82brewcrew82

I think the guy that tried to mow his name into the field.

No, they've already clinched #1 2d place team and HFA Bummer, thanks

Is SD actually playing for anything at this point?

I think that is a whole lot of hindsight. It makes sense now knowing Santana tanked. I think the board goes apoplectic is they trade Santana after that career year after the light the Davis trade was viewed in. Given where the Brewers were in the rebuild process under DS, I don't think it was at all wrong to give Santana a chance to replicate his performance from the year prior. Context matter in these things. All evaluations are done with hindsight. This is like saying Stearns didn't deserve credit for trading for an MVP because nobody thought he would be an MVP at the time. He deserves credit when it works and blame when it doesn't. I don't see anyone making the claim he's a bad GM but he makes mistakes like anyone and I think it's fair to recognize them as well. Well sure, he's human and he makes mistakes just like any other GM. Your statement was that he "makes a lot of bad trades", not that he makes a couple of mistakes. What is your criteria for "a lot"? Are you comparing him against himself, other GMs? I agree with your Sogard evaluation but that wasn't a trade. I think it's very telling that the mistakes that are being pointed out are for marginal players like Aguilar and Santana.

Ah, yes. I had completely forgotten all of the trade rumors around Santana that off-season. We don't know what actually happened but it does seem DS did try to trade Santana after his career year. If DS wasn't getting what he felt was fair value then it was absolutely the correct move to give Santana another year to see if he could replicate his numbers. Right or wrong, DS has his notion of value and doesn't very often exceed that notion.

I think that is a whole lot of hindsight. It makes sense now knowing Santana tanked. I think the board goes apoplectic is they trade Santana after that career year after the light the Davis trade was viewed in. Given where the Brewers were in the rebuild process under DS, I don't think it was at all wrong to give Santana a chance to replicate his performance from the year prior. Context matter in these things.

Who have we bought high on? We haven't paid a huge price for anyone really, but we tend to get guys based on career years and we let guys go a year too late pretty often. I'd say he bought high on Sogard this year for example. He didn't pay a high price, but he picked him up based on numbers far outside his career averages and now he's reverted to a pumpkin. All those little deals add up. The bigger issue is trading guys after they lose their value. I know some people will defend Stearns no matter what he does but he's made a lot of bad trades, or trades that should've been made at a different time. I know hindsight is 20-20 but if my business goes under because of things I didn't forsee, it's still on me. Maybe, what trades do you consider bad? I think it's equally true that some folks will go way out of their way go denigrate Stearns.

Phils lose. That's good.

I don't want to see any of those start the year as our #3. We need an actual reliable guy for that role, not an Anderson type, and 100% for sure not Houser, Lindblom, or Lauer. I'd love to see Peralta make strides to fill that role though, but I'd rather see him start out as our #4 or #5 if given the chance. Woody two, Burnes three. Go get a difference maker at the top.

So Stearns should have known a worldwide pandemic was going to occur and held on to Aguilar so he could DH? What an intellectually dishonest argument. He had an 88 WRC+ in 2019. Please link to your posts at that time clamoring for the Brewers to hang on to him for the impact that his next eventual hot streak might have on the Brewers fortunes? I'll wait.......

Well, for starters, insisting that there is some mystical unlocked potential in Aguilar when his statistical history more than suggests there is isn't. Stating repeatedly that the replacements weren't on par or better than Aguilar when statistical evidence says they were. Stating that someone got three times the value for Aguilar which is patently false and statistically proven to be the opposite case. All of which adds up to at trade with zero significant impact for either organization which is probably the definition of a nothing for nothing trade with no winner and no loser. Just not true. I'm as big a Stearns fan as there is but there were several deals this winter that I more than raised an eyebrow at and one was Lindbloom. Stearns isn't perfect but perfection isn't the standard I grade him against. Like what? Is it the same something that took Yelich from a marginal All-Star to an MVP caliber player? Is it the same something that have brought Woodruff and Burnes to TOR levels? Maybe the players lacked the dedication and commitment to achieve at the highest levels? Maybe after getting traded/released by three teams with relatively little major league success, Aguilar decided to finally commit to his craft with the Marlins? Do you have information that would suggest any one of these scenarios is more likely than the others? Your stance just seem like a very narrow interpretation with a focused agenda. Or maybe Aguilar and Faria are just guys that bounce around and fill roster spots at the margins of big league rosters and sometimes have good stretches. This reminds me of the crowd last year that wanted Domingo Santana back because he got off to a good start and had a good stretch with the Brewers prior to that. Was Darnell Coles unable to unlock his hidden potential? Is there a single organization in baseball that hasn't sold low on a player that had marginal success down the road with another organization. I would suggest no. So if that is related to organizational failure, then organizational failure is a systemic issue in MLB. If replacement level is productive then I guess so. Aguilar is the definition of a guy that can be easily replaced with little to no impact to your team. Same with Faria. Neither is a guy that puts your team over the top and the fact that neither is with the team they were traded to says everything about their value. These kinds of trades are mad virtually every year by every team with little or no long term ramifications. If you need to call that a loss for Stearns or a failure of the coaching staff, fine. Whatever makes you happy.

