HiAndTight

Weren't you JUST saying that this series could decide the Brewers season? So if they were going to bring him up anyway after the series, having an extra left-handed bat off the bench hardly seems like a bad thing for "just one or two" of the most important games of the year...according to you. And why Stearns did or didn't comment is such an open-ended question. There are a million variables.

Something is up. Moose plays 3B daily and Hiura plays 2B daily. Shaw/Aguilar/Thames platoon doesn't sound plausible. Shaw in a soft platoon with Moose at 3B and Hiura at 2B doesn't sound likely either. For me, the most likely candidates to move are Thames (so Shaw platoons at 1B with his eventual transition there for 2020) or Hiura (moved for a TOR arm). Could point to a Aguilar to the Rays type deal. The Brewers can play Shaw at 1st. Kinda hurts the lineup vs lefties, but...there's that.

Ok, that was from the same post. But you're putting words in my mouth. Just because he's not that highly regarded yet...he was drafted just last year and is still just a teenager, he's already progressed to HiA. That means he could be up next year. I wouldn't count on it, but I think he's a special talent. As for your other two points, I don't give a damn what the Giants are doing. I really, really don't. I remember watching the Brewers win 12 in a row during a ~100 loss season. It was one of their first in Miller Park. A hot stretch doesn't make a team a contender and it's not even OUR team? I don't get what point you think you're making by saying, "look, this team just won a lot of games." Great. They're not us. The conversation is about us. If we had just won 16 of 19, I probably would feel differently, but they didn't. And no, you don't "owe it" to Yelich to trade prospects because they MIGHT wash out in the future. You don't "owe" Yelich a damn thing other than his salary. You(as in the Brewers organization) owe it to the fan base to make the smartest decisions. That probably means making a couple trades and seeing what you can get for the guys who you don't have room to protect on the 40 man this off-season. But feel free to feel differently. I'm not here demanding you agree with my opinion that we should sell. Just PLEASE stop with the stupid "what if's" when it comes to prospects? It's a pointless hypothetical argument that ignores the fact that virtually every good, sustained run from a small-mid market team is built upon a foundation of developing your own talent. Not drafting a guy who some talked about being the first pick, watching him excel in his first full year and then trade him because...hey, he's just a prospect. Mike Trout, just a prospect at one point. Yelich, just a prospect at one point. Also, selling certainly isn't just about prospects as you're not likely to get that much back for Grandal and Moose. Sell, pick up some pieces, save some money for this year, go with the younger guys a bit more and then next year when you're getting Knebel back, Wahl back, Rasmussen is likely ready, you can re-load. You also have several other guys coming up through the pipeline in Supak, Ponce, Grisham, Dubon, all could be contributors(plus a number I didn't mention). But yeah, it's fine to have a different opinion bud. I get it. You don't want to sell. But given the choice between buying and selling right now, I do want to sell and the old, tired, "what ifs" about prospects not panning out and maybe we never get back here...I put zero stock in. Prospects not panning out is baked into every consideration about team building. It's not something that's new to almost anyone on this board. It's not this unique or strange new point of view. We all get how it works. Finally, I REALLY hope David Stearns doesn't do anything because it'd "be a bad look" compared to what the Giants are doing. And I've seen that the Giants are still considering selling their franchise pitcher. So people can "see" lots of things lots of different places. It doesn't make them particularly credible. But let me ask you this. How did it work out for the Pirates when they got on a hot streak last year and then shipped out 3 highly regarded players for an "established" starting pitcher? Hilariously bad. Doing the same stupid thing the Pirates did last year. Now THAT'D be a bad look(except as of now, we'd be doing it without any momentum leading up to the trade).

Okay, if that's your approach and I'm playing devil's advocate..what IF you do that and then don't sniff the playoffs again for the forseeable future?? Because keep in mind, that is ENTIRELY possible, then was it worth it?? What if the prospects you get, never pan out?? Again, entirely possible. And, what IF Stearns does make a couple of moves, and even if they aren't HUGE moves, they are enough to give the team a jolt and the ystart playing really good baseball after that?? That is far from unprecedented you know. Exhibit A...the Cubs after acquiring Quintana, and many other examples as well. I'm not playing hypotheticals. You asked a question, I answered it. and I actually meant April 25th. You're saying that we're saying the game is over with 8 and a half innings to go. APRIL 25th would be more appropriate. Certainly not 100 games into the season. And the Brewers aren't comparable to the Cubs when they traded for Quintana. They're not nearly as talented. And they gave up a stupid amount for him. I would almost guarantee they would regret making that move right now. Jimenez and Cease both look like future stars if not superstars.

