KeithStone53151

One thought, maybe Freitas is notably good with pitchers and they think he would be beneficial to some of our AAA pitchers? Just spitballing. Again, hard to dislike a move that seems like nothing for nothing. I'm sure Stearns has his reasons, he's definitely earned the benefit of the doubt.

Kimbrel's agent isn't holding Kimbrel out, Kimbrel is holding Kimbrel out. If Kimbrel wants to sign a deal presented to him, he would direct his agent to accept the deal. Or change agents. Completely agree, agents work for the players. It's definitely possible that Kimbrel is listening to bad advice, but at the end of the day it's his decision. Remember when Gomez(Boras client) signed that team friendly extension with the Brewers? This completely defied standard Boras "get to free agency" strategy, so it's virtually certain that Gomez specifically instructed Boras to work on an extension for him. Point being, agents work for the player...the player calls the shots.

Has anyone seen news reports or videos of the numerous fights over the weekend? Cubs fans are the absolute worst, stuff like this is why I enjoy their team sucking more than I enjoy the Brewers playing well.

Yeah I'm expecting Shaw to sit today. Cain, Yelich, Braun, Aguilar, Grandal, Moose, Perez, Arcia, P. That's the lineup I'm anticipating today.

I also have always gone through my ticket rep. They've always made it so easy. I find it easier sending a quick email and letting them do it than figure it out on my own.

I don't really care for him singling out foreign players, but I don't really mind if some guys want to have an old school mentality on home run celebrations. That's their right and I don't care about that, but he shouldn't be singling out anybody...as home run celebrations aren't specific to one nationality or race. I'll add that I think a much bigger deal is being made of his comments on here than should be. If your argument is moreso "I don't want him in the clubhouse with our latin players"...I can understand that. If your argument is "he's a horrible human being and shouldn't be allowed to play"...well that's silly and ridiculous. It's very similar to how many self-righteous Cubs fans sounded regarding Russell and Murphy last year.

Whenever some ballplayer comes up with lightning fast speed, but questionable OBP skills the often quoted comment is "you can't steal first base". I think for the Indians the corollary would be "you can't win a game if you don't score". Yeah they have a good rotation and a very spotty bullpen, but that offense has the capability of being absolutely abysmal. The Indians are my pick for surprise failure this year. While there's no competition from the Royals, Tigers or Sox, I think the Twins have a very good shot at taking the central. The Twins certainly have the offense to give them a run for it. I'm not a huge fan of their pitching in general, but offense wins in the regular season...pitching wins in the playoffs.

I'm trying to decide which I enjoy more...the Brewers being 4-1 or the Cubs being 1-3. This is pretty much the best possible start to the season record-wise.

Peralta’s pitches are fine the way they are, command of his FB is the only thing keeping him from being the most dominating pitcher in all of baseball. Strong words but true. He’s made progress every year, slow but progress none the less. Just want to see him get to 175-180 innings this year, so can really get turned loose next year. The list of guys that have had success on multiple different fastballs and one breaking pitch is very very short. Kluber and Arrieta are the only guys I can think of that have had sustained success on similar arsenals over the last 5-10 years. Every other starter either has a change up or multiple different breaking pitches to help him get through an order multiple times. Hence why I think a changeup is so important for him. I'm concerned that MLB hitters will quickly adapt to a 2-2.5 pitch arsenal. Multiple different fastballs might not be enough to consistently beat MLB hitters by throwing them and a curve with fringy command. I would argue a changeup and/or improved curveball command are more important than those extra couple ticks of velocity that he reportedly found this year.

With how quick guys have to make a decision based on release point on a potential 94 mph cut fastball on the hands or a changeup dropping away...even an average changeup with at least a little arm-side run thrown that percentage of the time is going to play up big time. I'm so curious how Peralta's arsenal will play. That extra velocity and an average changeup could yield a star. Even without the changeup, he could be the next Kluber...I'll feel so much better about his outlook if he gets a few swings and missed on changeups in April.

