Dave_Not_Here

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Relative to who?

One name that seems like a potential Mikwaukee target to me that could be interesting is former Tigers reliever Jason Foley. I know he had surgery on his shoulder, and is still recovering from it, but he was decent before the injury. He is also a ground ball pitcher (or at least was before the injury). With the Brewers defense behind him, that could possibly work. Maybe he could be signed on a minor league deal, with an invite to Spring Training?

This site and X is all the social media i need. I won't be joining there.

Yes. I read it fairly often.

We should decide on one of Turang or Frelick, and load up the votes for that player.

I don't recall offering a prediction before the season. If I did, I'll own whatever I said. I know I did raise concerns about the pitching, and I still feel like those concerns were valid all season, but that shouldn't take away how impressive this team was all season. Hopefully the Brewers have some postseason magic in them, and hopefully they can win the whole damn thing.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/04/2024-25-mlb-free-agents.html Here is who MLB Trade Rumors has for free agents (and potential free agents) for next season.

Looks like an official signing. https://www.si.com/college/tulane/baseball/posts/tulane-baseball-pitcher-inks-deal-milwaukee-brewers-following-mlb-draft

I think you make both a good point, but also a fair point. At some point, you have to let the kids run, and see what happens. I do believe the Brewers will be able to do this AND add to the rotation. Miley has a history of fragility, and both Ross and Ashby are coming back from significant injuries. Peralta has also had durability concerns in his career, although the fact that he made 30 starts last season is a great sign. That's to say nothing about Junis, who may be better deployed as a reliever at that stage of his career, and all the young guys with limited to no MLB experience. From the best I can tell from Baseball Reference, it looks like the average number of innings pitched last season for all teams was about 830 IP; the Brewers got about 875 IP. That may be part of why the bullpen was so good across the board. But it makes me wonder now how many arms they will need to deploy this season just to get to 830 IP from the rotation, and will the bullpen be expected to pick up some of those innings to make up the difference? Just adding a guy who is at least a durable, #3/#4 type arm that could get 25+ starts could make a huge difference.

Clevinger could be interesting. 24 starts, 131.1 innings pitched last year, and ended up with decent numbers. Certainly encouraging following his previous injuries. I can't say I'd really be interested in Lorenzen, though. Would he really offer anything Junis already doesn't? I'd prefer Montgomery, or Snell (who wouldn't), or even Bauer. But, we need to cover innings, so maybe Clevinger or Lorenzen could be options? Who knows?

We really just need one more starter who has durability we can count on. While I think Junis can help, he has mostly been a reliever/spot starter recently. Milwaukee's best known starters are kind of to really fragile, and the most durable starters aren't guys we can be sure we can count on all year. The younger pitchers are certainly intriguing, but unless/until they show what they can do with their chances, we simply don't know about them. If Arnold means it about still competing this year, we just need more that we can count on.

This! 1,000 time this! All of it! This franchise has found a way to deal with K-Rod and with Matt Bush, so it isn't like we're always fielding a roster of future Sunday school teachers here. Arnold says the Brewers are going to be competitive THIS season. We have a rotation that COULD BE good, but needs to have fragile pitchers stay healthy, and younger pitchers need to take that next stop. Bauer, whether you like him or not, would very likely lengthen this rotation, pitch well, is durable, and is also affordable. Sure, Snell or Montgomery are better, but we're not shopping at that price point anyways. If we really are trying to compete, he has the best upside remaining available we could realistically target, without having to make a trade. Again, it is much riskier not to sign him at this point.

Bauer was on some podcast yesterday (I forget the name, I'm sure the highlights are somewhere), and he is saying he would sign for league minimum plus incentives just to play this season. If that is all it takes to sign him, just do it already. It is riskier to NOT sign him at that price point.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10107650-potential-willy-adames-devin-williams-landing-spots-after-corbin-burnes-trade I just read this and found it interesting, and I think Joel Reuter is one of the better baseball writers on Bleacher Report, so I thought I would share. Any of these ideas seem interesting or realistic to anyone else?