Actually no they likely would not, because the Cardinals are now in 1st as well. With that said the weekend series definitely means a lot. As you said sweep and it changes everything. Get swept and you're 5 back and may as well sell. Really need to at least get 2 of 3 to really make a strong case to buy. Sure, if they get swept...yes, then I agree with you, but I do not under any circumstances expect that to happen...let me ask you this..if the trade deadline was tomorrow, would you buy or sell?? Keep in mind, you are two games back...just two, with a lot of baseball to be played yet. You know how people get ridiculed for saying "ballgame" or "it's over" in the game threads if the Brewers get down early?? That's what this seems like to me..you(and many others) are saying "it's over" with 81/2 innings to go yet. Lot of ball game left. That may be apt if this was June 25th and people were looking at a team around .500 and talking about selling. It's not. To answer your question, buy or sell? Emphatically sell. Because if the only other option is buying, I'm not sure who we're giving up to get back talent. I think Turang is awesome. I love his game. He's not established enough to bring be the centerpiece to bring back an ace. And we're not an "ace" away from contending as of right now. So..yeah, I'd consider selling everyone but probably Hiura, Yelich and Hader and the later only because I don't really thin we get fair value for him. But if we did get a Chapman like offer, I'd sell him as well. You have to know when it's not your year and it's not the Brewers year. Nelson's total inability to pitch after coming back was demoralizing, Woodruff's big breakout year is not a big set back as he's out for at least 6 weeks(I wouldn't be surprised if he made his last start also), Shaw and Aguilar, two legitimate middle of the order hitters the last two years started off just awful. This is when smart teams like the A's or Rays last year when they were in a similar position as we are now decided to sell Archer. They were competitive, but they know it'd be better to take a step back, let the young guys play and come back at it next year.

I remember MULTIPLE iterations of lineup projections that had Agular at 3rd base...as a regular. So....yeah, I think if that's the bar we're setting, Aguilar at 3rd, Moose at SS works just fine for me! Of course I do hope that's not actually the bar we're setting as our pitchers have enough trouble getting 3 outs an inning, no reason to give the other team an extra 5 or 6 a game. As for "Thor," does anyone actually really want him that badly? I don't want to make a trade in which we give up Turang as the centerpiece for Syndergaard....if we gave up Hiura...it just feels like the baseball version of throwing good money after bad. Missing the playoffs in a year you expected to compete sucks, but it's not the end of the world. Compounding the disappointment by trading away the potential cornerstones to your future in an effort cling to the hopes that you can get back to where you were last year when you just missed out, that just strikes me as desperate and dumb. Something I don't think even the best GM's are immune to at some point in their career, but I really hope Stearns just doesn't give anything up.

I don't make absolute statements on here....but I can absolutely say they're not sending Hiura back down...almost. Maybe to a 10-day stint if they've got any concerns about the...what was it again, quad injury? But they're not sending Hiura back down now. I was bullish on Hirura(not THIS confident) but I understood there were several factors in sending him back down last time. There is no logical reason to do so now and I don't think they would even consider it.

Kinda that Del Curry on the Bucks type role. That's a really nice player to have. And you can't just keep a guy on him. Not with Giannis on the floor. Giannis, Bled...the way they both are able to get to the basket, Korver's gonna be able to get some open looks. And hell, he can hit contested looks still as well. I don't think they're as good as they would have been had they kept Brogdon, and I'm still not sure what happened with the TPE, if they have it or not, but given the situation going into this past season and Giannis latest comments, there's at least room for optimism. The Giannis wanting to be like Dirk, Steph....Duncan, I can't remember who else. Kobe maybe. But guys who all played in one place. Now it's be really great is DDV is cleared to practice at the start of camp. He wasn't clear yet by Summer League..which isn't all that telling as you're not gonna risk a player for Summer League, but still a bit disconcerting.

