Eye Black

I wasn’t trying to insinuate it was necessarily the Pirates fault, my point was that they seemingly had high hopes for these guys at one point to become franchise changing players and it just didn’t fully work out. As you mentioned in Taillon’s case it was mostly due to unfortunate injuries. Taillon spent a long time (3-4 years) as a top 20 prospect in baseball, surely some Pirates fans had grander visions of the career he would have for them. Meadows and Glasnow were both considered top 10 prospects in baseball at one point. It was obviously an ill-advised trade as they were still reaching their peaks (which many of us thought at the time). Cole as you point out, had a maybe not-so-magical spin rate increase boost his results. I didn’t mean to paint a picture that any of those players were failures by any means, just that their star impact potential for the Pirates never fully actualized as once hoped.

There have to be moves at some point. They’ve made just two trades over the past the 13 months (Phelps & Knebel), and obviously haven’t made any even moderately significant free agent signings this off-season. I am going to give it another week or two until I overreact, but if we get into mid-February and still haven’t seen anything to improve the roster I am going to certainly be frustrated. I do maintain hope just due to the number of free agents still available. What I don’t completely understand is the entire NL Central sort of idly sitting by this offseason. Daniel Robertson remains the highest paid free agent ($900k) to sign with an NL Central team. I know there is an important financial component hurting these teams, but at some point there are still ways to creatively improve the team and organization. In my opinion, the worst place to operate in baseball is the middle of the road. You should be trying to improve your product either in the short-term or the long-term. It’s like all of the NL Central clubs have just sort of agreed not to press each other and just see how things will shake out with a bunch of sub-.500 teams on paper playing out a season. I obviously don’t think that’s actually the case, but am hopeful the Brewers are the team that decides to seize the moment and make moves with a 2021 division championship in mind.

I like Collin McHugh as a cheap #4-5 type. Maybe swing man. McHugh makes a lot of sense. Coming off injury and approaching his mid-30s he should be fairly cheap, and has a decent upside if healthy. He is excellent at limiting hard contact and continues to strikeout batters at a decent rate. Stearns was the Astros Assistant GM when they picked up McHugh off of waivers prior to the 2014 season.

It was the right decision for the Pirates to move Taillon, but would anyone be shocked if he takes a significant step forward with the Yankees. The Pirates have seemingly had a lot of former top prospects that never fulfilled their anticipated promise while wearing black and yellow (i.e. Cole, Glasnow, Meadows).

So who are some of the better potential defensive coordinator candidates for next season?

I’ll just say if I was an NFL GM I would draft a quarterback every single year. Not necessarily in the first round, but definitely every year. From 1992-99 the Packers drafted 7 quarterbacks. Among the “hits” during that stretch were Mark Brunell, Matt Hasselbeck, and to a lesser extent Aaron Brooks.

Sorry if this was posted already, but here’s LaFleur’s quote about the TD at the end of the 1st half: "It was man coverage; definitely not the right call for the situation."

It’s like losing twice.

I think the better team is going to be sitting at home in two weeks, but you can make the argument the better coaching staff will be at Super Bowl LV.

All I ask at this point is that Pettine has coached his last game as a member of the Packers.

The fact the Packers are going to need to come out passing unfortunately plays right into the Buccaneers hands.

The most likely silver lining at this point appears to be the increased likelihood that Pettine gets dismissed following the season.

This drive would be a really good time for the Packers to force a turnover.

According to the pregame radio broadcast Brady has won eight straight against Pettine coming into today. Granted that’s the Jets, Bills, and Browns (and Packers game earlier this season), but still not great.

I know they are the underdog on paper, but it feels like the Bills are just playing better football on both sides of the ball right now. I think the Bills win this one and head to Super Bowl LV.

I certainly agree that turnovers will be one of the most important factors in this game. This game would be against the Saints today had the Buccaneers not won the turnover battle (4-to-0) in their last game. I also think if neither team turns the ball over that favors the Packers to win this game. Beyond turnovers it seems like the Packers ability to get pressure on Tom Brady as well as the Packers offense’s ability to establish enough of a run to keep the Buccaneers from staying in favorable passing coverages all day should be two other huge factors. For a score prediction today, I’ll say Packers 28, Buccaneers 23. I’ll predict both Lazard and Tonyan end up with scores.

RHP Garrett Richards signed a one-year, $10 million deal with the Red Sox.

Does it strike anyone else as a little surprising the team Ozuna just put up a 1.067 OPS with isn’t on that list of alleged suitors? That being said, he’s one of the few true difference making bats left on the free agent market so I’m glad to hear the Brewers might be one of the teams showing interest. Barring a trade it seems unlikely they’re going to acquire a middle of the order bat at a corner infield spot for 2021.

I’m sort of fascinated to see how much he plays and how big of an impact he ends up being for the Bucs.

Baseball Prospectus released their top 101 yesterday and it did not include any Brewers. Today they released the "just missed" list of an additional 14 players and that also did not included any Brewers. In some of the follow-up conversations Jeffrey Paternostro indicated Turang and Mitchell would've likely fallen into their #125-to-#150 range.

