Greenleaf1

Albers for the 8th. I doubt he spends the whole year there (Barnes/Williams/Jeffress could work their way into that role), but he makes the most sense for now.

My money's on Albers for the 8th.

I'd say Anderson's curveball looks stellar, but what other equally positive superlatives do you guys have for his 4-seamer, 2-seamer, and change-up?

What a play by Arcia AND Braun.

Please do not let my post indicate that I am in any way in favor of the Brewers signing K-Rod.

I kinda went through the MLB Transaction log and put together a quick list of pitchers who have been DFA'd or released over the past week that the Brewers could potentially go after now that there's word from Stearns that something might be in the works: Albert Suarez Matt Dermody Daniel Hudson Dan Jennings Scott Kazmir Ricky Nolasco Francisco Rodriguez Craig Breslow Jason Motte Fernando Abad Dan Jennings has a career 2.90 ERA in 310 career MLB games. Anybody know why the Rays even released him? Can they really not afford his $2.4M contract? He's a lefty and could replace Boone Logan and allow us to basically only use Drake if we have to. Jennings has two more years of control left.

Record: 89-73 Playoffs: Yes Highest Playoff Level Achieved: NLDS (we host and win the WC) All Star Representative: Yelich, Shaw Pitcher of the Year: Hader Surprising Player: Thames - I bet he crushes righties this year Disappointing Player: Woodruff - I like him a lot but I think people will be disappointed with him this year even if he's serviceable. So not disappointing by my standards if he has, say, a 4.2-4.4 ERA, but I think that would disappoint others.

1. Keston Hiura 2. Corbin Burnes 3. Brandon Woodruff 4. Lucas Erceg 5. Luis Ortiz 6. Brett Phillips 7. Freddy Peralta 8. Tristen Lutz 9. Corey Ray 10. Mauricio Dubon 11. Adrian Houser 12. Trent Grisham 13. Cody Ponce 14. Mario Feliciano 15. Marcos Diplan 16. Jean Carmona 17. Taylor Williams 18. Jake Gatewood 19. Kodi Medeiros 20. KJ Harrison 21. Trey Supak 22. Troy Stokes Jr 23. Caden Lemons 24. Zack Brown 25. Jacob Nottingham

Deals like this are win-win for all involved in my opinion. The team has relatively low risk (they can hide that money over the years if Kingery tanks and decline the options) and potentially very high reward (either through value of the player or value of having a cheap controlled player to trade later on if the team is rebuilding). Kingery is potentially giving up a lot of money but it's going to be years before he sees any of it, and just so much can go wrong between then and now. Baseball is hard and top prospects don't always make it, or he could just get injured. I think this is a better deal for the Phillies than for Kingery, but I still think the guaranteed financial security of this deal would be really hard to pass up unless you're just an absolute superstar. With Kingery's relatively short history of high level production in the minors, I think this was a good deal for him to take.

Solid day for Brent Suter today. 2 hits, 1 was a blooper that landed on the foul line and he picked off the other guy. Will be interesting to see how the Brewers handle those #4/#5 rotation spots and #7/#8 bullpen spots. Suter is obviously getting into one of those 4 slots, but if he keeps pitching like he has been it's going to be hard to keep him out of the rotation.

This has to be part of it. Why wouldn't the Twins want him at 2 years/$24M? That's still pretty cheap and if they think he'll have a good 2018 it's not hard to imagine him at least being worth that money in 2019 too. The laws of supply and demand are going to be tested next offseason though. There are going to be a LOT of good players on the market next year, and I just don't see these player issues with free agency going away either. The main change is going to be that they're all 1 year older. Hoping there will be an elaborate article written at some point detailing this offseason and asking guys like Lynn and Moustakas how it all went down. Did they really have zero interest all offseason, or is there more to this story?

Yo, nothing sucks up outs in short relief like a Hoover. But if your wife doesn't like it, get something that will Suter better. I enjoyed this.

I was definitely referring to the splitter. He had times early last year where that seemed like a really solid out pitch, but he's just not very consistent with it. Can't imagine Drake gets claimed at this point so sending him to AAA wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

If he makes it over a guy like Taylor Williams, just .... ugh! I think Drake really served his purpose as a lefty specialist well last year but Counsell probably expected too much of him against righties which I think is why he has left such a sour taste in some peoples' mouths. That said, when they signed Boone Logan I think the writing had to be on the wall for Drake. Why hold onto 2 lefty specialists plus Hader/Suter? If Drake can't get righties out, there's absolutely no reason to have him on the team. He's shown flashes of really good stuff but no consistency and he probably knows he's on the outside looking in this Spring and that could be contributing to his bad results because he's pressing. But yeah, if that 8th bullpen spot came down to Williams vs. Drake and Williams is still dealing, I don't think we have to worry about Drake making the team.

