Jopal78
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Everything posted by Jopal78
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Update: Brandon Woodruff is non-tendered.
Jopal78 replied to Jake McKibbin's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
I’m sure if a multi-year deal was going to be struck it would’ve happened already. Odds are, like any player, Woodruff is more than happy to sign at market rates for a top of the rotation starter. Otherwise he may as well bet on himself and take his chances. On the other hand, with the ability to be given a Q.O. After ‘24 I doubt the Brewers give Woodruff up for nothing, so he’s either traded today or they tender him in my opinion. -
Perhaps but even so the other side of the coin is also true: the manager approached him regarding a need “the team” had, and tried to persuade Weeks into helping “the team” by playing out of position and instead of being on the bench, yet Weeks said no. I assume the reason was because of his ego, or because of contract status, etc, at the expense of potentially helping the team win more games
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If I recall correctly in his final year in Milwaukee, Weeks was platooned at 2nd base against left handed pitching, the team asked him to play outfield and 1B because they were thin there and it would mean more ABs for Weeks, but he refused their request. Yet, the very next season while trying to hang on to his career he did play OF for Seattle. Admittedly, who knows what Weeks has been up to since retirement, but I’m still surprised that a “me first” move like that not only didn’t burn his bridge in Milwaukee, but also apparently still qualifies him to be a team leader as bench coach.
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Read carefully, I said Stearns quit. Which is 100% true. He resigned as President of Baseball Operations. Next I said less than a year later Counsell followed him. Again 100% true. Never said Counsell quit. I don’t really care that Counsell left. I do think he looks kind of foolish after all his “baseball in Milwaukee is personal to me” to run for Chicago for a huge payday, but then again he’s a former pro athlete so it’s not all that surprising—it’s a business and most people go work where the pay is best.
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You’re right, the talent on the roster dictates how many wins the team has not the guy in the dugout hollering at the umpires. Culture and chemistry are just buzz words. My main point is, when the well regarded GM quits and the well regarded manger follows suit less than a year later, you can’t get the help but get the feeling “we’re over”. That’s where a bold new hire would maybe make things seem new exciting. Whereas Murphy feels like the organizational soldier who gets his chance to call the shots while the pieces are sold off for the future.
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… and the “culture” will last right up until they lose 85+ games. Winning= culture. But I agree it’s a boring hire. Murphy likely won’t be around for the next success cycle, and I suppose this is a way of running it back as best they can without Counsell
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Believe it or not, the Cubs Pythagorean was exactly the same as the Brewers (90-72) so it appears they hit a patch of bad luck whereas the Brewers were a touch lucky at 92 wins. From a talent standpoint, the Cubs have fewer question marks than the Brewers. They return their ace Steele, Javier Assad both of whom are pre arbitration eligible. Azolay as closer is a good one. Suzuki, Morel and Happ are good hitters and Hoerner, Swanson aren’t bad. Not a World Series contending club, but certainly not bad. Add a pricey free agent hitter and pitcher (which I assume is all but a certainty) and the whole roster looks much more formidable.
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Time will tell if the Cubs job is a better situation or not. I think even Counsell believes the Brewers are reaching the end of this success cycle (wants a different challenge), and he correctly assumed he could make more money elsewhere, I don’t think the uniform or brand as he put it makes a bit of difference where he performs his work.
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Well, Schildt did get fired for “philosophical differences” in St. Louis so maybe he wasn’t “Cardinals Way” enough. Nonetheless, an underwhelming candidate in general. Never played in either the majors or minors, racked up a bunch of wins as Cardinals manager yet couldn’t land any other manager gigs since getting canned in ‘21. I’m not real impressed with Pat Murphy either. Bench coach for one of the better clubs in the NL the last 5+ seasons and never interviewed or seemingly tried to take a step up a manage a team again. Seems like a guy that gets hired to get fired in a couple of years when the team “needs a spark” or “wants to change directions” I guess I’d take a chance on one of those front office assistants who is a former player: Villanueva, Rickie Weeks, Charlie Greene etc. with one of those baseball lifers as bench coach.
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Or maybe player salaries have exploded since the most recent CBA putting all but bargain bin free agents outside Milwaukee’s budget, and wrecking any chance of extending current players. Second, this player group has been together since 2018, anybody who wasn’t expecting it to break up has been in denial or not paying attention. Why did Stearns resign? Because GMs in today’s game don’t typically stick around for the rebuild. Counsell left to chase the money plain and simple and probably also knew it was the end. So there’s not much to do now except be excited for the inevitable young and hungry players. Maybe they catch a break and hit on a few of them and get back on top fairly soon.
