Jopal78

Jonathon Schoop says hi. Schoop didn’t cost them good long term pieces though

There’s a reason the Padres were okay dealing a lefty starter with years of team control.

I’d rather still have Grisham and Davies. First awful trade of Stearns tenure

I don't think that's a fair statement at all, because you and I both know that the hotel experience is different for a professional sports team than it is for you or me or the general public. Also, it still doesn't really address the 'your employer told you not to do it' part of the activity. If your employer told you right now that they didn't want you to golf during the pandemic, and that there would be significant ramifications if they find out that you did, would you still do it? That's sort of a straw man argument. Baseball contracts all have a clause concerning "conduct detrimental to the team". So they have agreed to act in a certain way in additional to playing baseball in exchange for the salary the team plays them. The majority of workers in America are at will employees, where their employer has no such ability to control their conduct outside the scope of their employment. Moreover, look no further than employers who make drug testing a condition to employment. They still have employees who do such things even though they are aware there will be consequences of a positive test.

For all the games that are not ultimately made up, they could make those all forfeits by the team who had the positive tests, but that would seem really punitive.

I suppose they could alter the rules again, and say the 8 teams with the most total wins from each league make the playoffs. But that would really penalize a team that played less than 60 games through no fault of their own. I would bet, most likely St. Louis will be DQ'd from qualifying for the playoffs this year. It would suck for their fans, but its the only really equitable solution. It won't matter to the players, they get paid regardless. Likewise, the team gets the broadcast revenue regardless, and there are no fans, so no detriment on paid attendance.

That extreme launch angle is an open invitation to high fastballs. He’s struck out in almost half his at bats. That’s simply not sustainable as an everyday player. It doesn’t matter how much power he has, he’s Chris Carter at this early point in his career

With his poor defense and poor plate discipline Hiura may not be able to live up to all the hype.

It's too early to judge Stearns' amateur scouting personnel. Look no further than Doug Melvin's last couple of drafts and they look way better now than they did when he got canned. Now that the dust has settled on Melvin's tenure he pulled legitimate major leagues from outside of the first round in multiple drafts. While missing on the top pick hurts his drafts, finding multiple players with a chance to be a quality major league players from outside of the first round probably qualifies most of these draft classes as a success. 2012: Mitch Haniger-1s (38th overall), Suter-31st (965 overall) 2013: Devin Williams-2nd (54th overall), Taylor Williams-4th (122 overall) Garrett Cooper--6th (182 overall) 2014: Woodruff-11th (326 overall), Jordan Yamamoto-12th (356 overall)--and given a $330,000 bonus too, Monte Harrison-2nd (50th overall), Cy Sneed--3rd (85th overall) 2015: Grisham was a 1st but Cody Ponce-2nd (55th overall) is now in the majors with Pittsburgh after some nice seasons in the upper minors. The farm system sits where it does because of the moves the Brewers made to get Yelich, Villar, Moustakas, Swarzak, Neil Walker, Schoop, Gio Gonzalez, Soria, Lyles, Xavier Cedeno, and Pomeranz. Look at the number of players the Brewers traded to get those veterans who are in the big leagues or have seen time in the big leagues: L. Brinson, M. Harrison, Yamamoto, Isan Diaz, Brett Phillips, Jorge Lopez, Cy Sneed, Eric Hanhold, Luis Ortiz, Cody Ponce, and Mauricio Dubon. Maybe none will end up being stars, but the point is they all made the major leagues and certainly would have been within the top 100 organizational prospects. And this is not to mention the prospects they traded away who rank with their new organization's systems: KJ Harrison (34th Nationals), Johan Dominguez ( White Sox) Bottom line it's too early for Stearns' drafts, the system is rated shabbily now because the system Melvin left them with was heavy on depth but light on blue chippers, has been traded away for veteran players who have pushed the major league club to three straight winning seasons and back to back play off appearances (and with a better than not chance to make it four straight winning seasons and 3 straight playoff appearances).

