RollieTime

I tend to agree with this. Taking on bad contracts for prospects makes sense for a team like the Tigers or Orioles or Marlins or Cubs, not the Brewers. Exactly. And one thing that almost fits our window perfectly is all these teams handing out these massive 5-7 year deals. We are in a window to be competitive for 4-5 years and could enter a rebuild at that point. Trading guys like Urias, Hiura, Lauer, Woodruff possibly in there, guys like that. At that point, we can take on those deals like a final year of Wheeler and adding some prospects, an ugly Bumgarner contract with a year or two left, things like that. I thought of this recently with all these huge deals being given out again this year like years past that they almost fit our window perfectly where we could do a very quick turn around in a year or two span from taking on some of these likely ugly contracts a few years down the line.

I’m kind of surprised how we are in a competitive window and people are wanting to take on bad contracts of $15-$20 million. Yes we gain some prospects, but we are pretty much throwing away our window with Yelich now by paying $15 million per year for Myers (if the Padres threw in some money) and/or someone like Happ. I don’t see how taking on $15 million in dead money to bring in someone like Happ to be a 5th starter and adding a prospect that MIGHT help 3 years from now compared to using that money to bring in a big bat like Castellanos to plug into that 4 hole in our lineup since we lack a bat for that spot right now or a couple guys like Flores AND Edwin Encarnacion for that money to field a very good lineup. Seems like sometimes people just always want to rebuild or take on bad contracts. I would much rather field a great team now and try to win the whole thing than to half rebuild/restock the system while fielding a subpar team with expensive/aging players that aren’t going to be real contributors for you. Edit to add that we already have Cain who is making $16+ million the next 3 years who might be on the decline and Braun making $17 million this year to be half as good as he used to be. Do we really need any more expensive contracts on our books to eat into the money we have to spend on actually improving the team?

I haven’t seen a thread for Didi unless I missed it, but I figured since the Brewers seem interested in his services, it would be good to have a thread to discuss him. If Didi is seriously considering a one year deal to build back his value, what could he expect on a one year deal? Also of note, Didi has not been offered a qualifying offer yet in his career. The Brewers would be able to offer Didi the qualifying offer after 2020 and receive an extra draft pick within the first couple rounds if he has a productive season.

Yankees don’t really have any intriguing prospects for us that are close to MLB ready. If they want us to take that contract or most of it off their hands, they will need to include one of their cost controlled bats off the MLB roster. Someone like Mike Ford or Mike Tauchman.

I overstated saying Gold Glove caliber, that's not true anymore. He was a gold glove finalist in 2015, improved in '17 to a little better than average, but never really returned to gold glove form after his TJ surgery. However he still hasn't played any other position in 5 years. I do stand by saying if they sign him it's to be our starting SS. It wouldn’t surprise me though to see Didi moved to 3B if he is brought in on a one year deal. Urias has played over 300 innings at SS and has been average up to this point. It might make more sense to let the young guy learn the position where he might be for 5 or 6 years for us than to play him at third where he probably won’t be long term.

To be fair, Didi has been a below average fielder at SS based on DRS 3 out of the last 4 years, including the last two seasons. Not sure where people are getting it from that he’s a very good fielder.

I was thinking they were going to roll it out into stores for the holiday season to maximize sales, but they haven’t. Pretty shocking that merchandise isn’t available outside of the overly expensive jerseys. I was hoping to purchase a bunch of new merch for quite a few people for Christmas, but I guess I will have to make other plans.

Exact same for me Clancy. Flores is a pretty solid player. He would serve well in the Perez role, but if he needed to be an everyday guy for us, I wouldn’t be too upset about it either.

I’ve thought it was kind of interesting too that we haven’t really been linked to anyone yet. But Stearns is definitely making calls and communicating with players. It’s just odd not seeing us linked at all. I do think we are going to bring in some big name guy though partially because of the rebranding, but also because of all the money they cleared off. I don’t see us filling out the rest of the roster with rookies making under $600K and fielding a worse team than last year, in a way “wasting” a year of Yelich. That just makes no sense to me. I feel that something is in the works and something big will happen. Whether that’ll be in the next week or in January, who knows. But I feel strongly that we are going to field a competitive team every year and not take a step back with having Yelich here on such a team friendly deal.

