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Brock Beauchamp

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Blog Entries posted by Brock Beauchamp

  1. Brock Beauchamp
    1. Create Your Blog
    When you click the Blogs section on the top menu, you'll be taken to a list of most the most recent entries from our community. At the top of this feed you'll see the "Create a Blog" button. Click it and you'll be asked to enter a few high-level details: the title of your blog within the site (i.e., "John's Brewers Blog" or something more clever/creative), a brief description, and the category it will belong to (if you're not sure, just pick "General").
    To hop on over to the blog index page now, click here.
    2. Publish Your First Entry
    Congrats, you have a blog! Now give people a reason to come check it out. On your blog page, you'll see a red button on the right-hand side, "Add Blog Entry." Click it to draft your content. Here you can either compose within the CMS, or copy-and-paste what you've written elsewhere (Word, Google Doc, notes app, etc.). You'll also be prompted to choose a category for your post (select "Use an existing entry category" and pick the one that fits best, or create a new one). You can either publish immediately or schedule it to go live in the future.
    3. Support Your Position with Stats
    We now support copying and pasting Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs stat tables directly into the site! Just pop on over to this blog and find out how to do it!
    4. Tips to Make Your Blog Look Great
    First, upload an image! Just below the blog entry area, you will see a Featured Photo bar. Grab a photo and drag it into that space, which will upload the image, feature it, and make it more likely your blog will be noticed (and commented on).
    5. Promote and Keep Blogging
    Brewer Fanatic has a naturally built-in audience of passionate Brewers fans, so your content will likely get some views on its own. But spread the word! Tell your friends to check it out and share it on your social media profiles. Keep writing regularly to hone your skills and grow your readership. Those who post consistently high-quality content in the blogs often get the opportunity to move up to the (paid) front page.
  2. Brock Beauchamp
    The Brewers' season has concluded, but do you need your next baseball fix over the long winter?
    Fans that follow the Brewers know the thrill of building a team from the ground up — from scouting promising talent to developing all-stars. But what if you could experience that same excitement firsthand, managing every detail of your own franchise? That’s where Franchise Ball steps up to the plate. It’s a free online baseball simulation game that lets you become the general manager of your own team, competing in real-time leagues against other passionate baseball minds around the world.
    In Franchise Ball, you’re not just watching the game — you’re building it. You’ll draft players, negotiate trades, and fine-tune lineups to maximize performance. Each simulated game unfolds with advanced stats and analytics that reflect real baseball logic, making every managerial decision matter. Whether you prefer to model your team after the [blog team name] balanced strategy or carve out your own unique identity, Franchise Ball gives you the tools to do it.
    The experience runs 24/7, with games played daily across competitive divisions and playoff seasons. As you progress, you can develop player depth charts, scout prospects, and manage your team’s finances for long-term success. The system rewards strategy, patience, and smart decision-making — the same skills that front offices use in Major League Baseball.
    Unlike many sports games, Franchise Ball doesn’t rely on flashy graphics or pay-to-win mechanics. It's a pure test of baseball management and intellect.  You can join leagues, form rivalries, and climb the global rankings while keeping tabs on your stats through the game’s detailed dashboard. Every box score and scouting report feels like a genuine piece of baseball management history in the making.
    Franchise Ball is completely free to play, with membership upgrade options, and we're constantly listening to our community to bring new features to the game as they come in. So if you’re inspired by the way the Brewers rebuild, retool, and compete year after year — now’s your chance to run your own team and see if your baseball instincts can match up. Visit Franchise Ball today, start your own franchise, and take your first swing at baseball greatness.
  3. Brock Beauchamp
    Every offseason, we offer our You’re The GM! tool (formerly the Payroll Blueprint) to build your ideal Brewers roster. This year, we’ve updated and streamlined the tool a bit to improve the experience.
    The idea behind this feature is to give fans a chance to play the role of General Manager (or CBO or PoBO… you get the idea) for their favorite team, the Milwaukee Brewers. It’s meant to give fans the opportunity to discuss (and, let’s be honest, argue) how they would approach the long, dark MLB offseason.
    This tool is intended to be informal and fun, so we’ve left it as open as possible. There is a payroll “budget” that loosely resembles the Brewers' 2024 payroll, but there is no penalty for going over that number. It’s a guideline, nothing more. Second, you can submit as many blueprints as you like throughout the offseason. As the offseason landscape changes, users often return multiple times over the winter and create new blueprints.
    Before we get into the breakdown of the tool, you can save your blueprint and come back to it at any time. The only restriction is that you must register an account on the site to create a blueprint (so we can save a draft for you and also post the blueprint for others to discuss).
    Let’s get into the tool itself. It has four quadrants that work best if addressed in a counter-clockwise order (this tool works much better on desktops due to its complexity but will work on mobile devices if need be).
    Top Left: The 26-man Roster
    We have created a rough guideline of what the Brewers 26-man roster looks like today. The roster is flexible; any player can be added or removed as you see fit. We’ve also included either guaranteed salaries or, in the case of arbitration and contract options, the recommendations of MLB Trade Rumors. This section is where you build your roster and make changes based on the following two sections. As you make changes to players and salaries, the total payroll number (right side of the screen) will change, allowing you to track your budget on the fly.
    The bottom field in both columns is for any dead money you assume during the course of your offseason. Acquiring dead money should be rather uncommon but we want to present users the opportunity to take on dead salary if it suits their purposes.
    Bottom Left: Arbitration & Trade Decisions
    Here, you will find a selection of arbitration options and internal options (usually from the 40-man roster or minor leagues) to assist in building your offseason roster. On the right-hand side of this column, you will see Trade Candidates, a list of the 35 players most likely to be traded this offseason, per MLB Trade Rumors. To help you get up to speed with these candidates, we offer a direct link to the MLBTR write-up on trade candidates.
    Bottom Right: Free Agents
    Here, you will find the top 50 free agents, again per MLB Trade Rumors. These are sorted by position to facilitate quickly finding your desired free agent and include the recommended salary for that player. Because this is a blueprint for a single year, we only include their projected salary for the coming season, not the number of years or anything else. To help you get up to speed with these free agents, we offer a direct link to the MLBTR write-up on the best 50 free agents available this winter.
    Top Right: Dead Money, Your Total Payroll, & Commentary
    The only unalterable field on the page is Dead Money; it is players to which the team has committed money but has no reasonable way to get out of the contract. Below that, you will see the recommended budget, your current total, and the percentage you are over or under that budget. Again, keep in mind the budget is only a guideline, and you can go above it as much as you like…
    But defend your choices, coward! The following field is Title, which gives other users an idea of what to expect with your blueprint (e.g. Sign Juan Soto, Damn the Consequences). When your blueprint posts for other users, it will read “Your Username’s 2025 Payroll Blueprint: Sign Juan Soto, Damn the Consequences”.
    The following field is Your Comments & Explanation, a long-form field meant to type out the rationale behind your decisions. Here is the place to fully explain your trades (including which players are leaving the Brewers to bring in new players), why you targeted specific free agents, and, any promotions from the minors you advocate or any options you declined to extend to a specific player. This is often multiple paragraphs, you can write up as much detail as you desire.
    That’s it, you’re done! At this point, you can either publish your blueprint to the forums or save it for later if you feel it’s incomplete.
    Thank you for joining us at Brewer Fanatic. I hope you enjoy playing the role of general manager, at least for a moment!
    Start Your Payroll Blueprint Now
  4. Brock Beauchamp
    FOCO is a partner with Brewer Fanatic and support of their products helps support this site; 100% of the funds/materials received from these promotions go directly to our users in the form of prizes and gifts.
    In honor of his great start to the season, FOCO has released a brand-new Christian Yelich Milwaukee Brewers Field Stripe Mini Bighead Bobblehead. This Christian Yelich Milwaukee Brewers Field Stripe Mini Bighead Bobblehead features everyone's favorite Brewers star, in bobblehead form. This highly collectible item is a necessity for any Brewers fan, primarily those who have been following their success throughout the early portion of the season.
    The handcrafted, hand painted, Christian Yelich Milwaukee Brewers Field Stripe Mini Bighead Bobblehead portrays Yelich posing in his white gameday uniform, ready to make the play of the game. It features a team-colored base that will look great in any collection, along with a team-colored stripe accent with team logo display on the top of the base in case there were any doubts about where your allegiances lie. The bobble has a miniature team logo display on front of the base for a little extra team spirit, and a front name display so everyone knows who the face of our franchise is! The bobblehead is approximately 4.5 in., and retails for $30. There will be 144 of these limited edition bobbleheads available for pre-order. 
    The release of the Christian Yelich Milwaukee Brewers Field Stripe Mini Bighead Bobblehead is a great way for Brewers fans to show their support for the team. These bobbleheads are sure to be in high demand, so fans should act swiftly to secure their own. Get yours here!

