adambr2

That works both ways, Brew. They picked up guys like Drake for a reason. What if you quit on him too quickly (such as Brandon Kintzler) and he goes on to have a very successful season elsewhere?

I gave you multiple examples of ways in which they've tried to improve the pen just since Spring Training. They signed Hughes, they traded for Drake. They had a short leash with Feliz and a short one with Marinez. They converted Peralta to a reliever. They called up Suter and Scahill at various points. All within a span of 2 months. How is this not trying? Just because what they've tried hasn't worked to this point doesn't mean they haven't tried. Again, what would your specific moves be right now that you think would improve the pen? Get rid of Drake, Scahill, Hughes and bring up any of the following: Tristan Archer, Andrew Barbosa, Wang, Aaron Wilkerson, Matt Ramsey, Espino, Blazek to name a few. Hell, go pick up Joba again. He can't be any worse. I would then tell Feliz and Torres that they are at their last chance. They either start getting outs or they to will be on the waiver wire. Enough is enough with accepting just plain crap from these so called major league players. Spin the cycle til you find some players who are worth a damn. Ok, but do you see the problem here? This is just change for the sake of change. You brought up a suggestion of Joba, who currently doesn't even have a job in baseball, and you're expecting improvement from that? You're pretty much just throwing a bunch more crap at the wall and seeing what sticks. They've already been doing that, just with Drake and Hughes and Scahill and Peralta instead of the guys you listed . There is nothing about the list you gave that inspires any confidence that they'll be better. We had this same problem last year with Blazek . If you want to bring up him and Wang, fine, but you can't just cut bait with these guys after 2 or 3 bad outings, cycle into the next batch, and expect things to get better. Internally I can think of about 2 or 3 guys that they could realistically promote to the pen and have high hopes that they may have an instant impact: Hader and Taylor Williams. Maybe Lopez if he ever gets his act together. So if you want to give these guys a shot in the MLB pen, I can get on board. Anything else is really just churning through the crap and hoping some of it will stick.

I agree and have no problem with giving guys shots internally to try to improve the status quo. I just think the second guessing of the off-season bullpen moves is silly. Most thought Feliz was worth a shot. Flyers like Joba made sense. They did their due diligence on waivers and scooped up Hughes and traded for Drake. They've been trying and all moves pretty much made sense for where we were at. Now people want to go back to the winter and retroactively sign Kenley Jansen just because we're still contending in early June when a move like that would have looked like Stearns was losing his marbles at the time.

Well, they thought Feliz was going to be a decent arm. Kintzler for 3M would have been great if they had a crystal ball, but they don't . That's the nature of 2nd and 3rd tier relievers, a lot of volitality, they took a shot on Feliz and missed. It happens. There's no magic fix for it now. And we did show interest in Greg Holland. He's going to have a 16M player option in Colorado next year, which is understandably why we didn't get too far in negotiations with him. The Cubs gave up a former top 10 prospect for a year of Wade Davis. You would have given up Brinson or an equivalent prospect to rent Wade Davis in a rebuilding year? Or pay $10M+ for one going into a year we expected to rebuild? Come on now. So much hindsight going on. No one was touting those kinds of moves in December .

I gave you multiple examples of ways in which they've tried to improve the pen just since Spring Training. They signed Hughes, they traded for Drake. They had a short leash with Feliz and a short one with Marinez. They converted Peralta to a reliever. They called up Suter and Scahill at various points. All within a span of 2 months. How is this not trying? Just because what they've tried hasn't worked to this point doesn't mean they haven't tried. Again, what would your specific moves be right now that you think would improve the pen?

Yeah I think this makes it obvious they are just waiting and seeing with Garza and if he has to miss a start he'll go to the DL and Espino will come up.

This. Perez is exactly who he was last year. Does some things very well, streaky, can play anywhere, still can't get on base. He's not a guy you want to find an every day position for because he would lose a lot of value that way.