I think it’s time to mention that the tone on here between a lot of posters has been decreasing by the week. People are constantly being snarky, twisting words, being condescending, bashing the organization and owner as a whole, and just trying to prove everyone else wrong even if most of the people are on the same page. Why can’t people just state their side and have another poster actually state their opinion of either why they agree or why they disagree instead of people always needing to take a jab at each other somewhere in their response? Aren’t we all here to share our opinions and viewpoints on what we think the Brewers should or shouldn’t do? Why is it a constant battle of people needing to prove others wrong? Sometimes if you don’t agree with someone, read it and move on. If you want to respond, state that you feel like player B would be a better option than player A because blank. Instead, people just say something like “he sucks and has done nothing since 2015. There’s absolutely nothing positive he can bring”. It’s pretty obvious that someone that took the time to present their opinion on someone or something isn’t going to take that response well. And obviously not every post is quite that aggressive, but you get the point. I come here to read Brewers news, share opinions, and read different ideas on ways the Brewers can do things to field a competitive team. I don’t need to read people making snarky remarks and people beating other posters down and dismissing their viewpoints so harshly all the time. I’m not going to point anyone out, but there’s some long time posters and consistent posters here that even in the last few weeks have changed how they tend to post. And it’s definitely not for the better. If you think the owner is cheap and slashing payroll, say “I feel like the Brewers payroll is going to be lower this year and am disappointed that Yelich might not have a good enough supporting cast to make a World Series push this year”. Instead, we get “cheap Mark does it again! He needs another yacht!”. I think it’s obvious which post is going to set people off and lead to arguments. Another example would be “I don’t think Jeffress is going to bounce back from his rough 2019. He looked like he was overmatched and I don’t think he will get back to where he was in the past”. Instead, you might get “Jeffress is washed up. That bum shouldn’t see another mound ever again”. Again, pretty obvious that people who like Jeffress or just other posters in general might be turned off or annoyed with that post. Anyway, I hope the tone of people around here can get a little better. We can all do better. That one line of snarkiness whether part of a long post or the entire point of a post does not need to be included. It is not doing anything productive for anyone or contributing in a positive way toward sharing our passions for Brewers baseball. I hope this can be addressed and that all posters here in general want to have more productive and interesting discussions than battles of superiority and intelligence. I know that I am tired of the way things have read here the last little while. I am sure others are tired of it as well. Thank you.

I would take Flores or Cabrera over Franco. His below average defense paired with his offensive profile isn’t anything I would be too interested in. None of those guys are plus defenders. Cabrera is terrible on defense wherever you put him. Yes, but Cabrera offers more offensively in my opinion. I’m not saying Cabrera is my target to play third base everyday for us or anything. Just that if I had to choose between those three, Franco is last on the list.

I would take Flores or Cabrera over Franco. His below average defense paired with his offensive profile isn’t anything I would be too interested in.

Maybe I didn’t clarify well enough. I said I don’t want a bunch of guys like Grandal, Moose to a point because of his low average, and Thames. I do not want Flores over Moose. Don’t twist my words. I said if you have a bunch of guys like them all together in one single lineup, it’s going to be an inconsistent offense. Bringing Moose back and getting better hitters in the other spots is fine with me. But that’s not possible now. I mentioned holding out hope for someone better like Rendon or Donaldson. But if we miss out on them, falling back on Thames even though I’m not a big fan of his is better than someone like Cron or Bird in my opinion. But Thames isn’t a cleanup hitter and the Brewers lack a cleanup hitter currently. That’s why I said Thames is fine, but not ideal. I wanted Moose back and wish we got him back. I did say he’s not quite in the same category as Thames and Grandal with the low batting average/lots of homeruns profile, but to a point is kind of similar. But when a large portion of your lineup hits under .250, you’re not going to have a good consistent offense. Which is exactly what I was trying to say. A bunch of 30 homerun hitters that hit .240 aren’t going to make for a consistent offense. Cain was hitting .250 before the last week of the season, Thames hit .247, Grandal at .246, Moose at .254, Arcia at .223. My entire point is guys like Flores that hit .275 and hit 15-20 homeruns will, in my own personal opinion, lead to a much more consistent offense than having over half of your everyday lineup hitting under .250. We’ve been complaining about it a lot the last couple years about the inconsistent offense. Players that have the profile of lots of strikeouts, low batting averages, and lots of home runs will lead to those feast or famine offenses of hitting 18 home runs in a week and then only scoring 12 runs the next week. Add more high batting average, low strikeout guys to mix in with Braun, Yelich, Cain, and Hiura, and this offense will be very good. Flores is a good option. Asdrubal Cabrera is also a good option. There are plenty worse options out there.

