paul253

I guess I didn’t realize that many Wisconsin high school kids are playing summer ball. Only a few get drafted each year and a fair number play college ball on scholarship, mainly at smaller schools like UWM. I always assumed most of the good players ended up playing at places like Oshkosh and Whitewater. Does travel ball really make that big a difference in terms of their development?

Sorry a few pages behind here. I think the best options would have been trading our prospects for pitching as opposed to an outfielder. I think we could have gotten a quality starter for Brinson, Harrison, +. It’s impossible to know if that would have made the team better both now and in the long run but it certainly would have made more sense. Had that happened the Cain signing still would have made plenty of sense. Yet they reportedly wouldn’t include him in a deal for two plus years of Gray or Quintana. That’s not at all what I am saying. But people can’t seriously expect to be contenders with this rotation. I’m sorry but it’s not just going to work itself out. Pitchers don’t just come along. You have to either develop them or go get them. I’m as high on Burnes and Ortiz and Peralta as the next guy but expecting them all to be just as good in the majors as they are now ignores history. The likelihood all three will be quality ML starters is tiny. I like Yelich. I do. But if we were willing to give up so many of our top prospects it should have been for pitching. It kind of seems like you are assuming everything will work out fine for the pitchers and nothing will work out fine for the hitters. Brinson has just as good a chance to be a solid hitter as Houser and Peralta have at being solid pitchers. Is this a joke? You think Suter, Lopez and Griep can produce like Hader can? Or even Jennings and Houser? Outside of possibly Knebel Hader is fat and away our best reliever. Very few if anybody in the system can produce like he is. Major league starters need to be able to go more than five innings. I think I remember stating in a similar debate that Hader didn’t go 6 innings as a starter in Milwaukee’s system one time. Not one 6 inning start. Plus his numbers weren’t all the impressive either. If you want to try him next spring go for it. But let’s temper our expectations a bit. He’d need to sure a heck of a lot more than he did in the minors.

I don’t know. You spend big time money and Cain and big time prospects on Yelich. If our goal was to have a “serviceable” rotation while simultaneously using all our resources to strengthen a strength then I don’t think Stearns is as smart as we thought. For what it’s worth I don’t think he intended to have a rotation like this. I maintain that he planned all along to trade Santana and found the market for him wasn’t nearly as strong as he thought it would be so he tried to make lemonade with all those lemons. So then why not just have them join the rotation then? A half a season is enough to have them go from not ready to ready? I don’t think it is. I don’t think Burnes, Peralta or Ortiz was ever expected to make a significant impact in the rotation this year. That’s why they signed Miley and Gallardo. That was your depth. Not Burnes or Peralta. As do I. I just don’t buy the argument that signing Cobb or Arrietta would somehow prevent Burnes Woodruff or Peralta from having a opportunity to make the rotation. .

11 games in and we’re already talking about he possibility of Hader, Burnes or Peralta making a start. That’s just sad. Offseason was an absolute failure in terms of putting together a halfway decent rotation.

I was wondering if anyone had anyone had any thoughts on this. I believe in 2019 all of the HS teams will be playing spring ball. When I played I played summer baseball. To be honest, I can’t fathom why anyone would think spring baseball in Wisconsin is a good idea. It starts in early April when snow is still a legit possibility and when rain and ridiculously cold weather is still likely. My dad coached a spring team awhile back and I went to the some of the games. It was miserable. Cold. Rainy. Windy. It’s not weather meant for baseball. I also brought my young son to some games at the local HS last summer. I’m wouldn’t do that with games in April in 40 degree weather. Additionally, switching it to spring means conflicts with tennis and track. I played tennis too and had we played spring baseball obviously I couldn’t have done both. I’ve heard some rumblings about how the really good players don’t play in summer because they are with their traveling teams. I hope this isn’t the reasoning because those players are so few and far between the benefit would be extremely minimal. Anyway, anyone have any thoughts of sprig cos summer baseball?

I think Packers fans do this to Soldier Field don’t they?