  5. Brock Beauchamp
    FOCO is a partner with Brewer Fanatic and support of their products helps support this site; 100% of the funds/materials received from these promotions go directly to our users in the form of prizes and gifts.
    An all time Milwaukee Brewers great is now a part of FOCO’s illustrious Milwaukee Brewers bobblehead collection.  The power hitting shortstop and center fielder, nicknamed “The Kid,” who played all 20 years with the Milwaukee Brewers, is known as the perennial offensive weapon of the Brew Crew recording record after record year after year.  The 3 time all-star and former National League two-time MVP and beloved Brewer for life, Robin Yount, is ready to make his way to your bobblehead collection with a little twist on it.

    This morning, our friends at FOCO have just released a Robin Yount Milwaukee Brewers Magnetic Stadium Base Bobblehead.  FOCO wants to make sure us Brewers fans are paying tribute to a true legend of the game now and forever.  The concept of this bobblehead is really cool as the base is a detachable magnet that displays Milwaukee County Stadium on the inside of the detachable magnet.  Yount is repping his home white home Brewers uniform standing in an action pose on top of the detachable magnetic base as he salutes with his hat to the Crew faithful.
    As most of FOCO’s bobbleheads are, this is a limited-edition piece with only 124 units being made standing proudly at 7 inches tall set a retail price of $80.  Like all FOCO bobbleheads, each one is hand crafted and painted so that no two bobbleheads look exactly alike creating a unique and diverse presence to every collectible FOCO creates.
    Make sure to click on any one of the links in this article to grab a Robin Yount Milwaukee Brewers Magnetic Stadium Base Bobblehead for your own or for a friend before they are all gone and cheer on your Brew Crew in style!
  6. Brock Beauchamp
    FOCO is a partner with Brewer Fanatic and support of their products helps support this site; 100% of the funds/materials received from these promotions go directly to our users in the form of prizes and gifts.
    We are all excited to finally have baseball back after a long awaited 6 months of reminiscing what most would call a successful finish to the 2023 season for the Brew Crew!  What’s even more exciting and has Brewers fans excited to jump out of their seats at American Family Insurance Stadium this season is the long-awaited call to the pros for young rookie phenom outfielder and baseball’s #6 overall prospect, Jackson Chourio.  After signing with Milwaukee Brewers as an up and coming international free agent prospect with a 2 million dollar signing bonus out of Venezuela, the highly sought-after prospect has shot through the rankings in just 3 minor league seasons in the Milwaukee Brewers farm system and truly impressed in this year’s spring training forcing general manager Matt Arnold’s hand to make him a big leaguer in 2024 and so far he has impressed.
    As excited as we are about Jackson’s potential with the Brewers, we want to make sure you guys are cheering him on bobblehead style with a brand new good-luck charm from FOCO.  This morning, our friends at FOCO have just released their very own Jackson Chourio Milwaukee Brewers Rookie Bobblehead.  This bobblehead portrays Jackson in his home white Brewers uniform in action pose with his helmet on as he looks like he is running the bases to score a run for your beloved Brew Crew.  Jackson is standing on a bright yellow and dark blue base with a “Welcome To The Show” plaque in the backdrop of the collectible letting every Brew Crew fan know that Jackson Chourio has officially arrived to the big leagues!  His name and jersey number in the shape of a baseball along with his team’s name is displayed on the front decal of the bobblehead.

