TJseven7

What does Shaw's AAA have to do with any of my Erceg choice? I mean you see now what I'm holding on hope to. Remember it was his 1st full season go at AAA. Often you see players that make it to the majors break out a 2nd time through. Just think how long Tyrone Taylor has been at. Put up 3 months this year hes knocking at 800OPS door. Make it 4 and 900+ is in reach. That puts him on the radar for callup. It did with Grisham. Just showing how far he has to go.

I believe a DH can only be substituted for by a player NOT in the current lineup. Plus the pitcher would have to bat or a PH used when the pitcher's spot came up. So you can't have Hiura playing 2nd and batting 3rd and say Braun at DH batting 6th. Then sub in Urias for the DH batting 6th and play him at 2nd? Putting Hiura still batting 3rd at DH? You can't do that?

Yeah April and August were nice. May June July were sub 180/270 with an OPS of 630. Shaw put up 286/437 with an ops of 1023 in AAA

This is very true for me as well. I honestly think any title is fine as long as its not the Dodgers Yankees Red Sox or Cubs. (I was ok with the 1st one because no one should lose forever but them flopping after that one has been fantastic) Nats and Astros have been a small victory. Astros not so much in retrospect. Even they are top 10 spenders but at least they aren't top 4. I'm happy to root for a mid market team. I grumble about a few choices and a few passes but I'm not one to expect a 150mil payroll and I'm happy that my team has to beat the odds because if we actually won one it would be incredibly sweet. You look at these 200 mil teams and, personally, I actually laugh at them for losing. You can take MKEs team and add 4 Cole/Rendon level players and you still can't win? It's embarassing for them. They must be run miserably. I think I've been an in the shadows Rays fan for years because I want to see them send NYY and Boston home. The NFL model is the best though. If you hired a great GM and a rising coach any team in that entire league could be a SB contender in 4 years. Even Cincy.

This is the real punishment.

Clancy, you can name off a million kids who've never done anything in the MLB and I frankly don't care. I know that list too. The difference of thought that we have is you seem to think you can just toss these lambs to the wolves and everything'll be just fine from the jump. That doesn't happen very often. Lauer replaces Davies, Lindblom replaces Anderson, Anderson replaces Chacin. Woodruff remains. 2019 we speculated that Burnes Peralta could handle it. Then forced Houser into trying a starting gig. No one you list is any different than the unknowns they were last year. Supak, sucked in AAA. Castillo not even starting anymore in AA. As I said, yadda yadda. Miley, Gio, Lyles, Pom. The veteran options we are looking at beyond the guys who are starting (guys who are replacing other established veterans) are Miller and Grimm. That's very uninspiring. Thank god we signed Phelps. It adds one more guy who has actually been in the majors and has succeeded in the majors. Being optimistic about the farm is fine. You can't trust it. You can't just toss it into the majors as a contending team. That's what rebuilding or bottom out teams do. If MKE wants to contend all of those guys you are listing down the road have to be seen as BONUS opportunity. You can't count on it. They'd loaded up the bonus arms. They need more vets. I'll happily swap Kintzler for Phelps. Seems to be a push. They are still 1 more vet starter option and 1 more high end BP guy from being a contending team. That can't wait until July and the list of guys you keep typing over and over, very few have a rational chance of being anywhere near the majors before July. Be excited about rule 5 guys who weren't picked by other teams because they don't want to put them on the MLB roster. That's fine. Stop acting like they can just jump into the majors and hold their heads above water. Burnes didn't. Peralta couldn't as a starter. Woodruff his 1st go round was merely acceptable. Houser as a starter was also just acceptable. Taylor Williams and Jacob Barnes have put up gaudy farm numbers too and they have flopped on their faces. You can't have multiple spots taken up by guys who have NEVER if you want to be a good team. You load up on the guys you list and you make them force their way to the majors. You don't just chuck them at the wall and hope because you could go through a ton of them very quickly and find out that none of it is ready. They still need to protect for an injury to the starting rotation. They still need to protect that possibility that Knebel won't be a stud again in 2020. Mediavilla is in A ball. He's not helping you there. Devin Williams wasn't good. He's not helping you there. QTC was passed over by the league. He's not just jumping into the majors and becoming a fireman. That's not how it works. You could go back 3 years and find the list of all the farm guys who had our attention and most of them today would be exactly where they were or nowhere at all.

From a strategy stand point this is a shame. Otherwise I don't see the small market complaints. You can make those same complaints about everything in baseball and DS has done very well filling in 1b with scraps. DH will be another quality producer that he finds off the WW like Aguilar or on the FA market like Smoak and Thames. It'll be fine. The dumb teams will see older players and go, well when they age out of their position we can DH them, and they'll watch as the guy falls off a cliff as a hitter as well. They'll fall for that false security, cap their teams on old has-beens and MKE will be just fine. It'll be a great way to hide Hiura's defense without taking him out of the lineup. Swap him from 2B to DH after the 6th at home and after the top of the 7th on the road.

