nate82

Non-tender no possibly traded yes. Houser isn't bad as your #5 pitcher he is basically the definition of a #5 pitcher. I don't think he will get $4.5m as his '22 salary was only $2.4m that would be almost doubling his current salary. I think he will get closer to $3.5m than he will get to $4m. I think the Dodgers, Padres, Angels, Giants and Rangers would all have some interest in Houser. He won't bring back a lot but he could bring back a decent reliever or two in a trade.

Probably because the Blackhawks suck which sucks being a Blackhawks fan. Hopefully they trade Kane this year even if he doesn't want to be traded. The Blackhawks are just one ugly mess right now.

I think Chapman will do better in a smaller media market. But the warning flags are there and that is why I thought $10m would be a good gamble and it is only one year. If it works out great you have a really strong bullpen if not then the Brewers are back to a somewhat questionable bullpen. I think moving Williams to the 7th or 8th inning role would be better for him. Having Robertson and Chapman as the 8th and 9th inning guys would be better. I was thinking about flipping Laureano for more prospects but that maybe a deal during spring training. Would prefer another SS on the team as this roster would be pretty scarce if Turang or Adames go down with an injury. Getting Rodriguez and Holliday is the key here. You can either put Rodriguez in AAA to start and then bring him in midway through the season in the bullpen. Either way you have three young starters now in AAA (Small, Gasser and Rodriguez) to pick from if someone goes down with an injury. I really like Frelick but that would be three rookies on the team taking up major PA's. That is a lot of risk It is about what he is going to get this offseason. He got $5.1 from the Cubs this offseason and he had a really good year this year. This is the 2nd year in a row now where I wanted the Brewers to get Robertson. He would have been really good for the Brewers this year. I think he only signed with the Cubs this year as they gave him the closer role which helped him for this offseason to get a bigger payday. I think $6m is close enough to what he will get. Also it is really only a 1-year deal for Robertson with the buyout at $4m which is what the Brewers would do. I just did a 3-year deal to backdate the money and have a higher buyout in year two which is just about half of what Robertson would make. It would be beneficial for Robertson also to have that year two buyout as he could get a bigger payday in free agency that year. The $4m buyout plus whatever he could sign for probably something around $5m or more depending on how well he pitches in '23.

Trades: 1. Urias and Houser to the Giants for Bart, Murphy and Swiney 2. Burnes to the Orioles for Rodriguez, Holliday and McDermott 3. Taylor and Hiura to the Athletics for Puk, Irvin, Laureano and Kemp. This is a pure salary dump for the A's including Laureano and Kemp. FA Signings/Extensions: Josh Bell 2-years $22m ($12m player option for '24). Aroldis Chapman 1-year $10m David Robertson 3-years $24m (team option for '24 with a buyout of $4m and a player option for '25 at $10m) Willy Adames 6-years $110m (back loaded contract) Brandon Woodruff 6-years $140m (back loaded contract) Victor Caratini 2-years $4.5m ('24 is a player option at $3m) The '24 rotation could possibly be Woodruff, Peralta, Ashby, Lauer, Rodriguez/Gasser/Small/Irvin. Gasser and Rodriguez should get some time with the Brewers in '23 to get their feet wet a bit. Rodriguez is ready to go and could take a bullpen spot from Strzelecki or Cousins if needed. C: Joey Bart ($0.70M) 1B: Josh Bell ($10.0M) 2B: Jace Peterson ($2.5M) 3B: Willy Adames ($18.3M) SS: Brice Turang ($0.7M) LF: Christian Yelich ($22.00M) CF: Garrett Mitchell ($0.70M) RF: Hunter Renfroe ($11.0M) DH: Rowdy Tellez ($5.5M) 4th OF: Ramon Laureano ($3.6M) Utility: Mike Brosseau ($1.00M) Utility: Tony Kemp ($3.9M) Backup C: Victor Caratini ($1.5M) SP1: Brandon Woodruff ($18.00M) SP2: Freddy Peralta ($3.5M) SP3: Eric Lauer ($5.0M) SP4: Aaron Ashby ($1.2M) SP5: Cole Irvin ($0.7M) RP: David Robertson ($6.0M) RP: Jake Cousins ($.70M) RP: A.J. Puk ($0.70M) RP: Peter Strzelecki ($0.70M) RP: Hoby Milner ($1.00M) RP: Devin Williams ($4.00M) RP: Aroldis Chapman ($10.0M) Payroll is 2.18% over budget

