Matt Breen

Baker has thrown a total of 21.2 innings the last three years - reaching High A ball. I'm guessing the club sees something interesting in him to add him to the 40-man roster. As people have noted, we will have a lot of these kinds of moves in the next few weeks. He will be 26 in April. The Brewers have gotten some interesting players under Stearns - older guys (especially arms) that have been injured or buried elsewhere. https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=baker-000dyl

Betancourt was reportedly shot and injured after getting into an argument with an unknown individual. He had surgery on his elbow. The team issued a statement that the injury is NOT life-threatening, and Betancourt is 'resting comfortably'. https://www.brewcrewball.com/2017/11/26/16702666/milwaukee-brewers-prospect-javier-betancourt-wounded-in-shooting-in-venezuela

Well, here's salary for such a team. Notes: no Woodruff. I moved Hader to the pen. Asteriks (*) are arby estimates from MLB Trade Rumors. I just gave Darvish and Arietta $25M each. It might be more. Maybe less. More likely it will be higher - particularly for Darvish. But it's probably with $5M or so. Also, it doesn't take into account any player that might need to be moved to acquire Archer. Finally, the real challenge would come in 2019 - when we have arbitration for a lot of players - probably at least $20-25 more than we do in 2018. [pre]C Manny Pina 0.55 C Stephen Vogt * 3.9 1B Jesus Aguilar 0.55 1B Eric Thames 5.0 2B Jonathan Villa* 3.0 SS Orlando Arcia 0.55 3B Travis Shaw 0.55 LF Ryan Braun 19.0 ($4M deferred) RF Domingo Santa 0.55 CF Keon Broxton 0.55 OF Lewis Brinson 0.55 OF Brett Phillips 0.55 INF Eric Sogard 2.4 INF Hernan Perez* 2.2 SP Chase Anderso 4.75 SP Jimmy Nelson* 4.7 SP Zach Davies 0.55 SP Chris Archer 6.4 SP Jake Arietta 25.0 SP Yu Darvish 25.0 RP Josh Hader 0.55 RP Jeremy Jeffres* 2.6 RP Jared Hughes* 2.2 RP Corey Knebel* 4.1 RP Jacob Barnes 0.55 RP Brent Suter 0.55[/pre] Total: $116.85M

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

Orf and Wren might strike a team as usable 25th man on a roster types. It's all about the situation, however. The team has to have the need, the roster space open, not want someone else more, etc.

Former GM John Coppolella is banned for life. Wow. That's an axe - not a hammer.

Interesting stuff. The guy was hugely hyped, but once he got on the field, a lot baseball people were wondering what all the fuss was about. Still he's only 17 - and we should pursue the guy - we'd be fools not to look into him.

That's kind of a the question that bedevils this entire conversation. There's so many opinions. I don't think anyone thinks Archer is a top 10 pitcher - an ace. But where he fits next is debatable. He's average 200+ innings for four years in a row. 200+ strikeouts. Decent walk rates. But the ERA went from 3.33/3.23 in 2014/15 to 4.07/4.02 the last two years. His FIP, however, has been 3.39, 2.90, 3.81 and 3.40 the last four years. So are the 4.00+ ERAs just a bit of bad luck? The other notable stat that is a red flag is the HRs. They progress from 12, 19, 30 to 27 over the past four years. And there is WAR. bWAR has Archer at 2.6, 4.3, 1.8 and 1.2 the last four years. fWAR has him at 3.2, 5.2, 3.2 and 4.6. That's a pretty big discrepancy. Fangraphs tends to like strikeouts more than Baseball-Reference. Ultimately, I don't know the answer. I'm pretty confident no one would classify him as one of the best in the game. He's not on the level of Kershaw or Sale or Kluber or Scherzer. But there's only 8-10 of these great pitchers. According to Fangraphs, he's in the next tier of pitchers - DeGrom, Nelson, Nola, Quintana, Verlander - guys like that. A solid #2 type of pitcher. According to Baseball Reference, Archer is lucky to be a #4 type pitcher. Again, that's a big discrepancy. Personally, I tend to look at Archer as more of a borderline 2/3 type of pitcher - which definite potential to be a #2. I find it hard to believe that a guy who threw 200+ innings last year with a 4.02 ERA and FIP of 3.40 is worth only 1.2 bWAR. Heck, according to B-R, Brent Suter was way more valuable than Archer. Going out on the mound and throwing 6-7 innings every five days is a huge value - even if the ERA is just okay. I'd love to have Archer - even if he's only going to produce and ERA of around 4.00. I just don't know if I'd want to pay the price for him.