Which is better than his 277/324/731 year as a 22 year old. I'd be delighted if he was just his 22 year old self. That guys is at very least a trade piece. Arby 2/3 is worth 10-12 mil in trade value for those 2 years.

He’s young, showed halfway decent plate discipline in the minors at young ages, and he’s had stretches of success before. Given that he has outperformed Carlos Gomez at this point in his career, it’s not worth giving up on a tools kid at a difficult position. Basically been a 340 obp and 750 ops everywhere but here. He's had 1500 AB with us and he's still 1.5 years from entering his athletic prime. Sometimes I hate how MKE starts clocks on guys early.

Well isn't that great... Broxton it is.

Pitching surprise put me down for Dylan File. I was saying this before Clancy jumped on him. The bats I'm not excited about. There are a lot of interesting names but they are low low minors and/or really young. Due to that, Thomas Dillard at 1b. Contact improves and his 400 OBP keeps carrying him up the ladder level after level. Sept call up. Side note, I do expect Lutz to explode in 2021. He started every new level with a bad April yet moved up anyway. If he gets his adjustment period out of the way in AA this year, 2021's repeat start in AA could be off to the races. I do expect Rasmussen and Taylor to contribute to the MLB club this year. Taylor makes sense in MKE opening day if we are waiting for Urias to get healthy. Also to add on: 2021 looks like a much better year for the farm. Burnes File could make a 6 man competition for the rotation without counting Houser. Rasmussen should be into the pen for good. Lutz is primed to break out in 2021 and Small Ashby could be right behind him.

I've been very frustrated at the look of the pen. This helps some. Guy started off last year in mid June and had a quality season. His 2017 numbers would fit in just fine. Looks like he leaned on his CB more last year and it, nor his Cutter were very good. Hopefully those pitches bounce back this year.

I still really hate the notion of 8mil per WAR. One of these sites should really look into a sliding scale that reflects it more accurately. For example Cain, by that math earned more than half his contract in the 1st year. He has 57.4 mil in the bank. He needs 2.85 WAR over the next 3 years to be worth his contract. Sogard/Gyoko platoon at 1.8 WAR. They cost a combined 7.5 mil. There needs to be something that states WAR beyond 3 = X per. WAR beyond 6 = X per. I'll buy that Betts is worth 56 mil popping off 7 WAR himself. But I still don't like the math of it.

You are 100% right but here's my question. Is the trash heap big enough in the pitching department? I don't think they collected enough "trash" to sort through until they find something of worth. Where we differ is that I think a lot of the "hidden treasure" isn't exactly trash heap - it's developed. San Antonio will have Shelby Miller from the "trash heap" in their rotation. They also will have Corbin Burnes, not long ago considered a top-flight prospect until he was shelled in most of his 2019 outings. But a lot of the others are prospects, like Trey Supak, Zack Brown, and Thomas Jankins. The San Antonio bullpen is going to be centered on legit prospects like Drew Rasmussen, Angel Perdomo, Quintin Torres-Costa, and Clayton Andrews. In Biloxi, the rotation will have Dylan File, Alec Bettinger, Bowden Francis, and Aaron Ashby. That also doesn't include the possibility of Freddy Peralta having at least a slider to go with his fastball - and that could make him a legit rotation piece instead of a dominating bullpen asset. I've said it a lot, but I really think that the "treasure" that is found this year will come more from prospects than the usual "trash heap" that we've seen the last two or three years. I don't question how they handled that side of it. MKE's pitching success has come through the farm and vet reclamation projects. Equal parts of each. In 2019 they leaned on the farm and it flamed until Gio Lyles Pom Suter came in to balance it out. Move forward to 2020 and they still got the farm side covered but much like 2019 we don't have equal parts.

