Jopal78

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.

I suppose it depends on hown you define “shows well”. I think we can all agree Chad Patrick kind of labored to get through 4 2/3 for Milwaukee yesterday, yet he threw a higher precentage of strikes in his outing than Shane Smith did in his 5 2/3 inning start. That Smith went 5 2/3 throwing a lesser percentage of strikes than Patrick while walking more batters than he struck out suggests to me perhaps he had a little luck on his side against the Twins. So yes, good for Smith, he has earned a spot in a big league rotation. But he’s probably going to need to pitch better than last night for me to think he is “the one that got away” or criticize the front office for leaving him exposed to the Rule 5.

Will it? He threw a lesser percentage of strikes in his start than Chad Patrick did tonight, and there’s seemingly no love fest going on for Patrick.

It’s a wonderful life. Director Frank Capra

I was wondering why if Chad Patrick can hit 95 mph he wasn’t more of a prospect, but now I see he fights his command and misses over the plate. He’s getting lucky so far

Yeah, projections are interesting but not really lla definitive way to declare who’s best based on what an algorithm thinks will happen. Sure, Im taking Skenes over anyone on Milwaukee, probably Imanaga too. But the Brewers preferred SP over Abbott, Greene, Lodolo, Singer, and Nick Martinez in Cincinnati, the Brewers are certainly more proven. Is anybody taking Imanaga, Steele, Boyd, Taillon and Ben Brown over Milwaukee? I’m wouldn’t.

It’s also AAA where there isn’t an Ohtani, Arenado, Kyle Tucker etc. If he’s walking 5+ per 9 in AAA; it’s not magically going to drop in the majors where hitters are typically much more selective. Ethan Small walked 4.4/9 in the minors and that number doubled in the major leagues.

For real? He’s a marquee player, and one of faces of the franchise, taking a mental health break when the team is struggling at the outset? It would be a stunning lack of leadership by Murphy and Chourio.

It wouldn’t seem so bleak if their big bats (Chourio, Yelich, Hoskins and Contreras) hadn’t collectively started the season 8 for 55 (.145) with 2 doubles, zero homeruns and 23 strike outs.

Seriously? Misiorowski doesn’t know where the pitch is going when it leaves his hand, until he learns to consistently command his stuff, he’s not a major league caliber pitcher. If the injuries reached a level where Misiorowski was their best option, it would mean the season is already lost. In that case they’d probably still go with someone else out of service time considerations.

As they say: Put up or shut up. Knock the Brewers rotation if you will but throw out the starting 5 on another NL Central club that’s better top to bottom.

Peralta, Cortes, Civale, Myers, Quintana, Woodruff. Four of the six have been All Stars, only Civale (4.08) has a career ERA above 4.00 Name another team in the NL Central with better SP that is six deep. Injuries happen, maybe they’re snake bit this year and will be buried in the standings by summer, but it won’t be for lack of talent on the roster.

The Brewers have the most talented rotation in the NL Central, it’s just most of it is on the IL right now.