Jenkins5

Arrieta is my guy. Maybe it is just because I wish my beard grow half as amazing as his but I have always loved watching him pitch. He is a competitor and fierce. 2nd half we found his stuff again and corrected what plagued him. Sometimes you wonder if some struggles come along with the whole team struggling and a down clubhouse. That mental aspect of baseball that plays major role but goes underrated. As Cubs removed head....so did he. All that said, he has given up a ton of HRs.... not sure Miller Park will help that. Better going to a nice pitcher friendly field. Overall, im excited with any new pitcher who makes us better now. Hope contract is something that doesn't hurt long-term. Sick of the Suppan, Garza, Lohse deals that start out good (Suppan not so much) then seems awful on backend. Being stuck for 2 years with an unmovable contract with awful production is never fun

Darvish is 31 and just got a 6 year deal Darvish had Tommy John surgery Cobb had the blod clot and rib injury in 2011 and was very good after that. His concussion was on a line drive to head. Really injury prone [sarcasm]If his reflexes were slow enough to let a line drive hit him in head 7 years ago..... with athletic quickness depreciating with age, I say he is more likely to be at risk for another concussion....[/sarcasm] Concussion was a fluke like jjfanec stated, brain has recovered by now (2 years usually to be fully recover and not at higher risk to receive another unless another line drive strikes him). Rib and clot had zero effect on him. TJ arms are always a risk but in 10 years with the way we abuse young arms from age 10 on.....vast majority will soon be in same boat. 5 years is a lot though for any pitcher who is not entering prime or sub 30. He doesn't have good enough track record due to TJ over past 3 years to earn that kind of deal. Could get creative with a 3 year deal mutual option year 4, team option year 5..... Even if it cost more early.

Love Suter the person & clubhouse guy. He is a Dillard type fun personality.... however, I never want to see him in rotation outside of spot starts. Long reliever, spot starter is his spot. This is coming from a guy who desperately wants a lefty in rotation. I’d gladly pay for Cobb or Lynn over him. Woodruff though I feel is worth a real look. I’m fine starting season with our rotation. Let market play out. Don’t think our season is dead by July if we don’t get one now. Hope Santana’s value soars & Phillips is continuing to progress. Make a trade then. Not saying this is course I hope for but I’d be okay with it

Problem is that if Domingo is here until July, it will be tough for Phillips to get enough ABs as 5th OF. Even with Braun playing 1st vs. lefties. Will hard to get full read on his value. Only if NL finally had a DH, Domingo would be perfect! Really hoping they finally make switch in the coming years. Domingo controls own value. Like HH said, he comes out in 1st half & repeats or even better grows, his market will increase.

No. He can’t get into specifics, remember? This is great. I don’t even care that we’re being rick-rollled. Man I completely forgot how much I use to get Rick Rolled lmao Thanks HH19! Any news is good news. Darvish just needs to sign somewhere. Agents need to stop complaining about MLB. It is one of their own who has refused to sign & set the market. Darvish isn’t worth record deal. Plenty of other pitchers in baseball way more deserving.

I’ll throw in a Mary Mary in support! Keep the faith!

607 & counting..... lol

I've heard this from several on this board, and I'd like to know where it comes from. Just because he's small? Because it isn't because he has the same kind of stuff. Hader hits 97 with ease, while Peralta sits at 88-92. Yes, he put up very nice numbers last year, but I just don't understand the hype. To me he's just another in a long line of undersized righties that get hit around once they get up to the upper levels. We'll see if he makes it to Colorado Springs this year. Look at there stat lines. They are nearly identical. High K, walks are higher, filthy & have very low Opposing batter average. Power arm with great life on off speed. Goes on.

Coming at it from a non-statistical angle, I think there are guy who are elite defenders in CF because of their incredible speed and physical athleticism, and there are guy who are elite defenders in CF because of their instincts and feel for the position (with the caveat that obviously all of these guys are good athletes). I'm guessing Stearns and company are very confident Cain falls into the latter category. (Jim Edmonds comes to mind as a perfect example, just in terms of defense. He was a Gold Glove defender all the way through his 30s and not because he was stealing 60 SB per season by then) Agree, it is like many of the great WRs in NFL who last. You look at Jerry Rice, Chris Carters & such.... not elite athletes but they were so good at routes, timing, adjusting, and know exactly where to be when. Like CFs WR is a position where some guys get away with being elite athletes but others just have elite instincts, smarts, technique and do every little thing right. Antonio Brown is not an elite athlete. He is not big like Julio. He is not Tyreke Hill fast but technique, instincts, smarts are elite. Guys like Edmonds same. He is no freak athlete but man he could play out there & did for long time! Think Cain is similar. Great athlete but just elite instincts, routes, & effort. Does all little things right. Will go all out for every ball his way.

