Playing Catch

Anyone find a nice link to a list of guys? Here's the Spotrac List. I think it's hard to predict at this point because we really don't know what they're going to need, or what the team will look like near the deadline. I don't love hammys, hamates or thoracic outlet syndromes. In addition, it looks like a lot of those expiring contract guys are on teams that hope to compete this season. There aren't a ton of obvious options from 2nd division teams. There are a number of pitchers, there, but not very many hitters that I think would be so demonstrably better than their internal options. I guess Yandy Diaz would be a good target(?)

How long until the Front Office pulls the plug? I think Ortiz has until about May 15th to demonstrate he's the best candidate. I think his developmental door has basically closed, so I feel like May 15th is about the time when one can be confident that it's not just a slow start for an improved Ortiz (if indeed he has improved, which would be a dubious claim). I've felt that the team has been patient enough. He has such a gifted defensive skillset, you really want to give him as long of a leash as possible, which they've now done, IMO. His transition to the bench has already started, what with Hamilton getting as many innings at short as he has. So far, Hambone has looked passable there, to me. But in more of a David Eckstein kind of way (sheesh. Eckstein is 51. I feel old).

A beautiful box... Milwaukee Brewers vs Toronto Blue Jays Box Score: August 28, 1992 | Baseball-Reference.com

Lara's stroke from the left-side is certainly smoother, and more loft-oriented than from the right. If he can consistently get barrels like that, then he very well could offer something different than Perkins.

I'm not a big hard-salary cap guy, but I would like to see something like a 3-year window that caps Free Agent Spending over that span. Most of those Dodger guys could've received similar deals from other teams, so it's not like you're restricting total salary, but rather trying to more evenly distribute the top talent.

This is basically my thought as well, except that I'd keep Patrick in the rotation, and put the kids in the 'pen. Push Ashby/Hall up the pecking order, and let the kids piggy-back with Harrison/Sproat/Miz.

I'm not arguing, because I don't have any authority on the topic, but I really liked his defense in the 2 or 3 games of his I watched. I thought his range looked good, both laterally, and in/out. I really liked his hands and arm-actions from various angles. I thought he looked like a future average, or better shortstop, defensively. I'm considering that he's not only 19 as a hitter, but as a fielder, too, of course. I also think, due to Oneil Cruz's recent foibles in the outfield, that any comparisons to him defensively, will come with a negative connotation attached regardless of their similar prospect-y profiles. It doesn't help us out as evaluators, either, when our direct, real-world comparisons defensively, are with Ortiz, Turang, and the thread's namesake, Pratt.

The way the Brewers have countered this has been with an abundance of positive-WAR contributors (i.e. quality depth). But so far, those backups have largely struggled. 2 of 3 outfielders and 2 of 4 infielders have been dreadful so far. and ALL 4 of the newly acquired Sproat, Drohan, Zerpa, and Woodford have been bad or at least underperformed. Taken another way, if a team needs established guys to step up during times of injury, Frelick, Perkins, and Ortiz, have NOT stepped up. And if a team needs new guys to perform like the old guys, Matos and Rengifo haven't performed either. Add it all up, and you have an 8-7 team. Which, now that I've typed all that, doesn't seem too bad considering the circumstances. But the injuries have both demonstrated the need for depth, as well as how fragile depth can be. None of us like to accept the impact of injuries, but really, if even just one of Chourio, Vaughn, or Priester had started the season healthy, they could have switched a couple losses into wins.

Sure. The Nats may still suck. Or maybe Skenes held them to one run over 6. The Nats scored 4 on the bullpen after his departure*. But results --- good or bad ---- and most stats at this point in the season are still pretty unreliable as an indication of how good/bad the teams are, particularly with pitching, as one bad start or one blown save can really mess with the numbers. So, if I'm using my own limited eye-test, I'm mostly concerned about two things. The health/depth of the 'pen, and the focus of the position-player group, who I think have let an inexperienced staff down at times with inconsistency. Contreras and Sanchez have certainly done their part at the plate and behind the plate, fulfilling their roles with aplomb. But I've been disappointed with some of the details with the rest of the group. Sometimes they make incredible plays, and take really impressive ABs, and then other times they've been sleepwalking or pressing. * (probably not the thread to go on and on about other teams), but based on my subjective, and I'm sure flawed eye-test, the Nats position-player group is much improved from a year ago. You could see hustle and effort and team-focused approaches. Maybe Butera is special?? I don't think I would have hired a 33-year old, sheesh. And on a related note, I thought all of the opposition, to date, have played pretty good baseball. Clean baseball. Hustle baseball. it's probably the worst time of the year to play young teams with no playoff expectations in the White Sox, Rays, and Nationals.

Me too. I'm worried that the league has made up a lot of ground on whatever the Brewers magic was. Or maybe just more comprehensive scouting on how the Brewers win games and how to counter it. It's also very possible that the Nats are just that much better than they were a year ago, and the Brewers got sucker-punched while they were already feeling weak. Last season started really slow, too.

Two buttons. One for laughing, one for "interesting". Not up/down, like/dislike, but one button that suggests interest in the topic. It would encourage explanation, but not necessarily demand it.

Get Ashby a nice comfy lead in the first 3 innings. Hand it over to Patrick, who goes 6. Done.

Yep. I didn't feel that either trade meaningfully took away from the present value of the team enough to ignore the obvious future value-added. But for fans that typically want to "go for it," they will always have gnawing questions.

