OnTheBlack

That seemed obvious to me, but I understand them giving Thames a night off. As for which of them is real...I think they both are. I think Thames will level off and be a guy who hits .260-270 with an OBP about 80-100 points above that and an OPS around .840. With Aguilar...I don't know what exactly I expect out of him numbers wise, but just the eye test, I've wrote this a few times on here, I love the guy. He's relatively short to the ball, has really good bat speed, can get on top of the mid 90's fastballs, he uses the whole field, has a good feel for the strike zone. He's not as good defensively as Thames and will probably only get worse, but he does have good hands and takes care of most everything hit near him. I have said he reminds me a bit of Abreu from the CHW. If he can be close what Abreu has been, I'll be thrilled.

Agreed. Sedar's mistakes stand out and while I've never believed much in team chemistry, based on what you hear from him, the players on the team and basically anyone associated with the Brewers, Sedar is close with the players and does a great job of keeping things light...which over 162 games over 180 days is not a small thing. So given how hard it is to really fairly evaluate a 3rd base coach since bad plays stand out for so long--and he had Villar..that in and of itself is gonna make the coaches look bad regarding base running at times--I'll put as much stock in that. It's just too tough to quantify.

Why? The prospects that were part of that trade are looking pretty good and we could have traded Jeffress for something on top of the haul from Cleveland. Why? Because I think we got better players from Texas than we those we would have gotten from Cleveland. They are looking good, or one player from that proposed trade is looking good? Allen another CF'er isn't doing particularly well. Armstrong was a throw in who wasn't in the Indians top 30 and wouldn't have been in ours and doesn't really count as a prospect. He's a dime a dozen reliever. Chang is hitting under 200 with an OBP under .300. Brinson is higher rated prospect than Mejia and Ortiz is a far better prospect than anyone else in that deal and I think Cordell is the 4th best prospect traded. And the Jeffress argument falls flat. This deal was pulled off right before the deadline, so if we hadn't traded him to Texas, we likely wouldn't have traded him until the next off-season and despite the Thornburg robbery, relievers aren't highly sought after at the winter meetings. Seth Everett was talking about this yesterday quoting Phillies executives when he asked "is there every any discussion about relievers at the winter meetings?" The response was a laugh and the executive said "none." Highlighting the scramble for relievers leading up to the trade deadline vs the laid back approach to trading for relievers in the off-season. So the Jeffress we're seeing now most likely would have been the guy we'd have been trying to trade. Not sure how that sweetens the deal. All said, it's kinda a moot point because we tried to trade him to one of the 8 teams on his no trade list from the ridiculously team friendly contract he signed and that team told him that Gomes was slated to be their starting catcher the following year. So that was really a no brainer to turn that trade down at the time. A guy who hadn't gotten paid yet is going to a team that was determined to stick with an inferior catcher the following season without adding any financial benefits. So yeah, I think we made out better with Texas since we weren't going to be able to trade Jeffress to another team before the deadline and the trade Lucroy turned down made absolutely no sense for him. And we ended up with a potential 30/30 CF'er, a 2/3 pitcher and a guy in Cordell who at worst looks like a nice utility player with power and good athletic ability. But more to the point of the thread, I still haven't heard how he was a selfish player(which is kinda silly in and of itself since baseball is a individual game...a series of individual matchup's that culminate in a team score essentially). But I'm unclear what he did that left him so disliked by so many? Those people sure seemed to love him when he was putting up 3.5 to 6.2 WAR seasons for the Brewers for the average salary of the 25th guy on the bench.

Exactly. And he wasn't obnoxious about it. He said that at this stage of his career he wants to play for a World Series..and as one of the top 5 catchers in the game and a guy who was probably the most underpaid player in the league for a few years, I think he gave Milwaukee everything he had. And after saying that, he still said all the right cliche stuff, if it doesn't happen, he's happy to continue playing for the team that gave him a chance, etc..etc... I agree, a lot would have to happen for Lucroy to end up a Brewer again, but it certainly wouldn't upset me if it happened. I'd prefer our younger guys panned out and played well so we didn't need to sign a catcher, but things don't always work out. See Kendall, Jason. He'd be a better option than him(I know, not a ringing endorsement.

