Boomer5

I dont think the phrase the Brewers are following the tank model of the Astros is even all that controversial? Maybe because its such a radical shift from the 85 wins or bust mentality we had for so long? Why do you think the Brewers hired a guy from the Astros in the first place? Obviously CC isn't telling the team to lose games but if Kirk Nieuwenhuis is taught to go out and hit 850 and play GG D at the end of the day he is still Kirk Nieuwenhuis and he will be a bad player and will therefore not win games. The Brewers lost 94 games last year and since July have traded more than a few very good players. In the case of the Astros and O's trades, they did bring back guys who will contribute soon. However, in the offseason they haven't brought in anyone that matters outside of maybe Villar, and I think Im being charitable calling him a key contributor. The change from looking at 2017 with the Astros trade may have changed once Stearns came in and looked at the reality of the Cubs and Pirates and the Cardinals still being the Cardinals, current issues and all. Finishing 4th with 85 wins isnt going to help the Brewers get to the top, which is all that matters for a franchise that has never won a WS ultimately. The Brewer only chance to get to that elite status is to build the farm system to top 1-5 in the game for sustainable period, and they wont get there by drafting 6-12 every year. Its a new era of baseball. The Cubs and Pirates thrived off high draft picks and wise international signings. The Brewers are just doing what these other teams are doing.

Semantics. The Brewers can't get to elite status without a string of excellent drafts. They are more likely to get there drafting 1 than 9. Stearns came from Houston. Their plan was pretty simple and obvious. Tank and use the bonus money as widely as possible. This is a new era of baseball talent acquisition. It's all about acquiring the most bonus money. The math is pretty easy here. This is going to be a 100 loss team. That is most certainly the plan and I promise you no one we aquired this offseason will change that.

This is only about tanking and tanking hard. This is going to be a 100 loss team for a few years and will have a great Minor league system ready for 2019.

Guys this team the next 2-3 years is going to be the 2011 to 2013 Astros. How hard is this to figure out? This board needs to be all about the minor league development and the next three drafts. The MLB roster is going to be a disaster.

The Indians left what $20M on the table to get rid of this guy? What does that tell you? This guys should be of zero interest to the Brewers.

Id like to see Blazek start. I think he would do a good job in that role and his value for a possible trade would go way up.

The first pick in the draft also comes with the biggest pool money. Its a huge advantage.

It does help though. The gains in the draft pool are pretty significant every spot you move up from #5 to #1. A higher draft is no guarantee but it certainly helps. Even if the prospects don't pan out they can make good trade bait just based on draft position. They are also a product of not realizing your team is mediocre and reacting to late. We could have been building for a couple years already and had a contender by now or next season while we still had Lucroy. I hope they go into a deeper level of suckage next year just to come out stronger. I really don't care if we win 40 or 75 games. It's still losing and one helps more than the other. Exactly. If you are a young GM who just came from a team that had the first pick in the draft year after year and successfully built itself to playoff level, do you want to be like that team or a team that wins 75 games and picks 9th every year? The Brewers aren't going to sign Lackey, JHey, and Zobrist for almost $300M in an offseason. They are going to have to be the kind of team that has a constant supply of elite prospects. The only way to get there is through 2-3 massive drafts; and what gives you the ammunition to have those kind of drafts?

Houston Astros 2011 to 2013. That is the model for the Brewers the next three years. I dont know how Stearns could be any more obvious with the moves he has made so far. It is very obvious the goal is to have a 2-3 year run of Houston level draft positions to build for the future. From a team that went 68-94, Stearns has traded away: 1. The 38 Save Closer 2. Our only regular system 1B and 3rd best OPS regular 3. Our only back up system 1B For that, we have picked up a toolsy but questionable CF with 7 MLB ABs, Villar who is anyone's guess as to his value, and a bunch of guys that will have no impact on the MLB roster for years. Obviously, in no way am I saying KRod and Lind are Fingers and Cooper in their prime but they were key positive performers from the 2015 team, such as it was. There is no replacement on the roster for their production. It was correct to trade them of course, But the July August moves had 2017 in mind. These trades do not. It is conventional wisdom that Luc will be traded before the season. His return will be telling as to what year the team is expecting to arrive. Guys like Middlebrooks and Cecchini and just cheap place holders with some residual prospect value to interest the casual fan.

If we're rebuilding, the goal should absolutely be getting the first pick in the draft, the slot value that comes with it and improving our minor league system and young core for what is hopefully years of contention. Exactly. This is a tear down to build up scenario. The MLB roster is irrelevant to most anything that will happen by 2019+ other than perhaps some combination of Maverick, Arcia, Jungmann, Nelson.