This part is going to be almost impossible to know due to a few factors. -I'm sure the Brewers are doing a cost segregation study on improvements to Maryvale. Some of the improvements will be able to be expensed on their own merits, and quite possibly in 2018. -Some of the improvements to the existing structures could be bonus depreciation eligible, and quite possibly in 2018. -However, due to the incredibly confused language in the tax law, there is significant conflict between depreciation, qualified business income (which is a whole other can of worms for sport franchise owners), and the business interest expense limitation. In short, there are a bunch of tax treatments the Brewers could opt for, depending on the nature of the improvements, the activity the improvements are related to, the tax status of the LLC members, and a number of other factors. -I'm not sure if the Brewers are a calendar year or fiscal year entity. Even beginning to guess what the organization's net profits are, taxable income, or anything else like that currently is not possible. The Brewers and their CPA firm(s) probably don't even know what it is yet. I'd also suggest it may not matter a whole lot. The Brewers' owners are driven by a desire to increase the value of the franchise. If they think spending some extra money now will help them be able to sell at a much higher rate later, they'll spend the money. Tax has never been my strong suit, I kinda squeaked by on that exam and didn't look at it much again. The other points are true as well, I was assuming most likely scenario. Though their fiscal year is an especially good point as it's probably very likely they are not calendar year. I also especially liked your last point. With how much the value of the franchise has increased...banks would be lining up to write the Brewers a blank check if cash flow were ever an issue. So I completely agree, if they are all in on this year to get that first world series...I think they'd gladly spend the money even at risk of a loss.

That is a brutal opening month. Yikes. I still like us to go 17-14 though. I would say 18-13 if both Knebel and Jeffress were healthy.

I completely agree on the bold. Regarding the Maryvale project, safe to assume that entire project was capitalized down to every piece of equipment inside the building...so there is probably very little impact to net income right now considering it was completed/in service in 2019. I would expect minor league expenses to roll into operating expenses. I think Braun recently made comments about the apperance of the Brewers and Mark A's willingness to spend. We've been basically operating against the grain for the last 2 years...spending while other teams are not spending. That coupled with Yelich being an incredibly likeable dude might help us lure in free agents on slightly team friendly deals in the near future. That's definitely how we got Moustakas, and probably plays a bit of a roll in how we got Grandal.

2019 Brewers Predictions Win-Loss Record: 94-68 Playoffs (Yes, No): Yes Highest Playoff Level Achieved: WS Champs! All-Star Game Representative(s): Yelich, Grandal, Hader Offensive Player of the Year: Yelich Starting Pitcher of the Year: Woodruff Relief Pitcher of the Year: Hader Most Surprising Player: Arcia Most Disappointing Player: Aguilar

I remember seeing in a brewer PD report that Caden Lemons had a good outing this spring. Anyone else catch any more recent info on him, and if he'll maybe open in Appleton? Also any word on Brendan Murphy? I wonder if he's finally over that lat strain or whatever that he suffered a year and a half ago.

Sweet, that's by far a better option than the paper vouchers.

Hader, Knebel, Jeffress, Kimbrel is better. I want that. I want Hader, Chapman, Kimbrel, Vazquez, Diaz, and Mariano Rivera.

Agreed they are set up to allow for shorter outings better than most teams, doesn't mean they are going to get overly carried away in doing that. The rotation this year looks much better than last year. And referring to starting pitchers as initial out getters is completely pointless. All it is is trying to needlessly sound smart/fancy. Like calling Chapman a "final out getter". It's just stupid. They are starting pitchers, there is no piggy backing or 1 inning non-sense like you were boldly expecting.

Have you seen the results of leaning too heavily on relievers? Knebel's elbow is probably toast, Jeffress was not 100% in the playoffs last year and is having shoulder issues. If you want an example that isn't Brewers, the Cubs entire bullpen was basically trash the last month and a half of the season. The only good reliever they had was Chavez, who was traded for in July/August and therefore not yet ruined by Maddon. Everyone else was either bad or hurt. Overusing the bullpen has consequences.

Hader, Claudio, Anderson, Guerra, Albers, Wilson. All locks.

Major league deal. So lock him in to the bullpen.

I find it a bit underwhelming on paper if Alex Wilson is the answer. Basically throws a 93 mph fastball and 86ish mph slider/cutter. Last year he got around 50% ground balls to go with low k and bb rates. The GB rate is good, but I think he gets hit a bit harder than you'd like for someone that's goign to have so many balls put in play. You definitely only want him in the game when we have a our best possible defense behind him. I'm not expecting Knebel or Kimbrel, I'm also aware that our bullpen depth isn't great right now. I still am feeling a bit underwhelmed though, hopefully it works out.

It might still be Kimbrel, but not yet.

Spang and Saladino to the minors. That really crowds the AAA infield situation, but also pretty much locks in Thames, Gamel(confirmed), Perez, and Pina. Outside chance of Kratz of course, but it really should not be Kratz. Seems like we are down to a handful of bullpen spots that need to be decided.

I'm expecting these guys to go closer to 5.5 than 5.2 innings personally. That puts them around 155-165. They'd still have some wiggle room below a likely hard cap of 180 innings for playoffs, and the Brewers could of course manage their workload over the last month of the season and limit innings in September if needed. And frankly, if one of them hits an innings cap in the NLCS and they are needed in the WS...I think that innings cap is simply going to be ignored.