Brock Beauchamp

I can't believe they didn't learn their lesson with Hader. If you can trade one of the big three in the next month and still field a competitive team in 2023, that's going to go over with fans better than what happened last August.

The look and feel of Brewer Fan may have changed with the transition to Brewer Fanatic, but the great content remains. Here are our most popular community discussions of 2022. On March 13th of this year, Brewer Fan relaunched as Brewer Fanatic. As we close out our inaugural year, we’d like to take a moment to thank all the great community members, moderators, and contributors to the site who are vital to the growth we’ve seen over the past several months. On Brewer Fanatic in 2022, users created 1,690 topics and posted an impressive 58,597 comments. Let’s take a look at the most popular discussions of the year. Josh Hader Traded to the Padres Unsurprisingly, the biggest shock of the year generated the most views. Amid another run at a postseason berth, the Brewers traded fan-favorite closer Josh Hader to the San Diego Padres. While many expected this to be the first move to shore up offensive weaknesses, this proved to be the defining move of the 2022 trade deadline for the Milwaukee Brewers and is still a point of contention among fans today. Hat tip to @Eye Black for creating the most popular discussion of the year! 2022 Trade Market Not long after the season began, Brewers fans were concerned about the team’s ability to compete at a high level over a 162-game season. As Brewer bats started the season ice cold, most were concerned about the offensive firepower after veteran bats like Lorenzo Cain, and Andrew McCutchen stumbled out of the gate. Over the next few months, the discussion continued to almost every rumored trade candidate available on the market. Kudos to @nate82 for starting this discussion. Putting Yelich on Waivers Well, this one was controversial and perhaps not the most well-researched topic. A user asked whether GM Matt Arnold should place Christian Yelich on waivers. News flash: that wouldn’t change whether the Brewers are on the hook for the rest of Yelich’s massive contract. With the removal of revocable waivers in 2019, the option for teams to “dangle” veteran players to see if another team wants to take on the contract while reserving an option not to lose the veteran on waivers was removed from major league baseball. 2022 MLB Draft Pick Discussion, Rounds 1-10 The MLB Draft is a big deal on Brewer Fanatic. A really big deal. In a thread spanning over 400 comments and tens of thousands of views, you’d think the Brewers had a top-five pick in this draft. This community’s dedication to the minutia of baseball is incredible and one of the things that makes this place such a wonderful place to discuss all things Milwaukee Brewers. 2022 MLB Draft Pick Discussion, Rounds 11-20 and UDFA Signings Rounding out the top five is a discussion of the latter rounds of the MLB Draft, which speaks volumes to the level of dedication of the Brewer Fanatic community. While the MLB Draft is undoubtedly exciting in the early rounds as we all dream of future Brewer superstars, the second half of the draft often feels like throwing darts at a board while blindfolded. There are undoubtedly young gems to uncover, but we won’t know who they are for years. Those are the top five discussions of the year based on community views. Once again, we’d like to thank every commenter and contributor to Brewer Fanatic over the past nine months and here’s to an even bigger year in 2023! View full article

That's a fair prediction. Obviously, the latter would be more fun. ?

I also really wanted Myers because he plays outfield, which seems like a natural fit alongside Winker and Yelich vs LHP. But Longoria is a fine substitute, he's probably my first choice of remaining free agents.

Oh, I definitely think Winker is a better option, I would just keep Hiura as a 26th man who slots in as often as seems prudent. Given that about 70% of starters are right-handed, he’d get his reps. Which is also why I’d be happy to replace Hiura with someone who hits lefties.

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I agree that Hiura is walking a tightrope that has virtually no margin for error. After watching Miguel Sano turn into a really bad player almost overnight, I'm very aware that Keston could implode at any moment. With that said, lacking a better option, may as well roll him out there until he proves he's either good or bad at hitting a baseball. My first choice is to find a lefty masher to replace him but I'm increasingly convinced that is not the route the Brewers will take.

Congratulations, everyone, after reading this thread I am now convinced that Keston Hiura will both be out of baseball within the next two weeks and will ultimately turn into a right-handed Ted Williams.

I agree that a team would likely view Hiura as a useful piece on their MLB than someone to flip down the road. And the difference between what I’m talking about and a PTBNL is kinda non-existent. Like I said, Hiura won’t fetch much because his upside is so low due to lack of position.

Hiura won’t fetch much but I think a team would give up *something* for him. He’s a pretty good reclamation project for a mediocre A ball prospect. If a team is convinced they can fix Keston, he could turn into a valuable DH or be flipped for better prospects down the road.

