adambr2

No, not even close. People are really underrating Cameron's career here. What's being ignored is that defense is an enormous part of his resume. I think that's the first time I've seen defense mentioned since the conversation started. That tells me everything I need to know. I'm not understanding what you're saying I don't think. Are you saying defense isn't a strong enough part of a resume to warrant MVP consideration? If so I'd cite Omar Vizquel, who got 37% in his first HOF vote. He's a decent shot to get in at some point. His offense was mediocre at very best.

The best thing we're going to get out of Eric Sogard this year is a humorous Sandlot remake video. I love 95% of the moves Stearns makes, but what a dumb, pointless re-sign.

Not at all. But honestly, we're a couple miracle 9th innings and an extra inning jam escape by Jeffress in San Diego from staring 1-5 in the face and asking how bad we're going to be this year. We're going to be a pretty hollow 4-2 relative to what we probably should be. Record means really little at this point in the season, good or bad. What you see tells you much more. It looks like a good lineup and good bullpen and a complete albatross of a rotation.

The second worst OPS against Martinez in our lineup is .897. Hopefully we can keep that going.

Both are going to be higher than 450 if healthy. Still got to figure in 10 DH games and an occasional off day for Yelich and Cain.

I don't get why people worry about a high K rate at the leadoff spot. The leadoff hitter hits with nobody on more than anyone else in the lineup. If there is no one on, any out is just an out the same as any other. So if you have a high K/high OBP guy, isn't that literally the most beneficial spot for him? If a guy comes up 100 times with no one on, strikes out 60 times and reaches base the other 40, all that really matters is that he reaches base 40% of the time. It's true he doesn't have a lot of speed although he did steal a base and ran the bases well so far this season, but OBP is more important than speed at the leadoff spot. With that said I would have no issue with Cain or Yelich there. Maybe Villar again at some point, but not yet.

Playing time so far pretty much supports the notion that there isn't going to be an odd man out. 4 out of 6 for Thames, Braun, and Santana.

As good as our bullpen and bench is, and as bad as our rotation is, maybe we should go with a 13 man pen, bullpen committee every day, and pinch hit/double switch for the pitcher every time. Half blue.

I think it would be a good day to see Cain sit IMO. Thames- 1B Yelich- CF Braun- LF Shaw- 3B Santana- RF Villar- 2B Bandy- C Arica- SS would be my preference today. I'm fine with either. Whichever one Counsell thinks could use a rest day more right now. I would much prefer to not see Santana on the bench for a 3rd straight day. It would be Braun's second day off or Cain's first, neither would be really out of line for 6 games in.

May not be an easy move but I fully expect Braun to be off today. Don't want to be sitting Santana too much, and he's had some success against Martinez. It's a RHP so Thames probably gets the nod at 1st. He's been overlooked some but he's off to a really nice start and he's been a bit unlucky even.

On Keon, I really had high hopes for him coming into 2017 because he was so good in the second half of 2016 after the stance change. The thinking among many was that if he could perform the same defensively as in 2016 and cut his K rate even to 30% or so, he had a chance to be a very special player. Unfortunately that just didn't happen, and it may never happen. There's no more room or time for him here unless there's an injury or two. He'd be a good fit for a team with no true CF option that is still a year or two away. But they clearly prefer him to AAA depth rather than just giving him away, and that's the correct approach.

I'm not a big Broxton fan because it is so nice to be moving in a different direction from the type of hitter he is but he is for sure deserving to be in the majors on some team. I'm glad that we have him for depth but he has the talent and has produced enough to be in the majors. Hard to argue that point. How is striking out nearly half your at-bats with a .299 OBP and average defense at the easiest position to find talent producing? I get that you don't like Broxton but you are really embellishing to bring him down. He strikes out way too much but 37.2% isn't "nearly half." For his career he's well above average defensively. And how is CF the easiest position to find talent?

I hadn't seen anyone mention Broxton in probably 10 pages up until you did. I have no idea what you are referring to. I can't find a single instance of someone saying he 'broke out' in 2017 much less anyone that 'keeps saying' it. Everyone here was well aware after the Yelich and Cain acquisitions that Broxton wasn't going to crack the 25. Seems like you just wanted to rip on Broxton. I'd disagree totally that he doesn't deserve to be on an MLB roster. I'd agree totally that he doesn't deserve to be on this one.

I would imagine Sogard's chance of sneaking through on waivers is likely better than Perez's. Perez offers more upside with the bat and more positional flexibility, plus he's younger and cheaper. I would agree but the trouble with that is that Sogard has more than 5 years service time. So even if he cleared waivers he could refuse to accept the minor league assignment.

