GasserFace

I am interested in seeing how May would look out of the pen as well. Miz, Harrison and Hendo followed by May, Ashby, Senzatela, Romero, Uribe and Megill sounds like a formula where we may only need to score 3+ runs per night in a playoff series.

I have a 90% percentile comp from the way back machine, because I am old....Al Oliver of the Pittsburgh Pirates. LHB who could hit from day 1 in the bigs. Al was not a great OF but his value was completely in his bat. Always had mid teens to low 20's HR power. The biggest difference is related to the eras.. Al Oliver had a 5% walk rate and 8% K rate for his career. JA looks like 12-15% BB guy and a 16-22% K guy, but those numbers seem to be similar based on the eras. Oliver was a career 120 wRC+ hitter who amassed 40+ WAR in his 16 year career. He was always the second or third best hitter on a really stout Pirates that won the WS in '71. He was also part of the trade that brought Bert Blyleven and John Milner to the '78 We are Family Pirates that won that World Series. If JA has a career anywhere close to that, it would be a huge success.

Great stuff Jack! It is simply amazing that someone could just pick up pitching and in 3+ years be in the Show. The Brewers are amazing because they seem to run in game trials while still winning games at the highest rate possible.

Gordon feels like Jared Koenig insurance / replacement. McCullers is a lottery ticket to me.

I have been a huge fan of him since his time in Carolina. I love his offensive profile and could see him having a Christian Yelich - lite type of career. Really good bat to ball skills, with some ground ball tendencies but is just productive offensively against any type of pitching.

That is an interesting concept that the Brewers require their young hitters to follow this approach. My guess is that teams like the Orioles do not follow this same development path. How many of the top prospects from the Orioles have started off their careers on fire, but have struggled later on. Henderson, Adley, Cowser etc all looked like superstars but each have declined since each had early success. The Brewers were not known for developing hitters but the recent track record of Turang, Chourio, Mitchell etc have given me some real hope that Pratt, Lara, Made, Fischer, Burke and Adamczewski will make similar progression at the MLB level, when appropriate. To be able to navigate this development of players in key positions and still win at unprecedented levels is completely next level. I have to believe that they choose 1-2 candidates annually to bring up and develop. Pratt and Lara this year. I'm interested to see who emerges for this development path in 2027.

I'm curious if Woody really just hides the ball better than most, because even at his reduced velocity, hitters have a lot of difficulty squaring up his fastballs. I get that the IVB is a very important factor in missing bats & barrels but it almost doesn't matter what the radar gun says with Big Woo. Are there any publicly available metrics for 'hiding the baseball' or deception? I'm sure the team has metrics that they use for this pitch characteristic, but I'm not familiar with ones that we have access to.

I think it is fine to have a discussion about the trade, but I much prefer the profile of Zerpa to the profiles of Collins and Mears. Zerpa was a pickup that could have raised the postseason ceiling for this club. Both Mears and Collins were unplayable in the playoffs last year. To me, that is a trade I do 100 times out of 100.

That was obviously an extension-worthy play by Pratt :)

It's interesting to see how 2 rival orgs operate differently. Cubs - Hoerner extension - 6 yr / 141 MM - covering years 29-34 Original extension $36 MM for years 27-29. Crew - Pratt - 8 yr / 50 MM - covering years 22-29 - could cover years 30 & 31 - for extra $30 MM Brewers are more comfortable taking 'risk' with young players that can develop, while the Cubs are setting up consistency, while taking on 'risk' with aging players. I prefer the Brewers model, but it really depends on the individual org's strengths. If you aren't a good development org, or your owner doesn't have patience, then I think the veteran route makes sense.

We'll see, but Manfred's comments recently are moving towards eliminating local TV deals and taking the whole viewing package to market in 2028. If he can get that done, the table is set for more equitable revenue sharing and competitive balance. If he can get that done, that would be the grandest accomplishment by a MLB comissioner.

I don't get all of the Yelich shade. Even though CY did not make his debut with MIL, he is the face of this era of Brewers baseball. Taking away the partial 2020 season, Yelich has put up almost 4 fWAR per season. That is worth like $28-40 MM annually on the open market. He's making $26 MM now and the AAV of his extension is like $23 MM. Seems like the Brewers still got surplus value in that extension. Mark gets a lot of flack from fans, some rightfully, but he has always had at least 1 long term, face of the franchise type on the roster since he was owner. Ben Sheets turned into Ryan Braun who turned into Christian Yelich who will likely turn into Chourio, Made, Pena or someone else. Long story short, I don't understand the angst related to not having a long term, consistent face of our baseball team.

I don't think there is a clearly defined role for Jett yet. I think that will be based on how he performs in ST and the health of his competitors for a roster spot. Long term, I would say that Mona is the one that is in the most jeopardy since Jett can play SS.

I have seen a lot of people on both sides of the trade stating that TM is either a big loss or big add. He had 50 IP last year for the Crew. Pretty sure Henderson, Gasser and Coleman Crow will surpass more than cover up those 50+ IP. I see Sproat as a Freddy replacement, if not this year, then by 2027. I think it is reasonable to believe that he pitches 100+ IP with the Crew this year. I'm not sure what we got in Jett Williams, but I think I will like it. Power/speed combo that has defensive versatility...count me in. I trust the team will figure out where he fits best.

Sounded like Jordan Montgomery liked his time with the Brewers. If everyone on the current depth chart is healthy, then Montgomery makes some good sense, especially if they can get him signed to a 2 year contract....we will have holes in the rotation then. If everyone is not healthy, Quintana or Cortes makes a lot of sense to cover early season innings.