I think people want to convince themselves that losing Brogdon doesn't hurt because they want to be optimistic. In the playoffs, the rotation shrinks and losing a starter who shot 50/40/90 is an enormous loss. Getting guys to fill out the roster, something they could have and would have done either way doesn't change that. And the problem vs Toronto wasn't scheme, it was that the Bucks stopped hitting their shots and the Raptors started hitting theirs. Losing the best shooter you had in that series who could also defend 3 positions and do multiple things does not make us better on paper. Hopefully with Kawhi leaving the Bucks get out of the East, but if they end up playing the Clippers, they're gonna need another guy who can handle the ball with George, Leonard and Beverly on the floor.

I have no idea whether it'll translate to MLB, but with Freitas it's worth noting that he did the same thing (better, in league-adjusted numbers, in fact) in 2018 without the juiced balls. And that his offensive numbers aren't a result of a HR surge fueled by the juiced baseballs. Breakout hitters who are mostly the same except with better HR numbers are the ones I'd be really wary of. Improvements that see things like BB/K numbers improve I would put a bit more stock in. That being said, it would still take injuries (To Grandal or Piña, or to two of Thames/Aguilar/Shaw/Moustakas) for him to be up here, as releasing Piña at this point would be a dumb move. That Seattle were willing to let him to despite his 2018 numbers is something to consider though. I just don't like the type of reasoning (Not specifically related to the quoted post, but something that comes up a lot) that "He's a career minor leaguer, therefore will never amount to anything". Everyone is a career minor leaguer until he makes it in the majors or retires. After a certain age a breakthrough is less likely; a genuine improvement in skills starts to get offset by aging, but they do happen. Perhaps more so among catchers, who have so many things to focus on, and who get fewer plate appearances too. Our own Manuel Pineapple isn't a too dissimilar; he had close to 3100 minor league PAs when he got his chance with the Brewers, Freitas is at 3114. Development isn't linear, players don't all age the same way either. Chronological age is just a proxy for biological age that is helpful on a population level but not really individually. Maybe Freitas won't ever amount to anything in the majors, but make that evaluation based on him and his play, and not just on age and 123 MLB PAs. Even in the more optimistic scenarios though, he's not going to be the magic bullet that "fixes" this season. He gets a chance to audition in September and/or if injuries hit (Or if the team trades the impending FAs), and he'll be among the options for the catcher spots on the 2020 roster. With a healthy Grandal on the roster, no other catcher will really get to make a significant impact. Hopefully, he's figured it out. Hopefully, he thrives for us at some point. I doubt it, but maybe. I'm happy either way(happier if the Brewers do better). But the constant deluge of Freitas love from watching him play in 3 games and him putting up a nice box score is what gets a touch old. It really is one absolute obsession and then right on to the next.

AAA#’s Salad > .288 .375 Spang > .317 .385 Freitas > .361 .442 Grisham > .353 .426 Didn’t show home runs and ops because of the juiced ball. Huge difference statistically between the 2 sets of players. Grisham and Freitas also don’t K and walk a lot. Freitas had about as many ab’s last year in his mlb trial with Seattle when he hit .221 as Pina has this year hitting under .200. And this is Freitas’s second AAA year in a row raking. He’s obviously found his hitting stroke, aka Max Muncy, and I’m assuming will be our starting catcher next year. Good job unearthing this guy by our GM. You didn't really just compare him to Max Muncy, did you? The guy's been in AAA since 2013(not figuratively, literally). Pretty sure he's not Max Muncy. I mean, I'm not positive, but man. You seem like an absolute gluten for punishment. Just go like...over the the top ALL-IN on this random guy we got for a bag of balls(despite the fact that he raked in AAA last year) and you throw out Max Muncy who put 4.2 WAR so far this year(and last year) along with a line of.263/.391/.589 with a .973 OPS? God help us if they don't bring him up this year and soon, because I've already seen his name SOOOOO many times I've searched for a reason as to why this would be relevant. You're trying to compare him to Pina, but in doing so your neglect to mention that Pina is an exceptional defensive catcher and you use Pina's worse offensive season(When he's got extremely sporadic playing time? Why not just compare both of their first years in the big leagues? Answer? Because Pina's actually been a pretty solid offensive catcher .264/.320/.409 while playing great D and from 2016-2018...and then your comparison doesn't look quite as good.

The answer to that is never. It has never happened before. Pretty dang cool! I'm shocked that Braun didn't. This is pretty cool. I really thought Hiura would hit right out of the gate, but nobody could have expected this(unless you love 30-year-old AAA catchers and bring them up CONSTANTLY despite having one of the better offensive catchers in the game).

