RollieTime

To add to this, I just saw something that is interesting. The Brewers have a grand total of 4 players signed for 2020– Ryan Braun, Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, and Manny Pina for a grand total of $46.35 million.

Congratulations to Cain! He is an absolute joy to watch out in the field! Even if he does gimp and grimace after every time he needs to run. Here’s to him winning it in back to back seasons in 2020!

Interesting to think about. I think a 5 year deal around $10-$12 million per season is what he could expect. He’s a good hitter, but he doesn’t exactly walk a lot. He would need to maintain a .280 average or so to really be worth the contract. I don’t think letting Thames walk, but bringing in Castellanos at a higher AAV would make much sense. Especially when Thames has more pop and gets on base pretty much at the same clip as Castellanos does.

I didn't say he didn't make significant moves. I remember after Yelich/Cain everyone was saying "this is the precursor to a big pitching acquisition". It didn't happen. His moves come out of the blue. Every time this board gets excited about a move being a precursor to another move it never really materializes. I don't think this move is a precursor to any other move in particular. That was the point. I agree. There’s a lot of different options they could do at first right now. Who knows what they are going to do, but it’s definitely exciting to speculate. It’s a fun time being a competitive team while also having a lot of financial flexibility. It’s one of those offseasons where there are a ton of different avenues they could go down and almost all of them would make sense with so many moving parts.

We say this all the time but nothing ever really is. Yeah it's hard to come up with anything significant they've done in either of the last 2 offseasons. Just the usual bottom of the barrel scraping and mining for diamonds in the rough. The closest they've come to making as splash was trading for Yelich and signing Cain the same day in 2018 followed by signing Grandal and bringing back Moustakas in 2019. Other than those minor moves, it's hard to come up with anything significant. Exactly, Stearns has brought in significant contributors the last three offseasons in a row. Bringing in Aguilar, Shaw, and Thames after 2016, Cain and Yelich after 2017, and Moose and Grandal after 2018. I’m expecting this offseason (with already roughly $50 million off the books) to be the same. Significant moves will happen.

I personally think Moose returning is almost a foregone conclusion. How about signing Josh Donaldson to play third with Moose transitioning to first? Sign both to a 2 year deal, Donaldson to something like 2/$40 million? Would that get it done?

This guy has potential. Obviously has some good pop in his bat, doesn’t strikeout at an alarming rate like so many guys do these days, and takes some walks. Maybe he was just unlucky this season or was playing hurt? Really like the move of clearing that money while getting an intriguing prospect.

Batting 3rd and playing 3B for your Milwaukee Brewers, Anthony REN-DONNNNNNNNN! Man SIGN ME UP!! I was on that train a while ago, but seeing he already has been offered $30 million over 7 years, it’s probably not in the Brewers’ best interest. But if it were to happen, I would love the move! Sign Moose and put him at first possibly to make room for Rendon? Cain Hiura Yelich Rendon Moose Braun Iglesias Pina P Yes please... A man can dream.

Ton of flexibility is what he is going for. I think something big is going to happen this offseason. They could realistically have $60 million to spend this offseason and it is trending that way right now. With Chacin, Anderson, Jeffress, Albers, Moose, Grandal, and now Thames off the books, they have roughly $47 million off the books from last season already.

