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Playing Catch

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Everything posted by Playing Catch

  1. Playing Catch
    Are we sure that this idea that baseball is a dying vestige of some bygone era correct? I mean there were twenty-six teams that averaged more than 20,000 in attendance last season. That's eighty-two events annually. Annual attendance in 2024 was just over 70,000,000 in MLB, 17th largest figure historically, and even on an average per game basis, far, far larger crowds than in any decade other than the 2000s and 2010s. I'm not naive to the belief that baseball struggles on TV, but that's nearly true with everything these days. Also, based on my career, I'm around tons of high school aged kids, and anecdotally, I'd say that while kids don't know much about baseball, they are very curious about it. They want to play it, pay attention to it. My impression is that it's kind of novel for them. I get that owners and players want to expand the sport for money reasons, but they are going to have a hard time convincing me that it's in an adapt-or-die situation.
  2. Playing Catch
    It's hard because there hasn't really been a fire sale like the Marlins since, that I can remember. Maybe Volpe? If the Yankees sign Adames? Pages if the Dodgers sign Soto? I'm trying to think of guys that could be "blocked" if their team signs a FA.
  3. Playing Catch
    I think all of this (correct) talk of every option being a lousy defender demonstrates why the Brewers (and me) valued Joey Ortiz so much. Good glove/competent sticks are harder to find than people think.
  4. Playing Catch
    Bohm isn't a world-beater, no. And he's certainly not worth a good starting pitcher. But he derives a lot of hitting value with a good batting average, and I'm a sucker for those types of hitters, especially when you need to drive in the guy standing on 2nd base. His defense improved last season, and he's got 2 years of team control, which is kind of the perfect amount of time before the organization will know if the kids are ready for the Show. I guess one can call me "fascinated". I mean, the Brewers need to find SOMEBODY to play infield, right? Isn't Bohm better than going with a AAAA platoon of Monasterio and Ollie Dunn?
  5. Playing Catch
    Wow. Impressive research. That was a lot of talent that Fickell and company didn't adequately replace through the portal.
  6. Playing Catch
    From a capitalistic point of view, the Dodgers superteam is totally fair. From a league standpoint, it damages the credibility of the "competition". But that won't matter so long as fans keep showing up. This isn't a thing in Milwaukee, but Pittsburgh? Cincinnati? Kansas City? At some point those owners and fanbases are gunna get fed up.
  7. Playing Catch
    Hehehe, perfect timing.
  8. Playing Catch
    The Brewers actually drafted Riggio out of high school. Didn't sign, obviously. I love the idea of getting Schmidt for Williams. No idea if that would be something the Yankees would do, however.
  9. Playing Catch
    That's my thoughts as well, but... Sasaki isn't a normal situation. The Brewers don't get these kinds of opportunities very often. I'm definitely of two minds on this one.
  10. Playing Catch
    It doesn't make me sad. They aren't good enough. They wash themselves out. They get on with their lives. It's sad in the sense that they may not end up with a free education, but if they're playing the transfer game, they're not there to play school anyway. It DOES make me sad that the whole "free college" aspect of playing D1 football has been totally lost in all of the NIL stuff. Ask any of us that are paying off student debt into middle age if getting a scholarship is being compensated for "working" as a football player.
  11. Playing Catch
    I respectfully disagree. None of the criticism would be unfair. He was terrible. 1-5, 5 fouls. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Klesmit? 1-9 from deep. NINE shots from deep. Terrible. I will remain bitter about that loss all season. We still don't know how good this team can be, but that loss will get in the way of some kind of goal, be it a B1G championship, or a much-needed game to get into the dance. The Badgers were "in control" of that game throughout, and let it slip through their fingers. Bad, bad loss.
  12. Playing Catch
    I LOATHE this idea. I curse Jayson Stark for even writing about it. How this is even being discussed is maddening. ALL of the other rules other than the Manfred Man make baseball more baseball-like. This idea was a stupid thing for Stark to even dream up, let alone write about. As far as the Manfred Man thing, it doesn't really bother me that much. I don't think it should start until like, the 12th inning, but if they don't do this, the union gets its undies in a bundle about pitchers health and all that. So I get it.
