Turning2

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.

Respectfully, I've posted time again that I hold no regard for metrics that have any factor that isn't purely calculable - primarily all the various WAR metrics. I can't speak to Coby Mayo, wasn't in that camp of "everybody" that wanted him. Yes, by and large the Brewers make the right moves for the regular season. They are truly literally a summer of entertainment. They don't do enough to make it an October to remember. It's been 40+ years since the Brewers lone WS appearance. Many people still cling to that, still know the players, still revel, even in disappointment at the memory. Forty plus years from now, if they still don't have a championship to their name, nobody is going to give 2 excrements about their upward trajectory of regular season wins. I'll be dead by then. But people my kid's age won't be able to name more than a player or two form memory from this year then. A year from now, nobody is going to care about winning 97 last year and being the best team in baseball for 2025. They don't hang banners for that. If the 2026 Brewers win a World Series, you bet your backside they will be able to remember the names. Joe Ryan is a dude. Maybe I have his value assessment off, but he's the type of 2nd tier SP they have the leverage to pursue, and probably won't. At some point, a man wants to ... ahem ... climax the situation, and when that never takes place, he moves on to the next situation. Fans have lots of options for their entertainment dollars. My Brewers fandom started around 1977. Perhaps yours did too, or even earlier. I only state that to establish that I'm not of a video game addicted, instant gratification, Excel spreadsheet generation mindset, and make no apology for it. I believe in real numbers and even then, they can be taken out of context as we all know. I think it's a mistake to essentially hand over baseball decisions to AI management, soulless and devoid of the human element and ability to assess players.

David had God on his side. God doesn't care about trivial human endeavors like sports. But I appreciate the simile regardless. Yes, the only thing MIL can do is control what they can control. They can control making better risk / reward decisions in evaluating trades and acquisitions. They can control being more or less aggressive. They can control self-evaluating their prior approach and gauging how successful it was. They can control how to set their own internal definition of what "success" means compared to how the customers who continue to support their business define it. They can control determining how long will those customers tolerate bites at the apple while ultimately walking away from the table feeling hungry and dissatisfied. They need to be more aggressive. Not throw stupid money and prospects away on the shiniest free agent or trade deadline target, but by pursuing guys with better proven, recent record of production. That shouldn't be too much to ask. We don't need a Sabathia again. I'm not interested in Skubal. We DO very much need a Don Sutton. And they should be able to land someone like that with all the surplus prospect capital they have. They should also be able to land a quality upgrade at 3B. I keep getting bombed on for suggesting Brooks Lee and his current, steady .240+ batting average along with finding his power - 14 HRs. But that is EXACTLY the type of player they could afford to pursue but don't. I don't care about what ever nerd mythical metrics and splits etc blah blah blah that modern baseball gets erect over. The dude is a player. Old baseball people know it. He's coming into his own this year. He's controllable, so on the cheaper end of the spectrum, even for a small market team. Failure to do significant moves in this particular setting makes me feel like they view fans as suckers just here to be teased along with "next year". Felt like this last year too when the narrative was, oh just wait until Mis, Made, Pena, Pratt are the core in a couple years with Turang and Chourio still in their prime. It's the same routine every year. They need to be bolder in adding talent at the expense of the carrots.

Absolutely when you consider what MIL got for Burnes. BALT got a full year of Burnes with the advantage of having him in house for influence to resign. A full year of a Cy Young caliber ace, and we got essentially a utility glove first / most infielder with no meaningful power, a starting pitcher who was quickly determined to be a middle reliever and a comp balance pick who might just be the most relevant of the three in a couple years. Ryan is nowhere close to the pitcher Burnes was / is. There is no reason we should have to give up a king's ransom for him. Ryan is a solid 2 or 3 like Fastball Freddie generally speaking, albeit with a full year of control beyond the rental period. With that said, I'd have no issue moving Pena as part of a package to get a solid #2/#3 starting pitcher. At some point you have to make the assumption that Pratt and Made are not only here for the long haul but will become irreplaceable. And if so, where is Pena going to play when you factor Burke, Wilken, Adams, Fischer, Bitonti, Boeve and Adamcweski, Payne for future OF positions.

And that is exactly why this team is a perpetual carrot on a stick. It's always a year or two down the road when certain things are supposed to line up just right. Meanwhile they could more aggressively augment that prospect development by adding some impact along the way, players just below the top dollar guys. And they won't.