I wonder if moving on from Anderson is the start of a busy offseason. Stearns mentioned that the roster could look drastically different in the spring and I think this is only the beginning. I truly do think we are going to see a very different roster next season than what we saw this year. Anderson $6.5 million Moose $7 million Grandal $16.25 million Thames $6 million Shaw $4.7 million Chacin $6.75 million Jeffress $ 3.2 million Guerra $2.25 million Albers $2.5 million Nelson $3.7 million Perez $2.5 million Gonzalez $1.7 million $63.05 million That is a TON of financial flexibility that the Brewers could realistically have this offseason. Most likely they will bring back a couple guys like Guerra and someone like Moose, but the ability to have a ton of money to spend is there. It’s nice not being tied into a bunch of long term contracts and to have the flexibility to address issues in the offseason. And to think of how much of that money could fall off from guys that really didn’t contribute much at all for us during the season (Jeffress, Chacin, Nelson, Shaw, Perez, Albers). There isn’t anybody on the free agent market we couldn’t afford. Is it realistic to get Cole and put that much money into one guy? Probably not. But if you let Grandal, Jeffress, Chacin, and Anderson leave (which has pretty much already happened), you can get Cole. Bring Moose back for $10-$12 million, maybe decide to bring back Thames at a lower amount, and still have roughly $15 million or so left over to get a SS upgrade, bring back Pomeranz, and someone like Lyles to fill out the rotation. And now I just see Thames’ option isn’t being picked up. This is going to be a busy offseason. Stearns absolutely wants a ton of flexibility.

Rodgers is going to slice and dice them all day, but the Chargers will keep it interesting all game. 42-31 Pack.

Exactly this. Third just makes the most sense. Why someone would want to take 130 at bats away from a high OBP guy sounds counter productive. Lathund, I can see your point about having Yelich third and giving other guys the opportunity to drive him in. And to a point, I can agree that RBI isn’t the only stat to look at. But since Yelich is clearly the best hitter on the team, wouldn’t it make sense to have him bat third and drive in more runs since the goal is to score more than your opponent? And he definitely has the highest chance of doing that successfully on the team? If you put Yelich second then and want others to drive him in, who are you putting behind him? I have way more faith in Yelich driving in guys like Grandal and Hiura with their high OBP’s than to have Moose (.252/.310 career), Grandal (.241/.348 career), or Braun (hit .285 last season, OBP of .343) hitting after Yelich and hoping to drive him in. Now you should probably look for a guy with a high average to drive Yelich in. Obviously average is not an end all be all stat, but if Yelich is on base and we are talking about someone being a serious threat to protect him, then it probably shouldn’t be a low average guy that walks quite a bit like Grandal since that’s not driving in runs either. Again, RBI isn’t the only stat to look at, but a guy hitting .330 is going to lead to more runs being driven in with higher on base guys in front of him than a .285 or .252 hitter following a very high OBP guy himself. RBI is a stat that people tend to throw out the window these days, but how many runs you are driving in for your team and winning games by doing so shouldn’t be overlooked. 44 homers and only 97 RBI? The next closest guys on the team in RBI were Moustakas (87), Grandal (77), and Braun (75). If Yelich is on base so much, why aren’t the RBI totals higher for these guys since they were the guys hitting after Yelich most of the season? To me, it makes no sense to have your best hitter second and expecting inferior players to drive him in and have that be the way the offense is constructed. Having guys that walk a lot and get on base to get your .330 hitter up who also has 40 homers himself and putting him third to drive in the guys in front of him makes much more sense to me. With all the analytics there are these days, people tend to look over average and RBI. Higher average is from a player hitting the ball and reaching base safely. Which would increase the amount of RBI since you’re driving the ball and reaching base safely, getting on base a lot yourself for the next hitter to drive you in, leading to possibly more runs scoring after your best hitter just drove in a run or two, giving you a better chance to win the game.

To a point yes, they probably have poor range which would lead to that I’m guessing. The high fielding percentage at least shows that they don’t boot routine ground balls to them that they can reach and they don’t make poor throws leading to extra base runners advancing.

