SeaBass

Can Frelick catch?

Radio broadcasts are also included with MLB TV packages. Just in case you already subscribe with MLB to watch out of market Brewers games you also have the option to listen to radio feeds. I should add, Sirius XM also has a package where you can access MLB radio broadcasts of games (and NBA and NFL etc.) It can be pricey but sometimes you can get a decent deal if it's your first time subscribing. You don't have to listen in your car, there's also an app you can use to listen anywhere.

I don't think it's worth switching to T-Mobile for the free MLB.tv (I have Mint Mobile and pay $15/mo.) but if someone is already a T-Mobile customer it would definitely be worth it to take advantage. You can still stream all radio broadcasts regardless of market and even if you can't watch live games I believe you do get access to watch them once the games have concluded.

I really haven't followed the Badgers or college basketball but they looked absolutely trash that half. Didn't look like they had any answers either. They have Whal stationed at the top of the circle and he's zero threat to shoot a three. What use is that? They throw him the ball and now he needs to pass somewhere else. He doesn't penetrate, can't shoot, is that the only option they have? It solves nothing. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to their offense. It was a bad half so obviously they must be better than this normally but being unfamiliar with them they just look incompetent.

Right, I wasn't thinking you meant Snell. Should he have taken the $150 million? In hindsight, absolutely. He gambled, he lost. He is still insanely rich. There are richer people than him by far but he was going to live comfortably for the rest of his life even before he settled for "only" $60 million. As I said, I think that's why some of these guys are more willing to do the gamble. Not all of them do. It's like playing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. At some point in the game there's enough of a safety net where going for it isn't as harmful even if you lose. I'm not saying I'd do the same thing in his shoes but I see why there's always a handful of guys that choose to play this game of chicken with the rich teams every off season. I do think, anecdotally anyway, that pro players are more cognizant about how to save and invest their money now days than they used to be maybe even as little as 10 to 15 years ago. There are a LOT of really rich guys playing baseball, basketball, football etc. Chances are pretty decent that guys will talk to their teammates about how to be smart with their money. I specifically remember Pat Connaughton and Giannis saying they talked about investing strategies with each other. I'd also assume that the unions have more resources for the players too. I remember hearing news reports about young pros not having the first clue about what to do with their money going back 10 years ago or so and I feel like that has become more of a focus in the major sports now to take care of these guys. Doesn't mean people won't make bad decisions. As for the lower dollar earners in professional sports I'd hope those people would be smarter with their money knowing that for some, similar to career minor league baseball players, their sport isn't as likely to make them enough money to retire on and they'll need "real" jobs someday. Some of them might have gotten decent signing bonuses when they were drafted but I'd really hesitate to even call them "rich" in the first place. I guess I'd still say it's hard for me to simply assume that over half actually go broke, they simply transition into regular jobs once their careers end.

Not that it's really all that important to your overall point but you kinda lost me here, do most retired athletes really go broke? "Most" feels like a strong term, as in more than half of all players at minimum. Figure of speech or sarcasm maybe? I feel like we'd be hearing about the epidemic of once rich athletes that squander their money after their careers end. I also feel like I'm overthinking this but can we even really apply this to the average or replacement level "scrub" player that floats around the league for basically the minimum salary? It's gotta be the top level guys that have earned even a modest free agent contract after their arby years. Maybe $10 million minimum career earnings? I'm definitely overthinking it but I just can't see how that many guys go absolutely broke.

??? I mean, end of the day Blake Snell just got $62 million to throw a baseball 60 feet 6 inches 80 to 100 times every 5 to 6 days over a 6 month period for each of the next 2 years. And the chance to re-enter the market if he can put up another successful season. I think he's going to be ok. There's a reason some of these guys choose to gamble for a bigger payday even after getting offered $150 million, because the consolation prize if the gamble goes "bad" is still pretty damn amazing. And Scott Boras is in zero danger of losing clients over this. These players know how the game is played.

Yep, Packers chose a different radio partner in 2021. This story here provides some insight. https://www.tmj4.com/sports/green-bay-packers/97-3-the-game-wrnw-replaces-620wtmj-as-packers-radio-partner

They are also the flagship for the Milwaukee Bucks radio network. Other than these two I believe you're right.

Stupid Brewers not using their omniscience effectively!

