Jenkins5

With how much money they have invested in their facilities in Maryville, Dominican, Carolina, Miller Park and then the inflated payroll all have to figure into that. There is a lot more to budget than just players & attendance. They have put such an emphasis in facilities the past 2-3 years across the board. Completely revamped Maryville to state of art facility. Believe they did same in Dominican. They bought Carolina and invested there. Not sure if they pitched in much for Biloxi or if that was all them but it is a top notch AA venue. They continue to update Miller Park. All those cost add up. MA I feel is pretty honest owner and has done great job over past 15 years considering where this team was prior to him. Operating at a loss is vague but my best guess it wasn’t substantial.

With how much money they have invested in their facilities in Maryville, Dominican, Carolina, Miller Park and then the inflated payroll all have to figure into that. There is a lot more to budget than just players & attendance. They have put such an emphasis in facilities the past 2-3 years across the board. Completely revamped Maryville to state of art facility. Believe they did same in Dominican. They bought Carolina and invested there. Not sure if they pitched in much for Biloxi or if that was all them but it is a top notch AA venue. They continue to update Miller Park. All those cost add up. MA I feel is pretty honest owner and has done great job over past 15 years considering where this team was prior to him. Operating at a loss is vague but my best guess it wasn’t substantial.

Sounds like Chiefs will try to restructure deal before cutting him. Watkins in an article talked about it and said he’d only do it if it makes sense to. Figure his agent will try to see what his market is and how that would slot against restructured deal. He even talked about just sitting out a year if cut which doesn’t make sense to me. He does have game speed that Packers strongly lack outside of MVS but you can actually have him in lineup without being a liability. If price reasonable. Could be worth it. I mean, outside of Adams it isn’t pretty. I’m good with him, Cobb, Anderson, Green, Sanders, mid as well still say Cooper even though that won’t happen, and even Perriman is upgrade over current situation. We need a revamp through draft and FA My top priority is Austin Hooper who I feel is still very underrated as a TE despite production or Hunter Henry. Henry is a phenomenal TE when on field but can you really pay up when he can’t stay on the field? That is biggest question. They can’t make same mistake as last year and put all there eggs on Sternberger like they did at WR. I see a lot of talk about Littleton but I hate that. Yes he is elite in coverage at position but flat out awful vs run. He ranked like 104 out of 115 grade IBs vs run. I’d like at least one backer who can step up, take on a block, and smoke a running back from inside. Maybe if we had that, we wouldn’t have let SF just gash us all game. Littleton doesn’t help that problem

Saw a list of players on twitter who could be cap cuts. One name was Sammy Watkins. I have hard time seeing that happen but do you target him if that happens? He is is one of the type of guys we are missing in this offense. He is the burner deep threat. You sign him you can turn attention in draft away from the Ruggs, Reagor, Hamler types and focus more on the big body types like Higgins, Pittman etc, or the possession or slot types who can make things happen with ball in the hand Shenault, Aiyuk, Hill, Jefferson types

Problem is they haven’t invested in a true round 1-3 talent at WR. Hard to expect 4-7 WRs to be big playmakers.... you may hope they can. A few guys in those rounds do make big impact however HUGE percent from 4-7 round WRs become anymore than a backend role player. The Hill’s, Diggs, Marvin Jones are rarities. Great reference below, just scroll through & read down the list of WRs drafted 4-7. Then look where the impact WRs are taken. If Packers don’t invest early in top talent at the position (Top 3 rounds) don’t expect the problem to be addressed by simply continuing to draft late WRs. Sure one could hit big but we can’t expect them to. The numbers just don’t support it. http://www.nfl.com/draft/history/fulldraft?type=position&position=WR

I always knew he had done really well in first 3 rounds. Many more hits than misses but until I actually did the research, couldn’t believe how ugly 4-6 have been for us. Basically in 30 years and 18 picks we got a great career out of a 6th round pick in Billy & Bradford carved a nice little career while here but that was in the 90s. Nothing to show for those picks past 20+ years. I do like how we have got production from many 7th round guys. Driver is one of the team greats. Charles Lee flashed and had decent career. Guys like Janis & Swain were special team aces. But honestly, MVS May already be our 2nd best 5th round pick.... and that’s not because he has done that much. Moral of story, invest early in WR and don’t do the whole we spent mid to late round picks, we are fine now at WR. Clearly history says otherwise.