You want some power at 1B and 3B. Flores has little pop with the bat and would be a 7-8 type guy. Not the kind you want as a starting 1B ro 3B. I think the Brewers have some decent pop up and down the lineup. He would be a fine option as the everyday first or third baseman if the other spot was covered by one of the remaining big free agent bats or someone like Thames. Hiura, Yelich, and Thames could hit 30+ each, with guys like Narvaez, Flores, and Braun chipping in around 20 each. Not every guy needs to hit 30+ homers. I would rather have a bunch of Flores type guys that hit .275 and hit 15-20 homers than a bunch of .240 hitters like we’ve had recently (Thames, Grandal, Moose to an extent, but not quite the same category). Constructing a lineup to hit 230 home runs with a bunch of low average guys will lead to a lot of games where you hit 3-4 home runs, but then stretches of scoring 12 runs in a week like we’ve been accustomed to the last few years. I do still hold out hope for someone like Rendon or possibly Donaldson, but if you add Thames back to this team and pair him with Flores: CF Cain RF Yelich 2B Hiura 1B Thames C Narvaez 3B Flores LF Braun SS Urias P That’s a very solid lineup. I would still like to see the Brewers do something for a 4 hole hitter though. They just lack that additional big bat in the lineup. I do prefer Yelich in the 3 hole and believe that someone like Hiura would be fine protecting him, but then it would make sense to put someone like Thames in the leadoff spot since he walks a lot and dropping Cain down to second.

Flores was a guy I mentioned in the offseason plan thread as a guy I would like to see brought in. I think he would be a solid get as an everyday player for first or third and be a nice guy to slot in the 6 or 7 hole in the lineup. He’s one of those guys that could give you the most bang for your buck. I think Flores and Avisaíl Garcia are the two guys this offseason that are mostly under appreciated that will be solid contributors for whoever gives them an opportunity. If Flores is brought in, I would expect the Brewers to make a push for someone like Keuchel or Ryu at the least with how inexpensively Stearns has been able to fill out the roster with hitters. Cain Hiura Yelich ? Narvaez Braun Flores Urias P The Brewers still lack that 4 hole hitter as the roster is currently constructed. But with the addition of Flores, we are looking at a much more consistent offense this season than what we’ve been accustomed to the last couple years with being a feast or famine offense.

Technically you’re not wrong. But now you still have what, 7 roster spots to fill and $110 million on your payroll already with a rotation of Woodruff, Hauser, and Lauer and that’s it... You would be looking at a bottom third pitching staff overall with your below average bullpen as well.

I think they could, but I hope they don’t. I really hope they don’t go all in on a 2 year run and that’s it. I don’t think Stearns would be that short sighted by mortgaging the future to go all in for two years. If Hader is moved, I hope it’s for multiple guys with 4+ years of control at the least.

Down goes Georgia! Only one to go. Let’s go Virginia!!

Oh I agree. They could still take Clemson even if they lose tonight. But I do think it would come down to us and Clemson getting that final spot.

Oklahoma winning definitely put a damper on our chances of getting in, but we will already jump Baylor and Utah in the rankings if we win. A Georgia loss could bump us up to 5. And then it would be between us and Clemson getting in. I do think we still have an outside chance if both Georgia and Clemson lose. Of course we need to somehow take down Ohio State, but we are definitely still alive. LSU seems to be taking care of business of Georgia for us right now.

Definitely a trade. I feel like there will be a trade and a signing, but I do think a trade is going to happen in the next week.

