mrn1ceguy

One thing this doesn't capture, and I'm not sure how you could capture it, but is Contreras's ability to push all the right buttons with the pitchers. It seems he's able to help control our pitchers in a way that gets the absolute best out of them whether that is calming them down, getting the extra focus, working to the right pitch sequence or all the other intangibles I don't even notice. Even if Contreras would fall off offensively to a 220/300/700 type player for his 30s, I think the boon he gives our pitchers is worth extending him at market rates to ensure our pitchers keep putting out their best possible outcomes. He should be our Salvador Perez.

20 years ago (time does fly). https://uwbadgers.com/news/2005/10/15/Blocked_Punt_Gives_UW_Late_38_34_Win_Over_Minnesota I remember there being a better photo but here's the one I found quickly.

All these extensions could be the brewers thinking there will be a lot less years of control after the new cba. It may be less about getting a good deal and more about ensuring 6-8 years of cost controlled players they have high confidence will be at least an average starter.

Thats the explanation for this famous picture from the ice bowl. Chuck Mercein (#30) had his hand up during the run, to show he was not aiding the runner. I also remember Reggie Bush getting a penalty or maybe should have gotten a penalty when he was at USC and they were going for a national championship when he pushed Matt Leinart into the endzone. Google tells me they revised the penalty in 2005 to only be a penalty for pulling and carrying a runner, not pushing. But a simple reversal of not allowing pushing would eliminate this, IMO, boring play and improve the game.

For awhile the tone was getting a little too hostile for me but a sprinkling of the “ignore user” feature cleared that up. My only issue has been technical. When loading a page, the ads sometimes load in a wonky order so the page jumps to the “last read” message then jumps up and then back a few times before finally settling down. While it’s doing that, it’s slightly frustrating as you will be reading a post then have to either try to scroll for it multiple times or wait awhile for it to fix itself. And even less often, sometimes the whole page needs to reload once or twice because an add crashes it. All in all, a pretty minor issue and who knows, could just be me.

That would make later years worse and in theory, we will wanting to hand out a lot of high dollar receiver/TE extensions. But if we did the Bakhtiari, Newman, Campbell cuts that still gets us an extra ~$35 million. That alone should be enough to get us a safety and extend Love. Maybe add a 3 year extension to Clark or 2 year extension to Jones clearing a little more space and that should be sufficient for a productive offseason without burdening future years.

I'm not one to rate people because there are stat folks much better at it than me. But from a familiarity point of view, the whole wide receiver room has reminded me of past Green Bay greats the past few months in terms of play style and (hopefully) production: Christian Watson - Javon Walker Romeo Dobbs - James Jones Malik Heath - Allen Lazaard Dontayvion Wicks - Donald Driver Jayden Reed - Greg Jennings Bo Melton - blank, I got nothing yet but man these have been a good couple games. So if they all keep reminding us of those past greats, they are certainly going to be a fun group.

While not dominate, Clark did have an amazing play sniffing out that screen pass early in the 3rd quarter. That heads up play right after Wyatt got that monster sack killed any chance by the bears to get some early 2nd half momentum. Honestly, that Wyatt sack and Clark breaking up the screen where some of the best heads up plays I've seen our DL do in a long time.

I went to the game on Saturday and Am Fam is not setup for these full house events. I’ve typically gone on quiet days in the past (about 1 a year) so not something I have prior experience. But outside of the hour long wait to get into the stadium (expected) most every food vendor that wasn’t just popcorn or ice cream had 20-45 minute lines. Combined with the faster play and food took over an inning to get. Compared to setups at Camp Randal or Lambeau, there’s just far too few stations causing the ones with meal food to be packed. It also didn’t help my kid didn’t want the short line options of grilled cheese or chicken. Giveaways would be nice (showed up too late for that, but that’s on me) but it’s not worth dealing with the crowd to do anything but sit in your seat. Lessons learned I guess.

At $3.1 million per year, I don't think it makes a difference. If he is a very solid multi-inning reliever, it's a bargain. If he's a 4.00-ERA starter, it's a bargain (less that 1/3 of what Matt Garza got). If he becomes a right-handed Hader or an ace... the Crew laughs to some division titles while Yelich is here, then they laugh as they flip Freddy for prospects - because that surplus value will be really up there. I would actually say this extension shows the Brewers believe he will end up a starter eventually (or closer). When everything is guaranteed, you can't just take the average. The 5 year portion is likely setup as $1M, $1M, $2.5M, $4.5M, $6.5M. With year 4 & 5 a guaranteed salary of >$4M, you have to believe he is going to be a starter or closer to give up the opportunity to release at no cost. You don't guarantee that to someone who is going to be a Junior Guerra-esque setup man or multi-inning reliever. The extension gives him time to work his way into being a starter (or closer), but I fully expect he will be there by 2021.

