SeaBass

Yeah, Stearns was gone well before this went down. This was spear headed by Alex Cora, not the Astros front office. As far as the Brewers culture under Stearns I'd wager once MA got wind of anything like we've heard about the Astros culture he'd put an end to it. I don't know much about the Astros owner but I'm not sure if his involvement or style with the team is similar to Mark's with the Brewers. The culture starts with him IMO, I'd think Stearns would be expected to conform to that. I feel like most of what I hear about the Brewers organization from outside sources is positive for whatever that's worth.

That and it would be a lateral move, Stearns is President of Baseball Ops the same title Luhnow held making it more likely Attanasio wouldn't give the Astros permission to talk to Stearns.

Ravens soiling their bed right now. Good lord Henry!

Plank grilled salmon...Jumbo lump crab cakes...Spicy Tuna Sushi Roll...Jambalaya...Cioppino...Broiled whitefish with a little lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and capers...you're missing out on great food! Step away from the fish sticks! Ha! I honestly don't eat fish sticks, it's been decades since I have, just saying I would if they were put in front of me. I enjoy a good fish fry, beer battered, lots of tartar sauce, fries, potato salad, rye bread all that stuff. You can have my share of the rest of that other junk.

Plank grilled salmon...Jumbo lump crab cakes...Spicy Tuna Sushi Roll...Jambalaya...Cioppino...Broiled whitefish with a little lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and capers...you're missing out on great food! Step away from the fish sticks! Ha! I honestly don't eat fish sticks, it's been decades since I have, just saying I would if they were put in front of me. I enjoy a good fish fry, beer battered, lots of tartar sauce, fries, potato salad, rye bread all that stuff. You can have my share of the rest of that other junk.

Your name is SeaBass and you refuse to eat any seafood except the most basic kind. That's curious. I appreciate the irony. But seafood is so icky!

Your name is SeaBass and you refuse to eat any seafood except the most basic kind. That's curious. I appreciate the irony. But seafood is so icky!

I have never tried lobster. I never intend to. Same goes for scallops, crab, oysters and just about any other seafood you can think of. I will eat a tuna fish sandwich and I will eat typical fish fry type fish, something battered and fried. Fish sticks and Filet O Fish and their fast food equivalents, sure. Same type of fish baked or grilled? No thank you. Other than said fried preparations above I am not interested in food procured from animals that swim/live under water.

Did Gronk file retirement papers with the NFL? I honestly don't know. Perhaps there's a deadline to file for reinstatement for the current season if one is a formally retired player. That's really all I can think of.

Right on. I really dislike black foods and drinks, however irrational. I suppose if I did try it I would have to load up the cream and sugar. I never saw the point of drinking black coffee either. To me it just tasted like flavorless hot water. It's not really something that's going to offend your tastebuds, more likely it will just leave you severely underwhelmed by any of your expectations. Coffee flavored foods (like tiramisu) are a totally different story, there you can taste what coffee generally tastes like.

I'm plenty happy getting the occasional iced caramel macchiato from McDonalds for under $4. Starbucks drinks look good but they're like $2 more expensive for no good reason that I can see.

Haven't heard those words in a long time. I'm using Spectrum wireless right now. Unlimited talk & text and 1G of data for $14/month, which includes taxes so it really is $14. For me it works, I'm single w/ no dependents and I don't use a lot of data. Have to be a subscriber of their cable or internet service though. I get my home internet from them.

Smoak played 684 games for Toronto but only 496 games for Seattle. He was drafted by Oakland and made his major league debut with Texas. This is like suggesting Gary Sheffield was mostly a Brewer just because he played his first 300 games there.

The Brewers have had the opportunity to pick up many players over the years that have pasts with the team. Other than a few rare exceptions (Gio, Broxton I guess this year) Stearns rarely goes that route. There must have been something that Sogard has done, other than his stats last year, that convinced the Brewers that not only was he a good choice to bring back, but at double the salary that he was making when he epically flamed out in 2018. I'm guessing he took steps to remake his swing, which led to the power increase last year. Apparently the Brewers believe that is sustainable. He did alter his swing to increase his launch angle - that coupled with juiced/HR-happy baseballs both really helped him last season. All the while he remained a steady to above average defensive player capable of playing several positions, most noteably 2B. I get the move and actually don't have a problem with paying $4.5 M for a reliable utility IF with a LH bat that will at worst give you a pretty good AB most plate appearances. What I'm struggling with is his nightmarish 2018 with the Brewers and the fact I was among the most vocal proponents of jettisoning him weeks before he was finally released and kicked down to AAA. Hoping he's at least somewhere in the middle between his terrible 2018 and really solid 2019, which would make the signing just fine for thie 2020 roster. This is where I am too. We can look at his 2019 and wonder if it was a fluke or predict that it's not repeatable (due to previous bias), but he still put up those stats. Based on that performance more than one GM was likely going to give the guy a shot at around the salary he ended up signing for. Perhaps he was slightly overpaid, I would think $3 million would be about right, but if he had 2 or more suitors the extra $1.5 million isn't going to have a restrictive impact on how the remainder of the roster is filled.

