Jopal78

I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you, that you've changed your position again in less than a day. Real question is, what if he goes "all in" but doesn't extend Hiura 8 years? Does he still have to go? Asking for a friend. Not really, just resigned to the fact he’s not leaving anytime soon. Not really sure why he wouldn’t extend Hiura, unless Hiura doesn’t want to. I don’t know, maybe you can come up with a good reason not to extend a 70+ hit tool player? Here’s one: he re-injures his throwing elbow misses an entire years worth of games and his already poor defense becomes untenable for a National League team. Stearns was excellent at getting the Brewers competitive again in a short period of time. The challenge now is keeping them competitive when the team hasn’t drafted particularly well the last decade, and has played ok baseball so they’re not picking 5th over all annually

The owner inherited Doug Melvin when he bought the team in 2004 and kept Melvin on board until 2015. The owner has been a little more quick with the managerial hook, going through 5 managers since 2008 with only the Marlins and Nationals having gone through more managers over the same timer period. So anyone asking for a change in the front office is going to be disappointed, in the clubhouse Counsell is safe for now, but his seat could start getting warm soon. The payroll will come down in 2020, and the team will likely have to sink or swim with Woodruff, Houser, Burnes, Peralta. Succinctly stated the Brewers are never going to be consistent contenders without being able to develop their own quality starting pitching. With top starting pitchers commanding upwards of 30 million dollars a year over multiple years, the Brewers are never going to sign an elite starting pitcher as a free agent. Therefore, Houser, Burnes and Peralta are going to be given every opportunity to prove they are quality big league starting pitchers.

Does anyone know if BobMcginnfootball.com; is going to be back for the 2020 season?

No? They pay for prior performance and hope that they can get a few years of that performance knowing the back-end of the deal is probably not going to be very good for the team. What? Teams give players 5 year/100 million dollar contracts knowing their not going to get much for their 40 million dollars but “hopeful” the first 60 million turns out alright? It’s all guaranteed money, if that was the case wouldn’t a team just offer 3 yrs/100 and not worry about the back end? I’m sure when contracts are negotiated the Teams’s decision makers understands the aging process and history of similarly situated players and it’s taken into account Your statement on how the process works seems like nothing more than a quick way to the unemployment line.

But isn’t that the nature of professional sports contracts? ie. Teams pay for anticipated production based upon prior performance? Even when teams were signing players to pre arbitration extensions they got burned at times. As for Braun, I have no problem with his 2nd extension. There wasn’t any urgency to add more years to his contract but as previously mentioned he signed it at the start of his MVP season in 2011, and was even better in 2012. Certainly at that point to have such a player signed into perpetuity didn’t seem like a bad idea. Nobody here had an inkling he would get busted for steroids and lose a season’s worth of games in his prime to a suspension and chronic hand injury. Braun has hit over 200 extra base hits including 85 homers since the beginning of 2016 and put up an OPS north of .820 over the same span. Is that worth 20 million dollars a year? In a vacuum, I’m sure anyone can point out a player making 20 million dollars or less they’d rather have. But Braun really isn’t over paid for being a 13 season veteran with his career numbers. Likewise, outside of a vacuum, the Brewers can’t really say he under performed in his 2nd extension, and given how other players flopped on long term contracts like Alex Gordon, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dexter Fowler the Brewers are more likely than not pleased with how the Braun contract has worked out for them. Sure, its easy to look back in hindsight and say, they should’ve split that 20 million up across several different players and maybe they would’ve won more games, but that’s fan fiction. So if the team adds years to Yelich’s contract or signed Hiura to a pre arbitration extension in sure there will be plenty of folks who will have their pikes out calling for heads. There’s no pleasing everybody.

No I get it: in the minds of the fan boys every player should take an extreme team friendly deal, where the Brewers pay way under market. And if a player hits the skids for any period of time they should be instantly jettisoned. If the team struggles they should immediately rebuild by trading whoever they have for the top prospects in the game regardless if that’s realistic or not. The whole point is: Ryan Braun is the best player the Brewers have had in the last 25 years and he’s likely to spend his entire career with the Brewers. His career numbers are great, yet there’s not an insignificant group here that suggests his second contract was a mistake, or an over pay, or that they should have let a franchise icon walk. And keep in mind Braun signed that extension in April of 2011; the beginning of a two year run where he was the best player in the NL. Hindsight is easy

It is the same, Braun has earned every penny of the total sum he’s been paid and if you look around at comparable players like Matt Holliday, Alfonso Soriano, and the like, Braun’s stats are similar and his pay has been comparable. The conclusion you can draw is the team signed an elite player for likely his entire career and paid a fair rate and the player performed largely as expected. Yet on this board people argue it was a bad deal. 100% of the people are never going to be satisfied at one time

Point being what? They committed to pay 140 million dollars for a player who has put up an .893 OPS, 340 homers. Good deal be it technically a lifetime contract or not.

The Brewers signed Braun to essentially a life time contract when he was just starting out. His career OPS of .893 is still higher than Yelich’s even counting his down years. There’s more than a few posters here who have advocated benching, releasing Braun despite having earned every penny he’s been paid. So the point with Hiura is, even if he was the next Braun and signed a life time deal posters would still criticize

It’s just a bad mix of players. They’re all talented in their own right but the sum of the whole is actually lesser than the parts. When they don’t homer they have trouble scoring. When they hit they don’t pitch, when they pitch they don’t hit. Spectacular defensive plays are followed by muffs of the routine defensive plays.

