Ron Robinsons Beard

I like this deal for the Twins too. Gonzalez would have been a perfect fit for this team, although obviously it wasn't going to happen after Moose was signed. Marwin could have been a terrific super-sub if/when Hiura is ready. Oh well .... Brewers can just trade for him when the Twins are bad again this year or next

Players that I can confidently say are ahead of Agullar on the 3B depth chart: 1. Shaw 2. Moustakas 3. Perez 4. Spangenberg 5. Saladino 6 Mauricio Dubon 7. Nate Orf 8. Jake Hager 9. Lucas Erceg Perhaps if the top four all get hurt in the same game, and they can't get any of the next five up from San Antonio in time, they may stick Aguilar out at 3B. It would be in an extreme emergency situation, though. Yes, they got cute a couple games last year, and it ended up not hurting them. That doesn't even come close to meaning its a good idea to do regularly though.

Wasn't Yelich drafted as a 1B?

The fact that they change seemingly hourly at times for no legitimate reason certainly points to that. Although is was fun to see the mountains of Cub fans go nuts with the PECOTA projections came out. Truth is, I know there is algorithms and a a lot of science that goes into determining these projections, but there is no way that they totally eliminate human bias.

Wow, how horrible does that make the Steamer projection system look? Well it has already changed back closer to what it was previously, so maybe the hacking theory wasn't so far off? I wish I would have taken a screenshot. Yeah, I see that the Brewers are back to a 82-win projection. Did Yelich have a bad breakfast burrito or something this morning? Likely the more probable explanation is that Fangraphs is run by a Cub fan LOL

Wow, how horrible does that make the Steamer projection system look?

The idea that the Brewers are hamstrung by payroll restrictions seems like its a largely made-up idea. No it is real, long term payroll is a concern. 1 year deals, not so much. We are talking about two different ideas I think. The idea that the Brewers wouldn't be able to go out and fill their holes with free agent acquisitions this offseason was largely a fallacy. Of course they can't hamstring themselves with too many long-term high-dollar contacts. No team should be doing that. But there's been people saying that the Brewers are out of money going back to before they signed Grandal. That was obviously false.

The idea that the Brewers are hamstrung by payroll restrictions seems like its a largely made-up idea, stemming from a sour-grapes Cub-fan-written Bleacher Report article penned in December, and a few posters here that seem convinced that the Brewers have no money. The fact is, Attanasio wants to win, and he sees that the window is open just like we all do. He's going to make the moves to make it happen, within reason of course.

Simple way to defer money on a short-term deal. I suppose it is possible that the mutual option could be exercised by both sides, but not likely.

Without a doubt. My projection of Machado is definitely fueled by my dislike for him and the type of person I perceive him to be. Probably not a great way to determine future player performance, but I don't care. Machado is going to fail because I strongly want him to.

I'm the exact opposite. Harper isn't going to get lazy. I think Manny is already there.

He’s 26 and a 5-7 WAR player every year at a prime position. There’s little reason to think his value will go down the next few years. He's a generational talent, but also comes off as lazy and entitled. Those are the types that get their huge money and go into coast-mode. Perhaps coast-mode for him is still All-Star-type numbers. It's just my personal feeling, which could very well be wrong. perhaps I just don't like the guy, and am letting that bias seep in.

I'm guessing San Diego was not his choice destination. He strikes me as douchey enough to really want to be a Yankee.

My personal feeling is that they are going to be regretting this contract in a few years. I'm happy he went there and not to the Phillies or Yankees, though.