    Make sure to grab your limited-edition Jackson Chourio Milwaukee Brewers Rookie Bobblehead now by clicking on any of the links in this article before they run out.  FOCO has only made 96 of these bad boys standing proudly at 8 inches tall and going for a retail price of $70 available for preorder now!
    Like all FOCO bobbleheads, each one is hand-crafted and painted so that no two bobbleheads look the same creating a unique and diverse presence and structure to each collectible FOCO creates.  So click on any of the links you see here to grab your Jackson Chourio Milwaukee Brewers Rookie Bobblehead now and make sure you carry Jackson wherever you go or have him sit next to you as your good luck charm to cheering on your Milwaukee Brewers all season long!  GO BREW CREW! GO BREWERS GO!
  7. Brock Beauchamp
    FOCO is a partner with Brewer Fanatic and support of their products helps support this site; 100% of the funds/materials received from these promotions go directly to our users in the form of prizes and gifts.
    We are just a couple weeks away from opening day and the Brew Crew and us loyal Brewer fans cannot wait to make our way our to American Family Insurance Ball Park to watch our Brewers rake this season!  If you need a special and unique way to show your true fandom for the Brew Crew, we got you covered. The Milwaukee Brewers Pinstripe Bib Overalls are not just a piece of clothing; they're a statement of unwavering support for the Milwaukee Brewers, designed to make you stand out in a crowd full of Brewers fans, whether you're at the game or enjoying your Brewers from anywhere around the world.
    Their all-over team-colored design comes in the official Milwaukee Brewers colors that captures the essence of the team spirit, making it a must-have for any devoted fan. Prominently featuring a large team logo on the front, there's no questioning where your allegiance lies. The inclusion of a bib pocket is not just for aesthetics but makes for a practical addition that allows for easy storage of essentials like your phone, wallet, or game day tickets. With a buckle closure and adjustable bib shoulder straps, these shortalls promise a custom fit that's both comfortable and flattering. The combination of the polyester woven canvas and short pant legs further enhance airflow, ensuring you stay cool and comfortable, no matter how intense the game gets.
    The versatility of the Milwaukee Brewers Pinstripe Bib Overalls by FOCO is unmatched. Ideal for game days, these shortalls ensure you're dressed for victory. They're also the perfect choice for tailgating events, where comfort meets style. And when it comes to concerts or festivals, these shortalls allow you to enjoy the music and atmosphere while proudly showcasing your team spirit.
    Whether you're cheering from the stands or celebrating with friends at a tailgate, the Milwaukee Brewers Pinstripe Bib Shortalls are the ultimate fan gear. Combining functionality with style, they're a must-have for any diehard Brewersfan looking to show their team pride in a unique and fashionable way. Get ready to turn heads and make a statement at your next game day or event by grabbing a pair here!


  8. Brock Beauchamp
    There's a ton of chatter about the MLB postseason format and while I think it's blowing current issues out of proportion - we have all of two years of data from which to draw - I believe there is some merit to the criticisms. There's a relatively easy fix, though, and it can actually reduce the length of the postseason by a day should MLB wish to take that route.
    First, there are complaints about the number of teams in the postseason. I rather strongly disagree with this take; as a fan of multiple teams and a person who runs sites for several fanbases, it's simply more fun watching fans engage with their team until the end of September instead of losing interest in mid-August or earlier. The more engaged fanbases there are in the sport, the better the health of the sport overall. Plus, the postseason makes MLB buckets of money. Whether you like it or not, 12 postseason teams is going to be the standard moving forward.
    There is plenty of room to prioritize the regular season within this format. Here was the 2023 format:
    Oct 1: Game 162
    Oct 2: Off Day
    Oct 3-5: Wild Card Games 1-3
    Oct 6: Off Day
    Oct 7: Division Round Begins
    Most of the complaints of the current format revolve around two issues: prioritization of the best regular season teams and prolonged off-days for bye teams.
    As a response, I suggest removing off-days and stacking the Wild Card round even more in favor of the third division winner and the best wild card team (seed #4).
    Instead of a three game series, extend it to a five-game series with the home team receiving a "free win" going into the round. A similar format is used in the KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) and I think it's a good example to follow. This means the three and four seeds in the Wild Card - those two teams who host the round - have to win two games to win the "five game" series while the road team has to win three games to advance. This stacks the deck considerably against the lower-seeded teams, which is what most people seem in favor of doing. As a bonus, MLB might get more postseason games out of fourth Wild Card games.
    Secondly, get rid of the off-days, which impacts everyone in the Wild Card round. No longer do they have much hope in setting up their pitching and bullpen for the Division Series, they might back into that series having played as many as 7-8 games consecutively without a day off. If you add a potential game four and remove two off-days, this actually reduces the time off for the first and second-seeded bye teams by a day, reducing potential complaints about "rust" and "too much rest".
    Additionally, removing that first off-day after game 162 favors the Wild Card host teams, who are more likely to have sewn up a postseason spot days earlier, allowing them to enter the Wild Card round with their pitching set up for the postseason. My new format would have looked like this in 2023:
    Oct 1: Game 162
    Oct 2-5: Wild Card Games 1-4
    Oct 6: Division Round Begins
    Thoughts? What are your issues with the current postseason format and is this solution a good one?
  9. Brock Beauchamp
    I wanted to update everyone on a few things as we head into the stretch and what looks to be another October appearance by the Crew.
    First, Brewer Fanatic has been humming along very nicely. In July, we broke all traffic records dating back to the earliest data we have for BrewerFan.net in 2016. In August, we demolished every record we set in July.
    On August 31st, Brewer Fanatic had 11,900 visitors to the site. That's easily the most in the history of the site.
    So everything is all rosy there and we're super-excited as we head into the final month of the season.
    A Partnership with WTMJ
    This is new starting today but you'll see abbreviated Brewer Fanatic content over at WTMJ. In time, we hope to grow this partnership but should you see some of our content over there, know that it has been in the works for awhile and is yet another avenue we will get our dedicated writers the readership they deserve. Obviously, we're quite excited about this and something similar is what helped kickstart Twins Daily into the behemoth it is today.
    Here is the first example of such content: https://wtmj.com/news/2023/09/01/brewers-fanatic-survived-wrigley-field-craig-tember/
    About Site Bugs & Issues
    I know some of you are rolling your eyes at my lack of responsiveness over site bugs and issues. My hope is that I will be able to spend a significant chunk of the offseason fixing some of these errors and polishing up the site experience. Now that we run three sites, I have to admit to myself that the sites need to go into maintenance mode during the season, there's just too much for me to do on a daily basis. Once the season is over I will begin to whittle down on the significant list of issues that need repair and thanks for all of your patience with these issues.
    That's all I have for today, thanks for reading and GO CREW!
  10. Brock Beauchamp
    FOCO is a partner with Brewer Fanatic and support of their products helps support this site; 100% of the funds/materials received from these promotions go directly to our users in the form of prizes and gifts.
    Get ready to celebrate America's favorite pastime with a touch of nostalgia as FOCO, a leading manufacturer of officially licensed sports and entertainment merchandise, announces the release of an exciting new collection: Peanuts Charlie Brown MLB Team Themed Bobbleheads. This collaboration brings together the beloved Peanuts characters and the iconic teams of Major League Baseball in a charming and collectible form. Fans of both Peanuts and baseball are in for a treat as they witness the timeless charm of Charlie Brown and his friends coming to life in the form of bobbleheads.

