Snoebird

It would take a top infield prospect and two highly regarded pitching prospects to get Abrams, but I think acquiring him would help Matt Arnold stagger the arrival of the Made-Pena-Pratt-Fischer wave -- if Luis Pena were included in the trade. I feel pretty confident Arnold is trying to surround Chourio with the best young talent he can find, so I would lean toward Abrams as the player he is trying to acquire.

The Brewers' managerial change has allowed us to revel in small ball. The Cubs hit 223 homers but scored 793 runs, and they have to worry about whether the wind will blow out during the summer months. They endured a midseason slump last year during which Craig Counsell was repeatedly left to say, ". . . But we hit the ball hard." The Brewers, of course, traffic in traffic on the bases.

The upside is that the Brewers scored 806 runs, behind only the Yankees and Dodgers, on only 166 home runs. Matt Arnold isn't going to mess with success, but there's a greater likelihood of a slugging prospect being called up this season.

Mitchell is an ignitor when he plays, and so will Jett Williams be when Mitchell doesn't play. Fixing center field was important, and it looks to be a productive position this year.

He might not be a Brewer yet, but I would add light-hitting Luis Lara to the list.

Made looks a lot like the early Henry Aaron, who sprayed doubles all over the County Stadium fences in 1954.

Acquiring Buxton at the deadline makes more sense than pitting his injury history against Mitchell's at the start of the season and wondering if either will make it to the finish line. I would give Mitchell a full shot while keeping Tyler Black in the outfield mix.

Attanasio hired Stearns because of this pitch: "We're going to develop pitchers in such quantities as to allow us to trade them at the height of their value." I heard Stearns make that pronouncement on his first Brewers telecast. And it has played out with consistency and remarkable success for MLB's smallest market. Pitchers are this team's currency, and Chris Hook has a complete rotation waiting in the wings. Only when MLB's Basic Agreement and TV arrangement provide more financial equality for teams do I expect the Brewers to carry pitchers well into their 30s. The market for Freddy is very promising. And if I'm Matt Arnold, I'm trying to build an org that will explode with talent when Made joins Chourio for a potentially historic run.

To me, the one guy who would have moved the needle was Byron Buxton. With him now staying put in Minnesota, I'm perfectly fine going to Maryvale with Mitchell in center and with Tyler Black hanging on to a potential roster spot as a corner outfielder. Re-sign Eric Haase if no other backup catcher is available, and keep your powder dry for a potential May or July trade out of need.

I thought Cooper got the bum's rush from the Brewers when Stearns traded him for lefty reliever Tyler Webb, who had a shelf life of about a week. Cooper managed to play eight years in MLB, none with the team that drafted him in the sixth round in 2013.

Garrett Cooper? I meant Cooper Pratt. Happy New Year!

I resolve to give the Brewers' roster time to improve organically. That means not giving up on Garrett Mitchell until his body gives out. Not giving up on Joey Ortiz until Garrett Cooper is ready to become a MLB mainstay. Not even thinking about going all in until Jackson Chourio taps into his power with better pitch selection, until William Contreras and Christian Yelich show robust and prolonged returns to health, and Frelick, Durbin and Turang show another year of growth. The pitching side will likewise sort itself out, and undoubtedly there will be a young pitcher or two to make available in trade (along with Tyler Black) for whatever need remains.

Hazle was a roster replacement for center fielder Billy Bruton. Imagine Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell possibly getting injured and needing a midseason roster replacement. Jackson Chourio moves to center, and Akil Baddoo arrives on the scene, and lives up to his status as a second-round draft pick, thanks to the Brewers' crack developmental staff.

I agree that the trend is our friend. The pitching factory that David Stearns built and that Chris Hook oversees is an undeniable advantage. Can't complain about the scouts when Crowder Junior College produces two pitchers (Ashby and Miz) and the Latin American side provides the likes of Made and Pena. The developmental staff is also among the best in MLB and played a role in the Cardinals' firing of John Mozeliak. And the icing on the cake were the upgrades at manager and general manager in the past two years. My Christmas wish is for the Brewers to bring their Triple-A affiliate to Madison.

How the 1957 Milwaukee Braves got there was on the back of an injury replacement call-up. Rookie Bob Hazle joined the team on July 27, and from Aug. 9-25 hit .473 with 5 homers and 19 RBIs in 14 games. The core group took it from there to hold off the Cardinals for the pennant and beat the Yankees in the World Series. It wouldn't be farfetched to imagine a Brewers prospect making a similar late-season impact.

I wouldn't downgrade Mitchell, a first-round draft pick, unless he forces the issue. Give him a runway like the team gave Oliver Dunn and Brian Anderson at third base, but keep sorting through the other candidates for a month or so. A trade for a slugging corner outfielder would change the dynamic greatly because the team would be less dependent on Mitchell's slugging ability. So, Frelick would become the primary CF candidate and Mitchell a spot player along with Perkins. Lockridge would come into play if Mitchell fails to launch.

Collins was a three-sport gamer in high school, but his baseball pedigree isn't impressive. The Brewers have one of him in Brandon Lockridge. They needed to see their top draft pick of 2020, Garrett Mitchell, play center field for as long and well as he can, with Jackson Chourio comfortably in left. Mitchell will have plenty of backups in Lockridge, Perkins and Lara. Not to mention potentially Frelick if the Brewers trade for a slugging corner outfielder, which appears likely. Kansas City is a terrific landing spot for Collins, a new dad and Twin Cities native. His infield versatility likely will come into play with the Royals.

