adambr2

I don't think anyone is trying to say we need to go sign an ace in FA. The question was more: If we don't develop one and the time comes to compete would it be feasible to go and sign one? Right. I agree with the all avenues, all the time, point, but this is one of the avenues. Just because teams have shown it can be done without a surefire ace, doesn't mean it's not a lot easier when you have that ace. Obviously, the timing, situation, and market have to all be right, and even then, you're likely going to end up with some bad looking money at the back end of the deal.

For the rotation, you are right. Suter, Woodruff, Hader, Wang, Bickford, Ortiz, Perrin, and even the two Jorges (Lopez and Ortega) all deserve a shot. But for the bullpen, though, Morton's GB/FB and GO/FO ratios are very intriguing. Having a "ground ball" specialist in the pen could be very useful. The problem with that is, Morton's market will be based on him being a starter. I don't know exactly what that will be, but in a weak starting pitcher FA class, I'd guess it'll be at least 6-7M a year if not more. No way are we paying Morton 6-7M a season to be a middle relief groundball specialist.

"He was booked at 5 a.m. and remained in jail at 8 a.m., held on $500 bond." I realize his MLB earnings aren't exactly astronomical so far compared to his peers, but c'mon, him or his agent still hadn't come up with 500 bucks 3 hours after his arrest?

Am I just remembering it in a poor light because it was our manager, or was Ron Roenicke completely in over his head managing us in the playoffs? After seeing the constant strategy not only in the WS but throughout the playoffs, when everything is different and every decision made to gain every possible means possible to continue to survive, it feels now like TLR managed circles around Roenicke in the NLCS.

I just don't really see the point. Morton seems like exactly the kind of guy that we would be looking to sell right now if he was here on a 2 year contract. If we were on the brink of contention and needed to plug a rotation hole, then sure, makes sense. But right now? We've got numerous arms that may be part of a future contending rotation and I'd much rather spend the next year or two auditioning them.

Let me preface this by saying I'm a big advocate of the rebuild that we've undertaken. I also certainly understand the constraints brought on by being in a small market. With that said, we know as Brewer fans how difficult it is to develop ace pitchers. Which is why it's so extremely rare that one becomes available in free agency. I often hear that we can't follow the Cubs rebuild plan, because we can't buy aces the way they can. However, is this necessarily true? A 30M contract isn't unaffordable for this organization, it's simply a matter of how you want to allocate your resources. Consider that particularly if Braun is traded, the budget constraints on the Brewers after 2017 range somewhere between small and nonexistent. While the payroll has been low, a contending Brewer team under Mark A certainly has the flexibility for a 9 figure budget, I'd guess somewhere in the neighborhood of 110M. The Brewers should have a pretty good idea after 2017 about whether or not they're ready to contend in 2018, or if they're still a couple years away. Imagine, for example, if Jake Arrieta hits free agency in 2018 as he would right now. The Cubs no doubt have future budget constraints, and Arrieta said there will be no hometown discount. Imagine if the final step before contention in the rebuild is acquiring such a piece, and the buzz and excitement created not only by doing so, but by stealing that piece from a huge division rival. No doubt such a player would be tremendously marketable and possibly result in a spike in attendance, and unlike Sabathia and Greinke, would not cost us a king's random in prospects for a short term solution. While I don't think it's unfeasible given our current budget, the only question is whether or not it would be unwise. We've shown a willingness in the past to spend on average pitching, but even the price on that is around $15M a year or so these days. Would you rather have two such pitchers, or one ace for $30M a year? At this point, I'd certainly opt for the latter. Any rotation problems in the near future don't project from being from a lack of depth, but rather from a lack of a surefire ace at the top. The flip side, of course, is that such a contract for a pitcher in his 30s nearly guarantees you dead weight at the back end of the contract. I have little doubt Arrieta will be easily worth 30M a year in 2018 and even 2019 -- after that, it may get dicey. But I'd also argue that if the reward is several years of a top end contender in Milwaukee, and finally bringing a World Series to the city, most would agree that the sacrifice was worth it. Of course, there's tremendous risk in such a move too - just ask the Diamondbacks. I have no definite opinion on something like this one way or another, but too often because of our market size I think we resign ourselves to an acceptance that we are not in play for such prize free agents. I don't think we should do that, and I think in the near future there's a lot to sell a player on here as we continue to improve this team to a contender, especially if we can sell him on the idea that he's the one to push us over the top. Regardless, I'm of the opinion that all avenues and ideas to improving this franchise should be considered, even if involves nothing more than kicking the tires and finding out that the market is just too much to throw our hat in the ring.

Shouldn't it actually be 2020, though?

I'd sooner try Villar at catcher.

Speaking of Lopez, anyone have any hope for him going forward? I'm excited about the possibility of a rotation with Hader, Ortiz, and Woodruff by mid-2018. Bickford deserves to be in that discussion too, but I think he'll eventually wind up in the pen. Which is fine when you have top end closer stuff.

Is Wily Peralta under club control through 2018, or 2019? Every reference I can find seems to indicate 2018, but based on his service time and long stint in the minors this year I tend to think he is actually likely to be arbitration controlled by the Brewers in 2019, but I may be mistaken.

I was more or was indifferent to the result of the World Series. I was just ready to move on to the offseason to start seeing Brewer news again.

