MrTPlush

On the recruiting front they are getting talent at face value in most years recently...but it flat out is not developing much for really strong reliable guys. Not sure if that is the literal development at fault or just recruiting the wrong guys. The 2022 class sucked, but you wouldn't expect that to be making an impact or even being legit bench guys yet anyway. 2021 featured Hepburn as a 4-star and 3 other high end 3-star guys. The 2020 class was really good too. Crowl/Wahl/Hepburn are fine guys....but no one has taken that step to lead the team like Johnny Davis did.

I don't know that people are defending it. They just understand that is the reality and it isn't going to change. You can beat a dead horse complaining about it, but it won't change anything. To me it doesn't make sense to be miserable complaining about the economics of baseball. What is the point of watching? The result is going to be the exact same every single year. If we won the World Series, right after the parade your crowd would be holding pitchforks as we proceed to trade Burnes/Woodruff/Adames because we can't afford them. I hate to say it, but Mark Attanasio isn't going to suddenly make the Brewers payroll $50mil more than it is. No one past, present, or in the future will.

What exactly is immensely to you? Going into the playoffs even the big time favorite in each league maybe has a 10-14% chance. Good teams usually are about 8% and the fringe teams are like 4%. We could go spend Padres/Mets money and find ourselves increasing our chances MAYBE 10%...maybe. If you were being unrealistic and expected the Brewers to just break even with payroll (which idk, lets just say $40mil in payroll) we aren't much better off than we are now. Cubs/Cardinals/etc. spend a little chunk more than us and are exactly any more competitive than us lately. Big markets spend more money, but they make exponentially more. If our payroll was 50% of revenue, that is probably like 10% of a big markets. The Brewers aren't really all that different than a large market. A big market team could make more money by cutting payroll. The Yankees could run a Brewers sized payroll and be more profitable than they are now...but they don't. The Brewers could go trot out an A's sized payroll and make more profits...but they don't. Reality is, teams aren't full fledged businesses trying to maximize profits...but they also aren't charities. In my opinion large markets aren't necessarily trying to win a World Series. Their goal is to spend enough money that they can pretty much just win their division yearly. That is where the money is for them. Having consistent dominate regular season success to maximize interest in their teams. After than it is diminishing returns on the money they spend. The Brewers don't have the fanbase/market to really grow much past what it is. The attendance numbers prove that. When we are competing the attendance will spike up...but every year of success past that we are lucky to add 20k extra fans through the gates. I am sure merchandise and TV viewership follows that same trend. That is exactly why I think the Brewers are trying to consistently be competitive but aren't making an effort to really make a strong team. #1 the team likely isn't much better through more investment and #2 it likely causes a rebuild where attendance plummets hundreds of thousands. Be a fringe WC contender with an occasional team strong enough to make an NLCS is where the Brewers make money. A World Series is a short term revenue boom that quickly dies. KC ranked #26 in attendance before their World Series appearances. #25 the year they made the first one, #10 the year they won, #12 the year after, and now....and back to #26 in 2019. For them it brought out an extra 1mil to the ballpark in the short term...for us it probably would even attract a third of that because our attendance is already fairly strong.

Their insufferable to watch style of play is good on one hand because it is pretty annoying to many teams and keeps the Badgers consistently a pretty respectable squad. However, yeah, it is terrible for recruiting. It also isn't going to let you go streaking for 3+ wins in the tourney. The one-time Gard had a good ball scorer he arguably ran the worst offense I have ever seen. He just fed Davis and the rest of the team went with it and stood around. As I have said before, basketball coaching is a bit different than football. The Badgers are not prestigious enough to go pluck the hot name in the offseason. You don't go a find a Fickle that is going to transform the style of play and bring in a dump truck of recruits. I don't think they would really find a better coach, but they could find a coach that is similar with a different style of play. I just don't see the upside for the Badgers though. They would likely sacrifice consistency for MAYBE creating a higher ceiling basketball team. I was always on the boat that thought they could find PC and move on from the Wisconsin way to be better...I don't really feel that way with Gard...and I don't really think Gard is that great.

This game can pretty much be summed up by calls the refs made that were technically right, but literally no one wanted to be called except Chiefs fans. Outside of the push at the end, the third down was another call that was just strange in the end. The Chiefs were unaffected by the clock, they snap it, and fail. Then a ref comes running in that no one even noticed was trying to stop the play and they must redo it? I mean, that is just brutal. If a play can be redone because the ref was trying to stop it and no one noticed...why can't a coach challenge that they were trying to call a timeout...but a ref didn't notice? What if the Chiefs get the first down? I really wonder if they force a redo on that play. I am pretty convinced it would have been like in basketball where the official only calls the foul if the offensive player misses. If the guy makes the basket, they just swallow the whistle.

