Ron Robinsons Beard

You should probably temper your expectations. Money available is NOT a blank check. I don't know if there can be any expectations that can even be tempered yet, as the market of who is going to be potentially available is clear as mud right now. I mean we can make some guesses, but a lot of the names being thrown about right now are only marginal upgrades, if upgrades at all in my opinion. Brew crew 92, just reading the tone of your post, it appears as if you are either skeptical or you don't expect the Brewers to make upgrades this year. It looks as if you are greasing your own wheels to be mad if/when the upgrades you're expecting don't happen. Am I off base in this assumption?

If I were making the decisions, I would have gone with a 12-man staff and optioned Barnes or Burnes to AAA. But I'm not, and they made the roster decision they did for a reason. It's done ... and continuing to harp on it is pretty much just sour grapes at this point. All we can do as fans is hope Shaw finds his bat, and Hiura mashes his way back up to Milwaukee before the end of June.

Long term, no, absolutely not. For today, sure. The offense has been trash the last two days with "traditional" types in the 4-hole. Why not shake things up a bit? At this point, it can't hurt.

No denying this hurts our chances of winning the division Hurts our chances, absolutely. But the season is far from over. The Brewers have a ton of talent, and we'll have opportunities to improve our weaknesses over the next couple months as well. The Cubs look better on paper right now, but what if the Brewers add Smoak, Will Smith, and Stroman? Do they still look better? Maybe...but it's a lot closer. And again, that's on paper. Even if we don't add, the team is still good enough to seriously contend. Nobody is talking about taking our ball and going home. The Cubs were better on paper last year as well. The season, with its ebbs and flows, is what makes following the game great. I don't think anyone was expecting the rest of the NL Central to roll over and hand multiple division championships to the Brewers during this 3-4 year contention window. The Kimbrel signing may very well make the Cubs better. But the only reason the Cubs are looking to get better is because that pesky team to the north beat them out for the division crown last year, and is threatening to continue messing up Chicago's perceived contention window, as they already have. All I know is that if the Brewers had signed Kimbrel to that kind of deal, all we'd hear out of Chicago sports talk today is how the Brewers made a panic move because they are afraid of the Cubs. Perhaps there is something to that in this case, and Brewer fans should be looking at this as a panic move by the Cubs to counteract the Brewers.

I'd certainly prefer Hiura in today's lineup as well against a tough lefty, but considering the decision the team made, the roster is what it is for the time being. Considering how it appears on the surface they are not built to face tough lefties, they've actually fared pretty well against them for the most part this year. Getting Aguilar going would certainly help matters. If he was doing anything close to what he was at this time last year, and what he is capable of, he'd be the clean-up man today.

Yes. I cannot believe they would put a guy slashing .311/.354/.600/.954 against LHP this year in the 4-hole. Crazy! Never let stats get in the they way of agendas! You know the rules!

Good idea, I agree. Probably hard regardless of that. The Brewers can dream of being a sustainable contender for years, but my personal opinion is to chase windows and endure the bad rebuilds if need be. But no reason that window can't be another 3-5 years depending on some things going right...even if they purge some good prospect capital. I think our prospects at this point look very uninspiring and the odds they can refuel this team years from now if not the greatest of odds. I think it will take some brass ones from Stearns. Tampa Bay was good last year...not awesome but in many years that team makes the wild card. They looked to be good again this year. But they still went ahead and traded Archer mid-season and now are even better than they were last year and have a nice core going forward. I'm not saying the Brewers have the same opportunity to trade a guy like Archer but that's the kind of thing Stearns is going to have to do in order to remain competitive. So basically opposite of what the Pirates did to get Archer. I could see something like this happening this year. Say for instance the Rangers manage to go on a run and get into Wild Card contention. I could see them making a play for someone like Moustakas ... and I could see the Brewers listening to offers on him, assuming Shaw rebounds and Hiura continues to mash in AAA. If you could get them to pay up to the tune of a Hans Crouse and maybe a reliever, it would be hard not to consider it.

The Giants system is not good. If anything, it's pretty bottom heavy, so I imagine they are going to look for guys with solid upside who they would be able to promote quickly, with an eye on a quick rebuild and possibly contention in 2020-21. Dubon and Brown certainly fit that window, but Brown hasn't looked great this year after his breakout last season. If you're looking for guys with helium, pitchers like Aaron Ashby, Thomas Jankins or Trey Supak would be appealing. Drew Rasmussen is certainly looking the part of a potential late-inning reliever. Grisham is having a fine season and is rebuilding his prospect value. As a rental, the Giants aren't going to be able to get a huge haul for Smith. I would think Grisham makes sense as a headliner, perhaps with either a lower level upside arm or potential bullpen piece added in. Maybe something like Grisham and Jankins, Derby or Miguel Sanchez?

