OnTheBlack

Really? That's a "serious question?" I'm guessing I'd have spelled his name right if I was related to him. I think you've also gone to this well a few too many times now. First it was because I undervalued what he may get before the ridiculous contracts started being handed out(Beverly, Rubio and Rondo were all talked about being MLE type guys...yet even Rubio got 3/51). I'm also hardly the only one who's mentioned him on here. Did I say anything about him you actually disagree with? Do you think the Clippers felt better about trading the guy who was likely going to start at PG over him and a potential young all star in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander if they didn't have him to turn to? Is he NOT pretty much the ideal PG on a team that has superstar wings who dominate the ball as he's a player who's a 40 pct 3 point shooter and an elite defensive player? Also, this is a thread about the Clippers making moves. So...seems kinda on message to mention the players they already have around George and Kawhi. Thanks for the "serious question" though.

CoolhandLuke, I'll happily listen to you argue with me! In fact, I want you to. Please tell me why the Clippers aren't as good as I'm fearing and why this team isn't as good as I'm thinking they'll be?

And I was worried about Kawhi going to LAL and playing with what have been AD and aging LeBron and virtually zero depth. Instead, arguably the two best wing defenders join up with a young and deep Clippers team that also has defensive stalwart Patrick Beverly manning the point. The cost; Paul George for First round picks 2022/2024/2026 picks all unprotected, their unprotected 2021 and protected 2023 first-round picks via Miami. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari. So they pay a whole lot to get Paul George, but it was really a trade for Kawhi and George. The best player in the league right now(IMO) in Kawhi and a top 10 player, probably higher than that, but firmly in the top 10. They have a ridiculous defense as well now. Starting should be Beverly at the PG, one of the top defensive PG's in the league, if not the best and an extremely versatile one. Thee best defensive wing I've seen play in 20+ years of watching basketball in Kawhi and another All NBA defender in 6'9 Paul George. Oh, and they can score as well. Starting lineup should be PG-Beverly SG-??? They do have perennial 6th man of the year winner Lou Williams at the 2. SF-Kawhi PF-George-Not that it really matters...position-less basketball and whatnot. We've seen what Kawhi can do with a guy like Giannis and Paul George again, while not being nearly as good of a defender as Kawhi is still one of the best. C- Zubac, the guy the Lakers gave away to the Clippers at the deadline last year. And they'll add some guys. Probably whoever they want that's left on the FA market. They'll be a problem for years to come. And yet again, Jerry West is instrumental in helping to put the pieces in place to build a dynasty. He did it with the Lakers and their reign, he did it in Golden State, he's one of the best shooting guards in NBA history. Is there a more successful person in NBA history than the logo? How he continues to pull things like this off...it's just beyond me. He didn't wait like the Lakers did, even after they believed they wouldn't be able to sign two max players, they went out and locked up Beverly when Sacremento asked for more. Probably a big part of the reason they were willing to part with budding star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, they're extremely talented 6'6 PG because they had a lock down defender and a guy who's a 40 pct 3 point shooter in Beverly, and a guy who got in Durants head while defending him and can defend just about any PG's. The Bucks are not the favorites IMO to go to represent the East in the Finals. The problem is they're looking at running into an a potential buzzsaw in the Clipps and one that matches up just way too perfectly with the Bucks. Our best three players(best regular season players anyway) Giannis, Middleton and Bledsoe will be defended by Kawhi, George and Beverly. They also have a coach in Doc Rivers and an organization that traded their best player away in a playoff season because they knew they weren't going to retain him and still managed to push the Warriors to 6. They probably have 2 of the top 7 players, 1 of the top 3-4 coaches, a good bench, and one of the best front offices in the NBA, and the richest owner who's not going to scoff at going as far into the luxury tax as he needs to in the upcoming years. I know this is way premature to talk about a Bucks-Clippers finals, but before this move, I couldn't see a team that was clearly a full step ahead of the Bucks. If Kawhi went back to Toronto, that was a coin flip. The Sixers have a lot of bigs, but they have nothing at guard. LAL and Brooklyn are both a year away with LeBron and AD not having any depth around them and really just 2.5 players(LeBron, AD and Kuzma). This also seems like a pretty astute move by Sam Presti of the Thunder. They had two superstars, it wasn't working, so they decided to move on from their plan and go all in on a true young stud(but also a PG) and a really good stretch 4. You'd have to assume they'd be 100 pct willing to ship out Westbrook and probably not even look for that much. They're rebuilding now and Westbrook is starting a supermax contract that will pay him 38 and is one year into a 5 year 207 million dollar deal that will have him earning nearly 50 million in the final year of that deal that will take him through age 33. Though the final year is a player option. I like Westbrook, I like his mentality, his aggressiveness, but this isn't meant to suggest the Bucks should try to make a play for him. I guess I could see a scenario in which he plays with Giannis, a scenario in which he's willing to defer more and not dominate the ball so much, but he's not a great 3 point shooter, he's a guy who relies on athleticism and as such is a guy who very well could see his production drop off significantly in the next couple years. The Bucks have a lot to prove. They'll need Giannis to come back and have taken another step forward, they need the young guys in Wilson, Brown, DDV to all click and really perform well. Of course there are 82 games to be played from now until then as well as a tough Western Conference, but it's pretty safe to say this is one of those NBA altering moves only LeBron has been able to pull off in recent years. But...AGAIN, Giannis still hasn't hit his prime. This dude is actually still improving. Who knows what he ends up being!

