Jump to content
Brewer Fanatic

Playing Catch

Verified Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,112

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    12

 Content Type 

Profiles

Forums

Blogs

Events

News

2026 Milwaukee Brewers Top Prospects Ranking

Milwaukee Brewers Videos

2022 Milwaukee Brewers Draft Picks

Milwaukee Brewers Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2023 Milwaukee Brewers Draft Picks

2024 Milwaukee Brewers Draft Picks

The Milwaukee Brewers Players Project

2025 Milwaukee Brewers Draft Pick Tracker

2026 Milwaukee Brewers Draft Pick Tracker

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Playing Catch

  1. Playing Catch
    I really hope they both play a lot. Even if they just end up being replacement level players. If they are able to improve just a smidge in a couple areas, they will become 50-grade players. It's been a long time since the Brewers have developed a 50-grade player. Trent Grisham maybe? I'm not sure he's better than a 45. In addition, I really want to see those left-handed speedsters wreaking havoc on the pitchers/IFers. Bunts, Butcher-boys, fielding errors, balks, stolen bases, hustle doubles, triples... That's fun.
  2. Playing Catch
    In another universe, Hiura would've been drafted by a bad team; he'd have been allowed to start everyday at 1B/DH, and been a hot commodity at the trade deadline for a contending team needing a stick. I love him, but the gaping holes in his player profile prevent me from being able to laud his inclusion in an everyday lineup for a contender. I also feel like he's the baseball equivalent of a "volume scorer" in basketball... he needs regular ABs to prove his worth.
  3. Playing Catch
    Looking through that list, it seems to me the Brewers have probably done as well as any other team in the league. The prospects in that list with the highest draft capital were Lucroy, Coulter (whom most teams NEVER considered to be a catcher), and Feliciano. It's like saying the Brewers have "failed" to develop first basemen, because Fielder was the only one to pan out. I tend to agree that, "there's no such thing as a catching prospect."
  4. Playing Catch
    Yep. For all of the hand-wringing about their offense, the reality is that the team was constructed to pitch at an elite level, and play good defense. The pitching was merely "good," and the defense wasn't. If the pitching staff as a whole, improve, as I would predict, they could get right back to the 90+ win mark.
  5. Playing Catch
    Contreras REALLY outperformed expectations in his rookie year. If I was predicting how he would hit this year, I would not predict he match last year's wRC+ of 138(!) If he DOES match those numbers, well... we may have a future HOFer on the roster. Ivan Rodriguez's age 28 season was the only one of his career that featured a higher wRC+ than Contreras's year last season. My other observation was Frelick. I'm as bullish as anyone on Frelick, but even I can't believe they are projecting a wRC+ of 111 (in limited ABs) for a true rookie. If the Brewers' internal metrics are aligned, I'd be shocked if he wasn't the Brewers' opening day, every day CFer. I do believe that the hope of gaining a draft pick for a ROY, would be enough for the Brewers to play Frelick right out of the gate.
  6. Playing Catch
    My question is... What if they ALL stay healthy, and ALL of them have a career year in 2023? How many games would the Brewers win?
  7. Playing Catch
    Yeah, it's probably just my Stockholm Syndrome after being a Brewers fan all these years, but it's really hard for me to ever feel like paying FAs market value is a good use of Brewers' budget resources, unless the existing roster is waaayy under budget. I don't see them resigning guys like Jace, Wong, Narvaez, Rogers, or even guys like Adames or Tellez. I think the only way they'd sign these players would be if it's late in the window, and the price comes back down to a number the F.O. is comfortable with (i.e. not "market-value").
  8. Playing Catch
    Yeah, it's probably just my Stockholm Syndrome after being a Brewers fan all these years, but it's really hard for me to ever feel like paying FAs market value is a good use of Brewers' budget resources, unless the existing roster is waaayy under budget. I don't see them resigning guys like Jace, Wong, Narvaez, Rogers, or even guys like Adames or Tellez. I think the only way they'd sign these players would be if it's late in the window, and the price comes back down to a number the F.O. is comfortable with (i.e. not "market-value").
  9. Playing Catch