Underselling one area, and I boast about another. If this pen was handled to the level MKE needs, the AAA pen would have been an AAA murderers row. I see the incredible depth there and I don't have issues with Claudio Williams Black (and half of Clancy's list) being the last 3 pen pieces to start the year. It's the middle to depth of SP that's thin. It's 1 top and 1 middle that's lacking in the pen. It's similar to many position groups the NFL. If you have a 1 and a bunch of 4s it won't work. If you have a 2 and a couple 3s it won't work. You add in 1 more piece and all of a sudden the whole group looks dramatically better. This is because it puts guys on the proper rung of the ladder. MKE is missing a few connecting pieces. They need another 4 in the rotation. They need a 1 and a 4 in the pen. Right now you have to dream to perfect to see it work the way you'd want. If they added those connecting pieces and things went perfectly they'd dominate in the pen. If it didn't go perfectly they'd be able to survive it quite well. MKE can't survive anything going wrong in the pitching groups the way they are constructed right now. Lindblom is bad, torpedoed. Anderson gets hurt, light the fuse. Houser can't start, the dominos start to fall. It's really uneasy. It wouldn't take a Cole or something crazy. It needed a few pieces though. Right now, they are exactly where they were heading into 2019 and frankly I don't think it's wise to risk the first 3 months of the season being a hole you need to dig out of. You can always trade guys out to make room for guys who force their way up the ladder. Once FA ends, good luck adding in guys if the pieces you have don't pan out. Jeffress 850K wildcard Kintzler went for 3 mil and is a sub 3.5 guy. Cishek has been that 2.5 guy for years and he went for 7 mil. It's not break the bank stuff. It's fortifying the position to make sure it starts (before surprises and flops) at stable. You're going to take your fair share of punches during the season. They can't afford to get tagged right now. Truly this staff is a Cishek and Kintzler away from being pushed to stable and it really frustrates me that they put all the pieces together with two middling pieces left to go and walked away from the puzzle. Woodruff Anderson Lindblom Lauer Houser (you can go to Peralta Suter Burnes) Hader Cishek Kintzler Peralta Suter With Knebel in our back pocket and the collection of AAA guys. 4 options to start the 5th spot with a built in extra option for the pens top 5. That is needed to step into the void if they have to swap Suter or Peralta into the rotation. Then if everything goes perfect and Knebel is a stud again, Burnes finds himself and wins the 5th starter job, every starter stays healthy, Lindblom is a find and Rasmussen pushes to the MLB after super 2. Woodruff Lindblom Lauer Anderson Burnes Knebel Cishek Hader Peralta Suter Rasmussen Kintzler Is contention worthy. I just want a team prepared for bad things to happen and a team that can blow the roof off if good things happen. They are 2-3 pieces short and if bad things start to happen they won't have an answer and any lull can cost you a year.

I don't disagree. However, does MKE have the pen to protect the starters? Will MKE have anyone left in the pen if a starter or 2 get hurt or flame out. If Anderson goes down and Houser has to go to the pen, you are looking at a pen of Hader Houser and AAA guys. Somebody's got to protect somebody. Hader can't protect everyone. I've been advocating for 2 off season now (2018 made me see a new angle) 1 starter in the 3.5 range (Woodruff) 4 starters in the 3.9 to 4.3 range (Anderson Lauer Lindblom is 3... who is 4) Depth (Burnes?) 2 guys in the pen around 2.5 (Hader and Knebel hopefully) 3 guys in the 3.5 range (Suter Houser Peralta) 3 guys chipping in around 4 to 4.5 (not a concern) Depth (in spades, but it's depth, bumping it to the 3 guys at the bottom fine. Expecting it to be in the top 5, risky) The depth isn't there in the important 10. If you solve the 5th spot with Houser you open up the 3rd spot in the pen. If there is an injury now you open up 2 spots in the pen. Knebel is also wishful thinking. It's just not deep enough. If Burnes, File (etc) Rasmussen and Brown (pen) can get into the mix, then it should be fine but expecting that before 2021 is in a word, unlikely.

Gyorko is an awful defender at short, I have no idea who Rodriguez and Mathias are so it can be safely assumed that Arcia is the starter. Rod is the new Hernan Perez like guy we claimed from DET. Mathias has some solid AAA numbers and we traded a MiLB guy for him. Either way, they are depth at best and cutting Arcia to play either of them would be rather optimistic and short sighted.

Well it's not like you could actually make said offer so why wouldn't he say it's rubbish?

You are 100% right but here's my question. Is the trash heap big enough in the pitching department? I don't think they collected enough "trash" to sort through until they find something of worth. Depends. Wahl and Knebel will both be back. If Ray Black takes a jump...then you have several pickups several of whom had big K/IP numbers in the high minors. But yeah that's a lot of "well if all these guys pitch to their ceiling" type of arguments. I still think they have a few more moves up their sleeve before the season starts. But the big pieces in the past 2 years have been Chacin Miley Jeffress Gio (Gio and Miley came on later in 2018) Gio Lyles Pom Suter (notice how none of these guys were in place to start 2019) Anderson and maybe Shelby Miller are the only guys who fit that type of profile. They've done a great job of putting polish on guys who have hung around the league for a long long time and I don't see the vets part of it in the 2020 model just like we didn't see it in the 2019 model. Remember in 2018-2019 we still had Chase and Davies in that mix as well. Now both are gone. If Lauer replaces Davies, Anderson replaces Anderson, then Lindblom has to pull out a Chacin year for us to be short Jeffress in our system. That's right out of the gate. They have the "option" options covered well. They are lacking the "rebuild a vet options" who have a long track record of being MLB guys. It's so thin on the veteran options that I'd actually be excited to see them land Cashner right now.