I think it's academic at this point. He likely knows when he's coming in well in advance. It's not like they're telling him to hurry up and get warmed up. When they know he's going to pitch, he probably knows well in advance at what point he's going to be coming into the game. So his routine is the same as when he's starting. I wouldn't draw any conclusion based on starting or piggy-backing with another pitcher. It's pretty much the same.

Heck no. I figured he was a looong shot and would likely walk about 3 guys an inning and spend a couple years at the rookie level given his profile. High upside project-able arm, but wild. Those guys seldom end up hitting and it's even more rare that they come out of the gates dominating. Really just an all around great night for the Brewers farm system. Shaw 3-4 with 2 HR's. HE'S FIXED! Ok, probably not just yet, but man, if he can get his confidence back, get his approach back and come back up and contribute, even if he just platoons the rest of the year, that's an enormous boost. Also in AAA, Dubon hit his 14th HR of the year. Not bad for a utility IF'er without much pop in the bat. Grisham YET AGAIN hitting a HR. Seems like a daily occurrence now. I know he's actually cooled off a bit in AAA, but still, this guy really seems like he's figured something out. I'd like to see him called up right now with Braun going to the DL and Grisham getting some starts for Cain. Basically use him and Gamel to give Cain and Braun 10 days off before and after the ASB. 2 for 5 Down in AA; Rassmussen with another dominant performance. 3 IP, just the lone hit, 4 K's. Ponce finished that one off with a clean inning and a K. Seems like he's gotta be in line for a promotion to AAA. He also seems to continue to fly under the radar. He's got a 1.74 ERA, good K/9. His stuff has always looked like it could make him a really nice high leverage reliever. Carolina-Not much to note. Lutz went 2-3 with a HR in a 2B, then an O-fer. Wisconsin-Almost got no-hit and Turang has struggled a bit. Of course he's still at .280/.380 after closer to .300/.400 most of the year. Rookie Ball, Ray went 1-3. And as mentioned above, Antoine Kelly has been dominant thus far. It'd be really nice if Kelly could develop at the same time a couple of our Latin American signings are maturing and Turang is coming up. More evidence that this is a extremely underrated farm system with a lot of upside left in it. Rassmussen has a huge ceiling, Turang reminds me of Trea Turner, Grisham is playing like a man possessed, Corey Ray at least looks like he's healthy from the box scores and on the topic of guys who have had awful starts, Shaw's finally starting to get going. Not exactly the Padres farm hands, but still...not quite as bad as has been suggested.

Plesac just babbles on and on and on. He doesn't know when to shut up.. Rock gives good insight to the small parts of the game that may be missed by the casual fan who hasn't played the game. MA loves Schroeder. Agree with Plesac, but I imagine he'd get better if he built a rapport with whoever he'd be replacing that he doesn't have now. But I thought he was awful in the games he called. I didn't like BA when he started either. That said, we've lost the last two guys we've had once they got a shot with the Brewers and BA might be the most successful of the three and has chosen to stay instead of bolt.

