DHonks

I know it’s a bit of a different era, but I see some Cirillo or Bill Mueller type production. Solid avg, solid obp. He’ll have more hr and steals than those two. That can be very useful even if it’s not the traditional 3b power.

The Brewers are victims of limitations on market size and local media rights. MLB needs to find a better way of sharing media revenues. Big market teams will always get ahead in other areas (can charge more for tickets, sell more apparel, etc), but the media rights crush us and the Rays, despite good ratings

I’m still waiting for JM Gold, Nick Neugebauer, Jose Morse’s, and Ryan Poe to solidify our rotation. And who didn’t love Garrison from the Hun School (whatever that is)

I have a feeling the Brewers prefer to promote from within and have been thinking about this for some time. Always prepare for something. We had a plan in place when Stearns stepped down. Erickson makes a lot of sense on the surface, although we don't know what the higher ups think of him or the players for that matter. I've thought about Ross and Maddon. To be honest, I don't know enough about Ross as a manager except that he's done well with difficult ownership and a partial rebuild. I always liked that Maddon thought outside the box before most others did. I'd also consider trying to pry away Cash.

Given the different costs of living, he'd have to get offered probably 20-30% more to make moving to New York City worth it. I've always wondered how heavily agents factor this in.

It's also an interesting shift for the Brewers. Back in the 2000's we had defensively challenged stud hitters in Weeks, Fielder, and Braun. Hiura fit the mold as well. Now we're drafting defensive studs that are superathletic, but we're not sure how much they'll hit in the majors. Different times, so I get it. Heck, for the last two years I've advocated drafting more line-drive and contact guys and hoping they'll develop power. With pitchers throwing harder than ever with pitches crafted in a lab, utilizing all parts of the strike zone better than ever previously, it seems there's value in hitters that have fewer holes in their swings.

the tough thing is that Hiura was our 2nd or 3rd best hitter in 2022, but never sniffed the roster despite injuries to our 1b and DH. Also, might his Sept injury have been the elbow injury that finally leads him to Tommy John surgery? I'd take him back again, but I have a feeling he'll go elsewhere and carve out some more big league time.

I'd try to reach some sort of 2-3 year deal with Woodruff. Like 2 years $18 million ($5 m in 2024, $13m in 2025). Or 3 years $25 million ($5m 2024, $8m 2025, $12m 2026). The Brewers would be giving up guaranteed money but he'd have financial certainty.

If not CC, I could see Murphy, Erickson, or others with connections. I also wonder if Joe Madden is interested.

Not sure why this is said. We had several years with NO offensive prospects. This year we opened with rookies in CF, RF (a day after opening day), and 2b. We have talent on the doorstep, and so we used it. Counsell never had anything against rookies, we previously lacked talented rookies.

I included this as well in my thoughts. This is the point when the Rays would trade him. And with what Payamps, Peguero, McGill, Uribe, etc have shown, it gives hope the bullpen will continue as a strength. I'd like Williams and Yelich back, but this could be peak return for them.

This is always a tough conversation. I'll start with the new guys: Donaldson- liked his hard hits, power potential. I doubt he'd sign for around $2.5M, but if he did I'd love it. Santana- clearly the best defensive 1b we've had in a long time. Had some timely hits and part of rallies. Would kind of like him back short term if the price is right Canha- Really a good fit for us. He's OBP, he's doubles and homers, he's good at bats. Most of our lineup is light on power. Just not sure we can afford him. Now on the others: Burnes pretty much needs to be traded. I always said I wanted to sign Woody and trade Burnes walk due to repertoire, age (aka, expected cost and willingness to sign extension), previous conflict with organization. Yelich- massive bounce back year, but now the question is was this the start of things to come or a fluke? If back, needs to return to 3/4 spot in lineup. Also needs to be moved out of the OF, or at least limited to only 20-40 games out there. I would consider trading him if he can add value to a trade (with Burnes?), but I don't want to dump him. I'd like to see him in the old Edgar Martinez or David Ortiz role as full-time DH. Adames- thought he'd be traded for sure, but his stats are sort of a conundrum. He plays great Defense, has power, has doubles. His OBP is weak and strikeouts are high given his power isn't elite. I thought Turang would take over at SS after his improved July/August, but now I'm not so sure. We may bring Willy back. Tellez- Really not sure. He offers something we lack--power. We have no real 1b prospect. I'd consider him, Canha, or Santana if the price is right Mitchell, Frelick, Taylor, Perkins, Wiemer, Chourio- We have great depth. Right now it depends on if they keep Yelich in the OF, Canha, etc. Also, could anyone shift to 1b? Some of these guys should be in AAA for more seasoning. Frelick showed a lot, but perhaps wouldn't hurt to have more AAA time. Wiemer showed a lot, but needs some sustained AAA success after basically skipping the level. I'd like to open 2024 with Perkins LF, Mitchell CF, Taylor RF (unless his elbow might need surgery). In this scenario we'd need a token 4th OF that fills the role until deciding to recall one of the others. We could also go with Frelick on the roster and simply have a nice rotation 4-5 deep in the OF Monasterio- added a nice element of putting the ball in play and line drives that this team sometimes lacked. I'd consider him for 2b it Turang moves to SS. D. Williams- I don't want to load up on prospects, but given the success of the power arms, I wonder if we could get a nice return for him. This is the point in his career when the Rays would look to trade him, as they often trade studs earlier than other franchises in order to maximize return and roster churn. Can we sign Contreras to a long-term deal?!?!?

