Roderick

I agree that I think defensively we looked better w/ Shaw at 2B and Moose at 3B. But I won't claim to have watched close to every inning, and that is just my early take. Schoop didn't hit at all. There is no comparison. To have a comparison you need to see some level of hitting.

Schoop yes. Gio, not really. I think the $250K in international slot money lessens the KJ Harrison part of the deal. Lara = no value. The Orioles have Villar for just under $5 million this year with an option for likely $7-8 million next year with arby. The Brewers have Moustakas for $10 million (some of it pushed off to next year) with Hiura waiting in the wings. Ortiz is nothing to me, Carmona - we'll see. Point being, the Brewers were probably going to non-tender Villar and they got to try a different flawed 2B/SS out to see if they'd want to tender him for a high price tag the following year. If all else failed, the money from Villar/Schoop could be used to buy a likely upgrade. I don't care how great of empty stats Villar puts up this year, the Brewers didn't seem to trust him and he wasn't coming back. Villar it didn't matter - he was in Counsells doghouse anyways so he wasn't going to play. Ortiz has some lightning in the bottle value. Carmona was the one that hurt a little. Definitely not a sure thing, but not one of those guys we needed to get rid of because of the 40 man crunch as he was lower down the system.

Maybe. Other logical teams for Keuchel may be in the same scenario as the Brewers, "are we going to pull the plug on our plan for the season after only 2-3 games pitched by the starters?" Or maybe he will only go on a one year deal to a few specific teams.

Schoop yes. Gio, not really. I think the $250K in international slot money lessens the KJ Harrison part of the deal. Lara = no value.

Just keep him to games we are up/down enough that he can come in and give you two innings and the obligatory tater. I'm willing to give it some time because if we ever get the last half of 2016 and 2017 Anderson that would be a difference maker.

Not good. Made a couple low risk signings like Cahill tonight and MAtt Harvey. Buy low 1 year deals try to hit lightning in a bottle. Both seemed like good moves to me in their position, so maybe it could end up better than expected. That Pujols contract just killing them. For DH I'd guess they spread it around a bit. Braun one day, Thames, and one of Shaw/Moose the other. I suppose it also wouldn't surprise me if they used it a way to get Yelich a day off too Maybe DH Grandal on Wednesday, and his knees get two days off.

8-2 with a +2 run differential. Optimistically, if you are going to lose, lose big so you don't use Hader and (whoever develops into the second best reliever) on those days.

Not unless Eric Aguilar and Jesus Thames suck enough to bring him up. Otherwise who are you benching? You aren't bringing him up to pinch hit.

If the Brewers were ever going to do it, they would have by now. Especially since the Brewers draft pick they would have to give up (4th round, Grandal 3rd round) would not be as high as the competition. I assume it will take a few weeks of someone's pen falling apart or the June draft to change negotiations at this point.

Really curious to see the lineups this weekend. Does Shaw get both days off? Do Shaw & Moose each get a day off? If Perez does start for Shaw does he play 2nd & Moose play 3rd? My guesses: Shaw and Moose each get one day off. Moose to 3B when Shaw out or at 1B.

Personally, I would not object to having the long-term deferred money. I think MLBPA should fight to make sure that the team ensures that the money is going to be there (maybe through insurance, etc.) - but thinking of Hack Wilson (the single-season RBI leader) and how he died penniless, and other athletes who lose the fortunes they had from big contracts... deferred money could be a lifesaver. I would think that an athlete could sell his deferred compensation. It is known and contracted and earned. The pay would be to the player, but I'm sure JG Wentworth would put up the legal paperwork to make sure they got the dibs on the money. It's my money and I need it now!!! Then they can blow that. Tax attorneys?

Why? I mean I'm happy to beat the Reds but what against DJ? Yeah, what was the problem. He was a free agent and it sounds like Cincy gave him a lot more money than the Brewers were going to, IIRC. I'm just glad that our pitchers were a sliver better than his pitchers this week. But the Reds only gave up 5, 3, 4, 4, 1 runs so far this season. So it looks like he is doing his job so far - I'm sure Cincy fans will take a little under 4 runs per game for the rest of the year. Of course if they got good enough pitching, their hitting would probably fall apart.

6-1 with a +3 run differential for the season.

Peter Gammons was just on MLB radio and suggested as a possible answer to the potential labor strife > raising min salary first three years to Somewhere between 1-2 mil. Simple solution. Boy am I smart! Ha That would add like 20 million to the payroll... I'm not sure small market teams would be in favor of this. I like the simplified ideas, though. Something similar, sure. If you figure that a team has a dozen players that are prearby, that would be a lot. Then if the min wage went to $1.1M, that would be a an additional $6,540,000 of salary to that team.

I'm not sure it's crazy. It's just a gamble. He's probably set for life anyway, so he can afford to play this high stakes game. It just depends on what it means to him. I don't like it either, but I could see an argument for wanting a contract that reflects his status as already one of the 3-5 best relief pitchers of all time, with perhaps a few more pretty good years left. If I had a ton of money in the bank, I would be in no rush to come to an agreement myself. If he has kids, more time with them. The season won't be as long. If he wants to play for a winner, he can see how each team looks this season. If he waits until after June draft, may get an uptick in what teams will offer as no longer will there be draft pick compensation tied to him.

