RollieTime

Yes, please. We'd probably have to throw a 3rd back their way, but holy crap that'd be an exciting first day. EDIT: Actually, 12 and 75 is almost perfect for 24 and 27- 1415 vs. 1420. Again, throw the scoring out when you're talking about a team desperate to move up for a QB in the first place, then set it on fire in the garbage when you're talking about John Gruden doing so. I'd make them overpay and if they didn't, I'd just take the QB Lock or Jones or whoever it is that they're obviously trying to move up to get. But that would be a nice get. BUT...for arguments sake, Ed Oliver has dropped to 12 along with...Lock from Missou and the Raiders are offering you that pick? Do you then make that trade? I'm guessing you're operating under the assumption that some of the elite talents will be gone, but what do we need more, a bunch of late 1st and 2nd round picks, or an elite difference maker who has drawn comps to John Randle and Aaron Donald and for good reason? If Oliver is there, you need to take him. Packers can’t be passing up elite defenders (even if he is only a prospect at this point). Packers probably won’t have a first round pick this high for quite a few years. I’ll be very disappointed if they trade down if he’s available. On another note, I’m not sure if anybody has mentioned it or heard about it or not, but I see in 2016, Jeffery Simmons repeatedly punched a 30 year old woman because of a family disputes between his sister and the 30 year old woman. It’s tough to tell but it looks like he punched her 6-7 times while she was on the ground. It’s a hard pass on Simmons for me. That’s a character issue in my eyes and not just a one time incident with how violent the altercation on video was. Even if it was a one time incident and he hasn’t struck anyone since, I still have no interest in drafting him. But the way he handled that situation, that is how he is.

This is what I’m hoping the Packers do with their first few picks. With the number 12 pick, I’m hoping for Montez Sweat. If Sweat is off the board, I would hope Hockenson is still available. If those two are gone, I would look to trade down to the 16-20 range unless someone like Ed Oliver is somehow still available at 12. For pick 30, S Nasir Adderley would be my top choice here and I think he has a good shot at being available at 30. Noah Fant would be my second choice if we were unable to land Hockenson at 12. WR Marquise Brown would be my third option, but I don’t think he will make it to us here. At 44, WR Riley Ridley is my top choice as a replacement for Cobb in the slot from Day 1. Otherwise, WR Deebo Samuel would be my second choice here to replace Cobb. Packers lack speed at WR and struggle at getting separation. Adding a couple young wide receivers to open up the field would be a welcome addition to this team. At 75, OL Tytus Howard is my top pick. He might not be available at 75, but if he is, he could be a steal. OL Yodny Cajuste would be my second choice, but he does have injury concerns. TE Jace Sternberger is my third choice if we still haven’t drafted a tight end up to this point. Excited to get the draft underway! It’ll be interesting to see what Gutekunst does in his second draft.

I’m shocked he could be had for only $2 million even if he does have an additional $2 million in incentives. Great signing!

Roster Update: Francis to Double-A; Andrews added from AZL Brewers Blue The Brewers promoted RHP Bowden Francis from the Mudcats to Double-A Biloxi and transferred LHP Clayton Andrews to the Mudcats from the AZL Brewers Blue Awesome, thank you!

Look at his stats for his career. He had one outlier season in 2017 and that’s it. Aguilar was much more productive than Smoak last season and we are trying to dump him for a guy who has one good season to his name? AND giving up a prospect to get him? While also adding roughly $8 million in payroll? This trade would make no sense in any way. So 2018 (and so far in 19) are not that good? 2018 is not that good no. I don’t consider a .240 hitter to be good. Obviously he’s hitting well to start the year, but he will almost definitely finish the season hitting well below .300. He’s never hit over .270 and has only hit over .240 twice in his 9 year career. We already have plenty of guys that hit some homeruns and provide nothing else offensively. We already have our own Smoak in Thames. If he was given 500 plate appearances, he will finish in that .240/.330 range with 25 homeruns just like Smoak.

Not an upgrade? 2017- 38 hr .270 .355 .529 .883 131 2018- 25 hr .243 .350 .458 .808 124 This year even better .313 .439 .1021 176 If we’re gonna ask for salary relief, they going to want bigger prospect package. They won’t want Thames and his salary. Smoak > Aguilar & diplan. Look at his stats for his career. He had one outlier season in 2017 and that’s it. Aguilar was much more productive than Smoak last season and we are trying to dump him for a guy who has one good season to his name? AND giving up a prospect to get him? While also adding roughly $8 million in payroll? This trade would make no sense in any way.

