Jopal78
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Everything posted by Jopal78
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You're absolutely correct, the cost of going to a game gets more expensive every year and there are people who attended the games more often in the past but have backed off over price. Unfortunately its simply not that many people to really matter. The fact is, other than for covid restrictions, the Brewers haven't averaged less than 28, 000 fans per game in the last 18 years regardless of the quality of team on the field. If patrons have stopped attending games due to cost in the last 18 years, there have been an equal amount of other/new fans who have stepped up and gone to more games. I don't think that will change, and attracting new fans is probably half the point of an entertainment district at the stadium in the first place. -
Maybe, but I don't think so. The cost of going to a professional baseball, football, basketball or hockey game has gotten really expensive in the last 20+ years with no sign of fans staying away because of cost, especially if the product on the field is successful (I haven't paid attention to the increases in Brewer tickets over the years, however my wife's tickets to the Packers were $51 in 1998, those same seats are now priced at $123). Like any billion dollar corporation I'm sure the powers that be (like any other sports team) have reams of market research on how to increase and diversify their revenue streams and already know there will not be a "fan revolt" before those ideas are even floated publicly. Take a walk around Wrigley Field some time, they've build a huge revenue machine that sucks up gobs of money before fans even enter the stadium. The people who used to carry in hot-dogs from the 7-11, and go on the rooftops for cheap were all told to take a hike, and the cash machine kept on rolling.
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That's the point, people pay $20 to park their car then sit around it for two hours before the game grilling and drinking beer they brought with them. In today's world of pro sports that is an un-tapped potential revenue stream. Eventually, in one way or another, they will make the people buy the food and beer from them.
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Sure, but it was part of the culture at Lambeau and they now have less than half the parking they had in the 2000s, and nobody really cares. The powers that be can erect their entertainment district in the preferred lots and make the auxiliary lot the tailgating lot and charge more for it than they do now and nobody will really care.
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Therein lies the rub. Eliminate tail-gaiting. Lambeau Field has very little surface parking lot remaining and people adapt to not tailgating. To let thousands of people drink alcohol and eat in your parking lot for free is simply against the business model of today’s professional sports teams.
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Outside of possibly three or four players every other player has been a disappointment so far offensively: Urias, Wong, Yelich, Taylor, Cain, Hiura, etc. Clearly there are no hitters in the minor leagues coming to the rescue this year; and the trade deadline is far away; thus the only solution is for the aforementioned players currently on the roster to hit better. Maybe those players are incapable of finding another gear offensively and they simply built a flawed roster where excellent pitching performances are wasted on a nightly basis.
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From a Talent/Prestige perspective they do not. But results-wise; yes they do. In fact heading into last nights game their staff had allowed fewer runs on the season than Milwaukee.
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They're not going to trade Lorenzo Cain. He either gets the bat going in the next few weeks or he'll be DFA'd before we reach the trade deadline. Major league teams simply don't give at bats to sub .500 OPS players no matter how much of a game changer they are defensively, and even coming off the bench they're likely going to need his roster spot sooner than later. Every team in the league would take Hiura, the question is at what cost? Nobody is going to trade anything of real value for a flawed player where it's anyone's guess if in two years he's a middle of the order slugger or out of pro-baseball all together.
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I forgot about Narvaez, good call. But really, my point is they could use better offense across the board almost regardless of position. To be sure, a group of hitters all with an OPS around .740 may keep them in the race if the pitching staff holds up; but with that caliber of hitters they are not going to win many games against teams with equally good pitching (Dodgers, Padres, Mets, Cardinals, Yankees, Rays, Blue Jays, etc.).
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It’s easier than that. The Brewers have too many regulars with a sub .750 OPS. Adames, Renfroe and maybe Tellez are the only ones who have been fine offensively, and I’m giving Tellez a demerit because a .780 OPS at 1B is basically average for the position.
