CheezWizHed

When an OPS is in the .900s, then sub-.900 fielding percentages are a lot easier to live with. No. A sub-.900 fielding rate is not acceptable anywhere on the field. Typical SS fielding rates are .950+ at the MLB level. No matter how much you think a 900 OPS bat overcomes defensive liabilities... no one in the MLB agrees with you. Thus, if Baez can't improve his fielding, he will not be a SS.

Does it really matter at this point? I'm sure someone can step up and do it for 3 games. If MLF was firing people left and right, then "no one would feel safe" in a bad way. When Barry has 3 years of bad results... I think it is safe to say that no one will see it as a rash firing. Personally, I can't wait for him to be fired and people will stop slandering my real name. Can we just call him Joe instead?? 😂

Well, it used to be based out of Madison...

Joe Barry. Agreed. Moving on. I've wasted plenty of breath there. Walker and Douglas don't seem to work well together. Specifically, Walker seems much less effective when Douglas starts. Not as much because Douglas is making the plays... Walker seems much less connected to wha the D is doing. Running around fast, but rarely in a place to make plays. Love does not play well when blitzed. Ignore the stats that we put on the screen, because it is a paper tiger. I've not seen him: 1) Identify a blitzer and shift coverage, 2) Find the open WR vacated by the blitzer, 3) Make a dangerous play when blitzed. Yes, he completed a bunch of short passes to WRs for short gains, but he is missing the soft spot in the D. Not that he can't learn this... just something people will continue to do if he can't make them pay on it. Great start for Jones... then nada. Where'd he go? Hope it was a pitch count and not just "forgetting" your main playmaker. Wicks: welcome back. We missed you while injured. Doubs: He is there... but not there. Makes a few nice catches each week, but just doesn't step up when we are short like now. Samari: Bo Melven is active over Samari? Not a great sign for the guy. An egnimatic guy. Kraft: can't wait to have Musgrave back with Kraft. They are gong to make a wicket duo. Stokes: Barely saw him out there. Which is good for a CB because it means they were going elsewhere. Nice day back. Granted Valentine was barely tested either... they just kept going to our very soft gooey center of the D. Nixon, ILBs, and Safeties gave up everything today. Ok, I lied, a Defense question: Do we ever blitz? I don't remember a single one.

Very well stated... sad but true. But I'd separate the actions of a diva from the actions of a champion. (Note: I grew up in the Jordan era and hated him as an avid Buck's fan - Terry Cummings, Brickowski, Pierce, Pressey, Alvin Robertson, etc...). The champion fights for the best - teammates, coaches, best efforts, etc... Jordan fighting Rodman in Vegas (lack of focus/ distractions) was to keep out distractions. He was notorious for getting the most of out of his team (i.e. Pippen) or if they didn't live up to move them out (Tony Kukoc). But his simply WON. Jordan took fairly ordinary teammates and elevated them to stars (or burned them out). But he was nearly unbeatable in his prime years - as frustrating as that was for a Buck's fan. LeBron is the consumate diva. The "crown" he was given as a teen went to his head and he didn't deserve to wear it. The whole ESPN "look at me hour" to announce his FA decision? Wow... look at me everyone! You could argue he is doing the same thing... fighting for the best to win... But I don't see him elevating those around him... I see him gathering all-stars. That is why - to me - the GOAT argument between the two is easy... Jordan took regular people and elevated them. LeBron needed already established stars to do it. I don't have an issue with Giannis fighting for players or coaches when it is about making the team better. I just don't care to see him chase stupid "trophies." NOTE: he said here that he was giving the ball to his mom, so it certainly wasn't about Dame...

There is no doubt the Pacer's actions were childish (or d-bagish if you prefer). The point is to not let them drag you to their level. I pretty much gave up on NBA basketball because of the diva starbase (thank you Lebron!). But I came back because GA has been truly unique. He has been humble. He resonates with the regular joes. He makes bad jokes and laughs at himself. He is a truely likeable star. That is why the actions of that night seem out of place for him. Knocks down a Pacer after a layup? Chase down the Pacers for the game ball? Just unnecessary and out of place for him. As for the "work on the court"... I'm referring to playing with Dame. GA had a great individual game against the Pacers, but we all know that isn't sustainable in a 7 series game. The team still looks like they are running in 2nd gear. That will hopefully come in time... but it takes work. Perhaps he really was sticking up for Dame (which would go towards building the team)... but it still was a ball. Seriously how many gameballs do these guys keep in their trophy collection anyway? GA is entitled to an "off night"... I'm just hoping dealing with all the divas and jerks of the league doesn't alter him into becoming one of them.

If prefer he chase respect on the court instead of balls off the court. It sounded childish to chase the Pacers back to their locker room. We have a lot of work on the court that is necessary to win another championship. We don't need the distraction of "he stole my ball" I love GA's carefree attitude...I hope he isn't becoming a diva.

A disappointing end but still an excellent season. I didn't get to see the last game, but watched a few through the season (including trouncing MN which is always fun).

I'm kind of torn about Giannis' actions lately... I'm seeing/hearing them secondhand, so maybe there is more to it... but he runs down to the Pacer's locker room for the game ball?? Then questions if he got the right ball?? Seems a bit childish to me... Better set to let the team officials get the ball back.

You can not lose that which you never had. Seems like every year we look at the green grass in someone else's pasture instead of appreciating the green grass we have.