I understand the point you're trying to make. I'm saying that you are making assumptions that are wrong and stating them as fact. Aguilar never was, and never will be, a $30 trinket. Never mind the fact that no one got three times the value for Aguilar than the Brewers did. The Rays didn't trade Aguilar to the Marlins for 3x the value of Faria. The Marlins are paying 2.5M for .2 WAR. Essentially, the Marlins are paying Aguilar 4x more than he as ever made to produce .2 WAR. Maybe you view that as a good deal. Aguilar is worth 3.4 career WAR (per B-Ref) with 3.2 of that coming in one year that more and more looks like a flash in the pan season. You are pointing to this season, all of 177 at bats, to prove a point that doesn't hold up. He is a .2 WAR player this year which fits nicely into his very narrow career range. When he was traded he was at -.5 WAR. Thames was his primary replacement, how on earth was Aguilar worth more than Thames? Heck Vogelbach has been worth .3 WAR in a Brewer uniform so the notion that the replacements haven't been on Aguilars level this year is just wrong. Sure, Smoak was a train wreck but I'd have bet on Smoak over Aguilar coming into the season and it wouldn't have been much of a choice.

Huh? Why the heck wouldn't that factor into the evaluation? We didn't make a trade with Marlins, we made it with Rays. And he woefully under performed with the Rays as well. I'd say we got equal value for Aguilar as both teams released the asset that obtained for the other. Simply put, garbage for garbage. I think that is your opinion and far from the fact you are trying to frame it as. Was it an organizational success that hey "unlocked" his potential in 2018? What changed between 2018 and 2019 on the organizational side of the ledger that would make such a statement true? I would suggest nothing. What failure is put on the Rays organization, one known for unlocking hidden potential I might add, but the Marlins, who are known for the opposite, hold the key to unlocking his potential? I mean, with all his success this year he is what, a .2 WAR player. Looks to be pretty replacement level to me. I look at 2018 and see a huge outlier with regard to Aguilar. Maybe what he has been his entire career, outside of the first half of 2018, is really just who this guys is which is a barley positive WAR player capable of decent stretches of offensive performance. I'd hate to think that 177 2020 ABs is the basis for any argument that we threw away anything more than a replacement player. Considering Aguilar's awful performance up to the time of the trade I think it was a good job by Stearns to get anything at all for him up to and including a steaming pile of trash that Faria was. Who is this "we" you speak of? At the time I thought they caught lightning in a bottle and figured Cinderella's carriage would turn back into a pumpkin at some point. It did and we traded that pumpkin for another pumpkin. Trades of garbage for garbage really have zero bearing on my opinion of a GM. This one is no exception. If you want to knock a GM for the result of a nothing trade, have at it.

I doubt that was intentional. Very few teams play anything close to small ball these days.

Do you also yell at people when they are on your lawn. Are those two things supposed to be comparable? I'd like to see you sit out there listening to that loud, annoying racket for three hours every game. It was a joke.....or maybe not.

This. The way they built this team for this year was a strategic decision once it became clear that baseball was back to handing out stupid contracts like they were pez.

Do you also yell at people when they are on your lawn.

I'd rather see Peralta put up 6.31 ERA then watch Lindbloom. The Lindbloom experiment can end any time now.

He still doesn't throw strikes consistently enough.

I went to a Reds board to see what they were saying about this and the thread is just bonkers. Makes the high heat situation look like an episode of Mr. Rogers. It's turned to white power hour over there.

Could be worse, he could be Thom Brennaman.

That looked like a closer in waiting.

Lauer has thrown 40 pitches in two innings. This isn't just bad luck. He isn't hitting his spots, and doesn't have the stuff to get away with that. Wasn't great last time out either.

Lauer has thrown 40 pitches in two innings. This isn't just bad luck.

Yeah but if that were you, you would have had a different life. Most likely you didn’t go to Homecoming or Prom or party with the boys in high school, too busy training or playing ball. There would have been no “typical college experience”, you would have been too busy working year round. Or riding a bus in the minor leagues. Competing against players older and stronger than you. Seeing your friends have their careers end because they didn’t produce or because of injuries, and knowing every day that could be you. Playing in pain most days of the season. Your body breaking down and people offering you Roids but knowing that could end your career too, if caught, or hurt your health. Meanwhile your wife is calling, asking about the bills. You are hoping she’s still being faithful to you even though she’s young and hot looking and you are away for months at a time. Then you finally make it to the Majors and you need to be able to hit 95 mph pitches with crazy movement, preferably for power, or get sent home. Yeah, Baseball players lives aren’t as easy as it seems. First of all, I wholly reject the notion that these guys are missing out on prom, hanging with the boys or the college experience. I'd say it's far more likely these guys are homecoming kings and have a college experience far more enhanced than the average person. And even if it is, that is a choice they are making. They were just as likely to have had the privilege of playing travel ball at thousands of dollars a season with access to elite level resources (even in high school) and top end medical treatment that most kids will never have access to. Even if you are 100% accurate it still boils down to a choice that the player was privileged enough to have. Having to get a job at 14 to help the family pay the bills, wondering where your next meal is coming from or fearing being shot walking to a crappy school is probably far less stressful than what a baseball player has to do. There is an exceptionally large swatch of children in this country that would LOVE to worry about whether taking a performance enhancing drug is the right choice over whether the next hit is the last one for their opioid addicted parent. Never mind that these kids had ZERO choice in any of these decisions. My heart truly goes out to those ball players whose wives are so hot that it makes the player an insecure puddle. I mean, what does an average person know about working to hold relationships together. My goodness those players have it so rough.