Jopal78

Greg Brock? That is really scraping the bottom of the barrel, maybe these should be Top 3 lists? Besides, Paul Molitor made 140 starts at 1B for the Brewers, while not a regular at 1B was certainly a better player than Greg Brock. Ditto Mark Loretta who made 150+ starts at 1B as a Brewer. John Jaha was a way better hitter and made approximately 450 starts at 1B for the Brewers not too many fewer than Brock (approx 490), yet he warrants only honorable mention....boy tough crowd.

He already had a good season with in ‘22. You mean ‘23. Sure if he puts up a .900 OPS in AA maybe they skip AAA altogether but that’s not really the Brewers style, especially a player who isn’t even 19 yet.

But even #6 is kind of a goofy position to take. An intriguing prospect, absolutely. But still a child, and multiple seasons away from being a regular in the majors. Moreover, with only low level minors experience, but good numbers at that, anything can still happen to his trajectory at this point: boom or bust. With that being said, all of their key every day major leaguers are more valuable to the organization in the here and now, as well as the few premium prospects they have who are near major league ready.

I don’t want to hurt the author’s feelings, but if Tellez and Winker are the Brewers 9th and 10th most valuable assets they’re in big trouble. They might not even be the 9-10th most valuable assets on their 40 man roster.

He was up in 2019, ‘20, ‘21 and ‘22. He also played in the minors in ‘19, ‘21 and ‘22. Garlick broke camp with the Phillies in ‘20 but was optioned to the alternate site by the Phillies in ‘20. Who knows maybe he has 5 option years, or his minor league time in ‘22 was a rehab assignment. Either way he’s a journeyman, and the Brewers have better OF options ruling out any sort of trade. Nothing wrong with an NRI I suppose, but Garlick likely wouldn’t take one to Milwaukee as there likely isn’t a path to regular playing time.

He was up in 2019, ‘20, ‘21 and ‘22. He also played in the minors in ‘19, ‘21 and ‘22. Garlick broke camp with the Phillies in ‘20 but was optioned to the alternate site by the Phillies in ‘20. Who knows maybe he has 5 option years, or his minor league time in ‘22 was a rehab assignment. Either way he’s a journeyman, and the Brewers have better OF options ruling out any sort of trade. Nothing wrong with an NRI I suppose, but Garlick likely wouldn’t take one to Milwaukee as there likely isn’t a path to regular playing time.

He’s 30+, out of options, a platoon player and defensive liability. He should have his choice of NRI offers when the Twins release him. The Brewers probably have 5-6 OFers they like better.

He’s 30+, out of options, a platoon player and defensive liability. He should have his choice of NRI offers when the Twins release him. The Brewers probably have 5-6 OFers they like better.

I don't understand the point of this article, besides the obvious click bait. It ignores recent Brewers history; they are typically more of a player in free agency late in the off-season: Trevor Hoffman--January 8th Mike Cameron--January 11th Yasmani Grandal--January 14th Nori Aoki--January 17th Matt Garza--- January 28th Lorenzo Cain-- January 26th Kolten Wong--February 5th Mike Moustakas--February 19th Jackie Bradley Jr.--March 8th Kyle Lohse--March 25th (Plus, other veterans on year cheap deals: Jim Edmonds, Zach Duke, Wade Miley x2, McCutchen etc.). If anyone expected the Brewers to be players in November and December for the premium free agents, they were dreaming in the first place. Now certainly one could credibly argue as of January 9th, 2023 the free agent class is mostly picked over; however what the Brewers have spent on free agents so far and what that means, is mostly worthless given their track record over the last 10-15 years.

I threw Oliver in there because he played a long time in MLB and was the catcher on the ‘90 Reds World Series team. Brewers have not had many catchers in modern times with a ring (Damian Miller had one too, he could go here too but he went downhill with Milwaukee his first year).

Dave Nilsson should be #1. He was the best hitting catcher they’ve had. Even moving him around to keep him healthy he still caught 300 games for the Brewers. Surhoff would be #2. Debuted as a 22 year old less than two seasons after being drafted #1 overall and caught nearly 700 games and mostly before he was moved out from behind the plate to keep him fresh. Lucroy would be #3. You could argue he should be 1 or 2 but he was a chump on his way out of town, nixing the trade to Cleveland because he thought it would hurt his earnings then missing out on the World Series and never getting a multiyear contract anyways. #4 Raul Casanova because he had a fantastic name and hit pretty well for a catcher but was a Brewer only for a short period of time. #5 Joe Oliver. 13 year MLB veteran with a World Series ring, who somehow found himself in Milwaukee after the ‘94 strike. Went out put up a career year with the Brewers in ‘95 and re-signed with the Reds thereafter.

Still Topa is a pre-arbitration eligible major league relief pitcher. Frankly, I’ll be surprised if either Topa carves out a significant major league career or Hernandez makes the majors with the Brewers. like with Suter, it seems that Topa wasn’t in their plans and instead of simply cutting him loose to fend for himself, they orchestrated a departure where he goes right on to a 40 man roster and doesn’t lose any pay or benefits.