Past 30 drafts 1st round 02 Javon Walker - good 2nd Round 14 D. Adams - very good 11 R. Cobb - very good 08 J. Nelson - very good 06 G. Jennings - very good 05 T Murphy - career ended right away 01 R Ferguson - serviceable but bust 96 D. Mayes - straight bust 3rd round 15 Ty Montgomery- solid but move to RB 07 J. Jones - very good 95 A. Freeman - very good 92 Robert Brooks - very good As you can see in first 3 rounds we have hit way more than missed. Come 4th round and later, you will see why I don’t count that as investing into a position. For 30 years we have drafted terrible 4-7 at the position. Maybe 4-5 who amounted to anything. Only 2-3 became key players for us. 4th 0/3 18’ J. Moore, 06’ C. Rodgers, 00’ A. Lucas. 5th 1/10 18’ MVS, 17’ D Yancy, 16’ T Davis, 14’ J Abbreddris, 07’ D Clowney, 00’ J. Jamison, 98’ C Bradford (very serviceable), 94’ T. Mickens, 92’ O. McKay, 90’ C Wilson, 89’ J. Query. 6th 1/4 18’ St. Brown, 99’ D. Miller, 95’ Charlie Simmons, Bill Schroeder (great career) 7th 17’ M. Dupree, 14’ Jeff Janis, 13’ Charles Johnson and K Dorsey, 08’ B Swain, 03’ C Ford & D Rubin, 00’ C Lee (decent), 99’ D Driver (great career), 97’ C. Miller, 92’ C Holder Personally we draft better in 7th than 4th-6th at WR

Thompson invested a lot in WRs early. It built a get WR core for us that last most of Rodgers career. Jennings 2nd, Jones 3rd, Jordy 2nd, Cobb 2nd, Adams, 2nd. All those guys except Adams & Cobb are retired with only Adams still around. Investing at WRs is using quality high draft picks on them. Because we drafted a guy in 4, 5, 6 one year isn’t the same. Sure you can hit on those guys but to say well we drafted a WR in 5th round and 6th isn’t the same as taking a highly rated stud early. Gute had that mindset and it killed this offense this year. He tried to just let low investments develop and it failed. Don’t see him doing it again this season. He is going draft them high and maybe sign one. Lucky for him, he needs WRs the year that is considered the best WR class in awhile. Not just top heavy but it is deep.

Simply as others have said, when this team isn’t competitive anymore. I love Yeli & hope he gets a monster deal but that won’t be here sadly. He still had time at a good price. Enjoy the the time we have. We will see how this season goes. I’m not confident in the way this team is constructed so maybe it is sooner than later but that’s just me. Window is closing and a rebuild is coming in the next 2-3 years. Yeli deal ending, Cain is aging, Braun is at end, and infield lacks any true future outside of Hiura. Starting pitching.... we shall see. By 2022 we need to reload. Hopefully by then the international may help, maybe some draft guys but yeah. Enjoy Yeli why we have him because he will finish his career somewhere else. DS isn’t paying that bill.

The scouting report from Baseball America is absolutely glowing. Hedbert Perez is rated as an overall future value BA grade of 55. The only other Brewers prospects that BA ranks as FV 55 are Brice Turang, Eduardo Garcia, and Drew Rasmussen. I’ll paraphrase his BA scouting report below: - High contact hitter that has a compact, efficient swing. Barrels the ball to all fields. - Disciplined hitter who has the ability to get on base at a high percentage. - Has at least 55 raw power currently that should get to plus or better as he gets stronger. - Excellent athlete with plus or better speed. - Above average defender in CF (reads ball well off bat and takes good routes). Has a plus arm with good accuracy. - Fluent English speaker that “draws praise for his confidence and leadership”. As you mentioned his dad, Robert Perez, played six seasons with the majors including a few years with the Blue Jays and a brief stint with the Brewers. Some interesting facts about Robert Perez in his Wikipedia page including the fact he spent 27 seasons playing in the Venezuelan League and is considered a living legend because he broke many of the career hitting records in the league. Thank You! An amazing profile! Can’t believe how little hype he got around signing. Just keep the high end lottery tickets coming and eventually you hit on one big! Hopefully at least one blows up this year. A Garcia post injury revenge tour would be very nice. I’m real high on Parra

What do we all know about Hedbert Perez? We all were able to read a bunch on Medina but all of a sudden Perez’s name is popping up a lot more. Hard to find much on him. Know dad played in MLB and runs a baseball academy in which Hedbert played for. Outside of that, don’t know much about him

