Jopal78

The only pitchers drafted higher than Priester that year were Nick Lodolo, Alex Manoah and Jackson Rutledge. Zach Thompson and George Kirby taken in the next two picks after Priester. The Brewers selected Ethan Small with their first round pick that year. Some bonafide starting pitchers in that first round and only one true bust so far out of the above (Small). Priester was a first round pick for a reason. I like the idea of getting a young ground ball pitcher and see with a little fine tuning what they got.

Take a look at the Competitive Balance Picks the Brewers have had the last ten years: Nathan Kirby, Mario Feliciano, Tristen Lutz, Micah Bello are all out of organized ball with little to zero mlb playing time. 2B/SS Robert Moore was traded for Oliver Dunn and Tyler Black is spinning his wheels in AAA. The track record isn’t great for Competitive Balance picks working out for Milwaukee. Hard to say it’s not fair getting an MLB ready pre-arbitration eligible former first round pick starting pitcher for a draft pick, a 19 year old kid in high A and a PTBNL which is likely tied to Priester’s contributions/performance

You could be right, I’m probably in the minority but I find having a cute girl do a couple of color segments during the game then ask a player what it was like to hit the ball that won the game kind of stupid. What I can say is there are hundreds of women graduating from the big time journalism schools; Northwestern, Syracuse, Arizona State, UCLA each year. From a business sense, unless a network believes an experienced dugout reporter is going to bring in more eyeballs or subscribers, given the supply and demand issues, there’s not a lot of business sense in trying to “lure” one away from another network/club.

No matter what they would say publicly, it’s still an image based industry (how many sideline/dugout women reporters are there that weigh in at over 190 lbs?), lots of good looking women would love to be a sideline/dugout reporter in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, San Diego, etc. so there’s no real need to seek someone out with an existing gig.

Remember when some folks were bent out of shape after Derek Johnson left as pitching coach? Sure proves that it’s more the horses you have throwing than the tutelage.

If a guy (Cortes) who averaged 25 starts a season is “injury prone” what do you call a guy like deGrom who has pitched 180+ innings since 2020? Sheesh.

Cortes (7.6) makes less than Williams (8.6) by 1 million dollars. The Brewers received $2 million in cash consideration from the Yankees (via MLB TradeRumors.Com) If you want to knock Cortes for being mediocre because of a blow out start, and call him injury prone despite making 75 starts for the Yankees ‘22-‘24. That’s your right, but you sure don’t let the facts get in the way.

If they could develop a starting pitcher or two from within would go a long ways. Since the early 90s it was Cal Edlred, Ben Sheets, Gallardo, Jimmy Nelson and that was it. Then the baseball gods smiled on Milwaukee and gave them Peralta, Woodruff and Burnes almost at the same time. Yet, the spigot has seemingly been shut off once again.

Is it? Devin Williams will pitch 60 innings in ‘25 and file for free agency. I wouldn’t say Cortes is mediocre, but the forearm strain is concerning, but yet they approved the medicals. They also got cash from the Yankees and Durbin. So one way to look at it is Cortes, Durbin and the money used to sign Quintana all for a guy who is going to pitch 60 innings in ‘25 and become a free agent.

2nd Flexor Strain in a calendar year for Cortes. 1 in 5 pitchers who have a forearm strain injury usually need TJ surgery. I wonder what the percentage is when you’ve had it twice?

I’m sure I have. I think this all started when I initially posted that Attanasio has been a terrific owner and much better than Selig who nearly alienated a generation of fans while he ran the team into the ground. I wasn’t the one who asserted it was Sal Bando who was solely responsible for Paul Molitor leaving and absolved Bud Selig of all blame, which apparently there is no support for. Then someone else chimed in that Selig is great. That’s certainly fair, but it’s also fair to argue he isn’t some folk hero but rather a guy who cobbled together 10 million dollars to buy a team, mostly spun his wheels for the next 30 years then unloaded it for a cool 220 million dollars.

It is worth distinguishing personal ambition from civic heroism. Selig didn’t bring the Pilots to town out of pure love for the game—he recognized, ahead of the curve, that team ownership was poised to become highly lucrative. While Selig framed the move in terms of civic pride, his tenure as Brewers owner mostly reflected a chronically cost conscious and uninspired approach. Outside of a brief window in the early 1980s, the team was largely irrelevant in the standings for over three decades—suggesting not just bad luck, but a pattern of limited investment and ambition. Things only got worse once Selig installed himself as commissioner. His decisions in fact deepened the challenges for small-market teams like Milwaukee while damaging his own reputation. He oversaw the disastrous 1994 strike, ignored the steroid era as it filled seats and boosted revenues, and only acted once Congress stepped in. While he pushed for revenue-sharing to help small-market teams, these financial reforms ultimately failed to level the playing field. Instead of narrowing the gap, they allowed larger markets with massive local TV deals to continue dominating, leaving small-market teams like the Brewers further behind. His supposed gift to Milwaukee—a publicly funded stadium pushed through with political maneuvering—became a monument to misplaced priorities. During his tenure Miller Park didn’t bring the meaningful on-field success he had promised; it simply made the franchise more valuable before he cashed out. Selig clearly understood the business of baseball. But to me, the legacy he left behind looks less like a rescue and more like a long-running exercise in extracting value, while the team spent decades stuck in neutral.

