coolhandluke121

Reyes is filthy.

I think we heard more details than just that. Cain just set career bests in games played, bb%, k%, and OBP. All those things would be very rare if there was any decline in athleticism or reflexes. It was his 3rd-best season for sb's and 2nd-best for sb/cs ratio (26:2), the best being a 10:0 ratio in a partial season. They said they studied video evidence and saw that his speed in CF was as good as ever. Simply put, he's still in his physical prime despite his age, and he's a lot more athletic than most players are at 27. So while it is true that they usually avoid 30-somethings on big contracts, they clearly did their homework. There was a ton of oversimplification happening in Cain debates, and it was pretty frustrating trying to explain why that was a good move even at his age, and even if they don't follow it up with other, more impulsive "win-now" moves. At this point, it's nice to let his performance speak for itself. ETA: Not to mention all the player comps like Cameron and Victorino, who did pretty well until their mid-30's.

When you have a League when most of the really good players want to either play in a major market like NYC, LA, Miami, etc or they all want to play on the same team as each other competitiveness kind of goes by the wayside. Add in the fact that the draft is becoming more like the MLB draft where even top five picks take years to develop, which makes it hard for the really bad teams to improve quickly. I’ll watch the Bucks from time to time but in general I could not care less about the NBA. I think there's a lot more to it. It's not all the biggest markets anymore, and hasn't been for a while. There's a salary cap and revenue sharing, and the CBA allows teams to keep their own players relatively easily. A lot of teams are extremely foolish and short-sighted, and they have nobody to blame but themselves for not being competitive. Then players start to think about moving around, and it's only natural that they look to join a winner - that's not at all unique to basketball. I have a different theory. There's just too many games, and too many scoring events in each game. The better team is almost always going to win a 7-game series. It's nothing like football or baseball, where there are so few scoring events in a game and a lesser team always has a chance. Any team in the playoffs can win the world series. A wild card can win the super bowl. But in basketball, with 82 regular-season games, 7-game playoff series, and 50+ scoring possessions per game, the better team is going to prevail and there's no suspense. It's just flat-out monotonous, repetitive, and boring. Lest anyone think it's an issue with the game itself, consider this: what's the one time of year people who supposedly hate basketball get really into it? The NCAA tournament. People will watch that all weekend for a month, even if they could barely tell you who won the NBA finals any time this decade. That's because it's one and done and you don't know who's going to win, and players are giving their all because they don't have to hold back to avoid injury and overwhelming fatigue. NBA basketball should have 2 games a week and 3 to 5-game series in the playoffs.

Davies always starts the year horrible. We're talking wretched. Usually bounces back but who knows if his shoulder is right. Shoulders are a danger to themselves.

I agree with the majority of your post, but I'd be really careful with that comparison. Mark Reynolds, save for this hot stretch to open the year and the Coors juice of the 2 prior years, had not done anything for a long time. And Reynolds was just as bad as he always had been away from Coors. I think there may be a bit going on here with Jesus, though maybe it's an early season sample thing. He has bumped up his fly ball % and line drive %. I was not a "Aguilar is for real" backer early this year, but I'm getting on board. Now, your point does remain that it still is tough to broker a trade given that a contending team is probably who would want Aguilar and I doubt any of them would be handing away good pitchers, but Aguilar, even if he's closer to last year's version, is still probably well above Reynolds in value. I didn't actually compare Aguilar to Mark Reynolds per se. I was merely pointing out that there doesn't seem to be much demand. Mark Reynolds having trouble finding a job doesn't mean Aguilar would have trouble finding a job. It may very well mean no team is willing to give up much of value for him though, considering they wouldn't have had to give up anything for Reynolds and most of them still didn't want him.

Yep. 86 wins justifies Cain and Yelich at the price they paid, and there could be other guys out there who are worth the price. I don't think Stearns will pay any premiums, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he pounces on a good opportunity. And as long as he doesn't get into some dumb bidding war, I'm fine with that.

I don't think Cain was an anti-Stearns move at all. People were wrong to assume he was all about going cheap and young all the time. What he's about is long-term value and winning transactions, ideally in sync with the team's current situation. Once everyone understands that, they'll do a lot better predicting what he might or might not do. It's not just about "going for it" or "building for the future" like many people suggest.

I don't think they'll pigeon-hole themselves into anything. They'll prioritize value over "needs", like they always do. I put needs in quotation marks because they can change so fast. It's hubris to think you know what you need. Nearly everyone thought SP was the greatest need, and hardly anyone thought SS was a big need... yet look where we are now. Just be opportunistic and wait for the Walker/Swarzak type deals. Monitor Realmuto, Perez, and Merrifield, as well as any other good players on the market, but don't get into any bidding wars. And don't be afraid to sell a piece or two if someone is willing to overpay.

Very little trade value unless you want to move Yelich or Cain, which would be stupid. It would also be stupid to trade anyone because you're counting on Braun to replace his production. Thames is needed as an LHB 1B. And in a league where Mark Reynolds was lucky to even find a job, I don't see Aguilar having much trade value. Unless the trade market changes a lot, just keep them all and have two big PH's on the bench at all times for when you pull starters early. If Thames or Choi could play OF more than a few times a year without doing too much damage, I might be more open to trading Santana, but I won't trade him if it means counting on Braun to regularly be healthy and productive. Too bad Broxton and Phillips are both under .800 at CS, which is pretty bad for guys their age. I don't see them as reliable options if you're trying to win the division. They might still have some trade value though, and I think they'd both be moved before anyone currently on the 25.