I probably wouldn't have projected a trade like this two days ago. But Phillips getting promoted ahead of Cordell, despite the fact that Cordell is over 2 years older than Phillips, makes me really question how valuable Stearns sees Cordell as a future major league piece (and I am aware of the lefty bat versus righty bat aspect). Pretty much everyone would have Cordell ranked as the Brewer's fifth best outfield prospect and with Santana and Brinson already producing as major leaguers, it doesn't bode that well for a 25 year old stuck in AAA. Williams is already 25 years old and missed two seasons with a major elbow injury. Over two full years since the injury and I believe the max number of pitches in any outing this season is 57. And Williams was never a top-of-the-line prospect even prior to the injury. In Baseball America's 2015 Handbook Williams was ranked #7 (in an organization that was ranked #21) and the key sentence in the write-up states that due to Williams' lack of size many scouts see him as a reliever but the Brewers think he can be a starter because of his command. A move like this is hardly like giving away the farm. On most expert's top 30 list Cordell would rank in the 13-15 area and maybe Williams cracks the bottom. If things go south for Milwaukee, barring injury Wilson would be a pretty easy flip next off-season and likely would bring back the equivalent of Cordell. He's a 95 MPH lefty with a solid MLB track record. Brewer fans see Stearns making an effort to help what is emerging as the weakest part of the team and Counsell gets a proven MLB lefty to work with. Phillips is likely a short term promotion and a lefty bat made more sense. I don't think there is anything there whatsoever to read into as far as what we think of Cordell. Williams' prospect ranking is of little concern -- relievers tend to not get much prospect love, which I think the rankings are typically seeing him as. Williams may have the best arm in the system and Ryan Braun has even been quoted as saying that. He has been very good so far this season being eased back in from injury. The fact that we weren't willing to risk losing Williams in the Rule 5 and added him to the 40 despite never pitching above High A before this season says a lot about what we think about him

I hear this sentiment but I rarely hear any explanations for what should have been done. They went out and signed Feliz, hasn't worked out. The trades we made when we traded our relievers I think most of us agree were good ones. So short of making bad expensive trades or throwing a lot of money around at free agent relievers, for a team that was expected to be in a rebuilding mode this year, I don't know what else he should have done. They went out and took flyers on Hughes and Drake, who haven't been highly successful, but they are making moves and trying. They DFAed Marinez. They moved Peralta to the pen to try to help shore it up. Do you really think guys like Cravy, Goforth and Blazek are going to make any significant difference? So in short, yeah, the pen stinks, but I'm not sure what exactly we're hoping from on Stearns' part that he hasn't yet done. Selling off major pieces like Brinson or Ray for relief pitching would be a shortsighted mistake. They have some internal options that could end up helping this year like Hader and Taylor Williams, but they're not going to start pushing those chips in the pot in early June just because they're sitting at 2 games over .500.

It depended who was pitching. It was not so tight of a zone when Samardzija was on the mound .

So you think there's zero chance he'll join the Brewer bullpen this season?

Maybe we can go with an 8 man piggyback staff and 4 man pen to avoid this crappy bullpen altogether. Nelson/Davies Anderson/Woodruff Guerra/Blazek Garza/Espino Knebel, Barnes, and Hader are the only ones to throw crucial innings. Scahill or Peralta gets mop up and extra innings. I'm kidding. Mostly.

First place no more, Cubs are percentage points ahead.

Just because they shot it down doesn't mean it's not true. He's thrown 2 innings his last 2 outings, his family was interviewed and said they're trying him out in the pen. Managing his innings in June by having him make 2 inning starts all of the sudden doesn't make much sense to me. If they really aren't concerned about him going to the MLB pen and just want to develop him as a starter they'd be trying to build his innings up, not reduce them. I guess people are going to draw their own conclusions but the writing seems to be on the wall to me.

I wish I could get paid $6 million dollars this year to suck at baseball .

Yeah that's not on Phillips. He called Santana off early.

Ball 1 and 2 were both strikes, for what it's worth. Which is: not a damn thing, with this umpire.

Santana's consistency gets maddening. He'll put together some amazing ABs at times and other times just looks lost up there. That was not a good AB.

I'm no Bryce Harper fan, but Hunter Strickland is a tool. 'Hey, last time I faced you I couldn't get you out, so now I'm going to throw the ball at you.'

Kind of changes the game when guys start having to swing 3-4 inches off the corner knowing they'll get called out if they don't. I also get a kick out of the logic that as long as it's consistent, it's all good. Yeah, consistent is still better than inconsistent, but a couple inches off the plate is still by definition a 'ball' no matter how consistent you want to be about it.

Thanks for nothing, Aguilar.

Maybe some day they'll have the technology to come up with a better way to do it than letting egotistical old men with bad vision make arbitrary determinations on balls and strikes.

I didn't see the one with Posey, but I did see the one on Hill that was clearly a strike. Sure is frustrating. The one to Posey was even better. This guy doesn't belong in the position that he's in.

Well, that'll probably do it. Against Aaron Hill of all people. Nice work Scahill . This umpire is mind boggling atrocious calling balls and strikes.