Ron Robinsons Beard

That said ... if Kluber rebounds and pitches well and injury-free for the Rangers, this will be a pretty clear miss for our front office.

Nope...Brewers couldn't have met or exceeded this?? They very easily could have. I assume that he had too many red flags for the Brewers to consider at this point, because the Indians practically gave him away if that is all the return is.

Seems fair. I would guess Garcia's production is similar to Castellano's going forward for far less of a cost. No Agreed. I think Castellanos's breakout last year, especially after being traded to the Cubs, was legit. I really wish/hope that the Brewers are looking at him, because I think he's going to be great, especially if he stays in the NL. Garcia is not a bad player, though. Definitely a better defender than Castellanos, and a solid bat in his own right. Would be a nice stick to add to the lineup, assuming we can find a LH power stick for 3B.

They are literally trying to sell off parts of their core to save money. This would make very little sense.

Ryu is a soft tosser with pinpoint control. Sabathia threw gas when he was a Brewer. Pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum.

Gosh, I sure hope so. I mean, maybe there's something there I'm not seeing, but I look at that system, and I just see nothing that piques my interest. A lot of young foreign signings at the top, along with a few recently drafted college arms and some former overly hyped prospects who are still hanging around the periphery of the prospect window. To deal Hader, if we are doing it for prospects, I want one "can't miss blue-chipper" and the Yankees system simply doesn't have any. And I don't think it is in the Brewers' best interest to deal off the guy who has been voted the best reliever in the game two years running for a package of the Yankees' spare parts.

Are you implying that the same front office that you have lauded for solid, if not brilliant, moves will be snowed over by the Yankee hype machine if they take Dominguez? I mean, don't we have our own metrics and scouts that tell us what we like and what we don't like and haven't you bought into that completely? You can be disappointed but you've made it a habit of scolding folks that have been disappointed by some of the moves the team has made this off season so don't you have to follow your own advice here. If DS thinks Dominguez is the guy they want for Hader then don't we apply the same thinking here? Yeah. But that doesn't mean I can't be disappointed because we'd have to wait around for a 16 year old. You're right ... this front office is good, and if they want this kid, it would be a for a reason. It would probably be a solid move for the future of the ballclub, as the Brewers don't find themselves owning youngsters with that type of hype very often, and I imagine it would certainly help the health of the system to have a supposed high-end talent like that in it. But a 16-year-old? Sheesh. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I don't have much interest in waiting around for that. And I don't trust the Yankees system. That said, everyone is allowed to have opinions on moves, and anyone can disagree with them and criticize them. That's what this is all about. Perhaps I need to learn just to scroll past the negative and unsubstantiated stuff, but it's rough sometimes, as you know. I need to be better about getting irked about that sort of thing.

Call me non-forward thinking, but I want absolutely nothing to do with Dominguez for Hader. I know he's a nice prospect, but he's 16, and isn't going to see the majors for at least 4 years. Yipee, the Yankees threw a bunch of money at a kid last year. He's just a complete utter unknown, that is probably propped up some by Yankee prospect hype, and the fact that their system sucks. If the Brewers trade Hader to the Yankees with Dominguez as the headliner, I'll be disappointed, unless some sort of three-way deal can be worked out to garner major league-ready assets. Because centering on a 16-year-old kid simply isn't a move a contender makes. I know he can be flipped down the road, but blah. I don't want to deal with the drama of trying to flip an overhyped Yankee prospect. Sorry, the love that Estevan Florial has gotten on prospect lists over the years has made me not want to touch anyone in that system.

1 word-defense I understand that, but the Twitter trolls seem to think that Garcia's defense is bad as well.

Seeing some Twitter commenters saying that Garcia and Domingo Santana are basically the same player. I wanted to argue, but looking at their career batting numbers, there seems to be some credence to the idea. Please, someone who understands analytics better than I do explain to me how signing Garcia makes more sense than Domingo Santana, part deux.

I love Hader, and think his value is huge. But no.

I'd be willing to bet we don't know more than 2% of the details to that. Also ... who cares? How this affects the team on the field is a complete and total non-factor. Unless Prince Fielder makes a comeback and signs with the Brewers. It is easy to get past things like this as long as you win the pennant. Just ask Roger Dorn and Ricky Vaughan.

I'd be willing to bet we don't know more than 2% of the details to that. Also ... who cares? How this affects the team on the field is a complete and total non-factor.

1. J.A. Happ signed for $34 million over two seasons last year. He was so terrible in 2019 that the Yankees are looking to package him with a young asset simply to be out from under his contract. The Yankees! 2. James Shields signed a 4 year, $75 million deal with the Padres in 2015. 3. The Rockies gave Mike Hampton an 8-year, $121 million deal in 2000. 4. Barry Zito signed a 7-year, $126 million deal with the Giants in 2007. This is just the tip of the iceberg. All big names, all horrible production. It happens more than you think.