It was a wild inaugural year for Brewer Fanatic (née Brewer Fan). Let’s look at the most popular news and editorials of 2022. In our first nine months as a Brewers news and opinion site, we published over 600 stories about the Milwaukee Brewers. Look at the 2022 Brewers season and the stories that drove the year. The Weekly: The End is Near for American Family Field Sports stadiums are a contentious topic for a good reason: they’re often publicly funded - at least partially - while the team often derives almost all of the benefit from its existence. In the case of American Family Field, it’s starting to show its age. While the Brewers’ current lease extends to 2030, stadium planning is rarely less than a decade-long endeavor, which means the city of Milwaukee will have to consider the current stadium's long-term viability soon. Whether that’s a retrofit/refurbishment or a brand new stadium, American Family Field will not last forever in its current state. As an aside, this was our first viral story on Brewer Fanatic, drawing nearly 20,000 Brewers fans to the site in its third month of existence. Three Bad Decisions Sunk the Brewers' Playoff Run Brewer nation was struggling in early October. After four consecutive postseason appearances, the 2022 Brewers struggled down the stretch and ultimately missed out on the new expanded postseason format, narrowly losing the final wild-card spot to the Philadelphia Phillies, who went on to win the National League pennant. In the wake of this disappointing season finish, Tim Muma looks at three of the decisions that helped sink the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2022 season. Time is Running Out for Brewers' Cain By late May, skepticism about the final year of Lorenzo Cain’s contract had turned into full-blown concern over whether he was a playable major league baseball player any longer. Virtually every metric for Cain dropped severely year-over-year, and he wasn’t a viable hitter just as his defensive metrics began to crater. With no easy solutions in front of them, the Brewers were nearing a difficult decision with the fan-favorite veteran who started and ended his career in a Brewers uniform. Brewers Have Decisions to Make on Four Key Potential Free Agents In late September, it was increasingly clear the Brewers would miss the postseason and needed to look toward the offseason and how their roster would change with losing players to free agency. Players that helped the Brewers to the postseason in previous years, such as Jace Peterson, Omar Narvaez, and Brad Boxberger, would become free agents, and, as it turned out, the Brewers retained none of them for 2023 and beyond. Yelich's Decline and the Brewers' Current Offense It wouldn’t be a Brewers season if a Christian Yelich story didn’t appear as one of the year's most-read stories. Every year, there are moments of hope as Yelich “figures it out” for some time and returns to looking like the MVP-caliber player of previous seasons. Inevitably, that hope is dashed upon the rocks as Yelich declines and finishes the season with an OPS+ in the 110 range instead of the 160 or higher OPS+ he posted in 2018 and 2019. Those were the top five most-read stories in the first nine months of Brewer Fanatic and stay tuned later in the week when I compile the top five Brewers discussions within the Brewer Fanatic community. What storylines from 2022 will stick with you for years to come? What storylines will emerge as the dominant narratives of 2023? Comment and leave your opinion below! View full article

Be a below average hitter and fielder for a third consecutive season, apparently. Hard pass on Moose in every capacity.

Very possible but the Reds are virtually guaranteed to flip him in July, too. It just seems like a weird choice to me if more competitive teams were in the mix for my services.

Really impressive research done with this piece, kudos to Matt for putting in all time.

I’d take Urias one-for-one over Esco but that’s not the question I’m asking myself. I think “Urias + Escobar + Turang” is a lot better bet than “Urias + Turang” over 162.

There's a lot of chatter around Twitter but not from what most of us would call the most reputable sources. But that doesn't mean it's necessarily untrue. With the addition of Carlos Correa, there isn't really a reason for the Mets to roster Eduardo Escobar other than "Steve Cohen wants all the players." Personally, I struggle to see Steve Cohen taking a step back talent-wise under any circumstances after the offseason the Mets have had but it's also possible Escobar isn't particularly thrilled about being in New York and shoved into a utility role - he's not a great defender anywhere anymore - behind two players on a legitimate Hall of Fame career arc. What are your thoughts? Is an Escobar reunion possible in Milwaukee? View full rumor

That's certainly possible but it'd be hard to see Myers choose the Reds over the Brewers given the level of competition of each club and the fact it's likely he's flipped to a team he doesn't choose in July. But who knows what drives any individual free agent?

Hmm. I see Wil Myers signed with the Reds for a $7.5m base with incentives. Yet another bat the Brewers could have used... editing the piece to now mention Longoria, one of the only names left that interests me even a little bit.

I’d love a trade for Escobar but it’s hard to see Cohen decreasing payroll or trading off a useful asset. He has made it quite clear he wants to win at ANY cost.

Hopefully they'll both be competent against lefties, like Tellez. But I tend to take MiLB splits with a huge grain of salt, especially for lefties. So few left-handers perform decently against LHP, I tend to assume a prospect will be bad against southpaws until they show me they aren't for a few seasons.

I think the Brewers have a shot to retain one of the three but this looks to be a pretty classic case of letting a conservative approach bite one in the ass (hard). Had the Brewers been less risk-averse 12 months ago, the price for any of these three players in question would have been way lower. Like maybe "half the price" lower.

I'd also target Woodruff, as his price should be more reasonable than Burnes and Corbin will fetch more in trade. Agreed on Adames. I really like watching him play but get too much of a Javy Baez vibe from that OBP to want to extend him at his market value.