Lathund

I really hope they'll re-sign Manny, I love the guy. What worries me is the state of the catcher FA class; Manny is one of the better catchers available. He's getting older, but for a 1 year deal I don't think clubs are too bothered with that. The Tigers traded for Tucker Barnhart and his 1yr/$7.5m club option, and Manny is both a better hitter and a better defender. Barnhart has the edge in age and durability, but if that's what the market considers Barnhart to be worth, then Manny is probably going to be too expensive for a backup/short part of the platoon catcher for the Brewers.

I obviously don't know anything about how good either coach is, but the Rays are a good org to hire from, and it seems like the Mariners have been having success with hitters in the minors too. Guess we'll just have to see.

When it's a long contract, or a trade involving 11 players, it's usually clancy. I think he wanted to give Hernan Perez 7/$35m or something too.

Sadly Burnes is "only" second to Scherzer; 1.83 BB/9 for Burnes vs 1.81. So very close. Also I believe he would've been the first qualified pitcher ever to lead in K/9, BB/9 and HR/9.

Yelich is once again slumping with another donut today. He is either topping everything or missing it all together. In Sept... 10 for 49 - 0 HRs - 4 RBIs - 3 BBs - 13 Ks. With Urias also slumping, Adames/Tellez out, and Garcia day-to-day, the Crew can't afford to have Yelich tank and go into the playoffs severly slumping. Urias slumping? .263/.333/.474 over the last 7 days, .300/.391/.500 in the last 14. .261/.340/.432 in the last 30. If that's slumping, you have some mighty high expectations...

I doubt even this will completely stop the posts from people expecting him to come back for a playoff run...

Interesting, because I see it the other way around. That becasue of Burnes' age he has the chance to get a long big-money deal, because teams won't be as concerned about the back end of it. And thus he'd need quite a lucrative extension offer to give up that. Whereas Woody would be turning 32 a couple months after hitting free agency (Under the current rules anyway), there might not be a huge deal waiting for him, especially not if there are injuries to worry about in the next few years. So adding a year, or perhaps a team option year or two with a fairly large buyout for security could be attractive. But really, I think both perspectives are viable, it's just a matter of how they each look at risk. Do they want to maximize potential upside or minimize potetntial downside, or something inbetween? Personally I agree that it's unlikely that either will sign an extension. The way this front office has spent money (Or not spent it, more like) on pitching so far I think they'll end up trying to do like the Chris Archer trade (In terms of getting both MLB-ready talent and good prospects) for both of them once they get close to free agency. And trust in their pitching development to continue producing.

Kris Bryant would be the ideal FA signing for the Brewers I feel; RHH power with a ton of positional flexibility. But I also fully expect him to stay in SF, they have almost no money on the books going foward and have spent a lot in the past. Too rich of a contract for the Brewers to match. But someone else who seems like a very Stearnsian type of player who might be a bit more affordable is Chris Taylor. Hard to really predict what kind of market he'll have. That being said, I don't think there will be much money spent in FA by the Brewers unless some money can be offloaded. Yelich's contract kicks in, and the likes of Burnes/Woody/Hader/Adames will all get big arbitration raises. After 2022 I'd expect more money being spent.

Burnes is the better and younger pitcher. He is also the more difficult one to extend because of that, so the choice eventually might be Woody or neither.

I wonder who has had their name spelled incorrectly more than Houser. Maybe Sexton? Counsel? Rodgers? Huira.

As far as I can tell he's been on an active roster for the whole year so far (Minus a few days between moving teams perhaps?), and since he started the season with 5 years and 33 days of service time, he should be at 6+ at the end of the season and thus a FA.

