Thurston Fluff

If it was so obvious it couldn't work they wouldn't be proposing it. I have no idea why you say there's no way to bind them but it's patently false. They bind them by saying you either follow our rules or you don't get a shot to play in our league. That's pretty simple and straight forward. There's no reason to believe all those players are going to say no to an opportunity at life changing money because of some abstract idea that some day by all sticking together they can force a multi billion dollar business to change how they operate. I'd get your argument if you limited it to drafting players from existing pro leagues like they have in Korea or Japan but it's not. It's about drafting young amateur players who aren't playing professional ball.

Of course I'm taking you literally. How else should I take your concerns? Am I supposed to divine some unsubscribed hidden meaning? It's on you to say what you mean and mean what you say. My point is US players have every option available to them as international players do plus one. Yet there are plenty of eligible players worthy of being drafted. You're making up a problem in your head that is fairly obviously nonexistent. Assuming you're not just arguing to argue, how many players a year do you think fits into the Soto or Acuna category? Of that small subset how many are going to have a demand to only go to a couple teams? The vast majority will be there and willing to go whatever team drafts them and pays them. What there won't be is such a huge number of players refusing to sign to make a draft bereft of players worthy of being drafted and paid. Especially when you don't even know if or what the slot money would be. For the few who decide they're can't miss players I'd guess the team who drafts them, as well as their agents, will remind them for every Juan Soto there's a couple Yiddi Cappe's. Any minor problems due to a very small subset of players refusing to participate can be fixed like they did for players who refuse to sign in the US draft now.

Somehow I don't think most international players have the leverage of a full scholarship offer.

How is that any different than the top US players? Strasburg could just as easily said I only want to be drafted by the Dodgers or Yankees and waited until he eventually got drafted by one of them. I seriously doubt any player is going to risk not ever getting drafted by their preferred teams and potentially set their career back if not outright destroy them..

I don't think you'll find many players in Latin American countries who won't sign. Their choices aren't the same as the Japanese or Korean leagues are. I seriously doubt a 17 year old kid is going to say no to an opportunity to get life changing money. Setting that aside, there are plenty of scouts and academies who already know them enough to know which ones are going to be a problem to sign. It's not going to be the problem to find signable players as you seem to think it is.

I'm not that worried about losing the advantage we've had by our draft strategy. Every other team saw what we were doing and were bound to copy our strategy. Finding and exploiting market inefficiencies is a never ending cycle. Today's cheap route is tomorrows expensive one. I don't like the idea of not allowing high school kids to be drafted. Mostly because I don't think it's fair to postpone people who from getting potentially seven figures for two year for arbitrary reasons. There's a system in place to deal with kids that age and there's no good reason not to use it. That said I don't think it means colleges will turn into developmental leagues more than they are today. Teams already scout independent leagues do there is a viable route outside college. When it comes to an international draft I'd prefer they just have on draft and be done with it. I get the problem with the age differences between the two but that could be worked out. If there is two separate drafts fine. I don't think it will hurt the Brewers much. It's the scouting and player development in those areas that helped the Brewers succeed there. The draft reduced to 12 rounds may end up becoming a market inefficiency the Brewers can exploit so I'm not at all concerned about it. Overall, the Brewers are successful because they're a well run organization. Whatever rules are in place it will find a way to make the most of it. If there's total revenue sharing of tv money a floor won't hurt. Aside from a floor with no revenue sharing, I think the Brewers can operate effectively even if some of their current strategies won't work as well.

Yea I don't blame them for trying. It was a low cost gamble at a position of need. It's better to cut our losses now than compound the mistake. I hope he catches on somewhere and turns it around. I could see some out of contention team taking a flyer on him getting hot in an attempt to flip him for a lottery ticket or maybe someone they can plug in anticipating a need because they're going to trade someone else.

