jerichoholicninja

His age would seem to put the Brewers out since he'll be on the downside of his career when the team really needs him. He's also apparently a butcher with the glove. I'd love to see the Brewers take a chance on him but I just don't think it would fit with the organizations plans.

Smith's OPS vs RHB: .545 - 2015 .872 - 2014 .684 - 2013 .835 - 2012 This past year his platoon splits were so reversed I don't know what you can take from them. Either way he really hasn't been great against RHB in his career. Imagine Will facing a lineup of 6-7 RHB 3 times. It doesn't look like it would end well.

The draft pool thing is huge. In the past, Milwaukee rarely ventured out of the slot area and thus generally played it safe with its picks. Other teams would take flyers on guys in the 3rd round, throw a buttload of money at them, and end up with the equivalent of 2 or 3 top picks. Also, guys would essentially hold teams hostage and say, "I won't sign unless I get xyz dollars." Teams like Milwaukee passed on these types - often some of the best players - for fear of the demands. That's no where near the issue anymore with the draft pool. Can someone explain why the slotted draft makes it any different? I understand the pool and the slots but that really makes no difference to the player because the player can still demand what they want and the team has to sign them or lose draft money. Take Carlos Correa as an example. He was drafted first overall despite not being a consensus #1 pick. Houston took him #1 so they could spend more money later in the draft. Why was it just assumed that Correa would take so much less? From his perspective, who really cares where he was ranked before the draft, he was the #1 overall pick of the draft and should be paid accordingly. He should have said, "This is how much my slot is allotted. That's how much I want and won't sign for less (or much less)." Now the Astros have to sign him or lose all that money and have their strategy go bust. Any why is it assumed that there will be good players available later in the draft that you can overpay to sign? To me, having "suggested" values for picks is stupid because the players can still demand whatever they want and the drafting team takes the hit if the player doesn't want to sign.

I'd be more inclined to trade him. This team doesn't need a LOOGY right now. Smith is slightly more than just a LOOGY but not enough so that starting him really looks like a good idea. He's not expensive but I think his value to the organization is probably best utilized as a trade piece.

I had just earlier this evening tried to explain to my wife why Yost is such a bad manager. We turn the game on to see Cain trying to bunt a guy to third base with no outs. There you go.

And Braun's zero projected innings at 3B.

Hector Gomez dominated winter league last year. Where is he now?

Not entirely true. His team is posting someone else. If they don't accept a bid or that player doesn't sign with the team with the winning bid, Hwang will then be posted. Which could certainly work to the Brewers favor as Hwang could be posted so late in the offseason that many teams could have already spent their budget.

As long he makes sure the Cardinals get as many beanballs back as they give he's a good hire.

MLB isn't on free TV because it's not going to bring in as much advertising revenue. It's not going to bring in as much advertising revenue because it's not as popular with the general public. It's not as popular because MLB is such a time commitment to be a fan of. NFL is one day a week. NBA is a few days a week. I would assume NHL is the same as the NBA but I don't know. You can put MLB games on free TV as much as you want or stream in online but MLB is always going to be at the disadvantage that it takes quite a time commitment to be a fan of. MLB has 6.5 months straight of regular season games, most teams don't have multiple superstars, the same players don't play every day, you've got rain delays/rain outs, weekday day games, and the season takes place during summer which for over half the country is the only time of the year that there are things to do. The deck is really stacked against MLB in our current ADD culture. I mean I'm as big of a baseball fan as anyone on here but since I've been married I watch only a handful of Brewer games a season and hardly any playoff baseball because I've just been too busy.

Johnson brings zero value of anything. I get trying to get rid of Garza but if that is the best they can get I would take my chances on holding on to him and hopes he puts up a decent enough season that someone offers something of real value before the 2017 season.

[sarcasm]Fun Fact of the Day: All people who have years of experience and are really good at something have always and in perpetuity had that amount of experience. At no point have they ever had zero experience.[/sarcasm]

I'd love to see Ron take what is a rather potent offense and run and bunt it into the ground. Alas, I don't think his style would fit with the new regime there.

Interesting article. It really didn't directly address one main question I had (how much does a changeup rely on its spin?), but it did show the impact at Coors. Change-ups have an average Coors effect increase on BA, but a much larger increase on SLG. So its the slider pitchers that will do the best in Colorado. I actually don't mind our pitchers developing there. I think it makes them focus harder and be tighter with their control and repeatability. Hitters, on the other hand, have it too "easy" there. Its got to be difficult to adjust to the movement of pitches after leaving that environment. Hitters and pitchers still only play half of their games there. You've just got to get the players to get it through their heads that it is what it is and there's nothing you can do about it.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/155258936/dodgers-don-mattingly-part-ways Mutual agreement supposedly. I don't know much about him but the guy has made the playoffs 3 straight years and never had a team under .500. Granted, he's had some stacked teams but I don't think you can put the blame on him for not having at least an NL Championship at some point. [sarcasm]Maybe he still refuses to trim those sideburns.[/sarcasm]

I wonder if a guy like him would be better suited for coaching in the lower minors. Vanderbilt has had some great pitchers come out of there during his tenure and I feel like the job of a big league pitching coach is more about developing a game plan for each opponent than developing, which it seems like is his strength. I'm not opposed to it I just feel he's strengths would probably be best utilized in the minors. I understand there will be a young rotation and more young guys to come and that's probably their thinking as well.

