long ball

Darn close. In the event that the Reds and Brewers tie for that 8th spot I'm sure they'd like to hold a chance at that tie breaker instead of losing the h2h tie breaker to the Reds.

Given Housers platoon splits, I suspect the Reds will start as many lefties as possible. Winker, Moustakas, Votto, akiyama, Goodwin, Barnhart, and Glaves figure to be in there. If I’m Counsell and Houser can get through the first time through the batting order scoreless I’m gonna be pretty aggressive getting Suter in there for the second time through. I know they have a double header on Friday they need to contend with, but they can bullpen that thing together would be my hope.

I think Lindblom is the last player on the roster to make his debut (Morin was DFA'd before appearing). Looking forward to seeing him pitch. Line up will probably look similar to last night with another lefty going.

I don't care if this is a good, bad, or neutral deal for the Brewers. I'm excited that Yelich will be around for a long time.

SP (5): Anderson Houser Lauer Lindblom woodruff OF (5) Braun Cain Gamel Garcia Yelich INF (6) Smoak Huira Arcia Sogard Gyroko Holt Catcher (2) Pina Narvaez Pen (8) Hader Suter Peralta Phelps Claudio Black Wahl Burnes IL (2) Urias Knebel That's how I see it right now before they've played a spring game. Obviously the pen is the biggest question mark as to who will actually break camp with the team since Burnes, Wahl, and Peralta (and I suppose Claudio and Suter) could be optioned if one of the other pen options performs better. If Urias is ready for opening day I would lean toward optioning Gamel.

I think the biggest take away from that Counsell quote is Peralta and Burnes will both be stretched out as starters. What 5 pitchers start the year in the rotation isn't of particular importance, IMO. Last year only Davies and Woodruff were mainstays in the rotation from start to finish while guys like Houser and Anderson got opportunities later on and held down a rotation spot after coming out of spring in different roles.

I agree, but I don't think it even matters. I think the Pacers would need to get to the 2 seed before I'd see them with a chance to advance past the first round. I don't see them beating any of the other top 6 in a series even if Oladipo rounds into form.

Dodgers are going to have to do something because they need the 40 man spots. I would be in favor of acquiring Stripling.

May I ask, what to do the bucks need. They are basically ranked at the top of every important category stat wise. They have the best record in the NBA. I would not really want to upset team chemistry. I suggested adding a vet, but one that would really not play, just like Gasol last year. Bucks have been the best team in the league by a decent margin this year so that answer isn't obvious. Came down to a few things for me. They chose not to retain Brogdon, instead cashing out his RFA rights for 2 picks. I understand that it would have been difficult to keep Hill if they re-signed Brogdon, but not turning that asset into someone who can help try to win a championship this season does sting. That's why it's disappointing they weren't able to add someone via trade. Where they could upgrade I think there were two areas they could have and probably did try to add. The bucks don't really run a ton of pick n roll, but adding a pick n roll ball handler/scorer would have been attractive. Obviously the interesting guy there was Bogdanovic, but he didn't end up getting moved. A knockdown shooter like Kennard would have been the other attractive option. He didn't get moved either. I am somewhat nervous about how the bucks match up defensively vs the Celtics. I think the Bucks are short a wing defender vs the Celtics. Wes has fared well vs the slower more methodical wings like Kawhi an Lebron, but we saw he couldn't really keep up with any of the Celtics guys. We haven't even seen them have to face the Celtics with all 3 wings since Brown has been out both games. Kemba has really played well vs the Bucks in the high screen n roll the last two years. I think this is mostly Kemba being good at shooting off the screen before Bledsoe can recover. Now the Celtics probably don't match up great defensively vs the Bucks either, but a wing defender would have been helpful for this particular matchup. Maybe Marvin Williams will help this team. I assume he will come in and start working into the rotation right away. He's probably a more versatile defender than Ersan. Maybe the Bucks can roll with a small ball line up with Williams and Giannis as the bigs. This is probably the most important season for a Wisconsin pro sports team of my lifetime. The Bucks probably have more pressure to win it all this season than any Wisconsin team in the past 20 years. I think that's why I'm anxious about this team.

I'm surprised they didn't make a move, but none of the guys who got moved really excited me that much. Marcus Morris, Jae Crowder, and Iguodala were mildly interesting, but I'm not too broken up about missing out on those guys. I don't think any team did enough to separate themselves. I still think the Bucks are the best team in the East and are good enough to win a title.

Ya I agree. Covington and Capela landing where they did is pretty good for the Bucks. Neither is a monster, but both would have been useful for other contenders. I'm not overly concerned with the Rockets since I only see them as clearly behind the two LA teams and not much different from Utah or Denver. My biggest fear is other teams adding rather than what the Bucks actually add.

