Ron Robinsons Beard

That's just the uncertainty of baseball though. It also kind of reinforces the point that people are making about things going right one year and changing the next. Nelson was hurt, but Anderson and Davies were probably just "career year" guys in 2017. Things don't all carry over. The fact that they could replace them is exactly what people mean when they say a lot of things went right. How often do we expect them to piece together a playoff supporting cast from rejects? How often do we expect Yelich and Cain to be arguably the two most valuable position players in the NL by WAR? Very few people praise the front office more than I do, but they can't control things like injuries and slumps and payroll constraints career years not being sustainable. I think they're arguably the best in the business, but it's going to be hard to continue to be that good. Last year did have a bit of a magical quality to it, which was part of the fun, but there's no reason they should be presumed favorites over teams that are just as talented, if not more so. They didn't have nearly the unexpected bad performances and crucial injuries that the Cubs did, for example, and they were tied after 162 games. That's why projections and predicting final standings pretty much amount to a hill of beans. MLB players have 162 games to prove them wrong. But it's March, and we still are three weeks out from meaningful baseball. Discussions like these serve as a time filler and get you fired up for actual baseball to start. Last year those of us who predicted the Brewers to be a playoff and NL Central title contender were pretty strongly opposed by those that saw that upstart 2017 team as an aberration. Well now this core has two years of solid play on the record, and the 2019 squad looks even better on paper. To me there's not many reasons not to be optimistic.

Nailed it.

Removal was precautionary:

Yep. If they didn't switch to the hideous MB logo in 1994, it wouldn't be a "thing". But the mid-90s was when MLB merchandising was really starting to take off, and the Brewers were trying to capitalize. That logo was so, so bad, though.

Reactionary signings can be a scary proposition. I'm all for stacking talent, though.

Also, Robbie Ray is mowing down the Brewers' lineup so far. 8 Ks through 4 2/3 innings. They might have some rough games against tough lefties this year.

Jeffress pulled after 3 pitches in today's game. He seemed to be fighting Counsell to stay in, so hopefully its just precautionary. I didn't see anything alarming looking at the pitches he threw, but Counsell/Hook must have saw something. He's been slowed by a sore shoulder early in camp.

Yep, if the Brewers try to pull these sort of shenanigans with a veteran ML pitcher in order to backdoor their way to an extra year of control, they deserve all the negative press they'd be likely to get. Fortunately I don't think Stearns and the rest of the team's management would even think of operating this way.

Anderson was a legit #2 in 2017, and Davies was a terrific #3. If you would have told me in spring of last year that Davies would miss most of the season, Anderson would lead the league in HRs given up, and Nelson wouldn't throw a pitch all year, I probably would have predicted the team to win 70 games. That's not even taking into account that Santana completely fell off the rails, Arcia couldn't hit his way out of a paper bag, and Thames severely regressed, as did Pina and Shaw for a big part of the year. The Brewers had plenty of problems in 2018, and they managed to overcome them. I expect them to have problems in 2019 as well, and I expect them to overcome those as well.

-Christian Yelich likely isn't HGH era Barry Bonds yet we got half a season of it out of him. Maybe he is? Most everyone predicted that his numbers would improve as he hit his prime while playing half his games in a park extremely friendly to LH hitters. That proved correct last year. -Cain was healthy and played well all year on the wrong side of 30. I know he's "different" but there's definitely a chance of him falling off. Well, there's a chance that anyone can fall off, but Cain has been consistently pretty much the same player for 8 years. No one can predict injury, but I think it's safe to say that if he stays healthy, he should remain his consistent self. -Other than a Knebel hiccup, the "big 3" in the bullpen pitched lights out all year. Jeffress's dominant numbers certainly came out of nowhere, but Knebel has a successful track record, and Hader was pitching in his first full season. No reason to believe that what we saw from him won't continue. Relievers are volatile, obviously, which makes performance tough to predict either way. -Aguilar regressed late in the year but they got a pretty dominant out of him. Even if he ends up somewhere in between his first half and second half, he's still a valuable power threat. -The Brewers won a lot of close games. That is how they're constructed - to do exactly that...but luck can still go against them there. Well yeah, of course. They lost a lot of close ones too. That's baseball. I'm neither an optimist nor a pessimist on what they'll do this year (I truly have no idea) but it can go either way. If one fairly pegs the Brewers at 87 or 88 wins last year and this year, there's a pretty equal chance of winning 93 or 82 games. I do trust that Stearns runs things well enough that the Brewers will generally overachieve but I'm basically here to disagree with the, "well, we did really well last year so adding Keuchel and Grandal will make things better" argument. Isn't disagreeing that marked improvements to the team's perceived weaknesses won't make the team better pretty much pessimism?

Other teams got better too, and there's of course potential regression. The Cubs getting the real Kris Bryant back is going to be massive and can't be understated, and we barely edged out the Cubs. Plus, for all we know, maybe Maddon learned over the offseason how to not destroy a bullpen by mid-August. Who says the Cubs aren't going to regress? Bryant may be healthier, but still has questions marks. Can Baez repeat his near-MVP performance? Both Lester and Hamels are old, and the wheels could fly off. Darvish is a huge question mark. And it's Maddon's MO to destroy his pen, so I doubt he learned anything. I don't know how the Brewers can't be considered the favorites, until they prove otherwise.

The Brewers won the division in 2018, and the signings of Grandal and Moustakas only improve what was already a dangerous lineup. Yes they are in a tough division, but I don't see how the Brewers wouldn't already be considered the favorites. Signing a pitcher like Keuchel serves to shore up what is on paper already a strong rotation, plus he serves as a direct replacement for the team's only significant free agent loss, Miley.