Figured Yelich was being saved for #1 in RF....now that he is not, I don't know if I really get labeling him a RFer. Even his two big seasons, one was in LF more than RF. If you are going to base him as a RF purely based on those two seasons, then he should just vault to the top. It was probably two of the Top 5 offensive performances in franchise history. The Athletic puts them both in the Top 3. I was kind of excited for this position because when I thought of it, I remembered Corey Hart is totally going to make it. Sadly, he was never the same after getting injured. For a second it looked like he was going to slide in and be a really solid 1B after Fielder left. He always flew under the radar and put up great numbers.

Amazing work by the refs there to get into field goal position to win it! Wow!

I don’t own cable and never will. I didn’t watch any games last year, but doesn’t mean I didn’t have the opportunity. There was a streaming option. Bally Sports had a subscription option. It was $20, which over the season is similar to the cost of MLB.TV that everyone in market wishes they could have. If you liked the Bucks, then it was only $15 a month to watch both. I know when it first launched in season the devices you could use were limited, but pretty sure that was fixed by tue end of the season…I wouldn’t know for sure though as the Brewers weren’t worth spending money to watch in my opinion. I am curious, for teams not controlled by Bally…they were all readily gotten on streaming services, right? I assume so, because everyone acts like Bally is some kind of crime to baseball. I don’t care enough to check every team, but the Yankees network was only on cable. The Cubs were only on Fubo it appears. One article said half the teams are on YouTube TV and that article was old enough it still had all the Bally controlled teams on it. So what, less than 10 teams?

Location I guess is a bit debatable depending on your tastes. The tailgating scene and the fact it is by itself makes it a very unique baseball experience. Everything there and everyone there are ready for a classic baseball experience. The crowd is very middle class and casual fan. The entire lower level behind the plate isn’t like a business meeting. Sometimes it is is nice to get there early, relax, and take a nice walk around the outside of the stadium. Not being downtown it is very non congested and doesn’t bring the stress of elbow to elbow foot traffic. As far as accessibility, well, it is arguably the most accessible. Can get there by car, bus, Uber, shuttle, etc…and it is extremely fast and easy to get there. Whatever your definition, there is no way it is worse than Dodgers Stadium or similar. That isn’t even downtown and a nightmare to get in and out of.Even taking an Uber is a total disaster.

It wasn’t difficult to watch the games. Cable is easily accessible to 99% of the population and they even did a streaming service subscription that was reasonable. If you lived in a tree house with no electricity, then yah, I suppose it was hard to access the games. Were non Bally teams just readily carrying their games on streaming services? I checked the Yankees channel, nope, same way. That’s just one other channel…but something tells me most teams probably aren’t on the streaming services.

The problem with the per month subscription is the fact is is brutally dependent on the team being good. If the team fire sales in July, half the people aren’t going to waste a dollar watching the Brewers. A lot of people probably would just buy September, some just in the summer, etc. I just don’t know that model is really sustainable in the small markets. Cash flow would be all over the place.

This is how the rich stay rich. File for bankruptcy to clear debts and/or get government bailouts with little repercussions in the grand scheme. Usually have plenty of other businesses/ventures completely protected from the other asset imploding.

I was just reading this morning about a person that worked at like an insurance call center and a guy had called due to finding out he had a terminal illness and was trying to work out insurance stuff. At the end of the call she said, "Get well soon." I am sure that is an understandable way to end the call in 99.9% of calls....but that one, was not it. ooof

Gain potential extra year of control and potentially gain a lot down the road. OR If we hold him back and he doesn't perform as well or even gets sent back down at some point, who cares, we lost nothing then. At that point holding him back didn't cost us any performance, so what does it matter?

Well both certainly have a chance to make the MLB roster at some point in 2023. A lot of this is just good gesture though. I mean, 1st round prospects used to require in their contract to be on the MLB squad for part of their first spring training.