People need to realize by now that things they say on social media have consequences. I don't really think it's necessary for Belling to be doxing some random MPS teacher for their tweets, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's disciplined by his employer for some of these tweets. Travis was insufferable on Twitter for his Brewers related tweets. I had to mute him long ago and it's made my Brewers twitter experience more enjoyable.

My overall take on the Brewers roster right now is that it's good enough to be in contention in September which is really my hope going into every season as a Brewers fan. I want meaningful September baseball. I don't think any of the teams in the central are clear favorites and I am not sure there is a team in the NL other than the Dodgers who I think is head and shoulders above the Brewers either. So I don't necessarily think they're post season favorites, but they're certainly post season contenders. Make it to the playoffs and anything can happen.

Should be useful. They probably needed to add at least one veteran reliever. My guess is they will add another before opening day.

So he will probably miss all of spring. Maybe goes to extended spring training to ramp up and probably a rehab assignment with a minor league affiliate. Hopefully he will be big league ready by May and the Brewers can get by with the rest of their infield contingent.

For me the Bucks should make a move. I really hate the term "all in" when it comes to sports franchises, but the Bucks really are. They absolutely need to maximize this season and next while Giannis is under contract. I'm not a doom and gloom fan, but the Bucks can't operate under even the slightest assumption that Giannis will sign an extension this summer. They need to trade the Indiana pick before the draft. That pick only has immediate value to the bucks via trade and it will absolutely convey this year. IMO, Brown, Wilson, Bender, Connaughton are mostly salary filler. Ersan and maybe Robin and Wes are salary pieces as well. I think the Bucks biggest need is ball handling play maker. Bogdan Bogdanovic is probably the best potentially available trade piece. If they can't get that deal done Derrick Rose might be a fall back option, but decidedly less interesting and I wouldn't give up the pacers pick for him. A bigger 3 and D wing would be my second choice. Marcus Morris would be good here, I'd give up the pacers pick. Covington would be good too, but I'm not sure if I would do the pacers pick + Donte. I'm less concerned about guarding Lebron/Kawhi since I think Wes actually looked pretty good on them. I'm more concerned with the Celtics 3 wings who are quicker and Wes can't match up as well. I don't think the Bucks would make any major trade involving Bledsoe or Middleton. If they don't win a championship this year I think they will need to do something in the off season instead of running it back with primarily the same starters though.

I'm not too upset about seeing him traded out of the division. He seems to have mashed Hader in the past to it will be nice to not have to face him as often.

Yes he did, about 30 IP. They must have something there that's intriguing enough for both sides to bring him back.

Seems like minor league depth who might get called up and pitch a few innings and get DFA'd 4 days later.

Ya, I'm almost positive the Brewers don't intentionally make transactions right before the On Deck event to "excite the fan base" or to have something big to talk about at the event. Any transaction in the past that happened right before the event is almost surely coincidental.

This seems to be turning into a some what testy situation. Arenado made some... interesting... comments about the trade rumors. https://www.mlb.com/news/nolan-arenado-responds-to-trade-rumors It feels like if the Brewers were interested in committing $30mm+ annually to a third baseman it would have been Rendon via free agency, but Arenado would look pretty good as a Brewers lol

I haven't lived in Wisconsin since 2003, but I did go to Balistreri's in tosa a couple years ago with my brother in law and I really liked it.

Trevor Story is phenomenal and I'm not sure the Brewers match up well to trade for a player that good given the current state of the farm system. Rockies would probably have to be enamored with Burnes and/or Peralta to match up on a trade for Story.

I'd love Colin McHugh if he's healthy. He kills two birds with 1 stone. He's a very good reliever and can be rotation depth if needed. He's on the older side, but coming off an injury so he might be in line for a Stearns specials (1 year deal with a mutual option to defer some money). I think the Brewers will likely make a signing right before opening day like they did with Dan Jennings and Alex Wilson the past two seasons. I hope they do sign a higher caliber reliever like a McHugh or Cishek though. The tough thing is Faria, Black, D. Guerra, and T. Williams are all out of options. So they'll have to boot one of those guys most likely in favor of any free agent addition. It's possible none of those guys are that big of a loss, but we've seen the Brewers like to put off making a decision for as long as possible. Knebel likely starting the year on the IL helps delay a decision because they probably just have Hader, Suter, and Claudio as opening day locks if healthy.

That was actually more fun than I was expecting. I've generally been pretty indifferent toward all of the "end of the decade" sports content, but this was wroth watching the video clips. Kinda crazy they've had that many home run robbing catches to save games in the 9th inning.