IOW, MLB (CBA + DFA) +LR +CP = DFA - LR + CP. Did I get that right? 😄 Truth be told, I don't think calling Pratt up in the middle of the game had anything to do with Renigfro's health status. I don't think they saw him have some minor injury, where he didn't even come out of the game, then decided they had to get to a phone immediately and tell Pratt the moment had come. I'd imagine him being 15 abs away from a $100k bonus and an added $100K every 50 ab's after that was a bigger factor.

Not to take this too far off track but I don't think the Brewers sacrifice any season for any other. Be it future or current. They make moves that keep a balance between this season and future seasons.

Not to take this too far off track but I don't think the Brewers sacrifice any season for any other. Be it future or current. They make moves that keep a balance between this season and future seasons.

The rest of my post was about how bringing him up now gave him the best chance to make them MORE competitive. The entire post was about probabilities of making them more competitive in the post season.

It won't make them less competitive if he does slightly better plus there's a chance he adjusts to the majors like is is to AAA. Given the chances of making us less competitive is virtually nonexistent why not pull the trigger now and see if he adjusts in time for the playoffs?

Today is the day free agents on a new deal can be traded. While Renigfro isn't likely to have the phone ringing off the hook I could see him being traded in a package deal with one of the prospects. Black seems like a possible candidate IMHO.

If the term you can never have too much pitching applied it's this season. Imagine where we'd be without the Harrison, Drohan trade. A head scratching trade at the time proves to be one of the most prescient moves of the year.

Just to be clear, when I said he's high on my list it's within the context of the one I'd most be in favor of not that I'm in favor of signing any of them. That aside, you've given me ample reason to question my preference list.

They have to know if they don't do it soon it will delay the start of the 2027 season for him. At this point the only way it makes sense to wait is because they don't think the 2027 season will start on time. Does anyone know how a lockout effects injury rehab? Just curious if a team is allowed/obligated to provide it in their facilities.

While I agree with you for the most part the one thing I think is wrong is determining his value based on how much free agents of his value got paid. The most expensive way to attain players is not the best way to go about determining value. If the choice was to use the same money we can use for Contreras the next ten years or lock up four or five of our best prospects for the next ten years I think the better value is for the latter. All that said, of all the players that could signed to a "locked up for life" contract Contreras is very high on my list. I do question if his leadership is special to him or if it's more young players gravitate to older players by nature. Adames was one of those guys but we didn't miss a beat when he left. One might say that's because we had Contreras and/or Yelich to take over that role. But that would more or less show the role is transitional as opposed to fixed on a player. By the time Contreras and Yelich are gone Churio will be the veteran younger players turn to and so on.

I think there should be an earned error rate stat. While that sounds counter intuitive it really isn't. In a game where some teams/players force more action than others it stands to reason the ones that do will create more errors. Take base stealing for example. If the league average error rate on stolen bases is 1 out of every 50 attempts a team that attempts 100 steals would expect to see 2 errors. A team that attempts 200 steals would expect to see 4. Simply attempting to steal more bases should earn a team more errors.

St Louis is on a four game winning streak and haven't gained a single game in the standings.

It's possible but I doubt there would be an agreement to reduce years of control without more shared revenue. I think they just want to have some cost certainty going into an uncertain time.

Does he really think there's a team out there who wants to sign a player with a career 5.25 ERA who's sporting a 6.94 ERA this season? On a team known for getting the most out of pitchers no less. I supposed it doesn't hurt to try but if his goal is to get back to a big league career it seems to me the best place for him would have been remaining in our system.

If we'd have traded the three players we did just for Hamilton most people would consider it a win for us.

It still might if he pans out when he comes back. Then again it's hard to know if the players we traded would be struggling like they are now if they stayed here. It's hard to judge what a player might have been had they stayed or if they'd have gone to another team. Sometimes teams fit players, sometimes they don't. Kind of like Almond Joy or Mounds.

I think he's similar to Carlos Rodriguez in they both got called up before they were ready and didn't do well even though they had the talent to be here. Good to see him get through two scoreless even if he did walk a couple.

This could have all been avoided by calling no backsies. For an organization as astute as the Brewers are it's an astonishing oversight.