monty57

The key is to get a better farm system WITHOUT having to empty the major league roster, and hitting big on multiple drafts is the way to do it. I agree, and the draft is an important part of it. Teams also have to be willing to trade away "proven" MLB players when a talented prospect is ready to jump to the big leagues. Keeping a stockpile of young, cheap, controllable talent is what will allow smaller market teams to afford to have some higher-priced guys on the roster. Ideally, your stars will be homegrown, and you can extend them to a somewhat team friendly deal early in their careers. But, if you have some free cash and/or an excess amount of talent on the farm, star players can be acquired via free agency or trade. Small market teams just can't build a contender if they are too reliant on free agency and trades to acquire MLB talent. They have to maintain a strong farm.

I expect/hope the Brewers make a move like this, and hopefully this helps set the price tag for them. It's well worth a $3M gamble for the chance to trade him away for some nice prospects at the deadline if he plays well.

Agree. Tampa didn't fall because they're small market. They fell because Friedman left for the Dodgers and the new GM didn't follow in his footsteps. The Twins fell because they were kind of forced to sign the hometown boy Mauer to a monster deal rather than trading him away to stock the system with young talent. The A's decided that they would allow a book to be written that would tell the world how they were winning, so they lost their advantage. Any strategy will fail if you stop implementing it, or are dumb/arrogent enough to tell your opponents all your secrets. Yes, there is an unbalanced playing field in the majors, but the way pre-arby/arby is set up, smaller revenue teams can be competitive. It just takes willingness to stick to a plan that will not always be loved by fans. And while I agree there is an unbalanced playing field, it's not like being in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles guarantees World Series victories. Winning in any market takes a long-term plan by the owner with a GM who has the ability to carry out that plan. The best way, in my opinion, for a smaller market team to have a chance of being competitive on a relatively regular basis, is to take advantage of the system that seriously underpays guys for their first six years in the league. With enough of these guys, even small revenue teams can afford some higher priced players. The collapse a couple of seasons ago followed up by the horrendous start the following year seems to have been the blow that opened Attanasio's eyes to this and he has seemingly stepped away from the strategy of trying to build a winning team year-to-year by paying for guys whose names the fans knew to the strategy of building a winning franchise on a long-term basis by stockpiling as much young talent as possible at all levels. With that change in mindset, he went out and hired a guy who looks to be good at implementing this strategy. I'm enjoying these years, because even though the MLB team is playing losing baseball, they're on an upward trend and I think that in the not-too-distant future there will be a lot of winning baseball in Milwaukee for years to come.

knowing that small markets cannot or simply haven't yet fielded consistently playoff caliber teams over a 10 year period From World Population Review: "St. Louis has a population estimated at 317,000 in the city limits, but the Greater St. Louis area is the 19th largest metro area in the US with a population of 2.85 million." "Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin and the 30th most populous city in the country. It's also the center of the Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis Metropolitan Statistical Area with a population of 1.57 million. In 2016, Milwaukee has a population exceeding 600,000." So, a team in a market of 1.57M has absolutely zero chance in baseball, and has to mortgage the future any time they have any talent in order to have any possible chance of competing, but a team in a slightly larger metropolitan area can be one of the most storied franchises in baseball history... I don't buy it. Door A ...... 8 Brewer playoff appearances in the next 10 years; each playoff outcome is uncertain. Door B...... 1 Brewer playoff appearance in the next 10 years that ends with a WS championship. Sure, if you can absolutely guarantee that we can put together a team that will make the playoffs one year and win the World Series, then I'll take choice B. Since that defies logic, and the team with eight playoff appearances would have much better odds at winning a World Series than a team that makes the playoffs once, I'll take choice A. Do you see the dilemma? No, I see that you're bored in the offseason and really want to make a big deal out of something that is not a big deal. If anything, Attanasio has shown that he wants to win a championship more than anything else in life. My problem with him was that in past years he was sacrificing the future in order to "win now." I can't fathom how anyone would believe that Mark Attanasio does not want to win a World Series. He tried and tried and tried to win the way he thought would win and that didn't get him there. Now he's seeing teams winning by going a different route, and he's hired a guy who seems to be pretty good at that methodology. Let's hope this is what works.