Honestly, Yelich is probably going to have more WAR in 1.5 years as a RFer than he will as a LFer in half a decade. To think we were going to have our next HOFer after Braun ruined his career *punches wall*

I think the problem is after making the NLCS Game 7 we proceeded to win one playoff game the rest of Stearn's tenure...and he ended his tenure with an absolutely atrocious job in 2022. I think we have proven now to be competent enough of a franchise that making the postseason isn't the holy grail of accomplishments. People kind of expected us to not only make the postseason, but to actually be a competitive team once getting there...which just did not happen again. I also think once we had the most promising young core in franchise history, we had a legitimate chance to actually win a World Series and we didn't go out of our way to acquire/sign guys to really add to it. We treaded water and tried to get a team to the postseason, pray for a miracle, and try to not create a situation where a big rebuild would be needed. Maybe that works out here in the end, only time will tell. If we end up taking 3-4 years to get back while flirting near .500 every year, I don't know that I will enjoy that any more than had we bombed the roster and had a 5 year rebuild with some 90+ loss seasons. Especially if we just get back to the middling playoff teams no one has any confidence can make a World Series. To me, you are not consistently competitive if you still have multi year droughts. Maybe you aren't losing 90+ games and are in it come September...but sitting on the couch in October is sitting on the couch.

I think the problem is after making the NLCS Game 7 we proceeded to win one playoff game the rest of Stearn's tenure...and he ended his tenure with an absolutely atrocious job in 2022. I think we have proven now to be competent enough of a franchise that making the postseason isn't the holy grail of accomplishments. People kind of expected us to not only make the postseason, but to actually be a competitive team once getting there...which just did not happen again. I also think once we had the most promising young core in franchise history, we had a legitimate chance to actually win a World Series and we didn't go out of our way to acquire/sign guys to really add to it. We treaded water and tried to get a team to the postseason, pray for a miracle, and try to not create a situation where a big rebuild would be needed. Maybe that works out here in the end, only time will tell. If we end up taking 3-4 years to get back while flirting near .500 every year, I don't know that I will enjoy that any more than had we bombed the roster and had a 5 year rebuild with some 90+ loss seasons. Especially if we just get back to the middling playoff teams no one has any confidence can make a World Series. To me, you are not consistently competitive if you still have multi year droughts. Maybe you aren't losing 90+ games and are in it come September...but sitting on the couch in October is sitting on the couch.

You are way too generous with the potential of homers added compared to last year. As you mention not all are at Marlins Park...but about half of them are borderline on the wall. Most homers are going to end up 5-10 feet beyond the wall distance...or they will hit the wall. Baseball Savant Videos | baseballsavant.com (mlb.com) Not a homer at AmFam Baseball Savant Videos | baseballsavant.com (mlb.com) I don't think this is far enough over to be a homer, likely off the wall Baseball Savant Videos | baseballsavant.com (mlb.com) Not a homer at AmFam Baseball Savant Videos | baseballsavant.com (mlb.com) 392 feet to center...not going to be a homer at AmFam Arguably none of those 9 borderline homeruns would fair any better at Miller Park. The two deepest in centerfield were 403 feet. You aren't hitting a 403 foot homer at Miller Park. Below is what 411 feet in centerfield looks like: Baseball Savant Videos | baseballsavant.com (mlb.com) Baseball Savant Videos | baseballsavant.com (mlb.com) Even if he were to benefit homerun wise, is that just going to be negated with a less generous outfield to sneak in doubles and dump singles into the open grass?

We are about to tank the payroll way farther than the value of our TV deal after 2023 anyway....so I don't know that short term is really that big of a deal. This is arguably the perfect time for this to happen.

I would say yes, I bet people often do. People go to the internet and ask Facebook/Reddit experiences. People vouch or hate on whatever they have taken. Certainly people ask friends/family. No doubt someone can bring up a medication after seeing it on a commercial. Many tell the doctor what they think they want/need. Heck lots of medication is entirely sold online after gaining a prescription for it…some antidepressants or medication for HIV/AIDS.

Rodgers would be hosed regardless of where he goes. The Packers likely would only trade him to the AFC. So he has to go through Allen, Burrow, Mahomes

I’d let him go for free just so all the people that have said he was going to be the Mets GM for the past half decade can be wrong. Honestly though, any return would be borderline worthless in the grand scheme. Any player we get into return we could have plucked from them for a bag of balls anyway. I just want what should have happened the second he stepped down, him out of the organization. No need for him to be anywhere near the front office when he wants to leave.

Jeez, I forgot about Villar. #5 spot should just be randomly selected from the pool of one year wonders.

You forgot someone: Honestly though, there has got to be someone more deserving than Spiers. Jean Segura had like 3x the WAR. Maybe all in one season basically...but Spiers was the same way. I think I would give the #5 spot to Bill Hall. He at least had a few good seasons and did play a lot of SS. He also has over 3x the WAR as Spiers.