The Brewers TV & radio broadcast schedule was announced a couple days ago. MLB hasn't updated their schedule yet that I can see but I'm sure that takes time. Bally's will televise 155 of the 162 games. The other 7 games will air on exclusive national broadcasts. Fox will air 5 of those and Apple TV+ the other 2. The schedule can be viewed here: https://www.cbs58.com/news/brewers-2024-regular-season-broadcast-schedule-is-here As for Amazon's role in broadcasting, nothing has yet been announced. Per this article: "According to a Bally Sports news release, all games not airing exclusively on a national platform will air live on Bally Sports Wisconsin and stream on BallySports.com and the Bally Sports app." "Brewers games on Bally Sports Wisconsin are also available on cable providers such as Comcast, Spectrum, and TDS Telcom; via satellite with DirecTV; and through streaming providers including DirecTV Stream and Fubo."

MJS is reporting Nixon will count $3 million against the cap this season. "Jacobs will count just over $5 million, McKinney should be around $7 million and kick returner/slot corner Keisean Nixon, who re-signed Tuesday, will be around $3 million when contracts are officially counted at 3 p.m. Wednesday." Not sure what that equals in guaranteed money. Maybe a $6 million signing bonus and low base this season? Maybe less?

Absolutely. Again, I was only referencing a streak of games to counter his final 5 games all being 100 yard games. Epic performance but Jones hasn't really ever been that guy. And those 5 games? He averaged 20 carries. I think it's pretty safe to say he's never had a stretch of games like that ever before. They were going for broke with him and it worked. They know they can't do that over a full season. Josh Jacobs IS that 20 carries per game guy. Jacobs has been in the NFL 2 seasons fewer than Jones and has more career carries. People are bagging on his 3.5 yards per carry last season but the guy was being fed the ball. He had close to 100 more carries than Jones last season. Of course teams are going to be focused on stopping him. Jones and Jacobs are two very different guys.

I will allow that my post was more objective when you stated you were being subjective in the original post. I stated facts. I love Aaron Jones just as much as the next fan, my point is I understand why the Packers made the choice they did. It was a bad year for him (until the very end), he has an injury history and his age were factors in the decision they made. They tried to come to an agreement to keep him, it didn't work out. It happens. Players are judged on performance. I feel it's relevant when making a decision on a player's worth regarding salary. And I was trying to be fair to Jones, he had 11 touches, 120 yards and 2 touchdowns in one of those games. He clearly made an impact despite the low usage in that game. If you reread that bit of my post I didn't count that game, I cited another game with 13 carries against the Steelers where he didn't have much impact to replace it. I don't think we've heard what Jones himself has had to say about this yet but I think it's reasonable to say he's probably not happy. It's understandable. Insulting? I suppose but is it meant that way? Players feel this every time a team does what it needs to do that's in its own best interest. Price of doing business. Raw feelings come with hard decisions. Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, David Bakhtiari (I think he's got some feelings towards the Packers but he has been subtle about it. Maybe I'm wrong). The list goes on. Aaron Jones is not any more (or less) special than those guys. He's certainly as beloved by Packers fans as any of those guys and in all likelihood will continue to be. If something is almost irrelevant, doesn't that make it relevant? I get what you're saying but they saved $5 million when they released him, they were clearly trying to shave a little bit off the existing number. To them the $5 million in savings was attractive enough to use as a decision marker when determining how much they felt he'd be worth to keep around. Your post was about Jones, why the heck would I start talking about Jacobs? Different subject and it's been hashed and rehashed since the decision to add him came down. I'm sure there will be more hashing as the off season progresses. If it wasn't Jacobs it would be someone else. How was I downplaying his career? I talked about this season and made a reference to his touchdown total the last 3 seasons. The streak of 100 yard rushing games was used to counter all the fuzzy good feelings about how he just ripped off 5 straight 100 yard games over the final 3 games of the regular season and the 2 playoff games. Yes, that was epic! But the point was that stretch of games was unprecedented in Jones' career and is not something that should be used as an argument to hold up as "this is what Aaron Jones does". The whole season should be taken into account along with recent history. Which is what the team (Gutekunst) did.

