CrewFanBrewMan69

Everything I've read says Merrifield is going to require a monster offer to acquire, an offer so big that he probably won't move. Also factor in the Cubs farm system being even worse than ours...there's no way they can get Merrifield. Gordon and/or Kennedy are possible. Miguel Amaya and Nico Hoerner are top 50 prospects in MLB right now. They have some other guys on the fringe of the top 100 as well (from the last fangraphs update I saw). Their system is definitely better than ours. They also still have Happ who a team could value decently still. I think they’d have enough to get Merrifield if they wanted.

A lot of people are speculating there’s another trade or trades coming for them and getting Maldonado let’s them include Caratini in a deal. Theo even mentioned when the trade happened they’ve had talks with the Royals previously about trades and Contreras being out for 10 days made them do this faster than expected. Wonder if they’re going after Merrifield, Gordon or Kennedy too.

Yes definitely. There's no doubt I erred somewhere along the way in the way I stated the message. I have to own that. My words were often misconstrued as well. Even what I just wrote now. They're obviously not going to rid themselves of Jeffress, Albers, Wilson, etc overnight. And they're all 1 inning type guys. But if the Brewers want to avoid the ugly numbers pitchers post the 3rd time through, they're going to have to stack the staff with starter types and deploy them in unique ways. But I've said all along it would take time. I did erroneously predict we'd see more tandem type usage out of the gates this year but now it's starting to look like it will happen sooner rather than later. If any or all of the young 3 guns get shifted to the pen, they'll be able to get really creative. Pen at some point this year: Kimbrel/trade acq. Jeffress Hader Claudio Burnes 2-4 innings Woodruff 2-4 Guerra 2-4 Peralta 2-4 Probably later than sooner, with 6 man rotation, one of Burnes woodruff peralta to pen, or AAA to develope. Other two plus Nelson rotate to pen in the 6 man.( keep innings down ). This is a unique, dominating, lock down bullpen. I just don’t see how you could do this for more than 2 spots in the rotation. You still need 3 of the spots to be guys that can be more traditional and go 5-6 innings more often than not. Outside of September you can’t do this I don’t think. Once a guy goes 2-4 innings he’s down for 2 days at least and you’re talking using more than 1 guy a game doing this and multiple spots in the rotation doing it? I just don’t think it adds up. I love the creativity but again outside of doing it for 1 or 2 spots in the rotation I don’t see it.

The Red Sox suck. Also it’s not like we’re losing these games with a bad break play or whatever. We don’t look good and the numbers back it up.

I agree we have a problem, but there's really no way to manage a bullpen or pitching staff like they did in September and the playoffs last year during the regular season. The roster flexibility and days off just aren't there. I think the best way to of fixed this was add another starter from FA to keep Burnes or Woodruff in the bullpen to keep better options out there. We just are so thin right now with not great options to date performance wise. It probably gets better because it can't be this bad but I also don't see a ton of light at the end of the tunnel. Last year during the year we had 3 elite arms in Hader, Jeffress and Knebel to go to to shorten games in not Sept months, we don't have that option or luxury right now and the options to shorten games aren't there. I don't know what we do other than hope the performances and health picks up.

Need to get this Burnes to bullpen stuff out of your head. Besides a performance issue, he ain’t leaving the rotation. Maybe not Burnes, but Woodruff has the ideal stuff for late inning relief. Agree. I prefer signing Kuechel and moving Woodruff to the bullpen vs just signing Kimbrel. Woodruff has already shown us enough he probably isn’t overly special as a SP, he could be special in the bullpen. Burnes needs to be given every chance to start until giving a reason be shoildnt.

Moustakas can’t play 2B

Just like the 100% chance Nelson would be the opening day starter? TJS and the likelihood a full recovery within ~18 months is highly probable, the rate of success for that surgery and recovery is so much more certain than any kind of shoulder injuries and surgeries.

If we make a big move I’d rather sign Kuechel and move Woodruff or Burnes to the pen than sign Kimbrel.

Peralta’s line today is one of the oddest box score/stat line’s I’ve ever seen. He appeared to be absolutely lights out with the Kd but also gave up a bunch of hits/BB.

