502 to Right

Probably would have been 6 more GIDP.

There's no way I'd recommend paying Schoop $8.5+ million as a 2 month bridge to Hiura.

I don't find Will Carroll to be a credible "journalist" and would not put any credence in any statement he made. His most famous "scoop" in 2003 was that Pete Rose was about to be reinstated to baseball and would become eligible for the hall of fame. I bought his book "Saving the Pitcher." It came out in 2004 and extolled the virtues of Mark Prior's amazing mechanics and training regimen that would protect him from future injury. Of course, we all know how that turned out. I also can't stand that kind of garbage tweet. They provide no information that can be verified as true, and yet they get to sound edgy and in the know. Worthless!

Hiura will not be the 2019 opening day 2B. And whether he comes up, or when, will depend on how he plays in the minors in 2019. He's not a lock to provide meaningful plate appearances in 2019 at the major league level.

Unfortunately, in the profile on Hiura by Jim Callis his only reference to defense at 2B was that "it's a work in progress."

We all known Hiura can hit--but are there more scouting reports out there that describe his fielding at 2B in 2018? (just read the report from above from 20-80 baseball). I'll be watching the AFL championship today to see what they have to say about Hiura's fielding.

Everything about the Marlins is a clown show. Colors, ballpark, ownership group. It's sad that franchise has 2 World Series championships and the Brewers have zip.

I'm totally fine going with Manny Pina as the #1 catcher for 2019 and piecing things together for the #2. I think Pina gets dumped on too much on this site. He's a perfectly decent catcher both defensively and offensively. There's a lot of value in being average.

I would kick the tires on a one year deal for Donaldson and keep Shaw at 2B for 2019.

I think we should keep in mind that playing Shaw at 2B in 2019 is probably on the table. So that the 2B position could be filled by finding a 3B for 2019. I was highly critical of playing Shaw at 2B in 2018 but the defensive metrics (that we have access to anyway) show that Shaw wasn't terrible at 2B. He easily passed the eye test as well. If the Brewers could find a stopgap 3B for 2019 they might have their answer to 2B as well. Then any contribution by Hiura in 2019 would be icing on the cake.

Exactly. We need to see what we have in Hiura, not trade him or replace him with an expensive piece.

The Brewers faced 6 lefty starters in the playoffs and Schoop started only one of those games (and he went 0 for 5 in that game). I think that tells you all you need to know about his future with the Brewers. He's a turd.

Cain did win the Fielding Bible award for CF for MLB in 2018. I considering the Fielding Bible award to be more credible than the Gold Glove award. http://www.fieldingbible.com/the-winners.asp

The last three years Harper has put up a WAR of 1.5 (2016), 4.7 (2017), and 1.3 (2018). What idiot GM is going to give this player $300+ million? We shall see. As evidenced by the Albert Pujols, Chris Davis, Eric Hosmer, Jason Heyward, Robinson Cano, Pablo Sandoval, and Miguel Cabrera signings, clearly someone will.

Quite frankly, I hope it's the Cubs.They can absorb a lot of payroll disasters but this one could actually hurt.

If I was a big-market GM I'd be all over Harper. Mind you that means GM of a team that could withstand multiple years above the luxury tax, and that would still have flexibility to make other moves. Which pretty much limits it to Yankees, Phillies and Dodgers I guess. Now this isn't a logic I extend to free agents in general, but Harper (And Machado, if he wasn't such an *******) is a bit unique in that he's hitting free agency at such a young age. Even with a 10 year contract, you're only expecting the last couple of years to be bad. But even that isn't really the argument here; value-wise it still won't be a very good contract even in a somewhat optimistic scenario, and it carries a ton of risk. The reason it still makes sense is because of how hard it is to acquire top talent in this game, due to the draft and the long developmental cycle, the 6 (7 really) years of team control, the prospect premium for trades etc. You simply don't get the chance to sign a player this good who's only 26 very often. It's a rather unique opportunity to add a player this good for his prime years. Even a fairly pessimistic aging curve would suggest you're getting 5-6 highly productive years. When you're already a good team, it's hard to add quality beyond that. Paying a large premium, if you can afford it, for an extra "guaranteed" (In the sense that anything ever is) win or two is one way to do it. I think Harper will end up either re-signing in Washington or with the Phillies. Philies have a low payroll, and yet are willing to run one of the highest in the game. There's also no other team for whom Harper is a bigger upgrade. The other teams in contention already have good outfields. Outfields that would be better with Harper, but not to the extent that the Philliies would improve with him. They might even sign both him and Machado, tho that's too much to invest into two players really. My issue with Harper is that he just put up a 1.3 WAR season in his contract year. Ugly. I'm not betting 10+ years and $300+ million on that. Other than his 2015 season, Harper has been very overrated. My other concern with Harper is the neck problems he's had. That kind of thing doesn't go away but instead gets worse. I wouldn't be surprised if he went the Prince Fielder route.

Cole Hamels has put up an ERA+ of 137 (2016), 115 (2017), and 122 (2018) the last three years. You can argue whether he's worth $20 million in 2019, but to suggest he's a "crap player" is just asinine.

I think hitting coaches get too much credit for team hitting success, and too much blame for team hitting failure.

That might be true for multi-year deals but a 1 year deal with an aging pitcher is not going to hamstring the Cubs at all. If the pitcher sucks they will release him and move on without missing a beat.

"They made me feel wanted." Translation: they offered me a lot more money. I have no problem with this. If the Brewers thought he was worth the money they would have paid it. They know a lot more about his value relative to the replacement who will come in. This could be a big mistake for Johnson in the end. He'll probably be fired with the rest of Bell's staff in two years. In Milwaukee he would have had job security. But if it's a challenge he wanted . . . he got it.

Maybe he's a big horse racing guy and wants to be closer to Churchill Downs in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby.

Perhaps Johnson's great-grandfather was born in Cincinnati?

Maybe Johnson prefers Skyline Chili to Real Chili.

As someone who dislikes the Yankees I sure hope they sign Harper and play him in CF. His defense will be abysmal and he will get paid well in excess of the value he brings to the team. Win-win. If I was a GM I wouldn't touch Harper with a 10 foot pole.

Lots of meaningless speculation in this thread.