Peralta seems like the logical choice to replace him, but man has he been dealing from the pen lately. I doubt they go down that road again. I think Houser for sure will go back to the rotation (which is kinda unfortunate). It wouldn't surprise me to see Wilkerson (ugh) take starts as well. They've already said Nelson isn't going to be stretched out again as a starter this year. My choice would be Supak, but they seem hesitant to even promote him from AA. Matt Harvey (big gulp) just passed through waivers unclaimed, and is a free agent. They liked him last year. Why not Harvey. He's got the stuff. Might as well toss him out there and see if he can do anything, give us any type of shot in the arm. If he can't, are we really in a different spot than we are now?

Hamilton was a really nice player for the Brewers for a while, agreed. Put up a couple 3.6 WAR seasons, dealt with some injuries, but still, good 6 year run in Milwaukee. I was more excited about Grissom as well(though a little let down because that's the year we were rumored to be going after Kenny Lofton if I remember correctly and then settled for Grissom). But Grissom was a more exciting player. Hammonds belongs on the list though because as others pointed out, he got that record contract. And that's when the team was really over the top cheap. That one just seemed SOO obvious to fail though. With him having a big year with the Rockies the year before, you just knew it was a fluke. Grissom though was like a poor mans Lofton in CF and on the bases. At least that's how I remembered it. Also, that doesn't have much to do with the Brewers, but anyone realizes that Dante Bichette had a career, CAREER WAR of just 5.7? That just doesn't seem like it can possibly be right. He had a couple of huge seasons, he had that cannon in RF. If someone would have asked me to guess, I'd have thought he had a career WAR of ~25-30, not 5.7. But in refreshing my memory on Hammonds year with the Rockies before coming to Milwaukee, I looked at the Rockies page and then his. 5.7 WAR. Seems impossible when the guy has as dominant a year as he did the year he finished runner up in the MVP and a guy who led the league in hits twice.

Mench? Again, I struggle to remember who we were that excited about, but I guess I don't recall high expectations for Mench. Braggs is another really good one. Whoever mentioned Ben Gamel, that's a big one, both as someone I've somehow forgotten even though his brother is currently on the team and because he was supposed to be that final piece, that lefty handed bat on a predominantly right-handed hitting team that could get us over the hump and help put out just a ridiculously deep lineup. I remember when he hit his first HR vs St Louis the Cards announcers made some dry, almost annoyed comment along the lines of, "great, just what they need, ANOTHER power hitter." It sure seemed like he was going to be the next Braun type offensive talent and then injuries just kinda zapped him.

The subject is "failed expectations". You can't possibly suggest that Burnes and Peralta haven't failed their expectations in a major way? The front office carried out their offseason plan expecting Burnes and Peralta to step into the rotation. That is why they didn't resign Miley, that is why they didn't try to acquire any starting pitching in the off season. Their inability to pitch effectively in the rotation resulted in a chain reaction and is certainly one reason the team is where it is right now. In terms of being an "All Time Failure", the 2019 Brewers are the defending Division Champions and had the best record in their league last season. Even if they suddenly and magically started winning again at a .589 clip, that would put them around 87-88 wins. The reality is they'll more likely than not finish around 83-79, an incredible tumble from 2018 and despite returning almost every key contributor from the 96 win team. With Peralta and Burnes' struggles being one of the main components of this collapse, I would say that is an all time failure even for this team which is mostly known for futility. The Subject is the Brewers ALL TIME Failed Expectations team. If you want to throw out two guys who's careers have just begun...well, that seems a bit premature. Again, especially given how good both have looked at times. I would not have Guessed Peralta has just a 3.94 FIP, but a 23 year old we got as a throw in who has a 3.94 FIP almost has to be banned from this list, as does a 2nd rounder we drafted just a couple years ago who's only 24 and was a key pitcher in our run last year. If this thread was the guys who have failed to live up to expectations this year then I think Burnes and Peralta would be fine, but as it sits, I kinda agree, it seems a lilttle silly. And then just the pure speculation as to why they didn't bring back Miley when they reportedly wanted to bring him back and piling on with how good the team was last year and that's somehow on the shoulders of two guys as young as them? I can't fathom what you'd have been saying about Roy Halladay early in his career(though deeper into it than Burnes or Peralta). You'd have written him off as one of the worst big league pitchers ever. And why wouldn't Shaw and Aguilar make your list? They're at least older and every day players who aren't as prone to wild swings to back of their card because of a few particularly bad outings. It'd be like listing Brandon Woodruff as the greatest pitcher in Brewers history because this year he was the greatest pitcher. This whole argument seems like taking recency bias to an absolutely absurd level. There should be a requirement...a good start would be not still enormous parts of the Brewers future plans, still in the organization and only about 1 full year into their careers(and still very young). Anyway, actual candidates who come and gone. Just in the past 10-15 years, a couple of big ones on the mound would have to be Wily Peralta and Manny Parra. Peralta had ace-like stuff. Threw in the upper 90's, had good movement on his fastball, had that "breakout" year and then fell off a cliff. Parra was a power lefty who just never put it together for any sustained period of time. Zack Braddock was another guy who had great stuff but just couldn't put it together. I like Salome at catcher....though I do have a bit more sympathy for players who suffer injuries, those seen and unseen and he dealt with the later to some degree. Pat Listach. That amazing season where the Brewers were chasing the Jays the whole year and into the final weekend and he was the catalyst on the team. I guess that'd bring up Cal Eldred as well as he dominated that year almost like CC did after we traded for him-after Eldred came up and went into the rotation. Marc Newfield is an obvious one, but we've had quite a few in the OF. But man, there are just soooo many options for this list. It's almost hard to remember all the guys that you were excited about at the time. The year we went out and made a "big" FA splash and signed Hammonds. I think Villar should be in the utility role. I mean, we didn't expect him to be good until he was..so then we expected it. It's too early to write off Brett Phillips, but I thought he'd be a bigger impact player for the Brewers. Still hoping he will be for the Royals.