The Cubs really needed a lefty and a LOOGY in their pen. Think Montgomery (who’s not really that and more of their swing guy) and Brian Duensing are their only lefty bullpen options right now, maybe there’s some random minor league guy roaming around too. Seems like a fine signing for them and it’s no money if he sucks and is cut. Cedeno has historically been great vs lefties and his cutter ranked as one of the best in MLB last year. Don’t care we didn’t bring him back but this likely makes the Cubs a little better and fills a need/hole.

I with Mr. Stone on this one. The bullpening from September and playoffs isn’t sustainable for the regular season. The starters need to be decent to good and go deepish in to games more times than not. Also a reason I like Keuchel to soak up innings.

The 5th year option probably should’ve been guaranteed to make it 5 years and $60 million +/- to make it really fair. But this still seems mostly fair for both sides.

I really want Keuchel and think him on a deal around what Cobb or Arrieta got last year makes a lot of sense.

With their TV Deal news today I still think the Cubs may swoop in here. Theo has played moves pretty close to the chest the last few years late in to the offseason and ST with Fowler coming back late in spring and Darvish last year.

The Cubs announced a new TV deal today (going to be their own network). It starts next year. I know they already spend plenty but I would think this allows them to go to another level, if not now then in the near future.

We aren’t dealing with a huge sample but it seemed like the pitchers who signed late last year all had mostly down, if not awful years. JD Martinez didn’t sign until 2 weeks in to ST though and he was fine. I’d definitely agree it seems more important to pitchers vs hitters to sign before ST starts.

I don’t think he actually owns or has anything to do with the team other than being the owners dad and giving them money to buy it? The one son is the primary owner and runs it but all of his kids own smaller parts of it. I don’t think he actually owns any of the team from seeing other stuff on them.

Pretty low risk signing for them. I wouldn’t have minded us doing it. Feel like we could use 1 more experienced arm in the bullpen. His velo ticked back up in Atlanta. I wouldn’t pick the Cubs bullpen over ours but it will probably be pretty solid again this year like it was last year and even a little underrated. Strop, Cishek, Edwards, Brach, Kintzler and Montgomery is a pretty solid core to start the year with and Morrow is back in May or June I think. They could use another lefty but I think a few of the RHPs have good lefty numbers.

Harrison kinda sucks. Don’t like it, even (assuming) it’s a cheaper 1 year deal. Seems like a half assed move. Lowrie or Marwin are the go for it, win now move.

If it’s just a 2B only type I agree, but a guy like Marwin ginzalez would make sense for a multi year deal with his positional versatility. Hiura is no sure thing either so it’s insurance there but he can also play 3B and OF (for if/when Braun/Cain get hurt need days off). He could be our Zobrist.

Caesars came out with their win totals today (first I’ve seen from any casino/book for the year), has our Over/Under at 83.5.

At the end of the day I’d trade Woodruff (prefer to move him the most) or Peralta for Bumgarner. What really is Woodruff? He’s going on 26, has been a 4+ era starter when he has started and yeah he was good for 12 innings in the playoffs or whatever but as a starter he’s shown little so far. I like him as a bullpen swingman option and he could be good there but he’s a bottom of rotation starter if he’s there full time. Peralta I just don’t like a ton. I’d obviously would try and hope we could get Smith back in a deal but I’d do a 1 for 1 of Woodruff/Peralta for Bumgarner if it came down to it.

Vegas odds are less reliable/accurate than projection systems from Fangraphs, 538, BR, etc. Vegas prices things to get equal action on both sides and adjusts odds to limit exposure, not necessarily project what is most likely to happen.

I think it definitely has a blind spot for us because how we are built and how we win is a little different. Last year required a crazy bullpen year and defense, those are volatile and hard to predict year to year and it’s probably hard to sustain the bullpen success we’ve had (in the projections eyes). Our rotation is also weak in their eyes, partly because the guys who have major league innings are league average or so and/or guys with only minor league track records. Also our defense/shifting was so good that it probably won’t project us to be as good there again because either it’s not likely to replicate or has not adapted correctly to account for the shifting. We also had like 14 wins out of Yelich and Cain, I don’t think it’s crazy that the projections don’t see that happening again and the rest of the offense is guys with not huge samples or impressive ones.