The Beat Goes On

Bichette makes too much sense so I doubt it'll happen. I am expecting a very quiet offseason tbh. Unless an impact player is finding no long term deals and wants the Brewers 1 year With an Option Special I don't see us really spending given that there's so much uncertainty around the 2027 season and what the next CBA they'll be building a roster under will look like coupled with knowing once they get past that and into the '27 and '28 seasons they'll have to begin thinking about which of these young guys they offer extensions to. Likely a game of wait and see unfortunately.

We have money coming off the books and with Yelich’s bounce back season could free up even more with a team that wants to see if he’ll hit in October for them. So there’s no real reason we can’t either get something worked out with Wild Bill and/or be active players in FA but I’m a bit skeptical Mark and the rest of the investors will want to be putting new money on the books ahead of 2027. He can’t come out and admit it but if he’s getting the feeling from other owners that a lockout is more likely than not he may actually give the directive to baseball operations to cut payroll even further next year rather than add.

This is what happens when you’re forced to build a roster of misfit toys. We rely on BABIP and walks. The Dodgers have good infield defense and made a very conscious decision they were not going to give us our walks. They trusted their defense and pitchers enough to tell them to just pound the zone AB after AB and it’s neutralized our advantage. If we’re serious about competing we have to add some more bats.

One thing that a $330M payroll buys you, besides multiple MVPs in your lineup and Cy Young candidates in your rotation, is playoff experience. I think the truth is the moment was simply too big for Brice last night (as was starting a closeout game for Priester in G3). These guys don't get exposed to these moments at nearly the same rate as guys on a roster like the Dodgers. A game one in an LCS is barely more stressful than an afternoon game in July to a super team consistently in LCS’s and WS’s. Even if they fell behind 0-2 in this series I am sure they’d feel just fine heading back to LA. For the Brewers this is the biggest moment of their baseball lives and they are feeling that big time. It’s just yet another way the field is imbalanced in this sport. You can try to spin it positively and say at least this year they are all getting a feel for this and it’ll pay off in the coming years but we felt the same way about the ’18 team with all the young and up and coming pitching we had. Never thought in a million years it would be 7 more years before we were back in the NLCS after we lost game 7. Point is when you’re a “bite at the apple” team instead of a Baseball Avengers team you simply cannot count on being back again and have to find a way to make the most of it by winning games you shouldn’t, like last night.

Maybe Ohtani and Manfred work out a reverse Jordan arrangement. Ohtani plays for the Clippers for a few seasons and then comes back to MLB after.

Agreed. I know the official line is still “bites at the apple” but if they were heading into rebuild mode instead I’m not sure how you could tell the difference.

Hello darkness my old friend.

Pretty much this. To me this has the feeling of 2006/2007 rather than 2008. Next year we have Nelson back hopefully at 100% and, fingers crossed, performing somewhere between his 2017 numbers and career avg before that. We also hopefully have Burns and Peralta forcing their way into the Opening Day rotation. That combined with the above mentioned moves just seems to have the makings of a deeper and more well rounded team to roll with and a team, that on paper anyway, seems much closer to being one or two deadline moves away from a pennant.