With Woody going down for 6 weeks, I WISH you were wrong, but I don't think you are. I wonder what teams think of Grisham, where he'd be ranked to other executives. If they want to consider him to be a top 75 prospect, I'd deal him now. If they want to value him lower, I don't see any point in trading him. I'm a little skeptical that he's as good as he's hitting right now just as I was a little skeptical or Ray last year(for the record, Ray has only been bad for a small sample size and has been injured and Grisham has been much better, so not comparing them, just saying I'm not all in on Grisham being a middle of the order or top of the order bat). I really think the best thing to do would be to just stand pat for the most part. You have to move a few guys who you won't have room for on the 40 man and you can get solid relievers in return, but I'd just go with what we have if we're not going to trade Grandal and Moose. This year's iteration of the Brewers just doesn't look strong enough to contend this year. I actually think one of the biggest problems is that David Stearns got this thing turned around too fast. You look at the Astros and Cubs and they had 4-5 years picking in the top 5. And of course they hit on so many other players as well. I mean, hard to "fault" Stearns for turning things around more quickly, but at least for this year, we're kinda stuck in the "in-between." At best, we're a team that sneaks into the playoffs, at worst we win 80 games in a year in which the owner devoted more resources than ever before. So my answer to this would be; MAYBE Hader(I remember a month ago someone posting a hypothetical with Alvarez in it and 3 others....that would look awfully nice) but only if we're blown away. And then any guys who likely won't be around next year. The good but not great prospects who likely won't quite crack the 40 man, and upcoming FA's. Grandal should be able to get you a top 100-ish type prospect and potentially a couple more lotto picks. Moose is having a career year. Jeffress isn't as good as he was last year, but still has good enough stuff and we have enough talented right handed arms to replace him next year. The absolute worst case for me would be to see the Brewers move Turang as the centerpiece to try and get back a starter who's just not going to put them over the hump. Slash what payroll you can this year, try and get some MLB ready players or guys who are at least closer to the bigs if possible and re-load and make another run at it next year. In the meantime, give Peralta, Burnes the ball every 5th day, bring Shaw back up and try and get these guys going so they feel good heading into next year. That'd be my preference.

Ok, lets get a little crazy(since we're already talking about trading Yelich and Hader). The Astros would like another front line starting pitcher, preferably one they control for the near future with Cole leaving next year presumably. Woodruff+Hader for Forest Whitely, Yordan Alvarez, Corbin Martin, J.B. Bukauskas and Brandon Bielak. I mean, if we're trading away our best young pitcher when he's under team control through 2024, might as well add our most valuable and get back a couple of injured, but really high ceiling guys in return, a monster OF'er and couple of future relief aces. Then we turn around, sell Yelich....pick the team and then grab 4 or 5 of their top prospects! Then if a couple of them hit, turn around and trade THEM in a couple of years. Seriously though, does Houston agree to that trade in your opinion? I don't think we do, but do you think they give up their top two pitching prospects, an all-world OF prospect(made more likely with Tucker waiting in the wings) and a couple of other young arms? I just figured as long as the trades were getting a little over the top...lets tr this one on for size!