Cool to see Ortega. He was looking very promising until injuries derailed his career

CRod doesn’t really have a patience problem (yet at least). He doesn’t K at all. His problem is his hand eye coordination is too good for competition. Kid can just hit anything anywhere. Curious to see if it improves as he faces better pitchers. However, it very well could become a problem. He just seems like to good of a hitter not to be able to improve there. They have ton of outstanding athletes. Ward continues to improve and play well even with advanced placements. If he can start to fill out and add power, he could be something. Kid was a 4 star USC WR recruit. Ability is there. Gray Jr. is one you just care waiting on to go off on a tear. He is electric. If he can just start to put bat on the ball

The fumble argument is one of the dumbest knocks I’ve heard around Twitter and such. Just uneducated football take. ARod’s momentum is going back. The awful snap barely hit his hands & went forward (not backwards) towards and past line of scrimmage. He would have had to fully stop his momentum on a dime dove through a moving Centers legs, crawled a little bit, and wrestle it was from a 300 pound lineman. Be different if ball was fumbled backwards or straight down but it wasn’t. Instead of wasting time made at ARod, why do all these people give Cory a free pass for having one of his worst snaps of his career. It was flat out awful. Just people wanting to get on ARod and blame him for something. His interception was ugly, I’d focus on that over a fumble he really wasn’t going to get nor any QB would. People act like it was bouncing by his feet and he just decided to ignore it. I’m fine with Pettine coming back. He still needs a few more pieces though for sure! Our Front 7 is the Smith Bro’s & Clark. Lowry has moments, Martinez will clean up 4+ yards down field but we will not be good against run until we get another stud to add next to Clark & a downhill run stuffing backer. Martinez would thrive in a 3-4 as the Will with a mean & nasty Sam who plunges while he scraps. Sadly, we both don’t have a strong physical linebacker to pair with him nor do we run much base with two real linebackers in the middle. Even we do, he is pair with a Burks or someone else who is even worse than he is at plugging downhill. Martinez just is not strong or explosive enough to plug holes. He is a read & scrap guy. FA will be so important this year. Sadly the ILB class is bad Littleton is a cover backer who pff ranked 103 of 126 against the run for backers. Schobert I think is better even he graded out iffy vs run. There are some good options at WR that we could get to take pressure off needing a WR in round 1. Such a loaded class, you can still get a good one in 2-3. However, if you don’t get Anderson, Green, Cooper, you need one of those high end studs. My take WR I want Anderson. With awful offense and QB play his whole career, he has found ways to consistently make big plays downfield. Plus he has the size Gute likes. Green would be nice but guy is never on field. Cooper is too expensive. Cobb could come back if cheap enough. Still better than what we have. No matter what Gute needs to make splash in FA and draft to revamp awful core we currently have outside of Adams. DE Packers want an elite Defense.... you start by going out & dropping whatever is need to get Chris Jones at DE. It’s completely unlikely but I honestly don’t think he is far off of Donald. The attention he will receive just frees the Smith’s even more. Jones Clark Lowry with the Smith Boys on the outside is something no offensive line wants to deal with. For much cheaper get Leonard Williams who people really have written because he didn’t become the star he was suppose to but he is still a very solid 3-4 DE who can be good with Clark inside in Nickel and dime. Shelby Harris the Wisconsin boy who sadly was kicked out at UW for stealing video game systems with WR Appleton is a solid rotation piece to consider. Never been workhorse but has graded very well in his role. Could be good value add. * Like Wilkerson, I take a chance on Williams. He flashed early in career and is only going to be 26. Jets haven’t been the model of getting most out of talent. Giants trade made zero sense and since college he had been a 3-4 end. ILB At inside backer. Martinez & his price will not make sense. Sadly, he may be best vs the run in FA class which just points to how bad class is. In the draft, Simmons will be long gone but Murray is the pissed off mean LB you’d like vs the run. He is a late first round option. Patrick Queen is a guy I’d love to have in 2nd. More complete backer than Murray but not as nasty. OSUs Malik Harrison is closer to Murray as a run first backer who needs to continue to grow in coverage. Logan Wilson of Wyoming is a guy I really like, hopefully 3rd or 4th round option. Overall, inside backers are not outstanding in this class. TE Hunter Henry not healthy often but when he is, he is a stud. Ebron broke out with Luck but Briskett did not help him repeat stellar season. Austin Hooper is underrated TE but could be a great add. As off now TE draft class is iffy & has awhile to be more defined. Rankings and reports are all over the place. Not a 1st round talent imo but solid option later on.

