Bombers

lol. Javi-B coming to a park near you! Whoohooo to another Betancourt. But this Betancourt probably has better range if he had his shoes on the wrong feet and had his back to the batter

Dump K-rod's salary for a 20 year old Venezualan who hit .281 / .323 / .364 / .687 through his 4 years of minors ball? I would say this is a good return. MinorLeagueball.com has the Tigers farm system ranked dead last in MLB but I will take a flyer on a 20 year old from a different country. http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=betanc000jav&utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker- Stearns + 1 on this trade.

All you need to do is follow the money. This team won't have any this MLB doesn't have any incentive. The expansion idea of expanding to Mexico City is the best idea I have heard. The whole country would become an instant fan and you would be placing a team in a city the size of New York City. If Mexico City got a team their fan base would be enormous.

The catapult that put the Royals from ascending and into a contender was trading their best player (Greinke) for a load of players. 2 of those players turn into studs. It also helped that pretty much everything went well for them outside of Greg Holland being on the DL. Things like previous top 5 picks played great (Hosmer, Moustakas), all trades panning out (Cueto, Zobrist, Davis), guys drafted long ago came up big (Gordon), international picks (Perez-2006, Ventura-2008, Herrerra - 2006), free agents played well (Rios, Morales, Volquez) The Royals 2015 championship started in 2006 when they brought Moore in. So maybe the Brewers can do it. Maybe Stearns can bring a championship to Milwaukee but can the fans wait 10 years while watching the Brewers trade away their best players to help build for the future?

Wow. What is the hatred for Ned and the Royals? Go Royals! Glad they won it. Be mad at Melvin for trading 2 players who ends up being 2 of the best on the Royals for 1 all in year. But mad at the Royals for playing great ball and never going away ... OK. I am glad Ned won it. Because it shows that manager just doesn't really matter that much. Especially when you have that good of a bullpen

I just don't get pinch hitting your best bench bat in the 5th inning with Morales.

Alex Anthopoulos Leaves Blue Jays I guess I wasn't paying any attention since they hired Mark Shapiro as Alex Anthopoulos has opted out as GM. I guess since Mark was brought on there has been tension. Also says Shapiro wasn't satisfied with the way Alex was running things and you know the whole lets trade the farm away strategy. Since there are no current GM openings, AA is just a free agent I guess

Did I miss something? He was 19 in Wisconsin and overmatched, not surprising it happens. Was moved down to play in Helena where he was still young compared to competition and he dominated after a short adjustment. He hit .299 AVE /.410 OBP / .884 OPS 14 SBs for year prior to injury. In 17 July games prior to injury he was hitting .400 AVE / .493 OBP / 1.038 OPS & 11 of his steals..... He also had a very impressive Arizona debut. For a 19 year old 3 sport scholarship type athlete in high school, it will take time to adjust. He is only one year in on focusing on simply baseball. I only can see him moving up. He K's a lot right now but he offers way to much outside of that and upside psssst. It's just a stab in the dark. Many will say Taylor so I went with someone who most won't go with. Didn't realize Monte couldn't be picked as someone who may disappoint. Also his .228/.349/.335/.684 slash line over 2 seasons isn't great and he is coming off an injury.

I wouldn't get your hopes up regarding the Brewers trading Lucroy this offseason. I doubt that a team will offer a significant return for Lucroy until he proves that the concussion issues are behind him and he can catch again. His value diminishes greatly if he has to move to 1B or LF. The concussion issue is valid but if he can play and teams will do their own tests there are plenty of teams who could use a Catcher as good as Lucroy. (See Dodgers, Rangers, etc)

How about some thoughts on superlatives: Who is the most likely to be first graduate off the list? I would go with Davies and Reed Who will be the biggest climber? I feel like Nathan Kirby will be a top 5 BF.netter but unfortunately it won't be until 2017. So for this year, I am going to go with the one I hope has a great year in 2016. Malik Collymore. It would be great if the Cardinals traded away a good player for Broxton. I also think Ponce will crack the top 10 next year. (Which these days is a pretty hard thing to do) Who will have the biggest drop? Tyrone Taylor will be a popular pick after a disappointing 2015 but I am going to go with Monte Harrison will continue his fall. Most likely to make a comeback? If they put Roache in Colorado, he might hit 30+ home runs.