The Packers always seem to do a few things with the roster that come straight out of left field, but this looks pretty good. There are a couple things I would disagree with. QB-I don't think Hundley gets traded this year and I don't think they use a roster spot on Callahan again to start the year. Just no reason to. He's a little guy who is slow and doesn't have a good arm. He looked nice in the pre-season, but he's basically a poor man's Seneca Wallace. RB-I'm guessing a injury will determine who gets that last TB spot from the draftees. This is an area where I could see an UDRA sneak his way onto the team. We obviously we going for the quantity over quality this year drafting 3 guys without any physical attributes that jump out at you. I hope we find our Jordan Howard in here though. Montgomery isn't gonna be able to handle 15 carries a game over hopefully 19 games. TE-I haven't really paid attention to anyone beyond the main 3. McCarthy loves having a developmental project, but that would figure to be the practice squad, so I think you're right here also. WR'er-I absolutely agree I could see Cobb cut. The Packers do seem to sing his praises a little bit louder than you'd expect so maybe they can restructure. If not, he's gonna have to have a big year because I don't see the Packers paying 30 million dollars to 3 WR'ers and I don't think they're gonna risk letting Adams walk, so he could be a candidate to be waived after the season also. Hopefully he just bounces back and earns his contract and Ball can figure out the cap later on. I don't think Yancy is a lock. In fact I would think Davis would be ahead of him at this point. McCarthy has talked about how much better he's looked during the off-season program. I am really interested to see what happens with Dupree also. I saw mocks that had him going in the 2nd/3rd round range. Some even had him as a high 2nd before he ran his 40. So...maybe they got lucky there. OL-Looks good. Hope they lock up Linsley before the season. He's right at the same point in his career that Sitton and Lang were when they got their first contracts after their rookie deals. Both went on to become pro-bowlers. C has been a revolving door with I think 5 different starters in the last 6 or 7 years with Wells, EDS, Saturday, Tretter. I think we need to solidify that position. Second smarter guy on the field. DL-Definitely deeper here than we have been in a while. I think Clark is gonna bust out this year and have a big second year. He's transformed his body and he was really coming on strong last year at the end. Plus he was just 20 when he was drafted. Hopefully we can get a 1st rounder in the front 7 who doesn't take 5 years to develop! I think they Packers are just hedging their bets with Guion like they did last year with Pennel. If 4 weeks in they've had a couple injuries and are thin he comes back, if not, they cut him and move on and it's not like they had to pay his first 4 weeks salary anyway. He needs to get help though. It's too bad, both he and Pennel were big physical guys who could really hold up in the run game. But with our depth I think Ringo on the practice squad is fine in case of injury. OLB'er-Time for Elliot to put up or move on. Dude can absolutely destroy guys with his speed and bull rush combo for really short stints. It was two years ago in Seattle that he had a few game changing plays. A pick, I think he had a strip sack...the prior to seal the game, the later to flip the field. And then nothing the rest of the year. He's got the ability, I know he was a small school guy, but it's year 4 now I believe. Hes' either gonna be a player this year or he's gonna be a career backup/ST's ace. MLB'er-I believe they have also indicated they think Biegal can play a little inside as well. Wherever Matthews plays though we have to get more out of him. Our defense just doesn't have enough impact players that we can get by with so few big plays from him. He and Daniels completely change the ton for the defense when they're out there making plays. CB-Goodson can starter the year on PUP I would think. He absolutely wrecked that knee. Heck, he might miss the whole year. And didn't Hawkings also get hurt pretty badly? I liked him a lot as a developmental guy. He was smooth, got his head around. Obviously not real polished. Gotta have Rollins and Randall bounce back. Both were pretty seriously injured last year and both were pretty good as rookies so no reason to think they won't. House is a great fit for Capers D and I think they would have liked to keep him in the first place. He's not Shields, but he's also no slouch. And it's not like he was cut by the Jags because he couldn't hack it. They used a top 5 pick and then signed the top FA available at CB in the last year. I think King is the Day 1 starter and Randall starts at Nickel but hard to say. King is a little behind because of that stupid rule that prohibited him from practicing until Washington was done with their Tri-Mester. Hopefully we have a Marcus Peters on our hands. Washington has been producing some nice DB's lately. S-I think they keep a 5th here. Jones is gonna be playing in the box so much that it just make sense. Brice and Evans are both great athletes, but we also have some intriguing UDFA's here. ST's-I think Janis earns his spot here for one last time at least. Not sure what they do for Long snapper. Can always bring back Goode. Crosby is a stud. Hopefully we can pick someone up who can turn the field around for us though. it sounds like Vogel has the potential to do that. So I have maybe 5 or 6 changes from you out of the whole roster. And chances are we'll both be about 10 picks off by the time all is said and done. This is for certain though, Rodgers is starting to get to the point where the Packers need to start getting more aggressive. You cannot win just one Super Bowl with a QB like Aaron Rodgers. He's just too good. He's a better QB than Tom Brady. Brady is the greatest because his teams have won more, but if they're being honest, nobody takes Brady over Rodgers just based on talent and what each can do on the field alone. Rodgers is better at literally everything BUT having a coach and an organization that will go out there and take chances like signing a Stephen Gilmore to a 60 million dollar deal to solidify their defensive secondary, Or hell, just trading for Eric Rowe like they did last year in week 2 while Thompson sats on his hands. I like TT, but this year if there is a Tony Gonzalez trade or someone like that...a player we were close to getting but Thompson wouldn't give up the 3rd for him, then he needs to make that move. The window isn't closed on Rodgers, but we're wasting years of his prime.

