MrTPlush

We are currently in the #10 spot. Looking behind us the White Sox are only 2.5 games back. Play a double header today and still have 8 games after that.

I am really getting at the whole "The deal was almost done" and "All but a done deal he is traded in the offseason". If these statements are true a major/elite prospect wasn't in play because the Brewers wouldn't lose out on a DeLeon while arguing over a lesser piece. All signs point to a deal nearly being reached without an elite prospect in play. I don't think are suddenly going to change that and a DeLeon type guy appears in talks. I think it is far fetched much like Mendez being the PTBNL in the Lucroy trade. It is possible, but most likely not.

I was shocked by the amount of people that were predicting under 2mil...and my reasons for shock have been validated. We would have to be bad for season after season to get that. Probably playing absolutely horrid down the stretch Minnesota Twins style.

That was pretty lame in Brandon Phillip's part and strange on the umpires part.

Scooter Gennett is a great dude. Does so much in the community in Milwaukee and locally in his hometown. Definitely doesn't take anything for granted and is appreciates what he gets to do. He is really big into doing stuff with kids.

Even if we do head for a teacher shortage I don't think it would be for some of the reasons you are mentioning. The biggest problem threatening the number of applicants has nothing to do with what the job entails, but how they become qualified. The number of people pursuing education related degrees really started to fall in the early 2000s. What else happened around that time...the price of college. The price of college has exploded so much most people are pursuing degrees that make them $$$. No one wants to spend $50,000+ to start out in the $35,000 range and top out at $55,000. Now if such a shortage happens will it really get so bad the teachers are unqualified to the point it hurts the learning experience of kids? Possible, but hard to really say.

WOW. Davis does "well" in the field yet you criticize Braun as a fielder. And your analogy isn't even remotely logical. Someone who commits a lot of errors can improve upon that in a variety of ways - they might have the athleticism and soft hands to be good but struggle at the moment for whatever reason(s) but the potential to be good is there. "huge liability" "I said defensive liability." "massive liability" Hitting tool - 93% of his ABs he's completely and utterly worthless (statistics prove this) His slash line is also lower when he's in the field running around exerting energy as opposed to being a DH. Did you know that whatever Fangraphs says is the Bible? Probably did Actually never did. I did say Davis does well outside of his throwing arm which is indeed true. I like to believe Braun is average in LF(not RF) while defensive statistics rate him below average. So if anything I actually would compliment Braun. Errors bad...weak arm bad. Orlando Arcia is making 20+ errors a year...does that mean he is bad on defense. I think most would agree 20+ errors is pretty bad. That is the point. One aspect of defense does not suddenly make you a massive liability. I don't know why you are talking about improvement. The fact you can improve in the future doesn't mean you have good defense. Which one is it? There is a pretty big difference between just being a liability(below average), huge liability, and massive liability(David Ortiz playing first bad). Where did you find those stats? Totally worthless outside of home runs...gotcha Is it though? He plays the outfield and the most work he does is probably trotting out to his spot. He is only 28 years old is he really that effected playing the field? That is funny. At least I am bringing something to back my argument while you bring imaginary stats that say he is worthless if he doesn't hit a home run which we both know isn't true. It would be nice if you could back up any of your claims. Feel free to though I am always open to listening.

Why are we trading Keon Broxton if he truly is a 20/50 player? Sounds like a guy we should keep. Stick the kid in a corner OF spot and call it a day. Brinson will take over CF sometime next year, Santana can slide over to LF, and Broxton can slot in at RF. IF Phillips is really pushing for a spot then send Santana to 1B. Then IF Ray is ready to go 2018/2019 we can figure out what to do. That's a long time from now. This is kind of why we have to trade Braun though. We have to figure out what we have in these young guys who will be around in 2020 and beyond. Having an aging Braun in LF is not helping the long term picture.

Comes down to position more importantly. Khris Davis was the #24 of 55 ranked outfielders this year while Carter was #19 of 23 at first base. Khris Davis DHed enough to be ranked there by Fangraphs and was #5 out of 13. Chris Carter would have slotted in at #11. I also see a lot of people say Khris Davis should be a DH. I don't think his defense is that bad. Actually Fangraphs lists 36 players as worse defensively compared to Davis. A lot of those players are full time no DHing players right now. Fangraphs actually rates two Brewers worse (Carter/Villar) and two Brewers right there with Davis (Braun/Gennett). Reality is Davis just isn't as bad as people think defensively. A strong arm is great and all, but a lot of guys don't know how to use it they might as well have Davis' wet noodle. Khris Davis' arm without a doubt if well under average, but it is not a crippling liability like people are making it.

Alvarez is a no. He is a prospect on the rise and people like to compare him to Urias and some even like him more. We are just not getting that kind of prospect for Braun. That is before considering they paid $32mil to sign Alvarez. I also think Bellinger/DeLeon is wishful thinking. Sure we don't know for sure, but if we got offered a guy like that why didn't we finish the deal? I think it would/will be around lesser prospects. Maybe a Calhoun/Buehler and some other guys I think of are Jordan Sheffield/Will Smith/Brock Stewart. If we got one of the first two plus one from the last group along with Puig that would be a pretty good day. Not sure what to think of Attanasio's comment. I mean what is he suppose to say? "Nope I want him gone."? "Yes he will be back." only to trade him making fans angry? Weird he was so talkative on the topic honestly.