Sorry, that was me who brought that up. I fear the real point was missed, though.

I have a sneaking suspicion that we're going to see "Good Freddy" today. My only concern is if they'll have him on a limited pitch count because he hasn't started in awhile.

But wouldn't taking a 96-win team, and adding the best catcher and one of the best infield bats on the market be considered "win now" moves? As for who on this team is going to be a productive member is two years, that is pretty tough to speculate, but I would imagine other than Arcia and Yelich, we'll see Woodruff, Davies, Burnes, Peralta, Nelson, Hader, Houser, and Knebel leading the pitching staff. As for bats, that is obviously a little more up in the air. Gamel is proving to be a potential building block. He's technically not on the team right now, but Hiura is an obvious building block. Shaw has two more years of team control after 2019. Cain is having a rough patch, but is under team control through 2022. It's tough for me to see both the current and future of this team and not have optimism.

It is a great feature, which I've employed to great success, especially in the IGTs. But when someone literally takes over multiples threads a day, it tends to make those threads pretty choppy to follow. It is certainly a solid option, though.

Moose, Grandal and Lorenzo Cain say hi

Even if there was some truth to the "lying owner" narrative, what would be the logical response as a fan base? Show up at Attanasio's house with torches and pitchforks? No ... if you are that incensed with ownership and the team's leadership structure, your only recourse as a fan is to stop buying merchandise, and stop going to games. Basically boycott. That would probably include ceasing all posting on websites dedicated to hardcore fans of said franchise as well. I guess I prefer to root for the guys we do have, and continue to hope that this already good team continues to improve.

Plus, he's mainly just a one inning guy with no flexibility beyond pitching ninth innings. If i was running a team with a huge revenue stream, then maybe i could justify spending 15 million per on a one inning reliever, but not a team lacking large market revenues. As brewers fans I can’t blame anyone for trying to rationalize this, it’s human nature. Some of us have been saying how unfair the economic’s of baseball are to a team such as the crew, but you know what, it’s a crutch, a reason or a way for an owner to make a certain profit every year with impunity, like our owner is. I remember our owner when we rebuilt In 2015 2016 2017 and we had nothing payrolls, maybe it was before the rebuild, saying we could bank $ for use in a competitive year. So instead, new concessions, new ST facilities, buy the Carolina team > all making the franchise worth more. Why not put your money where your mouth is mr owner. Buy the Carolina team after a one year, temporary 160 mil payroll so we have an opportunity, A REAL OPPORTUNITY TO COMPETE WITH THE 200++ PAYROLLS. You do realize you are talking about a team that won 96 games last year, and is on a similar pace again, right? I mean, I would get it if the Brewers were operated like the they were in the Selig-Prieb years, but they just aren't. We have an owner who took a great team and went out and spent substantially in free agency this offseason. Perhaps, and I'm just speculating here, the Brewers didn't see Craig Kimbrel as the sound investment you do. A lot of other teams didn't sign him either. But please, PLEASE, stop beating this horse. The thing is a rotting corpse. I know people are going to say "just don't read it then." Well, that's impossible, because you bring these same ideas to multiple posts constantly. Enough already. Kimbrel is a Cub. Move on.

Sheesh. If you're that upset, the Cubs bandwagon has room for you. I hear they just signed your favorite closer. The Milwaukee Brewers are the defending NL Central champs. They were one game from a World Series appearance. They were in 1st place in the division going into tonight's game. Losing out on a reliever that is likely going to give them 35 innings this season is far from a death sentence.

I'll tell you what's going to be annoying - constantly seeing that Lurch-like "wind-up" from Kimbrel when the Brewers play the Cubs.

Adrian Houser has clearly pitched himself off the San Antonio shuttle. If Freddy scuffles tomorrow, Houser may be the next guy to see significant starts. He certainly has a solid starter's repertoire.

Baseball is a wonderfully maddening game.

Oh come on ... you know that if you repeat the the same idea over and over enough times, it becomes fact!

Coulda made that same argument last year, at least until August when the Brewers pen took off. That's why they play the games.

Ryan Braun is not the player he once was, but man that swing is still beautiful.

Yay ... another potential appearance from 'ole Rubber Arm Alex.

I'm happy he signed somewhere. Not happy it was with the Cubs, but whatever. Time to move on. Cubs have potentially one of the best closers in the game. The Brewers KNOW they have one of the best closers in the game. This move makes the race more exciting.

Not as pathetic as scoring one run of offense in two games I'm afraid. Just a wet fart all around.