CheezWizHed

I guess this is for all the rest of us that doesn't spend time seeking them out. 😝

Wow the penalties on the 49ers this drive... And I can't believe the Chiefs made it this far with MVS as one of the starting WRs.

Everyone but Tom was amusing.

I saw Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) this weekend. It's a heavy homage to the original with a Goonies-like feel to it. My wife and I had several LOL moments and a few touching moments. They did a good job capturing the original movie's feel and humor.

Wha??? Next thing you will tell me is that MTV is going to launch a streaming service to show music videos!

Congrats on getting a job!

Wiemer is really easy to like. The Athletic ability, the gung-ho attitude... it feels like a 12 year old out there in a man's body. Great underdog story. But for his sake, I hope he starts in AAA... I hope they have been working on his swing to close some of those holes and I want him to have a low pressure spot to refine it. One step back to (hopefully) produce 3 steps forward. His floor as a defensive OFer is already achieved. But it would be great to be able to unlock his contact and make his power all the more potent.

Surprise trade of the year. Is Sacramento so bad that they are going the minor league baseball route and providing as much sideline entertainment as possible?

The show was like watching a train wreck... with nudity. Not much there. As someone who has seen all the shows of all the Stargate series and movies (and some many times).... This was horrible. My wife and I watched it, waiting for the authors to course correct, but it was a major crash and burn.

2024: Love beats the bears 2x... and the McCaskeys will bring in Billecheck.

I do think that Jaire would do well inside... but also simply following a WR around. Sounds like we will be doing more man-to-man with this new DC. While the slot does have some unique challenges... mainly change of direction. But it isn't like outside CBs can't do it. Not everyone is going to be as good... but the key is finding good CBs. I think if you try to find a good slot and good outside - separating them... I think you'll find neither. If you find multiple good outside CBs, you are going to find a few that do well inside.

He was talking about the Burnes trade. I don't get why people thinking signing Hoskins is suddenly so confusing without Burnes. With or without Burnes, we had a gap at 1B. The contract wasn't crazy expensive. Even if all he does is play for a season and move on... that doesn't mean it was a bad signing. People complain when we don't spend money; people complain when we do. I guess the takeaway is that people complain.

As a fellow Molitor fan, I welcome you to BrewerFanatic!

It almost seems like this is the year of all years to go with a 6 man rotation. They have so many guys that will be on innings limits... Ashby, Gasser, Hall. Plus Miley would benefit from a lower work load to keep him healthy.

I agree with Jopal. The contract (like all contracts) just becomes part of the risk analysis of trading for a player. Likewise the ability to offer a QO if he declines the 2nd year is a benefit of such a contract. All aspects are weighed when trade compensation is considered. The risk of future injury never makes someone "untradeable" unless they have a huge contract and chronic condition. Hoskins' knee wouldn't fit that bill.

Much has been said about the minimal return we got for Burnes or simple dislike for the prospects. I think not enough has been said about Burnes' regression the last few years. His K and BB per 9IP rate has gone the wrong direction for 3 years. Along with it, his ERA and FIP have continued to climb. I've seen some projections of him having a 3.8 ERA this year (a perhaps too simplistic curve fit on his last 3 years data). But I think just watching him pitch brings similar concerns. He will look dominant so many times through 4 innings and have the wheels fall off in the 5th or 6th innings. With his reduced control increasing his walks, it also seems to effect his placement inside the zone. Typically later in his outing, he throws a meatball down the middle that gets hit pretty hard. Overall, pitching well... but always giving you the feeling that he is dancing on the wall of being mediocre again. Some outings are dominate; some are forgettable. I'm sure all the other GMs see that also and that effects his trade value. Now, I'm sure Burnes will pitch like a #1 pitcher for Baltimore, but I do wonder for how long that will continue. Is it completely out of possibility for Hall to have a better ERA than Burnes come 2025? Most people complain that we just dumped on the 2024 season by trading Burnes. I look at our team this year and it felt like we were at best treading water. Our rotation wasn't even close to last year's. Miley and Burnes are on the wrong side of the age curve. Big Woo is gone. And our replacements are pretty suspect. The BP remains pretty strong as they were last year (assuming a litany of short starts doesn't wear them out). Our offense should be better as the rookies age and Hoskins, but I don't see it as enough to overcome the pitching decline. Thus, I've been an advocate of building on the future of Chourio, Black, Quero, Contreras, Frelick, Wiemer, and Misiorowski. I think Hall and Misiorowski paired together gives us the potential of a very high upside duo. A bunch of risk, but a very high upside. So I grade the trade as an "A" for Baltimore and "B" for Brewers... in 2024. What grade we give it in 2025 will just have to wait and see. But clearly the "win" for the Brewers is in the long game and not 2024.