This signing is as they say what it is. Middlebrooks is just here so they can field a major league roster. His one time prospect status gives the casual fan some hope the team is trying to win at the MLB level when we all know the goal is to draft very high the next few years. Oh, and he is cheap. His signing is nothing to get excited about and certainly being so low risk, its nothing to be upset about. If by some change of scenery he has a decent first half of 2016, he can be flipped at the deadline. Nothing wrong with that. If we want the first pick in the draft in 17 and 18, and that is clearly Stearn's goal, these are guys we are going to sign. Besides the fact that the first pick in the draft should never be the goal, the problem with Middlebrooks is he's worse than the guys who were already in the system that would compete for the major league 3B job namely Villar and Perez who are both young players with a bit of upside. Even accepting the rebuilding mode that the Brewers are in, I find it disconcerting for a constant revolving door of players who after a while become nameless and faceless. Even losing teams have players that fans root for. Rogers was one of those guys especially having come through the system as a low round pick. Now we're deprived of seeing what he could do with four or five hundred AB's and from his standpoint though he's going to a winner, he may never get an opportunity to show what he's capable of with regular playing time. The goal of Stearns is to build the 2011-2013 Astros. He cant make it anymore obvious if even a guy like Rogers is up to be traded for prospects.

This signing is as they say what it is. Middlebrooks is just here so they can field a major league roster. His one time prospect status gives the casual fan some hope the team is trying to win at the MLB level when we all know the goal is to draft very high the next few years. Oh, and he is cheap. His signing is nothing to get excited about and certainly being so low risk, its nothing to be upset about. If by some change of scenery he has a decent first half of 2016, he can be flipped at the deadline. Nothing wrong with that. If we want the first pick in the draft in 17 and 18, and that is clearly Stearn's goal, these are guys we are going to sign.

Its December 21st. Our 2016 starting 1b is irrelevant at this point. They can roll with Alvarez anytime because he is such a horrendous fit for any NL team and even AL teams have looked elsewhere. This is a 100 loss team with or without Alvarez or Carter, and you cant make an argument to me that Santana isnt one of our best 8 players. Find a position for him even at 1b - where he cant possibly be worse than Alvarez - and get him the ABs he needs to develop.

Gold Glove Award? Yeah, thats a good one. This is a very tradeable contract at this point. Maybe the Brewer would need to take back a contract worth about half to maximize the prospect return, but with the prices for 800 OPS OF going way up, they can definitely trade him.

This is going to be a 100 loss team the next two years, so there no need to worry about trading for a starting pitcher at this point unless its an absolute bargain. Let the Cardinals try and keep up with the Pirates and Cubs. This isnt our fight right now. The reality is the Cubs and Pirates look like the class of the division, so its as good a time as any to tank for the first pick (and associated pool money) for the next two years. Stearns is a doing a decent job picking up young minor leaguers and a great job ridding the MLB level of talent. If they develop at the minor league level and draft well in 16, 17, and 18, this team will be a force by the time the Cub and Pirate players are getting too expensive to keep.

I used to be in this camp but I have moved on. Braun is not my kind of guy and his contract isnt great. However, it is no longer a big deal to the Brewers because clean he was a decent player last year. 5 years $100M is not that bad in 2016 and power and production are down across baseball. He doesnt fit in with this team as it is rebuilding and you dont need him around now. If he gets hurt, he doesnt help and if he plays well, he hurts our draft position, which is all that matters now. As Tulo showed, an aging, often injured, flawed (in his case Colorado) former mega star can bring back a big return packaged correctly. Again Im not fan of Brauns, but he is most certainly an asset in a trade.

Interesting. I would peg Davis as currently our 3rd best MLB player, behind Braun and Lucroy. He is a power hitter with a lot of control left and that seems like a pretty big deal these days. The return should be pretty good but whether that means one top 50 guy ++ or a bunch teenagers none of us have heard of, I have no idea. I would say he is the next to go, moving Braun to LF and Santana to RF, but that is just a guess.

He had major elbow surgery in July with a 6 to 9 month recovery time. I doubt he is a flip at the deadline candidate. Just a formerly coveted lefty power arm to add and see what happens down the road, nothing more.

I agree. I think the strategy is to take this team to 55 win levels then build back up though the draft and international signings. I agree Braun and Luc will be traded shortly. I am not sure LA is a great fit for Luc and they dont need Braun though as a LA boy he would be a nice get and his contract is now market value.

He was a former 1st round pick. It seems Stearns is putting priority on guys who were once coveted but are on the cheap these days. Not a lot to see but he does have 122 Ks in 118 MLB innings.

On twitter, Tom said CC said there are no plans to move Braun to 1B at all. Im curious what Stearns thinks of Maverick and Santana since this trade sort of "blocks" the former, and there doesn't seem to be a clear path for the latter. Yeah, the MLB roster is going to be brutal. Cubs and Astros pre 2015 brutal.

This is the kind of trade we should be making. An older semi prospect for two athletic guys who move the needle on our farm system. As for 1b at the MLB level, its pretty obvious the MLB roster is at best a non event for Stearns; at worst cleverly designed to land the first pick (and associated draft pool $$) in the 2017 and 2018 drafts so we will have a monster farm system for the future. As much as I hated the Lind trade, this one represent more value to the Brewers in terms of asset acquisition and we gave up a player that really didn't matter, as much as we liked him on this board.

We both know it's going to be Alvarez.

Nice little trade. Some pretty raw guys but Rogers didn't figure into the Brewers plans it seems.

Hence why I'm advocating for Stearns to trade Davis. Let's get Santana playing his natural position (RF) and shift Braun back to LF. Davis would net us a decent prospect(s). That's fine for plan A if a big trade is offered. My issue is it seems like Plan B is to sit Santana and bring in some below replacement level guy just because he is a CF.