adambr2

That's a terrible AB for Arcia. Didn't get a thing in the strike zone with the pitcher on deck and he should have known he wouldn't with a guy on 3rd. Good job Wily!

Nice to see Broxton with the good AB. Let's drive him in.

It was me. It's a horrible commercial. Whoever though of that idea, while getting the opportunity to use Uecker is a fool. Its tough to see him in that role, he's better than that. He's been endorsing Usingers for a long time which is fine but let's just stick to the radio for that.

Yeah it's Angel Hernandez and he's got a reputation for sure. Wainwright has gotten every borderline call. Peralta can't buy a call on the outside corner. At least be consistent.

Someone said recently that they need to burn that Usinger commercial, I have to agree. It's going to be a long year if we need to see a poor blindfolded Uecker continue to get sausage shoved in his face at every commercial break.

Angel Hernandez is horrible. Peralta csnt get a strike call on a pitch right down the middle and yet he rings up Shaw for Wainwright on a high pitch.

Uncharacteristic couple of swings at pitches out of the strike zone for Thames. Has to put together a couple of bad ABs this series because there's no telling how much whining the Cardinals will do after how much we heard out of Lackey and Bosio.

Holy cow do I love our catchers. How are they both this good?

I think this means Counsell meant what he said that they are going to be patient with Broxton. Still think its likely Phillips ends up as the direct replacement for Kirk, but there's no reason to burn service time of Brinson and Phillips this early in the season when it would likely cost a year of control.

It's been 42 ABs and he has 5 hits, last year he was 3 for his first 43. I'm high on Brinson and expect big things from him but 42 ABs is far too soon to write Broxton off. I mean it's possible he's a bust but far from certain yet. Besides I don't think he has enough of a sample size to get much in the winter for him anyway.

Agreed. Typically the GM of the Year and a playoff team go hand in hand, but there's precedent for winners who didn't. There's no way I can be convinced that if the Brewers win 84 games and miss the playoffs by 2 games, Stearns is not even in the discussion. I think most sports writers have a pretty decent grasp on what the expectations for the Brewers were heading into this year.

But there is something to be said for the loyalty of fans to particular players. For example, I predict Thames very quickly will become an immense, Prince-like favorite, and I think it's right to consider that when factoring in whether to trade him or any guy. The fan's connection, young or old, should be respected. Not to the extent of really hurting the team, but if they start dealing favorites and guys that are super-important to the team while they're still in contention, that can and should be a problem. I would argue that that's the human factor beyond sheer numbers. I don't have a problem with that to an extent, but you have to know where to draw the line in the sand. I think if you had taken a poll of most casual fans after 2011, they would have liked us to spend whatever we needed to to keep Prince Fielder. Prince was a fan favorite and many casual fans were devastated to see him go. But paying him would have been much more devastating in the long run.

I love the near even split of catcher playing time. Should prolong both their careers and keep them both effective late in seasons. Agreed. It's like what they did with Kirk, Broxton, and Santana last season. I know you're just baiting with the Kirk comparison , who isn't a part of our future, but it really is crucial for catchers, especially one like Pina who is a little older. It's rare to have two catchers similar in ability that you can split almost evenly, but I think it's a much better situation than having one clearly superior and one that is a defense only catcher but a liability at the plate, a situation that we've had often over the years and one that often leads to your top catcher getting worn down by September from overuse.

Fans do that. It's tough to stomach the JSOnline or Facebook comments sometimes because of the amount of facepalms you'll end up doing. I remember seeing some last year saying how crazy we were to trade Lucroy, and Stearns needed to be fired immediately, and we should just change our team name to the 'Milwaukee Prospects', and this and that. Moot point, we won't be in 1st place on July 31st anyway. Well okay, never say never but it would be a small miracle.

