AdvantageSchneider

That's just not how a union works and it would defeat the purpose of having one. Either they're all in it together or they are not. If the MLBPA passes an agreement, no individual player is sitting out the season because of the money. It would be a horrible look, there has to be solidarity in their decision. Now yes, they cannot physically force them to play and there may be players here and there who choose not to. But those players will certainly cite health concerns and not money, and may still be in violation of their contract to refuse to play if MLB and the MLBPA both agree that the approach is safe. It's already not a great look for the higher paid players in MLB if they simply don't want to play because they don't want to play for partial money while their union counterparts making the league minimum and maybe trying to get their career started are quietly pleading to get the season going but fear speaking out against the stars. It reminds me of the recent CBA passed by the NFL where stars were generally against the agreement but the little guys at the bottom who benefitted more outnumbered the stars and so the CBA passed. https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2020/05/mlbs-rob-manfred-responds-to-concerned-players-we-would-never-force-players-or-try-to-force-them-to-come-back-to-work.html MLB’s Rob Manfred responds to concerned players: ‘We would never force players or try to force them to come back to work’ I don't think it is a horrible look. 95% of my company is working from home right now and we aren't going back to the office anytime soon. So it is not unreasonable for any player not to play this season for any reason.

Are the big stars really going to want to play for this money? The Harpers, Trouts, Kershaws, etc will just sit out, won't they? Even guys like Mookie Bets isn't going to risk a $200-$250M payday for $7M. So even if this passes by like a 70-30 split I envision the end product being put out on the field will be very watered down. It seems like a very penny wise pound foolish approach by the owners.

https://onmilwaukee.com/sports/articles/braun-condo-for-sale.html Has Braun already played his last game in Milwaukee? Either way, you can have Ryan's old digs for $1.15M

Everyone has HGH naturally. The main symptom for severe HGH deficiency is dwarfism. Having suboptimal levels can lead to being smaller than other kids of your age group. The "benefits" of HGH are linked to what benefits people who have a deficiency get when receiving supplements. Some of the memory/brain links have been found in older adults (who naturally have less HGH than younger individuals - we produce less as we age). THERE IS LITTLE TO NO data that has found a benefit to adding HGH to a person who already has normal levels of HGH. I doubt Trout would get any benefit as there are no real signs of a deficiency. If he has a thyroid issue and HGH is part of the treament, it is meant to supplement a deficiency. As I stated, their is a complete lack of evidence that adding more helps more. Some People believe that HGH supplementation works, but people will swear that a placebo is the real deal too... Anabolic steroids = plenty of data they do the intended. HGH = none. Based on google searches I think it is a little dishonest to say there is no support that HGH helps athletic performance. I think it's fairer to say the data is inconclusive and that the studies have been limited. It seems to be extremely odd that given there is supposedly no benefit to HGH that all or almost all major sports have banned their use and that athletes apparently continue to use them. Gatoraid, however, continues to be abused without any calls to be banned.

Ok so I did google HGH and this is what the old googlebox came up with. Benefits of HGH. HGH helps to maintain, build, and repair healthy tissue in the brain and other organs. This hormone can help to speed up healing after an injury and repair muscle tissue after exercise. This helps to build muscle mass, boost metabolism, and burn fat. So yeah repairing brain tissue and other organs probably not a help to playing baseball. But the benefit of recovering from a workout faster which helps to bulid muscle mass would seem to be an advantage in just about any athletic contest. What am I missing?

https://www.12up.com/posts/son-of-ex-mariners-coach-accuses-mike-trout-of-using-hgh-through-mlb-loophole-01dyqz4vr8a7 Scott Brosius' son claims Trout is using HGH and getting away with it because of a loophole in MLB's drug policy. I wonder how many other claims are going to come out of the wood work since Frier's spilled the beans on the Astros.

Still holding out hope for Wilmer Flores as an option as well. I wouldn’t mind signing him to a 2 year deal with a possible third year as a team option. He’s only 28 and is a much better Hernan Perez. Definitely not a world beater, but he’s a guy that could start for you and be a solid bottom of the order bat. If he played 140 games, there’s no reason he couldn’t hit 20 homers and hit .275/.320 for you. Maybe something like a 2 year deal worth $8 million with a third year team option for $5 million? That might be enticing enough for him. Not sure I want to pay a guy millions of dollars who cries at the thought of playing for us. They were not tears of joy.

I'm just hoping next year he uses one of these two songs for his walkup music. He didn't in Toronto, but new team new league. Time to break out a classic.

2018 we were 22cnd in payroll and we won the division. Last year we were 14th in payroll and won a wild card spot. We are the 30th sized market in MLB. I really don't see what there is to complain about. People that think the organization or Mark A is cheap clearly don't have a good idea of what other MLB owners spend or rather don't spend on their payroll. If you aren't happy with Mark A you really shouldn't be a Brewers fan. Go be a fan of the Yankees.

360 innings last season at second and 800 at 3rd. So he hasn't even played a full season at second base yet and he was dealing with injuries last year. I'm not a scout, but he sure looked very slow turning the double play. I too have a hard time seeing this as working out for Cincy. As others have said Votto and Suarez are locked in for the same time frame or longer. Senzel is naturally an IF, and doesn't appear to be a very good CF, so I don't know why they wouldn't just move him to second and sign/trade for a CF. That would make more sense to me than signing Moose to this contract.