As for Braun, if what he says is true about his close relationship with the owner, I'm sure he will be back next year to DH on a new one year deal. The real question is if they pick up his 15 million dollar option. On the surface one would probably say there is no way they would do that. However, Braun has a 4 million dollar buyout on that option. It is going to cost the Brewers 4 million dollars to move one from Ryan Braun, which in essence reduces that option to 11 million dollars. That's just about the going rate for good DH's around MLB: Edwin Encarnacion 1yr/12m, Nelson Cruz 1yr/12m, Khris Davis 16.5m/AAV amongst others. Talent costs money.

Living in Chicago and watching the White Sox broadcast last night, Steve Stone actually mentioned, that the Brewers starting pitchers are all relatively unknown but the trifecta of Burnes, Woodruff and Houser were all impressive with extraordinary stuff. Pretty high praise from a broadcast crew that practices extreme homerism.

The Brewers have scored 31 runs in 9 games for a 3.4 average. By comparison the '19 Detroit Tigers scored the fewest runs in the major leagues 582, which averages out to 3.59. The Brewers have way more talent offensively than the 2019 Tigers. Even without Cain and their collection of veterans on short term deals, they still can run out a lineup daily packed with above average MLB hitters. They just need to take an opposing pitcher apart one of these days and the bats will get going.

I wouldn't call them "journeyman scrubs". Smoak has been an all-star and over 11 years in the majors has averaged 25 homeruns and a .742 OPS, since missing all of 2016 with a knee injury Sogard has a .743 OPS. I kind of like Avisail Garcia, he's played in nearly 800 big league games and isn't 30 yet and is one of the few players producing. Gyorko was a better than average hitter for the Cardinals for years (20 HR/YR, 111 OPS+) but then was hurt and sucked in 2019. However, excluding Garcia, if these players didn't have warts (inconsistency, coming off injuries, age), they wouldn't have taken one year deals with club options from the Brewers in the first place. The GM has made it clear he prefers players who have defensive versatility, almost all of his acquisitions are above average runners, and he puts together a collection of both right handed and left handed hitters. Regardless if they play 60 games or 162 games I don't think he is going to stray from acquiring the type of players he prefers. Sogard, Holt, Gyorko, Mathias, HP, Saladino, Brad Miller, and Nick Franklin, they're all basically the same player and Stearns has a couple of them on his roster every year.

I don't begrudge Cain for opting out, it is probably a very hard decision to leave 6 million dollars on the table. However, does this mean he's hanging up the spikes as a pro-player? It's not like covid-19 is just going to disappear by February 2021 when he's due to report to Spring Training. Even if there is an effective vaccine rushed to the market in the next 6 months, there's no guarantee that the virus is suddenly eradicated. If he opted out in August of 2020, unless there is a huge drop in the infection rate, he'd be an idiot to report to camp in 2021.

With individuals who are positive yet asymptomatic, there is no way to prevent transmission of covid-19 other than for everyone to remain in isolation indefinitely. In fact, Baseball has a certain "closeness" codified in their rules: batters box is a certain measurement from the plate, the catcher sets up a certain distance behind the plate, the umpire has to be in a specific spot to see the pitches cross the plate. Other than a force out or fly out, a player is retired by another player touching them. Moreover, MLB and MLBPA have time and again demonstrated that they are tone deaf concerning public opinion on their operations. Thus, given the millions of dollars at stake for both players and owners, I assume they will continue to play this season until such a time it becomes impossible due to lack of healthy player personnel. When Mike Trout or Gerrit Cole, for example, decides to leave their pro-rated 13 million dollars on the table and opts out of finishing the season, then I'll believe that the players and owners are concerned with something more than the pursuit of money. I'm happy to have it simply for something to break up the monotony of 2020.

The only way the Brewers will ever be perennial contenders is if they start to develop above average starting pitching from within their organization. I think its great they have a collection of young arms that can throw in the upper 90s. The only way to find out if they are capable of being MLB starters is trial by fire. What better scenario for on the job learning than a wacky 60 game season with expanded playoffs.

