RollieTime

Glad the Nationals could pull it off and win the World Series! The Nationals have a lot of impending free agents that played a huge role in their success this season (Rendon, Strasburg, Kendrick, Cabrera) and it’ll be interesting to see who they are able to retain.

I wonder if part of it is because he was embarrassed in a way to play for an organization that traded for Osuna and everything else that has transpired after the ALCS. There might be a lot of players who don’t want to don an Astros uniform anymore, but they aren’t going to make an issue about it while playing in the World Series. Plus he was most likely frustrated that he wasn’t brought in to replace Greinke once he was removed from the game. But I think there could be a lot of behind the scenes stuff that led to Cole acting this way.

I definitely hope they bring back Spangenberg as the backup for the middle infield. Projected arby is $1.5 million. I would love Iglesias at SS and Hiura at 2nd with Spangenberg backing up the two spots. But yeah, I don’t think Arcia is going to improve much offensively. At least not in the near future to be a big part of what we do the next couple seasons.

But how long do you hold onto a guy that has shown literally no improvement offensively after his solid rookie campaign? The last two years have been a disaster. His approach at the plate was best in 2017, but since then has looked completely lost at the plate most of the time. If you’re against bringing in Iglesias for say 2/$10 million, what are you hoping Arcia becomes as a hitter? If Arcia matures as a hitter, I think his ceiling is about what José Iglesias is. Why not just get the guy that you know will produce and put the best team on the field now while we have Yelich? Are you hoping he becomes a solid defender that hits 15 homers and hits .275? May as well bring in Iglesias to do that for you now while barely increasing payroll. I don’t think things will just click for Arcia and he will become a 20 homer guy and hit .280. With Arcia’s defense slipping too, he provides little to no value. What inexpensive vet are you thinking they could bring in to pair with Arcia? You’ve said in the past the Brewers shouldn’t spend the kind of coin to bring in a guy like Iglesias and roughly $2.7 million will already be spent on SS for Arcia. Who are you pairing with him to keep the value well below $5 million since you feel like $5 million isn’t a wise investment for Iglesias? Some guys just have a good season or two and that’s it. Guys like Tyler Thornburg, Taylor Jungmann, Casey McGehee, Jason Rogers to a point. Arcia could be just another one of those guys that has a career year and doesn’t do much else after that. It happens all the time. It sucks since he was a top prospect, but some guys just don’t effectively make the jump to MLB. Wouldn’t shock me if Lewis Brinson is a free agent after 2020 if he doesn’t figure it out this season either. Some guys are just busts. Some mature late. I don’t think holding onto Arcia and hoping “well maybe he will figure it out in another couple years” is a smart idea either. He could have the career path of Carlos Gomez, but we can’t afford to let him struggle and “maybe” figure it out down the road. Again, we aren’t rebuilding. Arcia is fine at SS on a 75 win team, but not a World Series hopeful. We can do much better with a slight financial increase at SS.

Yeah, I gotta say if Stearns doesn’t address SS this offseason, that’s a failure on his part. I’m a huge Stearns supporter. But there is 0 excuse to go into 2020 knowing you have the worst SS in MLB and it’s not even close. You could spend $3-5 million and get a 1.5-2 WAR improvement there alone. We are trying to win a World Series here. They can find literally anyone to replace him and be an improvement. I believe the projected arby number is $2.7 for Arcia? You could let him walk, sign Iglesias for $5 million, and get a good defensive SS that will hit .260-.270 for you and barely increasing the payroll. While greatly raising the floor of the production from the SS position. The lineup would be way more consistent scoring runs having a guy like Iglesias instead of Arcia. Even the defense could be an improvement. Iglesias is no slouch with the glove. Is it a slight risk to let Arcia walk? Yes it is, in the long term. But we are in a window to win NOW and can’t continue to trot out projects like Arcia, Nelson, and Shaw and letting the supporting cast around Yelich be subpar. Nelson only has 1 year left (so if he struggles, it’s a waste of resources. If he does well, he becomes very expensive). Arcia is getting expensive for what he provides (non-tender candidate already, but would for sure be non-tendered next offseason if he doesn’t improve). And Shaw is a huge wild card (~$5 million on a guy who hit under .160 last season). Shaw would be the biggest risk in that bunch if we let them all go based on control and past production, but his price to hope for a bounce back isn’t exactly cheap. We aren’t a rebuilding team anymore. The end goal is a championship. Eating up payroll with hopefuls/rebounds and spending $10+ million on them alone is definitely not a wise investment. Would you rather have Iglesias at SS and Pomeranz back in the bullpen for ~$11 million combined or bring back Nelson, Arcia, and Shaw? I know which one I would pick.

