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Playing Catch

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Everything posted by Playing Catch

  1. Playing Catch
    I'm no economist, but aren't deferred payments always better for the payer due to inflation?
  2. Playing Catch
    I, too, am feeling disheartened. But I have to remind myself of all of those long summers where meaningful baseball ended in June. Are we really that spoiled?
  3. Playing Catch
    I just posted this on the minor league forum, but I thought I'd posit it here... I just have this feeling that Frelick will be like a left-handed Craig Biggio. Obviously, everyone here is dreaming that Chourio becomes Acuna 2.0, while cautiously believing in Wiemer/Ruiz/Mitchell/Turang/Quero, but for my money, I'm betting on Frelick. I truly dislike the phrase, "it factor," (ugh, just typing it bothers me), but I believe Frelick has "it". I think his modest power will be an afterthought in what will be a great MLB career.
  4. Playing Catch
    Predicting the future is a tricky business. Fraught with risks, and filled with rewards. I, myself, am contemptibly risk-averse. I am glad that our GM is not (e.g. Yelich contract, Thames/Lindblom contracts, ALL of his trades including this one)... I mean, doesn't that mean that he's trying? I also maintain that the Lamet deal got weird on deadline day due to unforeseen trade possibilities and 40-man implications. None of this is to say that we shouldn't criticize the moves with 20-20 hindsight, we absolutely should! Let's just not pretend that all of this [perceived] mess could have been avoided if only Stearns and company would've heeded our collective advice. Let's also not pretend that the only successful baseball bosses win a World Championship every year, and when they don't, they then suck.
  5. Playing Catch
    I just have this feeling that Frelick will be like a left-handed Craig Biggio. Obviously, everyone here is dreaming that Chourio becomes Acuna 2.0, while cautiously believing in Wiemer/Ruiz/Mitchell/Turang/Quero, but for my money, I'm betting on Frelick. I truly dislike the phrase, "it factor," (ugh, just typing it bothers me), but I believe Frelick has "it". I think his modest power will be an afterthought in what will be a great MLB career.
  6. Playing Catch
    Conversely, one of the reasons (along with how it affects pitching), that the Rockies stadium has often had the highest batting averages is because of the amount of ground their OF need to cover.
  7. Playing Catch
    I agree with Chorizo. As far as we know, the Brewers were planning on approaching Burnes after his next start, or perhaps in the off-season. As far as we know the Brewers and Burnes's representation have had enough cursory conversations about Burnes's long-term career goals that a "formal approach" would simply initiate a national media feeding frenzy surrounding the future of the Brewers star pitcher that doesn't help the process at all, whether they try to sign him or trade him. It seems like Burnes was just being candid with McCalvy, even if he knew it was on the record. I didn't interpret it as animosity or confusion, or not being "on the same page" with the organization. He was just having a conversation with a co-worker about his unkown future.
  8. Playing Catch
    My theory is that with all of the "newer" parks as well as modified parks, MLB just doesn't have enough grass. Not only does it make it easier to hit HRs and fouling it into the stands, but it ALSO makes it easier to defend the open space as there is so much less of it. We've seen with our own team how Front Offices put a premium on defense therefore lowering batting averages, and making it extremely difficult on LH hitters compared to past seasons. The only reasonable thing lefties could do was "hit 'em where they a'int," which is over the fence. (I would love to see batters butcher boy the shift to death, too, but clearly that is a special skill). If my hypothesis is correct (it may not be), deadening the baseball would simply lower batting averages further, which in a way, is what we've seen this season with a slightly "deader" ball. Other than, perhaps, the pitch clock (which I believe is just as much a nuisance for hitters), ALL of the rule changes were "anti-defense" rules... Not anti-pitching, not anti-hitting. I think that this will make hitting for average and stealing bases much more valuable so perhaps players will get paid to be fast and hit the ball on the ground (this bodes very well for the Brewers with their Nashville 5, as well as for their albatross contract). My last point is that while a team can shift an OF into short RF, that opens up A LOT of room for opposite field pop ups, which are almost always outs. I, even as a baseball purist, support the changes.
  9. 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.
  10. Playing Catch
    What I would add is that the strategy of small-ball-helping-in-low-scoring-playoff-type games-against-good-pitching, doesn't quite jive with the regular season strategy of, mash-homers-all-year-while-beating-bad-teams-so-you-can-bite-the-apple.
  11. Playing Catch
    Usually, those strategies are personnel-specific. If the Brewers' hypothetical 2023 starting lineup includes Ruiz, Frelick and Mitchell (with Taylor and Wiemer and Yelich at DH), you can count on more small ball. If it includes guys like Renfroe, then no, you won't see him bunting.
  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
    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.
  14. Playing Catch
    Yeah. It makes me wonder if we may be looking at a bigger offseason overhaul than we expect. I can' t remember the last time the Brewers were so aggressive. Although, what's true is that every team tends to be aggressive with good prospects. And as mentioned by others, this has been one of the most successful seasons for the farm that I can remember in terms of highly regarded prospects performing well. Perhaps we just have some really good players coming.
  15. Playing Catch
    Chourio is gunna need to start wearing a facemask, because with the way he covers low and away, he's gunna get A LOT of high and tight.
  16. 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.
  17. Playing Catch
    Even if the topic was, "list the reasons why the Brewers haven't performed to your expectations," wouldn't Counsell be waaay down the list??
  18. Playing Catch
    I know nothing of the man, Albert Pujols, or his decisions regarding performance-enhancing drugs. I also won't compare those whispers to that of our own gem of a hitter. BUT! I hate him; I hate him because he was a Cardinal. I hate him because it's just sports. Just as the blind, irrational love we have for our teams is "just sports," so is our hatred for our rivals. Sports, like with great novels, soap operas, and professional wrestling, are better when there is a heel; when there is an irrational reason to hate. With sports (but not in life), hatred and schadenfreude are completely acceptable, even encouraged. Embrace your hate. (But just with sports).
  19. 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.
  20. Playing Catch
    From those videos it looks like Wiemer has toned down the moving parts to his swing just a little. Or am I just seeing what I want to see?
  21. Playing Catch
    Or the opposite... I wonder if the Brewers are especially careful with their pitchers, potentially avoiding season-ending/career-altering injuries.
  22. Playing Catch
    I think he's had too much success for me to believe that he's permanently "lost it," and he'll now just be some average (or worse!) set-up man. Being traded during a personally challenging time for a family could make it difficult to focus at work right now so that he can make the necessary corrections/adjustments. I'll predict that he'll be great again... but perhaps not until next season, when he's making A LOT of money.
  23. 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.
  24. Playing Catch
    Seems like a good opportunity to thank everyone for their work on these daily threads. I really appreciate your dedication! I've literally been reading these nearly every day since forever. It replaced my pouring over MLB box scores in the morning newspaper every morning over breakfast. Thanks again!
  25. Playing Catch
    The tweeter clearly edited out all context from the original McCalvy article. In the article, with the context from a number of other team sources, it was clear that Lauer was simply being emotionally honest with McCalvy about how the trade deadline felt, without attempting to throw the FO/Owner under the bus, or make excuses for the team's performance, or even complain about the current state of MLB owner/player relations. He was just responding to a question the way someone would respond if their buddy asked them the same question, "How did you feel about everything that happened at the trade deadline?" In the future, It's entirely possible that Lauer felt that while McCalvy didn't do anything wrong, Lauer may be a bit more guarded in future interviews.
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