I know there has been a lot of debate over the years about where to place the best hitter in your lineup. There was some discussion about it on MLB Network during the regular season where they presented this information and I figured it would be a good conversation to have here. Below is a list of how many plate appearances there were in total from each spot in the order during the 2018 season. Lineup Spot: Total PA/30: PA 1. 22,629: 754.3 2. 22,131: 737.7 3. 21,610: 720.3 4. 21,123: 704.1 5. 20,642: 688.1 6. 20,105: 670.2 7. 19,534: 651.1 8. 18,966: 632.2 9. 18,387: 612.9 Now, this next bit of information is based off of what an AVERAGE hitter during the season had for an OBP, which was .320. The below information is presented with your best hitter hitting second. (1) Hitter A = .320 OBP (2) Hitter X = Best Hitter 32% chance Hitter X hits with Hitter A on base. 68% chance Hitter X hits with bases empty. Over the course of the season, Hitter X (best hitter) would have 52 plate appearances during the season with a runner on base in the first inning. Now, the next bit of information is also based off of what an average hitter had for an OBP, but the information is presented with your best hitter hitting third. (1) Hitter A = .320 OBP (2) Hitter B = .320 OBP (3) Hitter X = Best Hitter 43% chance Hitter X hits with Hitter A OR B on base. 10% chance Hitter X hits with both Hitter A AND B on base. Over the course of the season, Hitter X (best hitter) would have 70 plate appearances with one runner on base in the first inning plus 16 plate appearances with two runners on base in the first inning = 86 PA with at least one runner on base in the first inning. An increase of 34(!) plate appearances over the course of the season with at least one runner on base in the first inning by hitting 3rd instead of 2nd Finally, the RBI totals among some of the best in the game through August 31st of this season relative to where they bat in the order. Through August 31st RBI: PA w/ runners on: Primary Batting Position Josh Bell: 109: 292: 4th Freddie Freeman: 109: 281: 3rd Anthony Rendon: 109: 283: 3rd José Abreu: 104: 301: 3rd Cody Bellinger: 101: 296: 4th Pete Alonso: 101: 278: 2nd Mike Trout: 101: 254: 2nd Christian Yelich: 89: 238: 2nd Based on this information, I think it would make the most sense to have Yelich hitting 3rd. The increase of 34(!) plate appearances over the course of the season with at least one runner on base in the first inning alone by hitting 3rd instead of 2nd is HUGE. Especially in the first inning when most pitchers tend to have control issues and are trying to get a feel for their pitches early on. You could even make a case for dropping Yelich to 4th, but dropping him from 2nd to 4th would drop his plate appearances by roughly 34 over the course of the season by doing so. I think dropping him from 2nd to 3rd and lowering his plate appearances by roughly 17 is okay since there would be a significant increase in opportunities to do damage in the first inning. Also, keep in mind that the numbers posted above for plate appearances with runners on base is based off of a hitter with a .320 OBP. Get a couple guys like Grandal and Hiura in front of him with OBP’s over .350 and there would be an even higher amount of plate appearances with runners on base in the first inning. Hopefully Cain has a nice bounce back season and can be the leadoff hitter of 2018, Hiura continues to produce and is in the two hole, and Yelich can get bumped down to third to get more opportunities to drive in runs to get early leads in games for our pitching staff.

Are you willing to take that gamble, and possibly be left with the blackest of black holes at an offensive position that needs to be productive? If Shaw tanks again, and that is what I am expecting, and you add him to Pina and Arcia, we better be upgrading the starting pitching or it could be a long LONG season. Yeah, I’m willing. For me, Moose is very overrated by Brewer fans. I’ll take Shaw and let Stearns work his magic to get some depth at that position in case it blows up. Moose is definitely a good player and I’ll agree to a point that he may be a little overrated. But who are you going to bring in to play third without it becoming a black hole? Rendon (way to expensive), Donaldson (again, probably pushing $20 million or so), Todd Frazier (very inconsistent during his career and big downgrade), or someone like Asdrubal Cabrera as an everyday third baseman (downgrade from Moose). You can count on Moose to hit .250, strikeout around 20% of the time which is fine, and hit 30 homers for you. I guess one option to consider would be to keep Shaw, but bring in someone like Gregorius, hoping that Shaw bounces back while getting a big upgrade at SS. But is the risk worth it? If Moose is let go and Shaw is given the opportunity to be the everyday 3B again, Grandal would NEED to be back or having a possible bottom of the order of a struggling Shaw, Pina, Arcia, Pitcher could be an absolute nightmare.