I don’t think anyone suggested that. We suggested TJ if TJ would solve the problem.

Gilbert Lara with one measly vote. What a disappointment.

An injury like this would severely limit his trade value. If he even passes a physical other teams would be hesitant to trade for a guy who might need TJ.

I don’t think he ever had TJ. He just had the injury that prevented him from throwing.

It’s shocking that an SEC was willing to come up and play a game in the North.....and they lost. Doubt we’ll ever see that happen again. Also, Alabama hasn’t played a true non conference road game in like ten years. They play name brands teams, often during that teams down season (Michigan, Louisville, FSU, West Virginia, etc). Wisconsin should follow that strategy.

Honestly if TJ was even a possibility last season they should have just done it. They screwed Taylor Williams for two whole seasons by trying to avoid TJ surgery, something he eventually needed anyway. As much as I liked Hiura’s hitting potential, I just hate the idea of taking someone with injury concerns and then not doing what is needed to be done to fully fix those issues. It sounds like Flanagan is trying to downplay the issue but elbow discomfort is elbow discomfort. I just hope they don’t try the ole “we hope it’ll work ” treatment until July and then go thru with TJ. Like I said if TJ is a possibility and will fully fix the issue just get it over with it.

Maybe.....eventually......though with the way college football seems to be moving away from any sort of parity it’s going to tough for pretty much anyone but Wisconsin and maybe Nebraska to have any real sustained success. The east is just loaded right now and it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. I will say the Big Ten in general seems to have done a great job with recent coaching hires. Brohm. Fleck. Frost. Harbaugh. All excellent hires. True. But in football, at least non conference wise, you more or less control who you play. Wisconsin would be wise to follow the Ohio St method and start scheduling home and home series with name brand schools. That’s the only way they’ll overcome the weak division issue. At least in the NCAA tournament you have the chance to play good teams. It’s not Michigan’s fault that UNC couldn’t beat Texas AM or that Xavier couldn’t beat Florida St. Its not like Michigan scheduled Texas AM and Florida St.

I think the Brewers really dropped the ball this offseason in terms of pitching. Premium(ish) pitching could have been had at a discount compared to how much it usually costs and we still didn’t address it. Now with Miley out for a month and Nelson out for who knows how long we have to pray everything doesn’t go bad fast. Hopefully our big four starting prospects (Woodruff, Ortiz Peralta and Burnes) all develop enough to the point where at least two of them can be counted on to hold rotation spots next season but you just never know with prospects. I’d love to see a trade to acquire a controllable starter. I’d also like to see us drafting more pitching early on instead of “toolsy” outfielders like Ray and Clark.

Guys like Pitino and Caliparo aren’t good coaches. They are good at finding ways to take advantage of the NCAA. That’s why both failed miserably when they had their chances in the NBA.

That’s the problem so many people have. Let’s just HOPE guys like Gallardo and Miley and Guerra just happen to figure things out even though they’ve all been pretty bad for awhile now. Why not go get a guy that’s actually been good recently? Yeah it’s going to cost money. Yeah you may have to give him two or three years when you only wanted to give him one. But you’re taking an AWFULLY big risk relying on Miley and Guerra and Suter to give you 15-20 starts until (if???) Nelson comes back. I was never all that big on Cobb. I preferred Arrietta personally. But given he’s the best of what’s left and looking at what we currently have I have no issue giving him two years or even three if the price is right. And this is all assuming the price is right. I don’t think anyone is suggesting we give him a blank check and tell him to fill in his cost.

Why don’t you think I’ve considered these things? If he’s “only” a number 3 he’s still significantly better than the options we’re throwing out there. Just because someone doesn’t agree that throwing a bunch of crap against the wall and hoping some of it sticks is a good idea doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking cititcally. Of course Cobb is more expensive and has his risks. He’s also a heck of a lot better than the alternatives. As far as him maybe not wanting to be here. Do you think at this point it’s in his best interest to pick and choose where he goes? If the offer is good enough he’ll be here.