Assuming the Urias injury is minor and he can be considered a major part of the team this year, Yes I consider them to be a 2020 contender however with a decent amount of risk. As mentioned above, they key to the offseason seems to have been to improve the worst parts of the 26 (or 40) man roster so as to not have any really poor performers drag us down. We have done that with a lot of bounce back / upside / growth type players rather then the proven, sure bet choices. Because of that risk path, I'd like to see a few more minor league contract depth signings to have more depth in case of poor performance. If we can do the following, I would consider us a strong / stronger contender this year. -Current SP depth for April/May/June is Corbin Burnes & Shelby Miller. Since I expect Burnes to need a month or two to show his he is back, we really only have one starter in reserve not targeted for the bullpen (Suter, Peralta). Another minor league signing would cover my concerns. -Current RP lineup for April is Hader/Suter/Peralta/Claudio/Black/D. Guerra and two of the following. If we can make it one of the following, our depth would be solid. Feyerson/Wahl/Williams/Williams/Perdomo/Yardley. -Current IF lineup for April is some combo of Gyorko/Sogard/Urias/Arcia/Hiura/Smoak/Braun with Healey & Morrison in AAA for support. I'm comfortable here with this level of depth and ability to maximizes good AB while minimizing bad ones. -Current OF lineup for April is some combo of Yelich/Cain/Garcia/Braun/Gamel with Taylor/Ray/Broxton in AAA for support. Also good here. -Current C is Navarez/Pina with Freitas/Nottingham in AAA. Also good here. So really, get a AAA SP depth (probably with a June Opt-Out) and a solid RP who can be the 3rd/4th type option and I would say we are a strong contender for the playoffs this year with sufficient depth & options to cover all the "risk" we took on.

I could see it happening. Unfortunately, I also cannot see us competing for the playoffs with this roster. We struggled on offense last year, can you imagine the struggles with this lineup? This type of lineup and you are banking on a few IFs to go right. For offense, you probably have the following base assumptions: -Yelich and Hiura to rake like they they should. -Braun and Naverez to perform like last year. Then you need probably at least 2 of these 6 IFs to go right: -D. Smith to live up to his pedigree and shine. -Urias to live up to his pedigree and shine. -Lowrie to rebound and hit like he did in 2017 or 2018. -Cain to rebound and hit like he did in 2017 or 2018. -Flores to grow on what he did last year and become a solid hitter. -Arcia to follow the teachings of Jobu and becomes a solid hitter. If you get the main four batters to perform followed by 2 of those IFs, you have 6 solid hitters in your lineup. Three or 4 IFs and you have a stacked lineup. Fix any glaring hole mid-season and thats a decent lineup to work with. If Yelich, Hiura or both stumble, we are probably doomed no matter what. If either Braun or Naverez under perform, you need more of the "IFs" to go right. If we don't get any "IFs", then you try to piece meal a competent roster and lean heavily on the pitching. If the pitching fails, you have a decent group of "next up candidates" to try. If the next up candidates fail as well, then we are doomed no matter what.

As of 12/12/2019, this is what I want. Current payroll at $76M (sportac) Trade with Mets for Lowrie ($9M) & Smith. Send them a low level (non-pitching) prospect. Lets go with Larry Ernesto. Sign Wilmer Flores to 2 yr / $6M (insurance in case Lowrie is hurt or washes out) Sign Dallas Keuchel to 3 yr / $40M Sign Wade Miley to 2 yr / $16M Roster: C: Navarez / Pina 1B: D. Smith / Flores 2B: Huria / Urias SS: Urias / Arcia 3B: J. Lowrie / Flores LF: Braun / Gamel CF: Cain / T. Taylor RF: Yelich / Gamel Bench: Pina, Flores, Arcia, Gamel, Taylor SP: Woodruff Keuchel Miley Houser J. Lindblaum / Lauer RP: Hader Claudio Suter Lauer / Lindblaum Black Faria T. Williams D. Guerra IR: Knebel AAA Pitching Reinforcements: Burnes, Peralta, Feyereisen, D. Williams, Wahl New Payroll: ~$110M

I mentioned it in the Winter Meetings thread, but what if the yankees were to include one of their 2 young 3B (Gio Urshela or more likely Miguel Andújar)? Both raked in their respective one year in the bigs (2018 for Andujar, 2019 for Urshela). One is blocking the other unless the Yankees move Andujar to DH. So this is a trade from depth to unload salary (for the yankees) and a trade to fill two holes for the Brewers.