But wait, I thought the Brewers payroll was going to be 190 million or so? Remember how easy it was? You cracked the puzzle. The Brewers simply raise their payroll to ~200 or so million when it comes time to win a couple World Series, and then they slash them to 50 when they don't want to win. The most ironic thing of all of this, you believe that we're going to have FIVE aces on the team next year, yet you want to trade the second best offensive player over the last calendar year despite controlling him for cheap through 2022 ALL THE WHILE you're #1 goal is to win a WS while Uecker and Selig are alive? Oh, and also Brandon Woodruff if now the most highly regarded young pitcher in all of baseball. Ahead of Walker Buehler and others. I feel like 95 pct of what you say should be in blue. Oh...sorry, I forgot, on top of having those 5 aces next year, we're also going to sign Gerrit Cole, trade for Bauer, re-sign Grandal and Moose. So....while doing all those things, you're right, nothing makes more sense than trading the extremely affordable, game-changing MVP we have cheap for the next two and a half years!!!!

First statement, so is that the reason that we don't have 4 aces in our rotation right now like you said we would with another on his way up next year? Also, no, not everyone is on pace for 25 HR's. Also, both these statements can be true; Arcia is playing plus defense AND "it’s not been to the level it was in the past.” That was what Counsell said about him. He wasn't playing AS good as he has in the past. Also, since this is basically a debate between Arcia and Dubon, Dubon is hitting the same balls Arcia is, just at a lower level and I don't think even the Maurico's father here believe that he's going to defend better than Arcia.

But do the Brewers currently think Arcia is going to be “really good”? Brewers don’t have a replacement? Dubon was literally replacing Arcia last May before he had a significant knee injury. The Brewers won 96 games last year and Arcia was demoted twice. Talk about silly statements. He’s essentially splitting time with Saladino at the moment. What exactly is it about Dubon that people see the next Perez and only that??? Are you one of those people who just overuses the word literally? Because I've seen it a few times now. He LITERALLY was not "replacing" Arcia. He was...and I quote, "working himself into being an option." That is what was LITERALLY said about him last year, not that he was going to "replace Arcia." As for the rest, others have weighed in and you've ignored. How about this. Man, this is getting to the point where someone just harps on something so pointless for so long about a player, that you actually start to almost root against that player because of the amount of over-hyping and hyperbole going on. Most of us like Dubon(though some of us less and less with each post). He looks like he could be a decent utility guy. He could probably play a passable SS, but there are a lot of plays that Arcia routinely makes that he likely wouldn't be able to. Hopefully, he'll hit for a decent average, probably less power than Arcia, but most likely not much of an upgrade. I hope I'm wrong though. I mean, I don't care what this team's record is, I measure winning and losing in my own unique way, ie, how many Honduras natives you have on your team!

Disagree as I'd still care. The number of wins a team has is irrelevant to me. If a change needs to be made you make it. If Arcia was playing plus defense his inconsistent bat can be overlooked but this isn't the case. You upgrade where you can, when you can. Really? So you don't care if a team has 116 wins or 69 wins? Hmm...I suspect that's nonsense! And Arcia is absolutely still playing plus defense, hitting for power, though he is very inconsistent. But this is a good question. "You upgrade where you can when you can." Well, Brandon Woodruff is not one of the top 5 starting pitchers in baseball! I don't care how good he's doing, they need to upgrade? Seriously though, OBVIOUSLY OldschoolSnapper is right. If Cain, Shaw and Aguilar were performing like they did last year and Chacin, Burnes were meeting expectations, and our BP wasn't hit by the injury bug...or really just any one of those, NOBODY would care about our glove-first SS who's on pace for about 25 Hr's and has an OPS around .700. Especially since I don't think anyone wants to give up the assets it'd cost to actually find a real improvement.

