Boomer5

I just saw Cooper is hitter 364 while Webb was immediately sent down after not even being able to make our pen.

It's only fools gold if you can't see the actual talent/ability these players have. The offense has hit a massive rough stretch going on 3+ weeks now due to inconsistency. Some guys will hit while others won't then it'll flip flop but it all amounts to guys getting on base but not getting that clutch hit to drive them in. They've also had plenty of games where they've hit the ball hard and had good ABs but nothing is coming of it. It is what it is. There's only so much you can do as a player - if you square up the ball you did your job as you can't control what happens once the ball leaves the bat. Again, Stearns knows what the price is for Kinsler/Phillips/Granderson/etc. If he's not comfortable giving up what we'd need to then he's not going to pull the trigger. He also believes in this team that they can turn it around as a collective offensive unit and start putting runs up again. You must be firmly in his head to "know" he believes that. Because if he truly does, he killed this team by not trading what was most likely an out of or just barely one of our top 30 prospect to pick up the contracts of Kinsler/Phillips/Granderson. The season is fools gold unless you believe Thames was the player we saw in April, Sogard was the player we saw in April-June, the bullpen was marginal until the July full on collapse, Pina at 30 is a legitimate 4 war player going forward,and Shaw is really Mike Schmidt. Just like Junior and Villar werent real building blocks, these guys arent either, though I have some high hopes for Shaw being a repeat performer. Stearns is an analytics guy and the analytics all year long said we were looking at a mirage. At no point did fangraphs have us ranked in the top 20 WAR rosters, let alone a play off team. In fact we were securely positioned in the bottom 5 teams most of the season with tiny jumps to 6th worst. Stearns isnt making any moves because the analytics say this is a bad team that wont win even a weakened division and certainly wont do any damage in the playoffs.

For 2018, only Hader and Knebel matter and neither is getting optioned.

Fangraphs has us as the 5th worst roster in the game going forward. Pretty much we have been in the bottom 5 all year long. http://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=ALL&teamid=23 Our guys way over achieved and while it was fun to watch, it was fools gold. To compound the problem, we have a lot of guys that are ok, but not great or even good. So other than 2B and CF, we really don't have a black hole where a guy like Bruce can fit and be enough of an upgrade to spark this team.

Indians to acquire Jay Bruce according to MLB.com

850 OPS guy wouldn't be bad to have right about now, arm or no arm.

Are they really going to get swept by the twins in the middle of a pennant race?

The 2017 bullpen, specifically Feliz over Holland.

Great job putting this together! This along with the Links Report are the highlights of the board.

No point. Just play Villar and promote Dubon to play out the string until Hiura is ready which could be 2019 easily if not sooner.

Maybe next time they should wear dumber outfits on the team plane. Their level of play in MN has matched that ridiculous team photo.

Wrong! Scooter's 2016 OPS was .728. No one, and I mean NO ONE could have seen the kind of numbers he's putting up this year. Hindsight is 20/20 though, I guess. No one? So our management team is off the hook for begging Villar to take $20M and dumping the better player who was making $2M. How do you reconcile those two decisions? This wasn't hindsight by Briggs and me. This was a really bad decision and one that has cost the Brewers dearly. The argument was he couldn't be a run producer and could only play 2nd Base. So now to make up for a ridiculous move, the Brewers will have to trade a prospect and pick up a much larger contract for a guy who can only play 2nd base.

"Our goal here is to have a team that is in position for us to add at the deadline year after year after year." This is one of those empty statements that at this point is almost a parody of what a leader should say. Of course that's the goal. That's everyone's goal. But how often do you have a year when most players are having career years while the entire division has fallen way short of expectations? Being able to add is one thing. Being in a postion where adding would matter and it being a buyers market at the same time is quite rare. Take advantage. Or in his words, leverage the market inefficiency.

I know this is just how today's athlete behaves and one could argue it just keeps them loose. I guess I'm old school and wish the players cared as much about baseball as we do. But seeing them and especially Thames at the wrestling match was so lame. He really looks silly acting like that when he has been so bad since April. I'm willing to bet that a great many of them care about baseball a lot more than we do. Just because they're not mad that they lost a game doesn't mean they don't care. Being mad all the time isn't an indication of care. Having fun at your job is necessary sometimes. Did you see the twitter pic? The optics are very bad on several levels.

I know this is just how today's athlete behaves and one could argue it just keeps them loose. I guess I'm old school and wish the players cared as much about baseball as we do. But seeing them and especially Thames at the wrestling match was so lame. He really looks silly acting like that when he has been so bad since April.

Broxton won't put the ball in play so you don't bunt to get to him.

Blowing that start by Nelson is inexcusable. This is such a horrible offense. And if Santana is really hurt this isn't getting better anytime soon.

This offense has simply gone into the tank. Hard to believe this is allowed to continue.

Why unfortunately? Cheering on the USA is a bad thing?

This offense is a train wreck. No lead off man and no power. That's bad news for a strike out prone team that can really only score with HR. It's amazing because in all my years watching the Brewers have never seen a starting rotation come up this huge when we needed it.

Villar saved Stearns from himself. Just to be clear, do you think Stearns has done a good job? As far as the MLB roster, he did a great job fleecing Dombrowsk to be sure. Other than that he has been more lucky than good living off hot streaks of guys who aren't very good. The starting rotation, CC, and Knebel are Melvin's guys. Picking Villar AND doubling down by wanting to give him an extension over Scooter is insane and one he won't soon live down. This has been an unexpected but fun season But no one is going to get excited for our future because we have Sogard, Thames, Broxton, and Pina, et al. Like any GM hire during a rebuild, we will know more when his prospects make their way to the majors and only then will we know what we really have in Stearns.

Badger Mutual X 2!!

Villar saved Stearns from himself.

Badger Mutual Insurance Run!

Stearns really needs to get off his rear and help this offense. They have been so bad it's scary. It's really a shame because the starting pitching has been as good as anything I've ever seen as a Brewer fan and that includes CC and Vuke.