Wut. Dear god that is terrible. I've never found it so hard to resist cursing in my life. First I thought it was going to be a video teaching kids about picking food up off the floor and eating it. Then I saw all the cowboy studs walk in and I thought it was going to be about p.e., and I don't mean gym class. Then she started singing and I wanted to shoot myself.

This thread is getting buried. The Brewers now have 6 guys OPS'ing over 1.000 (3 relievers, plus Miley, Saladino, and Kratz ).

Sogard looked pretty good at the plate today. (Release the hounds.)

they didn’t want to pitch Jeffress two innings 12 pitches. They used an outing anyway so they may as well get some more pitches out of him. It's wasteful and inefficient to have such a short outing. Yeah, they might need to rest him tomorrow, but in the long run you can get more innings out of your best relievers if you reduce their outings and increasing their innings limit. He has 29 pitches since May 21st. More importantly, Knebel just isn't good right now. Was extremely lucky last year with his poor command, and it's arguably gotten worse. No way he projects to continue to be a closer candidate until his command gets better. Derrick Turnbow says hello (because he's a friendly guy).

So stupid to revert to ridiculous bullpen dogma when you've been so successful bucking it all year long.

Exactly. I normally don't like to just assume things are going to continue the way they've gone, but there are just too many reasons to doubt Knebel. Also, using relievers more than 1 inning is a good strategy and they don't have a good reason to abandon it now.

Braun should maybe be ahead of Sogard on any kind of depth chart, and that's about it. Another thing about it is just rhythm and reps for other guys. You try to make Braun a regular and he gets hurt again. Then the guy who should have been a regular all along is a little rusty. Braun does better with more time off because his body needs it so bad, but most guys will generally be worse the more you sit them. Nice to see Santana and Villar get in on the action. Sweet rally with 2 outs.

No way Braun should be ahead of Santana.

Yes, but he's a marginal upgrade. Perez has a career .270/.301/.444 batting line, that's good not great even considering his plus defense. That's pretty good for playing in KC. I'd wager his OPS as a Brewer would regularly be about 100-150 points higher than Pina's over the next 3 years, if Pina even lasts that long.

We're all excited about Keston, but that seems pretty generous. He's still a prospect with injury problems. Furthermore, I think superstar-chasing is overrated in baseball, and Keston's prospect value is as a potential superstar at the plate. Depth and balance are more important.* Balance means not only decent offense, defense, pitching, and bullpen, but also balanced offense and versatility throughout the lineup. If you have that, you can win without any MVP candidates. Heck, you hardly even need more than 1 or 2 all-stars. I think you still want aces for the playoffs, but even that seems to be changing with the times. I think Perez/Merrifield for Keston (and others of much less consequence) would be a good move for both teams. Perez and Merrifield are under control for 3 more years at a combined ~$50m, depending on Merrifield's arbitration. And Merrifield has another year of arbitration after that. Pina is a week from turning 31, a dangerous age for catchers, and is a major regression risk regardless of age. *Of course you'd like to have both depth and stars, but that's hard for a small market team and the Brewers should choose depth. That means trying to upgrade at catcher and 2b if possible. They have the NL's best record and a move like this would be justifiable because they should be contenders for a few more years, too.

No doubt. I live in NYC and they're fantastic. Wish I could think of more examples but they subtly work good humor into every broadcast and you don't even remember their jokes because they don't make a big deal out of it.

I thought he had a lot of ground ball hits and soft contact even during that hot streak. That said, I'm happy to endure the growing pains because I think it will pay off in the long run. Lucroy was one of the weak links in 2011 but there wasn't really an alternative, and look how that turned out. Every small market team that's trying to contend just a few years after a major rebuild is going to have some weaknesses. I think he really just needs a lot of reps against MLB pitching. Like Gomez and Segura before him, he has the tools but not the maturity or discipline (yet).

Sure. Good all-around player and very likely to be a solid rotation player, while still having some upside. He was impressive against the Badgers as a freshman in the NCAA tournament as well. The NBA is trending more toward that type of solid all-around player, as opposed to specialists.

From what I've seen in the mocks, both those guys will likely be gone. As you say, we'd have move up a few slots. For sure. I think the Cavs, Knicks, and Clippers would all be interested in trading for Bledsoe. The problem is that the Bucks are probably trying to get better next year, and trading Bledsoe for a rookie doesn't help in the short term. For me, I think it's really important to take this opportunity to retool in the new coach's vision. You always get a brief honeymoon period in which you cau make changes for the long run and get players and fans to buy in, but that runs out fast. For example, the Bucks made a huge mistake when they hired Skiles/Hammond and promptly traded for RJ instead of trading Redd and rebuilding for a year or two. It was a golden opportunity to take a step backwards in hopes of taking 2 steps forward later. Redd already had some "minor" knee problems and we know how that turned out. I really hope they trade Bledsoe and Jabari for injury reasons alone, not to mention the fact that they're not great fits.

Perhaps it's because he is coming in and immediately throwing different stuff than what hitters are used to from the team's other pitchers? I have been skeptical of Suter as a starter (while always believing he can be a useful MLB pitcher), but he has proven me wrong consistently. How about I remain skeptical and hope he keeps making me look like a fool? Worked for me with Aguilar and Jeffress.

Who cares?? (Nothing against you; just like seeing younger players get those ab's.)