It’s really disappointing how rigid and “rule” based baseball is becoming these days. Mound visit limits, challenges slowing down the game for multiple minutes at a time and STILL getting calls wrong, relief pitcher batter limits, defined pitcher limits and not being able to use pitchers unless certain criteria is met, a two way player designation that is beyond stupid, I’m sure I’m missing some. I thought we were playing baseball, not sitting in a court of law. (Just checked and imagine that, he was and IS a lawyer! Can definitely tell in how he’s operating the league). The game is continuously changing and it’s definitely not for the better. The pitch clock will be another new twist to add to the game soon. They are going to need to add a lot of information on the television screen so people know what’s going on. Mound visits remaining screen, batters left to face screen for relievers so people actively doing other things can glance and see how many hitters the pitcher still needs to face. On top of a pitch clock on the screen when that is implemented. Plus the normal scoreboard on the screen as well. What’s next? Pick off limits? Only 10 attempts per game? How about a 20 minute limit to a half inning where if it reaches 20 minutes, the current batter is the last one of the inning? That’ll help speed up the game!!!! What about a pitch limit? Let’s cap it at 80 pitches! Gotta keep pitcher’s arms safe! May as well add a mercy rule too while we are at it! Manfred sucks and is ruining the game.

I was really hoping Spangenberg would be back to be the backup for SS and 2B since his arby number wasn’t too pricey. It’ll be interesting to see what they do there since I don’t think they really have another viable option for SS or 2B outside of a Perez return. But I don’t really think he will be back either...

wut

One interesting note is MLB proposed a deadline for multi-year deals for free agents for at the conclusion of the Winter Meetings in hopes of speeding up the free agency process for bigger name free agents, but the MLBPA has declined the proposal. I like the idea of implementing this and hope that it is something that can be worked out in the next CBA. https://www.google.com/amp/s/sports.yah ... 25392.html

Mets have named Carlos Beltran the next manager of the Mets.

Seems extremely odd if true. He held out for all of 2018 because the Steelers wouldn’t give him a long term deal. But now the Steelers would be willing to pick up the 3/$38 million or so left on his deal, plus the rest of his salary for this season while also trading away draft capital and/or players to get him back?

The Bucks will be fine. All the new guys need to get acclimated with each other. They are all figuring out their roles and where they fit in on the roster to be positive contributors. Boston isn’t exactly a cakewalk either. Playing on the road against a top 4 team in the East isn’t easy. Especially when you have a target on your back as the best team in the East. We will be getting everybody’s best all season long.

His DRS was -1 last year in almost 500 innings at first base. Looks like he has improved his defense the last few years and has been an average to slightly below average from 2015-Present. His fielding percentage last year was .996 with a career .993 fielding percentage. I don’t think he’s a liability defensively whatsoever.

I don’t think Stearns will let Moose get away in free agency and if he is retained and Encarnacion is added to the mix, you could look at a 1-6 of: CF Cain 2B Hiura RF Yelich 1B Encarnacion 3B Moustakas LF Braun I really like the balance a guy like Encarnacion would add to the lineup. He’s a good right handed bat to protect Yelich. Something we struggled with at times last season. And having Hiura all season will hopefully lead to Yelich moving down to third in the order.

The Yankees have decided to decline Encarnacion’s team option for 2020, making him a free agent. He will be 37 before Opening Day next season. He did hit 34 homeruns in roughly 400 atbats last season with an OPS of .875 and OBP 100 points above his average. He would provide a good right handed bat to pair with Thames (if he is retained) or as a mostly everyday first baseman if Thames isn’t retained. He will have plenty of pinch hit opportunities and can be the DH during interleague play to keep him fresh. Would 1/$8 million get it done? He would be a nice right handed bat to help balance the lineup. Outside of Hiura, the Brewers lack significant power from the right side. Braun has flashes, but doesn’t hit as many bombs as he used to. I wouldn’t mind him on a one year deal and I don’t see him getting a multi year offer from anyone.