The only thing I can think of is that they had all views synched up, so that they could see both the tag and the touch together. There was no single, clear shot to justify the overturn. My issue with that is that then they should always do it that way, or never do it that way. I remember a situation earlier this year (I want to say Kolten Wong at 2B?) where it was obvious from piecing together the angles that the call on the field was wrong, but where no angle showed both hand on base and tag at the same time, so the call stood. I'd prefer it if they pieced together the angles and got the right call, but I'd be fine with sticking with the need for one conclusive angle too, as long as they are consistent with it. Now if they had some angle in New York that we didn't have that showed him conclusively safe (Which he was) then fair enough, but we can't know that. Anyway, a 3-1 series win on the road against the best record in the league is an excellent outcome. Lauer with another strong outing, and Devin is allowed to be human occasionally. Almost 2½ months since his last ER given up. Plus, I'd rather see the Giants win the NLW than the Dodgers so I'm cool with "only" a 10 game lead for now.

The COVID IL has special rules. He had symptoms but not a positive test; if it turns out he's negative he can come off the IL, AFAIK. It's there so that players/teams report symptoms, without risking being gone 10 days if it turns out to be negative. The post you're replying to is talking about vaccine side effects. Yelich tested positive, so it was a mandated 10-day (+ negative test) stint.

If he opts out it ends up being 1 yr $13m. If he opts in, it ends up being 2 year $24m (The mutual option for 2023 would make it 3 years $28m, but it's an option designed to be declined). It's opting into $17.5m or taking a $6.5m buyout, so it's $11m he needs to beat to come out ahead. He's 100% opting in.

He's a guy who doesn't chase, doesn't swing and miss, has a good 2-strike approach and has easy power. It's not so much about exactly the player he is now, but about the player he could be if he turns that patient approach from what's more like passive right now into what could better be described as selective. So I think the case for keeping him around would be what happens if he can manage to do that. Now at some point you have to give up on that if it doesn't happen, and perhaps they'll do that now. But they also might want to try to give themselves more time to make that decision, especially with the DH likely to come next year.

I'd say that after a rough start (Which is to be expected), Hiura was fine at 1B. His issue was always throwing, and not doing much of that at 1st. Obviously he didn't hit anywhere near enough to stick at first either way though. Let's hope he can get sorted out in AAA.

Might not be realistic, but I'd love to play the Mariners. Both due to the Pilots connection but also because that poor set of fans deserves some success...

Cool to see Joey stay hot after the promotion. He was in that 26-30 range for me when I was putting together my list, but those videos of his wonky swing mechanics from around draft time were still giving me some pause. After checking out some more recent clips it looks like he may have simplified things somewhat, which along with the results is certainly encouraging. Clancy, saw you had Martinez at #1 on your list vs Wiemer down at #38 and was curious what was driving that gap in your rankings? Carolina batting lines are similar with 276/391/478 (137 wRC+) for Wiemer vs 271/373/507 (137 wRC+) for Martinez, but Joey walks more (14.1% vs 10.7%) & strikes out less (21.6% vs 27.5%) than Ernesto. SB/CS are also pretty close at 22/4 for Wiemer vs 27/2 for Martinez. Joey also appears to have much more defensive value with a 70/80 grade arm & 413 innings in RF / 174 innings in CF at Carolina vs 406 innings at 1B / 26 innings in CF for Ernesto. If Clancy truly followed a stat-only approach to prospect evaluation, ignoring position, defense, age, level, any and all scouting, pitch data, swing mechanics and so forth, I would still think it a bad approach but I could respect it, and would be interesting to see how it panned out comparatively. But as you point out here, we all know that's not what it is. Someone is a "Clancy guy" and their stats will get much more favorably treated than someone with identical (or better) stats who isn't one of them. It's about throwing out outrageous picks hoping to hit on one (And be the only one to do it), and get to talk about Brent Suter for years. While most of those picks turn out to be Cam Roegner and Ronnie Gideon. Though Ernesto Martinez is a bit of an unusual Clancy pick. In some ways it fits; Old (Or at least not young) for his level, low end of the defensive spectrum, generally unhyped. But at the same time not a 15+ round pick or $10k international signee, and he has a bad BB/K ratio.

