3and2Fastball

Almost 100% of MLB players are extremely confident humans. They have to be, Baseball is a brutally tough sport to play. And Ryan Braun is certainly not lacking in confidence. But even Braun himself would laugh at the notion of him playing Third again. Maybe in a charity softball game. Not in MLB

Thanks. Is that projection based on him being with the Rays? I think he can have better power numbers with Miller Park as his home field....

We could agree to send along $50-$75 million in exchange for a light hitting ham fisted 3B. Pure salary dump and then #Science2020 is on!

There’s not much more to add. What free agents are left? Ryu, Keuchel, Donaldson

Great signing. Good to see...

Braun to CF, trade for Jesus Aguillar to play 3B, trade away Arcia, and treat Defense 2020 like a science experiment.

Ryu. The Brewers need pitching. There isn’t a single MLB team that couldn’t benefit from upgrading their pitching staff.

Tampa & the Brewers are in a bidding war for him, $500 at a time....

I’d really love to see the Brewers sign Ryu...

This isn't actually true though. Last year the Nationals won based on clutch hitting late in games, they were out pitched for most of the playoffs and kept coming back late in games. The year before Sale was ineffective and they relied heavily on the bullpen to save them though they at least had one SP with a great series in Price. The year before that the Astros slugged their way to a victory. The Cubs arguably were carried by pitching but the year before that was a Royals rotation that was pretty awful and it was all about the bullpen. Top flight starting pitching has not been what has been winning these World Series lately. It would be great if we developed/traded for a couple really good pitchers but it is completely realistic to win without them as well. That just isn't how the postseason is generally won in baseball these days. The teams with the best pitching haven't really done all that great in the playoffs in recent years. Strasburg 14 IP in World Series & World Series MVP with a 2.51 ERA in WS. 0.00 ERA in NLCS Scherzer 10 IP in World Series and 3.60 ERA in WS. 0.00 ERA in NLCS. 1.13 ERA in NLDS. Those 2 are the primary reason the Nationals won it all. That and Josh Hader, but that’s a different story, isn’t it? ! I understand that in recent years teams like the Red Sox & Royals have won it all relying heavily on relief pitching. Relief pitching year to year is very volatile. The teams in the World Series this year both had 2 legit aces, and I believe that will be the trend in postseason Baseball, with of course occasional exceptions, over the next several seasons...

Hader’s days as a starting pitcher were gone when he was in MiLB and couldn’t develop a consistent 2nd & 3rd pitch (and couldn’t maintain his top velocity beyond a few innings)

In regards to Burnes vs May: why not have both? I have hope for Burnes as a bounce back candidate, however usually when a players goes from being lights out throughout most of their entire pro career to an 8 something ERA in both MLB & MiLB, there is something going on that fans are not privy to (arm issues, off the field issues). May is 21, has 6 years of control, and has electric stuff...

Trade Hader + Arcia... somebody like Dustin May from the Dodgers comes to mind as a potential ace in return for Hader....

It is not a realistic plan to win a World Series without some top flight starting pitching. Under the current M.O. our only real hope as fans is for the Brewers to develop the type of starting pitchers who finish in the top ten of Cy Young voting... they’ll need 2-3 of them. Perhaps they can trade for pitching prospects next time they are sellers, and yes they could perhaps trade for an ace at the deadline, but realistically the best chance for a World Series parade is drafting & developing aces.... Maybe Stearns can pull off a trade similar to the previous Brewers trade for Greinke.

I'd be willing to bet we don't know more than 2% of the details to that. Also ... who cares? How this affects the team on the field is a complete and total non-factor. Unless Prince Fielder makes a comeback and signs with the Brewers.

$5 million plus incentives on a 1 year deal for a LHP Starter who had a 3.89 ERA last year... I don’t see why this is not a great signing.... Did Stearns come out and announce that the Brewers 2020 rotation is now in place, and I missed it? Is it Feb 13th? Because I’m pretty sure my calendar says Dec 13th...

The lack of quality in the rotation is an extremely valid point. The objective is to win the World Series. For 2 straight years the Brewers could have benefited greatly from having 2 more great, truly great pitchers in the postseason. It has debated here frequently as to why the Brewers don’t have 2 more great pitchers. Can’t afford it. Spent the money on position players. Don’t do a good enough job developing pitchers. Etc... so I won’t go back into all of that... To suggest that the rotation is “good enough” because we made the postseason 2 years in a row is extremely perplexing to me.

Stearns is working with 2 hands tied behind his back. In my opinion, he’s doing an incredible job. It would be awesome to see what he could do with a $170 million payroll during the “Yelich window”. We will likely never know Random factoid: on this date, 8 years ago, the Brewers signed Aramis Ramirez.

Not only was it a tough year in 2019, but he was arguably overworked in 2018....

It is a sad day in Brewers history if this is the best starting pitcher they sign or trade for all offseason... If this is one of several (a few?) pitching acquisitions it seems like a great low risk/high reward move...

Didi on a one year deal similar to the Moustakas deal in 2019 makes plenty of sense. Gives Urias a year to ease into regular playing time, as so far he’s only hit LHP... Didi in Miller Park could easily hit 30-35 HR’s. That’s a lot of value at SS

Keon is, arguably, better defensively than our Gold Glove center fielder. I’m glad he is back with the Brewers franchise. He can help the team, as depth at the very very least.

Indians would be looking for Hader/Hiura.... maybe they’d accept Hader/Urias/Burnes, but I think they’ll get a better offer from somebody else...

When you watched Peralta and especially Burnes pitch in the 2018 postseason, there was no reason to think that they wouldn’t take the next step in 2019, similar to the way Woodruff did... I still think Burnes is an excellent “bounce back” candidate. And of course Stearns has a plan. And a backup plan. And a backup to the backup plan. etc

To be fair, the team is 50 years old and in the last half of that existence you can count the number of homegrown quality starting pitchers to make a substantial number of starts for the Brewers on your fingers: Sheets, Gallardo, Fiers, Nelson and Woodruff. Teddy Higuera Moose Haas had some good seasons, arguably better than Fiers Jim Slaton was solid I get your point though Edited to say I just noticed the “in the last half of that existence” portion of your post....