Many studies have shown that you will spend more if you use a credit/debit card versus cash. It's just common sense. Sure, if you can stick to it and pay it off every day or even every week you're good. But most can't. Plus, I become WAY more generous when I'm using a CC. I tell the kids working for me to throw there stuff up there, "I got it," and I know I sure as hell wouldn't do that if I went back to using cash. I use to put 200 dollars in my wallet each week(and then, of course, the secret but not secret emergency 100 folded up) and I'd try to make it through the week on that. But there are just so many perks to the right credit cards that you're wasting money....as long as you pay them off right away. Suffice to say, I'd no longer get by if my CC limit was 200 dollars.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing. Because the rest of those guys were still doing the same things when another elite or near elite defender Siakam was the primary defender in Giannis. Yet Giannis was still dominant. The only thing that changed and then ultimately changed the series was when Kawhi was switched to Giannis. All the pieces stay the same except for one. Who do you give credit to in that scenario? Rather who do you give almost all the credit to? The other players always play a role. But when everything stays the same except for one player and then the Bucks whol offense changes, I think you can attribute that to one player. Giannis had to navigate a long and extremely athletic Siakam, Gasol/Ibaka and Kawhi and he dominated. When it became Kawhi and then Siakam and Gasol/Ibaka(As the two didn't play together much) he struggled BADLY. So yes, I choose the second option. I think the other guys where there the whole time and it wasn't until Kwahi started defending him that things changed. We seem to keep agreeing to disagree and then continuing to disagree about it. Also, nobody's paying me. I'm not breaking anything down to try and create a talking point. I'm simply saying what I believe happened and it's not something that I enjoy saying at all. If I was Skip Bayless, I'd stick my head in the sand and deny it happened because it was "my guy" who got beat. Kinda like what he did all series by refusing to give Kawhi any credit because he left SA and forced his way out. And no, I don't think Boston could have done it with Morris. This wasn't a case where they were slowing Giannis down and then meeting at the rim. It was a case of one player being able to stop Giannis penetrating and forcing Giannis to go to something he wasn't comfortable with. Giannis beats Morris and probably just about every other defender with his first step(a LOONG first step) and makes him look like a fool. Hell, they tried doing that with long and more athletic players like Tatum and it didn't work. Only one team made it work because of one player. Honestly, if Boston WAS going to try and do it, Smart would have been their best options. As for Bledsoe, he's an elite PG at penetrating and finishing at the rim and on Defense. IN the post-season though, it was if he was afraid of getting his shot blocked. Instead of keeping the ball high and going up strong, either getting the foul or absorbing the contact and finishing through it, he'd turn his body and...well, I don't know what the hell he was doing. He'd fling it up there from these odd angles falling away. The guy goes up there and put the ball high off the glass against bigs all regular season long and just couldn't come close to doing the same thing in the playoffs. I fhe could do that, I'm sure the shot would start falling more. If he can just play his regular season style, and relax, the Bucks can start with Him, any one of 4-5 different options now in the backcourt with him and then Middleton, Giannis and Lopez. That allows Hill to come off the bench and either run the second unit or even play off of Bledsoe. Either work, as Bledsoe can guard bigger guard due to his strength and Hill, can defend PG's pretty well...as long as he's not playing 30 MPG for a long stretch. Still, I was REALLY hoping for a Quinn Cook or Troy Daniels type signing. I don't know if Cook signed for a minimum deal and if so, he likely wasn't coming here anyway, but I know Daniels did, and had the Bucks been aggressive, they could have had a 6'4 PG who can shot the lights out. Of course he's more of a catch and shoot guy and not really a great passer, he's another ball handler. And Cook is a very good ball handler and a very good shooter. And then Korver is available and interested in the Bucks. I guess. He can't really do anything else anymore, but if he can hit 43 pct of his 3 point shots, he just needs to catch and shoot. Either one of those guys would have been great additions.

Well, they don't have cap room and they're not likely to have cap room for years to come(at least if things go right they're not). But they could have had the assets and the means to make that trade had they not gone cheap...again, assuming it's in fact true and they didn't get the TPE because they didn't clear another 700K from their cap. I'm willing to bet they could have gone back to Middleton and asked him to take 700K less this year. They probably could have done a dozen things in order to make it happen. Really hoping it's BS though and they do in fact have the TPE. I'd like to see a course from Twins saying they don't...unless it's something he heard reported. But as of now I'm just annoyed. They could get it and never use it and nobody would have been the wiser. They could have gotten it, used it in a 3 team trade and stayed under the cap. Why handcuff your GM by taking that option away.