I don’t see Smoak as being an upgrade at first at all. Plus adding his $8 million contract over Aguilar’s half a million wouldn’t make much sense. Adding that payroll for a guy that wouldn’t even be an upgrade isn’t really worth it.

If Moose needs to hit the IL, I wonder if Hiura will get the call for a week or two to play second. It would be a good opportunity for him to come up for a short time to see what he can do against MLB pitching.

Really like the move of Grandal at first. Pina is a step up defensively at catcher in my opinion and getting Thames and Aguilar out of the lineup is an added bonus right now. One of those two needs to step up when given the opportunity.

What a thread to read, wow.... Bashing on Stearns for “not addressing pitching” is so far off. He expected our bullpen to consist of Hader, Knebel, Jeffress, Claudio, Wahl, Guerra, and “hopefully” good Albers. That is an absolute filthy bullpen. Most people were excited that the young guys were getting their opportunity in the rotation. Chacin and Davies are solid while Peralta has his up and down games, with Burnes and Woodruff showing they can dominate good lineups on the biggest stage last season out of the pen. Having Anderson as a replacement for an ineffective starter was smart roster construction. Stearns probably expected Nelson to come back a couple months into the season and he would kick the least effective starter from the rotation. That’s two solid options to help out early in the season. The issue with this is that the bullpen was decimated by injuries one week before Opening Day. 4 of the 5 starters have been bad their first few starts to the season. Nobody expected all 3 of the young guys to get lit up this badly. Even if only two of them struggled, it would be manageable. But Stearns is caught in a position where pretty much all of the starters have been ineffective and the fantastic bullpen got riddled with injuries. It’s hard to be disappointed in the roster construction when all he had left to pick from one week prior to the season starting was guys that every other team passed on for their bullpen. And I’ve seen people mention in the past that maybe Stearns should of gotten relief help instead of signing Grandal. The Grandal signing was in January. The Brewers lost all their relievers in March. Stearns doesn’t know who is going to get hurt in the future. They will whether the storm as best as they can until a few of the starters dial it in, Nelson returns, and continue to patch work the bullpen. There truly is nothing you can do to replace that much ineffectiveness and injuries.

I thought that was odd too. Saving bullets ... or an audition for a different role? I would guess it’s to limit his innings since we will need him down the stretch whether it’s in a starting or relieving role.

I haven’t heard anything about Clayton Andrews since Spring Training. Is he hurt at the moment or is something else going on?

I would love Sweat at 12. He was the one guy I was hoping would somehow fall to the Packers prior to the heart condition coming out. But now I think it is much more likely. Sweat is an absolute athletic freak. His heart condition is a red flag, but he is exactly what the Packers have lacked on defense for a few years. Sweat has the ability to be a player similar to Mack. If he is somehow there for the Packers, I don’t see how you could pass on him. When you have the chance to get a guy with that kind of talent, you need to take it. Packers need an absolute force on defense and I see Sweat being that type of player from day 1. I don’t see the Packers having another top 15 pick for quite a few years unless they trade up. This is their year to hit big on a high first round pick. Hopefully Sweat drops to the Packers at 12 and hopefully the Packers are confident enough in his medicals that they won’t pass on him.

Brent Suter was on MLB Central this morning and said that he will be back throwing off a mound in 3-4 weeks and hoping to be fully back by late July or early August. As of right now, he is throwing 4 days per week. Great news on Suter this morning. Hopefully he is able to come back and pitch effectively for the Brewers down the stretch in 2019.

Yelich is God.