Agreed. I'm genuinely curious why people are so harsh about BA. I get some people who really dislike him. But like this thread, I disagree with you on both BA and Rock. Rock's obviously not David Stearns or part of the analytics department, but he's really better than MOST of the former players who are in the booth. I know you were using hyperbole with the with the OPS, but he actually does talk about how the game has changed in that respect and even has talked about "there's a reason why OPS is on the scoreboard" now. The going the other way thing...I don't know, I think that's one of the biggest problems with this team. When they're going good, Aggie, Arcia, Braun in particular are all really good taking the ball to the opposite field. And 2 of the 3 have real power that way(even Arcia has some). So maybe he talks about it too much, but...realistically, anyone who's calling 155 games or so a year, they're going to repeat themselves, they're all going to have certain things that they say over and over again. But I realize if you don't like him, it really doesn't matter. It's not always a logical thing, just a personal preference. I mean..it's not really a procedural thing or Uecker wouldn't have worked in baseball for years. I've listened to games he's called and gone 3 innings without getting an update on the score. I still love listening to him. I do think that we've got one of the best duo's in the game after listening to most of the other guys and while BA does other stuff, he's not gonna leave the Brewers or else he already would have. He's already doing plenty of big time jobs as it is. I'm sure he could do more National games if he wanted to. Damn you Trwi. This is like when someone pointed out the canned laughter on a TV shows years ago...I think it was King of Queens. Loved the show until it was mentioned, then I couldn't stand listening to it. Hopefully BA rarely says the word "amateur" and I won't have to listen to it too often.

I know you've never liked Schroeder. I get it, disagree, but it's a matter of opinion, but how can you not like BA? I think it's hilarious when he and Schroeder are working together and BA starts giving him crap. I like them both personally. BA's actually pretty good about using the analytics and not just solely reverting back to the "Joe Morgan" type analysis. The type of ex player who ignores everything that made him great, ignores everything we've learned about the game that they got wrong when he played(again, even though HE got it right and was pretty much the ideal 2nd basemen for the modern era..or any era of the game). I think BA's funny, I like his calls. Is there something you don't like about BA or just as simple as you not liking his style?

Wow...this is a comically absurd post. First paragraph, stop asking really stupid rhetorical questions. Why not give us some answers? As for taking a team that lost 102 games and arbitrarily picking a stretch in which they had a similar run as this current team, that may be the single dumbest "justification" I've ever seen! Just comically ridiculous. 3rd, "just because I see the Brewers for who they are," really challenges the rest of this post, but could actually be the most obnoxious. This is like someone announcing to people that "I'm just a realist." As if all the rest of the people giving THEIR measured opinions openly call themselves pessimists or optimists. You see the Brewers as YOU see them, not "for who they are." When they're struggling, the most whinny fans will latch on and complain about everything and seemingly revel in the joy they get from doing it. I guess that's normal for a team that's so far out of the playoffs going into the ASB.....right? I mean, if they're garbage, they HAVE to be like last years O's and 60 games back by now? Oh...that's right, they were still atop the division heading into the 4th of July. These questions are stupid? And asking me to solve them isn't? If I could answer them I'd be part of the MLB front office. The problem is that I don't think the Brewers management has the answer for them. Even worse, I don't know if there is an answer for them. The off-season decisions, along with unfortunate injuries, mind-boggling player regressions, and questionable approaches at the plate have this team with a lot of holes and room for improvement. The point of these questions was that the things I was asking were things that the Brewers keep doing to lose games/series. They keep finding different ways to lose. A 30 game stretch isn't that small of a sample, it's nearly 20% of the season. if this years team can't play better than the worst team in franchise history, than that's a problem, especially considering this was supposed to be the "easy" stretch of the season. Now, 14-16 by itself doesn't seem too bad, but in the games that they are losing they aren't playing good fundamental baseball. That's where the frustration comes in. You play poorly and make stupid mistakes, I'll call your play during that time garbage, no matter what your record is. How do you see the Brewers? Do you think they are more than a mediocre team? Why? What do they do consistently that makes you think that? I struggle to find reasons why someone would think so. I take no joy when watching the Brewers struggle. I am a die-hard fan of this team and had high expectations after last season. They aren't meeting my expectations. A team can still have a decent record and still play like garbage. A lot of people look at their record or standings and see that they still are in it for this season. While that is true, the team's level of play over the last few weeks has been poor, and they could be in a lot better position than where they are at. So you can be happy with where they're at, and that's great. I'm not happy with it, and I'll continue to express my frustration with them until they meet my expectations. Yes. Nope. If you're going to assert that we're so much worse than the average at about a dozen things, but doing so by asking the question, I don't think it's stupid to ask you to compare how we are vs pitchers making their debut's vs other teams for instance. Hmmm...doubt it. You'd still be a reactionary fan comparing this team to the 2002 100 loss team because at one point in the season they had the same or a similar record as that 100 loss team and then using that to justify why this team is so terrible. Nope, but again, you just going back and looking for a team that went 14-16 over 30 games and then randomly trying to compare the two isn't about sample size, it's about ridiculous cherry picking. Please list the bevy of poor off-season decisions this team made or why this front office isn't up to the challenge? Please show me where I said I'm "happy" with where they're at? Just because I'm not ranting and finding random obscure stretches with teams that played nearly 20 years ago that were similar to this years team doesn't mean I'm "happy." Read; I'll continue to nonsensical anecdotal evidence(struggles vs pitchers making their debut?) and stomp my feet and throw a tantrum until they play like I want them to. Hey, the Cardinals won the World Series in 2006(So more recently than your random 2002 example) while winning 83 games. And what does that have to do with this years Brewers team? No idea, just thought I'd match your ridiculous comp with another.