  13. Playing Catch
    Certainly. And I don't particularly care about whether or not he is recognized on one list or another. I just believe he has the draft profile of a guy that very well could take the minors by storm next year and put himself squarely in the Brewers 2026 season window.
  14. Playing Catch
    The most important ability is availability.
  15. Playing Catch
    So IF the Brewers were to sign Roki Sasaki, all of these guys would need to find new contracts, correct?
  16. Playing Catch
    I hope he wins a gold glove there. Then we can complain how Frelick just doesn't have enough pop for a corner infield spot.
  17. Playing Catch
    I understand that the older one gets, the acceptable timeframe for change can shift, but have hope! The Yankees and Dodgers and Giants have long dominated the major leagues. While I agree that the competitive imbalance has gotten worse, I believe it's gotten MUCH worse recently. I expect that the next CBA will be the bellwether as to whether or not one abandons the game altogether.
  18. Playing Catch
    While I understand that the number that players sign for give us a hint as to the quality of the draftee, it doesn't change the fact that the Brewers drafted the likes of Payne and Burke ahead of guys like Meccage and Levonas. I think it is reasonable to believe that the Brewers felt that the skillsets of those hitters at that price range was more scarce than the skillsets presented by Meccage and Levonas, i.e., the Brewers valued Payne and Burke commensurate with where they were picked. I don't dispute that Burke needs to jump guys that are already queuing up for big league opportunities, and that therefore, it could impact his timeline. It's possible that I was misinterpreting @edfunderburk's OP correctly, believing he was more curious why there's no chatter about Burke around here. I'm positing that Burke's prospect status is worthy of more chatter, regardless of his timeline.
  19. Playing Catch
    Del Chiaro doesn't evade any of the questions. His blunt observations of Made, Pratt, Boeve, Wilken, and Payne were a little surprising to me. at the same time, I can't imagine blowing smoke is within the scope of his job responsibilities. I guess it's never a bad thing for prospects to see that the Brewers believe in them.
  20. Playing Catch
    I don't hate that idea, but the Brewers would then need to replace a 100 wRC+, 26 HR performer whom most of us believe will improve on those numbers next season. (Usually, we think of Bohm replacing Adames' bat)
  21. Playing Catch
    Frelick mentioned this in an interview last spring, I believe, when he mentioned that he was too good at making contact, resulting in fewer barrels, and that he needed to improve his swing decisions to make better contact more often. Perhaps easier said than done, I guess. I, for one, choose to believe in the talent, and that we'll see a nice bump in production in his age-25 season. I'll predict he ISOs in the .150s, and reaches 10+ dingers. 30 doubles and a handful of triples.
  22. Playing Catch
    Gotta love Thames. However, his performance is magnified by the brilliant use of the first-base platoon with Aguilar.
  23. Playing Catch
    Our more scouting-aware posters probably know better than I, but it seems to me that strictly based on draft profile, it would be fair to say the Brewers drafted him, believing that he had the quality to jump over all of the players you mention in your post. I mean, he was ostensibly a late 1st round pick. He's got a college, first base only profile. There's no way the Brewers draft that player without believing he's really good, and that they "expect" him to be a big leaguer sooner than later. Your projected timeline is correctly conservative, and open-ended, but there will be plenty of time for the minors to dull the shine on a player that there is fair reason to be optimistic and excited for. I think it is VERY possible that due to the exciting current state-of-the-farm, that Burke is almost literally being forgotten about.
  24. Playing Catch
    Now that I understand which Kim the OP was referring to, I would be nervous about the Brewers outbidding for an unproven 26-year old middle infielder. It's not fair to make comparisons with other KBO players coming stateside as there probably haven't been enough examples to garner any real relevance to projecting their future performance, but it seems likely that Kim would have a hard time matching his already modest power numbers, and that his on-base performance, too, would be diminished, at which point you have, at best, a luxury utiliity infielder. A guy with a good glove, decent speed, lefty-stick. Not a bad player, but not someone to dedicate $8M/season on, either.
  25. Playing Catch
    Aaahhh! I didn't even know about Hyeseong Kim! Thanks for alerting me.
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