adambr2

If we're going to send a guy like Williams down for "depth", why not send down Barnes? Between the last 2 springs and last season, he doesn't look like someone who should be considered a roster lock which he generally seems to be.

This thread makes me think Rluzinski (and others) were way ahead of the times. I don't think I would have has as firm of a grasp on the concept of surplus value 12 years ago that others had.

I don't think he will be as dominant as Hader was, but I think in a pen role, something like a 3 ERA and 10 K/9 is realistic, and that's an arm that should be helping us now. Certainly better than what I would expect from Drake or Yo. If anyone is trying to say Drake should make this team they should have all their Brewers gear burned. Okay, dramatic but that guy sucks. I get the Yo experiment a bit because he did well in a limited time in the pen a year ago and from the sounds of their coaches, they think there is something there as a long man. If that keeps a guy like Williams down until we find out which pitchers stink this season, I’m okay with that. Not all of our pen guys will work out most likely so it’s grest to have quality to pull up if/when that occurs. I'm pretty happy with Knebel, Hader, and Albers. Beyond that, I have concerns. Jeffress maybe could find it again here and I'm hoping he does but we are still talking about a guy who was so bad in Texas last year that he was a DFA candidate and given back to us for basically nothing. I'm a pretty big believer in a Barnes rebound, but it's not a certainty. He wasn't very good last year. Hoover is a non roster invitee, Logan is just a LOOGY at best. We know the deal with Drake. Yo was fine in relief last year, but we're talking extremely small sample. Maybe he'll be ok, but the ceiling isn't high. I know this is also opinion and there's no right or wrong, I'm just kind of surprised that someone who was as vocal as you were about the first half struggles in the pen and disappointed at the lack of early solution last year would be ok with going with retreads in half the pen and be ok with keeping an arm like Williams down in the name of depth.

I don't think he will be as dominant as Hader was, but I think in a pen role, something like a 3 ERA and 10 K/9 is realistic, and that's an arm that should be helping us now. Certainly better than what I would expect from Drake or Yo.

+1 again, you're on fire today. It will be very annoying watching Gallardo post a 7 ERA, get cut in early May, and then have Williams come up and do his best 2017 Josh Hader impression. Doing my best, thanks. I guess the only positive I can take from the projection is that Drake isn't on it. Still, too many retreads like others have said -- Gallardo, Hoover, Logan, etc. I like Albers and can get on board with him. Jeffress also, to a lesser extent. But with how many games we lost in the 1st half last year before we called up Hader and it made a world of difference, I can't believe we can't find room for Taylor who would be one of our 3 most talented arms. Williams is almost 27, it's not like age or service time is a concern. Last year was the year to baby him back in carefully and they did. He threw 52 innings and is a perfect pen candidate now.

Suter is just down temporarily until they need a starter so that's not a big deal to me. I think keeping Williams down is a big mistake. Are we really going to repeat last year and let the pen cost us a bunch of games in April and May before we figure out that we need to get better arms in it?

A, because if I already know we aren't going to win it all in B, where's the enjoyment of the playoff runs? Now if you had said either a guaranteed World Series or 7 playoff appearances with hope but no guarantee, I would take B for the enjoyment and promise of the race every season.

If only some team had been interested in him in say, August 2016. And if I could play hindsight armchair GM, I'd win a World Series every year. I think a pretty vocal portion of us were quite adamant after it came out that we almost traded Braun that we really wished it had gotten done when the chance was there.

I had no idea until now that Buckley actually hung around as long as he did. He actually won a Super Bowl with none other than Tom Brady.

Sounds like he should be expecting a gold glove trophy. Does throwing factor in? He still can't throw. Sure. Not as much as 3rd obviously, but trying to go quick to 2nd to turn 2, go home, those will come into play, and I expect that will probably be his weakness. But the other stuff, scooping, covering, instincts -- I think he'll be fine.

To me he's seemed fine. Saw him make a nice snag on a liner early on in L.A. Haven't seen anything that stands out that makes me think he can't. I think it's less of whether or not can he do it, and much more can he do it without causing discomfort or injury that affects his play. And while I do believe he can still be a quality MLB hitter when healthy, to me again it's silly to conclude anything based off of one MLB game, much less a spring training game. Villar and Broxton both had multi-HR games in the regular season last year. It's not very meaningful on its own any more than it would be meaningful if he went 0 for 4 with 4 Ks today.

Not sure. I used Baseball Reference. As you said the sample size isn't really meaningful in any case, and "clutch" is a pretty subjective term that can vary between being a really big thing to not really even a thing at all depending on who you ask. For what its worth Braun has a career .748 OPS against Kershaw. Which is fine I suppose given that it's Kershaw. My only objection is to the idea that today's version of Braun is someone you'd want with the top hitters in the league against the Kershaws of the world, given that A) His 'clutch' hitting isn't something that stands out from his career hitting numbers, and B) At his age his hitting skills have clearly deteriorated to where he's certainly not the hitter he was in his prime.

"Clutch" stats are always kind of subjective and vary from year to year, but Braun's OPS in 'late and close situations' are as follows the last 3 years. 2017: .616 2016: .791 2015: .745 In his prime, I'll certainly take Braun in those situations. At his current productivity level and age, there are many, many players I'd take over Ryan Braun in the 7th inning of the NLDS against Clayton Kershaw. He isn't a HOF caliber bat anymore. He used to be. That time has passed. Also, he isn't sniffing the HOF, which I know isn't what you said but his defensive deficiencies and PED scandal push him way out of that conversation.