Makes sense.

This is like saying "name me another better RH reliever on our team than Matt Albers." It says a lot more about the quality of RH bats on our team than it does about Ryan Braun. Yeah, but it also says we shouldn't be giving him away or in a rush to just dump him.

Disagree. Houser's a pen arm; he's merely filling in as a rotation arm because he's capable of that. We don't know if Houser is a pen arm or a starter yet. I feel pretty confident saying he's not an ace, [sarcasm]though that'd be 6 we'd have if he were[/sarcasm]. But he DOES have a pretty nice 4 pitch mix(not devastating, but solid). Good velocity. He's got a BABIP against him of .425 in his stats and he's only started 4 games and has started throughout his minor league career. I'd leave him out there for the time being. Otherwise, given the options, just go back to Burnes and hope he figures it out. Without a couple of these guys just turning things around, the Brewers are gonna have to get lucky in order to turn it around. This team can't afford to go out and replace Cain, Aguilar, Shaw, Burnes and others who have performed this far under expectations. Chacin another. I still think Aguilar and Shaw will be good players in the future, but I don't know if they're going to do much this year. Sure doesn't look like it. And we don't have a farm system that is going to net big returns. Turang should be untouchable for any rental. I doubt the Brewers move him unless it's for something really franchise altering. So...mostly I think we just have to hope this team starts playing better and playing together.

You're right about Cain and until he can get healthy, Gamel might be a better option. I don't like Hiura at the leadoff because he Ks too much. Right now he's at 35% K rate. I'd rather see Grandal in an RBI spot so right now CC has little to choose from at the leadoff spot. I really don't care how much your leadoff hitter K's. I think it's least important leading off than just about anywhere else in the lineup. As long as he can get on base at a decent clip, I don't really care about his K's.

Sooo...you're saying it's time to usher in the Trent Grisham era?

Yeah, you're ok spending lots of Attanasio's money. But yeah, that's not gonna happen. The Brewers aren't paying 15-17 million to get rid of Braun, just freeing up 4-5 million sure doesn't guarantee they'll get a better player and the Dodgers and Angels have no need for him. The Dodgers especially, but even the Angels have Kalhoun, Upton and Ohtani manning the corner OF spots and DH. I'm not blaming the OP, but this is just about the worst thread to bring up while the Brewers are struggling.

Or at least no injury concerns that we were aware of........until today It makes sense given how quickly he was taken out despite signaling that he was fine when he slid into the wall.

Yeah, if it makes Giannis happy, then obviously the roster spot and everything else is secondary. It just seems kinda stupid. Who knows if the couple good games Wood had will ever amount to anything, but this is basically just a wasted roster spot. And again, like you said, if it helps Giannis decide to stay next year, small price to pay. I was just hoping for another solid vet who had yet to sign. Guy is 2 years older than giannis, and averages 4 ppg and 2 rpg in the Greek league. Obviously not an NBA player, but I’m fine with it as long as another vet is signed Yeah, I was hoping we'd sign him when he was entering the draft partially in the hopes that he'd be a better player, but also because I hoped it help Giannis stick around. Now it just seems like roster spots are so much more important, but again, they're really irrelevant if you don't have Giannis. So...