Archer has 4 years of control with options on his extension, FWIW. And Fulmer has five years of control left.

Front loading a deal is not necessarily always a poor decision. A lot comes down to the details. The big thing for the player is the actual value of the contract. What I mean by that is the details of the payout. A three year deal, $60M contract paid out in equal terms ($20M annually) is worth more money than a contract that pays $10M, $20M, $30M. That's because the player gets $10M two years earlier - and thus now has money to invest and make more money. Thus, the three year, $60M contract, paid out equally over three years, might be more equal if the payout was something like $10M, $20M, $33M. That's a 3-year, $63M deal, technically worth 'more' money than the other deal - but in reality, the same. BTW, I'm just guessing at what the actual equal value is by tacking on the extra $3M to the last year. I really don't know how that kind of stuff is calculated. That is one reason why clubs like contracts to be backloaded. The more money pushed into the future, the more money they have at this time to use on their product (or to invest or whatever). All that said, it doesn't mean you can't front load a contract for good reason. Let's take Arrietta as an example. The team could offer him the following (again, just an example): Option 1: 4-years, $100M, with annual payouts of $25M. Simple enough. Option 2: 4-year, $95M, with annual payouts of $30M, $25M, $20M and $20M. Option two has less total 'add 'em' value - but because he's getting more money up front, it would allow him to generate more revenue earlier (again, I don't know which would be more valuable - the numbers are just there to get the point across). The value to the player aside, the front loaded option might appeal to the Brewers due to the circumstances of the organization's financials. They may prefer spending more money now on a guy like Arrieta because they know that costs for other players will go up. Essentially, it comes down to a 'we have the salary room now, so let's spend it now, and not overburden our salary structure down the road'.

Exactly. I love building a team through the draft and amateur signings. But one of the things that having a deep system allows is to deal prospects for established players. It's not the thing I want to happen all the time - but it's a way we can effectively operate. Sure it stinks when we trade a guy and he does good for another team - but if you have a deep system - you can survive losing some decent prospects.

In case anyone wants to know what was actually done: Mauricio Dubon, Jacob Nottingham, Freddy Peralta, Marcos Diplan were added to the 40-man roster. http://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/mlb/brewers/2017/11/20/brewers-expected-protecdubon-peralta-top-minor-league-prospects-brewers-expected-protect-rule-5-draf/880307001/

I expect the Brewers to add at least one starting pitcher. That means we should be checking in on every guy who we think can help us. I don't think any player is a 'must have' right now. That allows us to wait and see how the market materializes.

Ummm....I'm pretty sure that Broxton is going to be a ways down the Giants backup plans for their OF if they don't (or should I say, when they don't) get a deal done for Stanton. I think we'd be lucky to get two lottery ticket type prospects for Broxton. The lind deal wouldn't be a bad haul for Broxton. I could see the Giants targeting Broxton even if they bring on Stanton. Stanton doesn't play CF last I checked, and Broxton would be cheap. Yeah, Broxton would be a pretty nice fit for SF - whether they got Stanton or not. Pence and Span - the other corner guys - are not that good anymore, and they each only have one more year on their contract. Pence we be 35 in April - and has missed a lot of time the last few years (Span has had his injuries as well). Both guys would probably benefit from regular time off. Broxton would slot in nicely as an athletic centerfielder no matter who they have playing the corners.

This link below provides a ton of info. If on the 40-man roster # of options remaining Service time Prospect ranking (BA and BP) Rule 5 status It includes around 100 of our minor leaguers - so it should have everyone you'd expect. https://www.rosterresource.com/mlb-milwaukee-brewers

Just read the following: Giants/Marlins names exchanged in potential Stanton deal : (SF) 2B Joe Panik, Top Prospects SP Tyler Beede & OF Chris Shaw. (Mia) Stanton & 2B Dee Gordon Cardinals as previously reported by @jonmorosi made offer to Marlins for Stanton. That proposal Included prospects, among them hard throwing top hurler Sandy Alcantara No word on how much - if any - money was talked about between both sides. Just thought I'd share.

The general talk about Stanton is that the Marlins are asking for several top prospects - and not paying down the contract. Most people seem to agree they won't get both. It should be noted that Stanton has a no trade clause. I have heard he is not thrilled about the idea of going to St. Louis or Boston - two of his reported suitors. But we shall see.