I think it's pretty much confirmed that the conditions effect pitches. The real question is how does it effect a pitcher's development? Is it mental? Do the coaches have to consistently remind the pitchers to trust their breaking balls because they will work in normal conditions. Is it physical? Do players start trying to do things to get more movement that will only lead to bad habits or even injuries. It sucks that that's where our AAA team has to play but they need to figure out how to not let it be a hindrance to pitcher development. Or hitters either for that matter.

Or, like most people, they only have one option. Our only option for cable is Charter. They jacked up my rates and took away channels after the first year. I called to complain and threatened to leave and was pretty much told they couldn't care less about my problems.

I don't think the network it's on makes any difference. The people who want to watch it will watch it. The amount of people who will just haphazardly decide the watch a playoff game is so small it probably doesn't even make a difference in the ratings.

You could look at it that way or look at it as a team ripe for TJ devastation. Harvey, deGrom, and Wheeler have all had it already I think so they're looking at round 2. Plus it will be interesting to see how Harvey does next year since he's sort of in uncharted waters with his innings coming off Tommy John. Take any 2 of those guys out of that rotation and, barring any major offseason upgrades, all you've got left is an OK rotation and an underwhelming offense. Sounds like you are looking for a negative take, that rotation is just plain filthy! If they stay healthy, and add some bats to that line-up, that team could win a few WS in the next 5 years. I'm sure it is a lot of fun to be a Mets fan right now... I am looking for the negative take. Having a stacked rotation doesn't mean much. Look at the Nationals this season, and they didn't even have injuries. You have 3 young pitchers that were ridden hard this year in deGrom, Harvey, and Syndergaard - two of whom already had TJ and another in Matz who was injured a couple times and then Wheeler coming back from TJ. Of course if the Brewers had that rotation I would be ecstatic but Syndergaard has thrown 60 more innings this year than he ever has before and Harvey's thrown 30ish more innings that he's ever had before and he's just off of TJ. I just see the very real possibility that some of these guys get injured or are much less effective next season. Which is unfortunate that that's what happens to pitchers these days. I don't think we'll ever see another Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, Avery, Millwood pitching dynasty because pitchers just don't stay healthy long enough for that to happen.

You could look at it that way or look at it as a team ripe for TJ devastation. Harvey, deGrom, and Wheeler have all had it already I think so they're looking at round 2. Plus it will be interesting to see how Harvey does next year since he's sort of in uncharted waters with his innings coming off Tommy John. Take any 2 of those guys out of that rotation and, barring any major offseason upgrades, all you've got left is an OK rotation and an underwhelming offense.

I think the best move would be to keep Garza for at least a couple of months. If he is poor, then he gets moved to the pen and if that doesn't work then out the door. If he does well, then I would look to move him for whatever asap. Get him out before he comes up with some injury. All this has the additional benefit of keeping the service clock from starting for some minor league pitcher. The new GM would have some leeway with Melvin's mistake, but just think if he cuts him now and Garza produces for his new team, while we are paying the bill. Sure, but the way I see it playing out in reality is that Garza will be terrible for two months. There will be some saga about moving him to the bullpen, way later too late, then the trade deadline hits and we have a SP who is 3-10 with an ERA north of 5. Or let's say he turns it around and is average SP, which I think is unlikely but possible. Even under this best case scenario his trade value is so low that it's not worth keeping him around. He is blocking development of younger and better SP's with more potential. And he is being let off the hook for refusing a bullpen assignment which I find unacceptable. The chance of Garza netting a trade of any significant value is completely out of reach. Can we stop stating this as if it's fact. The truth behind this has been muddled by over zealous reporters trying to make a story.

I'm not sure what your point is here because Ramirez wasn't good in 2015. He should outslug him. We are just not a team that should be interested in investing multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts to average players in their 30s at any point but especially now. [sarcasm]But how many RBI's did Murphy have?[/sarcasm] I hate to be a jerk but signing Murphy would be stupid. There is no case you could make that makes signing Murphy to a multiyear deal a good thing for this franchise. On the field, whatever prime years he has left would be wasted on losing teams. The only reason he's even being brought up is because he's having a hot couple of weeks in the playoffs. And pointing out that he hit homeruns off of some really great pitchers? So what. I can pick random at bats from a player's career and use those as proof of his ability too. Signing him would also signal that Mark A is just going to continue business as usual and that there truly is not hope for this team until he sells it.

that home run rate drop has to be because of park dimensions... which after going to fangraphs you can see the comparison from 2014 hits that were homers to 2015 hits that were outs instead of homers the year before. http://www.fangraphs.com/spraycharts.aspx?playerid=1118&position=P&type=battedball&pid2=1118&ss1=2014&se1=2014&ss2=2015&se2=2015&cht1=hittype&cht2=hittype&vs1=ALL&vs2=ALL What I find most interesting from those charts in the number of infield outs in 2015 vs 2014. Maybe it was better defense in 2015 maybe it's just random variance but it looks like a lot more infield outs in 2015.

How about this trade... Cody Asche 3B $1 mill Ryan Howard 1B $25 plus 10 mill for Franco Rodriquez RP $7.5 plus 2 mill Matt Garza SP $12.5 plus 12.5 mill Trade Lind for prospects and save $8 mill Let Howard play the first half of the season (I know he can hardly run) and see if he can rebound hitting wise , then trade him (AL DH playoff team) if you can or dump if you can't. We end up Asche, prospects (from Lind trade), and more prospects (maybe) for Howard and save $6.5 mill And why would Philly do that? They get two vets for a young player when they are rebuilding. Sure, they dump Howard but they get back a cheaper junk contract and a guy in Rodriguez they have no use for because they have Giles.