    The Peanuts Charlie Brown MLB Team Themed Bobbleheads collection features a bobblehead for each MLB team, meticulously designed to incorporate the essence of Peanuts and the respective MLB team. Charlie Brown dons the Brewers colors and logo and is positioned with a baseball bat in hand and a Brewers hat. He stands atop a thematic team base with his name displayed in front and the Brewers logo on the bottom. 
    As with any highly sought-after collectible, FOCO understands the importance of exclusivity. The Peanuts Charlie Brown MLB Team Themed Bobbleheads collection is a limited-edition release, with just 150 units for each one. This limited availability creates a sense of urgency among collectors, enhancing the excitement surrounding the release. It also retails for $65 and stands close to 10in tall. 
    The Peanuts Charlie Brown MLB Team Themed Bobbleheads collection will be available through FOCO.com, FOCO’s official website. As demand is expected to be high, it is recommended that fans act swiftly to secure their favorite team's bobblehead.
    The release of the Peanuts Charlie Brown MLB Team Themed Bobbleheads collection by FOCO marks an exciting moment for fans of Peanuts and Major League Baseball alike. By intertwining the timeless charm of Charlie Brown and his friends with the tradition and passion of baseball, FOCO has created a unique and collectible experience that will be cherished by fans for years to come. Don't miss the opportunity to own a piece of this exceptional collaboration. Add one to your collection here!
  11. Brock Beauchamp
    Our friends at FOCO have announced a cool limited-edition bobblehead that we want to share with our Brewer Fanatic users. It's a Brice Turang rookie bobblehead, limited to only 96 units. FOCO is a partner of Brewer Fanatic and if you use our affiliate link, we earn credits we use exclusively to return to our users via prizes and gifts.
    Take a look at this exclusive offer and get a unique gift for a promising young rookie and former top prospect!

  12. Brock Beauchamp

    13 Months of Brewer Fanatic!

    By Brock Beauchamp,


    About Brewer Fanatic
    Well, we've been doing this for 13 months now! That seems impossible but it's true. As always, I try to be as transparent as possible so let's look at some of the numbers.
    Overall, we're doing pretty great. We're still a fraction of the size of Twins Daily but given how long that site has been around and how it was formed, it would have been pure insanity to expect competition on that level.
    Year over year, we've seen a 92% increase in users visiting the site... that's great, but that's not really the entire goal. The goal is to bring this community back to its heyday of several years ago. And I'm happy to report that we're making significant strides in that regard, though the road is long and we have more work to do.
    The best (ie. easiest) way to bring in new users is search engine optimization. If we can place highly on various Google searches, it's essentially "free users"! Most of those users view one or two pages and leave. That's okay. A few create accounts. That's great! A few of those post a comment. That's the goal!
    So you need a really big funnel working for a really long time to create inertia. We're moving in that direction, thankfully. Organic search results (fancy for "people who clicked from Google/Bing to the site) is up 130% year over year.
    Another facet of a big switch-over like this is retaining the users we have, which has mostly been the case as well. That is monitored by direct traffic (ie. people who just come directly to the site). Year over year, that's up 73%.
    But how does that compare to previous years? Let's take a look at the 30 day period of March 19 through April 17. Obviously, there's a ton of noise here because, as we all know, 2020 was the COVID year. 2022 was the lockout year, which hampered traffic a little but mostly from January through March.
    User Direct Visits 3/19-4/17
    2023: 10,093
    2022: 5,831
    2021: 5,479
    2020: 3,511 (COVID)
    2019: 16,117 (wow!)
    2018: 8,058
    2017: 6,241
    As you can see, the brass ring is the 2019 season when everybody was pumped about the Brewers. And we're building our way back to that, one user at a time. I think we'll get there in time.
    As always, thank you all so much for sticking with us through the first year and helping us sort out the bugs. And, as always, my door is always open. If you see something that bothers you, please speak up and let me know about it, either here in the comments or via private message.
    Go Crew!
  13. Brock Beauchamp
    Brewer Fanatic is a partner with FOCO products and earns products for any affiliate purchases you make, 100% of which is returned to our users in gift form. Any support you provide is support of the Brewer Fanatic community itself!
    To celebrate the return of baseball, FOCO is releasing a Spring Training Bobblehead Collection that features commemorative team bobbleheads, mascots, and some of the game’s best players from the Grapefruit and Cactus Spring training leagues.
    The commemorative player bobbleheads in the collection feature spring training league logos across the body and head. They all stand atop a plate themed base with various thematic elements from the league that they play in. The player and mascot bobbleheads are also on a base with various thematic elements from the league they play in and their names are displayed in front. The commemorative generic players will retail for $75, the mascots for $70, and the athletes for $80. All of the bobbleheads in the collection are limited to 144 units and stand at 8" tall.
    These unique bobbles will only be available for a limited time so check them out!
    FOCO Spring Training Bobblehead Collection