Roc Nation. It's cool and all, but it's cooler to get paid. Not surprised Kusnick is being as diplomatic as possible, which for him is softly trashing the deal. He never struck me as a passive wallflower.

You are 100% right but here's my question. Is the trash heap big enough in the pitching department? I don't think they collected enough "trash" to sort through until they find something of worth.

Well Sanchez is hurt worse than originally expected. He'll miss much of 2020. The other two I haven't seen an update about 2020 ETA. Most guys kicking around have had some medical news pop up on them that wasn't optimistic and I wonder what that medical news is on Walker Salazar and McHugh.

I thought you were going in a different direction with this. I thought he and JJ broke up. I thought you were going to say surprised he didn't laugh at this offer because switching agents clearly didn't help his cause.

Again Clancy, that's a lot of "stuff." However, they need Burnes and Rasmussen to pan out quick and in the worst way possible.

The early rush of position player signings had me feeling very confident in the Brewers holding their place in this league. I saw upgraded depth and Hiura Narvaez Garcia carrying much of the loss from 2019 offensively. The pieces they added around that look to be where the depth upgrades. At that time I was not concerned at all. Then it stopped. I had assumed once the position players sorted themselves out that the pitching staff would get a few more additions. Heck, Jeffress just went for 850K to the Cubs and even if his 2019 flamed out in June July and August, having another option who has his track record would help the pen's depth. However, the pitching staff additions seem to have come to a halt and the market dries up further by the day. Between signings and bad medicals coming to light the pitching available is very thin. I feel very comfortable with 2 of the 5 starting pitchers. I'm very comfortable with 5 guys in the pen. I'm hopeful Anderson can be healthy, Lindblom can carry solid innings and either Peralta or Houser can keep the boat afloat. Despite liking 5 guys in the pen I think a CL and SU is missing and that's a lot of missing at the top of the food chain. There are too many question marks and completely unknowns with this pitching staff and I don't see enough options in the system. 2021 it should be much deeper as guys move up the ranks. 2020 feels like we are walking into a mess like we did in 2019. I feel like this team is going to need a Swarzak Lyles and Pom at the deadline if they want to be taken seriously. Pulling those guys out of thin air is not as easy as MKE has made it look over the past years. I'm not concerned about the competition in the Central. I'm not the type who worries about what other teams are doing. If you build your team right then you are doing all you can do and you'll take care of business more often than not. MKE did everything right on offense. People grumble about its lack of flash but the numbers are there on paper. It adds up. MKE did great work when they dealt in Lauer Urias Narvaez. The pitching, like last year, doesn't have the feel of a pitching staff that's meant to contend. Too many of these guys are growing towards their roles with a contending team. That's going to drag the team down. Do I think they are a contender for the playoffs in 2020? Currently, I think they fall a bit short. I think that bit short is going to show up when Peralta/Houser/Suter are forced into the rotation and Hader is pitching with a pen made up of what we hope is cooked spaghetti. We're going to chuck a bunch of it at the wall, and we'll see if it sticks. That's very risky and it's a part of what sunk this team in the early parts of 2019. People talk about how losing DJ hurt the team. In 2018 every nobody MKE called up into the pen worked. In 2019 every single guy on the shuttle came with a can of gas. Had they added one more SP, CL (type who can take the ball late to cover our butts if Knebel can't) and a SU man. MKE would be a playoff team. I'm not even talking high end talent. Simply ho hum non needle moving quality. Cishek at SU as an example. Gausman Gio Lyles Miley Teheran type arm and yes they all got overpaid but had we known the market was going to spike like this we should have kept Chase. Add a Joe Smith or Hector Rodon type. That's 20 mil more spent and solidifies the pitching staff. All short term spending. CL SU Hader Houser Peralta Suter Knebel Claudio/Black would do the trick and the AAA depth shuttle would be stacked a mile high. And yes, I get that the market was hot. I get that the values didn't fall through like I hoped. I get that 3 guys I liked are still out there but appear to be more damaged than anticipated. (Walker McHugh Sanchez) I get that DS sticks to his values and I respect that. However, now we are left short and that's a bad place to be in. DS did great work this off season. He hit a 40 foot putt with 3 breaks and it was perfectly on line. It hitched up 3 feet short. Now we gotta hope the spaghetti is cooked, because if it's not, 2020 likely is.