I agree that MLB has a volume issue and need to figure out a good balance. I would like to see MLB do anything to get their product put on free TV. Maybe put in stipulations when selling their playoff package to someone like Fox to put any game 5 (Divisional series) or game 7 (championship series) on their flagship / standard channel. The rest of their games on FS1 is what it is at this point. I just don't think it is helping their product get into more hands. Baseball, like all sports has the 1 largest advantage today. It is basically the last thing left watched live. Most record and or playback our favorite shows. Even if you are watching a show live like "Dancing with the stars," – many do not start it at its scheduled start time. Most will wait a half hour or longer and then fast forward the commercials. Sports doesn't allow for that. You can try and not watch it live but it is very hard to not walk into highlights or what is currently happening in game. Most news stations have alerts, social media is rampant with coverage of live sporting events. I also think MLB digs its own hole by not having free baseball throughout the year. They pick the worst day (Summer Saturday’s) to offer free baseball. To me, that is not the route I would take.

I agree having it on regular free TV in the local markets was a good call on the NFL's part. As far as the best option, I guess it goes to what is the goal of MLB. NFL clearly wants complete saturation of their product thus they put it on free TV as often as possible. MLB has built this private market that the average "fan" or "consumer" is unable to consume their product unless they pay. It is two different models and to me, the NFL model is the one that is working.

Found it interesting that as we are having this conversation, the NFL broadcasts an online only game on Yahoo. It was very easy to watch the game. Just had to click play on yahoo.com

My Nephew just got his first apartment and he didn't even consider cable. He has the money for it but just doesn't want to spend it on cable. I think that is more of the norm than just old or poor people. Exactly. There is a HUGE chunk of younger people who don't watch any live TV, just want internet access, and Hulu/Prime/Netflix everything else they want. I haven't had cable in 5 years. I don't miss it one bit. I have a VPN, the MLB Package, the NBA Package and Sling. The one thing I miss a little is the Big Ten network, and if I desperately need to watch a Badger game, I can find a friend or local establishment showing it. I agree with you Baldkin and Fluff. 10 years ago when Netflix was trading at $1 a share and Blockbuster was still in business, did anyone think that by 2015 Netflix would be trading at $100 a share and Blockbuster would have been long gone? Cable is facing a significant challenge in trying to keep customers with the boom of all the streaming services. And baseball needs to cut it's cord from cable before ratings and revenue dry up. Look at HBO. Why do you think they have moved away from an only cable model? Because they need to set themselves up for the future. And tying yourself to cable is a poor choice.

MLB and NFL are completely different beasts. Also, MLB has too many games to have a red zone like channel. It's just too saturated. Also, if you flip your argument you can say the reason Fox drew an 11.7 rating was because it was on broadcast TV. If people had to pay to watch game 7 of the ALCS now, there is no way it would draw an 11.7 rating. That is what I meant. They drew 11.7 because it was on broadcast TV and not on cable

You guys are right as they probably did take the best deal out there. I guess my issue is, that idea is short sighted as you are taking away your product from an extremely large market. If you look at the NFL, they used to offer so much free football, that they went the other route and took their largest (at the time) game of the week (MNF) and sold the rights to ESPN. However, the NFL still offers free football all day on Sunday. Free. Anyone can watch it. The casual fan / the person with nothing to do / anyone. The NFL had 1 playoff game on cable television last year. A wild card game that aired at 3:30 on Saturday. Before we get to the World Series baseball will have had 1 game on "free" TV. (Game 1 of the ALCS) Looking at MLB, there is almost no free baseball. And I just don't get that. The only free baseball they offer is Saturday afternoon games on fox during the summer (I am sure their ratings are awesome for that.) and then all of a sudden the world series is available on "free" tv. Then baseball wonders why they are losing their fan base. Well maybe because no one is able to watch your league unless they pay for cable. I think baseball would be in a much better spot if they sold something like Wednesday night baseball to NBC/CBS/Fox/ABC throughout the year. So someone has a chance at catching a baseball game and you know actually enjoying it. They could then start selling playoff games or series to someone other than cable tv. The NFL also has just a better "NFL" package vs MLB. MLB needs a "Men on base" channel (like the red zone) or a "9th inning close game" channel. Back in 2004, game 7 of the ALCS was on Fox and drew a whopping 11.7 rating. Baseball is missing out on drawing in fans by putting the best of their product on paid TV. To me, I find that disappointing.

