RollieTime

McKinney was a solid pickup. He’s a nice left handed power bat that could see some time in right field and first base. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a good season from him and look back at that pickup as another great diamond in the rough find by Stearns.

I will never forget the Sportscenter anchor doing the highlights for Bill Hall’s Mother’s Day walk-off home run. It showed his homerun, cut to his mother celebrating in the stands and said: “That’s my baby! I love my baby and he loves me!”

I will be absolutely shocked if we finish with less than 162 wins.

I do agree that you could make that statement for any pitcher, but I think Hader may have a slightly higher chance of injury due to his funky delivery and that’s why I’ve always been a proponent of moving him. It is part of what makes him so dominant, but it is something to be slightly concerned about. I guess one positive way to spin it is that he hasn’t thrown a ton of offspeed pitches at this point in his career so that might be beneficial to his arm health. But I have always thought that he is at a slightly higher risk of injury and his inability to control the strike zone has always been a big concern to me too. I would be interested in seeing just how many times hitters swing outside the strike zone against him. Again, part of that is his funky delivery throwing the hitter off, but it’s also frequent that he misses high early in the count and gets swings when the catcher is not setting up there. I am concerned that players at some point soon will stop swinging the majority of the time and he will have a difficult time adjusting. At least initially.

They have a good, not great bullpen. I wasn’t implying them having a poor bullpen in any way. I just meant if you’re handing out a $300 million contract, bringing in multiple starting pitchers, signed the most coveted international player in Kim, as well as signing a couple quality bullpen arms, why wouldn’t they go all in and get the most feared and dominant relief pitcher in the game too? I think it's funny that you listed a ton of things they did this offseason and don't consider that all in. They traded for the NL Cy Young runner-up, traded for the 2018 AL Cy Young winner, signed the best international free agent, signed their young star for basically his whole career, signed a couple quality bullpen arms, traded for a #4ish starting pitcher but when are they actually going to get serious and go all in? If that's not going all in, I don't really know what is. Lol I knew that would be the one part you pulled out of the entire message. The point is that they already did a bunch to win now. Taking a good bullpen to an elite bullpen seems like a logical move. Since 2014, Stammen had 1 dominant year (2018). 2 of the last 3 years (excluding 2020 where he had a poor ERA and decent FIP, his FIP was north of 4). He’s also going to be 37 before the 2021 season. Pomeranz had a total of 45 dominant innings out of the pen the last two seasons and wasn’t much of anything prior to that. Is he legit? 2021 is the real test for him. Hader has well over 200 innings and has done it year after year. Melancon is a nice signing. But he will also be 36 before the season starts. Kela has 31 innings to his name the last two seasons combined and has had multiple pitching arm injuries the last couple seasons. Their bullpen certainly isn’t a guarantee to be anything special. Could it be? Absolutely. Would I bet on them all remaining healthy/beating Father Time/having career years knowing the warts of each individual player? I would have to say no.

They added two pretty good relievers this offseason in Kela and Melancon so I'm not really sure what you're talking about. They have a good, not great bullpen. I wasn’t implying them having a poor bullpen in any way. I just meant if you’re handing out a $300 million contract, bringing in multiple starting pitchers, signed the most coveted international player in Kim, as well as signing a couple quality bullpen arms, why wouldn’t they go all in and get the most feared and dominant relief pitcher in the game too?

The Padres will cave and meet Stearns’ asking price in my opinion. You go all in and do what they did this offseason, but come up short to not solidify your bullpen with the best reliever in the game? I wouldn’t be surprised to see them pull it off. Either pull off a trade headlined by Gore or a combination of Campusano and Weathers. Otherwise hold out and wait. I have a feeling Preller will be calling back. They are in a very competitive 3-5 year window with the moves they have done. Hader fits the bill perfectly.

Won't matter, Bradley isnt signing with us... Would have happened already after the tweet of us showing interest. Generally true, but Cain signed with us 3 or 4 days after the initial report of the Brewers’ interest. I do think the Crew are in the running for signing him.

With the now deadened baseball so more balls staying in play, defense will play an even bigger role this season. With the Brewers focusing on improving the infield defense significantly with the change of the worst second baseman in baseball to the best defensively, an improvement at third base in Shaw, the return of a gold glove center fielder, and a possible addition of Jackie Bradley Jr. to roam in the same outfield as Cain, we could arguably have the best defense in baseball. Pair that with Woodruff and Burnes at the top of the rotation and a ground ball pitcher like Anderson, they are clearly banking on less home runs this season with the change in the baseball and moving toward run prevention to win games. With significant progression to the mean for guys like Yelich, Hiura, and Narvaez, the offense will be fine. If Cain, Wong, and Garcia can just be average, we will be fine.