I agree. I am a big fan of Madrigal but he doesn't make any sense when looking at the Brewer's roster. When matching up the Brewer's needs with what the White Sox have to offer, it seems like Vaughn is the one necessary piece needed to get a deal done. For the record, I'm not in favor of trading Burnes but, as a small market team, I don't believe there is ever a situation where a player is just automatically removed from the table. If the offer is right, trading Burnes could be a big benefit to the team depending on what Burnes does in the future and the return from a trade partner. As good as Burnes was last year, just two years ago he was so bad that he was getting shelled in AAA. Maybe he's turned the corner, but maybe not. I'm not in favor of trading him, but if it would happen it could very well be the case of Stearns hitting the jackpot and selling Burnes when he had reached his top peak value. Nobody know for sure what the future holds. I don't think there is enough credibility to these rumors to make me want to crank surplus values on rumored names involved. But just looking at the baseballtradevalues site- White Sox get- RHP-Corbin Burnes Brewers get- 1B-Andrew Vaughn RHP-Codi Heuer RHP-Jared Kelley + one more prospect, likely in the 15-30 area of the White Sox top prospect list If Vaughn turns into a legitimate plus MLB everyday player, it's very likely this would be a good deal for Milwaukee because you are getting 6 years (3 cheap) of an everyday plus starting lineup regular versus 4 years (1 cheap) of a potentially star starting pitcher. So the quality you would lose from Burnes would likely be made up by the two extra cheap years of the everyday player. Add in that you get a relief pitcher that has been pretty much dominant since changing his release point and pretty much owned major league hitters last year. Then you get the White Sox second round pick who has big, big upside (probably grades a big higher than Antoine Kelly and would likely land on most Brewer top prospect lists at #4). And then there would probably be a fourth piece, probably a high upside youngster that hasn't gotten past rookie ball yet. Sometimes I just laugh the combinations that can be achieved using the baseballtradevalues site, but this one doesn't seem at that ridiculous at face value. Personally, I wouldn't be in favor of that deal, but wouldn't be moaning and groaning if that deal was made. That is a trade that seems to make pretty good sense for the Brewers. Very well said JC. I am not opposed to trading Burnes, but it would have to make sense from the Brewers standpoint. The problem with a lot of the rumored "packages" I've seen is they don't make the Brewers better in the short term or long term after you consider the loss of Burnes. I would be incredibly disappointed if the Brewers traded Burnes to the White Sox and didn't receive Vaughn as the headlining return piece.

Thought this podcast offered some good insight into the match-up of the Packers offense versus Buccaneers defense... The Touchdown Wire Conference Championship Preview Podcast with Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield It's also available on Apple podcasts if you search "Doug Farrar"

Shelby Miller had an arguably better and longer track record at the time of his trade to the Diamondbacks (than Burnes does currently), but he was 25 years old and had 3 years of control remaining when the trade occurred (Burnes is 26 and has 4 years of control). Edit: Shelby Miller was also initially traded by the Cardinals at age 24 (and four years of control) for a return that primarily included one season of Jason Heyward.

Just make sure you click on the correct baseball playing Daniel Robertson.

Adding to the discussion about lower signing bonus international free agents, Jim Callis actually just wrote about this for MLB Pipeline. As Callis points out below, 11 players on their most recent top 100 prospect list signed international free agent bonuses for less than $1 million: When the international amateur signing period opens, the huge bonuses grab the headlines. Eloy Jiménez ($2.8 million, Cubs, 2013), Yoán Moncada ($31.5 million, Red Sox, 2014), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($3.9 million, Jays, 2015), Luis Robert ($26 million, White Sox, 2016) and Wander Franco ($3,825,000, Rays, 2017) landed recent megadeals that look like they'll pay off nicely. Even better, the Nationals landed Juan Soto for $1.5 million in 2015. But there are countless bargains on the international market as well. The two most exciting all-around young players in the game today are Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ronald Acuña Jr. Tatis signed with the White Sox for $700,000 in 2015 and the Braves got Acuña for $100,000 the year before. Jose Ramirez ($50,000, Indians, 2009), Nelson Cruz ($15,000, Mets, 1998), Teoscar Hernandez ($20,000, Astros, 2011), Liam Hendriks ($170,000, Twins, 2007), Xander Bogaerts ($410,000, Red Sox, 2009) and Salvador Perez ($65,000, Royals, 2006) all received American League MVP votes last year -- and turned pro for a combined $730,000. Marcell Ozuna ($49,000, Marlins, 2008) joined Tatis and Acuña in getting National League MVP votes. Plenty of more relatively cheap international signees are on the way too. Our 2020 end-of-season Top 100 Prospects list includes 11 international players who didn't command seven-figure bonuses: Marlins right-hander Sixto Sánchez ($35,000, Phillies, 2015), Rays righty Luis Patiño ($130,000, Padres, 2016), Rays middle infielder Vidal Brujan ($15,000, 2014), Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz ($950,000, Dodgers, 2015), Rays shortstop Jazz Chisholm ($200,000, Diamondbacks, 2015), Cubs left-hander Brailyn Marquez ($600,000, 2015), Dodgers catcher Keibert Ruiz ($140,000, 2014), Marlins outfielder Jesús Sánchez ($400,000, Rays, 2014), Diamondbacks shortstop Geraldo Perdomo ($70,000, 2016), Marlins righty Edward Cabrera ($100,000, 2015) and Yankees righty Deivi García ($200,000, 2015).