Here is where I agree with you to a point. They absolutely could and should add one. I hope it’s Strasburg or Rendon. If they add Strasburg, they have him and Woodruff to start for them 4-5 times in a 7 game series. If you put together a rotation of Strasburg, Woodruff, Houser, Lauer, and someone still looking for a job around Spring Training, they would be fine. You only need 3 starters essentially for the playoffs. And having those 2 up top will lead to a lot of wins in the regular season. If you add Rendon though, the offense becomes elite. CF Cain 2B Hiura RF Yelich 3B Rendon C Narvaez LF Braun SS Urias 1B P That would be a top 5 offense in MLB, but lacking the horses at the top of the rotation. I think a lot of people agree with you in that we could realistically add a big free agent like that, but the way it’s presented comes off as aggressive and condescending. And not every move is going to be a big needle mover. Their moves this offseason of adding a top 20 prospect, back of the rotation arm, and a top 5 offensive catcher in the game only adds $4 million to our payroll. That leaves room to possibly bring in a big name guy like you’re suggesting. Plus these guys have more upside and higher floors than what we’ve been tossing out there the last couple years. These moves will lengthen our contending window, free up money for bigger name guys, and raise the floor of the entire team. It’s basically a win win situation. But I do agree that this is the time to go all in on a big guy like one of the two listed because we have a legit 3 year window with Yelich and need to make a serious run at a World Series by taking a gamble at some point. Adding a big bat like Rendon at age 29 and has at least 3-4 prime years left would do wonders for this offense. Strasburg is 31, but is a guy that I think will be like Scherzer and remain elite into his late 30’s. I think he’s a pretty safe bet as well. Both would be awesome additions for us. Just keep in mind that for us to even have a chance at bringing in one of those guys, we need to save money elsewhere like we’ve done so far this offseason. I love the offseason moves so far and look forward to seeing what they do. Especially next week at the winter meetings. I would guess Stearns pulls off at least one trade next week. And possibly a signing as well. Really looking forward to seeing what happens the next week.

This is exactly my take. We can get proven 'okay' results on the open market. But we are the kind of club that needs to take some risks here and there. Smith is by no means a sure thing. Otherwise, he'd cost a ton to get. But right now, he's stuck as a reserve - and that won't change with a 50-HR guy ahead of you. Now is the time to get him - assuming the club thinks he's worth it. Totally agree. He showed enough at the big league level to get a serious look. I don’t see any reason he couldn’t put up numbers similar to Thames if given a full time gig. If he does that while making the minimum and we get 5 years of control, plus the higher ceiling, sign me up!

The end rarely justifies the means when it comes to those huge contracts. I'm not adverse to risk, but signing a huge name pitcher to a $100+ million deal have very low odds of working out value-wise. That's what's simple. Because of age?? Well, how many guys have we seen through the years pitch just fine later into their late 30's and early 40's?? Going back a ways..Nolan Ryan, would you have taken him in his later years?? How about Randy Johnson?? Or Justin Verlander, or Adam Wainright?? i could go on, but that's just some examples of guys that were just as effective in their later years. Age is only part of it. The other part is if you want them to go out and sign Strasburg or Cole, they will be paying 25% plus of their ENTIRE payroll to that player since it’ll be at the least $27 or 28 million per year for Strasburg. Cole will be another $5-$8 million. How will they field a competitive team around that? I’ve been advocating for them getting Strasburg or Rendon this offseason knowing that a ton of their payroll will get eaten up. There is absolutely no way they go out and get a bunch of guys on $25 million contracts or higher. 1) Because they can’t afford it. And 2) because they won’t field a competitive team around the big name guys. Do I think they can afford one? Absolutely. You bring in Strasburg for the rotation around $28 million per year (if that’s even enough), bring in a solid bat for first and third like Thames and Asdrubal Cabrera (all of this would already eat up about $40 million), and put the rest toward a bullpen arm or two and then a starter on a one year deal looking for a job somewhere shortly before Spring Training just to have an income that year. But again, that could be one of those “lightning in a bottle” guys that you would have no interest in. I do agree that it’s something they should explore doing. But if they do that, you can absolutely count them out on big name sweepstakes for many years as they won’t be able to afford multiple players with salaries that high. You want “3 stud arms in one rotation”? Then they need to sign Strasburg and trade Hader to bring in someone like Mackenzie Gore or one of the young guys from the White Sox and then hope that he pans out. Because there’s no way we can afford to bring in another high priced arm and actually put a solid team around them.

Exactly. Georgia beating LSU is probably the worst outcome for us as Georgia will solidify their spot and I don’t see LSU or Ohio State dropping out of the top 4 no matter what. LSU needs to win and then one of Clemson or Oklahoma needs to lose to give us a shot. I do think it’s almost a lock for us to make it in though IF somehow Utah (check), Georgia, and Clemson all lose. The winner of the Oklahoma and Baylor game wouldn’t matter as we would make it in with the winner of that game. If Clemson loses to a 23 seed, I don’t think they will stay in the top 4. Again, lots has to go right, but we really do have a shot at this. We obviously need to take care of our own business first and foremost, but with a lot of outside help, we can get in.