The temp agency called... "we found someone to fill your urgent 3B vacancy within the salary parameters you provided. We will continue to cover his benefits for the first 30 days of his probationary period with you". No disrespect truly intended. Shewmake has made it further in pro ball than I could have ever dreamed of doing (hard to go anywhere coming from a pimple of a small town baseball program). I would gladly trade places. .

Credibility of primary sources within the circles of the topic being reported on.

Way too much DIY sports “content creation” trying to pass the work off as legitimate media. Most of what is out there is what used to be called blogs. Now they’re just dressed up better. In the music recording scene before modern technology, the equivalent was called “vanity records”. I roll my eyes whenever I see one blogger referencing another blogger as a source and pretend it’s somehow authoritative.

Excellent point. I’d argue the Brewers need to beef up the offense before splurging on a top tier talent reliever.

Normally I'm on board with trading prospects for proven MLB players. I don't trust pitchers to stay healthy. There is probably a greater chance of Skenes getting injured than Made washing out. If somebody was dumb enough to trade 3.5 controllable years of a proven/consistent 25-30 HR power bat (if such existed), I could be persuaded.

Arraez would be a round hole, square peg fit for MIL, but a really good contact hitting square peg. Had they not brought up / committed to Pratt, I suppose they could have tried pushing Turang to SS, Ortiz to 3B to make room for Arraez at 2B. That would be disrupting a lot of comfort zones, routines, familiarity though at this point.

Yeah, that's hard not to notice. It's highly doubtful they actually go trade for even a moderate hit for average with some power type upgrade at 3B (like a Brooks Lee), so let's hope Joey gets back to that .240-ish 12 HR type 3B.

My version of this is Brooks Lee. Not familiar with Schmitt, but he sounds like the same type of guy that is a sensible, feasible trade target

Me

Like others, I think everything hinges on the new CBA, and the front office won’t do anything until they know the future lay of the land. Really hope they can extend Contreras to about his age 33 year.

A WS Championship with Wilson would taint the enjoyment for me. But I could probably overlook it like when the Packers added Keith Jackson for a SB push.

Relying on health and the team getting hot enough at just the right time is a fool’s errand. They need a bigger, more consistent bat at 3B that makes sense financially, commitment wise etc. I don’t think that’s Paraedes. They should probably seek a 2nd tier starter like Ryan. Silver lining of essentially losing Woodruff is that they already have adjusted to not having him available for most of the last three years. He would have been an unexpected luxury this postseason, and one they weren’t depending on. So nothing has really changed. Same with not having Priester. So, go get a bat, and continue to evaluate Henderson, Sproat, Gasser etc as a legitimate postseason #3. If none pass muster, pursue Ryan, Gray or similar. Probably need to hunt a middle reliever too.

It's not about being anti-non American sports. I'll leave it at that.

Oh, that's right. Forgot the original parameter, even though the thread drifted as is bound to happen. Regardless, that is the general sentiment I perceive from Brewer nation about Burke... kind of overlooked, and viewed more as a trade piece.

That's part of the rub. Not only do I find the game boring (partially due to not understanding all the nuance), but there is an obvious agenda behind it. I'm not ashamed of our national past time, our American values and traditions. I have no desire for the U.S. to be more like the rest of the world. I'm not a big fan of the WBC, but at least it's the rest of the world embracing America's game instead of the other way around. It's definitely a different strokes thing. Other people want to dig it, that's fine but don't belittle my game.

Not much prospect love for Burke in this thread. That's a head scratcher. I guess he is perceived as too "lumbering" maybe? Haven't checked his defensive assessments though, so maybe that's a knock? And everybody has Fischer as the darling 1B of the future instead maybe. I see Burke as the good contact for average, lower K rate, above average power better version of Vaughn. Make Fischer the DH of the future if he gets his K's down. The BIG BAT baton was handed from Braun to Yeli, and it's likely to be passed to Fischer.

Producing or not producing should be the determining factor rather than the salary involved. A guy can't course correct if he's not getting regular AB's, but I see no reason why he must stay at the top of the lineup. Let him get his hacks in the 7 spot. Maybe run him out in the OF for certain games. Maybe he needs defensive responsibilities to take his mind off hitting a bit.