I’m with you on not moving Hader for 2 years of Seager. There would definitely need to be more coming back. Otherwise I would look to make a move elsewhere. I think if Hader is moved, it would make a lot more sense to get a high end MLB ready prospect or two that you would have for 6+ years. I would rather build a lengthy competitive window than to go totally all in for a couple seasons and go into a long rebuild. The only way for a small market team to do that is to be open to moving guys even when you’re battling for the division. I was on the train to trade Knebel the last two offseasons. It wouldn’t make much sense to now since he missed all of last season. But those are the types of moves we need to pull off to continue to get young controllable talent. Moving relievers after career years is a smart way of doing that. I would be open to doing that with Hader now, but I think next offseason is probably the best time to move him. If somebody blows you away with an offer, pull the trigger. But he definitely doesn’t NEED to be moved right now. Once he’s commanding 8-9 million next offseason in arbitration and has 3 years of control with his arby price continuing to rise, its time to move him. The Brewers shouldn’t tie that kind of money into one reliever. I disagree on how surplus value is calculated on relievers using WAR and I think a lot of people feel the same way. I think placing a value on a reliever using WAR makes a lot more sense if you take 1 WAR as 1.5 WAR for a reliever. So if your estimated salaries are correct, Hader’s surplus value would be multiplied by 1.5 and his value would be around 88 million. Again, that is just my opinion, but relievers tend to get more than what their surplus value is compared to other positions.

Rodgers is truly amazing. What an unbelievable throw.

Patrick Mahomes is officially listed as out for the game against the Packers according to head coach Andy Reid.

Hopefully this is true. Love those pinstripe jerseys.

Nice way to start the season with a big win against Houston on the road! This team is going to be a lot of fun to watch! On the Giannis free agency topic, I have a small amount of concern about him leaving, but he’s been committed to Milwaukee since Day 1 and even last offseason, he said that there was “no way” he’s leaving in free agency. And this isn’t a knock to Giannis, but I am sure there are things people say or ask him that he has a difficult time understanding. And there are plenty of times where he words things in an odd way. I think that’s just the language barrier and sometimes he might word things in a way he didn’t intend to. It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s the same thing in the most recent story. The last part of the quote that he himself said that he never said was about him leaving if they struggle. And even if he did say that, I don’t see any way that the Bucks don’t finish in one of the top two spots in the East and end up in the ECF. Plus, I thought it was interesting that his girlfriend questioned him about the comment he made. She would have a lot more insight on what Giannis is thinking and what his intentions are. And if she thought it was odd that he was supposedly non-committal to Milwaukee in a comment, then that would lead me to believe that he is serious about remaining in Milwaukee. Also, would Giannis turn down over $100 million in additional salary by signing with another team and not the Bucks? That is an insane amount of money. I think he will sign the extension next offseason and become the highest paid player in NBA history. And the Milwaukee Bucks will have the face of the NBA for years to come.

There has been multiple other reporters that have verified Taubman’s actions after the game. And Taubman not denying what was stated is big in his admittance to what was said. If he truly didn’t say what the reporters are saying he did, he would definitely be defending himself. I think he knows it’s not looking good for him so he’s hoping it’ll just blow over quickly by “apologizing”, but this is something that will be talked about for a long time.

After winning the ALCS, Astros assistant general manager Brandon Taubman turned to a group of 3 female reporters in the locker room after the game and yelled roughly half a dozen times “Thank God we got Osuna! I’m so glad we got Osuna!”. This was after Osuna blew the save in the 9th inning. Taubman appeared to be directing his statement mostly toward a woman that was wearing a bracelet to raise awareness for domestic violence. Another Astros employee also reportedly apologized to the women for Taubman’s behavior immediately after the outburst. The Astros were aggressive in their defense of Taubman, stating “The story posted by Sports Illustrated is misleading and completely irresponsible. An Astros player was being asked questions about a difficult outing. Our executive was supporting the player during a difficult time. His comments had everything to do about the game situation that just occurred and nothing else – they were also not directed toward any specific reporters. We are extremely disappointed in Sports Illustrated’s attempt to fabricate a story where one does not exist”. Taubman issued a statement on Tuesday saying “This past Saturday, during our clubhouse celebration, I used inappropriate language for which I am deeply sorry and embarrassed. In retrospect, I realized that my comments were unprofessional and inappropriate. My overexuberance in support of a player has been misinterpreted as a demonstration of a regressive attitude about an important social issue. Those that know me know that I am a progressive and charitable member of the community, and a loving and committed husband and father. I hope that those who do not know me understand that the Sports Illustrated article does not reflect who I am or my values. I am sorry if anyone was offended by my actions”. Major League Baseball has stated that they will be investigating the incident. From what I have read, the Astros have still not retracted their statement on Taubman. Taubman himself has admitted to the accusations and released a statement about it, but the Astros have still not yet released a statement either apologizing to the reporters or retracting their initial statement. In my opinion, Taubman’s apology was a non-apology. He doesn’t have true remorse for his actions and is only sorry if people are offended by his statement. The Astros have created their own firestorm around their franchise and deserve all the backlash that is going to be heading their way. They should of stated that there would be an internal investigation and leave it at that. But deliberately throwing the reporter under the bus after she was verbally attacked by a front office member and saying that she is lying about the information is just plain pathetic. Especially when Taubman’s sole intent of targeting her was because of her involvement in domestic violence issues. I don’t see how Taubman keeps his job and I don’t see why anyone else would ever want to touch him with a 100 foot pole after how he handled himself and shown the world how insensitive he is about domestic violence.