That is good to hear numbers are up but A game 5 of Texas vs Toronto drew 4.8 million viewers. Where Sunday night football earlier this year drew 26 million+ on NBC when it was Seattle vs Packers. http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/weekly-ratings-nbc-football-americas-got-talent-1201599794/ That is good to hear the numbers are up, but they could be better on standard tv

The other thing is, with 3 of the 4 series going to a game 5 in the divisional round, they missed out on a ton of ratings being on TBS and FS1

I agree that is why they are going to cable route but I think it is short sighted. It is hard to grow the sport when fewer people can watch the post season. There are a lot of sports fans who really don't follow baseball as much as they do other sports. How else do you get a sports fan who isn't all that into baseball if they can never see the best the sport has to offer? I agree with this. I think it is ridiculous that the first "free" game will be game 1 of the ALCS. And only game 1. The next game will be game 1 of the world series. I agree with fluff, baseball is missing out on the casual fan. I am 33 and many of my friends do not have cable anymore. Cable is really starting to go to the way side. With all the other offerings, Netflix, hulu, etc, many people are starting to opt out of cable. Just wait until Netflix purchases the rights to a game or you tube. That time is coming.

for sure - I am on the same page with you. Joey bats is awesome. His career has been an odd one

Having been to all the playoff games of the Brewers in recent years, the stadium is amped and they do not need to bump up the noise. Playoff baseball is awesome. It is just non stop screaming / yelling / standing / cheering. I remember in 2008 when the Brewers handed out those boom sticks. Those things made a weird noise with 45k+ banging them

It's been a long time coming. I have been wanting many of them ousted for a while

Mets vs Cubs, Jays vs Royals would definitely be giving a tip of the cap to the youngsters.

There is absolutely no way this was a "split second" decision on Utley's part. When you watch the replay from the first base camera, (Utley's POV), the 2nd baseman fields the ball, and Tejada is at the bag and Utley takes exactly six more steps. COunt em'........6. 6 Steps is a few seconds, not a split second. As I've said, I do not believe his intent was to injure, but he was not a baserunner, he was going in to break up a double play. However, he did not even go in with the pretense that he was trying to safely secure the base, and that's where I think there's where there's the issue with the play. RoCoBrewfan, I think you vastly overestimate how much time Utley had. There is something called the - it's related to self-defense/police officer survival as opposed to baseball, but some principles are the same, especially involving breaking up the double play. Six steps could be about 20-25 feet. For the sake of argument, let's say 21 feet - the distance used in the Tueller Drill. One side note: The Tueller Drill usually involves someone who is standing still, and then starts running. Utley was already running towards second base when he crossed that 21-foot mark. Police Magazine has some more on the dynamics, but I think that you're being unfair to Chase Utley here. He did not have a few seconds - he maybe had a second and half at most to recognize what was going to happen, decide on a course of action, and then execute said course of action, and he probably defaulted to what he was trained to do by coaches going back to high school - break up the double play. So in football, when Clay Matthews has the QB in his sights, he should be allowed 6 steps after the QB throws the ball? The would be unnecessary roughness all day long. In baseball, the only issue is their isn't much of a precedence for punishing Utley. So if that is your argument, that's fine. I won't disagree with that. But Utley, knew exactly what he was doing when he began his slide into the mid thigh of Tejada. It wasn't a split second, oooops moment. He knew based on where the ball was, where Tejada was coming from and where he needed so "slide" to take Tejada out completely. And my gut tells me, this type of tackle slide will soon be banned.

Intent on injury of course not, intent on beginning his slide at mid thigh of Tejada, yes he went into the slide knowing exactly where he was going to slide to break up the double play. And his slide was no where near trying to be safe at second. His sole goal was to hit Tejada as hard as possible. As I said before, this type of slide where you are just sliding just to make a collision will soon be banned. It's the reason it happened at home plate. What if this happened to Jeter. Does everyone think MLB offices are going to sit back and say, it's just part of the game? No, it's in MLB's interest to protect players from injury. Especially on unnecessary collisions. And to think Uttley is free of any blame is lunacy in my opinion.