There's been plenty of big-name "splash" starting pitcher signings who have turned out to be terrible over the years. Signing a big-name pitcher guarantees you nothing other than owing that guy a lot of money. In the interest of keeping this thread from turning into yet another debate on signing pitchers to $100 million deals, lets keep it on Brett Anderson. If he stays healthy, he's a solid MLB starter for a team that is in need of solid MLB starters.

Hasn't it been kind of understood that WAR is a pretty terrible, or at least inefficient way to judge reliever value? I know there are teams out there who don't value relief pitchers very highly. In this particular case, though, all it's going to take is finding one who does.

I'd agree, if the performance of the starting pitching was the overriding reason for the team not moving on in the playoffs in 2018 and 2019. The playoff starting pitching has been very good, though. Once you make the playoffs, it's a whole different dynamic. The starting staff has been effective enough to get them to the tourney. That's what's most important.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/12/brewers-interested-in-avisail-garcia.html This is a pretty underwhelming write-up, as the writer basically overlooks that Yelich won his Gold Glove in Miami as a left fielder, and they would likely be moving him back there on a full-time basis should Garcia be signed. The only alignment that makes sense is Yelich in LF, Cain in CF and Garcia in RF, with Braun playing predominantly at 1B, while sprinkling in in LF on Yelich/Garcia rest days.

Agree that the current rotation doesn't look good especially if we want to contend. I hope Stearns is getting a #1 SP and move Woodruff to #2 to improve the rotation. I much prefer Houser to be in the bullpen where he has been great. I think Lindblom is a good addition, Lauer got rushed up but he is a very good prospect, Anderson is more like the 5th starter and he seems like an injury waiting to happen. Stearns please get a #1 SP so that we can contend for the WS while we still have Yelich. I disagree. Right now the current makeup of the rotation is very similar to what it's been the last three years. Of course, this team has been a contender the last three years. Especially in 2018, when they were one bad inning from a World Series birth.

Couple of things...you're right, at best he's a solid 3/4...the problem is and has been, Stearns signs guys that should be NO better than really 4-5 guys and one of them has to be a 2. He's been playing russian roulette with the rotation and so far it's worked, but it's not sustainable. Which brings me to my next point..I see everyone when they sign a cheap guy like this say "well, if he bombs, he only cost xxx amount of money, as if the low amount of money mitigates the disaster. Only in reality, you shouldn't look at it in terms of what he costs as far as it not making it bad..the RESULTS are what end up being bad, and costing the team dearly if it doesn't work out. You can't say "well, he was bad, but he was only 5 million". The 5 million doesn't make it okay if he's bad. The results are the problem if they are bad. Finally, I see people talk about "well, I like this signing of so and so, because it still leaves them money to go out and sign someone for more". In theory, that's correct. However, they are sitting on a boatload of $$ right now, but the problem is....there isn't really anyone left to give that money to. At this point, to me, if they "use up" all of their money and have the same payroll as last year(for example), then they likely severely overpaid someone to use up what they have. You repeatedly say that you are looking for "proven" guys, and Anderson went 13-9 with a 3.8 ERA last year. He carries an ERA just over 4 in 176 career starts. He isn't an ace, but he's a proven MLB-caliber mid-rotation starting pitcher. I just don't think that the Brewers are ever going to be in the market for the big name over-hyped guys that you seen to be craving.

My first choice for a right-handed power stick would be Castellanos, but his prospective price might be a detriment, especially if he's looking at near $20 million AAV on a 5-7 year deal. Garcia would be a pretty nice fallback option, depending on price and overall length of the contract. Being that he's only 28 years old, I'd be comfortable signing him for more than one year.

At least there's a silver. Last couple years it's been a bunch of fat kids at Field Day.

But this guys been a better pitcher than Nelson, so why? Significantly better than Gausman, too. I mean, I guess you could say that Gausman and Nelson have higher upsides? Probably a lot lower floors, though, too. Anderson is an ideal "back of the rotation" type starter. It appears that the Brewers are taking a leap of faith in hoping they have a few pitchers who perform better than that, so that he turns out to be the fourth or fifth best starter. If he manages to put up the same numbers he did as an Athletic, and he's the Brewers 4th or 5th best starter, we're probably looking at another division championship.

I see you follow Brewer World on Twitter as well. Guy is a total goofball, but he's gotta have some sort of inside info source, because his batting average is trending pretty high.

Brett Anderson has a little more of an injury history, and wasn't as solid at the beginning of his career as Miley, but also wasn't nearly as terrible as Miley was before his time as a Brewer. But the two of them compare pretty favorably stuff and makeup wise.