Might be concerned he would get benched in a pivotal playoff game to have a nobody take his cleanup spot.

I still do not have access through safari on my mobile device. Strangely, if I switch to private mode on safari, I can access Brewerfan.

Left handed hitting outfielder Josh Reddick is still searching for work. Has a little pop and strikes out under 20% of the time. He shouldn’t break the bank. It would be nice to add another known quality bat to the roster and safety net if Garcia doesn’t bounce back.

Might be looking at a 6 man rotation with Peralta getting the 6th spot, thus the desire to add an additional bullpen arm.

He’s better than the guy we traded for a couple days ago I get it though, Fisher is a lefty bat. Ramirez performed at every stop along the way in the minors and showed very well in 2019 in 400 at bats. He’s certainly worth a flier. Maybe he can move to first or third base?

I’m a big Lauer fan, but at this point I think he’s the 6th option for the rotation. Woodruff, Burnes, and Anderson are locks. I imagine Lindblom did enough last season to show he’s deserving of the 4th spot. I think the final spot will come down to how Houser looks in the Spring and if Lauer rediscovers what he had his first two years in San Diego.

It won’t be a strict platoon where he’s not in the lineup every time we face a lefty, but I wouldn’t be surprised to have Wong on the bench for ~25 games during the season when a lefty is on the mound.

On the days we face lefties, I imagine Urias will slide over to 2B with Wong starting the game on the bench before being double switched into the game later on.

If he stays healthy, he should have a solid season especially with our improved infield defense. Our improved defense from last year to this year with the return of Cain and addition of Wong is substantial.

Sadly this has a 50/50 shot of being true

If Matt Shoemaker excites you than heading in to 2021 Freddy Peralta should be Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes excitement level combined for #5 rotation starter. Shoemaker is a horrid SP during full seasons. His resume fits perfectly with a guy who belongs overseas. We shall see. BB/9 around 2, career ERA and FIP around 4, doesn’t give up an alarming amount of homers. He had a couple fluky injuries derail his career. The years he was healthy, he was a solid number 3. He has similar career numbers to Davies. Obviously health is a concern, but for a couple million dollars for a number 3 pitcher? I would take that every time. But calling a guy horrid in his 3 full seasons where his ERA and FIP were both under 4 and he walked only a hair over 2 per 9 is quite harsh. If we had 5 guys like him, we would win 95+ games.

Great deal for the Twins getting Shoemaker. I was hoping the Brewers would sign him. Really disappointed in how this offseason is playing out.

Not a bad addition. He will certainly get some appearances for us this season.

Not a fan of Lamb at all, but he makes sense as a lefty platoon for third. We should be able to get at least average production out of third with a platoon of Lamb/Green/Robertson. Green concerns me with his K rate and I feel like he would strike out north of 40% of the time at the MLB level. But he does have some serious pop. Robertson has had some success. I think we would be fine, but we really lack that big bat to put in the cleanup spot behind Yelich which is my big concern. Thinking that we will rotate Narvaez, Garcia, Robertson as possible cleanup hitters if Hiura is in the 2 hole is kind of a gross thought. I do see Narvaez rebounding and Garcia bouncing back some, but I see teams just pitching around Yelich and making the rest of the team beat us. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him walk 120 times this year and having pitchers challenge the rest of the lineup.

You do know as of now, there is NO DH in the NL. How do they just "sign Rizzo" and why would they want his $16.5M salary for a one year rental? That was meant to be an idea in the offseason prior to the 2022 season to bring in Rizzo.

I agree in that a one year rebuild should be in order, but I doubt it now that they signed Wong. Doesn’t mean you don’t try to make the postseason, but I would look to trade Hader for a young bat with 4+ years of control plus more. See what you have in Urias and the other young arms in the minors. You clear Hader, Garcia, Arcia, plus others from the payroll after the season and have a mostly clean slate outside of one year of Cain and Yelich. Sign Anthony Rizzo for first base, acquire a third baseman in a trade of Hader hopefully, and now you’re looking at an infield of Rizzo and Wong on the right side with Hiura as the full time DH. Urias plus the new guy on the left side. Pair that with Yelich and Cain and we would have a great lineup to go with a Woodruff and Burnes at the top of the rotation for another 3 years plus whoever takes a step forward out of our collection of arms knocking on the door in AAA. It’ll also give Zach Green a chance to get his feet wet and see if we have something with him being a long term solution.