I don't think he'd have a prayer to compete at CB in the NFL. He just lacks the hips to do so. Same reason he struggles to get open. He's a great ST'er. If you were gonna move him to defense safety would be more realistic. But yeah, way too much of a straight line guy to play CB. I don't see a problem with keeping him on the roster at WR'er though. He's such a great special teamer and can make such an impact as a gunner on KO and Punt and is a threat to return a kick or block a kick at any time.

If he's a free agent, anyone can sign him for whatever they want without restrictions. You sure this is the case or does he have UDFA signing restrictions (the same as any 11+ rounder)? The whole story is missing some information as the Rays think they are getting the pick back next year. Yeah, this definitely sounds off. Plus a guy with his pedigree could probably enter next years draft without doing anything and get drafted again as someone takes a fliar on him. But if the guy is a free agent, and I've seen several other articles that state he is in fact a free agent I take it for granted that Stearns is interested. A 1st round talent who was throwing 98 the year he returns from TJ surgery becomes available? I'm just thinking this would have to count against the Brewers draft allotment or something. The suggestion was that the Rays picked him 31st with the intention of signing him to a below slot deal(slot is 2.1 there) though that was never confirmed from what I read.

When exactly did we see this awful, me first, grumpy personality? I think this is ridiculous. He was honest last year. Braun almost certainly wanted the same thing, he's just more polished about it. But Lucroy signed a absurdly team friendly deal, wanted to extend...the Brewers didn't want to. Fine, he didn't make a big deal about it. When the subject came up about the Brewers going into a massive rebuilding project, he simply said what almost any player of his caliber and at his stage would say. He also said all the right things about if he didn't get traded and he always played hard. When exactly was he anything but the consummate professional? And frankly we should thank him for vetoing the trade to the Indians. And finally, lets not act like anyone else thought the Brewers were gonna be withing 10 games of a playoff spot in July in the next few years when Luc made those statements. It looked like it was gonna be a long ugly Astros like rebuild. I think he just has a serious disposition and he doesn't play the game with the flair that guys like Gomez and Arcia do. The guy put in some work in Milwaukee. Not sure what he did to garner such animosity.

This seems really excessive given that the guy signed a 5 year 11 million dollar deal as a 3rd round pick IIRC from La Tech and ended up not only being the best catcher in Brewers history, but was also responsible for bringing back our top current prospect, and 3 other very good prospects. I'd love to see Lucroy back in Milwaukee at some point in the future. Maybe as a veteran in 2-3 years when we're contending. I don't know, a lot of things can happen. Trading for him however and giving up talent right now is not among them. And I didn't catch who said it, but not only is Lucroy NOT gonna be given up for cheap, but Texans fans would destroy the front office if they turned around and gave him back to us for the type of proposal initially suggested. Two things could substantially improve the Brewers chances of truly competing this year. A TOR starting pitcher...for which we'd have to give up WAAY too much and I'm not even sure one is available(though I would be interested in Quintana) and another elite bull pen arm...things that teams are going to be climbing over each other to get..including another surprising success story, the team that resides in teh Bronx. One that can scrap a "rebuilding" project and move forward more hastily given that they can spend a G20's GDP on their payroll in a given year. So to recap, love Luc, wouldn't mind seeing him making a future stop in Milwaukee if circumstances made that feasible for both sides but don't think Texas would trade him back to us without wanting to recoup some of their losses and given our current situation, he's really not much of an upgrade even if he does bounce back the second half of the year.

