Boomer5

I love that idea. Make him earn his next contact, then give him a QO and get an extra pick we wasted on the Cain deal.

As we all knew Darvish was never going to happen. So now is it a severly over priced and steep decline of Arrieta or will it be an all in trade for Archer?

This is a topic about pitchers. Regardless... Which FA outfielder is out there next year that the Brewers would realistically have a shot to sign, that is better than Lorenzo Cain? Irrelevant because I wouldn't have signed Cain, certainly not to that contract, and I wouldn't ever give up a draft pick unless it was for a super elite player. I think you have missed my point anyhow. I am not nor will ever be a fan of the big FA signing unless it is absolutely the last piece to a WS team. I am a big believer that you build from the farm out. FA for players over 30 with 5 plus year deals is only what foolish teams do. OF was not a postion of need. Cain and Yelich are better players than what we had in 2018, but as has been pointed out often by many they are nice pieces to have, not by themselves the missing piece to a WS quality team. The team chose to go to win now mode this year, a point which I'm not sure anyone here can articulate. It wouldn't have been my choice because no one available is a win now headliner, even Darvish.

Watching him pitch is painful I agree. He literally - No I mean literally - throws like a left handed position player brought in to pitch in a blow out game. Still the guys has always been effective and let's face it he was pretty darn good last year. I can't say I would bet the mortgage that he will have yet another good year in 2018 but he certainly wouldn't be the first crafty lefty to succeed in MLB.

I agree with most of it. Not sure it's easy to good from bad to good though. I would say it's easy to go from terrible to mediocre, but it's still a significant upgrade and that's all that counts. I think the pen is going to kill it, and I like homer's comparison to KC. Hader and Knebel might not be top-10 relievers again, but they will be good. Albers and Boone are probably more reliable than Hughes, Torres, and Drake. Guys like Barnes, Houser, and Williams are poised to be the next in a long line of Brewer relievers who had a few surprisingly good years in their primes (Axford, Turnbow, Thornburg, Jeffress). The defense could be awesome. I am glad they have a few plus 4 guys now, but baseball is not really all that superstar-driven. You just need the WAR on your team to add up to contention, no matter how you get there. And if you have a bunch of 2-3 WAR guys, it's usually a given that a couple of them will have a career year, even if you don't know which ones that will be. I wasn't posting here at the time but I wanted Chatwood from day 1 and I still think that would have been the best target. Just under the $50m threshold for giving up a pick, and of the right age for mitigating injury/aging risks and growing with the core for a long window of playoff contention. Bullpens are so volatile and almost impossible to predict from year to year. Stearns really handcuffed CC with his bullpen signings last year but they developed Knebel and wisely turned Hader into our Andrew Miller. Boone and Albers are just guys but sometimes that's all you need in any given year with the right coaching and circumstances. JJ and the young guys should also do a solid job for us. I would have liked Chatwood too but Chancin is a good signing for the money as a back of the rotation piece. The reason for the unwillingness to develop our young players is the timeline has, for whatever reason, been moved up from 2-3 years to immediately. For that reason and that reason alone the Brewers will either sign a big name FA Pitcher, and or trade for one.

Which FA pitcher is out there next year that the Brewers would realistically have a shot to sign, that is better than Yu Darvish? First of all I said players not just pitchers and the point is moot because Darvish isn't realistic either. We are talking about Lynn and Cobb who are quality number 3/4 guys who we will force into the 1 role and we've seen that movie before. Arrieta is on a steep decline and I am assuming he really won't be a guy we will sign unless it's literally a 2 year deal.

I sure hope not. Innings last three years: 229, 197, 168 FIP: 2.35, 3.52, 4.16 H/9: 5.9, 6.3, 8.0 HR/9: 0.4, 07, 1.2 Looks like a trend to me.

Going from bad to good is relatively easy. We have seen that our coaching staff can turn scrap heap guys into decent role players. Going from good to great is a totally different story though. The Brewers in 2018 feel that they need to have 4 plus war guys instead of a bunch of 2 war guys and put all the pressure on CC and DJ, which is why they spent so much on two guys when they could have just let Brinson and Phillips develop. The same is going to happen with the rotation. I tend to agree that Woodruff and Suter plus the draft pick plus the salary flexibility is worth more than Lynn or Cobb but that isn't going to happen. I am fully committed to the fact that Brewers are going the expensive win now mode, I just wish they chose an offseason where better players were available. This feels a bit forced.

We aren't getting Darvish. We have apparently made the top offer and he hasn't signed. He has given every reasonable indication that he wants to play for a glamour city.

Absolutely. Johnson and Counsel are keepers for the long term. Like TL and Duncan.