Eric Weddle was released by the Ravens yesterday. He's 34 years old, but was still a top-notch safety last year. He'd be a substantially cheaper option than Landon Collins or Earl Thomas, but may only be a 1 or 2-year band-aid. He'd be a great mentor for a guy like Josh Jones, though.

Looks like there may be a quick resolution to this.

Despite trading a bunch of OFers over the past year, I still really like where this team's OF depth is at with Ray, Taylor and Stokes on the cusp, with Lutz, Gray, Bello and Ward at the lower levels. Hopefully Grisham rights the ship this year, and the position will be in a very good place. Ray is looking like a guy who is primed to make an impact one way or another at the ML level this year.

umm, this is a little ridiculous. It's early in spring training. Everyone is allowed a couple spring mulligans. My view on spring training has evolved into I celebrate when guys thrive, I shrug my shoulders when they don't. I don't declare people done or a star based on a few innings or at bats. Tomlin is here on a look see basis. His leash is shorter than the guys he's competing against. He can't afford any more stumbles like his last start or he'll end up like Gallardo did last spring. Miley had a game last spring when he was battered pretty hard, but was otherwise lights out. I would say Tomlin probably used up his mulligan, so the pressure is on now. The team also has more rotation depth than they did last year, and there's always a chance that they could still acquire Keuchel or Gonzalez, which would muddy the waters even more.

He's been pretty erratic his whole career. I hope for the Brewers' sake he skews bad again.

It doesn't appear that the Patriots are going to tag Trey Flowers. Only 25 years old and tons of potential. He is going to get big bucks from someone ... and it wouldn't surprise me if it was the Packers.

I feel like Kimbrel is more valuable than Keuchel personally. Maybe it's just the asking prices being so insane that's causing such a problem for them(and if so, I'm glad and think they deserve it). I don't want to say it's too late for them to put up a reasonable asking price, but it kinda is too late. Atlanta isn't going to all of a sudden be like "well Folty has a sore shoulder, ok Keuchel we'll pay you 6/150". Perhaps not, but if Severino's shoulder discomfort proves to be something bigger, I could see the Yankees jumping in with a short-term, high AAV deal

I don't see a free agency thread, so lets get one going. It appears that Landon Collins is going to hit the market: It wouldn't surprise me if the Packers are all over him. Safety is an enormous weak link on the team right now.

Completely agree. It is funny to me though, that Kimbrel of all people would need to “prove it”. He had some blemishes last year no doubt. But still is an all time great relief pitcher. Tough sledding for him. Asking for a $100 million contract did that guy no favors. I still kinda think the Brewers are in on Keuchel. I get the feeling the offer is something like a 2-year/$25 million deal though. He could very well be waiting out the market for a better offer. I think if he doesn't get in a camp by the end of this week, though, he won't make the start of the season, and the offers are going to just go down from there.

Wow, can you imagine what would happen if he did "get it together"? He's make the double-secret All-Star team, instead of just the regular All-Star team. His effort is worse than it's ever been, he's not fitting in to the team concept on offense, and there is such a thing as empty stats, but I'm not going to waste too much time arguing with someone who thinks the Bucks have had "a lot of talent" at point guard between Cassell and Bledsoe. His all-star berth was a nod to the Bucks' record and the fact that he was close to being an all-star for years. Awards like that are often based on many years of performance, but Bledsoe has been far better this year. Besides, the problem is not that he's bad per se. It's that he should and could be better than guys like Klay Thompson, Rip Hamilton, and Buddy Hield, but he can't be bothered to stay in shape and play hard on a consistent basis. But why address the substance of my post when you can just pretend I said he's a bad player? I probably deserved that condescension. Regarding Middleton, I guess it depends on where you think his ceiling is. I think he's a solid 2nd option on a good playoff team, which is pretty much where he's at right now. I do wish he gave more effort on defense and had better shot selection at times. You obviously believe his ceiling is much higher.

Wow, can you imagine what would happen if he did "get it together"? He's make the double-secret All-Star team, instead of just the regular All-Star team.

I hope you are right, I really do. But making that jump successfully is super rare. I think he has the talent to have a long, successful MLB career, but I'm tapping the brakes before I call him the next Brooks Robinson. It is certainly exciting to have a potentially elite bat in the system, though. You really don't need to condescend by saying I don't have a feel for prospects. The chances of him struggling in his first MLB action, whenever that occurs, are substantially higher than him coming up and immediately becoming the "3rd best bat on the team". I've NEVER seen anyone say he's the next Brooks Robinson. He's pretty much expected to be the antithesis of Brooks Robinson. If he ends up hitting like Brooks Robinson, I'll be disappointed. Of course if he ends up being the greatest defensive 3rd basemen of all time with a historically great throwing arm....that may off-set some of that disappointment. And is it really that much more likely that an advanced college bat and top 10 overall prospect who is coming off a dominant AFL struggles rather than succeeds at the big league level? [sarcasm]I really just want to see a simulated game with Jimmy Nelson throwing to Keson Hirura. That way I can write one guy off and get super excited about the other!![/sarcasm] In his first taste of MLB action following an overly-aggressive minor league promotion schedule ... yes, I would say there's a strong chance that he struggles in his first taste of MLB action, especially if that is in June after 40-something games of AAA action. I would say that the Brewers and Stearns agree, otherwise they wouldn't have signed Moustakas. That was 100% saying "Keston, we want to to tear the cover off the ball in San Antonio this year." If he can come up in August or September and provide another weapon during the pennant chase, great! But barring injury or some other crazy thing, we likely aren't going to see him before then. And sorry about the Brooks Robinson reference. That was obviously a crappy comparison.