Let's say the Brewers do sign one of the 3 top FA pitchers, doesn't this put our payroll a little too high considering arbitration raises over the next few years? We would be at $105-$110M already this year, plus probably add another $10M/year the next 2 years in arbitration raise and we could be pushing $130M in 2020 just with the guys we already have. That seems a bit high for the Brewers. Maybe this team caps out in the $120M range sometime in the next couple years but you'd think they'd want some flexibility between then and now to add pieces later on. I'm not sure we can afford any of these 3 guys, particularly when it seems like we could be calling up guys like Burnes/Peralta/Houser who could fill out the back end of the rotation (with maybe potential for more) and let Nelson/Anderson/Davies hold down the top part of the rotation. There's more risk to that approach but it also could potentially lead to a much more affordable and still pretty strong rotation.

He already has as many walks as he had total last Spring. If he gets another one, he'll match his total combined 2016/2017 Spring Training walk total. So in a way, he's potentially improving...

Saw Perez's good numbers as he was coming up to bat. Wondered has he walked yet this Spring? Looked up and saw that he had not. Perez proceeds to take a 4 pitch walk.

Kinda hoping that Broxton could fetch a solid controllable bullpen piece, I wouldn't expect any more than that (and maybe not even that much). He could be a pretty solid buy low candidate for a team that could let him play every day. I'd hate to see him get traded and finally figure it out, but at this point I'm not sure there's a chance for him to figure it out with us so we might as well get something for him. All this said, trading Broxton does pretty much nothing to alleviate our current situation because he was extremely unlikely to make the opening day roster anyways.

Early going still and he might not even make the team but if nothing else Wade Miley is making it easier for us to keep low balling free agent pitchers. Having so many potential alternatives (Miley, Guerra, Gallardo, Suter, Woodruff) is going to help us look like we don't need Arrieta/Cobb/Lynn.

Finally got around to listening to this and really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing!

Williams looked pretty stellar today. Burnes not so much, but it's his 2nd inning of the Spring so I'm not super concerned and apparently his last outing was pretty impressive. Don't have a link but maybe a few weeks ago Stearns or Counsell said something about how Williams would probably start the season in the minors. That said, if he keeps going like that the next month, it'll be tough to send him down (unless they plan to stretch him out as a starter).

Pina's not an offensive power house but he figures to be at least league average offensively for a catcher while providing solid defense, so unless you're talking about picking up a star catcher like Realmuto there's not much point in spending a ton of money for a marginal improvement. The best we can hope for is a better backup but I feel like between Vogt/Bandy/Bethancourt you're going to get enough production to not feel too bad about it (what team really has a great backup catcher?) As for 2B, I think given the offensive upgrades we've made elsewhere, it makes sense to let it ride with Villar and see if he can return to form. If he can, he'll have a huge impact on our lineup, and if he can't and Sogard/Perez can't do it either, then we look at making a temporary improvement at the trade deadline or give Dubon a chance, then sign someone for 2019 as a stop gap for Hiura. I'm not sure either one of these positions is going to be the reason we don't make the playoffs (although obviously if Villar/Pina step it up offensively they could have a huge impact). I'm also not sure I'd want the Brewers spending any more money on free agents right now or trading away lots of prospects for anyone else. 2017 was a surprise, but I'm willing to roll the dice a bit on our youth in 2018 (plus our upgraded outfield) and see if our young controllable guys and prospects can take this team to the next level on their own, then be ready to fill whatever gaps remain next offseason. It might make getting to the postseason this year a little tougher, but in the end I think it will put us in a better position to succeed in the future if we know which spots can be filled from within (the rotation could look like a real strength by the end of the year if Woodruff/Burnes can step in and do well, or if Guerra somehow returns to form).

They typically don't have the balls and strikes for spring training, it's either 4-0 for a walk, 0-3 for a strikeout, or if they put the ball in play then it's just on one pitch.

I thought someone might bring this up when it happened but I haven't seen anything about it, and haven't had much luck Googling this either. Does this mean that we are essentially gaining an "option" to send Guerra the minor leagues? Is that something that a player can agree to pre-arbitration when they have no options left? I've never heard of a contract like this for a pre-arb player (I know Nieuwenhuis signed a split deal last year though, but it only guaranteed about $250K in the minors), but obviously Guerra doesn't really fit the mold of a pre-arb player. Could this essentially mean that we are guaranteeing him his (essentially) MLB-minimum salary even in AAA and in return we are essentially gaining back an option year on him? If that's the case, I'm amazed people aren't talking about this more. It gives us some really intriguing flexibility (and basically means unless Guerra is lights out in March that he'll end up at CS to start the year) and means Guerra won't have to put up or shut up in Spring Training necessarily. I could see him liking this deal for the extra money and also maybe the Brewers showed him some form of commitment that they will give him his shot this year, but maybe not commit to him being on the opening day roster? On the other hand, I would think there's some rebuilding team that would be willing to give him a shot in April regardless, but maybe he's comfortable with Milwaukee? Or maybe this isn't what his contract means at all, but does anyone have any more info?

Burgos has always been a favorite of mine ever since I was at a game at Miller Park in late 2012 and they showed his highlight reel when giving him the Minor League Pitcher of the Year award. His changeup made my mouth water. I had hope last year he might get a few starts and another chance but it just never happened and with our best pitching prospects all nearing the upper levels of the minors, his chance with us to make the majors has likely passed, but still happy to have him around.