Renfroe cost $10 million more than Topa

You want to crucify the guy for not pouring his personal income into the operating budget of one of his many businesses, solely in the name of pride? Attanasio didn’t get rich being that stupid. The Brewers are in one of the worst and arguably the worst market in MLB. Nobody has ever really suggested they’re not doing everything they can do to win with the resources their market provides, rather it is that whatever they’re doing isn’t good enough.

In today's baseball game, the manager is well aware of players' stats, splits, metrics, etc. In fact, all the teams employ people to have that information at their disposal. Yet despite being aware of the stats and metrics with Hiura, they played other players most of the time. Thus there was a reason he didn't play more which trumped his OPS vs. RIH pitching, and it's too bad none of the journalists on the beat ever asked the reason.

In the real world, teams don't trade for a player hoping to "flip" him later and come out ahead. Somebody very well could want to take a shot on Hiura, given his draft status and homerun total, but since he'll likely be freely available talent before opening day, it's hard to see the Brewers getting anything but "cash considerations" or the PTNBL.

Right!, No team is going to give the Brewers assets in exchange for Hiura, when the odds are pretty good he will be DFA'd by Milwaukee at some point. Hiura doesn't have a path to regular playing time, and is out of options which I'm sure he knows is not a good position to be in. Since arbitration salaries are not guaranteed until opening day there is no risk for Milwaukee bringing him to camp as depth. In defense of Hiura it's also worth noting that so far the 2017 MLB draft is shaping up to have been sort of thin on hitting talent, and especially from College. Hiura has the most at bats of any player in that draft class, followed closely by Pavin Smith. Hiura's career rWAR is 1.3 to Smith's 0.4. Hiura's rWAR is 7th to date of all players taken in 2017 regardless of position. Looking at the other college hitters taken in the first round: #4 overall pick-Brendan McKay (TB) drafted to pitch and hit, solely pitched in the majors, tore his UCL in his 13th game and was released (then ultimately resigned to a minor league deal). #6 overall pick-Austin Beck (Oak) is still spinning his wheels in the minors with a .252/.303/.384 #8 Adam Haseley (PHI) was traded to the White Sox in '22 for a minor league pitcher and former 14th round pick in 2019. #10 Jo Adell (LAA) similar to Hiura has nothing to prove in the minors, but has struggled even more to produce in major leagues (.215/.259/.356 in 557 PAs) #17 Evan White (SEA) won a gold glove at 1B his rookie year, but produced .165/.235/.308 so far at the plate in the majors before suffering a hip injury then missing half of 2021 and all of 2022, and seemingly losing his spot to Ty France in the process. #22 Logan Warmouth (TOR) is 27 and has produced .243/.335/.355 in 1700 minor league PAs. #23 Jeren Kendall (LAD) will be 27 in February and has yet to reach AAA with a minor league slash line of .209/.303/.390 #32 Jeter Downs (CIN) has been traded twice and was recently put on waivers by Boston. #33 Kevin Merrell (OAK) is 27, has yet to debut in the majors and is with his 3rd organization (MIN). #34 Brian Miller (MIA) will turn 28 next August and in 2200 minor league PAs has a slash line of .285/.341/.375. #34 Brent Rooker (MIN) has also been traded twice and was recently acquired by Oakland off waivers from Kansas City.

If Carlos Rodon is getting 6 years/162 million dollars, that is probably a comparable deal for Woodruff and Burnes would be selling himself a bit short at that price. Burnes and Woodruff are as good as gone, because I don't think the Brewers are ever going to have two players making 25+ million dollars per year. Maybe they can get Adames to take a little less, but the free agent signings this winter have pretty much doomed any realistic chance the Brewers had for extending any of those three players.

If teams shifted against Tellez 80% of the time and it was an effective strategy against his bat, I assume they would just go with a two man outfield, put the shift on him with the outfielder and take their chances because he's not much of a runner should he hit one the other way.

