Thurston Fluff

It doesn't matter how many stars a team has. Without depth they're going to struggle to be consistently good. I think Stearns will build the depth if given enough time. His major problem is fans thought he was the savior that was going to turn things around right away. While there may be some that can build quickly through free agency Stearns time as GM never demonstrated he was one of them. He made his name by building depth through a strong draft and develop model and finding valuable players others missed. If given the time and leeway to do what he does best it can work there. For that to happen the team and fans are going to have to shift how they view building a winning team with him as the GM.

Funny, I felt the same way about the 2018 team. Until they didn't. I also felt a certain level of inevitability during the 82 season. Both teams won on the last day of the regular season and had to come back from down two, in the championship series and both had home field advantage. The only difference is the 2018 Brewers had best record in the league. I also had a feeling of inevitability in the WS. That didn't pan out so well. I think a lot of us had that feeling in 2011 too. We all know how that went. I have a feeling a lot of fans feel that way right up until it's gone. It's a belief there will be an occasion when it actually happens that keeps us coming back.

What does the last few games against the Cubs tell us that the sweep of them earlier didn't? We beat the same team more times than they beat us. Obviously I want to win every series. Especially at home. Yet we're 5 1/2 games ahead of them after losing two of three. I think if you'd ask them they'd have felt they needed a sweep more than we needed to win the series. I'm not trying to single you out here but I think the knee jerk reaction to losing a single series is way over the top for a lot of people. We have one of the better offenses in the league, one of the better pitching staffs in the league and one of the best defenses in the league. Most other teams look at us and wonder how they're going to survive not the other way around. Even the other great teams know their hands are going to be full to win a series. I get people's overreaction to the poor showing against the Dodgers last fall but even that was not indicative of how close we were. We just had a bad series after a let down from finally winning a playoff series. I think sweeping the season series tells us as much as a single series. Which is to say, not much. This year we have more experience in what it takes to move on in the playoffs and we seem to have a better team going into it.

The 82 team's record on June 30th was 42-31. They fired their manager earlier that month after going 23-24. They didn't get Sutton until late august. Charlie Moore and his 6 homeruns, sub .300 OBP and 85 OPS+ was their starting right fielder and Jim Gantner was the second baseman. IIRC Yount had his usual (by his standards) slow start before doing what he always did. Turn in a monster second half. Offensively speaking that team was way more like this one that you may remember. Pitching wise, Randy Lerch and his 4.97 ERA (77 ERA+) was their fifth starter until they traded for Sutton. In fact the only starter who had an ERA+ above 100 was Vuckovich. Their bullpen went three deep. To be fair starters went longer back then so it wasn't as bad as it would be today but it wasn't great beyond Fingers and Slaton. While this team may not make one as confident as that one did power wise it also had it's holes. It also didn't come close to imbuing one with confidence on the pitching side as the current staff does. The way they win may not be the same but I think there are plenty of similarities. Both had weaknesses and both are one of the better teams in the league by most measures. The only real difference is this team has a much better history of success coming into their respective seasons.

I agree with you but I think the smartest thing he did was keep Melvin and most of the front office in place when he bought the team. He may have meddled too much in player acquisitions but he was smart enough to keep a core of people who knew the ropes in place until he knew enough to find his own people.

He says this isn't emotion, it's based on facts and calling it like it is right after he said it feels like Stearns is deliberately doing this. The rest of the post was all about losing the emotional leader of the team and how they won home run derbies and other trophies that have nothing to do with actually winning games. Classic fan rant. I think this is the classic example of how too much money makes one more careless. Overall I think the Mets fans are mad at the wrong person. It's the owner not those under him. He's where the culture starts. It takes more than just money to run a successful franchise.

My new favorite band.

I think Yelich and Braun both show it's possible. Granted Yelich is not a life long brewer and Braun will never be in the HOF due to PEDs but both show the Brewers can afford to and are willing under the right circumstances.

I never disputed his talent. Just that for the majority of the season so far he had trouble going through the order more than once. I think my point got lost in that even if he never reached his potential and never was more than an innings eating middle reliever he still would provide more for the brewers than one season on Peralta. I'm not saying he never will be more than that. Just that even if he wasn't it would still be a worthwhile trade. Not the best possible trade. Just that we got more value for our team than we gave up.

Maybe but probably not. I assume if they signed with one of those leagues they'd be subject to the same posting agreement as all the other players in the league are. Setting that aside, if they're goal is to get drafted ASAP spending time in the minors there wouldn't give them any more exposure to scouting than going to an independent league here.

Anyone would. One start doesn't erase what he was until then nor mean he's not going to struggle to go longer again. To be clear my point wasn't that Sproat isn't ever going to be a quality starter. It was that even if he was only ever a once through the order guy he was more valauble to the Brewers than one season of Peralta.

Maybe it's just my impression but it seems like Sproat starts to struggle after a couple innings. All things considered, if he ended up being just a multi inning reliever and Williams never panned out at all I'd still consider it a win.

Just to clarify, MLB isn't requiring two year of college. Players can shoose to go to an independant leauge. I'd think some of them would be more than willing to work with MLB to become more of a true developmental league. Unlike football, the infrastructure is already there. Scouts already go there. Teams already sign players from them. They also have the advantage of using wooden bats, and generally follow the same rules. There is nothing forcing players to go to college. If I was a baseball player who was only going to college for a couple years until I got drafted I'd probably want to go to a place that was 24/7 baseball using all the equipment and rules of the league I wanted to get drafted into. As far as the players coming over from Japanese and Korean leagues via posting goes. I don't think the international draft was meant to include professional players from other leagues as much as amateurs in other countries. I think the draft is more about players who aren't under contract to another pro league.

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?