Jopal78

So you've got 2-Caratini 3-Tellez 4-Urias 5- Free agent 6-Adames 7-Yelich 8- Rookie 9-Renfroe DH- Hiura How does that make the team better, unless they sign a proven all-star third basemen (which none project to even be free agents in 2023 and its even less likely the Brewers would sign a 20+ million dollar per year free agent anyways)? You're probably right that they will decline the option on Wong, and the other players on expiring contracts will walk as fee agents, but this is a 2nd rate lineup. I would sure hope they would mix it up more in actually trying to make their offense better. Moreover, if the Brewers trade Woodruff or Burnes it means they're not intending to compete in the immediate future which would in turn render Renfroe, Caratini (not to mention Matt Bush and Trevor Gott) surplusage and they should probably be jettisoned to in that type of scenario as well.

But the Rays originally drafted Rasmussen in the first round, which tells me teams thought Rasmussen had significant starting pitcher potential. Moreover, Rasmussen almost exclusively was a starter in the minors for Milwaukee and rocketed through their minor leagues in essentially one season which would be uncommon for someone who projects as a reliever in the majors. Anyways, I'm sure that Tampa will end up getting more from Rasmussen and Feyereisen over the course of their remaining team control than the Brewers will from Adames. However, the Brewers transformed their shortstop position from one of weakness to a strength and still have quality starting pitching depth, so they probably would make that trade again in a heartbeat.

Well, there’s now a huge red flag on David Stearns resume. Was in first place most of the year, trades his all-star closer for ostensibly prospects and likely misses the post season as a result, burning a year more of service time of two fantastic starting pitchers in n the process.

It's gotten off to a rocky start, but the idea of having Milner, Gott, Boxberger, Bush, Rogers, Rosenthal, and Williams in theory is a good one. It puts a lot of pressure on teams to get their runs early because the Brewers starters don't have to go through a line up a third time, and with the exception of Milner, Milwaukee can keep bringing in pitchers who throw hard. Also, there is less reliance on the likes of Suter, Gustave, Trevor Kelley, etc. The fans probably would have appreciated them getting a hitter, but shouldn't be surprised. There are several comments from the GM that the team is built as a "run prevention unit". He also had previously said that offensive improvement will most likely have to come from within.

With an OPS of .851 across three levels so far, if Frelick can continue his level of production through the end of the minor league season it seems logical he would get the call to be on the Brewers in September

I don't know what to tell you, there's stats out there to say anything I guess. Look I get it, there's people that love Hiura, love the long ball and feel it's a sin that he's not in there every night. It might be old school to the sabremetricians, but there's not a single team in MLB that would roster a player who strikes out 40% of the time for very long especially when the player is a liability in the field too. That's all it is with Hiura: lack of defense and too many strikeouts = bench/AAA. No mis-use of Hiura, no edict from the owner to start the wealthiest players, I'm sure he's never said anything rude about the GM's wife, or done anything else where they're out to sabotage his career. Its simply lack of defense and too many strike outs.

1. Would be interesting to see what a arbitration hearing is like. If I was representing Hiura, I would argue that he's already got 1000 PAs in the major leagues since being drafted in June of '17, and the most homeruns of anyone drafted since. 2. I don't buy that argument all, its nonsense. Mayyyybe in April it had some merit; however, this is a team that is trying to win as many games as possible. They're going to play the collection of players they believe gives them the best chance to win regardless of the weight of the contracts. To wit, they've already eaten a ton of money this year in guaranteed salary to Lorenzo Cain, Dinelson Lamet, Jake McGee, etc. Most importantly, if you take a look at McCutchen's numbers, he got off to a terrible start, but since June 1st he's been terrific with a .280 average, .365 OBP, .478 SLG%. In other words, since June 1st there has been NO reason to play Hiura in front of McCutchen. Also its probably not a coincidence that when McCutchen started to hit in early June also coincided with the time period around which Hiura was again demoted to add a pitcher. 3. I don't know if having "hit all his life" means very much. All major league hitters, raked in high school and/or college and the minor leagues otherwise they wouldn't have made it in the first place. Really, its Hiura's lack of defensive ability and the strikeouts that are holding him back neither of which he's showed any ability to improve upon. To be sure, after nearly 1000 PAs in the major leagues, Hiura has had his "chance" to prove himself. In a way, Keston is fortunate he's with an uber patient organization like the Brewers as I'm sure there are teams who already would have cut bait.

Yeah, they sure bungled their roster in the immediate aftermath of the trade. In less than a week they went from having no room on the major league roster for Lamet to calling up Gascan Alexander.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but based on a quick glance at last year's list, hitters with as much experience as Hiura in their first year of arbitration did much better than 1 million or even 1.25 million. If Hiura does get tendered and goes through arbitration I would guess he will be closer to 2 million than 1 million. As for calling his "mis-use" nonsense, its certainly not to degrade other posters. Nobody honestly believes the Brewers are unaware of Hiura's splits, hit charts, etc. In fact, they have access to more player information than anyone on these boards. Therefore, there must be an intentional reason for playing him when they do and against whom. Like it or not, MLB teams simply do not roster players that strike out much more than 35% of the time. Hiura striking out at a 43% clip is the main reason he's the 24th, 25th or 26th man on the Brewers roster. Can he get that number down to 35% and still hit 30 homeruns, who knows (In my opinion its looking unlikely given the 1000 PAs he's had in the majors)? I do know with near certainty if he continues to strike out 40% of the time or more, his remaining career in the major leagues will be brief.