The 2021 team which had Burnes, Woodruff, Peralta, Houser and Lauer won 95 games. The 2022 team had Peralta, Woodruff and Houser all miss time with injuries. In their place Jason Alexander, Chi Chi Gonzalez Ethan Small and Andy Ashby make 32 starts for the Brewers. Those four combined for a WHIP of 1.56, they allowed a total of 26 homers in 158 innings (1.48/9). Next, their bullpen just wasn't as good as it was in '21 and they had several relievers pitch a significant amount of innings and perform poorly: Taylor Rogers, Matt Bush, Trevor Kelley pitched a combined 69.2 innings allowing 61 hits, 30 walks (1.31 WHIP) and allowing an astronomical 21 homeruns (2.71/9). Thus I don't think Matt Arnold's task in putting together the 2023 roster is complicated. They intend to rely on the same starting pitching from '21 to win games for them in '23 and are banking on having better health. That they jettisoned Suter, (66 IP) Boxberger (64 IP), Gott (45.2 IP), Gustave (28 IP), Perdomo (23.2 IP) along with Rogers leaving as a FA means the Brewers are making nearly wholesale changes to their bullpen and hoping for improvement there. Certainly, the Renfroe trade appears to fit that narrative as Junk, Pegeuro and Seminaris could all be competing for bullpen spots in '23. I would also assume the Brewers will be shoppers for free agent relievers once the closers have signed and set the market. As someone else pointed out, they also appear to be moving away from the "all or nothing" type of hitters who rip 30 homeruns and struggle to reach an .800 OPS. Further, as would be expected of any team without a 200 million dollar payroll, their prospects and bonus babies who reached AAA (Mitchell, Frelick etc.) will be given a crack at making the major league team. I would also expect the Brewers to be bargain shopping for 3B, C and even 1B and are willing to wait out players like Drury, Justin Turner, Jorge Alfaro, Gary Sanchez, Brandon Belt, Evan Longoria, Wil Myers Edwin Rios etc.

I don't know if there is Feliciano "love" per se. Rather, he's a player the Brewers added to the 40 man roster when was in A+ ball and have not taken back his 40 man spot, despite other curious moves. Him getting a shot at the major league roster would at least make the other moves seem logical (trading a player for Alex Jackson, then Jackson is outrighted off the roster, Severino being sent packing, outrighting Luke Maile, etc. )

Yep, depends how you want to define it I suppose. Suffice to say Toronto has played someone else at catcher most of the time since '20 In 2022--Kirk had 74 starts at catcher, Moreno made 19, and Zack Collins made 14...107 games started by someone besides Jansen. In 2021--Reese McGuire had 69 starts at catcher, Kirk made 41... 110 starts made by someone besides Jansen. As you pointed out in 2020, Jansen started most the games with Reese McGuire making 12 starts, Kirk with 7 starts and Caleb Joseph with 2. In 2019 - Luke Maile made 41 starts and Reese McGuire with 25 starts, Jansen getting the rest In 2018 Maile made 57 starts, Reese McGuire with 10, and Russell Martin with 70, with Jansen third on the depth chart this season. For comparision sake... Manny Pina and Martin Maldonado would typically make about 75 starts a year for Milwaukee when they were the #2 catcher.

Yep, depends how you want to define it I suppose. Suffice to say Toronto has played someone else at catcher most of the time since '20 In 2022--Kirk had 74 starts at catcher, Moreno made 19, and Zack Collins made 14...107 games started by someone besides Jansen. In 2021--Reese McGuire had 69 starts at catcher, Kirk made 41... 110 starts made by someone besides Jansen. As you pointed out in 2020, Jansen started most the games with Reese McGuire making 12 starts, Kirk with 7 starts and Caleb Joseph with 2. In 2019 - Luke Maile made 41 starts and Reese McGuire with 25 starts, Jansen getting the rest In 2018 Maile made 57 starts, Reese McGuire with 10, and Russell Martin with 70, with Jansen third on the depth chart this season. For comparision sake... Manny Pina and Martin Maldonado would typically make about 75 starts a year for Milwaukee when they were the #2 catcher.

You're right about Jansen, he has been a back up his whole career and prior to this season-certainly didn't turn a lot of heads with his play (.690 OPS). As to your hypothetical, 2 years of Lauer, 6 years of say Garrett Mitchell plus another player for 2 years of a part time catcher is a pretty big gamble for Milwaukee. Moreover, I don't know if that trade even really improves the '23 Brewers as they would then have to find someone to cover the 158 innings Lauer pitched. As much as I would like them to wind up with Vazquez, the money these players are getting is insane and probably makes it unrealistic that Milwaukee signs a front line free agent. Rather, I would expect them to be shopping in the bargain aisle (Alfaro, Gary Sanchez, Narvaez), or swinging a trade to get Manny Pina or someone of that ilk to pair with Caratini. The Brewers also have Feliciano who will be using his final option in '23

You're right about Jansen, he has been a back up his whole career and prior to this season-certainly didn't turn a lot of heads with his play (.690 OPS). As to your hypothetical, 2 years of Lauer, 6 years of say Garrett Mitchell plus another player for 2 years of a part time catcher is a pretty big gamble for Milwaukee. Moreover, I don't know if that trade even really improves the '23 Brewers as they would then have to find someone to cover the 158 innings Lauer pitched. As much as I would like them to wind up with Vazquez, the money these players are getting is insane and probably makes it unrealistic that Milwaukee signs a front line free agent. Rather, I would expect them to be shopping in the bargain aisle (Alfaro, Gary Sanchez, Narvaez), or swinging a trade to get Manny Pina or someone of that ilk to pair with Caratini. The Brewers also have Feliciano who will be using his final option in '23