I think Albers is definitely gone so that's one open spot. They can remove Freitas-Saladino-Austin and that's 4 spots. Plus Faria and Black are out of options but on the 40-man roster. Besides Knebel and Wahl they also have rule 5 guys: Ray-Brown-Erceg-Fryereisan-Webb to make decisions on early next year. I would think Ray and Feyereisen are the two locks to be protected. Ray since he was their first round pick from a few years back and Feyereisen since they traded for him in September knowing he wouldn’t make an impact in 2019. I don’t think the other three are at risk of being taken in the rule 5 draft.

Holy... Mother... Of... THIN!

Absolutely. The lack of throwing the ball downfield allows the defense to have all 11 men within 10 yards of the ball all the time. Outside of maybe one or two throws a game of 15+ yards downfield, teams don’t even worry about us beating them deep knowing that we may do it once in a game and then never go back to it. Even if they beat you deep once for a long touchdown pass, that’s only one score. Continue packing it in and stop the run because them continuing to look for the deep ball just isn’t going to happen. The Badgers are a very easy team to play defense against knowing that you can pack 8 in the box every single down and not worry about the deep ball. Because it’s just not coming. Obviously the defense needs to execute, but the lack of throwing downfield or even attempting to do so is holding the offense back.

I’m on board with this even though I highly doubt they would even consider doing that. I wish they would just go back to the Barrel Man instead of Bernie Brewer. It’s much more of an iconic look and has some flair instead of just a man with a mustache. The Barrel Man should definitely make a comeback as the official mascot.

I would love if their Friday home game jersey became their everyday jersey and logo. The ball in glove logo with the blue pinstripe jersey is the cleanest and coolest look they have in my opinion.

I thought it was funny during the broadcast today that they came back from a commercial break and didn’t show the referee giving the ruling on a challenged play and instead had the announcer just say the result quickly before the next play. He said that the NFL is trying to maintain a good pace of play so they cut out the referees announcing the result of a challenge. Wow, because that’s a great way of saving time! Removing the referees from explaining how and why they came to the conclusion that they did on a play. No, it’s because you’re filling your pockets on more advertisements instead of actually showing the game. Just like once in a while they will come back from break and they will be in the middle of a play instead of getting you back to the programming in time. Sometimes that happens on the opening kickoff of games as well. Rant over.

He isn't that good. He never has been, people have been assuming he'll be good when healthy based on draft status. He's an OK second corner at this point, when healthy, which is almost never. Alexander is the clearly superior player. They've had much worse players back there and he's probably passable if we are getting to the QB, but I think at this point we can say he's an average player. Another TT blunder. Passed up TJ Watt to trade down for King, who was injury prone coming out of college. I remember that draft as I was hoping the Packers would take Dalvin Cook, but took Kevin King instead. Jones is a good back, but man would it be fun having that monster paired up with Rodgers in the backfield on Sundays.

Vintage Rodgers today! Love seeing them finally throwing down field consistently! Hopefully that continues! The last couple seasons with McCarthy and the first few weeks with LaFleur were a ton of backwards passes and 4 yard outs all the time. I really hope this continues and they keep throwing downfield like they did so well the first 8 or 9 years with Rodgers at the helm. This could be a special team with the added playmakers they have on defense if the offense continues to be explosive.

Glad the Astros could pull it out in the end! Could this be the most talented starting staffs to ever face off in the World Series?

The Packers really did play well outside of the turnovers. We still scored 23 points while “throwing” an interception near the goal line, fumbling in Lions territory while driving down the field, and the muffed punt return. The Packers gave away 3 possessions and still somehow found a way to win. It was one of those games where the Packers really played well offensively and defensively and probably should of put up 35 points in the game. Outside of the two big passes for the Lions, they couldn’t move the ball at all on our defense.

The last quadruple-double was David Robinson in 1994. I’ll say Giannis will have one quadruple-double this season with the Bucks putting up another 60+ win season.

They didn't show it but they talked about it as it was happening. How can they top the Game 3 antics? Check this out! Yankees as a team, I have no problem with. It's the fans!! https://sports.yahoo.com/yankees-fans-zack-greinke-social-anxiety-032417563.html Again, I never heard this mentioned at all yet after the game. Their fans are terrible. Good for Greinke for just brushing them off. Man would I love to have Greinke back pitching for the Brewers!

I wasn’t able to watch Game 3 between the Astros and Yankees, but did the TV broadcast discuss how the fans were throwing things on the field or show it while it was happening? I never heard anything about it until just a few minutes ago. Kinda surprising how something as serious as that wasn’t making headlines at all. I would guess it’s because it’s the Yankees and they don’t want to paint them and their franchise in such a negative light like that. If Brewers fans did that during the playoffs, it would be talked about for a week about how bad our fans are.