I'm not really a signature guy, but this is darn near signature worthy.

I demand we sign Scooter Gennett!

Looking at his splits last season he alternated between having one great month followed by one terrible month then great, terrible, etc. Overall numbers look nice but there's a lot of volatility there. Interested to see his salary.

Unfortunately the current Brewerfan is criticizing = griping. And of course another thread with condescending posts by mods reminding us of the date. Thanks, if I only knew how to read a calendar I would be so much happier... This offseason is different from the last 2: 1) there is very little midl-evel talent to be had. 2) more FA are signing early and especially in the mid category where the Moustakasis and the Grandals of the world reside. There aren't going to be "deals" to be had in mid-January and after. Osuna and Castellanos are going to get head scratching deals when they finally sign as each previous signing makes the sellers market even better... Having said that, my only real complaints so far this offseason is them walking away from Grandal at the price he was signed for. You don't get 4WAR players for $18M AAV often and declining Thames thinking they will get him cheaper when they very well could pay more for similar production. I would go further and say perhaps Stearns felt this off-season would be similar to the last two, with a slow free agency and depressed player salaries. In that light shedding contracts and positioning themselves to be spenders in such a market would make a lot of sense. If that was what Stearns was thinking, and of course we can't know that it is but it feels plausible, then when the rest of the baseball world decided to stop tanking and start spending that would be a pretty large monkey wrench crashing through his house of cards. I simply think the players he may have been targeting were signing larger deals than he was anticipating and he wasn't going to panic and spend more money for them than he budgeted. He likely turned to plan B which is what we're witnessing. No, that doesn't free him from criticism, he put his eggs in the basket by stating he expects the team to remain a playoff contender this season so he needs to be held to that. I'd agree that the Thames decision was a miscalculation, it's entirely possible they simply wanted to move on from him but I think they'd make a different decision today if given a 2nd chance. I'm not as sold that Grandal will maintain the level of production he had last season though, I personally wasn't keen on signing him to a big long term contract, to me the catcher position isn't the one to sink that much money and risk into.

I think we're witnessing Stearns doing what he does best, finding value in the market where others aren't looking for it. Just because there aren't pretty fireworks flashing in the sky after each of his transactions doesn't mean they're bad moves or won't pay off in the same way or better than some people perceived re-signing Grandal or Moose would have.

I seem to remember something about MLB and the union agreeing to shelf talks about the universal DH until the next CBA negotiations in exchange for MLB putting off installing the pitch clock rule. In any case, I am more than ready for both leagues to play by the same rules and since there's zero chance the AL agrees to abolish the DH that means the NL will need to adopt it, and I believe that will happen.

Reds starters 2019: 4.12 ERA (92 ERA-) Brewers starters 2019: 4.40 ERA (99 ERA-) Reds wins 2019: 75 Brewers wins 2019: 89 Somehow Stearns & company won 14 more games than the Reds last year even though their rotation was 7% worse by ERA. I'd say the bad look is trying to find the negative in every transaction Stearns & company do or don't make when they clearly know more than we do & have the track record of success to prove it. I would keep in mind the Reds Pythagorean record had them with 80 wins while the Brewers were at 81. I think the two teams were much closer together in performance than the final records would indicate. The only issue I'd have with comparing the two team's pitching staffs and then equating that to their final records is that the Reds had the 6th worst runs scored in all of baseball last season. Doesn't matter how successful the pitching is if they have trouble scoring runs it's harder to win. Also the Brewers super power seemed to be their bullpen which would shorten the game in their favor and lead to more close wins. That's anecdotal from what I seem to remember the story lines were for the Brewers last season.

Reds definitely could use some more help on offense. Their pitching is more than solid, 7th in MLB in runs allowed last season. As we're fond of saying around here, it's only December 17th.

Exactly. The Wade Miley references in nearly every pitching related thread is almost comical at this point, and I mean that not because I'm against the Brewers reuniting with with Miley, but because it's as if nobody can think of a single other pitcher the Brewers could possibly be interested that might provide the same under the radar value.

I know this isn't really on baseball topic but I don't think the point of all season fluid is to prevent it freezing on the windshield. Regular fluid tends to freeze up internally so it doesn't dispense at all at low temps. Which has absolutely happened to me and is why I keep a jug of the all season stuff stored for winter.

Another one is "breathe" vs. "breath" but I didn't want to go on all day.