If asking price is Santana, Phillips, Burns, Peralta.... I walk away easily. I see that as a drastic undervalue of 4 years of Santana’s bat. AL has DH option So is ehh defense shouldn’t factor in too much. He is too you, too controllable, and has just started to breakout offensively. Basically you are giving up a pre-prime Cory Hart (boarderline all-star, every day middle order bat), and three top 10 prospects. Santana, Phillips, Burns have all been top 100 prospects & Peralta can’t be far away. I don’t see how with Santana you’d still need to trade that much. Burns is Chase Anderson type starter, Peralta is a righty Hader out of Pen, and Phillips is top notch defender with elite arm & offers enough offensively due to walks & Defensive abilities. Archer is not worth the squeeze

Is Darvish really worth the contract he is holding out for? Mark A has the money but when does it become a bad investment? Just because you can outbid everyone doesn’t mean it is the right choice.Darvish is a real good pitcher. I’m not saying he is not but I’m not sure his value will exceed the ransom it is appearing he is holding out for. He is just kind of playing everyone. It’s like every week he said to be making his final decision but then he doesn’t. The whole pitcher market is on stand still until he finally decides. Brewers or not, I hope he just picks so the market can start flowing finally.

Brewer's have a decisive plan in place. What people don't realize is the Brewer's have "partial acceptance" trades in a holding pen. (Every team has this) They can act on them whenever they want. In most cases the offer is not ideal. If it was they would act obviously. They can revisit them at any time with the opposing team. However, the trade offer from the opposing team may change literally within an hour. It's not fantasy baseball were you offer a trade and you just wait for it to get accepted. For instance Brewer's offer goes into holding pen. Opposing team may accept Brewer's offer. Offer DOES NOT GO THRU UNTIL BREWER APPROVE FROM THE HOLDING PEN. This allows an offer to be sent but allows the team to work on something else with the same player in another offer. As you can see this allows a team to take different directions at one time with the one player. The trouble is, the trade can take different directions. A trade maybe accepted, but when the offering team is weighing it's best options, a day later the accepting team can differ because they have a presumed better offer with a different team or just changed their mind. The reasons trades are so fluid and dynamic. 1 player can be involved in many different offers at 1 time. Yu is the holdup in regards to pitching acquisitions in general for all MLB teams. When Yu goes, chips will start to fall, but not that fast and here's why. No one is going to spend their $ on Cobb for example when it could of went to Yu.But you don't know that until YU is off the board. Also, the longer the lesser FA pitchers (Cobb, Lynn, etc) hang out to dry, the more their price goes down. GM's know this. So there maybe a collusion of philosophy amongst GM's even though there is not a true collusion of GM's with verbal or written agreement of each other like some want to believe. Great post! To add to others, don’t sweat the negative post.... it’s like coaching & teaching... I’ll never please every student, parent, fan.... so may hate me & talk negatively about me to both me or others. Just got to block it out & do your thing. People on here appreciate you on here. Once’s who don’t have made up there mind already. Pay no attention.

Mark has ran this small market team brilliantly so far. I think it is more maddening when fans think it is even realistic to spend what it cost to "buy" a world series. Teams pay 250 million and miss playoffs....only 1 wins the championship a year. The guy only became a billionaire by being an elite financial manager and investor..... Clearly you understand money, business, and investing (which player acquisitions are) more than him though.... He knows what it coming in from TV deals, sponsorship, rev sharing and so on. He knows what the limits are before are put in a dangerous spot. He has said he is willing to spend if DS finds the guys who have the value. I rather have a competitive team that is financial stable over the long term over a team who buys long term bad contracts and cripples future. Win World Series or not, it is exciting to see them contending. Winning has nothing to do with money. Has to do with catching lightning in a bottle at right time. We can buy a TOR pitcher or trade for a cheaper on who is controllable. Even do both. It doesn't matter to me but I don't see Marktelling DS you can't sign Yu or Arretta. He has spend he has the room to go out and get one still