Personally I think Sonny Gray still has ACE potential. I think the A's will get quite the haul for him. I'm not sure if I agree with the first part of that statement, but I agree with the second. He's gonna be one of the most highly sought after pitchers on the market. He's actually pitching better this year than last year. K's up, walks down..his ERA is a little higher than it probably should be. I just don't want to give up anyone right now. I love the way this team is playing. I'm generally not a fan of Bill Micheals, but I liked the way he put it today on the radio, "they're too dumb to realize they're not supposed to win." Not he was kidding and "dumb" meant "young," but I think he's right. They're just playing loose and having fun. But we've had far better teams and been further ahead and still coughed up divisions to a team 90 minutes south of Miller Park than these current teams and I still believe eventually the Cubs are gonna figure it out and eventually the Brewers are gonna probably lose 10 out of 12 or something like that and not win. And if they do...well, Sonny Gray's not gonna make a difference vs the Dodgers with Kershaw and Wood or the Nats with Scherzer/Gio and Strausburg..who might actually like up in that order. I don't think the suggested trade is unfair, I think it's reasonable, I just don't see the point. I'd rather they not give up a talent like Ray..or for that matter Bickford who we haven't even seen yet and would be selling much lower on then when we bought him for a pitcher who does seem like a ticking time bomb in terms of potential for injury and a team that...again, as much as I love them, just probably isn't ready to really compete. This would be a Bucks Correy Maggette/Monta Ellis/Stephen Jackson type move.

You make it sound like we'd be lucky to just dump Thames for...well...like you said, whatever we can get. There's no real reason to think Cooper is going to do anything and Thames has a OPS of .900 and is signed to an extremely team friendly deal. You want a #2 hitter, Thames is your guy. Even during his struggles he gets on base. And yeah, June was a real bad month for him, but his .169 BABIP sure didn't help much. I'd be all for trading Thames, but only if it brought back enough in return..and I really doubt it's going to given his up and down return to the states.

Pretty much a spitting image of Jason Rogers. Maybe you could get a similar deal. Aguilar is a much better hitter than Rogers. Mechanically, approach wise, performance, etc across the board he's better. No idea what the market is for someone like Aguilar but he can be a contributor whereas Rogers most likely never will be. I totally agree. His numbers should be taken with a grain of salt at this point, but just from watching him...he has such a easy, smooth swing and can get on top of fastballs in the mid 90's fairly easily and without looking I would guess his exit velocity would be pretty high. I don't think there is as much reason for concern with Thames as others. I think pitchers have just adjusted and while he has had some problems with strike outs, he keeps getting his walks and hitting for power. As for Aguilar coming in as a defensive replacement, I haven't noticed that. I think it's been more of a double switch where he just stays in at 1st, but I think Thames is easily the better defensive 1st basemen. Aguilar has good hands, but can't really move. At the end of the day though he reminds me a bit of Abreu from the CWS. But given his age and service time there really isn't much need to make any decisions right now. I don't think you're getting fair value for either him or Thames given Thames recent dip. As far as Cooper....I don't think there would be any interest in him unless it was just a trade of two veteran minor leaguers or something like that. I doubt he brings anything of value back.

I passed over your thread at first because of the reason you had for wanting to acquire Vogt. Jeff Bandy may be bad at framing, but I am pretty sure Vogt sucks at it to. Not to mention seems like a pretty minor thing for someone who doesn't start. When you posted this I didn't realize how much Bandy was sucking with the bat. Would have been on the Vogt train if I knew how bad Bandy was doing. It hasn't looked like it. Of course after watching Bandy...who was so bad at it was almost painful at times this year, maybe that's just the bar I've been using. I knew how good we had it with Lucroy, I just didn't realize how much it would stand out moving from him to catchers like Bandy. Anyway, I wouldn't have been too excited about this move before it was made myself. The fact that he'd been pretty solid did make me wonder if he might be someone we look at, but again Stearns looks like he's made a great pickup with sound logic behind it. Miller Park, very good to left handers, Oakland where he was coming from is terrible to them. Plus all that space for foul balls and his low babip? So Stearns jumps on another guy most people would pass on and he's already made a significant difference.

Defense isnt that good? What kind of weed are you smoking, ACC defensive player of the year brah Ahh you are one of those guys that likes silly awards, right? He only had two errors, but his range isn't anything to write home about. From what I have read his arm is questionable still after surgery. He can play SS, but without the range he won't be that good over there. When I say "not that good" I am not saying it sucks. Just saying it isn't good for a guy who doesn't have much of a bat. His defense isn't good enough to carry his bat. If the guy doesn't walk, has zero power, and has below average speed he depends entirely on average. He sounds like a huge long shot to be a utility player and we drafted him in the 6th round. I don't really care because I fully expect that he was drafted to sign underslot. Try to be a little more mature next time though. Ok, so winning the award for being the best defensive player in the ACC means nothing and is "silly" but you can definitively say he's not that good defensively based on? Some general scouting reports?