For well over a century, major league baseball has comprised two leagues, the National League and the American League. The junior circuit was formed at a clandestine meeting in room 185 in Milwaukee’s Republican Hotel (aka Republican House) on the evening of March 5, 1900. A historical marker commemorates the site at which that once-grand hotel stood, near the corner of what is now Old World Third Street and Kilbourn Avenue. The five men most responsible for the creation of the second league met secretly in the Republican Hotel to escape the prying eyes and ears of Chicago newspaper reporters. The establishment of the new league, with a rival club in Chicago, challenged Chicago’s National League monopoly and represented a declaration of baseball war. The originators of the American League included two men whose names have remained prominent in baseball circles, Connie Mack and Charles Comiskey, who both became team owners. The other three were league president Ban Johnson and a pair of Milwaukee lawyers, Henry Killilea and his brother Matthew, previously the owners of Milwaukee’s team in the Western League. The unseen person was Timothy “Ted” Sullivan, a native of County Clare, and long-time resident of Milwaukee. Most people do not know that the American League was founded and incorporated in Milwaukee. The fact that four of them were Irish-Americans, as well as the man who initially brought them all together, Ted Sullivan, is even less well-known. One of the new American League franchises belonged to the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers played their home games in 1900 in Milwaukee Park, a ramshackle wooden structure located between 16th and 17th Streets, with North Avenue on the north and Lloyd Street on the south. The street name gave the park the moniker by which it was commonly known, the Lloyd Street Grounds. The American League in 1900 was still considered a minor league. The following year it replaced several clubs with larger eastern cities and became baseball’s second major league. The Milwaukee franchise was summarily transferred to St. Louis after the 1901 season and became the Browns. Milwaukee did not return to major league status until Lou Perini relocated his Boston Braves to County Stadium in 1953 and became the Milwaukee Braves. (2017, CelticMKE blog)

I don't recall seeing Black lay down a bunt, and we know he isn't a slugger, so I would put him behind Collins in the pecking order. His occasional dropped throw at first base made him untrustworthy there. His strength is drawing walks and being nimble on the bases. Not worth keeping on a team loaded with guys who can get on base.

The sticky situation is that teams typically don't allow their backup catchers to DH unless there is another player on the roster who could replace an injured starting catcher. I think Quero should become Nashville's everyday catcher -- Alfaro is gone -- until the Brewers gain confidence in his ability as a total player. They could promote Quero at the all-star break and reduce Bill's workload similar to what they did this year.

Stearns' first good move was making a waiver claim for pitcher Junior Guerra. His first bad move was trading young first baseman Garrett Cooper to the Yankees for reliever Tyler Webb.

Stearns set the draft philosophy and was quoted as saying he wanted to focus on middle infielders and outfielders. It wasn't a mere coincidence that a change at the top immediately led to a change in draft philosophy. That the Brewers are now getting elite middle infielders from Latin America allows Arnold more freedom to augment his corps of slugging corner infielders. I came here to merely point out a giant hole in this lengthy story.

Why is it never mentioned that David Stearns didn't believe in drafting corner infielders? By sticking to the so-called premium positions of center fielder and middle infielders, he made the Brewers look sick for all the years they had to face Goldschmidt and Arenado in St. Louis. That Stearns' last first-round draft pick for the Brewers, shortstop Eric Brown Jr., is a bust smacks of arrogance on Stearns' part. Stearns deserves a ton of credit for turning the Brewers into a pitching factory, but we should all be thankful that he left and turned the team-assembly reins over to Matt Arnold, a disciple of Andrew Friedman. Arnold's initial first-round pick in 2023 was third baseman Brock Wilken, and subsequent drafts have pumped more corner infielders into the system. I was thrilled to see Arnold address the positional deficiency by trading for Vaughn but continue to wonder why the Brewers' draft philosophy never was second-guessed publicly.

From what I gather (Washington Post), Rob Manfred wants to overhaul MLB's TV structure by buying out the big markets' networks, putting all networks under the MLB umbrella and sharing revenue evenly among teams. His goal is to increase the value of the small market teams and allow them to compete with the giants, thereby making the regular season more attractive. And the carrot he has to dangle is worldwide streaming capability. In exchange for TV revenue sharing, the 48 percent of local revenue that MLB collects from teams would end. I think Manfred could get around the need for a salary cap by toughening up the luxury tax tiers, so maybe just a salary floor could be added, although he currently shows no interest in that.

Mark has done a lot to strengthen the organization on the developmental side, but he has done very little to connect with the fanbase, including zero public appearances in Wisconsin cities outside Milwaukee. The International League could use a fourth northern team to form rivalries with St. Paul, Des Moines and Omaha. And, given that Nashville is on the cusp of losing its Triple A team in exchange for a MLB franchise, it would make sense for the Brewers to want to anchor their top affiliate close to home. Madison, the fastest-growing metro area in the state, would be ideal if Mark hit up Madison-based American Family Insurance to share the cost of a 12,000-seat ballpark so he could showcase the Brewers' next great prospects before they reach Milwaukee. Mark, or stand-in Rick Schlesinger, need to participate in the ongoing development study of the AmFam Field parking lots. At the very least, two hotels need to be built there to serve stadium events, the State Fair, Summerfest and downtown. And let's give the tailgaters an incentive to come indoors by building a huge beer hall -- Miller Hall -- that would connect the neighborhood brewery with the stadium and be Milwaukee's answer to St. Louis' Ballpark Village.