tmwiese55

Doorman hasn't been all that present at games since the team went downhill. I notice him on occasion though. There was a group of guys in about his spot during I think the Saturday Cubs game who were really giving the Cubs a hard time after strikeouts. Seemed over the top for me if there was some crass or over the top things being said while they were yelling at players. But who knows, maybe it was just innocent 'sit down' type stuff.

I think they only play 8 games (though I could be wrong), pretty short as it is. But have to leave those like 5 weeks for the playoffs. Never really thought about it before now, but yea you probably don't need a month of practice before the first game. This is just hs fb. Could probably fairly easily cut a week out there

I think people just need to realize when you listen to someone almost every day for 6 months straight that you're going to get sick of them, hear the same jokes/comments, etc. Being an every day baseball announcer is very difficult for this reason. I'd generally agree Anderson is a little bland, but that's actually what I prefer. I want them to just blend in and not be a bother. The 'bad' announcers are the ones that try to make it about themselves and annoy you in the process. I watch a lot of MLB network so hear plenty of other teams, and ours are clearly in the upper tier and it's not even close. Besides the over the top buffoon types, you'd be shocked how much complete dead air there is on others. Being a WI guy I've found myself liking Lepay too, but BA clearly knows more baseball than him. In a way I also think it's a good thing BA is gone sometimes to give people a break and just a change of pace

I might get it a little more if we were say the Cardinals who've consistently won, but those 90s and early 00s were just atrocious. that wasn't enough to frustrate you but one random 4 game losing streak did. Probably a good enough dude but I bet fairly quirky. I got a laugh over the 1982 playoff story too, some line about how he was going to make sure that never happened again. Then had to wait 26 years for it to matter but didn't mention that

And this early it can be very hot making practices dangerous. It's better to play later than now, however then you're overlapping with basketball. So not really an easy problem to solve.

I get both sides. I'd probably rather just roll young. But this is different than Arcia in that we're in it. And I see the, 'Broxton gets one last chance to prove himself' view, which would help us win now while increasing his trade value in the offseason. His hotstreaks have been ridiculous when it happens, so I get trying to catch lightning in a bottle to jumpstart the O. If he flops again that's it, onto the young guys and you can say you did all you could with Broxton. I don't see the problem of giving the young guys a taste and then back down, both struggled. Go back down and keep working and when you come up next time hopefully you'll be a little better but also have some of the butterflies/comfort things out of the way. Also, I'm sure they appreciate the extra money they got. I see both sides and don't think either way is anything to make a big fuss over.

5 DH games coming up quickly ya'll and you know Braun is getting most of those days.

I wouldn't be so sure about that with Phillips. If i'm Stearns in the offseason, unless i get a good offer involving Phillips, i'm keeping him as my 4th outfielder next year. 1. Braun's health is so fragile, going forward the team needs a competent 4th outfielder. At any point he could suffer one of his multiple weeks to months long strains or pulls and i don't want some veteran scrub like Nieuwenhuis getting that playing time because we gave away Phillips to cheaply. 2. As much as i have high hopes for Brinson as the long term solution in CF, no prospect is ever a lock to succeed. Phillips is a buffer in case Brinson doesn't pan out as we all hope. Baseball is a long grinding 162 game season, so what can look like excess depth at a position going into a given year can quickly turn if a player or two gets hurt beyond something minor and that can open the door for a young player to prove himself. I think this post nails what their plan should be. I'd add in that I'd also start having Santana this offseason putting in at least some cursory time becoming competent at 1B for flexibility in the future. Who knows who gets hurt and frankly Thames hasn't been good since April. It looks like he can't consistently hit a breaking ball.

First off filling holes at the All Star break would have helped us win 2 or 3 lost games. Filling holes at 2B and CF wouldn't have cost much based on what rentals are going for..... take a look at what the best bullpen rental (Neshek) cost prospect wise, the best rental bat (JD Martinez) cost prospect wise.... Injuries are playing a factor with the rotation over the last week. Woodruff is going to get a shot. Garza will be back shortly. Anderson will be back in 3 weeks. Hader could start, if wanted. It's not as dire as you make it to be..... So, we're like 7 players away. Are we really that close then? And even if you pull all that off, look at what you'd have compared to LAD and WAS.

I mean, we currently have 3 healthy starting pitchers. I know it's still been good since the ASB break overall but can anyone look at a starting rotation of Nelson, Davies, Suter, ?, ? and think this is realistic right now to go all in and trade for hitters to fix those holes, while also finding relievers to fix that glaring hole, oh and also finding a legit starter or two? First, think what it would cost to fill those holes. Second, if you have that many holes are you really that close?

And maybe it's better for trade value to have Phillips in AAA putting up great stats than to come up and possibly struggle.

I'd prefer both up and in about a 50/50 platoon. And of course there's extra ABs with Braun missing about one of every 5th game. And some DH days coming. That said, it seems the roster juggling and option rules are making it look like Broxton will be the one back up. Maybe it's best to give him one last go up here and see what happens, if he can finish hot it obviously helps the team and his trade value in the offseason. If he flops again, you know you're done with him and have given him every chance you could.