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I don't know if Turang is a better prospect than Donovan or Yepez, nobody could say that. Those two in St. Louis have already had some success in the major leagues. Turang has a .696 OPS in AAA in nearly 400 at bats there. At 22 years old and with that offensive production, there isn't a reason to bring him to the major leagues. Let alone as a savior for an offensively challenged team. Same thing for David Dahl, he hasn't been a productive major league hitter in years, and isn't necessarily tearing the cover off the ball at AAA. Further, I'm not so sure they would pass over Abraham Almonte and Jonathan Davis to bring up either Turang or Dahl. They probably are getting closer to making a decision on Lorenzo Cain, an MLB team cannot simply give regular at bats to a player with a sub .500 OPS. Then again, he's making a lot of money for them to pay him to sit at home, so I think they'll continue to be patient and hope he shows them something in the next couple of weeks. The Cardinals are where they are at because they have some red hot hitters (Goldschmidt is batting nearly .500 with runners in scoring position), but clearly they are a better club than they were given credit for at the beginning of the year and appear more balanced overall than the extreme pitching Brewers.
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Does anyone think fondly of the 90s "MB" logo?
Jopal78 replied to Brock Beauchamp's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
When they made the switch to these from the ball/glove I was happy. The pinstripes and color scheme were tired. I didn't like the alternate jersey with the interlocking MB on the front, nor the fact that the first and last letter of both Brewers and Milwaukee was larger than the others. However, when these were tweaked in 1997 for the stand alone M on the hat, those were my favorite (albeit short lived '97-'00) uniforms the Brewers have had. -
Tough ten days or so for the Brewers. The Cardinals actually have a better run differential than the Brewers (+54 vs. +26) right now. They have also scored more runs than Milwaukee (269 vs. 247), and their pitching staff has given up fewer runs (215 vs. 221). In the next 10 days the Cardinals have 7 games against the Reds and Pirates (and 3 against Tampa). The Brewers should get healthy but are going to get Aaron Nola (3.90 era and 32Ks in 25 1/3 innings in last 5 games vs. Milwaukee) in one game with the Phillies; then hopefully they'll get their mojo working against the Nationals, before finishing up their next ten games with 3 against the Mets. At least as of June 6th, it looks like the Brewers will be in a knock-down drag out fight for the division title.
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Excellent day for him. Limo down to Milwaukee, official major league uniform, major league clubhouse buffet, and $5,000 in his pocket for watching the game from the dugout.
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Who would you have them play instead? Let’s not have any nonsense about Hiura and his splits; because no manager in the league is/was going to pencil in a guy striking out 50% of the time. As for the contract, take a look around the league. Good veteran hitters get 10 million a year or more. For less, you get the McCutchens, Joe Pedersons, and Eddie Rosario’s.
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I'm sorry, but I don't believe anyone as being serious when they suggest the Brewers actually play certain players because of their "name". I can maybe accept playing someone because of their contract, but even there Lorenzo Cain is the Brewers 2nd highest paid player and he was losing time to Tyrone Taylor before Renfroe was injured. However, given the video tape, analytics, etc. that teams use today its preposterous to suggest a contending team like Milwaukee is playing certain players because of their "name". Let's not forget the season has barely passed the 1/4 mark. In such a small amount of games it's hard to draw any conclusions. I can tell you in the week immediately before McCutchen got COVID (dating back to 4/28) he batted .281 with a double, 2 homers and 8 RBI which would give no reason to not play him. Earlier in April, Hiura as the other half of their intended DH platoon was whiffing in 50% of his at bats and was not driving the ball when he did hit it. With a team scuffles at the plate when not hitting homers, it's an easy decision to put a player who can't put the ball in play on the bench (Hiura still has 31 Ks in 64 at bats, to McCutchen's 39 in over 150 ABs). As someone mentioned earlier and pointed out by someone else, McCutchen is on a bargain rate 8.5 million dollar one year contract for a reason. They aren't expecting him to be the guy he was 10 years ago, they're expecting him to be the close to the guy he was last year. As they get healthier, I'm sure Counsell will go back to playing the matchups and going with whomever is swinging a hot bat.
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I guess you can just shake your fist at the idiot manager and be angry. The facts are Counsell has played the matchups and gone with the hot-hands which is what a manager should do. Yeah, he played McCutchen at DH against righties when Hiura was striking out 50% of the time as would just about every manager when confronted with two less than optimal choices. Now he's playing McCutchen every night because there are two regulars on the IL and Wong is day to day with an injury, doesn't have much choice unless he plays both Narvaez and Caratini in the same lineup.