Well, I was comparing scouting reports and MILB results. Even if they only hit that this year... we have both for several more.

Ortiz seems like what we want Turang to be. Good defensive player who actually can hit. Not going to be a homer guy, but a doubles hitter mainly. Almost like taking Frelick's bat with Turang's D.

Thought this was interesting from Keith Law (yeah, I know, but other scouts seem to say the same) one year ago. After that, Hall seemed to continue control struggles, but Ortiz continued to climb up the boards. 5. DL Hall, LHP (No. 84) Age: 24 | 6-2 | 195 pounds Bats: Left | Throws: Left Drafted: No. 21 in 2017 This is Hall’s fifth year on the top 100, and probably his last — either he breaks through and plays long enough in the majors to graduate, or he fails to make any progress in command and control and spends most of the year repeating Triple A. His stuff is too good to ignore, though. Hall is a hyper-athletic lefty who can show several plus pitches, with a fastball that topped out at 98.6 mph in the majors this year, a power curveball he rarely used in the big leagues, a hard slider with big horizontal break, and a straight change that’s very deceptive because it looks so much like his fastball out of his hand. His delivery is good and he could repeat it, but he doesn’t throw as many strikes as he should, or really as he could. When he’s ahead in the count, he works out of the strike zone way too often given the quality of his stuff. Between his huge extension out front, the way his breaking stuff and his fastball/change break out of his hand, and the genetic fortune of being left-handed, he should be a front-line starter who misses a ton of bats and holds down hard contact. It’s all about location for him now, and while he’s made some progress since he was drafted, this year will determine quite a bit about his future career path. 6. Joey Ortiz, SS (No. 95) Age: 24 | 5-11 | 175 pounds Bats: Right | Throws: Right Drafted: No. 108 in 2019 Ortiz remade his swing and body during the pandemic year and came back a different hitter in 2021, but hurt his shoulder after just 35 very productive games in High A. He returned for Opening Day 2022 but struggled out of the gate, hitting .214/.275/.328 in the first half of his season (69 games), striking out three times as often as he walked. His second half was much more in line with the player we saw before his injury: he hit .355/.422/.627 in his last 68 games, the final 26 of them in Triple A, with just a 13.5 percent strikeout rate. He’s a 60 defender at short, with great actions and soft hands, possibly the best defender of the Orioles’ many, many shortstop prospects. At the plate, he’s short to the ball and hits a lot of line drives, although he puts the ball on the ground often enough that he’s much more likely to keep hitting for average than he is to hit 19 homers (his 2022 total) in the majors. He rarely whiffs, making contact on about five of every six swings, and doesn’t run a ton of deep counts because he can put enough pitches in play to avoid them. The second-half performance might point to an elite upside; I think the power won’t quite hold up, but he’ll hit for a high average with 30-40 doubles and 10 homers, which makes him a very good regular with that defense.

I don't think Nixon was all that bad as a nickel CB. He had games where he played poorly, but he also had games where he made big plays and covered very well. He isn't a lock-down CB, but decent. Frankly for the draft, I hope they continue to draft outside CBs and find nickel CBs among the players they get. It is kind of like drafting starting pitchers and converting some to the BP. Draft for the high value positions and the lower value (slot CB) will come. As for "game changing returner"... he was the best (or one of the best at least) KRs in the league, but the impact of KRs has been neutered overall in the NFL. There really isn't a Cordelle Patterson type returner that you need to game plan for at this point. Calling KN a game changer at KR is too much, IMO Thus, if they do bring KN back on a second contract (presumably for decent $$), I hope it is because he will do both KR and Nickel. He isn't a good enough KR to spend FA money on to be a one trick pony.

I doubt any of them would take a Seattle assistant position over the Packer's DC spot. The Ravens DC spot however...

I wouldn't mind another SP option as I'm still not 100% sold on Ashby's health (or endurance for a full season). Or Miley's for that matter. I'm not crazy about our SP depth, but I don't think Keller helps that either. As a minor league option maybe? Seems like a poor-man's Adrian Houser. Tim Anderson is the player on this list that looks like he has some 2023 upside.

Just ask him to slump a little bit...

Well, one must have a hobby, especially as a bear's fan. Bear down! Its been a rough 40 years... 😝

I appreciate the optimism, but statistics and scouting say that most of those guys won't reach the bigs and will make a minimum impact if they do. Yes, someone can always break out, but probably only one at most.