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Like any corporation teams, even the Mets, have budgets for their divisions: baseball operations, non-baseball operations, etc. Within those Divisions there are budgets for each department like players, a budget for coaches and staff, a budget for scouting, etc. What’s most likely is Stearns heard Counsell’s ask realized it wasn’t going to work within their constructs and moved on to the next candidate. That the ‘24 Cubs are going to pay Counsell 8 million to manage, plus the multi-millions Ross is owed to not manage and the salaries of the coaches from Ross’s staff that are let go is what is really surprising outside of the clandestine nature of the process and Counsell’s willingness to put a fellow manager out of work in order to get what he wanted.
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Counsell had no problem putting a knife in the back of a fellow manager in seeking his job, while also trying to reset the market for what mangers get paid. He’s out for one person and one only. Some guy. I’m sure he’ll keep up with his Whitefish Bay crowd from his condo in the Gold Coast in Chicago.
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With zero ability to choose their own staff, it probably rules out anyone externally. That Pat Murphy is keeping his options open reminds me a bit of Dave Stewart who immediately quit on the Brewers once his pal Davey Lopes was fired. So yeah, maybe Rickie Weeks, McKniven, or one of those special assistants to the GM (which I think was Counsell’s position before manager).
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People say these types of things but it’s not true. There’s always a #1 favorite. Just like dating 2 girls at the same time; one eventually beats out the other as your favorite.
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Counsell made it clear he wanted the market to dictate what his next contract was and got his wish. All the rest is just noise. He’s no different than 99% of MLB free agents — they don’t really care where they play as long as it’s the most money. I don’t think the Brewers are being cheap either. Such huge numbers get thrown around in sports it all seems like fake money, but at the end of the day it’s real dough going in his pocket for someone who gets a lot of credit when the team has good talent and wins and gets fired when they have a lack of talent and lose.
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The last manager the Brewers hired with experience was Ken Macha, and it was a flop, so likely whomever is hired for ‘24 will be a rookie manager especially with a rebuild/retool/whatever you want to call it coming in ‘25. Of course, that being said Matt Klentak just joined the Brewers FO and he was the one who first hired Gabe Kapler as manager. Kapler also spent one year as a Brewer.
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Molitor. Still just 67, managed a small market club before; former MOY. Prestige hire.
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‘14-‘17 Rays lost 343 games, The hitters were mostly all journeyman: Logan Morrison, Brad Miller, Forsythe, Loney. Maybe not a traditional tank job because of their young starting pitching, but clearly not built to compete. anyways, back to Counsell, the best way for him to make as much money as possible as a manager is to have multiple competing offers on the table. The immediate outlook, for either team on the field isn’t that terrific which suggests, as always, this is about money nothing more.
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5 million dollars a year surely goes farther in Wisconsin than New York City, but come on Counsell made 20+ million dollars just as a player before adding millions more as a manager, he can live comfortably in any city in the world.
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Certainly a possibility, but not a given. Also, the Dodgers gambles on both Nelson and Knebel came up snake eyes. You have to keep Woodruff’s position in perspective. As long as he’s Brewers property he won’t know what other teams would do, and probably has to wait until all the free agent chips fall. Moreover, if the Brewers have guaranteed money on the table to allow him to rehab and come back, he’d have to have big cojones to turn it down believing he could get better elsewhere .
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But Woodruff is also in a no-win situation. There’s no guarantee any team is going to give him a major league deal for 2024 (let alone 2025) when he’s not going to pitch. Both being in a bad spot, I imagine Woodruff will sign a 2 year extension with a club/mutual option for ‘26. They can pay him a small guarantee in ‘24, then the 12 or so million in ‘25 and the mutual/club option can be at market rate salary for ‘26 with a substantial buyout; so if Woodruff is healthy and all the way back both parties can benefit, and if he’s not the Brewers still did him right and were able to spread the money out over multiple seasons.
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Maybe they tried and no team was willing to part with anything the Brewers considered worthwhile.
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Nice rooftop deck. West Loop? Ukrainian Village? Looks like it cost some good coin, but terrific view.. well done.
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On the other hand, Counsell was handed a roster consisting of nearly all below league average hitters, and a bullpen with mostly castoffs and minimum salary guys, had his star pitching rotation gutted for most of the year yet managed that group to 92 wins. Pretty enticing achievement. He probably leaves one way or the other due to lack of interest in presiding over another rebuild and/or money.
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Isn’t that the way it works? Once they’ve taken a player group as far as they can most GMs and managers do not stick around for the inevitable rebuild. In fact it’s probably for the best to get a new manager to preside over a group of players who will likely be significantly different than the squad we’ve gotten to know 2018-2023.