Absolutely. I found myself annoyed with losing Diaz, but frankly, the better our system gets, the more talent that there's going to be that we just don't have the room to protect. And that's a good thing. As far as Scooter, I really don't know why anyone is that upset over him, he's just an old school baseball player with an ok floor but no real ceiling. Frankly, I'm kind of glad to move on from a time when the Scooter Gennett's of the world are the best our system has to offer. Broxton and Villar could both turn out to be busts (I don't think they will, though), and they would still be good moves and dumping Scooter would still be the right one. Roster churning is going to churn out some duds from time to time. With that in mind the success rate Stearns has going on with his roster churning is outstanding. The rebuild is going as well as anyone could possibly ask for whether you're in the 'I want to get back to winning now ' or in the 'We need to be as patient as needed with this rebuild' crowd.

First off -- I know, no one is winning any annual awards in April. Lots of things can still happen. But this is a message board, and it's a topic of discussion, so I think if you look around the league and see what moves are shining the brightest right now, Stearns is your guy. Thames alone is looking like someone who could net the award for Stearns. He won't continue his torrid pace, but I think it's already obvious he represents an upgrade from Carter, while even costing less. A move that was questioned around baseball is now looking like the obvious right call. Shaw looks like a perfect fit here, and looks like a guy who may have been improperly valued in Boston. His lefty power bat is a great complement to a righty heavy lineup and plays very well at Miller Park. Thornburg is missed, but if Shaw turns into a 2.5-3 WAR or better 3rd baseman, it's obviously the right call for a reliever, without even considering what Dubon or Pennington turn into. Don't forget about Bandy, who was acquired for Martin Maldonado and a AAA filler arm. Is Bandy going to fall off some? Of course he is, but the fact that it looks like we have a very solid catching duo going forward, both acquired for virtually nothing, is remarkable. If you had told me after Lucroy was traded last year that he wouldn't be missed much this year, I would have thought that was crazy. But so far, it's true - He just hasn't been. Also, consider the cost value of Stearns' moves. Look at every guy I just referenced -- Shaw, Thames, Bandy, Pina...throw in Villar, Broxton, Guerra, all Stearns' guys. Add them all up. You still aren't even at $10M in annual salary combined. That's remarkable. Teams pay 8 figures a year in free agency to get a player that can give them average production. These guys were acquired for, in most cases, peanuts. Finally, sometimes the best moves are the moves you don't make. While it was obvious that we were motivated to move Braun, and many, including myself, wanted to see something done while the opportunity was there to sell high, Stearns held his ground, set his price, and didn't deviate from it despite the temptation to move on it now. So far, that move, or lack thereof, is paying off. It still remains to be seen if Braun is moved, but everything that has happened so far this year, both with Braun and with the team, has given Stearns more leverage to dig in his heels to say, 'Meet our price, or forget about it.' Before someone mentions Khris Davis or Jacob Nottinghamm, let me state the obvious -- no GM is going to hit on 100% of their moves, nor should we expect them to. I think the fact that you really have to scratch your head to come up with another move that didn't at least pan out to neutral is quite telling. You could even point to Jean Segura's breakout season last year after being traded, and Stearns still comes out smelling fine for netting the #65 overall prospect in baseball and a controllable #3-#4 starter in the deal. So to sum it up, I think Stearns is killing it. And I say that with the full realization that it's still very early and there's a chance that some of these moves won't look as good at the end of the season (though they're almost all so low risk that it still wouldn't hurt). I think it's already pretty clear he knows what he's doing, and I'm glad he's leading the rebuild here. We're an up and coming team at the MLB level while also having one of the top farms in baseball. That's a far cry from where we were a few years ago.

The Brewers control Thames for a maximum of 4 seasons including this one. He has base salaries of 4,5, and 6M each respectively in 2017, 18, and 19, and then a team option for 2020 which can be exercised by the Brewers for $7.5M or bought out for $1M.

Consider it defaced. Replace the face with Peter Griffin. Or Eric Cartman.

I love the near even split of catcher playing time. Should prolong both their careers and keep them both effective late in seasons.

I am thinking 4 years of Bandy and Pina and by then Feliciano should be ready. Sounds good to me.

Nice work Drake.

Not a particularly easy play for Santana but one he should have made.

I was going to say it looks like he wears a Dollar Tree mop on his head.

That needs to be 2.

I know he started off last year badly too, but I really don't have much confidence that Davies will be any good this year.