From the "Every Game Matters Department", Friday nights 2-1 loss with 13 runners LOB was a shame. If they pick up that win, they're 1.5 games back in the Division heading into a 3 game series with the Division leader and one game out of the Wild Card

As an initial matter, the Cardinals market is substantially larger than the Brewers. Not only is the St. Louis Metropolitan Area (2.8 million) nearly twice as large as the Milwaukee Metro Area (1.6), if you spend time in Central Illinois (Peoria, Bloomington, etc.) the Cardinals game is what is typically on television down there. Whomever buys the Brewers local broadcast rights are purchasing the potential number of eyes that will see the ads they run during the games nothing more nothing less. Therefore using St. Louis as an expectation of what said contract could be worth is flawed logic. As for 2020, I do think next year will be a step back while the Brewers "re-tool". They have a good number of players who are going to start getting somewhat expensive: Knebel, Shaw, Davies, Guerra, Gamel, Arcia, Suter. Couple that in with the fact that Grandal and Moustakas are likely to depart, and the offense needs to replace their production (what will likely end up being around 170+ Runs, 60+ Homeruns and 160+ RBIs). Even at the current level of payroll their is not going to be a whole lot of room. I think its entirely possible they spend a year allowing Houser, Burnes, Peralta to pitch out of the rotation in an attempt to develop them into quality MLB starting pitchers. Likewise, with Braun's contract ending after 2020 I can see them playing Grisham all over the outfield for a year to make sure his skill set is for real, then when substantial payroll is cleared after 2020 they can add some pieces and make a run at 2021.

Well, he's having a better season and he may have adjusted his ask now being two years older. There's also the fact that it's a particularly weak FA class. There are a couple nice DH's and then Rendon, Donaldson. I'm sure there are a couple other solid FA's, but overall, it's one of the worst years in a while. Much stronger FA pitching class. And exactly what front line starter is going to take a below market deal to pitch for Milwaukee? Because the Brewers are never shelling out the money for a top starting pitcher. And frankly, they likely will cut payroll after the season and spend 2020 retooling. This year’s squad has to be a let down in the eyes of the front office; and how do you go about replacing the likely 160+ runs scored 60+ homeruns and 160+ RBI when Moustakas and Grandal leave

The Cubs have 21 home games left, where they play .683 baseball. Playing at that percentage they’ll win 14 of those 21. They have 19 road games left where they’ve played .371 baseball, at that place they’d win 7 of those 19. Adding 21 wins would put the Cubs at 85-77. Can the Brewers go 23-17 over their remaining 40 games (9 games left against St.L and 7 left against Chi). That’s probably the minimum they can do and have a realistic shot at winning the division

They’ve allowed more runs than all but two NL teams, and 8(!) teams in the NL have scored more runs. They’ve apparently had good luck because those stats portend a much worse record and certainly aren’t the kind of numbers that playoff teams or division champs have

I went to the Brewers v. Reds game in Cincinnati on June 15, 2013. Both myself and the Brewers were staying at the Westin in Cincinnati. Rode the elevator down on Saturday morning with Gallardo who was the starting pitcher that day.

If you read his comments at the time of signing he accepted the one year deal from the Brewers over a multi-year deal because of the average annual value of 18 million. What about his play would suggest he take a pay cut from 18 million? With the lack of catchers who can hit; I don’t expect him to have to settle for another one year deal.

I’m sure Grandal is going to be demanding $20 per season over four years, and maybe settle for 3 years. The question becomes if the Brewers would add another 20 million dollar per year long term deal

100%. I'm sold on this guy being a fixture at the top of our lineup for the next 6+ years. I like Grisham too; and especially late inning three run homers. However it’s 40 at bats. Let’s wait until he’s at least faced all the teams once before anointing him a fixture

It’s a tough spot to be in. The team expects to win in 2020, yet the 2019 team isn’t good enough to be more than on the fringe of the playoff chase. Making things more complicated the 2019 team has key free agents at 3B and C where the organization does not have a quality replacement. I’m sure they could resign Grandal and Moustakas if they’re willing to pay top dollar prices in AAV. Although that means there would likely be no payroll space to add pitching which is also a major need.

Stearns repeatedly said he likes his pitching better than most therefore 2020 starters likely to be: Woodruff, Davies, Anderson, Burnes and Houser/Jimmy Nelson. Stearns didn’t throw away millions on Nelson for nothing; he’ll get another chance.

Before anyone starts up the ol’ Lucroy lovefest. His straight numbers are bad. His analytical numbers are bad. The Cubs traded a legit major league ball player (Montgomery) for Maldonado and then traded Maldonado away requiring them to go out and get Lucroy. I don’t think he makes the 2019 Cubs better than they were before.

Are players still taking pre-arbitration extensions? For awhile a lot of players were taking them, but then players like Anthony Rizzo for example, substantially outperformed the contract, and while I haven't looked it up it seems like the players have shied away from those team friendly commitments. Albies and Acuna are a different kettle of fish than Grisham and Hiura also. Albies signed a $350,000 contract when he was 16. Acuna signed a $100,000 when he was 16. Both players were from the Venezuela area at the time of their signing. By comparison, Grisham signed a 2.7 million dollar contract when he was drafted out of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Hiura signed a 4 million dollar contract when he was drafted out of the Los Angeles area. Those players growing up in America with multi-million dollar signing bonuses may have a different perspective on guaranteed money than Albies and Acuna.

Hader has pitched one clean inning since the break.

Hader to DL after the game. Backed out of the All Star game; different pitcher since. The book is either out or he’s trying to pitch through an injury