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Why would you say "Counsell loves his veterans"? The Brewers have a banged up roster right now and a short bench as a result. Certainly in the Cubs series Counsell played the match-ups regardless of "veteran status" Last night, Justin Steele, a lefty, started and Counsell played his left handed platoon players-- Brosseau and McCutchen. Later when Steele left the game, he replaced Brosseau with Peterson. Hiura was already in the game at 2nd due to an injury to Wong leaving Narvaez is the only player on the bench. McCutchen had to hit against righties because there was nobody else available, it happens when teams have players with day to day injuries. In game 2 of the double header, McCutchen played the entire game in LF. The Cubs started Drew Smyly another lefty. Hiura was already in the lineup at 1B and Tellez at DH. Counsell gave Yelich the night off, Mathias, Peterson, Wong all played, leaving Narvaez the only available player so McCutchen hit against righties. In Game 1 of the double header, McCutchen was on the bench and came into PH for Jace Peterson when the Cubs went to Daniel Norris--yet another lefty. Due to a short bench again, he stayed in the game and hit against Gsellman, a righty, in the ninth. Against the Cardinals he hit against Wainwright, which was probably due to having a career .865 OPS against him. With Keston Hiura finally showing some life offensively, if Renfroe was healthy the manager would likely play the match ups. Right now, he doesn't have a ton of options with 12 hitters and nine positions to fill nightly.
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Indeed I am aware of the splits, yet everything I said was true. With the Phillies, McCutchen had a .787 OPS and averaged 28 homeruns per 162 games. Let's be honest if anyone thought he was still the 2013 Andrew McCutchen he wouldn't be playing in Milwaukee on a one year bargain-rate contract. If he hit 20 homeruns and had a .780 OPS for the Brewers, they'd probably be happy with the return on their 8.5 million dollar commitment. As for Lorenzo Cain, I'm a believer that players don't suddenly "lose it" over night, but there are exceptions to every rule (If in fact his OPS is still sub .500 come July, I could see him being designated for assignment). That being said, Cain has been about a .700 OPS player with good to great defense for Milwaukee since 2019. Do I think he could still get his OPS up into the 650 range and make it worthwhile playing him regularly to take advantage of that good to great defense? I do, but he's dug himself a pretty big hole, and if/when the team is 100% healthy he likely will lose playing time as Yelich, Taylor and Renfroe are significantly better offensive options.
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Right on! He only averaged 28 homers per 162 games during his time with the Phillies and had a .787 OPS, they should drop him (and Cain) at the 1/4 mark of the season. When he’s healthy, McCutchen is still a decent slugger and likely will turn it around. Same with Cain, if he stays healthy he’ll provide enough offense to make it worthwhile to play him for his defensive prowess.
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Both were trying to not hit the brick wall at a full speed. I can’t blame them… see Gamel, Mat.
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Admittedly it's a small sample, but so far there is a lot to like about Brosseau. Has shown some on base ability, has shown a little power, not bad in the field. Nice acquisition so far.
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Attanasio is a hedge fund guy. Team from the 3 big leagues in America have been the ultimate investment: there are not that many, their business doesn't fail, they don't depreciate, they generate operating revenue etc. He's a fine owner as a venture capitalist. I don't think he puts out the cash call to his minority investors/partners to "add that last missing piece"; and if the team didn't have the talent to compete, I have no doubt he would take it down to the studs and run a payroll of 70 million dollars. However, he has hired decent folks to run the team for him, has not (at least publically) interfered much in the day to day, and with the exception of Ned Yost has been patient and loyal to the people he has hired to run his team.
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That’s the beauty of generalities they can mean anything. “Continued success” could mean competing in the NL for multiple years while they have this group of players intact. No team without drafting close to perfectly and without a 200 million dollar payroll can keep it going year and year out into perpetuity; so yes even for the Rays, Oakland and Milwaukee there is a win now mode.
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The play on the field will most likely dictate how intact they keep their roster of players. In all probability, Stearns will leave after the 2023 season so its almost a certainty they won't make big changes to their roster before then. If they fall off the pace in 2024 they probably will trade players away before losing them for nothing. However, with a franchise known mostly for futility getting its first taste of consistent success in a generation, I doubt they would cry poor, raise the white flag and bust up their pitching unless they are an also-ran. It's far easier to win with a pitching and defense team looking to catch lightning in a bottle offensively, than it is with murderers row and a bunch of pitchers with ERAs of 4.50.