See post #185 on page 10. How many losses would Kimbrel have turned into a win so far? IMO, last night possibly, and I say possibly, may have been the first one. And that would only be if Counsell would have pulled Hader in the 8th and inserted Kimbrel, which is very questionable speculation because Kimbrel has mostly been a traditional 1 inning closer and the Brewers did not have the lead when Hader gave up the home run. The closer is completely meaningless if the pitching staff can't get the job done through the first 8 innings and so far the Brewer pitching staff has not gotten the job done through the first 8 innings. Pitchers like Keuchel and Gonzalez make much more sense for Milwaukee. In my opinion you’re ignoring how great and dominant a pitcher Kimbrel is. A potential future Hall of Fame best of all time reliever for under market value and you don’t want him because he’s A traditional one inning closer? I’ll take KNOWING the game is OVER if the crew leading after 8. Kimbrel is one piece to getting back our pen of dominance that we had last year, and with Hader we’d have the 2 MOST DOMINANT pen arms in all of baseball. Over the coming months someone from down under will be worthy of bringing up that can also help the pen. Then near or at the deadline a Soria type arm Then we have our superpen back and maybe we can go win this thing. People know how dominant Kimbrel is. If the offense isn’t scoring, he can’t be used. If we are frequently playing from behind, he won’t be used. The offense appears to be the big issue right now with very little production outside of a couple guys. A contract of 3/$45 million is a significant amount of money for a reliever. What if he continues to regress from last season’s results? Tying that money up on a reliever is a huge risk. I personally don’t see Stearns giving that kind of money to a relief pitcher. He seems to value hitters and views them as less of a risk and having a larger impact over the course of a season than a starter or relief pitcher. Can he surprise us and sign Kimbrel? It’s possible, but highly unlikely. I would prefer to maintain financial flexibility going into the offseason than being tied down to an expensive reliever that has shown signs of regressing.

I think this is the right move. You can’t have a young guy lose all his confidence this early in his career. Everything was getting hit hard and he needs to develop trust in his other offerings. Putting him in the bullpen would not help him work on his off speed pitches. The long term plan is for Burnes to be in the rotation, so they chose the route that will put him in a position to continue developing his pitches and hopefully help him regain some confidence by dominating some minor league hitters.

Even though Hiura has only had a small taste of AAA, is it possible that he could be up with the Brewers in the next couple weeks? It may sound far-fetched, but I could see Hiura coming up in the very near future (possibly a few days from now). I’m not sure of the exact day, but in only a few days from now, the Brewers will gain the extra year of control. I don’t think they need to wait for Super 2 to pass as putting the best team on the field right now is what’s most important. With Aguilar struggling and Thames not providing much offensively for a while, could Thames find himself sent to the minors with Hiura coming up? I personally don’t think Moose was signed to be at second all season and that it was done incase of injuries or lack of production from guys at first or third. Hiura would provide a right handed bat to the lineup and allow Moose and Shaw to man first and third. Stearns may want Hiura to get a little more time in AAA, but if he continues to produce and the Brewers are getting little to no production at first, it may force his hand to give Hiura a chance sooner rather than later. With Hiura being able to be brought up in the next few days while getting the extra year of control, how early do you think we could see Hiura arrive in Milwaukee?

I think we could see a move sooner rather than later at first base. One possible guy that is still waiting to be signed is Danny Valencia. I mentioned him earlier in the offseason as a guy that could provide very good production as a right handed platoon hitter. He’s a career .312 hitter with an OPS of .864 against lefties. He has solid power and would be a guy that can mash left handed pitching. He can play either third or first and would allow Counsell to get creative to get certain guys in the lineup. It was obvious going into the season that the Brewers could have serious issues with left handed pitching. The Brewers just don’t have a consistent right handed bat in the lineup outside of Cain and Braun (who has struggled so far this season outside of a few timely hits).

At least through 2020 there is a buyout for $4m in 2021 which seems like the Brewers will do this. And he will get $1.8 million each year from 2022-2031. We will have our very own Ryan Braun Day!

Brewers might be forced to do something with Burnes soon. It’s going to start to get in his head and you don’t want him to completely lose his confidence this early in his career. Whether it’s putting him in the bullpen or sending him down for a few starts, something is going to need to happen. I was the least concerned with Burnes of all 3 going into the year, but the results just aren’t there.

Burnes has been living on the corner today and his one mistake pitch is crushed for a homer.

Our 4-8 hitters today all have a .230 batting average or lower... Yuck. That won’t last all season obviously, but there is a lot of room for improvement offensively for this team. When these other guys start producing, watch out! This offense is going to put up big numbers.

Love the lineup! I thought Gamel would be a guy that would hit at or near the top of the lineup frequently. Glad to see Grandal moved up to third today. Yelich needs some protection as I would guess that the Cardinals are going to walk him multiple times today, even if there is a runner or two on. Make the other guys who have been struggling beat you. Hopefully those guys step up and start producing sooner rather than later.

Connaughton is a solid player that does pretty much everything well. Looks like we have him under contract (non-guaranteed contract) for next season, but I see no way that it is not picked up since it’s under $2 million. Connaughton fits this team well and is a spark off the bench.