My only issue is that MLB did nothing on international spending. Even 2 years of not being allowed to spend over 100k on a player would have been nice. They do well in that market & get to keep all pool money. Hopefully nothing comes to light about Brewers after all those rumors of people trying to link them to Sign Gate back in October.. Stearns link Astros will make him an easy target for accusations. A penalty like that for Brewers could be pretty devastating.

Chambers in my mind is the best Badger comparison. Similar size, athletic ability, strong hands, and consistency. Cephus like Chambers was just reliable. He could make plays at all levels (short, mid, deep). You remove Taylor, Cephus would have been the star of this offense with monster numbers. Kid could go off for 100+ Every game but offense really wasn’t geared towards that. He still put up 59 & 907. Guys like Chambers & Cephus aren’t at Wisconsin often. They are just complete WRs that you can rely on all game. They are more in mold of Adams & Cooper type WRs who may not have the size, elite speed, or other things that teams drool over but do little things right and have enough of all the tools to be a threat. Chambers had great career & think Cephus can to. He easily could be #2 on the Packers right now buuuut really.... 2-6 for us is not good. Wish him the best! Crush combine! Awesome he had this kind of season after all he went through

Could be just me but it would be really bad sign if Burnes & Peralta can’t make the 26 man roster on opening day. They should be past that point. Either make rotation or be in pen.

I like it! Free up that money & get Amari Cooper paid! Just think what this offense could be with Rodgers, Adams, Cooper, & Jones! Packers only having one receiving threat is a kill right now.

Stearns goal has been consistent since he took over. Make a small market team competitive every year in a sustainable way. They’d turn over every stone & find value. Just look at how he has completely revamped our international department. We sign ton of Latin players & very well could fill two DSL teams soon. Not to mention they mostly capitalize in areas that are not as highly scouted. Venezuela is huge for use while many teams don’t spend much time due to their issues. Panama, Mexico.... In Asia & Australia they invest resources. Hasn’t panned out yet but fruits are hopefully coming. Value waivers & cheaper rebound value guys he had been able to get production from. Even better flip them later on. He has been willing to make big trades & signing when value is right. He targets control and will sign position players. He has done so while not taking in long & hurtful contracts. Cain is only one that seems like it could end up poorly if his offense doesn’t recover but his defense is still elite & helps this team win with runs saved. Fact is, signing pitchers in this market is dangerous. The value often doesn’t match results. I feel we are far more likely to trade for a controllable TOR pitcher than ever signing one. Fans may hate it but he is running this team great & getting results. Until we bomb during a season, tough to complain. We were one game away from World Series two seasons ago. Lost to the Champs this year who just rolled at right time. That late run we had was without top player in baseball. If Stearns believes in Lindblom, I’ll give him benefit of doubt. At price, looks like smart move. What they really need is for these homegrown arms to produce at high level. Woodruff Burnes Peralta Hauser...... Williams Supek Ashby etc. The value of Burnes producing is far higher than paying 15+ million for similar results. They have struggled to sign international impact pitchers. That is only thing that annoys me. Very few bonus pitchers. Lindblom, Welcome! Let’s see that splitter eat up hitters all season!

I don’t get involved in all December doomsday drama. It doesn’t make sense to me. We just invested 3 million a year on a pitcher who intriguing. I’m not jumping for joy but not discouraged by it. It’s one move. Crazy to think that some act like a 3 million dollar investment makes him a lock for rotation spot. Brewers will most likely give him a long look in Spring with hopes he can carry over success from KBO. They are turning over stones looking for gold. Not like Stearns shelled out 9 million a season or more on him. It’s a low risk flier with high reward if he can keep dealing. I still struggle how so many fans have jumped off the cliff on Burnes after being lights out through out minors & dominant out of pen out of gates & into playoffs. Young guy got shelled with HRs out of gate, lost all confidence, and wasn’t able to get it back. Now people went from future frontline guy to not really being a option. Struggles seem to be unforgiving. As if Woodruff didn’t go through same thing after first time making rotation (lasted a month). Point is this rotation is far from set. This move does little to seal deal on one of the spots in rotation. Sure, that could be what they hope but they care more about winning. They will pick the top 5 they have who give them best chance to win. 3 million doesn’t change that. They can still go out and trade for a stud or sign a few other SPs. It’s early still. This signing isn’t going to stop Stearns from doing so. We have younger arms like Burnes, Peralta, and others who could still be impact arms who will be in mix as well. I’m all for lottery tickets! Even older ones who seem to reinvent themselves. I’m curious to see what he can offer us. Hope he does awesome. If he bombs, oh well, we didn’t break bank or risk much on him. Until Stearns says we signed him to be in rotation, he is a complete lock, and he is my guy.... I’m not going to complain about a flier. A few of Stearns fliers have surprised and worked out for us so far....