I read that the Cardinals made a formal offer to the Marlins. No details.

No matter what you think about Archer, he will cost a bundle. Many people think very highly of him - and the Rays aren't going to package him for cheap. I'd say something like Brinson, Ortiz and Diaz would be in the ball park in a deal. Maybe one more other lower level guy. Ponce or someone like that. I'm not necessarily advocating such a deal - just saying what I think it would take to get such a deal done. The team might want to consider this if they are going to move off the current plan and go into more of a 'win now' mode. Trade for Archer. Sign Arrieta. Sign a reliever or two. That kind of a thing. A rotation of Arrieta, Archer, Davies, Anderson and Woodruff would be pretty nice. Plus add in Nelson when (and if) he comes back. Plus see how Corbin Burnes develops. You would likely have a good rotation for several years right there.

Votto is the exact kind of bat Milwaukee needs. However, we don't need the years of his contract or price. Not to mention what it would cost to get him. He's certainly worth it now - but who knows what will happen in a few years. But wow - we could just elevate the who club with a stick like that in the lineup.

Jose Altuve and Giancarlo Stanton were named AL and NL MVP, respectively. Stanton barely beat Joey Votto - by just two points - winning 302 to 300. Altuve won handily, getting 27 of the 30 first place votes. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21438559/miami-marlins-right-fielder-giancarlo-stanton-named-national-league-mvp

This isn't what I'd ideally like to see, but I could certainly live with this outcome. I just really want Addison Reed, closing experience in case Knebel regresses. One thing to note on your roster, you have 13 position players and 13 pitchers. If you want an 8 man pen(and I think we all do), you can't keep Aguilar, Perez, Sogard, and both young outfielders. I personally can't see a scenario where both Aguilar and Perez are back. One has to go, and this is also assuming Broxton gets traded. I should have noted that the eight man pen was there because most teams have a guy shuttling back and forth between AAA. Yeah, if we want a permanent 8-man pen, we'd need to trim a position player.

Spitballing this, but here you go: - Non-tender Vogt (don't like his sub par defense) - Sign Alex Avila 2-year/$16M contract - Left handed bat. He would platoon well with Pina. Both are able to handle a heavier workload if necessary - but ideally you split their work to keep them fresh. - Sign Swarzak and Pat Neshak - 2-years/$12M. The reliever market is going to be expensive, so these prices might go up. They fortify the bullpen, especially with Hader going to the rotation. - Sign Tyler Chatwood - 2-years/$20M. Chatwood is an intriguing ground ball pitcher who should do much better out of Colorado. Roster C - Pena, Avila 1B - Thames, Aguilar 2B - Villar SS - Arcia 3B - Shaw INF - Sogard INF/OF - Perez LF - Braun CF - Brinson RF - Santana OF - Phillips SP - Davies SP - Anderson SP - Woodruff SP - Hader SP - Chatwood RP - Knebel, Hughes, Jeffress, Suter, Barnes, Swarzak, Neshak, Taylor Williams Brewer salaries would be around $90M, which would allow some flexibility if we wanted to take on some salary during the season. The additions are no more than 2-year deals - so you aren't saddling the team with any bloated contracts down the road. This gives 2B to Villar, which is a risk. But he's a talented player. I'm going to bet on him. If we get the Villar of 2016 (or even somewhere between there and 2017), we are going to get a pretty good player. I would expect C. Burnes is in Milwaukee by July. Like we have done with Woodruff and Nelson and Davies - we'd bring him up when there are injuries or someone falters. I am not counting on Nelson at all in 2018, but if he makes it back, it's a big bonus.

MLB Trade Rumors put him at 2-years/$16M. Same with Fangraphs crowdsourcing. Dave Cameron at Fangraphs puts him at 1-year/$6M.

Max Scherzer won the NL Cy Young Awards and Corey Kluber captured the AL award. Both guys captured their respective awards pretty handily. Scherzer, who won his third Cy Young, got 27 of 30 first place votes. Kluber got 28 votes to snag his second Cy Young. Jimmy Nelson got one 5th place vote - which gets him one point - and times him for 9th place in the NL voting. Nelson's one vote came courtesy of Sahadev Sharma of the The Athletic. He primarily writes about the Cubs. AL Award: https://bbwaa.com/17-al-cy/ NL Award: https://bbwaa.com/17-nl-cy/