That doesn’t make them any better of a pitcher though. Who cares why Miley was signed and is likely in the rotation? The fact is he IS. And as of now Cobb isn’t. Obviously we need depth. But that doesn’t mean we have to sign a bunch of subpar pitchers with the expectation they fill the 4 and 5 spots in the rotation. I’d be fine with Miley and Guerra as options number 8 and 9. They can be depth. Not 4 and 5 though.

Health wise I’m sure he’ll be able to come back. It’s just a matter of whether he’ll be the same pitcher as before. I think it’s dangerous to expect the same numbers we got from him last season. Plus, even if he does come back how long until he’s 100% with no limits? He’s not going to be throwing a complete game with 120 pitches right off the bat. I’d expect at least 5-6 starts before we really let him go full boat. Best case scenario that’s, what, late July early August? I also question whether our back end is going to be much improved. The fact that we don’t even know who two of our starters are yet should tell you something. I’d love to see Woodruff in there as the 5. But any rotation relying on Junior Guerra or Wade Miley is not one that gives me much comfort.

Anderson and Nelson also had career years. As we saw with Junior Guerra that can fall apart real quick. Nelson is also coming off a significant shoulder injury and two of the five spots are tossups, with either unproven rookies or veterans who haven’t seen success in a few years as the prime candidates. We’ll see what happens but I’d be surprised if he starting pitching is as good as it was last year.

A little late to the game here so I apologize. First off, the Brewers missed the playoffs by a game last year. So that one game difference you see could be the difference between a playoff appearance and no playoff appearance. Realistically though I think Cobb is more than a one game difference over Wade Miley/Junior Guerra type pitchers. I’m not sure if people think a few spring training appearances all of a sudden turned Miley back into an all star pitcher but I think it’s more likely that he’s closer to the 2016 version of himself than the 2012 version of himself. So Cobb is and his 1-2 run lower ERA would be a significant upgrade. Adding Cobb though also adds depth. It’s another quality arm in the rotation that will help with the inevitable injury. It may prevent the need for Yovani Gallardo to start a few games or to call up Burnes and start his clock. I think it’s extremely disingenuous to suggest people expect Cobb to make an 8 or 9 game difference. It’ more like a 2-3 game difference, which as last year showed can be a pretty big deal. But if you can’t at least understand why some people have concerns about the current rotation then I’m not sure what to say to you. I have certainly been wrong before, but as of now I’d say the rotation is going to keep the Brewers out of the playoffs. The lineup is built to win. The bullpen seems good enough. The rotation is chalk full of question marks.

Yeah I was going to come on here and suggest they play the games at the AL or at the Klotsche Center at UWM like they used but those capacities are actually smaller than the capacities of West Allis Central. Granted they are both better set up to handle big crowds and would be much more comfortable, not to mention safer, than WAC. I think they should set up a triple header at the Panther arena downtown for the D1, D2, and D3 sectional finals. It would allow for more than enough fans and people could see multiple games if they want. It’s time the WIAA recognizes the demand for these games.

I haven’t posted on this part in awhile so forgive me if we aren’t supposed to be selling things. My brother has $250 in gift cards to Master Zs/Legends of the Field in Waukesha that he’s looking to sell. He’s looking for for $150 but may be willing to negotiate. If anyone is interested in this let me know and I’m sure we can work something out.

I’ll bump this thread for the 2018 tournament. I went to the Boys sectional final game last night between Pewaukee and Milwaukee Washington. Good game. It was at West Allis Central, which I’m told is one of the biggest high school gyms, capacity wise, in the state. Despite that, it was elbow to elbow in the stands. There were hundreds of people standing and there were people sitting in the rows of stairs in the bleachers, making it next to impossible to get out of the stands if you wanted to. I really wish the WIAA would consider move these games to bigger arenas, even the Panther Arena downtown if need be. I’ve been to a few playoff games at WAC and the demand for a bigger venue is definitely warranted. I’m sorry but having people sitting on the stairs is just not safe.

I love years like this when there aren’t one or two teams head and shoulders above everyone else. This is a year ten or so teams have a legit chance at winning it all.