Eye Black

The Padres 2012 broadcast rights deal was substantially larger than the Brewers deal (which I believe the Brewers had signed a few years earlier)... MLB close to approving Padres’ TV deal Major League Baseball has signed off on the structure of the Padres’ 20-year television deal with Fox Sports, two sources familiar with the situation said, and there are believed to be no remaining obstacles for formal approval. An official announcement could be forthcoming as soon as next week. The deal could be worth up to $1.2 billion to the Padres -- an average of $50 million a year in rights fees plus a signing bonus estimated as high as $200 million. The Padres also received a 20 percent equity stake in Fox Sports San Diego, the new TV home of the club.

The single biggest financial issue for the Brewers is the disparity in television revenue. There are organizations where the local network broadcast rights agreement makes every single other revenue source pale in comparison. Unfortunately that isn't the case for the Brewers.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle regarding the owners. I do think the large majority of ownership groups "could" afford well beyond what they spend currently as long as they were willing to eat into their own budgeted returns. There was once a time where owning a baseball team was viewed more as a hobby for really rich people. Owning a team was a trophy rather than a surefire money making entity. I think Mike Ilitch may have been among the last of that breed. Baseball ownership groups now focus on return on investment. Building countless different sources for guarantee revenue streams is now vital, and once they begin routinely tapping into those various sources of revenue I don't think they have a lot of motivation take a step back just to put a slightly better product on the field that may or may not lead to additional revenue (i.e. playoff sales). If you need proof that the owners continue finding new revenue streams despite keeping salaries relatively consistent just look at the fact they've already sold the media rights for a round of the playoffs that doesn't even currently exist. I've seen speculation that in some cases being part of an MLB ownership group guarantees more consistent ROI gains than the stock market.

If you rewind 14 years ago to 2007, Troy Tulowitzki was the 22-year old shortstop that was just breaking onto the scene. Granted, Tatis' success to this point has far exceeded anything Tulowitzki did in his early 20s. It'll be fascinating to see if he lives up to (or even exceeds) this contract.

Sort of wild that Tatis Jr. signed as a 16-year old international prospect with the White Sox back in 2015 for $700,000, and now six years later and just one month after turning 22-years old he now has $340 million guaranteed.

Per Robert Murray: Fernando Tatis Jr. and the San Diego Padres are in agreement on a 14-year, $340 million contract extension, according to sources familiar with the deal. Fernando Tatís Jr.’s extension is the third-largest contract in baseball history and the largest deal for a pre-arbitration eligible player, surpassing Mike Trout’s first extension of 144 million. Tatís Jr is represented by Dan Lozano and Roger Tomas of MVP Sports Group. —————— Impressive commitment from San Diego although the years are even more staggering than the AAV.

It counts. But it counts as a weird, small sample season that has many caveats built into it that should be considered when evaluating a player moving forward. Exactly. Go to players splits pages from previous 162-game seasons and look at their month-by-month or even game logs. Production for many players, especially hitters, ebb and flow significantly throughout a 162-game season. By condensing it to 60-games we saw a much smaller snapshot. Regardless of how good or bad some players were, given a longer sample some players would've had positive course corrections and others would've seen further regression. The key is to avoid coming up with a narrative that you know exactly what a player is capable of based on the most recent 60-games of their performance. Edit: For some additional context, the Brewers are scheduled to be through 60 games after the first week of June this season.

It's prospects week at FanGraphs and the article below included some of the mid-tier 3B prospects I mentioned on the first page of this thread, and one I had originally listed, but deleted (Hudson Potts, Red Sox). Again, the idea wasn't for guys that would necessarily be in the majors this season, but rather trying to build up a little bit of an organizational reserve at the third base position. FanGraphs Article: Mid-Tier Hitters I Like

I think it will be a banner year for run prevention at AmFam Field. The improved defense and good pitching will understandably get the lion-share of the credit, but I think AmFam Field is going to play as a pitchers park overall this year. It seems like most think of it as more of an offensive park because it allows an above average number of home runs from batters of both handedness, but for everything else (singles, doubles, triples) it has been at or below league average for the past six years (from both sides of the plate). Now add in the new deadened baseball which may help limit the home runs, and it seems like a recipe for a lot of low scoring games in 2021.

Clay Davenport's system projects him to slash .228 BA / .323 OBP / .418 SLG. Davenport's system is very high on his defensive projection.

Started a thread to discuss that can be found at this Link.

We can move this to the MLB forum if it becomes a done deal. Usually “Serious Discussions” is Rosenthal’s code for “it’s going to happen.” Per Ken Rosenthal: Free-agent left-hander Brett Anderson in serious discussions with Brewers, sources tell @TheAthletic. EDIT: Now official per Jeff Passan. Anderson gets 1-year and $2.5 million with incentives worth up to $1 million.

For those without Twitter: Free-agent left-hander Brett Anderson in serious discussions with Brewers, sources tell @TheAthletic.

Apparently that’s not the only misplayed flyball he’s had hit off his head/face according to a Blue Jays report on his DFA.

Agreed. He hits the ball very hard, has improved his launch angle over the past two seasons, and is one of the fastest players on the current roster.

I think there’s still enough upside to have a little hope that Fisher turns into a good major leaguer. He has interesting reverse splits (has a .783 OPS versus LHP in MLB). Someone joked after the Robertson signing about the Brewers staff clinging to a 5 year old copy of the Baseball America Prospect Handbook, and it is sort of funny they’ve added several once well regarded prospects that are now in their mid-to-late 20’s over the past year (i.e. McKinney, Vogelbach, Robertson, and now Fisher).