Most have focused hard on Stearns when the real star of the Brewers managmemt team has been CC and his coaching staff. Stearns has given CC a whole lot of junk and still he has developed a team of guys who consistently outperform their career norms and expected arc. This is the first offseason where Stearns has tried to give him real talent in Cain and Yelich. The problem is the pitching staff desperately needs a TOR arm and those guys are super difficult to acquire. Darvish does qualify but he clearly wants to play in a glamorous city and is expecting a Keshaw payday not a Homer Bailey payday. If the question is which FA available is the best fit for the Brewers win now at all costs mode, then the only answer is Darvish. However that isn't realistic. So the next guy up is Cobb who has solid results in the AL East and would be a quality arm to add. He just isn't a guy that you want to take the mound in a winner take all game after giving you 200 quality innings, but that guy isn't available in the FA market.

I'll take McHugh and Woodruff with Suter as my spot starter/long man overpaying for Lynn and Cobb. It isn't really even a question for me. Add a guy like McHugh that has shown to be a really good pitcher and let Anderson, Chacin, Davies, and Woodruff do their thing. I would too. McHugh won't be cheap though. Not Archer crazy but not a minor trade.

Absolutely, yes. Without question you take Suter and Woodruff over Lynn and Cobb factoring in money and picks. Why? Because Lynn and Cobb aren't TOR types and that's what we need.

The term great used here is a very different definition than mine. No one we are discussing even Davrish is great.

The Brewers think it's over or they wouldn't have given away 4 key prospects, $80M, and a high draft draft pick for the type of players Ray was supposed to be. For an advanced college bat, 2018 should have been his ETA and the Brewers clearly gave up on him with their actions this offseason.

Phillips is a major league player at this point. Dubon over Hiura? Uh ok.... All these lists are arbitrary, so what's the point of ripping on it? This particular list is based on data sets rather than projections. They are going to reward minor leaguers that have put up more of a consistent track record. Hiura has less than 200 PAs to his name as a professional, so there just isn't much data to draw on. Dubon is only two years older, but has 5 seasons of stats to draw from. If scouts truly think Dubon is a top 100 talent why on earth would we be in the market for a 2B? FWIW I have only seen him play twice and he seemed like a perfectly adequate field first light hitting good speed infielder who could make it as a major league backup.

Darvish has no interest in playing here. Milwaukee would have to be 20% plus higher than everyone else and even at that he would really not want to be here once he sees the 2018 FA contracts. I have accepted the Brewers are in full win now mode but guys like this aren't the answer.

They desperately need a SP???????????? Lester/Hendricks/Quintana/Chatwood/Montgomery Far from a need............. Then why go for Darvish?

Now that Vaughan is away from Kidd he is done. Hope he can speak Chinese. I can't believe how bad our last three number one picks have been.

Well it seems Cleveland traded enough expirings to allow LA to sign LBJ.

If the Cubs, who desperately need a starting pitcher, don't want him we don't either and that is that. It's literally that simple.

I'm not sure what else Anderson has to do to be believable. He's been very good for a year and a half. I'm very comfortable slotting Anderson and Davies in the middle of our rotation. I'd be a lot more worried about someone like Shaw who had never reached anywhere near these levels then slowed down in the second half two years in a row.

I'm not saying it's a bad lineup. The question is how does it look when compared to the competition. Do you put that lineup over the Cubs? The Dodgers? The Nationals? If there isn't major regression from the top five or six spots, sure, that is a good lineup. I still don't know that I'd say it's better then the teams I mentioned. For the most part those lineups have players with longer track records. They just don't have the question marks we do. And even if you do say it's better do you put the current rotation up against Kershaw/Hill/Wood/Maeda? How about Scherzer/Stasburg/Gonzalez? How about Lester/Quintana/Hendricks/Darvish (probably)? I know I'd feel a lot better about matching up a rotation of Arietta/Nelson (assuming health)/Anderson/Salazar with those groups. I'd be far more confident in that than Anderson/Nelson/Davies/Chacin. Sorry if that isn't upbeat enough but I can't help but feel that the excitement of the offensive acquisitions is muted by the failure to improve the pitching. Maybe that changes and I will certainly have a different outlook if it does but at this point the team is what it is.....speculation aside. The Brewers were 10th in the NL in runs scored with pretty much everyone but Braun and Villar having career years. The good news is the 1-2 were positively adressed. The bad news are the regression guys and likely losing Santana and his 870. The pitching will get better because we are going to add a big arm (Cobb isn't that guy, but a nice second addition) and we added two GG candidates in the OF. If Phillips wins the RF job, that will be the best defensive OF in baseball.

Santana will be traded for MLB ready pitching otherwise the entire offseason and the current roster won't make much senses.

This is what happens in a slow time. People revert to trade ideas where we give up our junk in exchange for top 20 prospects.