Turning2

It is, and has been, my opinion, that the FO views this as a year to position themselves for after the lock out / new CBA is settled. We all know, they don't make big moves. However, it was fair to think they would be a little more aggressive coming off a club record W total. They weren't. That signaled to me that they don't believe they are as close to a championship as their record might indicate. They didn't mail it in completely, They made their usual types of margin moves. With some luck, the stars could have aligned, and they might have real post season success without major expenditures. As that luck would have it, they lost two Woody and Quinn, but they picked up a gem in Harrison who has helped cover that deficit. And Miz has popped. Yet neither Miz nor Harrison is ready to throw the amount of innings needed. They are winning on those margins in the regular season again, but we know how that ends. That recipe doesn't work in the playoffs. They don't have enough quality starting pitching, HR pop and possibly middle relief. They are not going to go try to fix all of that with impact player moves. They will get guys to spackle the holes like usual. If they only had one glaring hole, they might make one big splash. And they still might. I suspect they will get a mid-tier trade target SP. But I don't expect them to get a significant bat. They might get a mid-tier middle reliever. They might also believe Wilson and DL Hall is good enough for what they want to do THIS year. I hope I'm wrong, and they at least bring in something better than they did last year.

Go not retire with another team next year. Great Brewer, but it’s time to move on. Can’t wait to get his salary off the books.

He’s been useful. Wonder who sticks and who doesn’t when Hamilton is back. Still suspect this is a band aid

The genie has wrongfully been loosed from the bottle already I realize, but there is no reason that professional athletes in any sport should be competing in the Olympics. I could not care less if other nations stack the deck with professional athletes from their nation's version of pro sports. Integrity of competition is compromised when you have professionals competing in what was historically a matching of athletes whose sole motive was to prove "I'm better, faster, quicker, stronger" than you. I'd prefer America rise above it, even if that means never winning any golds in any sport ever again. Integrity matters in my world. An event originally and traditionally reserved for amateurs remaining an amateur event is part of how I define integrity. Much of the wide road world disagrees.

No idea about that. Have watched about 10 minutes of soccer my entire life.

From this fan's perspective, it sounds absurd to disrupt the season schedule. But I understand that they probably are taking more proactive measures to fend off the popularity of soccer which has been growing for decades and luring young boys away from baseball.

Heard today on what I think is a BrewerFanatic associated Youtube channel (Gasper's?) that the owners want participation in the Olympics as a mandatory component. I'm generally more supportive of ownership in this fight, but that sounds absurd.

"Sell him!, Sell him!, Sell him!"........ to the Brewers. Before we moved back to WI from MN, my in laws over there sucked me back into MLB. The Brewers were always my boys, but I also adopted the Twins as a rooting interest. Ryan stood out years ago. Would be an excellent addition.

Fair point, but also somewhat subjective. Teams that usually get the "big names" are likely to have a higher threshold of talent as their foundation to begin with and the big market financial advantage to acquire that "big name". Sabathia didn't get them a championship, but he is generally recognized as being a huge difference maker in getting them out of the playoff drought. Seems reasonable to view that today's team needs that same level of acquisition splash to get them out of the next drought level they are mired in, which is... getting back to the WS. And I say that hesitantly, as I'm not an "all in, mortgage the future" guy. I do believe it's reasonable to expect them to be a bit more aggressive. Not Skubal level aggressive, but perhaps Joe Ryan level. Different era and all, but it shouldn't be unreasonable to hope for them to pursue today's version of Don Sutton, whether its Ryan, Mize, Detmers etc. I'll add, I agree with a previous poster's comment that they have too many other holes, so just nabbing even a 2nd tier starter isn't going to strengthen them that much. But with their prospect depth, could they afford to get a reasonable / quality starter plus Brooks Lee to deal with the 3B no power mess, and quality middle reliever without totally gutting the future, I believe so. Wouldn't guarantee a championship, but it would demonstrate a will to do more than just keep dangling "future hope" like a carrot on a stick. I'd have no problem trading Pena or Jett Williams, especially for a guy with some control left.

The definition of insanity playing out right before our eyes?? "The Brewers have taken fliers on several injured pitchers in recent years, such as Trevor Rosenthal, Nestor Cortes, and Shelby Miller, and the returns have been next to nothing." McCullers strikes me as a band aid in much the same way as Shewmake. In this case, it appears that Gordon was really the target and targeted for value in the future after some Hook Tweak Therapy. If that is the case, they have done very little to improve the "now" which always seems to be the M.O. Hopefully this is not the primary move to boost the starting rotation for the stretch run.

Can’t think of one for this year off top of my head. Wasn’t real thrilled with the acquisition of Durbin. His arm especially didn’t look strong enough for third. But he proved it was strong enough multiple times. So, yeah, I was off in that.

I'm going to play the "I'll trust the organization on this one" cliche card.

Marketing MLB to the biggest tent possible is the whole point.

Don't lump me in with that mindset. I've never advocated for pursuing top guys like Mason Miller at ridiculous prices or completely draining the farm chasing after greatness. It doesn't have to be "all in" or "almost nothing" in regard to the level of talent upgrade and potential impact of an acquisition(s). There can be a middle ground. And that's how I view the caliber of player like Brooks Lee. Not a super star, but a reasonable upgrade. Doesn't have to be him specifically. It is more logical to expect an acquired very good / great player to markedly move the needle for his new ball club more than hurt them. It is also less logical to expect a serviceable / average player to markedly move the needle for his new ball club. Sure, the outcomes of such moves don't always follow the logic, and the impact of said players can be highly subjective. Does Milwaukee even have their one WS appearance if not for the huge trade for needle movers like Fingers, Vuck, Simmons, Sutton - maybe, maybe not. We're not likely to see that huge of a roster churn again because the economics are so much different now. It seems reasonable that they could make 2026 equivalent moves, whatever that might amount to. They absolutely should be able to upgrade 3B with a "Brooks Lee" type talent and "Joe Ryan" type starter, and no, that wouldn't decimate the farm or mortgage the future (of course, how that is defined is highly subjective too).

Correct, I do not care, but so what? It doesn't matter either way. I prefer disagreement from the exchange of differing opinions over group think, where people get cowed into the herd lest they be shunned for independent thought. A certain talk show intellectual likes to say "I prefer clarity over agreement", which is something I identify with. If you've read more than a couple posts of mine, you will know that I'm fairly conservative about trade targets. I do not advocate for pursuing the marquee players. There is a lot of hype about how deep the farm system is. If you have a surplus, it doesn't make sense to not try and leverage some of it attempting to fix glaring holes. True, it doesn't always work, maybe even more often than not. But as Michael Scott / Dunder Mifflin famously says "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky ". I will say I agree with Sveum about Ryan being more close to Burnes than my initial reaction. Burnes might have been trending down, but we also didn't get much for him because every GM knew we wouldn't / couldn't, pay him market rate (and shouldn't have). The Brewers are really handicapped in having their ability to bluff other teams castrated from them. I don't know what it would take to acquire Ryan, nobody does, but it's definitely worth pursuing. May be moot depending on the health status of Miz and Harrison.