Former Madison Mallard great.

Per Robert Murray: The Brewers have acquired OF Derek Fisher from the Blue Jays.

What about trading with the Astros for Aledmys Díaz? He's a bench bats for the Astros, but can play around the diamond. He's a RHH with reverse splits. For his career Díaz has a batting line of .287 BA / .334 OBP / .487 SLG against RHP (that's over a sample of 1116 plate appearances against RHP).

C.J. Cron signed a minor league deal with the Rockies. I believe a few folks here were hoping the Brewers would consider Cron earlier in the offseason.

Those walk rates certainly aren’t pretty, but I am assuming he’s more bullpen insurance than anything else.

My biggest disappointment for the Brewers over the past year is that they haven’t really attempted to get any younger third baseman in their organization. The Dodgers made as many trades on Friday as the Brewers made in all of 2020. Included in the Dodgers two trades was one where they netted 26-year old 3B prospect Sheldon Neuse. Neuse is the exact type of player the Brewers should be adding in hopes of finding their next longer-term solution to their 3B issues. I wish the Brewers would trade for a couple of 3B prospects in order to try to develop one into their future solution at the position. The Brewers currently have a long-term 3B problem. Even if Robertson has a massive breakout this year, he’s only under contract for 2021 and there is no guarantee the Brewers would be able to keep him. I am a believer in Urias, but he is a middle infielder, not a third baseman. Here are third baseman between 22-26 years of age that the Brewers should be interested in trading for that in many cases could be obtainable: Kevin Padlo, Rays, age-24 Report/Reasoning: Ranks as the Rays #18 prospect according to Baseball America, but would likely be top ten in the Brewers system. Average 3B defender with an above average arm. Is someone who struggled early in his career, but has now shown the ability to develop into a true slugger (“the power is real” according to Baseball America). The Rays have Mike Brosseau and Joey Wendle to play at 3B, so Padlo, who is on the 40-man roster, is reaching the point it’s time for the Rays to either give him at bats or ship him to another team to fill a different need. If the Rays instead want to give Padlo a chance then he is someone redundant with Brosseau. Davis Wendzel, Rangers, age-23 Report/Reasoning: Good defensively. Offensively controls the strike zone and makes quality swing decisions. He currently ranks in the mid-teens in the Rangers organization and their top prospect is Josh Jung who is also a 3B, so he could be obtainable. Tristin English, Dbacks, age-23 Report/Reasoning: Probably the most unheralded prospect of those named thus far. English is built big and strong, and has shown an ability to hit the ball with a compact swing. He isn’t high up prospect lists (just #23 on the Dbacks list), but he reportedly has good actions at 3B and possesses a monster arm. BA thinks he’s good enough defensively to stick at 3B. He’s actually played around the diamond thus far in his professional career, so he also offers some defensive versatility. He is the exact type of player I wish the Brewers had in their system right now. Dodgers as a 3B trade partner The Dodgers have an embarrassment of riches. As mentioned they traded for Sheldon Neuse this week who would’ve been an excellent Brewers target. They already had three third baseman among their top-10 prospects. Edwin Rios, age-26 (turns 27 in April and is the Dodgers #7 overall prospect per Baseball America) now moves to a backup role and a LHH off the bench. If the DH does come to the NL they should be able to find more at-bats for him. Kody Hoese, age-23, projects to be a solid future third baseman and is a well-rounded hitter. He is the Dodgers #4 overall prospect according to Baseball America. I would be over the moon if the Brewers found a way to acquire Hoese as their potential future at the position (not for 2021, but a play that could pay off for the future). Miguel Vargas, age-21, from Cuba, Vargas is the Dodgers #9 overall prospect by BA’s rankings. He isn’t exactly proven and would be riskier than the others mentioned. He projects to have line drive power to the gaps and should rack up plenty of doubles. I don’t think the Dodgers would move him or the Brewers would be as interested, but I wanted to point out just how overflowing the Dodgers are with 3B prospects. Rockies as a corner infield trade partner Similar to the Dodgers, the Rockies have a ton of intriguing corner infield prospects. At 3B they have the following, but they may view one of them as the heir apparent to Nolan Arrenado. The Rockies in addition to having 3B prospects have several 1B prospects as well. The Brewers haven’t made a trade with the Rockies since 2004, but if they do ever figure out each other’s phone numbers I think a match could be made. Colton Welker, age-23, is somewhat of a liability defensively, but is projected to have a very good bat. He held his own as a 21 year old at Double-A, and might not be too far away from the majors. He is the Rockies #7 overall prospect. Aaron Schunk, age-23, is a former 2nd round pick out of Georgia and probably a player the Rockies would be less inclined to part with since he’s more of an all around player than Welker and has the versatility to play 2B as well. There are plenty of more possibilities out there as well, but the primary point is I would like to see the Brewers make an attempt to add these type of players to their own system, otherwise third base is going to be an internal black hole for awhile.

Almost forgot to mention, this would now be an excellent moment for the Brewers to offer the Dodgers a trade for Edwin Rios.

Well I guess at least this news has given Haudricourt another chance to revel in his "Brewers can barely afford to keep the lights on" narrative. I'm convinced that nobody associated with covering/following the Brewers enjoys the moments when the team falls short more than he does.