Brock Beauchamp

As we gear up for another season of Brewers baseball, it's time to look at the community members who made Brewer Fanatic great over the winter. Image courtesy of Brock Beauchamp Hello again, Brewers fans! Twice a year, I sit down and find the most popular posts and blogs on Brewer Fanatic and their creators receive prizes for their contributions to this rapidly-growing community. While this offseason wasn't as action-packed as previous winters, there was still a lot to talk about. We look at the most popular posts and most popular blogs created by our users. Let's dive into the most popular content of the offseason. Most Popular Post Nothing fires up Brewers fans like talking about ownership and their willingness to spend. In what was a rather benign post from yours truly in the wake of the Bryan Hudson trade with the Dodgers, people began piling on Mark Attanasio (for reasons I kinda get but mostly don't). Enter @wallus. Kid gloves off, wallus made the kind of post that often takes this award walking away: the drive-by comment. For their complete and total salty attitude in this post, you win this Bernie bobblehead! Congratulations! Most Popular Post Runner-Up In the second-most popular post of the offseason, we have another trade comment, this time talking about the Mark Canha trade to the Detroit Tigers. This time it's @Joseph Zarr coming in with their typical positivity, writing a lengthy screed about the positives of this trade. And objectively, they're probably right. As always, thank you for all that you do here at Brewer Fanatic, Joseph! Most Popular Blog Entry Seriously, y'all have to start trying out our user blogs section because @CheeseheadInQC keeps running away with this award. While most people are focused on the Brewers' outfield logjam, Cheesehead digs in and writes an excellent blog post about the potential pitching logjam in the low minors. It's absolutely worth a read and gives an exciting perspective on the Brewers of the future. For this excellent entry, Cheesehead brings home one of these cool Brewers Dugout mugs. Most Popular Blog Entry Runner-Up In what I feel was one of the most delightful entries of the winter, @Bashopolis wrote about The Incredible Shrinking Tyler Black. I don't even know what to say other than go read it. One of the hilarious quirks of professional sports is gaming the system in height and weight. Most Prolific Poster As always, we highlight the poster who earned the most "points" during the offseason. You are awarded points for creating content and others liking your content. This is a pure numbers game and this winter, @sveumrules takes home the glory. No surprises there, as they provide some of the most consistent, quality takes here on Brewer Fanatic. Thanks again for all you do around here, sveum! That's all for this winter, folks. Give a round of applause to all of those mentioned in this piece and we're only two weeks from Opening Day! View full article

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic!

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic!

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic!

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic!

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic!

Williams has a career ERA that starts with a "one". I'd argue he's already the best reliever in baseball.

I wanted to thank everybody for being SO supportive during the last week of coverage. Personally, I am floored by Matt Trueblood's efforts in Phoenix. And I've been working with on-site coverage of ST for a decade now. He was cranking out content, chasing down interesting angles, and covering the ******* **** out of the Brewers. *hat tip* Jack Stern has a hard act to follow next week but I think he's up to the task.

Except that Yelich is an excellent 1/2 hitter. He has some power, excellent on-base skills, and is a really good base runner. He’s almost exactly what I want at the top of the order in a modern player.

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic!

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic!

I agree that I suspect the ship has sailed on a Contreras extension. Which is mildly disappointing but not a huge deal because he's a catcher and they age so poorly. I'd let the extension candidates sort themselves out this season. Whomever rises to the occasion in 2024, consider extending them next winter.

Okay, so I have to admit Murphy's folksy charm is starting to win me over. After so many years of Counsell, he feels like a quote machine.

This will be an interesting rule change to see play out because it's such a natural movement by infielders, trained over years. And it's not *particularly* dangerous, as it's just a knee or foot placed in front of a runner (I'm not saying it's safe, only much lower wattage than the home plate rules changes). I'm fine with the idea of this, just curious to see how it unfolds.

Not yet but it is a feature we're considering adding. I've had a few requests for it but the tech is kinda tricky in surprising ways, not sure when we will get to it.

Oh man, I was spot-on with the year but way off on number of games. It was in fact 2015 but he managed 96 games, most of the season.

Yeah, I think he managed about 50 games for the Padres... maybe 2015? Somewhere around there, anyway.

@eddiemathews Matt wrote this up in large part because of this thread. Enjoy!

It’s pretty rare. We are able to leverage our extensive knowledge and experience from Twins Daily into Brewer Fanatic. And I am absolutely THRILLED about what is to come. We’re just getting started here.

Matt, yer killin’ it. LOVE IT.

I think off-season is more transactional than people are considering in this topic. I suspect Arnold liked the value he was getting in the Houser/Taylor trade. He felt the long term value was good on it while it presented payroll flexibility in the short term. So he made the trade. That then left the Brewers short-handed in pitching once the Burnes trade actually happened. So Arnold went and got Junis. Each of these events were only loosely connected and not a grand plan laid out in October. I think good front offices enter the offseason with a loose guideline of what they want to accomplish but then they pivot and pivot again as circumstances change.

Welcome to Brewer Fanatic!

Well, the big news is here! Jack Stern has joined BF as a staff writer! So excited!

Everybody welcome Jack Stern! Personally, I've been trying to figure out ways to recruit him for about a year, so flippin' excited it finally happened! He'll be traveling to AZ for a week in March to cover the team on-site.

@Matthew Trueblood is heading down to Arizona today. Matt, think you can try to get a few questions to Weeks?