ie “Because that’s what I think happened”. Haha! Didn’t see that one coming at all 🤔 Have fun at the Selig Experience this summer!

I’ll Venmo you $50 if you can find an article where Selig is on record saying he thought a deal would get done BUT unbeknownst to him Bando tanked it Simply didn’t happen, you’ve proven it over and over by a light attachment to know facts. Nice straw man argument that the Brewers had some of the highest payrolls in the 80s by the way Who cares? Here’s some more solid facts for ya. In 1992 their payroll was 13th in the league. Bud gutted it in the offseason and they were 23rd out of 28th.

Selig’s team, Selig’s money. Selig was okay with Molitor playing somewhere else if he didn’t want to play for what Bud was willing to offer. End of story. Bando was merely one of the former players Bud liked who Selig then put in the front office to carry his water as Bud cut the baseball operations’ budget to the bone while strong arming the state into building him a stadium.

If Baseball Reference is accurate: Jesse Orosco made 1.3 million with Milwaukee in 1992. He took a pay cut to 1 million in 1993. The Brewers cut payroll after ‘92 into ‘93 So, Orosco took the pay cut and was retained. Ultimately, Molitor refused their pay cut and signed elsewhere. So yes, Bud, I don’t understand the relevance and you still were a crappy owner.

Whatever Bud. Jesse Orosco took a pay cut after the ‘92 season as well, so I don’t get the relevance. It’s okay though, I realize you are approaching 91 years old and are concerned about legacy. Nonetheless I still think you were one of the crappiest owners the last 15 years of ownership.

But they can offer him a QO after the season and get a draft pick when he signs elsewhere in the off season. The reality with MLB starting pitching is with Woodruff‘s career to date, even 100 innings and a 4.00 ERA most likely means he’s getting a multiyear deal as a free agent. (Walker Buehler 2 years/46 million is a similar example). So the Brewers are getting SP depth, potential front of the rotation production in ‘25, and a likely comp pick in ‘26 for their money is sharp.

Interesting version of history you follow. Paul Molitor and Dante Bichette were teammates on the Brewers in ‘91 and ‘92. Jesse Orosco was their teammate in ‘92. Bud is that you? Go ahead, and believe Sal Bando went rogue in his boss, and dropped a franchise icon who wanted to stay, without Bud having any knowledge of his actions 😆

I think Vinny is married.

Why does it have to be some sort of mistake? Why couldn’t the calculus simply have been they didn’t think Smith would help them as a starter in ‘25, they had a cadre of other bullpen arms with major league experience and preferred to keep a spot available to snag a player they thought might shake loose from another organization? Seems more logical than some gaffe by an otherwise astute talent mining organization. Heck, maybe there were simply players they had more money/draft capital invested in where their talent evaluators weren’t ready to pull the plug on just yet. Good deal for Smith though, setting up his future making by making $750k in the big leagues this year. However, I’m not going to get all bent out shape that the front office didn’t protect an undrafted swingman with an intriguing stat sheet from the Rule 5

Yes I’m well aware of the “just a DH” quote, the fact of the matter is if Selig wanted Molitor in Milwaukee beyond 1992 he would’ve been there, and you won’t find an article that says otherwise. Think about it: if ownership wanted a player who meant more than just wins and losses, but also defined brand and was good for marketing, yet the GM jettisoned that player anyhow; how on earth would a GM keep their job?

I’d love to see where Milwaukee ranks in futility scoring runners from 3rd with less than 2 outs

To each their own I guess., He was more effectively wild in my book, and showed some moxie keeping it scoreless without his best pitch. But… Patrick wasn’t getting any swing and miss on the cutter (in fact he got just 6 swinging strikes the entire night) and in the first three innings he wasn’t landing the cutter in the zone when they laid off it either. Unless the Royals had put the first or second pitch of the sequence in play, Patrick seemingly was behind in the count. I agree he hit his stride in the 4th and finally got couple swing and misses on the cutter, but at that point he was beginning to run on fumes and was completely spent by the time he K’d Isbel for the 2nd out in the fifth. I wouldn’t call that complete command, though the box score looks nice.