I think we laid our foundation over the past year and a half, but 2017 is still a "let's see what we have in some players" year. It's hard to predict where we'll be in 2018 because we don't yet know what we have in some players. If guys like Villar and Broxton grow into the players they showed they have the talent to be, then we have a couple of All Stars we obtained for virtually nothing. If Peralta did "find himself" in the minors last year and can finally turn into the pitcher we hoped he would be, then he could be a #1/2 starter. Thames is a complete unknown for us pedestrians, who simply have to hope that Stearns and company found a gem. If he can be a mid-.800 OPS, good fielding 1B, then that would really solidify our team. We also have a lot of good pitching prospects, and as we all know, it's hard to project how pitching prospects will pan out. So, if these guys play to their potential, we could certainly be in the playoff picture by 2018. If not, then we will have to wait a while longer. That's the "fun" of a rebuild. You're not banking on high-priced vets with long track records, but rather on younger, cheaper, talented guys who are still trying to prove themselves. Personally, I think that if Braun is not traded, and we pick up a "second tier" veteran to be the closer, I think we have a good shot at being around a .500 team this year. Then, going into 2018, we will know more about what we have in some guys, will have more talent coming up from the minors, and will have a lot of free cash to spend on free agents to fill in any holes on the roster. With two Wild Card spots, that should be when we have a legitimate shot at playing winning baseball and being a playoff contender. But, we have to let 2017 play out and see how some guys do before anyone can start making any kind of definitive statements about the future. Let's have fun watching these young, talented, athletic guys play.

Thanks for putting this together Brew4U. Obviously the big question is whether or not Braun is traded. Outside of that, I think we'll see one of the top six starting pitchers traded and we'll add a veteran reliever, guaranteeing him the closer spot. Other than that, we're probably pretty much where we'll be to start the season.

From MLBTradeRumors.com: After the Brewers nearly dealt outfielder Ryan Braun to the Dodgers in August, there was a report that the two teams would revisit talks during the winter. There hasn’t been much offseason chatter regarding Braun, though, and one team executive told Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe that clubs are wary of his past performance-enhancing drug use. “When a guy with that contract has been busted once, it’s hard to commit those dollars and those player resources because if he gets busted again, you lose all of your guys and you lose Braun,” the exec said. “Nobody is saying he’d do it again, but while he’s a very good impact player, it’s just a tough one.” Braun served a 65-game suspension for PEDs in 2013 and later admitted to using them during his NL MVP-winning season in 2011. He returned from the suspension in 2014 to post so-so numbers (by his standards), but the 33-year-old has gone back to being a high-end offensive performer since. Braun is owed $76MM over the next half-decade, including a $4MM buyout in 2021. Could be posturing, but sounds like the past PED use is having an effect on his value.

Career minor league WHIP of 1.49 and MLB WHiP of 1.83. I couldn't see splits, so I sure hope he's good at getting LH hitters out and is trying out for a LOOGY role.

Does Braun's 10/5 no trade situation start at opening day, or at the end of the season?

Between trades, additional signings, and injuries, things can change a lot between now and opening day. There's really no downside to having someone like Milone signed to a non-guaranteed deal. Best case scenario is that he pitches well and nets us something of value at the trade deadline, while allowing the Brewers to get more MiLB time for the talented prospects who are getting close to their MLB debuts. Worst case scenario is that he gets let go and ends up costing us nothing (or at least very little).

... but I certainly don't want to win games this year due to veteran free agent signing types. Well, our veteran free agent signing so far has been Tommy Milone, so I think you're safe :-)

We've already picked up Davies, Villar and Broxton for basically nothing. All of those guys have the potential to be very valuable players. Every team is built differently, but I like that Stearns is looking to add value to the franchise (all levels) in any means possible. If you keep doing this, you will find some guys who become very good MLB players.

This is the crux of the situation. Are you looking for us to acquire a Kershaw/Trout? There are only a few of those guys in baseball at any given time, so most teams don't have that type player. If you are going to bemoan the Brewers until they acquire a player like that, then you are going to be unhappy far more than you will be happy. If, on the other hand, you are looking for guys who could be perennial all-stars, then I think we already have some of those guys in the system. Right now, we probably have the best farm we have ever had. One could argue that when we had Fielder, Weeks, Hardy, etc it was better, but we have a much better balance of hitting/pitching in the mix this time around. Plus, we have a lot more young talent at the MLB level than we had when those guys were in the minors. I guess I don't get the extreme negativity about the state of the franchise at this point. I'm as positive about the future as I have been in a long time.

I think this is important. Barring injury, we're likely to start the season with Susac as our starter, with Pina as the backup and Bandy in AAA. If everything goes perfectly and no one gets hurt, then we will have gained one more year of Bandy, and we'll have a decision to make next offseason with three MLB catchers with no options. Or, in the likely scenario that we need Bandy up at the MLB level at some point in the season, it will be nice to know that he actually deserves to be there and isn't just AAA fodder.

