our 2nd best starter (Anderson) missed 6+ weeks through a freak batting accident. - Our best pitcher (Nelson) missed the most crucial stretch of the season due to a rigid first base. - Due to the above, our #5 spot in the rotation was BRUTAL. I can't imagine any team in MLB had worse performance from their #5 spot than we did. - Our team struck out the most times in MLB History. I'm probably missing a few more things... but if we see even marginal improvement in any/all of those categories ... with the upgrade to our starting OF and the addition of Chacin and (insert possible next SP addition here) ... why on earth can't we be a 90 win team this year?

If it were to happen I would be supportive and would enjoy watching him throw but this is the type of trade I am not in favor of. We are still in the rebuild. Trading for Yelich was a good move in theory because you are replacing the hopeful long term solution at a position (Brinson) with an actual long term solution at the same position (Yelich) while not yielding too much of other hopeful long term solutions, if that makes sense at all. Trading Santana is fine because our outfield is set and replacing one hopeful LTS (say Burnes) with the real thing (Stroman) is fine but this would cost us a couple of other big pieces that we are not immediately replacing. Losing 2 top 5 guys (along with Santana) in our system is too steep I think given our current position.

Johnsonville and it's not close.

It's funny how opinions can differ so significantly. In my eyes, this off-season didn't change our path one bit. Yelich was Brinson's ceiling (I understand this is my opinion) ... so we simply swapped our best outfield prospect for what we hoped he could be. I certainly consider that a win. Harrison becomes blocked because of Cain/Santana/Braun. We won't need another starting outfielder until 2020ish when Braun is on his way out and Cain is presumably declining. By that time Harrison would have been dealt anyway and/or it will be the Tristen Lutz show... Harrison was never going to start for the Milwaukee Brewers. The only real loss we have is Diaz and depending on Hiura's trajectory ... he too may not have had a place on the 2020 squad either. Admittedly I'm not as high on Yamamoto as others. This year is to figure out which of our young starters (Burnes, Woodruff, Wilkerson, etc) are going to be staples in the future. I don't think the intention in our rebuild was to contend this year ... and while we are closer to that than I think was planned, I don't believe the moves we have made will hinder our ability to compete in '19, '20 etc. as you seem to be insinuating. We sold high on Brinson. It is very possible we sold high on Harrison as well.

The Milwaukee Pucks.

I think there may not be a need to sign anyone if our purpose is only to upgrade the swingman spot. Just conjecture on my part, but I'm assuming we are going to add at least one starter before we break camp and with Chase, Davies, Chacin, Woodruff, (FA starter), (2nd starter via trade?) ... Suter moves into that swing role and is likely going to give you equal if not better production than those listed and we won't have to spend any cash on them.

If the news is that Milwaukee is sending Santana and Burnes as part of a package for Chris Archer... half of this board will be on some kind of watch..

Last week, he had said dominoes were going to start falling today (re: TOR starters) ... so my guess is there is a progressing update on this front like someone else mentioned. Brewers will have made an offer to X player and it is nearing final stages or something like that. I am expecting that type of news... will be surprised and weirdly excited if it is trade talk re: Santana, etc

Is there a way to turn on notifications if a certain poster posts? I'm half kidding. But mainly serious. I want an email sent to me when HighHeat respawns on the board..

The last time Ryan Braun played the infield he put up the 4th worst defensive season OF ANY POSITION since 1990... and that was 10 years ago when he was limber/flexible: http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/54599/who-had-the-worst-defensive-season-ever This is a misdirect if ever there was a misdirect.

You could also break this down into a now vs 2020 argument as Brinson *should* develop and Cain *should* decline. However for the sake of this argument I will answer for this upcoming season... Best offensive pairing: #1. Yelich and Cain are both going to flirt with .300/.350/.800 and combine for 35-40 HRs hitting in the 1 and 2 spots in the order. That's crazy. If you think we are selling high on Santana.. there is only one answer to this question. If you think Santana improves on his 2017 .. then you can argue he paired with either Yelich or Cain could duplicate what I'm anticipating from CY and LC. Best defensive pairing: #1 Yelich and Cain and I don't think this one is close. Santana is below average, Broxton regressed last year. Phillips has the best arm of the group but is certainly not as rangy as the new hires. Yelich has a gold glove and Cain probably should have a couple to his name and both played in much larger ballparks where they had to cover more ground. I would welcome the argument that Yelich and Cain are not the best combo of what we *could have* had. Their range alone will improve our pitching staff noticeably I think I'm biased towards Yelich because I think he will be a top 15 MVP candidate this year swinging in Miller Park ... but I don't see how another pairing makes us better.

I honestly wouldn't put it past the Brewers to be in on Archer or even Fulmer. They would cost a lot... but think about what just happened. Our OF is now set through 2020 when we will need to replace Braun and possibly reinforce a declining Cain. Barring major injury... guys like Trent Clark and Grisham and possibly even Corey Ray may never play a game for the Brewers. The next OF we need may be Lutz. Therefore, all those other guys are trade chips. A trade package starting with Santana and Clark is already pretty attractive. Controllable/cheap major league power bat and top 10 prospect. It wouldn't take much more to start talking about Archer and he is on the same controllable timeline as both Cain and Yelich. We would need to add more for Fulmer... but the thought isn't crazy.

What would Joe Panik cost us? Giants still need a CF. We have like 40 of them now...