Ron Robinsons Beard

You have WAY more faith in Domingo Santana turning it around than I do.

I thought we pretty much established after last offseason that power-hitting low contact corner OFers didn't have much value? Especially those who are poor defenders. Gamel seems fun ... he's the kind of guy that will probably be more popular than he should be in Wisconsin. The pitcher is a wild card as a potential reliever that will move quickly through the system. Santana probably has the most upside of the three of these players, but his swing-and-miss tendencies are pretty annoying. Gamel will probably give us a few Brady Clark-esque years as a solid role player and fan favorite/glue guy. Not the greatest trade, but could be worse, that's for sure.

So not just out of their price range, but so far out that you feel the need to accentuate that by using 3 A's? But in short...no, he's not our of our price range. He was well within it. If David Stearns thought he was the missing piece, there is zero doubt in my mind they'd be willing to pay this. You really think if...say Hader was a free agent, they would say, "no, 9 million per year is waaay out of our range?" Of course not. I'm not sure where these things come from. The deal Patrick Corbin signed wasn't "out of their range," much less waaay out. It's just a matter of the risk. They certainly can't absorb bad contracts like other teams. They can't make huge mistakes. 2 years and 25 million for a pitcher like Andrew Miller....very little risk, a ton(better version of Josh Hader arguably) upside. The Brewers draw well, they have an owner that's willing to spend. They CAN afford to sign Free Agents and it's a pet peeve when people take it SO far and act is if they can't afford anyone of substance one year after signing Cain and being in the Darvish sweepstakes. I don't know if the Brewers were interested, if they were if they didn't like the medicals, if they were but he wasn't...there are a lot of unknowns. What isn't...is that they can afford to sign a pitcher of his caliber to this type of deal and they can ESPECIALLY afford to sign one to a deal that averages 9 million per year. I mean....Cleveland did, right? So...why wouldn't we be able to? No team in all of baseball has fans who spend more per capita on their team. This is probably about 2.5 paragraphs longer than it needed to be....but like I said, it's a pet peeve when we just dismiss reality and act like our team is poor and can't pay anyone. You are so, so right. The only ones putting budgetary restrictions on this team are fans. Attanasio has shown that he's willing to spend on the right pieces. Just because Stearns smartly attaches a value to every player he has interest in, and doesn't exceed that, doesn't mean that the team is cheap or has no money to spend. The lack of fiscal responsibility is how you get in the situation the Mariners are in, and the Diamondbacks to a lesser extent. Of course, if we are still sitting here with the same holes in the lineup and pitching staff come March, I'll probably think a bit differently.

Jason Kipnis ... but that wouldn't exactly be a sure thing. If they are serious about dangling Kluber, though, taking on his contract may be a way to lower the prospect demand going back.

You guys have a lot of faith that someone who has played a grand total of 96 games above Class A ball (and not one game at the AAA level) is going to be significant contributor in 2019. I won't be surprised if Hiura spends all of 2019 in AAA. Agree completely. Pretty hard for me to turn the 2B job on World Series contender over to a "green as grass" rookie. I don't care how high his "hit tool" is on the scale. If he tears the cover off the ball in AAA and show's he's ready defensively, and stays healthy, then I'll gladly eat crow. Still, it would be nice to not have to depend on that happening this year.

I am starting to think this way. Unless one of the other 2B options doesn't get any good multi year offers and is willing to take a higher value 1 year deal to prove it and try again next year on the market. It's certainly possible that they start to look at the 2nd tier options such as Neil Walker, Logan Forsythe or Brandon Phillips. My hope is still Marwin Gonzalez, though, if they aren't looking toward LeMahieu.

Then Fangraphs has absolutely no credibility whatsoever. Because that screams hack job to me.

Yeah, everything I've seen so far puts the Brewers neck and neck with the Cubs and Cards. While the talking heads say there are areas the Brewers can improve on, most see them as legit.

It is really fun to see all the pre-Christmas player movement this year after last year's market was so stagnant until seemingly late January last year. Hopefully the Brewers get on the bandwagon with a bigger move than Claudio or Spangenberg.

Solid depth signing, with the hope that a guy who is in his peak years finds an offensive breakout. Obviously the pedigree is there being a former high 1st rounder. I imagine if he goes to San Antonio he will be spending most of his time as a corner OF. If the plan is to have Spangenberg and Perez platoon at 2B, that is not inspiring. But there are still a lot of options out there. The more I look at Marwin Gonzalez, the more I see a good fit there. News on him has been strangely absent so far this offseason.

Can't imagine there would be anything against that. If I were Tulo, I would be looking at the most guaranteed money. Whatever money he signs for is equal to how much less the Bluejays have to pay him on his guaranteed contract. So if a team signs him for anything more than the minimum, they are just doing the Jays a favor. He sees the same money regardless, incentives or not.