Yeah, if it makes Giannis happy, then obviously the roster spot and everything else is secondary. It just seems kinda stupid. Who knows if the couple good games Wood had will ever amount to anything, but this is basically just a wasted roster spot. And again, like you said, if it helps Giannis decide to stay next year, small price to pay. I was just hoping for another solid vet who had yet to sign. I guess I'd sign the whole family if it meant keeping Giannis. I don't even want to think about the Bucks without Giannis. The only excitement would be the draft...again.

I didn't really pick up much of that game other than Zhaire Smith dunking on everyone and then locking down Sterling Brown. He looked like an incredible athlete. Only saw bits and pieces of it though.

Markief signed with the Pistons, obviously Marcus is the preferred of the 2, but not sure the bucks could afford him. If the bucks want to bring in Gasol on a vet minimum, fine, but I wouldn't expect much from a 39 year old coming off of an injury but a vet presence in the locker room who has been there before. (which isn't anything) As you mentioned, Burke is probably the best backup PG out there, hasn't done much in the pros, saw that the lakers are in the mix for him. however, as i previously stated, carter makes the more sense to me over gasol. I mis-spoke when I said they had to release Wood for Gasol. It was Frazier after Brogdon's injury. Anyway, obviously Makieff Morris is the lesser of the two and it's a little disappointing to see him go to the Piston's for so little, but he has more of an opportunity there. We're getting pretty loaded with bigs in Milwaukee. Both Lopez brothers, Wilson, Ersan, all guys worth of minutes. None of these guys should be sitting. So I'm not really a big advocate of Pau Gasol. I think he could still be a marginally effective player for short spurts. And even there mostly offensively. Carter seems to be capable of still playing 20 MPG. And he's a decent shooter. Amazing how long he's been around. I doubt anyone looked at his game coming out and thought, "yeah, he's the guy who's game is going to age the best, he could play 20 years in this league." Really, the only thing I'd like to see the Bucks add now is a big who can defend the perimeter and capably defend the post as well. That's the only "hole" I see on this team. Two deep at PG(particularly regular season). Multiple good options at the 2. 3-4 are your franchise players. And a whole host of other bigs.

Ahh..I thought it basically just a way to allow a team to add salary. So no way you can use it to add a guy like Beal if by chance Washington wanted to just rid themselves of his salary. You'd be limited just to plays who's salaries are close enough to the TPE? So can you tell me why the TPE is around 12 million? How did they arrive at that number?

Smyly's been worse this year. Kinda a race to the bottom, but if Smyly is a good signing because it's a minor league deal and no risk, how would Miller be different?

See the Rangers also cut Shelby Miller loose, I wouldn't mind the same kind of deal for him. I thought Miller was going to be stud. Miller's really baffling. It's not like he went from some flamethrower to a soft tossing finesse pitcher. He's throwing harder than he did in his best year with Atlanta.

Wow...this is a comically absurd post. First paragraph, stop asking really stupid rhetorical questions. Why not give us some answers? As for taking a team that lost 102 games and arbitrarily picking a stretch in which they had a similar run as this current team, that may be the single dumbest "justification" I've ever seen! Just comically ridiculous. 3rd, "just because I see the Brewers for who they are," really challenges the rest of this post, but could actually be the most obnoxious. This is like someone announcing to people that "I'm just a realist." As if all the rest of the people giving THEIR measured opinions openly call themselves pessimists or optimists. You see the Brewers as YOU see them, not "for who they are." When they're struggling, the most whinny fans will latch on and complain about everything and seemingly revel in the joy they get from doing it. I guess that's normal for a team that's so far out of the playoffs going into the ASB.....right? I mean, if they're garbage, they HAVE to be like last years O's and 60 games back by now? Oh...that's right, they were still atop the division heading into the 4th of July.

Ok, I don't know how a team with 4 aces and a 5th coming next year would need a 180 million dollar payroll, but whatever. But yeah, there's no difference. It's always been the same, some really good teams, the next tier, teams that could win if they get hot and so on. The Astro's are hardly a new phenomenon. And it took 5 years of them just completely tanking to get there. Also....this was literally the argument I was making to YOU about a month ago. That just upping their payroll and signing one pitches wasn't going to guarantee Ueck or Selig get to see a World Series or that just spending money doesn't guarantee anything. If anything, spending smart if far more important. If the Red Sox weren't still paying Pablo Sandoval they could have spent some money this past off-season. If the Cubs weren't paying Heyward, Darvish among others, they too could have spent money. The Dodgers spent more than any team in baseball history a few years ago and didn't win the WS.