Nearly every loss in our last month followed the same script. Take early 1, 2 or 3 run lead, don't score again, opponent rallies to win. It was sad, but sort of expected

When they had the bases loaded and Frelick coming up, I wanted to pinch hit with Wiemer and pinch run with Mitchell. Oh wait.

Really just a terrible game, and it feels like almost every loss we've had in the last month. We generally score a couple early, then not again. I was busy coaching and couldn't watch much except a little on my phone, but some things that stand out to me: Winker did everything we expected based on his in-season performance. He was on the post-season roster to weakly ground out or strike out Burnes has been inconsistent the last two seasons. In the second half of this season he pitched much better, but still had quite a few iffy games, although he usually followed them up with dominance. As always, when his cutter isn't on, announcers rave about his spin rates while he gives up walks and hard-hit balls. His curve and changeup simply aren't effective when his cutter is off Why didn't we start Caratini? He's Corbin's personal catcher for a reason, so why didn't we start him in the biggest game of Burnes' career? I shouted when we didn't send Frelick on Donaldson's hit. At that point in the game we needed to tie it. Every day I see countless teams have bases loaded and no outs and fail to score. We needed to make them make a perfect throw with a fast runner at 3rd. Our lack of power hurt. The DBacks are young, fast, and full of power. Turang cost us dearly with failing to bunt, failing to put another in play (when I thought would have been perfect to bunt with bases loaded and no outs). Peralta was pretty similar to Burnes this year. Statistically we're without our best pitcher. And Freddy's swing-and-miss arsenal should hopefully neutralize some of the free swinging DBacks. Hopefully we can get to Miley.

Damn. Last week I posted that our pitching curse was lifted, too. Every time we enter the post-season we seemingly lose a top pitcher or have them less than 100%. Fingers, Sheets, Gallardo, Williams, Woodruff, Marcum, Burnes, Woodruff again, Peralta, etc. wow

It definitely helps. I’m thinking of all those Brewers pitchers that have been hurt batting, most recently Freddy Peralta’s shoulder. on a related note, this is the first time in seemingly all Brewers playoff history we’re entering the post-season without a major pitcher injury. Rollie Fingers, Ben Sheets, Yovani Gallardo, Shaun Marcum, Brandon Woodruff, Devin Williams, Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta, etc.

And given that he was our 2nd or 3rd best hitter in 2022, you’d imagine he could help. I thought for sure he’d be up Aug 1st if he wasn’t traded before the deadline. I’d have to imagine that if Winker doesn’t show anything on rehab, that Hiura will get the call to share the DH role with Tellez. I’m not opposed to Hiura also playing a little LF as long as he gets a defensive replacement. Rowdy hasn’t shown signs of shaking off rest in the minors or MLB so far. Heck I’d like to call up Hiura and send Wiemer down to AAA for the last week of the month to get him some regular ABs and confidence.

There’s no guarantee he’s in MLB to open next year. Mitchell, Frelick, Yelich, Perkins, Wiemer, etc. all won’t be in MLB on opening day,

And regardless, even if it was 1’ foul (which it wasn’t) it would have defied physics to not have crossed the bag.

Just curious, but why wasn’t a bigger deal made out of the 1b ump screwing over Santana. That chopper was clearly over the bag AND even landed on the line like 15’ after the bag. Should have been a double. Instead Santana hit into a GIDP. Terrible job on the broadcast to just casually do a replay without slow motion or a 2nd angle

It's totally illogical that we haven't called up Hiura. He was our 2nd or 3rd best hitter last year and would dramatically improve the lineup. The only thing I can come up with is we're leaving him in AAA (and off the 40-man roster) until the trade deadline, hoping he can be a piece of acquiring something else for our big league club. In that case, I'd fully expect him up on August 1st if he's not party of a trade.

The stats I saw said he has the worst range of our OF and is below average defensively.

Apparently you listen to the Brewers broadcast crew. He has a noodle arm, gets terrible jumps on balls, and when he slides or dives he hands away extra bases. Yelich’s best position is DH.

Hiura needs to be up. He was one of our best hitters last year and we need to see if he’s figured something out. Winker can be released. Miller needs to return to utility. He had a brutal game on offense and defense, and has been that way several weeks now. losing Mitchell has really hurt. Yelich should be getting a defensive replacement in late innings like tonight.