There isn't a teacher shortage currently, the effects of the state of education and people wanting to enter the profession won't be completely realized until 5-8 years out. That is when we will feel it, and be forced to hire anyone who applies to fill the vacancies... Believe it or not, that is up to you, but it's coming... I probably could have said the same thing 10 years ago...however it appears that never happened. People are still flocking to get teaching jobs. I think they actually prefer the job to be worse so they can complain more.

They have to have interest in Puig. Any GM would have interest in a 25 year old with two previous seasons where he put up a 5+ WAR. Anyone who isn't intrigued by a player like that quite frankly isn't very smart. Obviously some of his past issues lessen that interest, but everyone would have some sort of interest in a guy like that. You aren't going to trade for a guy like that is you are just taking him on for salary sake. The question is how much value is placed on Puig. To be honest I have no idea what the answer to that question is. Nothing has really been hinted as to what Puig's value in that trade is. On one end of the spectrum one could argue he has the value of a legit prospect(Top 100 so to speak) or one could argue he is purely a salary dump due to all the concerns surrounding him. If I had to guess he is in between those two spectrums leaning a little closer to being worth a legit prospect vs. salary dump

I wonder if the Brewers did this because they don't plan on offering him a contract? Kind of a, "Hey if you can't latch on else where to pitch you can do this with us." Seeing we were the only interested team last off season I can't imagine things will be any different now.

Whine about people supposably viewing a player due to one tool and you proceed to use his arm as a reason why he is a horrible defensive liability. Outside of his arm he does well in the field. Though I always remember him making a head scratching error on occasion. Saying his defense is a "liability" due to his arm is like saying someone is a liability due to making too many errors. Just like offense one tool doesn't make or break you. Once again he isn't a good fielder, but making him out to be a DH attempting to play the field is just plain wrong.

What exactly do you want explained? Most replays in baseball are quite straight forward. Safe/Out Catch/Not Catch

I'm not going to get into a stupid PED argument in the draft thread, but for him to suddenly increase his HRs like that due to PEDs he would be taking some special stuff. I am talking strong stuff maybe even HGH. You would see it in his body mass which just isn't the case. You see what Bonds/Sosa looked like after some drug use? Didn't look like Bautista. The wishful thinking is you thinking PEDs made Bautista go from a sub 100 OPS+ to a 180 OPS+ season. Sorry drugs aren't that magical or else we could all be trotting out in the minors somewhere.

If you want to make a Braun trade proposal you might as well stick Puig in it whether you like him or not. Seems like the Brewers are pretty intrigued about acquiring him.

Oh right it was PEDs. The magical drug that makes you triple your homerun total. How many did Braun hit in 2011? It was like 100 or so right? I don't know, I'd have to double check. 2011 was the first year Braun ever used PED's, right? That's right. He could have used the magical pixie dust a tad sooner.

Yah you can't avoid the tolls from the Beloit direction. The roads are just too slow and the distance is too far it really stretches out travel time.

Two problems Joseph: #1 You are right about FA deals, but the problem is all those big deals usually starts at 30/31 not 33. That is two highly valuable years a team is not getting with Braun. #2 Sure $15mil isn't bad for a 2.0 WAR player if Braun becomes that. Problem is they aren't just paying him they are also giving up valuable prospects/players too. So If he become worth his price that isn't exactly a good thing if you are the Dodgers. You need him to outplay the contract to make giving up the prospects worth it.

At best he has neutral trade value where if you are lucky and the right situation came along you could dump him and his contract for a couple balls. The only way he has positive trade value is if we pick up money(which we would). However if we weren't willing to do that the suitors would not be plentiful and they would want him as a pure salary dump. This is the highest his value will ever get. There is no going up at this point.

Does it really matter what it would take? It makes almost no sense. We would have to pay him a boatload of cash or give up prospects for a guy we would have two years while we are not competing. Unless he lights it up and we can flip him(which isn't JBs intention) it would be a giant waste of resources for no gain. Unless we got him for a bag of balls and paid virtually none of the contract I don't see any reason to even consider it. Honestly it may be a bad move if we got him completely free.

Wait what did Melvin do? Pretty sure we drafted quite a bit of pitching in the early rounds under him. As best he could with where he always picked. Then when he finally got to trade a good player he got a Top 50 prospect pitcher. They have done a fantastic job adding pitching over the last two years. It isn't enough though...of course. We aren't done yet. You can't just devote to pitching you have to get bats. I think they have done a great job balancing the two.

If the Brewers can fill the majority of their holes internally the payroll space will be there to sign a major free agent if they want to. I could see it being done if Stearns plans on constantly replenishing the farm and not extending too many players. If we opt to extend our players then payroll space will shrink fairly quickly. Don't underrate our odds of signing a major free agent. When we start getting into a window of competing and payroll is rock bottom the money will be there.

Yuck wouldn't one have to take I90 downtown to avoid tolls all the way to Indiana? That surely is not worth $5. Actually you might have to pay me to drive that. I was definitely only referring to the N/NW suburbs area. Anything past that and traffic becomes a big pain off the freeway since there are so many cities packed together.