Yelich numbers are right and I don’t believe they have updated the numbers recently. The values go up and down based on contract and performance. Yelich is so far negative because of his contract, no trade clause and performance. It would take a lot to erase those barriers for a trade so yeah you are going to have to give up a lot just to trade him. It is also why the Brewers can’t just dump him in a trade. You would get nothing back. Burnes will probably get a higher value once they update their values again. Taylor should decrease a bit and Wiemer looks about right also. Lauer’s value should increase some and Houser’s will drop mostly because of the injury and performance.

Is it possible to make them use a double : or a [ or {? It is annoying when listing Catcher: and getting a smiley emoji. Example C:: Instead of C:?

Methane should be less harmful in the long run than diesel and also should be less expensive and shouldn't hurt the environment as much as drilling for oil. There is a lot of methane that can be extracted in the US. The goal is to have as many options as there can be. I think semi-trucks would be the first ones to convert. Convert about 20% of the long haul semi-trucks to methane or another cleaner burning source and the environment will be better off. The economy will still need to move goods around and while trains would be a better option it would take a lot of money to restructure all of the rail in the US to be electric like most of Europe and Japan. There hasn't even been an estimate for this yet it will probably be in the 100's of billions of dollars. I think California is just about to finish or has finished its electric rail and that cost about $5b and I think that is just for commuter train. The real benefit isn't in a commuter train it is in freight. Some estimates have freight trains if the US could convert to electric would be something like saving $94b over a few decades. I am not sold on that figure and if it only saves $94b that is a huge cost to take under. I think a conservative estimate would be something like $500b to fully convert all of the US railway to electric. That would include creating new power plants to help cover this new electrical demand. So that amount could increase even more but this would be the chance to add some more nuclear facilities. We are already spending way to much why not just go all in and redo all of the railways in the US and add a few new nuclear facilities while we are at it. There are a lot of programs that can be gutted to do this and only increase the budget by a small amount. Basically just stop spending 2x as much as Russia and China combined on the military and that should cover this. Also just stop sending money to other countries either through aid or military equipment.

If you mean at both positions at 1B/3B then no that amount is not enough even if you do FA + Hiura/Brosseau at 1B and Yelich/Taylor in the OF. Adding those up you will have about $12m to get a FA at 3B which won't get you much if anything at all. FA's without a buyout or an opt out at 3B are the following: Matt Carpenter Jace Peterson Charlie Culberson Matt Duffy Marwin Gonzalez Brandon Drury Cheslor Cuthbert Rob Segedin Who on that list is better than Renfroe and are you willing to give them $10+m a season for the next 3-5 years? The only 3B FA that would be a massive improvement over Renfroe would be Arenado but the savings would be about $20m short. Arenado should get a 4-6 year deal around $30-35m annually. At 1B it doesn't really improve all that much either. Here are all the FA 1B without a buyout or an opt out: Brandon Belt Jose Abreu Josh Bell Carlos Santana Yulieski Gurriel Greg Bird Jesus Aguilar Mike Ford Tomas Telis Chris Marrero Are any of these worth $10+m a season for the next 3-5 years? To be honest I am not sure any of them would be better than Renfroe in 2023. Maybe Abreu but he is getting old and should be a DH only. Bell might be about even but Belt yuck and Santana no thanks he looks like he is done. Another option is Sano while he will still be young I don't think he is much of an improvement over Tellez and at best he would be equal to Tellez. Not really seeing anything the Brewers should be spending anything on in FA other than a bullpen piece or two.

Here is Wong's Spotrac: https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/milwaukee-brewers/kolten-wong-14346/ It looks like he has the buyout of $2m and $2.5m deferred for next year.