  14. Brock Beauchamp
    Our friends at FOCO are back again with a new collection of bobbleheads, but this time with a few twists. Their brand-new Holiday Bobble Bros collection is in stock and ready to ship ahead of the holidays. Unlike most of FOCO's bobbleheads, these are not limited and retail at a much lower price for just $30. This makes them the perfect stocking stuffer and a great addition to any Brewers fan’s home. 
    The collection features team mascots wearing reindeer themed hats. They are also sporting a scarf with a baseball and bat in hand. The Bernie Brewer version is in a seated position and is wearing his team jersey. If you are familiar with some of FOCO's other bobbleheads, you will quickly notice that these don’t have a base, making these really stand out from the rest of their offering. 
    Like all FOCO bobbleheads, each one is handcrafted and hand-painted so no two are exactly the same. As mentioned before, these are not limited and are in stock ready to ship now. They stand at just 4in tall so they should fit in any spot you’d want to display them. Don’t wait to pick up the Milwaukee Brewers Bobble Bro Mascot Bobblehead for yourself or as gift for the upcoming holidays!
    Disclaimer: Brewer Fanatic does not earn money from any purchases from FOCO but we do receive gifts, all of which we give away to our users. So please consider making FOCO a gift choice for the Brewers fan in your life!
  15. Brock Beauchamp

    Introducing Dark Mode!

    By Brock Beauchamp,


    Brewer Fanatic Features
    This has been one of the most-requested features for a long time and I'm happy to announce that Dark Mode is finally a thing you can use across the site! Dark Mode is a new way to use Brewer Fanatic, especially at night or in darkened rooms. Instead of the background being black text over white background, it's the inverse: white text over black background. Some people find sites easier to use and read in this inverted scheme and now it's really easy to toggle back and forth as needed.
    At the top right of each page, you will see four icons in the blue bar; the first icon is a half-filled circle. Click that to toggle back and forth from light to dark modes on the site. That's it!
    Now, the site has become quite sprawling and while I tried to check every aspect of how this renders on each page, I surely missed some things. Therefore, dear user, you are my quality assurance team. If you see anything that's hard to read, doesn't work right, or just plain looks weird, add a comment below and I'll get it fixed as soon as possible.
    For those of you who have been asking for this feature for so long, sorry it has taken this long. What seemed like a pretty simple feature actually turned into an overly-complex problem that I couldn't solve without quite a bit of effort.
    Once again, I'd like to give a big thanks and shout out to our caretakers of Brewer Fanatic; without their continued support, small-but-important features like Dark Mode would be much more difficult to implement. The added freedom to hire additional staff allows me to spend more time focusing on these types of projects. Thanks again!
  16. Brock Beauchamp
    It has been a little over three months since we flipped the switch on the new site and exactly three months since the front page news portion of the site was added. We thank all of you for working with us as we kinda find our way through merging an existing community into our site model. There were some bumps and bruises along the way but the community as a whole has been exceptionally welcoming to all of us as we work through issues.
    First off, the past 30 days have been incredible for us, despite the Brewers scuffling for a significant portion of that time. I'm sure many of you shared my personal experience of grimacing through many of these early June games and Brewers baseball wasn't a lot of fun for a couple of weeks. But you stuck with us and we appreciate that; now let's watch the Brewers sail to another postseason berth (hopefully).
    Behind the scenes, we've been doing a ton of work to bring in new users. As I mentioned many times early in this process, most forum-only sites are in decline under the assault of Facebook groups, Reddit, and social media in general.
    I'm happy to say we've reversed that trend on Brewer Fanatic but there's still a thousand miles of headroom left to grow this community, as we're still drawing only about 12% of the users we saw on Twins Daily over the same period. But that's a big step up from the 7-8% we were at three months ago!
    In the past 30 days, Brewer Fanatic has drawn in 22,000 users with over 20,000 new users.
    During the same period in 2021 (May 29th - June 27th), BrewerFan.net drew in just under 11,000 users with just under 9,000 new users.
    That's over 100% gain!
    We're seeing similar results with user registrations, the second step in building a robust community. If a user doesn't register, they can't comment.
    In the past 30 days, Brewer Fanatic had 31 new user registrations on the site.
    During the same period in 2021, BrewerFan.net had six new user registrations on the site.
    The final step in building the community is getting those users to comment. We've also seen an uptick in those numbers but this is where we have the most work to do: the final conversion step.
    In the past 30 days, Brewer Fanatic had 8,461 new posts.
    During that same period in 2021, BrewerFan.net had 7,371 new posts.
    Once again, thank all of you for being a part of this community and helping us grow. But again, we're only getting started. We've seen all these gains and we have yet to approach two of our top 3-4 biggest points in the baseball cycle: the MLB Draft (just wait until you see what we have in store for that) and the MLB trade deadline. At Twins Daily, we focus an enormous amount of energy on those two periods of time and expect that same kind of coverage here at Brewer Fanatic.
    I can't wait to see what comes next and I hope you're all there to see it with us!
  17. Brock Beauchamp

    Why are ads necessary?