    I think that whichever team signs Judge, will trade for Burnes. I'm predicting the Rangers. But I would love it if the Orioles came out of nowhere to take the AL East... what a difficult division!
  10. Playing Catch
    I don't mean to presume, but are you trying to state that Rowdy isn't worth re-signing for next season based on the decisions made in past years with a similar player? One reason they didn't re-sign Carter was that the team decided to dedicate salary resources to signing Eric Thames instead. As mentioned by someone in the other thread, these decisions don't happen in a vacuum. In some other universe, the Brewers may well have re-signed Carter, believing him to be a good use of 3+ million based on the rest of the roster. I don't know that I have strong feelings about Rowdy, the on-field baseball player. But I do value Rowdy's on-field baseball persona. Mild-mannered grinder that maximizes his talent? I dunno. I appreciate those guys. I always wonder about companies (especially entertainment companies) valuing certain personality traits (leadership, marketability, etc.), and how or if they can quantify such value.
  11. Playing Catch
    I just mentioned in another thread, but yeah. Just a great year on the farm. Both quality and depth. I, too, don't care about rankings (and as I've mentioned before, rankings in most contexts is flawed). Trading Kelly, I think, hurt our TOR potential, not that I'm too worried about it. Perhaps Misiorowski will change that in a hurry. I agree with everyone posting about the quality and depth of our recent classes of Venezuelans (and a couple of Dominicans). My own pet belief, too, is that power is overrated in a prospect. MLB parks are tiny. Even the "40 future power" graded Luis Urias is a 20-30 HR hitter. If guys can get clean contact with some launch angle, they will hit big league HRs. Tangential to said pet belief is that the average square-footage of big-league parks combined with a newfound belief in defense (including the Brewers choosing "middle-of the-diamond" defenders), is making it very difficult to hit singles/doubles, thus squeezing the life out of contact hitters. However, this season, MLB instituted their humidors. MAYBE the reason for the low-average, 3TO-style of baseball will change due to the humidors or other such alterations (shift rules?). I expect to see this reflected in the contracts doled out to players. I believe we will see a renaissance of the .300 hitter.
  12. Playing Catch
    I just mentioned in another thread, but yeah. Just a great year on the farm. Both quality and depth. I, too, don't care about rankings (and as I've mentioned before, rankings in most contexts is flawed). Trading Kelly, I think, hurt our TOR potential, not that I'm too worried about it. Perhaps Misiorowski will change that in a hurry. I agree with everyone posting about the quality and depth of our recent classes of Venezuelans (and a couple of Dominicans). My own pet belief, too, is that power is overrated in a prospect. MLB parks are tiny. Even the "40 future power" graded Luis Urias is a 20-30 HR hitter. If guys can get clean contact with some launch angle, they will hit big league HRs. Tangential to said pet belief is that the average square-footage of big-league parks combined with a newfound belief in defense (including the Brewers choosing "middle-of the-diamond" defenders), is making it very difficult to hit singles/doubles, thus squeezing the life out of contact hitters. However, this season, MLB instituted their humidors. MAYBE the reason for the low-average, 3TO-style of baseball will change due to the humidors or other such alterations (shift rules?). I expect to see this reflected in the contracts doled out to players. I believe we will see a renaissance of the .300 hitter.
  13. Playing Catch
    Monty's post is exactly my thoughts. My only (minor) disagreements are with your thoughts on Urias and Hiura. I can't help but feel that this will end up being a "down" year for Urias, and that the club will entrust him with his current role as "regular" IFer that can move around. He's still young enough (currently 25) to think there could be improvement for a player that before this season, was still considered a bat-to-ball hitting talent. I also think that the club will be fearful that the recent uptick in Hiura's production cannot be counted on (I sure hope it can!), and they will have lots of DH/Middle-of-the-order redundancies. It wouldn't be a Brewers offseason without myriad redundancies and 40-man roster crunches.
  14. Playing Catch