I only need someone to mention "dumpster" diving and I'll already have my Brewer offseason Bingo! Wouldn't be the offseasons without people questioning the minor moves.

So much for Bob Uecker pimping Usinger's sausages!

Can he hit? He gives me Brooks Kieschnick vibes.

This aligns well with my expectations for the year also: 1) I think it is clear that Love is an NFL caliber QB. He needs work on reading blitzes and perhaps understanding the condition's (i.e. bad weather) effect on his throws. But he has outplayed many respectable QBs this year. 2) Boy, I don't know what happened to Yosh Nijman. Perhaps he is just rusty from minimal playing time, but he does not look good when he is in the game. Walker has been respectable out there at LT though. Not great, but not horrible. Still need someone better, IMO, but that hasn't been our weakspot. 2) DC: I think this will be LaFleur's defining decision as a HC. He gave Barry 3 years and it essentially has been the same results. At best... they have been OK. At worst, unprepared, overmatched, and confused. Holding on to Barry just will hasten MLF's exit as a HC. 4) Actually, I think MLF is a good play caller. He has been pretty creative at times and tailored to his personnel. I think he needs to do better about in-game adjustments (e.g. stop calling Reed's end around when their Defense has adjusted to it), but I wonder how much Rodger's effect impacted MLF's play calling over the last couple years. I hope he can show the courage to can Barry and move another direction.

Maybe the multi-millionaires have a back door. Us poor schlubs have to pay it in the state where it is earned (unless the states have reciprocity, but I doubt that with CA). More likely, it is media click-bait.

I don't know if it does hit the luxury tax payroll. I would hope so. If not, then that should be fixed. But realize LAD's budget is what it is. They are spending future money. No one is going to give him $70M/year. They effectively gave him something like $46M/year (present value vs. future value for those economic majors in the room). Perhaps the MLB could do that... but as long as the $$ LAD spends is on their luxury tax threshold the year they spend it, I'm ok with it. If I get a zero interest loan, I'm ok with buying a $40k car and pay it off the next 20 years (well, maybe not that long, but you get my drift).

Baseball Reference WAR ratings; Brewer years only. Fielder: 7 seasons, oWAR = 24.6 or ~3.5 per year Braun: 14 seasons, oWAR = 50.2 or ~3.6 per year Molitor: 15 seasons, oWAR = 59.3 or ~4.0 per year Yount: 20 Seasons, oWAR = 83.1 or ~4.2 per year Then consider that Fielder's time only includes his prime years (up to 27), Molitor up to 35 years old, Braun up to 36, and Yount up to 37 years old... it really broadens that gap.

While I'm no tax expert, I'm pretty certain the deferred money is still considered to be "earned" in California when they pay it (unless maybe the Dodgers move...). When i worked in MN and lived in WI, I paid MN taxes. I doubt the money being defered will matter... it is still earned in CA. And as long as the revenue hits LAD's luxury tax threshold in the future, I have no issues with deferred cash. It impacts them at they time they pay it. Obviously, Ohtani has good representation that knows how much this is worth in present day dollars and that no one was going pay him $70M/year from day one. It is just us fans that struggle to understand the cash flow situation. Much like Chourio's deal didn't mean he was paid $80M this offseason.

I'm pretty sure BF has had a thread like this every offseason back to when Paul Molitor left for Toronto. Rich owners spending money on rich players that will make more in a season than I do in my life. I'm kind of over it. We are a small market team. For the most part over the last 10-15 years, we've got to watch winning baseball. I'm curious what pleasure people get about pointing this out year after year?

Yes, this. After a couple failed Reed sweeps, I was shocked we didn't clue in on the 2pt conversion... And I couldn't believe we didn't just spy the QB after a while. We did make one defensive adjustment... we stopped rushing the passer and were content to just keep him in the pocket. But wow did we not adjust well. Our OLBs gave up the edge constantly on runs - crashing in on the run fake. On pass rush, everyone just bolted upfield. We obviously thought we were coming in to get 10 sacks tonight... lost all discipline on D.

Oof... Seems like the entire team forgot how to play football... Ball security is bad, blockers can't block, kickers couldn't kick, tacklers couldn't tackle. Wasn't just one individual, everyone had a hand in that loss. Doubs has double-caught several balls this year. A few of them have resulted in an incomplete pass. He had two of them last night - only one was incomplete. Seems like an odd "hiccup" he needs to fix. Love made several bad decisions. He wasn't sharp on his passing. One his fumble, he simply needed to stay to the outside to get the 1st down and instead stopped his progress - then got in trouble. OLBs - wow did we continue to give up the edge. Clearly we needed to stop Barkley. Clearly we forgot about everyone else including the QB. Overall, probably a good learning experience for the team. They've played well for the last 5-6 games and coming off a high of beating KC. You have to have your A game every week. Any given Sunday...

Except that would mean the Brewers put him on the 40-man a year earlier for a season we are out of the playoff race. Doubtful. I can only see one scenario... we are in the playoffs and we have a few IF-ers get hurt and we've run out of options.

Who said it was a zero percent chance? I gave a pretty long list of rookies being treated almost identically to show what is likely Wilkin's development path. The OP was about him being blocked. And given history that "problem" most likely won't be an issue for another year at least. Of course, maybe they will switch him to be a starting pitcher and replace Burnes as our TOR. It is impossible to say for certain...

The signing deadline for draft picks was in July or August. So they lost all rights to him now.