    By Brock Beauchamp,


    About Brewer Fanatic
    I know some of you have been frustrated with the ad experience and I'm frustrated, too. My vow is that I will attempt to address everyone's concerns to the best of my ability, as it's literally my job to provide all of you with a quality experience on Brewer Fanatic. The following is not an excuse for a bad experience; I simply want all of us to understand and operate with the same knowledge base. I will continue to refine and tweak the ad experience until all (or really "most") of us can reach a happy middle ground.
    I'm going to pull back the veil a little bit and show some numbers that explain what was happening not only on BrewerFan.net, but across the internet to almost all independent forum sites. The reality is that Reddit and Facebook are killing independent communities by the truckload and BrewerFan.net was no exception. Here is the user traffic from April of 2017 through the day the site was relaunched as Brewer Fanatic.

    As you can see, traffic was accelerating toward terminal velocity and this graph is actually the norm today in the wake of the assault from social media giants. From the outside, forums often look like they're stable until they're suddenly not and a quick death usually follows. Even during the Brewers 2021 postseason run, BrewerFan.net attracted only ~60% of the users it attracted through 2017, 2018, and 2019. I haven't been exaggerating when I said BrewerFan.net wouldn't make it another 3-4 years at the rate it was atrophying. There are the numbers and you can see I wasn't exaggerating. 
    I've talked to several forum owners over the past year and this kind of graph is alarmingly common. It saddens me to no end to see all these great communities withering away but it's the reality of the situation.
    Now let's compare that user graph to the same time frame on Twins Daily.

    You probably see where I'm going with this.
    What makes Twins Daily different - and where Brewer Fanatic is now - is that we pay our creators. By protecting the forums with high-quality content on a daily basis, people don't naturally drift to Facebook or Reddit and instead, we keep attracting more users. The forums get bigger, we have more volunteers to create great daily content like the game threads and debate forums; the Twins Daily community is exceptionally vibrant. None of that would exist without all those paid roles wrapping the forums in a protective envelope. Which is why we need to run ads and why ad blockers genuinely hurt a community. The people running this site don't pocket advertising money, we consistently reinvest it back into our writers, video creators, and even our moderators.
    You'll notice a big jump in Twins Daily's traffic starting in 2019. I'll give you one guess when we finally "figured out" how to implement advertising well and started paying our content creators much more money than we could afford before that point.
    And it's working for Brewer Fanatic, just as it worked on Twins Daily. In April of 2022, Brewer Fanatic is attracting 50% more people than BrewerFan.net did in April of 2021.
    Again, none of this is an excuse for all of you to have a bad, jumpy experience on the site. I'm going to keep working diligently to improve the experience and I use the site, too. If something frustrates you, it's probably frustrating me as well. I'm here and I will always listen to your suggestions because without users, a community is an empty shell.
    But I hope you now realize why keeping things as-is on BrewerFan.net wasn't really an option, either. If this community is going to persist, it needs a stable, robust revenue source and ads are really the only way to achieve that goal.
  18. Brock Beauchamp

    Introducing 40-man and active rosters!

    By Brock Beauchamp,


    Brewer Fanatic Features
    New to the site, we've added both the active roster and the 40-man roster pages!
    These pages will update nightly so they'll always be up-to-date with the current state of the big league club, adding yet another long-term feature I've wanted to see on our baseball sites basically forever. There isn't a lot to say about these pages other than they feature the standard set of player info: name, position, handedness, DoB, etc.
    To find these pages, use the hamburger menu at the top right of every page (the three horizontal lines), click "Brewers Resources", and then you'll be presented the options for both the roster pages and the team schedule for the season.
    As always, if you have suggestions for new features you'd like to see added or improvements to current features, please comment below!
     
  19. Brock Beauchamp

    Welcome to Brewer Fanatic!

    By Brock Beauchamp,


    About Brewer Fanatic
    Dear BrewerFan.net users, welcome to the new Brewer Fanatic!
    First, your accounts from BrewerFan.net work here, though I’m sure some of you have lost access to your linked email account, which may prevent you from logging in. If you have any issues logging in, just shoot me an email at admin@brewerfanatic.com and I’ll get you sorted immediately.
    Things might seem a little overwhelming but I promise this site is very easy to use and within days, you’ll wonder how you lived without tables, reactions, drag-and-drop image insertion, and the host of other features offered by this software package. This software package is pretty awesome and its feature set is robust.
    And this is just the beginning… Right now, all users have access to the forums and anyone with an account can also create their own blog right here on the site! In a few weeks, we’ll be rolling out a news section and over the course of the season, new features will release with regularity.
    And if you have ideas for a feature you’d like to see, you know where to reach me. We’re a community-focused organization and you, the community, know what you want and like. So if you have suggestions, please contact me and we’ll talk about it.
    We’ll be making more announcements over the coming days but I just wanted to thank everyone for making this transition so easy; you’ve all been very kind and generous with your time as I fumbled around trying to figure out which direction is up.
    And a special, giant thanks to the founder and steward of this community for so many years, Brian Kapellusch. Without him keeping the lights on for over two decades, we wouldn’t be able to be a part of this community and watch it grow. We only hope we can do him proud.
    Before you jump into the site, I’m going to share some tutorials with you to start you off on the right foot. Just pop on over to our Help & Tutorials page, which will show you different content depending on if you’re logged in, a moderator, a blogging-enabled account, etc. Check it out, just cut me a little slack if it says “Twins Daily” everywhere… I’ll work on the rebranding tomorrow.
    Once again, thanks for everything and we’re insanely excited to work with you all going forward!
  20. Brock Beauchamp

    Introducing Achievements!