You are getting consumerism and capitalism mixed up. Capitalism has nothing to do with "what consumers wanted". That is consumerism it is basically the definition of consumerism. Well obviously everyone wants to get cheap oil no one wants expensive oil. It is not that no one wants to invest in more drilling or refinement it is that it is very prohibitive to do so. All of the large banks in the US will not finance any company for more drilling or refinement. The large banks won't fund any alternative fossil fuels which includes methane and other natural gas. Methane and other natural gasses would be a better option over diesel. This would then replace the heavy machinery and long distance semi-trucks. The US financial industry and government is stuck in this green energy for everything but they can't see one inch past their noses due to only seeing one way to get to an outcome. Also forget nuclear which at least one country is doing that correctly in France. The US already outpaces nearly every country in green energy (solar and wind). If you look at France's energy production you will see the majority of it comes from nuclear and the rest from everything else. France actually has a rather low solar and wind output. I don't believe we will be it is just replacing one problem with another. The kicking the can down the road a bit further. The batteries will have a shelf life on them and once that shelf life is hit what do you do with the batteries? Car accidents are still really high in the US. What happens to the batteries when they are damaged? You have to replace those batteries along with the car. While the batteries can be recycled only about 5% can be fully recycled which feels like a real waste. The process to recycle the batteries is also extremely hard. Getting 5% back in recycling sounds like you are going to create more pollution than you will be saving. It also looks to be very costly to recycle these batteries which means there won't be many companies doing this as the benefit will just not be there. That means these factories will be over seas where environmental standards will be very relaxed. Probably India, Pakistan or Venezuela sound like perfect homes for these recycling plants to operate. There are basically no environmental protections in these countries. I am going to assume these batteries are going to be buried somewhere or thrown into the ocean. Any benefit that will be gained from going to EV is going to be destroyed by the batteries that the EV's run on. I am not sure why people hate having more than one option to solve a problem. Having a mixture of cars, trucks and other vehicles running on a mixture of different things will help the environment out more. Methane and hydrogen need to be looked into more in powering vehicles but both get very little attention. It is just EV's or nothing when it should be a combination of all these options. Just like in investing it is never a good idea to place everything into one thing spread it out and you will decrease your risk.

There is a huge gap between Renfroe and Taylor. Taylor is about a 100 wRC+ player while Renfroe is a 120 wRC+ player. That is a huge gap. Taylor's defense in RF wouldn't be able to overcome the offensive downgrade that would occur going from Renfroe to Taylor.

Well lets see where Renfroe ranks among some of the counting stats from 2022. OBP ranked 84th SLG ranked 18th AVG ranked 69th wRC+ ranked 46th WAR ranked 70th It is not the home runs I am not sure why you are so hung up on the home runs. Overall Renfroe is worth the $11+m and it is not about the home runs. He is a good player and I am not sure why you keep on repeating your opinion as a fact.

1. There have been differing levels of nationalism in the US and unlike other countries it is usually the highest around a national tragedy. The US is very different from other countries where nationalism is rather high no matter what. In the US it is only ever high during a national tragedy 9/11, Pearl Harbor and a few other events. Otherwise in the US nationalism is tempered at best. If you go back to the 1800's and even into the early 1900's states normally had higher pride behind them than the country as a whole. Going back to the civil war there was more state pride than there was national pride. People get annoyed by Texans but they are one of the few states left that has this huge state pride thing. This used to be the norm throughout the US. There was some nationalism but it is nothing compared to the state and local pride. This is very unique and you don't see it in Europe, Africa or any other country or continent. 2. Obviously singing the national anthem is not what determines nationalism but it is part of the formula that is showing nationalism. It is basically taking the pride in the country. 3. Unless you are talking about Israel or any of the Muslim countries then no religion doesn't really bring in much nationalism and it is more the religion than it is the state. Communism and other dictators obviously but I am not sure I would call that nationalism. Some may be nationalistic in their views but most I believe would just be doing it so they don't get killed.

If Quero continues like this and he puts up another good year next year he should be a top 50 prospect. Catchers that do what he has been doing normally sky rocket up the rankings especially when they are playing as good as he has been defensively and offensively.