    It's kind of overwhelming thinking about all of the different directions the Brewers brass could move this off-season. Everything from emptying the farm for one big-time chance next season, to trading away Yelich, Woodruff, and Burnes and completely overhauling the MLB roster. As we've all noted in this tread, it is extremely unlikely they extend Woodruff/Burnes, so it stands to reason, they'll need to overhaul the roster for 2024 for sure. For that reason, I think that they will trade one of Burnes/Woodruff this offseason. If the team waits until the following off-season, it will be something of a fire-sale situation, which could narrow the band of teams that may want to trade for them. If you trade just one of them this off-season, it could soften the blow for the following off-season in terms of having a complete sell-off. The Yelich contract is really a tough thing when the team's best prospects and best hitters play the same positions (OF/DH). I think an Adames extension is possible, but I suspect it would be more expensive than we would like. Especially if Turang ends up being a legitimate offensive player.
  15. Playing Catch
    As much as the team has been craving a consistent, middle-of-the-order bat since Braun retired (and Yelly broke his patella), I think that when the team decides to trade Woody/Burnes that they will get back a good, young controllable starter (e.g. Lauer/Freddie/Houser) in addition to any positional prospects. Or perhaps even a controllable starter + two or three 18-year-old DSL stud pitchers. I would be surprised if they traded them for unproven talent.
  16. Playing Catch
    I really like Urias in his role. With this said, it's hard for me to not be a little disappointed that he hasn't been more with the stick. I agree that his future is that of other decent "everyday" utility players from around the league. For that reason, the FO will keep him around so long as he's reasonably affordable.
  17. Playing Catch
    I really like Urias in his role. With this said, it's hard for me to not be a little disappointed that he hasn't been more with the stick. I agree that his future is that of other decent "everyday" utility players from around the league. For that reason, the FO will keep him around so long as he's reasonably affordable.
  18. Playing Catch
    That makes for a potentially boring off-season, but I believe it is in the best interests of the team in 2023, and in the long-term.
  19. Playing Catch
    I think there is a serious dearth of "needle-moving" bats in MLB right now. In the hypothetical that we trade one of our aces for a big bat, I fear we would end up being very disappointed with the results. It doesn't feel like it right now, in this post-Hader malaise, but I actually think the FO's strategy to rely on pitching and good depth across the roster (to try and prevent "black holes" in the lineup) is a really good strategy for the small market Brewers. On paper, this team should be better record-wise. Their dominant pitching has suffered through above-average performance, and injury, and the defense has been the same. I would not be surprised if the Brewers go back to that strategic well one more time in 2023 before trading their aces. At that point, the Brewers will have a much better sense of what they have in Frelick, Wiemer, Chourio, Gasser, et. al, so that they will know what positions they will need to trade for in offseason 2023.
  20. Playing Catch
    In addition, there are a lot of teams, even super-wealthy teams, that don't think paying a closer $15M is a good use of resources. I think the money in this trade was a really important piece to this trade.
  21. Playing Catch
    Davis does look like an all-world defender in CF, who happens to have had a terrific year hitting in Nashville, and is hitting well in Milwaukee (albeit w/o any power). I'm as excited about Ruiz as everyone, but I don't think we should be in such a rush to send Davis down.
  22. Playing Catch
    I wonder if the Brewers did everything they could to make sure the Padres would get Soto so that the Cardinals wouldn't.
  23. Playing Catch
    How crazy would it be if internally, the Front Office actually believed Rogers was an upgrade? That isn't possible, right?
  24. Playing Catch
    I suppose there's a place for the timing of the trade. As it was the first trade, the Front Office wasn't sure what the end of the deadline would look like, so they took Lamet. Then, when making other trades, they knew that Lamet would end up being a casualty after the trades.
  25. Playing Catch
    Stearns will need to explain the move, I would think. Even if it's through Mouthpiece McCalvy. Was this a pre-trade oversight? Or are we all missing something?
×
×
  • Create New...