The silver-lining is that the Brewers are getting a good look at Sanchez at first and Lockridge in the starting lineup, but there's no hiding from the fact that replacing Chourio, Vaughn, and Turang with our bench guys is neutering the offense for the time-being. Let's hope Chourio's IL-stint is short, and that Turang doesn't need his own IL stint. I haven't been liking all of Frelick's body language, either. He hasn't looked "right" since August of last season to me, even though he's been productive so far this season.

It's waaayyy too early to try and dissect the values of the players traded, but for fans that felt that keeping Peralta is better in 2026 than trading him, The only way this trade will work out is if Peralta/Myers are terrible, or that the Brewers win a World Series with Sproat and/or Jett. Because just like we'll never know if the Brewers would have won a world series with Hader, we won't know if Peralta would have been the missing piece in 2026.

I like a lot of the elements you suggested, @nate82. I think tiering baseball would offer more exciting regular season baseball if games/series represented opportunities beyond adding a game in the win column. I don't think MLB will go this direction, however, choosing instead an easy, boring, flattened 32 team/8 division set-up like the NFL. But there could still be some fun elements. They could have 8 "divisional" all-star teams that compete for divisional playoff advantage, or as I've mentioned before, have small-scale weekend round-robin style tournaments with 4 teams facing off with each other at special venues. I think that whatever Manfred's vision is, it is going to include big changes that not all of us will like.

I stated earlier that I liked them. I would say that it would be improved tremendously if instead of "Wisco," it said "Forward," which would actually be cool. Also, I should clarify a couple of things. I am minimalist-traditionalist, by nature. I love that baseball's uniform traditions maintain things like stirrups, road grays, and pinstripes. But I've heard great moaning from those with different aesthetic tastes, and have come to appreciate the monotony of baseball's staid ways. If MLB wants to promote the sport through things of this nature, I'm fine with it. As I've seen the variety of City Connects across baseball, I think the Brewers could have done much, much worse.

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I hope they either put him on intentionally, or make him chase outside every pitch, because I have zero interest in him charging Miz, and this is the last time the Brewers will see him all season, so let him have his series, I don't care so long as anything stupid is avoided.

The Brewers are consistently pushing pitchers past their comfort-level in terms of high-stress pitches. They are routinely pushing managers into the yellow-danger zone in terms of pitches per inning. Often these pitches are taking place with guys standing on 2nd and 3rd, where mere contact can score runs. Talk about a miserable series to be looking forward to if you are any other team, (or fanbase, teehee) in baseball. Front offices must break out into sweats about covering innings before, during, and after a Brewers series, and the everyday players aren't looking forward to the picnic, either.

They looked good when they played the Crew last year. If Alcantara is back to his old ways, and some of those kids grow up, they'll be in the hunt.

Matthew, I should publicly apologize. I'm afraid I piled all of my gall onto your article, and that isn't right. I can imagine myself laughing along with the article in a different context. I allowed all of the public vitriol placed at the feet of Bucknor to get me fired up, and your article bared the brunt of my admonition. It really isn't about you or your writing. I'm just tired of negativity or fear driving clicks in every corner of the internet, and I don't want Brewerfan to fall victim to it. In addition, I love baseball so much, and it pains me to see umpires get so much heat. We NEED umpires at every level, and the public shaming does no favors to the sport. So again, I want to publicly apologize for my self-righteous rants. You don't deserve it.

I'm not defending Bucknor from anything. I am, however, attacking your hit piece as an example of what many of us come here to try and find respite from. A world where runner's-up are losers and trash, and it is the public's role to tear these people down in order to draw guffaws from the those that couldn't sniff Bucknor's jock in terms of professional acumen. Brewerfan has always been better than this. But by all means, double-down on the humor you derived by artificial means. Decency be damned. Be irritated at me for calling you out, instead of yourself when you look in the mirror after that piece. But I'm guilty, too. I'm guilty of using your article as an example, and that's not fair to you. I get that it's a grind, and you took a shortcut, and it was just meant to be funny. But if more people like me find the courage to take a reputational risk in communities that we care about, perhaps the content we crave will find the right balance between low-hanging fruit, and the rotten, poisoned apple found under the tree. I would predict that those that laughed along with you, and the thousands of other baseball people laughing at a humiliated CB Bucknor, will sneer at my responses. But I would also predict that there will be 3 times as many lurkers and would-be clickers that agree that they are tired of the public shame put on anyone who is merely bad at their job, as if being the 76th best person in the world at what they do is something undignified and unworthy of respect. Poking fun at ineptitude. How does it feel?

One big, beautiful, bullying article to rule them all. Was this Claude? or did you use ChatGPT? If someone is the worst of 76 employees in a niche career, should they be fired? Probably. Of course, once CB Bucknor no longer is around to taste the whip, there will be a new #76. Will that person then probably deserve to be fired? Probably. But if someone is the 76th best person in the world (I'm not claiming CB is), do they really deserve as much antipathy from the masses as to deserve the public shame? The incessant, over-the-top ridiculousness of social media conventional wisdom? The game thread is already licking their chops to get a taste of that red meat. Just waiting to pounce on the pariah that Bucknor has become. I'm not here to defend CB Bucknor's clear weaknesses as a professional. But I am here to ask... can't we be better than this?

I like them.

During this recent run of incredible success up and down the organization, I've put aside thoughts that the Brewers have simply become really, really good at scouting and development, and that their models are predicting player development and future performance at such a high rate of success, that it's dumb (from a risk/investment point-of-view) not to try to sign every guy their model says will hit. I'm suddenly hoping Emerson falls flat. Talk about re-setting the market.