Challenge accepted. We all know he missed 6 games due to injury. He also played 5 games where he had fewer than 10 carries. That's 11 games out of 17 where he might as well not have been there. In fairness, 1 of those games was actually a good one for him, he had 9 carries for 41 yards, 2 catches for 86 yards and 2 TDs, one rushing, one receiving. The other 4 were as unremarkable as one would expect. We'll replace the one good game with a 13 carry game in a loss to the Steelers where he was equally unremarkable. Another thing that sticks out to me is the lack of rushing touchdowns the last 3 years. 4 in '21 and just 2 each of the last two years. I'm seeing the word "elite" being tossed around but that ain't it in my book. He's damn good and yeah before this season Dillon was getting a lot of the goal line work (only 2 TDs from him in '23 as well). A low number of TDs doesn't necessarily mean a player has a low value but I'd like to see more than 2 TDs from my primary rusher. In '21 & '22 he was able to add some TD catches to help the overall number look better but that rushing total should still be better in my mind regardless of receptions. I think we're really caught up in the glow of his late season heroics, if he'd just been able to play that way earlier and more often he would probably still be a Packer right now. He literally only ever put up back to back 100 yard rushing games once before in his career and that was two games back in 2019. And he had never rushed for 100 yards in the playoffs before this last season (he did have 99 yds vs the Rams in 2020). It was an epic stretch to end his Green Bay tenure but let's not pretend he's that guy all of a sudden. As it is I can understand why the team didn't want to commit a lot of dollars to him. It was really all about the cap number anyway, they had to bring down the number from $17 million and that meant going pretty low with his base salary. Just didn't work out.

Interesting. Not sure this is going to be popular.

It does hurt. I thought I'd heard the Packers were offering him around $7 million but maybe that was a misunderstanding on my part. I just don't feel like this was a great move for Jones even if he's making a million bucks extra. He could have stayed and been a valuable part of a team with every intention of contending or go play... there. A million bucks is a lot of money, I can't blame him for getting every dime he can. And I guess the Vikings could hit on a QB in the draft that helps them right away but even then I don't think they're contenders this season. It's a shame.

I hope he can be a good passer for them.

I think we're all going to be feeling super lucky to have Jacobs for up to the next 4 years and have gotten such a good deal for him. Injury and a terrible Raiders offense last season suppressed his numbers and made this deal possible. Wow what a signing. Jones will be missed but I think there's still a chance he could come back if his market isn't what he's thinking it will be. Only takes one team though.

I think this is very likely. I haven't tracked how FA pitchers in similar situations have operated in previous seasons. I would think they would be mitigating how strenuously they prepare while trying to remain healthy so as not to tank their earning potential with an injury.

I don't have a MLB.TV subscription so can't speak specifically about that but even looking at the Brewers official website (mlb.com/brewers) the regular season schedule does not show the TV broadcasts there either when typically it has in the past. However the spring training schedule does show when the games will be on TV. The games will be televised one way or another. I think it's just because things with Amazon haven't been finalized yet. I'm guessing it will be by the time the regular season starts.

Aside from the heated back and forth between a few posters when it comes to what CC said about being a Brewer and loving Milwaukee etc. the way I think of it is, people that get married aren't likely envisioning a divorce in their future. Yet divorce still happens and is not uncommon, It's not difficult to imagine that CC had some personal reasons, whatever they are, that led to him feeling ok about managing somewhere other than Milwaukee. Yeah, part of fandom is to "hate" on other teams, players, managers, mascots, the chick that sits in the front row behind home plate yadda yadda yadda. We all get it. We all do it. We often even "hate" players on our own team! So hate away. I know I will. I just don't have any issue or hurt feelings with CC's decision to leave. There's no extra hate there on my end. But he's now with the Cubs, I hate the Cubs, I often hate whomever is managing the Cubs, so I plan on not liking CC very much for the foreseeable future. There's every likelihood that feeling will only intensify as time passes.

Today's and tomorrow's game will be televised by Bally Sports. Even if you can't watch I'm guessing highlights will be posted to YouTube within an hour or so once the game ends. Non-televised games likely won't have highlights. I'm unaware if opposing teams will have a TV broadcast on days that the Brewers do not have a TV broadcast so I suppose it's not impossible there could be highlights on days where Bally's doesn't have one.

I'm not sure why folks are even worrying about Haase. He's on a $1M contract and he has to show out in spring training to prove he can still hit after an abysmal 2023 season. If he's not great Haase is an easy cut. If he earns a spot he'll have really played his tail off in ST or Sanchez may not quite be ready to catch due to his wrist. That all said, if he does make the team he can also play in the OF so he's not pigeon-holed into one position. Bottom line the team has options, it will work itself out.

From Rosenthal's article on The Athletic: "The Brewers had lingering concern over the condition of Sánchez’s right wrist after his physical, and the expectation is he will accept a lower base salary with incentives that would enable him to earn the original $7 million if he stays healthy. His initial deal also included a mutual option for 2025." No confirmation yet on the status of the option year (obviously) but not far fetched to assume it remains as it was a mutual option.