He's much better than what he showed in that first start. And even then, his struggles set up one of the most memorable Brewers games ever; 15 unanswered runs to come back form a 7-0 first inning deficit.

Je'von Ward needed just 5 innings to hit for the cycle. Felix Valerio didn't hit for the cycle, but put up what I suspect is a fairly unusual line as well; 4 doubles, one against each of the 4 pitchers who pitched for Kannapolis.

I suspect some of it is the owners very well knowing the benefits of proper food/housing. But if everyone is ignoring it, then noone loses out by not having it. If one team provides it, and it confers a competitive advantage, then other teams will need to follow suit. And in the end it's an even playing field again, only the owners are taking in slightly less profits. So there's not much incentive to do it from an owner point of view. And these are the people who lobbied congress hard to get an exemption so they could pay minor leaguers below minimum wage, they're not going to lift a finger to improve conditions in the minors. The owners know exactly how bad things are, and they're totally fine with it.

Yes, but needs to have shown it over a season or two at least to tell it's for real. Like how Hiura's .402 BABIP in 2019 was never going to be real. Yelich is a career .353, Ichiro .338 (And higher than that in his early years) etc. Hitting the ball hard (Hard hit %, average EV, barrel % etc), not shiftable (i.e oppo/up the middle hitter), low flyball %, good runner, hustle, all things that factor into it. 1500 PA is enough to suggest that he is someone who will run a higher BABIP than league average, but perhaps it could still be somewhat lower (or higher..) than it is.

yes he did No, he was on the IL/isolated due to a close contact having COVID. Urias was the one who actually had (asymptomatic) COVID.

If he fulfills the potential the Brewers think he has, then there's always a path to the majors. Or the Brewers create one for him. Add a position besides 2B/SS to his repertoire (CF or 3B probably makes the most sense) to give him the ability to take a utility spot. Or add one to another player. If he looks truly great then you can trade one of the starters for a haul. But really, the simple truth is that you need more than 8 starters, if he's good enough then there is a roster spot for him in 2022 even if Adames and Wong keep playing as well as they have. There will always be injuries, need for rest days and so on. Having too many good players is never a real problem, especially not someone who can be optioned if need be. With everyone controllable through at least 2023, I quite like the potential of Urias, Adames, Wong and Turang to man 2B/SS/3B. Urias can play all 3 (Though should mainly be 3B/2B), Turang 2B/SS. Add 3B to Turang or Adames and you have a strong group to mix and match with, while giving everyone plenty of playing time. Simply having a second true SS on the roster is big, and I always feel it's a bit risky whenever the Brewers don't have that, usually due to the demands on a 4-man bench. Again, all this is if he shows himself MLB-ready sooner rather than later. He might never. Or it might take a bit longer, he's only 21 still after all. But I don't really understand so much of the skepticism around here. He's been aggressively promoted, very young for his level at every step of the way. Even when he "struggled" at A+ he was still almost 4 years young for the level. And that was still an 88 wRC+, with great plate discipline (16% walk rate) but an unusually low BABIP for such a fast spray hitter. And this is for a guy who is an elite defender and great baserunner. Being a league average hitter at that age, with that skillset and contributing greatly while not at the plate is why he's rightly one of our top prospects. Grisham was another one who was only average to slightly above average at the plate in the minors, was always very young for his level and got pushed fast. And so many on here saw him as a bust before his 2019 breakout. Which isn't to say Turang takes the same path, there are also Orlando Arcias out there. I just feel he's a guy you hold on to and see what you get.

Turang was a league average hitter (98 wRC+) in a league he is 3-4 years younger than the average player in. And that's as an elite defensive shortstop too. I think that that the situations with no real SS in AAA and one ready to move up from A+ played into it some and he might've stayed the year in AA otherwise. At the same time though, if the guy can hold his own in AA, then why not let him keep developing against fringe major leaguers in AAA as soon as possible? You learn by facing better pitching, just a matter of making sure they're not so much better that they dominate and crush your confidence etc, and being a league average hitter in AA means you can handle it.