The Brewers have one of, if not the the top farm systems in all of baseball. Very few players ever pitch like Kershaw or hit like Braun, but we are stacked with talent, and some of them could become a "franchise bat" or "top of the rotation" arm. Brinson is coming off an injury-plagued year, and MLB.com still has him as the #14 overall player in the minors. Ray is still a youngling, and he's already ranked #27. If they live up to their potential, they could be extremely valuable all-around players. It sucks that Bickford got suspended, but we have more pitching in the minors than ever in Brewer history. Some of these guys will pan out and make good MLB pitchers. As to getting generational talent like a Harper or Trout, you have to get really lucky, as they don't come around all too often, but we have a lot of talent in the minors, including some who could become All Star caliber players.

It's not that they are in a "bad spot." The Brewers had three catchers who were all around the same ability level. It makes sense to trade away the guy with the highest cost and least team control. As to bringing an MLB ready catcher back, I always like having a guy in the minors who is capable of playing at the MLB level. Catchers don't play everyday, so if one of the MLB guys gets hurt, the AAA catcher is going to see fairly significant playing time.

Save a little money and let the younger guys play. Plus, Jett Bandy is a pretty cool name.

I don't really care. I was just messing with bcd80 for the "how can you possibly be on this board and not know..." comment. Regardless of how you want to quantify the deal, any trade involving Braun will very likely involve the Brewers either eating some of his salary or bringing back an unwanted salary in return. To Attanasio, bringing back top end talent is worth more than saving money at this stage of the rebuild. As to who I would rather have, I'd take Braun with his current contract over Fowler with his new contract, but they are different players so it really depends on what a team needs. I do think it's pretty safe to say that Fowler will never be in any MVP talks, and when the careers are over there will be no discussion as to whether Fowler should get into the Hall of Fame or even whether his number will be retired by any team he's played for.

Thanks CheezWizHead. That was funny.

What season is Braun being paid 20million? Hes never being paid 20million in any season. How can it possibly be anyone in this forum not know he's not being paid 20mil in any season? Ive and others have hashed this for over a year now. Go read my cots post in the Braun thread. Yes he is. Part of it is deferred, but his salary is $20M for the year. How can it possibly be anyone in this forum not know that :-) From Cots: (sorry if it doesn't look good) Braun, Ryan lf 9.129 CAA Sports 5 yr/$105M (16-20)+21 opt $20,000,000 $20.000 $19.000 $17.000 $4.000

His numbers may have looked a lot better since starting but did you see last year as a reliever only. Not so good. I would take a chance on the younger guys or convert one of the starters into a relief role. As Mass Haas mentioned in the opening post, he was injured and only pitched 23 innings between the majors and minors. But, to your point, most relievers are sporadic from year-to-year. I'm fine if this guy ends up getting a middle reliever spot. I'm also fine if someone else beats him out. It's good to have some additional options since we've traded away much of last year's 'pen.

The Brewer infield is set. This is a move to see if they can upgrade the "25th man." There's a good chance he doesn't even make the MLB roster, and the only way he sees 400 PAs if if we have some serious injuries. In that case, it's good to have competition to see who will be the best fill-in. I don't know if Rivera has a good enough bat to play everyday, so we might as well bring in some other guys to see who sticks.

Like many pitchers, it looks like he was tried out as a starter in the minors, and converted to exclusively bullpen around 2012. His numbers look a lot better after that. If he can stay healthy, looks like a guy who could be a decent middle reliever, with a mid-3's ERA and over 2 K/BB. May not be a world beater, but could log a lot of innings for the 2017 Brewers.

Boomer5 said: "Heyward. The poster boy for the "6 WAR Elite" OF." JohnBriggs12 said: "Prospect rankings are snapshots in time. Players go up and they go down, particularly pitchers but position players as well. Lets wait and see." I think combined these quotes show that any move has risk. Whether acquiring a "proven" veteran or an "unproven" prospect, you do your best to try to find guys who will help you out during the time you "control" them. Sometimes you're right, and sometimes not. For every veteran pick-up who has flopped, you can point out a failed "top prospect," and vice versa. Some Owners/GM's probably prefer to use prospects as capital in trade, feeling more secure in getting "proven" players. Others prefer to stockpile prospects and build from within. The members of the former group are probably amazed that guys who have shown ability at the MLB level are available in trade, while guys in the latter group are amazed that "top prospects" are available in trade. As jerichoholicninja pointed out, no one is ever truly "untouchable," you just need to find someone who is willing to meet your price. The White Sox did a good job signing some guys for what has turned out to be undervalued contracts, much like the Brewers did with Gomez and Lucroy, and that's why they were able to get such a haul back. Regardless the market, money always has value.

The Cubs got a little lucky last year when the Orioles decided Fowler was too much of an injury risk, which kind of forced him to go back to Chicago on a one-year deal. Without him, the Schwarber injury would have hurt them a lot more. That said, I don't think this is a good signing. A five year deal to a guy on the wrong side of 30 has a good chance of looking like a really bad contract in a couple of years.