So you'd give up Phillips for a reliever on this current team? Not sure Phillips is ever a significant contributor to the Milwaukee Brewers big league team...but if we're going to trade him, I think I'd rather see it as part of a bigger deal in which we're getting a good starting pitcher. I don't think the BP is a concern for the Brewers. I think they have enough guys in the system who can pitch and a good enough big league pen as is.

It's a bit of optimistic that a guy in AA..or even AAA could come in right away and reach his potential and out-pitch Guerra--under this assumption he pitches the rest of the year healthy and like he has been-- next season. But certainly he'd be a better bet in years 2-6 you mentioned. All the more reason it'd be great for the Brewers and I can't imagine another team doing it.

To me this just sounds like a "back in the good old days" type of a story. I think organizations have gotten smarter, I don't think players have gotten more selfish. Gorman Thomas wasn't changing his 2 strike approach much. And strikeouts did have a bigger stigma....but now people realize it just doesn't matter that much. An out is an out. If there's nobody on base, I'd rather have guys taking a healthy cut up there than just sticking the bat out and hitting a dribbler to 2nd. What's more, there is situational hitting. David Ortiz used to try to bunt the ball every once in a while down the 3rd base line. But the shift takes away a players strength. You couldn't do it with someone like Yount or Molitor because they were great hitters and not particularly pull happy(Especially Molitor). But it would have likely cost Ted Simmons, Gorman and Oglive some hits. I would venture to guess that if you had say...Eddie Matthews in the booth in 1982 talking about the difference between the way the game is played now vs then, he'd have said very similar things. Strikeouts had an even bigger stigma and he probably would have thought that the 82 team was more interested in individual stats vs his '57 team oriented Braves.

Not to sidetrack the conversation, but have you ever lived anywhere in which the manager WASN'T the main problem when things were going bad for a team? So far the only place for me is Chicago....and there have been complaints this year(not many, but some). Every fan base at some point thinks it's all on their manager. The worst I can recall was LaRussa the year the Cards won the WS(I think they won) after winning the division with 82 wins....maybe 83.

Well since I don't believe that the Brewers are going to be able to truly contend for a WS next--I'm thinking even '18 may be a bit soon to be a true WS contender--I would absolutely leap on any opportunity we had to get a potential TOR type pitcher who's matured all the way to AA or AAA. We've had tremendous success picking up castaways and given them an opportunity that they needed...Broxton is a guy that comes to mind. I think that guy has such a high ceiling that he might actually be the long term CF'er here. I like Aquilar a lot. Obviously Santana looks really solid. But setting that all aside, we haven't gotten to the point where our prospects are having an impact. I don't know how much more we're gonna get out of the guys we have on the field now. Shaw, Thames, the Catcher position....Arcia and Villar can both improve quite a bit. But the point is I don't think we're going to be a real 95 Win, legitimate WS contending team without some of our blue chip prospects coming up and playing really well and we haven't even started with the exception of Arcia. So yeah, give me the prospect who has the potential to be a #1 or #2 for a guy who if all goes according to this plan will have pitched roughly what...50 starts and is already 33 years old. I think it's pretty optimistic if we're hoping to get back a TOR prospect and another top 20 prospect. But it's all a matter of opinion. I think this is a 70 win team playing outstanding baseball right now, playing the right way and with a manager pushing the right buttons. So I wouldn't be too worried about hurting our rotation for next year in favor of upgrading in 2-3 years down the line.

No he won't. Thames is just fine. Even during Thames slump...that is just arbitrarily going from May 10th when he was hitting .333, he's STILL posting an OBP of .327 despite hitting .132. Point, even during this small sample size in which you are suggesting the league has adjusted to him to the point where he may be the worst contract on the team at 4 million dollars, he's still getting on base and drawing walks. Thames is fine. A guy starts out hot and unless their name is Trout, the league adjusts to them(in this case that means not throwing him strikes) and then said player adjusts. Thames was a great signing by any metric to this point. All of this and he's been battling injuries and he's got a BABIP of roughly .200 during that time period. With guys like Moreland, Smoak and others signing for more money this past off-season, the Thames signing, even in the midst of a slump was a stroke of genius.