    By Brock Beauchamp,


    Brewer Fanatic Features
    Welcome to the brief rundown of our newest feature, achievements! I have spent a rather unhealthy amount of time developing it for the site. I hope you enjoy experiencing it as much as I enjoyed building it.
    Achievements, or awards, or gamification… you’ve probably run into it before in other avenues of your digital life. Achievements are most common (and were largely born out of) the console video game world, beginning on the Xbox platform in the mid-2000s.
    Basically, it boils down to this: do stuff, get (sometimes silly) awards and badges for doing it. Over the past month, I’ve designed over 60 custom badges that you can be awarded for performing sometimes mundane, other times complex, tasks across the Brewer Fanatic platform. Comment on a post, get a badge. Write a blog post, get a badge. Vote on a poll, get a badge… you get the point. Do some of these tasks multiple times and sometimes (many times) you’ll get additional badges.
    If you visit your user profile page, you’ll see it now looks different, with achievements being prominently displayed near the top.

    With over 60 badges available right now, some of you older, veteran Brewer Fan users will start accumulating achievements the moment you begin participating in various aspects of the site, as many (as many as possible, but not all) of the achievements are back-dated to the time you began using the site. So explore the site, try completing some random tasks like post a status update, and see if you get a badge for doing it!
    As you "achieve" new things, on top of badges, you will also be awarded points. Once you hit certain milestones in points, you raise in rank (out of 14 ranks in total). In the image above, my rank is "draft eligible", the third rank you will achieve.
    Here is a sampling of a few of the badges you can be awarded right now:

    Some achievements will be won seemingly at random but I assure you, there is a specific set of items that awarded you the badge (and sometimes, those items need to be completed in a specific order). And some badges will be awarded manually for “exceptional” things done on the site. Those will be the hardest to collect and the rarest achievements available on Brewer Fanatic.
    And if anyone manages to get them all or one of the *really* difficult-to-uncover achievements, we may have some special prizes available to users who can accomplish those rarest of feats on the site…
  21. Brock Beauchamp

    We want you to blog & we'll bribe you to do it!

    By Brock Beauchamp,


    Brewer Fanatic Features
    One of the key aspects of this new site is that it extends the concept of community beyond posts, threads, and forums. We have status updates, we have reactions, we have follower lists, we have much more of a social media model (without the trolling and general awfulness) but at the very core of our concept of community is our user blogs.
    Every user, once they register and post two pieces of content (comments, status updates, or threads) “graduate” to the Verified Member group, which opens up the ability to create your own blog.
    It only takes a few minutes to set up your blog space and from there, entering a blog is little different than writing a complex forum topic. You can easily drag-and-drop images, embed YouTube videos and tweets, paste tables into the content to support your point… in short, if you want to try your hand at writing long form, you can have a professional-looking blog entry in just a few minutes that will be read by hundreds of Brewers fans around the world.
    To encourage users to do this, we’re giving away FREE STUFF. Over the next few weeks, we’ll select some of the best-written and popular blog entries and give away prizes to those who wrote them. Here are examples of two of the prizes:
    An autographed Paul Molitor 1979 Topps card

    A vintage 1982 “World Champions” Brewers banner, somebody jumped the gun on printing these back in the day

    Are you interested in blogging? Log into Brewer Fanatic, click this link for instructions (you must be logged in to see that page) how to create a blog, and start writing today!
  22. Brock Beauchamp
    Brewer Fanatic Tips & Tricks, Part One: Tables! With this series of blog entries, I'm going to try to cover some of the features of the new site in a few paragraphs. Using the old site, as I'm sure many of you are aware, tables were basically unusable. That has changed! I'll tackle B-Ref tables quickly in this post but you can do similar things with FanGraphs or other sites that use table data (which is how almost all stat sites display their content). First, pop on over to Corbin Burnes's B-Ref page: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/burneco01.shtml I'm going to grab his 2020-2021 season stats. Just above his stat table, you'll see Share & Export. Click and then select Modify, Share, & Export Table. Boom, you can then select what stats you want to display and which you want to remove. I've removed all seasons except the last two. I also removed team and league because "duh". Then click the big X in the top right of the yellow square and you have your filtered table. Grab that table by moving your cursor to the top left of the table (just to the left of Year in this case) and while holding down the button of your mouse/trackpad, drag toward the bottom right of the table. The table will begin to highlight in yellow as you select the cells. Grab them all and let go of the mouse/trackpad. Then copy what has been selected (control+c on Windows, command+c on macOS). Pop over to Brewer Fanatic, start typing a comment, and paste your content (control+v on Windows, command+v on macOS).
    Standard Pitching Year Age W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W Awards 2020 25 4 1 .800 2.11 12 9 2 0 0 0 59.2 37 15 14 2 24 0 88 3 0 5 240 216 2.03 1.022 5.6 0.3 3.6 13.3 3.67 CYA-6 2021 26 11 5 .688 2.43 28 28 0 0 0 0 167.0 123 47 45 7 34 0 234 6 0 5 657 176 1.63 0.940 6.6 0.4 1.8 12.6 6.88 AS,CYA-1,MVP-15 4 Yr 4 Yr 23 11 .676 3.39 102 41 16 0 0 2 313.2 257 125 118 30 89 2 427 12 1 14 1284 128 2.67 1.103 7.4 0.9 2.6 12.3 4.80   162 162 11 5 .676 3.39 49 19 8 0 0 1 149 122 59 56 14 42 1 203 6 0 7 611 128 2.67 1.103 7.4 0.9 2.6 12.3 4.80     Note: you can use this method for most websites and spreadsheet data so whatever table data you have available you need to copy and paste, this method will likely suit your needs.
  23. Brock Beauchamp
    Welcome to the latest entry into my Tips & Tricks series! In this brief post, I’ll quickly run through another new-to-us feature, “Following”. This will allow you to track and follow the content of people and content you like throughout the website.
    Essentially, there are three aspects to following what you enjoy on the site: following categories, following content, and following individuals. I’ll run through each aspect and how each can be useful to you and improve how you find your favorite content.
    Following Individuals
    There are probably some contributors and forum users you like better than the rest, individuals whose content you know is going to be quality so you don’t want to miss it. Following a person is easy, just click on their username or avatar and visit their profile page. Near the top of the page, you will see a “Follow Member” button. Click that, specify the parameters of your follow and whether you’d like to follow anonymously, and that’s it! You will now be notified whenever this user creates new content anywhere on the site!