I'm guessing it's more that Ramos, while still effective, is old for a catcher, and his knees are close to shot. Old catchers are a risk at any cost, let alone at the money Ramos got.

So much for the "multiple multi-year offers" that Cahill was apparently fielding. Still, a couple of low-risk moves for the Angels with Cahill and Harvey. If they pitch well and the team is good, they'll contend for a playoff spot. If they pitch well and the team sucks, they can be flipped at the deadline as rentals. If they suck and the team sucks, they are out of those contracts in a year.

I brought up a while back that the Yankees would sign Machado, and was met with "but this is the new Yankees who don't throw money at problems anymore." No, this is the SAME Yankees that have always done that. And they are going to likely follow it up with getting Harper to sign on to play CF and probably signing Kuechel for the rotation as well. It's going to make all all that much more fulfilling when the Brewers beat them in the 2019 World Series

I think Tulowitzki is more name than substance obviously at this point, but it would certainly be a fun story. While I would like more of a sure bet at 2B this year, it isn't like the Brewers have no coverage there if Tulowitzki got hurt or was ineffective. Perez is a more-than-capable 2B, as is Saladino. Shaw could be moved there again, and of course Dubon and Hiura will likely be one call away at San Antonio.

Is this correct? "considering every team will likely be offering the same thing in terms of a contract" Can't see why that would be the case unless there's some rule prohibiting teams from giving a released player more than the league minimum. His contract with Toronto is guaranteed, and he can't double dip. Whatever contract he signs with a new club comes off of what Toronto owes him.

True Brew, you obviously know baseball and are a huge Brewer fan. Perhaps if you tried not being so condescending toward other posters who are just as big of fans, people would take you more seriously.

If they can swallow his poor defense profile at every position, I agree that he may be a possibility. At least Lowrie would provide solid defense.

I remember reading something about a change in his swing and approach at the plate leading to last year's improvement, and that it is repeatable. But how many times have you read something like that, and it ends up not meaning a thing, though? Hopefully he reverts back to the light-hitting scrub he's always been. I read that as well, Descalso was exactly what I was looking for. Another versatile LH bat on a cheap contract who is able to hold down 2B until Hiura is up in June/July. Hate to say it but this was a good gamble by the Cubs. The Brewers can and will do better than Descalso. I think it's going to be longer than till June/July too. Hiura isn't Ted Williams. Give him some time.

Thanks for directing that upside toward the Brewers Please continue to call them first with anymore under-the-radar heat throwers.

Guerra, Williams, Barnes, Woodruff, and Peralta can all be optioned, and injuries will happen. Neither Williams nor Barnes are good/consistent enough that they should be handed spots in the bullpen. This kind of reminds me of people not wanting to sign Charlie Morton a few years ago because we already had Matt Garza, Wily Peralta, and Taylor Jungmann. Lyles barely would basically have to be as good as he's been to this point in his career to be worth $3.5 million, and he has a lot of upside well past $3.5 million of value. I just think it was a mistake letting him go, and he went to another team in the division to boot. Agreed. The state of this organization's pitching depth has certainly improved in the past couple years, but not to the point where they can jettison young (ish) power arms who are coming off decent years, are affordable, and have proven effective at retiring major league hitters.

I remember reading something about a change in his swing and approach at the plate leading to last year's improvement, and that it is repeatable. But how many times have you read something like that, and it ends up not meaning a thing, though? Hopefully he reverts back to the light-hitting scrub he's always been.

Pretty solid pickup for them He seems like the type of guy that is going to be a thorn in the Brewers' side the next few years.

I'm guessing that the Brewers discussed both Minor and Claudio with the Rangers, and the Brewers determined that they'd get more bang for the buck with Claudio, even though the trade price was likely substantially higher. Now that extra $8 million or so that would have been allocated to Minor can go someplace else.

Well, for all the talk that the Brewers "fleeced" the Marlins on the Yelich deal, that is pretty telling, with those guys representing #1, #2, #21 and a young OF in Brinson slated to be their starting CF. Of the two prospects they got in the Stanton deal, Guzman is #9 and Devers is #8, while they also picked up Castro's big contract. For Ozuna, they got Alcantera (#3), Sierra (unranked), Gallen (#11) and Castano (unranked). The next time some doofus says that the Marlins aren't going to trade with the Brewers, or that the Brewers picked up Brinson at a bargain basement price, this needs to be pointed to. Brinson could very well still break out into a Yelich-lite type player, and Diaz and Harrison are both top-flight prospects, even with down years. And Yamamoto is no slouch either.