Perez is out of options. Well, so much for that idea. Thanks.

If we don't want to dump Aguilar, is it possible to option Perez? It hasn't really been talked about but I don't know why they wouldn't at least consider it. Perez' big asset has always been his versatility and with the new roster construction he's just really not that valuable to us anymore. We don't need him to play OF and the left side of the infield is solidified with Shaw and Arcia. Villar is going to get most of the starts at 2nd and when any of these 3 are off you already have Sogard to back up. I'd rather see Sogard in AAA really but since that can't happen I don't see why we need them both. They could keep that roster spot for Aguilar or the 8th reliever and they would still have Perez for depth a call away if injuries happened.

Well considering Cameron had zero votes in 2017 you are probably right since he can't do worse. While I don't think Braun will ever make the HOF I do think he will be one of the few Brewers that hangs around on the ballot for a number of years. Not sure if Prince can get to 5% but maybe. Sure you can, he could not be on the ballot, which he won't be (Davis).

No, not even close. People are really underrating Cameron's career here. What's being ignored is that defense is an enormous part of his resume. Defensive metrics aren't as solid as offensive, but he was one of the best. Braun was obviously a much better hitter, but defense has never been part of his argument. When I tout his "consistency", I'm pointing to the fact that he was near or above a 4 WAR threshold for 9 out of his 12 seasons. Yes, he was extremely consistent, and he put up over 50 fWAR in his career. That's around 10 more than Braun, currently. All that said, I was never arguing that Cameron is a HOF player. I don't think he is. What I was arguing is that he had at least a ballotable case, and being compared to him is a compliment, not an insult. He was, in fact, on the ballot, but I believe dropped off with less than 5% of the vote. That's the territory I would expect Braun to be in if he retired today. Of course, if he rebounds to top 10 MVP vote caliber the next few years, that would obviously change. I think to an extent we're letting the 2 huge HR in the first week cloud our judgment on how likely that really is, though. He got off to a very hot start last year too. But for the Brewers' sake I would love for him to be in that conversation 5 years after his retirement.

So Robin Yount shouldn't be in the Hall or listed in the same sentence as Braun either?

Come on man. I get that you don’t like the starting rotation but do you really think this is his plan? How do you explain a Chacin, Suter, Woodruff 3-5 with Miley and Junior as our next wave? Seriously no baseball man would put that out there with our excellent (and not young) 1-5 lineup and suggest he did his job. Seriously though, it looks pretty obvious like he had a plan with Santana and he badly miscalculated. Then he did his spin with young pitchers not being blocked blah blah blah. You know the same GM drivel as our goal is to acquire young controllable talent. Like that wasn’t the goal of every GM in history. Lol. Back to the OP, the reason trades existed in the first place is to trade your surplus assets for someone else’s surplus assets to balance the rosters needs. Santana on our bench and Chacin/Suter/Woodruff/Miley on the hill is not a good use of assets. I have a feeling once the team proves 2017 wasn’t a fluke, we will make a big trade for a real SP. Because what you're not mentioning is that Jimmy is coming back in June, and if Burnes keeps doing what he's doing he'll be up around the same time. That's two potentially big additions right there without anything else. Obviously the organization believes in them. Just because this is their rotation now doesn't mean this is the rotation they'll have at the end or even middle of the season. If you think you have a 2 month problem, you don't go handing out 4 and 6 year contracts that you otherwise wouldn't to solve a 2 month problem. And just because trading your surplus assets for other surplus assets to balance roster needs is a great idea in theory, doesn't mean it's always going to work in practice, especially in an off-season when corner OFers are so devalued.

This is going to be overlooked because of the hitting heroics, but the bullpen again was huge. Barnes has looked great. Albers is still underrated, and recovered from that error to get that huge popup from Wong when they had a great chance to add insurance. Jeffress again just looks better in Milwaukee, and Jennings looks like a nice addition. Another great pen day with no Knebel and no Hader. And Taylor Williams is a call away.

That's okay I look down for one moment to text a buddy and Anderson is screaming again. He has some damn good calls for someone people refer to as 'vanilla.'

Got to take a peak at a few Cardinals board game threads tonight.

We have 2 wins when trailing after 8 innings in 5 games. I am not sure we had more than 2 such wins all of last year.

I've been hard on Braun for his rough start, and no one really agrees on whether 'clutch' is really a thing, but make no mistake, he has come up huge late.