I know you have this irrational crusade against Renfroe but 11+ million for Renfroe is perfectly fine. Renfroe no matter how you look at him he is a top 50-70 player in MLB. So $11+ million is peanuts compared to what he would get in FA. If Renfroe were a FA coming into this off season he would easily get what Avisail Garcia receive last off season if not more. Also Renfroe being traded from different teams holds no value and means absolutely nothing. Caratini seems to be a bit high on the estimate. I think he gets closer to $2m than he will be to $3m. If the Brewers don't bring back someone it will be Suter as that price is way too much to be paying him to pitch only low leverage situations. Adames is also light I think he gets closer to what they have Renfroe at. I can see the Brewers settling with Renfroe, Caratini, Bush and Milner before they get to arbitration. Renfroe at $10m, Caratini at $1.5m, Bush at $1.5m and Milner at $1.1m. I believe the Brewers may try to sign Milner to a multi year deal and buying out 1 or 2 years of arbitration to get cost certainty. I don't believe the Brewers would go with 3 rookie OF's on the team but it may happen. If the Brewers get rid of Renfroe that means an OF of Taylor, Frelick, Mitchell and Ruiz as your main OF's with Yelich being the 5th OF and primary DH. I don't see the Brewers paying for an OF FA who will cost as much if not more than Renfroe. You won't get Renfroe production from FA at less than what it would cost in arbitration for Renfroe. There wouldn't be much in terms of savings if you are letting Renfroe go. If the Brewers are going to spend FA dollars it will be on the bullpen and not in the OF so Renfroe will be back unless he is traded. If Renfroe is traded then the Brewers will have two rookies starting in the OF in 2023 in Mitchell and Frelick. Also Yelich probably stays as the primary LF if Renfroe is traded with Taylor splitting time with Frelick and Mitchell.

But that is kind of obvious. If the defense only has to account for one form of offensive plays from the offense then they are going to be better at defending. For example if the defense doesn't have to respect the run game then they can play back further meaning your linebackers can play a little further back during pass plays which puts the linebackers in a better position to defend the pass. The same with defensive backs like your safeties. Your safeties can play further back and away from the line knowing they don't have to respect the run game. It gives the safeties more freedom to look to break up pass plays down the field and to get to the medium and short routes easier. The safeties can react quicker and cover the gaps that the linebackers are not able to cover easier as the ground they have to cover is smaller. The same is true if you have a run-run-run approach. The linebackers and defensive backs can play closer to the line of scrimmage as they don't have to respect the passing game. Finding a balance in the offense where the defense has to play for both the pass and the run will give the offense more of an advantage. Limiting the plays that you are going to run only helps the defense and doesn't help you offensively.

Depends on the culture of the team. During Blackhawks games there is the cheering of the national anthem. I know in Kansas City during Chiefs games they sing. I am not sure on any baseball teams that have a tradition like this. Back in the 90’s I definitely remember a lot of people singing along at Brewers games at County Stadium not so much when I went in the early and mid 2000’s. Nationalism is far lower in Canada and the US compared to the South American and Latin American countries. Even in Europe nationalism is far higher than it is in the US. Nationalism is probably at its lowest since before 9/11 in the US. So the lack of signing of the national anthem by spectators really shouldn’t be surprising.

Hey a RB catching a pass what a new concept!

Running game not having all that much success against Northwestern but the passing game wow. Mertz looking good so far with his passes. A few that have been inaccurate and a few where the ball went through the receivers arms.

The offensive play calling is better even if the results haven't shown up yet. Maybe it is just how bad Northwestern has looked defensively but the offensive side actually looks like it prepared for the game this week.

The oil would actually have to get here which has been a problem with Venezuela. Lots and lots of leaks. If you are an environmentalist you would rather have the oil extracted here than in Venezuela. Basically if there is a leak in Venezuela it doesn’t get repaired it just leaks. As long as there is some oil coming in they are not going to shut it down. Venezuela is basically an environmental disaster at this point.

Perfectly fine. Mitchell is better defensively but it is not that much of a difference between the two.

Yelich as the primary DH wouldn’t be a sunk cost. He is not playing up to his contract but he is still valuable to the team. Yelich has become a very expensive lead off hitter. Good OBP and bad slugging. His average should increase with the shift being eliminated. He needs to work on his launch angle on pitches down in the strike zone. This has always been a problem for Yelich. Even in his MVP year his launch angles were negative low and in the zone. If that can be fixed or if he can make more solid contact when a pitcher makes a mistake he should be fine.

I will go with 3rd in the East and they will at least make the ECF. They have a Finals team just need to stay healthy.

My brain always tells me that Surhoff was the 3rd or 4th pick. I should stop trusting my brain. And Surhoff was my favorite player growing up and I have no idea why, I even emulated his batting stance when I was younger.