I really don't understand why some people are down on Brinson or dislike him as a prospect. He has all the tools you could ask for. Good power, average, OBP, speed, and an elite glove. Nothing not to like. I think he'll have the kind of quality defense in CF that we hope to have at SS with Arcia, only with a better bat. No shame in Brinson as your top organizational prospect.

Here's the glass half full side of it: As disappointing as it was to see Liriano's season ended before it started because of injury (which we'd certainly wish on no one), it's entirely possible that we'd never have stuck with Broxton long enough to see his 2nd half run. If Liriano had looked like an even halfway decent CF option, I think Broxton would likely have been DFA'ed by the AS break.

Brewcrewball.Com is a great source for Brewer talk, and here, of course. Here is a link to the top 30 Brewer prospects. Louis also posted this above http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2016?list=mil Most experts consider our list of prospects to be among the best, if not the best in all of baseball. I'm not an expert on the draft, so I won't get into slot values and how that all works, but I'll just say there's many rounds in the draft, most of which won't produce future big league players, but we have the overall #9 pick in next year's draft, which should be high enough to add another top 100 prospect in all of baseball. Some of these guys, like Brinson and Hader, at the AAA level, should be playing for the Brewers in the next year. There's so many different types and organizations of minor league ball, but for the basics, you've got Rookie ball in Helena, the A team in Appleton, High A in Carolina, AA in Biloxi, and the highest minor league team in our system is the AAA team in Colorado Springs. Arcia is our young hopeful star shortstop, he'd probably be at the top of our prospect list if he hadn't been promoted up to the Brewers already this season. Jonathan Villar and Keon Broxton are also young players that may have very bright futures. Villar actually led MLB in stolen bases this year and nearly became the first 20 HR/60 SB player since Rickey Henderson, finishing with 19 HR. Broxton, after looking like he had no future in MLB in the first half, surged with a fatastic 2nd half displaying power, speed, and defense, before breaking his wrist on the Wrigley Field wall in September. Ryan Braun has long been our best player, but he may be traded soon as the team continues to rebuild. The team should be a lot of fun to watch in the near future with all the young talent, but probably won't be a playoff contender for a couple of years yet. Hope this all helps.

I remember saying when Cubs fans were stuffing the AS ballot boxes to get all their own players in over some more deserving candidates, that they were going to end up losing the All-Star game and in turn costing themselves a World Series. If the home team in this series wins out and brings some truth to this, I would find that pretty hilarious.

Is there really any evidence that this holds true, though? I'm not saying you're wrong, but it seems to me the Cubs have a lineup full of pretty good, professional hitters - they had the second highest OBP in baseball. Basically what I'm wondering is if there is any real statistical evidence that players along the same lines of Khris Davis and Chris Carter will struggle against elite pitching to more of an extent than any other typical hitter? If anything, I would think that against elite pitching, you might be better off with a guy that will make contact on 1 out of 10 pitches, but hit that one a long way, than you would trying to string together something with a bunch of small ball players.

I'm totally with you on the first paragraph. Braun has had a great year, so much so that people completely forgot how untradeable he seemed coming into the year. On the 2nd...I couldn't pass on a Deleon. Sounds like you're looking for 5 Gilbert Lara types, I'm not sure how many systems have 5 of those types. I'd also rather use my best trade assets for (fairly) sure things and save the lottery tickets for lesser trade bait.

Because he's 25, has more raw talent than anyone on our roster, and was one of the best players in MLB at an age when most players haven't even hit Double A. I do get why people are scared off by his immaturity concerns, but especially given where we are at right now as a franchise, it shouldn't be hard to see why people are intrigued by the idea IMO.

It's all just speculation, but from what I heard we preferred Brinson over Gallo and weren't really enamored with Gallo as a prospect at all.

Very tough calls. I'd protect Villar, Broxton, Guerra, Davies, Thornburg, Arcia, Brinson, Hader, Ortiz, and Diaz for sure. With a gun to my head, my last 5 would probably be Woodruff, Santana, Phillips, Diplan, and Susac. I would not protect Braun. Given that he cleared waivers in August it does not seem that teams are generally interested in his contract and I think that would definitely be true of an expansion team rebuilding off the bat.

Diaz 1 for 3 with a big fly.

No matter how much evidence that there is that a runner on 2nd, 1 out, actually gives you less of a chance of scoring than a runner on 1st, 0 out, managers refuse to believe it.

Yeah, I don't know what the point would be for the team though then, no reason to make a QO to anyone if there's no compensation if they decline. Maybe they could just award the team a 'sandwich' pick after the first round without actually taking a pick from the signing team. Or protect all 1st round picks. I don't think a 2nd round pick will scare off many teams from signing a QO player.

Does anyone think there will be significant changes under the new CBA? I certainly hope the competitive balance lottery maintains as is. I think most can agree that an international draft would be fantastic. On the negative side (for us), I can't help but wonder if something will be put in place to prevent teams from manipulating service time with minor league assignments to keep salaries low or buy an extra year of service time, and how and if that would be applied retroactively. I know the MLBPA is pretty unsatisfied with the current system.

The good news is, this isn't usually an injury with lingering affects after surgery once recovery is complete. Without knowing more than what is in that article I would guess he'll be fine by spring.