I'm going to have one minor quibble with that stat, in that it doesn't appear to take into account leverage at all. Villar went from first to third a lot last year, I'm assuming somewhat because the Orioles were down 7 to 1 at the time and the opposing team didn't care if he took an extra base, they just wanted to keep the double play in order and keep the trail runner from getting into scoring position. That doesn't turn Villar into a great base runner. He's just an aggressive runner on a really bad team. Just like those guys on bad teams in the NBA that score 20 a night. That doesn't make them great players either, someone has to shoot the ball. I give him credit for hustling, but let's not pretend those skills will translate when/if he starts playing in tight ballgames where the teams actually care. That's why we saw him get thrown out so many times when in meaninful Brewer games. I don't believe he's changed at all, it's just the circumstances around him have.

Villar is in his 3rd and final arby year and was projected to get about $10M. Now $10M is a good price for a 4 WAR player, but will he be a 4 WAR player next year? He doesn't seem to be the most consistent player out there. I would not want him back. It was widely known he was being shopped and nobody wanted to give up anything to get him. We'll see if anyone puts in a claim. I have a feeling he's going to be a free agent. $10M is too much to take a flier on him if you are a rebuilding team and it doesn't appear any of the contenders trust him. It would be funny if he ended up in SD.

I got a refund for the tiebreaker game. They don't refund the service charge?

Two months ago in Washinton Hader blew a save, walked the bases load and had nobody out and looked as bad or worse than he did Tuesday night. And then he proceeded to strike out the next three hitters and send the game to extra innings. So there is precedence from just over two months ago that Hader can look really bad and then dial it in. That game was the end of his struggles and the start of his great run of closing.

That's a stretch. A big one. Removing a clearly struggling pitcher has never been the same as pinch hitting for the MVP. You know that's a stretch. Yeah, that's not even close to the same thing. But that was kind of the problem with Hader this year and his role. He was always the last line of defense. If he struggled, that was that and we were going to lose. Last year we could turn to Knebel, turn to Jeffress if it wasn't Hader's night. This year if Josh Hader was going to come into a game it was going to be his game to win or lose. It really is the same thing. I've never seen anyone PH for the MVP late in the game. Can you think of an elite closer that has been taken out of a save situation when it looked like he didn't have it? I've been racking my brain but I can't think of that ever happening. You either believe in your star players or you don't. It's the old cliche, it's not about the Xs and Os it about Jimmy's and Joes.

Two things. 1) Fans that say that CC doesn't know how to handle a pitching staff apparently have the baseball memory of a fruit fly. Forgetting RR starting Marcum in game 6 of the NLCS when he had nothing for a month and a half, forgetting Sveum starting Suppan against the Phillies in game 4 of the NLDS despite having a career 5+ era against them and not being very good that year, and forgetting Yost intentionally walking either Ryan Howard or Chase Utley so Brian Shouse could turn Shane Victorino into Lou Gehrig. CC has never made a move that comes even close to those bonehead moves. 2) The idea that CC should have removed Hader is akin to suggesting that late in the game we should PH Yelich if he's 0-3 with a couple of ks and there is a LH relief pitcher on the mound. You don't take out your star player just because he's struggling a little bit.

That would be fine with them since I think they are going to start Strasburg anyway.

https://www.masnsports.com/nationals-pastime/2019/09/nationals-wild-card-opponent-still-very-much-up-in-air.html Brian Dozier, who played for the Dodgers against the Brewers in last year’s National League Championship Series, explained why. “I’ve been telling these guys, NLCS last year when I was with the Dodgers facing the Brewers, it’s the most electric stadium I’ve ever been a part of my whole career,” Dozier said. “I mean, when you pack that stadium out, it was electric and it gets so loud. ... I’m not saying we can’t win there, by any means. But I think it’s important we try to stay here for sure.”

I've been a Brewers fan for 43 years and I've stuck with them through a few good years, but mainly lean times. If they fired Stearns I think I would quit them for good.

Thanks, John Madden. Did you like my analysis, I'll give you some more. You're a jerk. BOOM!!

Tom ✔ @Haudricourt Ray Black is one of few pitchers who can throw in excess of 100 mph anytime he wants but said he has learned he can't get by on velo alone, even at that level. Mixes in slider and occasional curve to keep hitters honest. Can we make him the new pitching coach? Seems like we've got a couple of guys on the staff that haven't learned this lesson.

or at least players having a bad season. Found this on Fangraphs, in an article talking about the Tigers. There is a graph 1/3 of the way down the article showing a bar graph of the number of PA each team has had with players with a sub 90 wRC+ with at least 100 PA. The tigers have given almost 50% of their team PA to the subpar offensive players. They are closely followed by COL. TEX and MIA come in at around 45. KC is just above 40%. Then comes BAL and SFG. And then there are the Brewers. We appear to be around 37%. CHW are next. Cleveland is the only other playoff team above 30% and they obviously had a horrible OF to start the season which they have greatly improved via trades. Players with more than 100 PA with a sub 90 WRC+ are Jesus, Shaw, Pina, Cain, Gamel, Arcia and Perez. This doesn't include the 71 PA by Saladino. Arcia, Perez, Gamel and Pina are what they are, but the dramatic decline of Shaw and Cain could be what prevent us from reaching the playoffs this year. Just an average season out of one of those two, especially Cain and I think we're in the playoffs comfortably. Not that this is new news. But looking at the chart really drove the point home to me. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-tigers-might-be-historically-bad/

Jesus better get a hit after swinging at ball 3.

Way to go Dorn!

A nice little article on Fangraphs about (spoiler alert) Hiura. Not sure we technically are in a pennant chase given the performance of the team of late and Woodruff's injury, but I guess I'll take it. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-most-important-rookie-hitter-in-the-pennant-chase/