Wow. There is no way Stearns is on the hot seat. Ownership seemed prepared for a multi year rebuild including some serious losing. It looks like we topped out with one 68 win year and a 73 win year and seem currently setup to continue being competitive from here out. And only one of those years was intentionally losing. Now we're supposed to be mad that the rebuild has gone so well that we're winning early but not winning enough, cmon. I'm confident if the team didn't go to crap the last 3 weeks and still had a 3-6 game lead that they would have done something more significant to help assure them holding onto the division, in spite of knowing the Dodgers and Nats are loaded. Division titles matter and anything can happen in the playoffs. So if you're a few games ahead with 60 games left you have to go for it. Instead our team has fallen apart and Cubs got hot, now making this a serious uphill proposition and not worth significant prospects. Small bullpen improvements at low cost, yea why not, if we can get hot an pull it out, great. if not, the Cubs have blown their whole farm and don't look as much of a juggernaut as we feared. So can be more competitive alot quicker than we thought a year or so back. Plus Scherzer isn't exactly young and Harper is likely gone I think after next season (hopefully to NY and not CHC) so the Nats window is closing. I don't think the Dodgers are going anywhere anytime soon though. Also, keep in mind there wasn't a true CC/Greinke level pitcher out there. Gray/Quintana are solid pitchers, but not like that level. Darvish is a 2 month rental for us so I think we can all agree on not doing that. Look at this way, we went into this year expecting to be done well before the ASB (heck probably by mid May) and we're still in it, enjoy the ride. Hope for the bats to come back and keep us in this longer, with the head to heads vs the Cubs anything can happen. It's a true underdog story, get it back going tonight.

He was traded. One of many late announcement. Gotta be patient. Just saw that, figured 15ish mins after without any word would be enough. But yea makes too much sense to trade him.

Kind of surprised TX didn't move Darvish. Likely gone this year and he's really good. HAve to think they could have used an infusion to the farm after some trades in recent years. Can still try to pull the Chapman and resign him in the offseason

I mean a cheap one or two year deal where he understands they're essentially sharing the job would not be a bad thing. However, I'm sure he'd have no interest in that, he'll want a full time spot to try and prove himself next year and get another payday. And really that's what he should do

As much many here like to rip the 'win now' mantra of that era. They signed some good team friendly deals extending guys to 31ish, so you essentially bought their primes for cheap without overcommitting the small market team. Luc, Gallardo, Weeks, Hart

If he hit FA 2 years ago he'd have over 50 mil. Even last year without the team option I'm sure he'd have gotten a healthy multi year deal. Now, he'll be playing one years for the rest of his career. 11 mil is of course a lot of money, but after paying taxes and his agent he got 5-6 mil, not set for life type money. Hopefully he can hang around a few more years and put some more away, dude always played hard and played the game right while getting his body beat up as a C so he deserves it.

This is what it is, nothing that can structurally done about it by the team/organization. The team themself isn't going to intentionally make less money selling to WI people only and individuals aren't going to sell them for less money. Nothing that can be done other than put your money where your mouth is and go to the games yourself. Personally, I picked multiples Cubs games in my 10 pack and plan to sell them all and don't regret it at all. Easy way to subsidize the cost in a year we were expected to not be good. Still two games left though, if we're still in it I'll probably go otherwise I have no problem taking double the money for them.

From a team perspective I don't think you can ever worry about a deal that is 2 mil per year, there is no chance it will ever be crippling no matter what happens. I guess from Luc's and his teams view they knew he was a C and obviously there is injury risk that goes with it so they just wanted to lock in money. But to give a team option for the last and just not figuring in that he wouldn't hit FA until he was 31, when catchers are usually falling off, cost him any chance at a big payday. As best I can tell the team bought out 2 years of his FA, though I'm not an expert on that process. So I suppose there isn't much that could have been done, if he doesn't give up a couple years of FA then the team has no incentive to give an early deal. So kind of a tough spot for Luc, and it's not like it was the Brewers fault, it's just the system that is in place. Maybe he could've held out and made the last year a player or mutual option. But yea I guess it was that deal or ride out another year and hope your position improves to negotiate a better deal the next year.

I hope Lucroy fired his agent from when he signed that deal with the Brewers. What a bad contract that was for him

I know STL, TB, MN, COL are not bad teams, I'd probably call them solid/ok. Of course I know STL historically has our number too. But the next 17 games you don't face any of the top truly good teams and 10 are at home. There's a window here to have a good run and stay right in this thing and hopefully keep us entertained well into September. While hopefully getting far enough ahead of .500 to lock that up. I know a lot rides on the offense getting back going again, but just like we knew the hot streak of offense couldn't go forever. This cold spell and RISP bad luck also can't continue much longer. I'd at least like to keep this going long enough to get the playoff ticket requests in the mail.

Yes it's been reaelly surpsising that it's the offense that has actually led to the downfall. I suppose it is the expected regression when you think about it. Thams back to reality, Sogard couldn't keep that going forever(Villar still not good), Broxton hit the massive cold spell and now rookie replacement. That's really it right there that is making them score one or two less runs than they need each game. Braun has been fine but hasn't hit one of those hot streaks we've seen so many times that could make up for this. Still, I don't think there's much that can be done about it at this point. The upgrade spots are CF and 2B. But CF has our two best prospects coming so you're not going to do much there. 2B I suppose is an option to upgrade but at this point is it really worth using significant prospects? Sogard is still putting the ball in play, I'd just go with him and hope you get lucky that they start falling again. Hope for a rebound by Villar next year and if not you have several IF prospects in the works including your #1 pick this year who might be a fast riser out of the minor due to his bat.

Really need the W tonight. Could really help put everyone's minds at ease, break the tension and just get back to play free again. Seems we usually do well vs lefties so I like our chances

But in this case he has literally no good options, what is he supposed to do? The only clear thing is Knebel is his best bet, and even he's been unreliable lately.