Not that it matters, I don't see how they come up with that number. Even if you add in Garza deferral, last year buyout money, Suter, etc. My number is much closer to Cot's total of $123.4M - but even that number has Braun at $19M, but cash flow it is only $15M this year. Edit: The article says they use Spotrac data. If you go to Spotrac page they don't list that much payroll for the Brewers either. https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/national-league-central/milwaukee-brewers/

This part is going to be almost impossible to know due to a few factors. -I'm sure the Brewers are doing a cost segregation study on improvements to Maryvale. Some of the improvements will be able to be expensed on their own merits, and quite possibly in 2018. -Some of the improvements to the existing structures could be bonus depreciation eligible, and quite possibly in 2018. -However, due to the incredibly confused language in the tax law, there is significant conflict between depreciation, qualified business income (which is a whole other can of worms for sport franchise owners), and the business interest expense limitation. In short, there are a bunch of tax treatments the Brewers could opt for, depending on the nature of the improvements, the activity the improvements are related to, the tax status of the LLC members, and a number of other factors. -I'm not sure if the Brewers are a calendar year or fiscal year entity. Even beginning to guess what the organization's net profits are, taxable income, or anything else like that currently is not possible. The Brewers and their CPA firm(s) probably don't even know what it is yet. I'd also suggest it may not matter a whole lot. The Brewers' owners are driven by a desire to increase the value of the franchise. If they think spending some extra money now will help them be able to sell at a much higher rate later, they'll spend the money. Last paragraph is very interesting to me. I would argue by investing more in payroll at the present time, would go a long way towards doing just that. I have no idea how much a World Series would add to the value of the franchise but if I had to guess I’d say min of 100+ million. I know the investment in payroll can’t guarantee a World Series but it can make it MORE likely to occur. Spend money to make money is highly appropriate in this scenario. Brewers break even in Years of contention for the series Brewers make their 20+ mil profit when not quite there Brewers make massive profit in rebuild There is no incentive to the majority owner to do anything extra now to build up the value of the franchise if there is no plan to sell in the next five years. And there was an article that I took the plan is to hand it down to his children anyway (MJS premium - so just going from headline). Unless he still has so much debt that the interest rate would be decreased with a higher valuation. But I would hope by now that threshold of debt has been beaten down.

Anybody warming up in the bullpen?

You need five years to refuse minor league assignment and Chase has been in the majors since 2014. I don't know if he was in the league the full year in his early years. Regardless, I don't see playing around with a veteran like Chase if you are the Brewers - so the scenario is not realistic.

Lohse signed on March 25th. So we are still in the ballpark definitely for Boras clients.

2019 Brewers Predictions Win-Loss Record: 88-74 Playoffs (Yes, No): Wild Card Highest Playoff Level Achieved: Lose NLDS All-Star Game Representative(s): Yelich, Moose, Grandal, Hader Offensive Player of the Year: Christian Yelich Starting Pitcher of the Year: Everybody slightly above average over the season, so Chacin by default Relief Pitcher of the Year: Josh Hader Most Surprising Player: Moose is going to have one last blowout Most Disappointing Player: Jesus Aquilar

https://madison.com/sports/baseball/professional/union-head-praises-jays-for-raising-minor-league-pay-by/article_37b770b5-7ff1-5a23-bf73-42fe8e6e0d01.html

Hinch seems like a jerk as well. "We have technology to help you get better and that these pitches are strikes," Hinch said he told Hernandez. "He had kind of an arrogant attitude about it and didn't want to hear it." Seems like an incredibly stupid thing to say to an umpire. Maybe Hinch should let MLB handle umpire training or complain the them. That being said, Angel Hernandez is a disgrace. If what Hinch said Angel said to him is true, he admitted to making incorrect calls on purpose. He deserves whatever crap players and managers give him. Not just the worst umpire in baseball but probably one of the worst people in baseball as well. The game will be forever better once he's gone. Where did he say that? My eyes are getting bad. I don't see that in the article. All I see is that Hinch said Hernandez said he made about four bad calls a game. Nothing specific to that game, just a generalized statement from beforehand.

The point is until he repeats 2017, no matter how he did it, no matter how good he looked doing it, no matter how convincingly he did it, it's a one-off season. Add onto that the unknowns of his injury (and even though it looks better than a lot of other shoulder injuries, there are still unknowns) and you have not only a classic outlier season, but additional worries about him being able to repeat it. Baseball is littered with players who, for a whole lot of different reasons including injury, had seasons which were not typical of the rest of their career. Some of the more memorable ones for me are: Roger Maris (1961) Mark Fidrych (1976) Pat Listach ( 1992) Brady Anderson (1996) Jeff Francoeur (2006) Daisuke Matsuzaka (2008) Some of those guys had nice careers, some not so nice, but none of them were the player they were in their peak year at any other time in their career. I am sure at the time they had their peak seasons the was plenty of talk about their future being bright, but they were outliers never to be seen again. Until Nelson repeats his 2017 season, or betters it, it is the dictionary definition of an outlier. That doesn't mean it will always be, and it doesn't mean Nelson can't be a top-of-the-rotation starter, it just means he has to prove it. I’m telling jimmy you guys think his 2017 season an “outlier”. Yeah and take the ball and go home too, while you are crying to mama. Pat Listach is the one that jumps in my mind also.

I do remember a stretch where Kratz was hitting some liners that found fielders (so he gets a little benefit of the doubt). But I don't see any logical scenario where Pina isn't the backup. Pina is still a better hitter and defender. The illogical scenario would be someone trades for Pina. when they can sign Maldonado without costing a prospect.