Gabriel Garcia has only caught like innings in 2 years. He is a 1B/3B prospect. I am excited to see if he continues to roll the way he has past two years

I enjoyed watching Braun play SS at Miami. He played SS until he was 21. For whatever reason he just couldn’t play third. He is an athlete and a ball player. I’d be interested to see how he does at wherever they try him. If it busts in Spring, they aren’t going to put themselves in a position to lose by forcing it. It’s funny people are so negative about the idea of them “trying him at 1b & maybe 2nd. What does it hurt? He steals some AB from Sogard & Villar in Spring? Oh no. Worth the look if you want the most dynamic possible offense. I don’t feel he will play any 2nd but man a Thames & Braun platoon at 1B would be amazing. More so if they held onto Santana (doubtful). Thames can’t hit a lefty to save his life. Crushes righties like an animal. Braun destroys lefties like few in baseball.

I’d love Mejia! Was over the moon with Lucroy trade! However we need an SP for Santana. Salazar & Mejia will cost more than Santana. Mejia is top catching prospect in baseball. Salazar is cheap, controllable, and electric. Maybe we can build a good package for it but not seeing it.

Anyone else not mind Lucroy back? Still think Catcher can improve. His cost has dropped on him you’d think over how he has played since leaving

I think he has top 10 in the league potential. Elite stuff. Said it in another thread, but he reminds me a lot of Scherzer in his early Detroit days, pitching decently well but waiting to break out. Scherzer did it at age 28, which happens to be the same age Salazar is now. Numbers are similar. Guy just needs to stay on mound essentially. He is electric. His K Rates and %'s are insane. It's been pointed out he was off last year but I think he could have lost faith in his fast ball a bit. That is a huge part of his game as a power arm who has awesome change up. His usage of it free fell and he relied way more on change up than he has before in hid career. His fastball was down around 8% while change jumped up 8%. He continues to throw his curve more and more (his 4th pitch).

Salazar is cheaper over next 3 years but then is FA I believe. You pay more for Archer but get him for four. Similar pitchers really. Salazar is more risky due to him never pitching all that many innings. Archer gives you 200 IPs a year. He sucks third time around but we have guys like Hader who can go multiple innings if need be

Plan C: Santana Davies to package for Archer Plan D: Yu Darvish Y. Darvish C. Archer J. Nelson C. Anderson J. Chacin by All-Star break.....I think I could live with that....yup I definitely could live with that!

I'm fine with Salazar. Huge K pitcher but last 2 years has had a spike in BBs. He has went from 7% a year his first 3 seasons to 10% his last 2. He throws hard but not too much life since his FB values are always low and negative. Luckily it sets up his best pitch the change up well. His slider is decent pitch as well and improved every year. I wish there was a nice lefty to go get. I'm still in for a Duffy and Merrifield deal. Our rotation needs a good lefty in it. Merrifield is interesting for Brewers because he is not an obp guy but then again doesn't K ever either.

Can't yet because deal is not final until physical. Sure little by little things will be leaked until then

Found these to be two interesting reads on Yelich's defense. Have to think in the corner in Miller Park his defensive WAR will have major jump. https://www.fishstripes.com/2017/9/8/16269790/christian-yelichs-gold-glove-conundrum-rich-waltz-todd-hollandsworth https://www.fishstripes.com/2017/10/27/16559592/in-record-defensive-year-yelich-overlooked

I have been selling Yelich hard since Marlins changed ownership and am to the moon excited for him to be here. I believe fully in his talent! We have him at a good price through the prime he is about to enter in a year or two. People are worried about producing runs if we trade Domingo but I legit think Yelich is a 20/20 hitter next year for the crew and would not be shocked if he hits 30/30 in the next 5 years. We can talk up and down about Brinson's potential but Yelich is a rising star right now with a proven track record of success. Maybe Brinson, Diaz, and Harrison star for them 3-4 years from now but we want to compete now. I am usually #1 prospect homer on this site but there are very few players in baseball that I don't even flinch at giving them up for. Yelich is one. Welcome aboard!

Because the OF is now even better? And we can use those other guys to get better as a team with pitching. Logical, very logical. I mean improving OF and making it easier to bring in a big pitcher seems like it would be a good thing.