Marginally better? 335 vs 307 isn't marginally better, it's a wide gap. Also, look vs RHP and it's 312 to 348. That's a big difference. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with this and don't really have a complaint but I didn't think this was accurate and I could've totally seen the logic of Deitrich instead and then you have that 8 mil for an in season move if needed. I'd guess their logic was that DD didn't play much IF last year so not so sure on him handling 2B, plus he's just never been good at D. Combine that with that they know Moose and his locker room aspects, known commodity so to speak. So I get all that. However, how do we know how Moose will do at 2B and there could be value in that DD has played a lot of OF lately too so some more flexibility. All in all, from afar I think I'd have gone DD and saved the 8 mil to help elsewhere at the deadline. But I also don't have access to the behind the scenes locker room stuff, we know they value Moose there and maybe DD is not known in that way behind the scenes in baseball, who knows. The fact that Derek Dietrich signed a minor league deal with a team who already has established stars at 2B and 3B tells me everything I need to know about how Dietrich is valued in the league. Well you can take that approach, but how many under the radar guys have overperformed. For example, one could've said "the fact that Scooter got cut tells me all I need to know about how good Scooter is". Or, "the fact that Wade Miley signed a minor league deal tells me all I need to know about Wade Miley." Or, "the fact that Jesus Aguilar never got to the bigs and was cut/waived tells me all I need to know". Can go on and on. I was speaking specifically just to the locker room stuff that we know basically nothing about. Oh for sure. Every year there are guys who defy expectations, and sometimes even blow them out of the water. The guys you are referring to are three prime examples. I just think that Stearns has proven so adept at player movement that criticizing the acquisition of Moose while arguing for Derek Dietrich is sort of a shell game. Heck, for all we know Brett Lawrie could end up being the most productive 2B at the end of the year. What I do know is that Stearns did his homework on Dietrich, because he does his homework on all available players. And if he determined that Moose is the better value than Dietrich on a cheap deal, I'm good with it.

Who's available that fits that description and can play 2B or 3B and is willing to sign a one year contract for $10M or less? Before anyone says Dietrich, his lifetime OBP is a marginally better .335 and his defense is horrible. Moose is at least a plus defender. Marginally better? 335 vs 307 isn't marginally better, it's a wide gap. Also, look vs RHP and it's 312 to 348. That's a big difference. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with this and don't really have a complaint but I didn't think this was accurate and I could've totally seen the logic of Deitrich instead and then you have that 8 mil for an in season move if needed. I'd guess their logic was that DD didn't play much IF last year so not so sure on him handling 2B, plus he's just never been good at D. Combine that with that they know Moose and his locker room aspects, known commodity so to speak. So I get all that. However, how do we know how Moose will do at 2B and there could be value in that DD has played a lot of OF lately too so some more flexibility. All in all, from afar I think I'd have gone DD and saved the 8 mil to help elsewhere at the deadline. But I also don't have access to the behind the scenes locker room stuff, we know they value Moose there and maybe DD is not known in that way behind the scenes in baseball, who knows. The fact that Derek Dietrich signed a minor league deal with a team who already has established stars at 2B and 3B tells me everything I need to know about how Dietrich is valued in the league.

I think Thames makes it over Spangenberg, simply because Spangenberg can be optioned. I don't know if I'd necessarily put Gamel in the "safe bets" space, though. He has an option as well, and could be sent down if they determine they have enough OF coverage with Perez and Thames behind the starters. I think they'll sign a veteran OF to a minor league deal too, as they are pretty thin there in the upper minors. Someone like Austin Jackson or Denard Span makes some sense.

The possibility of a Aguilar/Shaw 3B platoon is still a possibility. With Braun and 2B and Moose at SS.

Very interesting. Guess that means Moose is going to get the majority of the reps at 2B. Shaw probably has a little more range than Moose, but maybe not quite the throwing arm. Both are solid at the hot corner, and I have faith that Moose can pick up 2B. I know he was asked about it when the Brewers first traded for him last season, and he said he was open to it.

I wonder if he wrote a similar story after his beloved Royals signed Moose to that low-ball contract last year? At least the Brewers are paying him a much better market value.

And an average of 18 Ks a game! But dingers!!!

I'd love to have Keuchel heading up this rotation, but this team is a legit World Series contender as it stands. Keuchel would be icing on the cake.

At the end of the day all that really matters is that the Brewers are a better team now than they were this morning. If we have the good version of Arcia, there isn't a spot in this regular lineup that doesn't have to be accounted for by the opposing manager. That's going to cause opposing managers to burn through more relief pitchers. I'm excited to see Moose's power potential playing a whole season at Miller Park. This lineup is surely going to go through cold spells, but overall it should be much more explosive than what we saw last year.

Brewers OPS’d nearly the same against RHP and LHP in 2018 as well. I think some of this gets overblown. Getting shut down by a few tough lefties in October will do that. If Braun, Aguilar, Cain and Yelich can dominate lefties like they did for most of the regular season last year, the team should be just fine.

The Brewers budget must be "double secret probation" maxed out now. This is an absolute terrific way to allocate the $10 million that the Brewers would have had to pay Jonathan Schoop. And it's also $5 million less than Moose's mutual option (that he turned down).