Personally with any NL Catcher who hurts you defensively... get him a 1B glove to work on until DH finally comes. If he can play 1B a little with his bat still in line up & have Pina be the great D catcher & game caller he is, that’d be great. Brewers have been able to pride themselves on D up the middle from catcher to CF. They have been one of the elite run saved teams over past few years but with El Narvdog, Huira, & swapping out Arcia... we lose a lot of that. Hopefully offense outweighs the hurdles we may face defensively. Back to the mid to late 2000s strategy. Mash the ball, maybe play defense occasionally along the way

I hold onto Nottingham and let him compete for job. He’s a 3rd catcher. He is entering age 25 season. Last year he struggled but performed really well in 2018 at AAA. Plus he could be the righty platoon bat at first if we snag a lefty 1B FA or bring back Thames. Not to mention a power bat off the bench. He has value still. He has yet to get a longer look and consistent at bats at MLB level through age 24 but could still be a very solid option for us. He hasn’t played a ton at 1B however has ability to do so. Hill & a comp B pick seems like a very good deal for us. Not a fan of trading away higher pics since our system could use as many picks as possible to reload but value we are getting back is very good

Hader for Devers Boston could use a younger controllable, lights out, elite reliever. We could use a young stud 3B with control. Would Boston do it? Probably not. Maybe build a deal around Chavis instead. We need corner IF. Hader is a great chip to land one. Dom Smith & McNeil deal would make me pretty happy as well. I just feel if you are going to part with Hader, you got to land a young cornerstone at 1B or 3B. One that has shown some ability to hit at big league level as well. Can’t whiff on it. That’s what I’d like.

What fantastic read! Thank you for sharing! That is probably the best analysis I have read on trade. He will be someone I look for more often to read.

Very good question and one that I've been asking a long time. Okay, I admit I'm prejudiced as Hintze and I are both alums of the same high school, but it's not like the guys ahead of him have been Mr. Automatic from shorter distances. It kind of speaks to Chryst's coaching style. Hintze was never going to get a chance behind Gaglianone because Chryst doesn't make guys accountable. Hintze should have gotten a shot last year after the kicker blew the BYU game. This year it seems the kicking job was decided in fall camp based on Larsh having a slight advantage inside 40 yards in practice conditions in August. Never mind that Hintze had proven he could make pressure kicks in Camp Randall by being named MVP of a state championship game played in cold weather as a senior in high school. A missed FG factored big time in the loss to Illinois and it wasn't Larsh's first (or last) miss on what should be almost automatic kicks in perfect conditions. Think about where Hintze is now. He's proven his leg is NFL strong, but other than than two career attempts from 62 yards, and a stellar touchback percent on kickoffs, he has no resume to land an NFL job. Hopefully for him, there's some special teams coaches out there that will give him a look, but if not, Chryst's and his coaches timidity in using their strongest legged kicker might cost a guy an NFL shot and maybe a win in each of the last couple seasons. Briggs a former Ledger! Spent a few years teaching and coaching there. My daughter is in elementary school there as well. For same reason I’m not able to talk in a non bias manner about Zach. Outstanding kid with a monster leg. He holds Wisconsin High School recorder for hitting that 61 yarder. Was a soccer player until entering junior year, maybe sophomore. I think it was more favoritism of eligibility. You have young kid with many years to kick or do you just go with the one and done after Big Raf graduated. That would just be my guess. Kid is 2/2 in career from 61+ not too shabby. Continuing on my bias ways, about time Badgers officially offer Braelon Allen the sophomore safety from Fondy. Iowa offered him in summer & had him for visit followed by Notre Dame doing the same this fall. He is ranked 6th best S in country for 2022 class. Robert Windsor was last Fondy stud Badgers let slip away & he has been a monster for Penn St at DT and think is a team captain.