GasserFace

I think the Brewers have an overarching strategy based on their payroll budget and their ultimate goal to win division titles and compete for championships. They have adopted strategies to achieve their goals with those known constraints. Those strategies include: Determining which offensive, defensive and pitching strategies are most competitive with their payroll constraints. Identifying, acquiring and developing players that best fit those strategies. These overarching principles have hundreds of smaller actions, goals and disciplines, that would need a 100+ page book to outline and describe. Recently though, some of the more interesting disciplines have come to the forefront. First, a piece of their offensive strategy has been documented and reported on by Mike Petriello https://www.mlb.com/brewers/news/2026-brewers-offense-what-is-working The Brewers allow the ball to get deeper than any other team by a wide margin and they swing at one of the lowest rates in that data tracking era. This offensive strategy is best executed by players that make a lot of contact, have plate discipline and are typically very athletic. Yelich, Frelick, Chourio, Turang, Ortiz, Pratt, Lara etc are current players that fit that mold. As mentioned in the Petriello article, pulling the ball in the air is difficult, and therefore expensive. The players mentioned above make 25-30% of their contact to the opposite field, where a player like Alex Bregman is a 20% oppo hitter. Second, the Brewers strategies of identifying talent lead them naturally to younger, cost-controlled players. Those players typically need more support and guidance to help them become the best players possible for the team. The Brewers have a manager who is used to dealing with those types of players and has had success in leading them. Managing players like Bryce Harper, Rafael Devers and Juan Soto versus Jackson Chourio, Cooper Pratt and Sal Frelick requires a different style. Personally, I really appreciate the Brewers organization foresight, discipline and structure. I believe they are fantastic at identifying the correct players to bring into their clubhouse and they do their best to maximize those players performances (see Bryse Wilson - his ERA is 1 full run better with the Brewers compared to other clubs he has pitched for). I am truly excited to see how this zag of an organization competes over the next 5 years with all of the other orgs that are zigging. Go Brewers!

The Shuckers pitching staff has been shockingly poor. I would be curious about what is going on there. Also, should Blake Holub be the pitching call up or will the Crew just wait on Jojo Romero and will he be the add when rosters expand?

It's wild that our 16-20 prospects, Strosnider, Trey Ebel, DeBerry, Moneys and Frontado would likely be in the top 5-10 range for most orgs. Almost all first round picks immediately enter a team's top 5.

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.

That's a bit unfair. You didn't even mention adding Zerpa in the OF swap out. Who would you suggest adding to the OF that would move the needle over the group mentioned above, while also keeping into account the goal of competing all the way through 2030?

Sugar, There has already been a trade from their controllable OF depth. Just because they haven’t moved a package of prospects doesn’t mean they haven’t discussed trading them. We just don’t know about them. At this point, the FO deserves all of the benefit of the doubt related to making or not making all deals. They obviously have not received a needle mover yet. The idea of making trades just to keep the fans engaged in the offseason makes me sick to my stomach. This FO has proven to be aggressive when they know there is a roster hole. Adames Priester etc

I love the recent articles on Lockridge and Easton McGee. I’ve seen a bunch of comments poo pooing these 2 players but one of the reasons the Crew has had a sustained playoff run is because of guys exactly like this. Count me as a believer that both players will provide positive value in 2026

I would love to see the Brewers player database. I vaguely remember Garabito and Rom. My guess is that they have different buckets of players with drop down fields like 2026 capability (All Star, MLB Starter, MLB Roster, Fringe MLB, Org Depth etc) with potential $$ values assigned to each player. Sort best value by need and assign to an Assistant GM to talk to each player's representative to see if their evaluation and the player's expectations match. Boom! Cut a deal and move on to the next list. I think it would be fascinating to watch this process for a year. Maybe if I win the Powerball, I can buy myself a seat in the brain trust LOL.

I loved this trade yesterday and I love it even more today. Great work as always Jack.

The Brewers are not going to escalate the payroll on any of the big free agents. A trade is possible, but I would put that at less than 50/50. If you are going to follow the Brewers, the best strategy to get through the offseason is to have no expectations. This makes it much more enjoyable. For example, everyone remembers where they were on Greinkemas and Yeli/Cain Day. Heck, I even remember being super pumped about Yaz Grandal. If you have expectations of winning the offseason, I would suggest following the Dodgers, Yanks, and wherever AJ Preller works.

I would be shocked if this happened. The price, injury history and the Twins desire to keep him around likely make a Buxton trade not an option.