    NOTE: You should set your notification settings to specify how you’d like to receive information about new and updated content. You can change your notification settings from your user options screen or by clicking the link earlier in this paragraph. Scroll down to the “Followed Content” option and selecting your settings.
    Following Categories
    You can follow groups of content, as well. Are you a LINK LINK minor league specialist? Then consider following the minor league news category. Maybe you want to catch all LINK LINK Major League news content, you can do the same. Just visit the category or forum page and somewhere near the top of the page, you will see a “Follow” button. Click that, specify your preferred options, and you will be notified of all content that is added to that category or forum. This also works for blogs if you want to follow the blog entries of your favorite writers, just pop over to their main blog page and search for the “Follow” button.
    Following Content
    This is the most granular of the following options. You can follow specific content you see on the site. If you like an article and its resulting comments, follow that article and you will be updated as new comments are added. The same applies to forum threads or individual blog entries, just look for the “Follow” button near the top of the page.
    In the settings link I provided above, you can set to automatically follow content you create and content you participate in. If you’re a regular forum user or news story commenter, these are really useful functions to stay abreast of an interesting conversation and any replies you received to your own content.
    That’s about it! I highly recommend everyone consider using the follow function, as it’s just one more tool at your disposal to curate the site to fit your personal preferences.
  24. Brock Beauchamp
    As opposed to the previous default state of the site, you may want to set a custom feed as your Brewer Fanatic landing page. It's that useful. Instead of having to click through the (kinda insanely large now) site, you can tailor a feed to show basically whatever you want: select authors, topics you've followed, fellow users, unread content only... the list goes on.
    First, to find your personal feed, near the top right of the screen you will see a newspaper icon in the red bar below your user information.

    That brings you to the default view, which is Unread Content.

    Here you'll see a variety of options to tailor your custom stream to do almost anything you like on the site. I'll spare you going through each item in detail individually, as it's all quite self-explanatory. You can choose tagged content, type of content (news, forums, blogs, status updates, etc.), read/unread only, content you've participated in or started, followed content, and finally, how it's sorted.
    Depending what kind of device you're using, you can also choose Condensed or Expanded. Condensed just gives you the title and link while Expanded offers a truncated version of the content as a preview.
    Once you've decided on your changes, you can save this stream using the save prompt below. You're allowed to have multiple custom streams so name this new stream and it joins the others.
    Once you're done customizing your stream, Click Stream Options at the top right of the selection drop-down, and your choices become your default custom stream. Every time you click that newspaper or visit your stream, the selections you've made will remain in place.
    That's it, enjoy the new site!
  25. Brock Beauchamp

    Six Months of Brewer Fanatic

    By Brock Beauchamp,


    About Brewer Fanatic
    I haven't checked in for a bit - my August baseball slump kicked in hard watching both the Twins and Brewers falter night after night - but now that the kids are back in school, expect to see a lot more of me as we gear up for the offseason and the hot stove season where hope springs anew as we envision only the best and brightest things in 2023.
    To kick off the offseason, we're developing a really cool payroll tool that allows you to craft your own payroll and easily post it to the forums. More on that to come and expect to see something the week following the last game of the regular season. As always, I'm excited to roll this out and features like this are largely due in part to our caretaker support, which funds many of these projects for both Twins Daily and Brewer Fanatic.
    Just a little over six months ago, we re-launched BrewerFan as Brewer Fanatic. The community has been very supportive of this endeavor and very helpful, assisting us in all sorts of ways as we build out cool new functionality to make this more than just a fan forum; we aim to become a fan experience with new features and interactivity you won't find anywhere else.
    So how has it gone in our first six months? Overall, very well, thanks to all of you. Naturally, we've seen our fair share of bumps and bruises as we adapt our business model to a new fanbase but it has been eye-opening; for a long time, I kinda fell into tunnel vision as I catered solely to the Twins fanbase and their wants/needs. Becoming part of the Brewers community has not only given me new perspective, it has made me open to trying things differently and expanding how this site can better serve the fanbase. Without all of your input, that wouldn't have been possible so thank you again for that help.
    In the first six months of its existence, Brewer Fanatic drew 122,000 users to the site. Over the identical six month period of 2021 (when, let's all admit it, the Brewers were slightly more engaging to watch), BrewerFan drew just under 59,000 users. The growth has been exciting to watch and I'm regularly approving new users on the forums, which is the surest sign that this community can continue to thrive and grow over the coming years.
    Brewer Fanatic saw 2,000 or more people stop by the site in a single day an impressive 14 times during that six month period. In 2021, that only happened three times on BrewerFan.
    Over that six month span Brewer Fanatic has seen 196 new users register on the site. Over the same period of 2021, BrewerFan had only 32 new user registrations. Props to all of you who chose to jump into this community and participate with its comprehensive and knowledgeable userbase.
    With that out of the way, now that we're in the offseason, I think you'll be able to see some of our larger plans for the site coalesce. We have a lot of new features planned throughout the offseason and into Spring Training, where we hope to have on-site writers next February and March... but that's kind of shooting for the moon and a lot depends on the Brewers themselves. Wish us luck and let's hope to see plenty of action this offseason as the Brewers gear up for the 2023 season!
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