I'm not sure, but you just don't option a 3+ WAR 25 year old corner outfielder who hit 30 HR last year and OPSed nearly. 900. It's bad enough that Phillips, Aguilar and Broxton are all forced casualties of roster construction and to some extent, even Thames. The closer we get to the season with no end in sight to the logjam the more doubtful I am about the efficiency of this roster. I'd love to be wrong, and in Stearns I trust and all that, but I'm skeptical. I’m still scratching my head as to why having too many good players is a bad thing. As an advocate of never having a guy like Niewenhuis in our lineup, I would think you’d love this type of depth. I'm all for depth, but if you can't find MLB ABs for good players, they're not doing you any good. That's just waste. We can't seriously be talking about wasting Domingo Santana's bat on our AAA team in a playoff hopeful year.

I'm not sure, but you just don't option a 3+ WAR 25 year old corner outfielder who hit 30 HR last year and OPSed nearly. 900. It's bad enough that Phillips, Aguilar and Broxton are all forced casualties of roster construction and to some extent, even Thames. The closer we get to the season with no end in sight to the logjam the more doubtful I am about the efficiency of this roster. I'd love to be wrong, and in Stearns I trust and all that, but I'm skeptical.

Like yelich cain santana shaw you mean? Thames is a RHP only batter. Weird but too small sample to be real meaningful stat: The few times Thames actually got a start against LHP, he had a whopping 1.037 OPS against them. But figure in late inning relievers and LOOGYs and that plummets. He had no shot against lefty specialists.

And some on here think Braun is a 4th OF. He's arguably our best hitter. This is misleading. Anyone saying Braun is a 4th OFer here is basing it on the fact that we have Yelich, Cain, and Santana. And basing anything either way off a spring training game is downright silly.

Wild guess -- 15M signing bonus, base salaries of 3M, 4M, and 8M in the final year.

Yeah, that was over the course of about 13 years, though. I understand that TT did a few things that seemed to be outside of his normal comfort zone last year. I still don't think anyone would deny that over the course of his entire body of work, TT was extremely conservative and it does not appear that BG will be following in his footsteps in that regard. I think that's the main point being made.

Graham is a better redzone target and also as far as we know isn't a horrible person like Martellus. Just because we struck out with Bennett doesn't mean Graham will be the same. And Wilkerson has been a monster at his best. He has a ton of incentive to have a big rebound year. If he does, that defensive front will be scary good. If he doesn't, it's a 1 year deal. Nothing not to like there.

I don't really mind that we didn't bring back Walker, but I'm mildly annoyed we're paying $3M for Sogard and probably could have literally had Walker for another measly mil. Hopefully Villar has a great year and it's all a moot point.

Where does the narrative that he doesn't want to pitch in Milwaukee come from? I don't get that feeling at all. I might've opened that can of worms, albeit unintentionally. I finished my post prior to brewmann04's comment by saying this: Ultimately, if the Brewers don't add Cobb, while I'd be disappointed to some extent, I would still trust Stearns' judgement. It's also possible that Cobb's signing elsewhere could prove to be more of a reflection on Cobb than on the Brewers. As Tom Haudricourt quoted Doug Melvin after Darvish signed with the Cubs, free agents often know where they want to play. If Cobb chooses a different team, ultimately he's choosing that team over Milwaukee. It may not be that he doesn't want to pitch for the Brewers, but in the end he'd be proving that he wanted to pitch somewhere else more than Milwaukee, whatever the reason (or reason$$$) may be. Thus, it could potentially stand to reflect more on Cobb than the Brewers. .... Of course, all such speculation is moot if he signs here. This is why I don't understand when people say "Why didn't we match that offer?" when a player signs elsewhere. Who knows if we did? Other factors come into play in free agency, like proximity to home. Even if it's just aboit the money to a player, the same contract isn't the same amount everywhere. Example on Arrieta, Pennsylvania has a considerably lower state income tax rate than Wisconsin. So we'd have to offer him more just for him to collect the same amount he's collecting in Philly.

Yeah, I'm struggling to see why Braun plays over Santana when everyone is healthy. Neither of these guys is in there for defense. Offensively Santana was better in just about every statistical way last year. One guy is 25 with upside. One guy is 34 and his body is breaking down. You also lose the defensive benefit of having Yelich in LF by forcing him to RF just to accommodate Braun.

If they shared your view of Braun's value to the team, there is no way they'd be in the situation they're in now. None. Come back to me when he's fully healthy Fully healthy? I honestly don't expect him to be fully healthy the rest of his career. Or maybe he will be, but it will be for very short stretches at a time. Was he ever really 'fully' healthy last year? If so, how long did it last? Gamed played don't tell the full story the last few years. It doesn't tell us how much of that time was spent playing through one ailment or another that affected his performance. The point of whether or not Braun is still our best hitter when fully healthy is a pointless debate to have because he is not going to be. We'd all love to see Braun take 3 or 4 maintenence days a month, be fully healthy otherwise, start 140 games and give us a .925 OPS. But he's not, and we all know it. Ryan Braun is going to be dealing with nagging injuries the rest of his career.

No offense but a team record is just a really horrible way to measure a starter's value. With that said, I don't dispute that he was perfectly effective from 2012-15 and never had a FIP over 3.98 during that stretch. If that's the guy we get, that's obviously a heck of a bargain and a great #5. Perhaps DJ thinks that his problems are correctable and thinks he can be that guy again. We shall see.