Hiura isn't going to be the DH for the Brewers in 2023 at a 1 million dollar salary. The league minimum next year is $720,000 and Hiura is arbitration eligible for the first time. He'd do better for himself going to the hearing than agreeing to that number and setting himself on such a low earnings trajectory. I have no problem playing Hiura against RHP, he's been hot. I don't buy any nonsense that he's been used incorrectly, they have given him plenty of chances and he hasn't been able to fix his strike out issues. That being said, he may as well be in there against every RHP while 30% of his hits are going over the fence. If nothing else, it would be fun seeing if he will get to 30 homeruns before he has 100 hits on the season, and if he can stay under the 200 strikeouts in the process.

We’ll see where he finishes. He’s likely to get 10 million dollars or more in arbitration next year and is a low average, low OBP slugger. Joc Pederson, for example, is playing on a 6 million dollar contract. Like in real estate Renfroe is sort of over priced next to comparable players. After all it is his relatively high price that partially accounts for why he’s in Milwaukee to begin with

Agreed, Renfroe is a one and done and will most likely be non-tendered in the off-season as they try to get away from the all or nothing hitters they e collected

Sure, but it’s for one year, and the GM may have the hottest seat in baseball having been there nearly ten years and being a disappointment/terrible for his entire tenure but one year. I believe San Diego is a revenue sharing recipient, and they’re beyond the luxury tax, they have a Marlins feel to them. If they win a title this year, they’ll break up the team next year. If they get bounced in the wild card round, Preller probably finally gets canned and the new GM reshuffles the deck.

He probably gets a shot in September. For now, he doesn’t play 3B and he wouldn’t play in place of Adames or Wong very often so there’s no path to consistent playing time on the infield. Judging by how often Jonathan Davis starts in CF, Turang likely would not play in front of Tyrone Taylor very often either. So, really he’s best served playing in AAA until their season ends as opposed to coming to Milwaukee three weeks early and being a pinch runner, defensive swap and starting maybe a couple nights a week.

Talent costs money, and there’s no way around it. Otherwise, a team simply has to turn over their entire major league roster every 4-5 seasons. Even the mighty Rays have given out contracts that seemed like a good idea but they came to regret like Evan Longoria, and they’re probably squirming a little about the 170+ million they guaranteed to Wander Franco.

Right, and how many articles have there been that Yelich has chronic pain in the patella, loss of range of motion, arthritis….. none. Everyone is different, but if his knee somehow wasn’t 100% with the player information given to the media in todays world it’d be a well known fact.

Could be anything or nothing. He wouldn’t be the first guy to nose dive after turning 30. He wouldn’t be the first player to sandwich two awesome years around some average years. I just don’t buy into a quasi-conspiracy where he’s hiding a chronic knee injury or he suffered some devastating knee injury from which he never recovered instead of merely suffering a non-surgical fracture.

Right on! A knee cap is no different than any other broken bone. If it’s fractured into pieces, or the fragments are displaced they do surgery and put in wires, screws and pins to put the bone back together and keep it together in place. Based on all available reporting, Yelich didn’t have that type of fracture , nor was there damage to the tendons that attach to the patella nor any dislocation (both of which require surgery). Does his patella bother him today, who knows? Odds are it doesn’t given the severity of the initial injury and the fact the team doctor’s have not taken him to surgery for a knee issue.

The old adage is if your bullpen sucks you suck, the brewer bullpen sucks.

These situations aren’t unilaterally dictated by the Brewers either. For all you or I know, Yelich could have told the team “it’s now or never” with an extension. Moreover. season ending injury was a broken bone that wasn’t severe enough to require surgery;, not an ACL injury, hamstring tear etc. Like I said, there would be folks wanting to burn Stearns in effigy regardless of the situation if they didn’t sign Yelich to an extension and he went out and destroyed like he did in ‘18 and ‘19

That’s the funny thing about prospects. Obviously the prospect pundits weren’t as impressed with Gasser, but the Brewers GM stated they had hoped to draft Gasser in the first place and believed he was one of the best pitching prospects in the minor leagues. Maybe the Brewers could have had MacKenzie Gore instead, and went with Gasser due to liking Gasser more, the current composition of their major league roster, health concerns etc. We’ll never know, but given the GM’s own comments I wouldn’t write the players off as second rate. Only time can tell that.

I hate these types of posts. Fans grumble because they signed (at the time) an MVP caliber hitter to an extension. There’s likely another equally vocal group of fans who would grumble had they not signed Yelich to an extension and his ‘18-‘19 level of play continued on for another club. In a sense, damned if they do, damned if they don’t. As for Yelich, he would not be alone amongst his brothers in the MLBPA having a couple terrific seasons and never reaching those heights again, especially as he ages into his 30s. He’s still a good player and isn’t far off from his production level with the Marlins when he was in his early 20s. Which is what the Brewers traded for in the first place.

For a team that can’t score when they don’t homer, Reyes wouldn’t help the Brewers; he’s a clone of Hiura with a 37% strike out rate.

There may be some truth to that, but also don’t forget AJ Preller is under a great deal of pressure to deliver a playoff heavy weight. He’s been there the better part of a decade and other than 2020 his teams have sucked. It’s equally likely that Preller is desperate to have a team that can go toe to toe with the Dodgers, so he made some risky moves because he has nothing to lose (If the Padres can’t advance in the playoffs this year he likely gets canned anyways) .

Well, that’s goofy. It’s a ridiculous notion to suggest a GM’s contract status would somehow impacts his effort in doing his job.