He’s had one good year, otherwise his ERA has been around 4.50, gives up to many homeruns. Nonetheless in a league where Matt Harvey and Tommy Milone are still floating around it is interesting the Braves believe they have 40 players who are better. Miami could use Foltynewicz

Not to beat a dead horse, but what's wrong with Anderson There is a reason a player with his career metrics is pitching on a cheaper one year deal. Given the short season, expanded rosters and DH, I wouldn't expect many starters to go more than 4-5 innings and certainly not more than twice through the order. There'll be enough innings to go around even for the inexperienced starters.

I don't get the hate on Brett Anderson. Sure, he's hurt all the time, but as the above posts point out the Brewers have actual depth for their starting rotation so even if he is hurt its not fatal, and he's signed to a one year contract with no obligation beyond 2020. When he is able to pitch, the analytics like him with a 3.91 FIP in 997 career innings (Chase Anderson 4.54 FIP in 857 innings, Zach Davies 4.22 FIP in 614 innings) and the Brewers are securing his services for a bargain price of a prorated salary from $5 million dollars. (By comparison, Cole Hamels with a 3.69 career FIP is making a prorated salary from 18 million dollars for the Braves). Also Rich Hill has a 3.93 FIP across 937 career innings and was scheduled to make 3 million dollars in 2020. Anderson is 7 years younger than Hill and is coming of a season where he pitched 176 innings to Hill's 58, so the Brewers contract with Anderson is in-line with other similarly situated pitchers. What's not to like, especially in a 60 game season where he's not going to be holding back other pitchers' development.

I was at that game. (Braun hit a 2 run homer in the first inning and that was it for the score 2-0). In his 2nd AB, Nelson hit the ball past the LFer onto the warning track and made a turn at first, the ball got back in quickly and he had to run full speed back to first and dove in. For what seems like a career ending/derailing injury, it didn't seem like a big deal at the time because he stayed in the game and was thereafter eliminated on a double play. He then went out and pitched the full bottom half of the inning.

Sports fans primarily root for the laundry of their favorite team as players come and go frequently (especially baseball). I don't think anyone is going to equate a 60 game season in the middle of a pandemic as being the same as a 162 game season in years past. This season is primarily as entertainment for people who have been sitting at home for months without several of the usual entertainment options. In that context, who really cares if the players who test positive are "stars" or not?

How much leverage does Garrett Mitchell really have? Sure, he could go back to UCLA for his senior season, but with the COVID-19 there may not be a season and he'd re-enter the draft having potentially not played much in two years. Seems to me like he's trying to ensure he gets every last dollar on the table before signing.

Damn Straight. Take Jon Lester for example an aging vet finishing up what could be his last multi-year contract. He was set to make 20 million dollars this year. His pro rata salary for 60 games will come out to around 7.5 million. COVID-19 will end up costing him 12.5 million dollars and possibly his last big pay day. A guy with a history of lymphoma and he has not said he has any problems with showing up and collecting that 7.5 million.

Another interesting point, once the season is underway will teams just stop testing players. Would certainly be detrimental if 3-4 players on the Astros, for example, tested positive and had to quarantine/sit out as the playoffs were starting .

Healy has a salary of 1 million dollars. With no minor league baseball season this year, if he is healthy I assume he makes the roster. Same thing with Bobby Wahl, he last pitched in a MLB game in August of 2018, I don't think they really want him to go 2+ years without pitching if he is healthy. Not sure what they do with Urias at this point. His hand injury would have had him ticketed for the minors and there are more than enough players for the middle infield, but like Wahl do they really want a young position player to go an entire season without playing. Then the players on minor league deals like: Justin Grimm, Logan Morrison, and Shelby Miller. Those players will probably ask for their release if not on the team. Maybe not a big deal with 60 games, but in a 162 game season I figured all three would have seen time with Milwaukee.