I don't blame the Brewers for either of the pitchers they picked in that draft...they were projected to go where they went. It wasn't like either was a reach. In fact both were top 10 prospects. But I'd go with Fernandez as well. As for him not playing for anyone other than the Marlins, it's one thing to say he won't play for any other franchise...it's another to turn down millions of dollars. Even being a Cuban who grew up in South Miami. I believe Josh Bell was even more adamant in his decision to go to college(not just refuse to play for anyone but one team, he refused to sign with ANYONE), yet look how that turned out.

This is an old thread, but what do you guys make of Aguilar? Not his WAR or his slash line....just how he looks? To me he LOOKS like he could be a really nice future 1st basemen....he has a good eye, a really nice easy swing, easy power. He's not a GG'er at 1st, but he's also definitely not going to embarrass himself. I really think he could develop into a .285/.370/.480 type guy who hits ~30 HR's a year. I'm not saying we move Thames who can't become a FA until...what is it...2022? I'm not totally clear if we'll still maintain a year of team control after his deal expires given his service time, I'm just asking what people think of Aguilar and if they think he could become a competent 1st division starting 1st basemen.

Because no patience. The hate for Arcia because he looks like a rookie while still in his rookie year. Cant have that at 22. Its .950 OPS or move on. Oh but wait, is that right? With Villar and Santana its the lacking of GG defense. Brinson, Perez, Dubon are all going to be these requirements. AS or bust! Yes, Brinson will come up and be like Mike Trout with zero struggles and Dubon is the next Jeter. The ones that are in the minor leagues always look like hall of famers until they get here and go through (gasp!) rookie struggles. Oh the horror! I still throw up just a little bit in my mouth everytime I hear that name...only to realize he very well may have been a Brewer if Sabathia would have been rated ahead of Texiera....

LOL....riiiiight. If you were to have one of the 30 jobs in baseball that you've dreamed of, you're gonna tell your billionaire BOSS...and the owner of the team to "shut the hell up and back the hell off." There's also this assumption that(by SOME) that Attanasio and even Melvin are/were idiots and would do anything. When did Melvin ever make this type of move? Trading away a player as young and talented as Arcia early on in the rebuild for two players who will be free agents? I think they see the talent overflowing from Arcia...just a matter of him developing plate discipline...which I think he'll do and I think he ends up being a .290/.345/.455 type hitter with a great glove. I think the worst case scenario is the Brewers don't do anything at the deadline. Best is they deal Anderson and Garza both net anything of value. They're not good enough to win anything and so I don't think that Attanasio is as impatient as you think. You don't grow the empire he does by doing things on a whim. By not looking at the big picture. He knows what this team is. And unless Woodruff comes up and goes all Eldred circa '92, there's no hope this team could compete with the big boys YET in the playoffs. I think that's understood by the FO.

The more I look at this, the more curious this acquisition becomes because we have to use this by June 15. First thing, most of the major international players have already signed. As someone noted, are there really that many quality prospects still available during this signing period? Perhaps there are - I just don't know the rules of who becomes eligible and when. I do know that some guys become available at odd times - specifically the Cuban players who have had to take up residency in another country. It just takes time for them to get their residency, and then MLB to recognize them. Luis Robert is probably the most talented of these players. He's hoping to be cleared by June 15 by MLB to sign - thus he won't be subject to the new international spending limits. However, he'll get a ton of money if he's declared a FA prior to June 15. Thus, it's likely that a team like San Diego - which has already committed $70-80M during the past year to international players - will just bite the bullet, give him $10M or $15M or whatever - and take the penalty. The extra $885,300 isn't going to land us a guy like Robert. Again, are there other quality players that just haven't signed? And if there are, is the $885,300 really going to get them? Again, let's say there is an international player or two the we really like. Why isn't a team like the Padres (or whoever) just outbid us? I mean, they've blown through $80M - why not $85M at this point? So I'm not sure what the $885,300 does for us. Maybe it just allows us to add a bunch of lower ranked guys - but again, who are these players? If they were that good, why haven't they already signed? My only guess is that some players just emerge over the course of the past year, and we can use the money to try and get a few of them. I'm assuming we have a plan of some kind - so it will be interesting to see what we do. It would have been nice if this had been for the next signing period - but such is life. It's ridiculous enough to say this about the MLB draft after the top 10(sometimes not even in that case) much less when you're scouting 16 year old Latin American kids. There have been quite a few guys who've singed for pennies(figuratively) who've gone on to be studs while many of those bonus babies don't make it out of A ball. Kinda hard to say there's nobody good left. Maybe not as highly touted....maybe the Brewers would rather sign 10 guys and hope they can get an Arcia and a Peralta than a Lara.