adambr2

Yeah I think it's entirely possible that Gallo, Mazara and Brinson are all off the table for Lucroy. That said we shouldn't deal with them without one of them.

IMO there is no way the Rangers are giving us 3 top 15s for Lucroy. If we got 1 plus Tate or Ortiz I'd be thrilled.

He wasn't good in his major league trial last year. 1 HR and 39 K's and a .555 OPS in 109 ABs? That after more than 3,000 minor league ABs? Figuring SD might feel he's hit a wall in his development. Dealing Davis to make room for that would be rather foolish. He's far from a finished product, doesn't have the power to project as a regular corner OF and is questionable defensively in CF. Lots of red flags here. The list of players who weren't good in their first 109 AB major league trial are long. That's not a concern for us at all as we have plenty of time to give him a lot more of a trial than that.

Anyone remember Cappy's lone MLB homerun? June of 2007 against the Marlins I believe. Opposite field at MP. Just a weird one that somehow just kept carrying and carrying. I remember listening to Ueck who was so caught off guard by what he thought was a routine fly off the bat that he didn't even do his signature homerun call.

Ouch, 21? Figured we had already turned it around a little more than that.

I'm not making a big deal out of Lucroy's comments, but his trade value improves because he said he wants to try to help a club win a World Series? That...seems like a big stretch to me.

The player wanting out puts pressure on the team to deal him. Anecdotallly speaking, plenty of mentally dissatisfied players throughout MLB history have had sub-par seasons. If Lucroy doesn't play well in 2016, that hurts his trade value. As you are well aware, this isn't Strat-O-Matic and these players don't exist in a vacuum. Yes, Lucroy is a professional and I would hope he is working out like crazy getting ready for the 2016 season, but as I said, this could "potentially" hurt his trade value. This puts Stearns in a bad spot. The player wants out. Stearns might be forced now to accept a lesser deal, or keep Lucroy and risk him having a subpar year and get labelled an attitude risk. As it I have to bet that plenty of MLB GM's are wondering if Lucroy is going to run his mouth in the press when he's on their team, too. "If I stay with the Brewers, I'm not going to go out and dog it," he said. "I'm not going to be a bad teammate. I'm not going to be a bad clubhouse guy. I'm not going to be bitter. It's just part of the game. "Right now, I'm planning on being with the Brewers. I'm not going to think anything different until something happens. It might and it might not. No one knows. I'm going to go out every day and compete with whatever team I'm with." How do you get out of this statement that Lucroy wants out to the point of Stearns' hand being forced?

I would never chant such a thing at a high school kid either, but to me it's not about that. High school is about preparing children to enter the real world as adults. Part of that real world experience is learning to cope with adversity and criticism. Which many children are ill-prepared to do these days, unfortunately.

I don't remember the exact date, but I was at an '08 game against the Pirates in late September at home in the thick of the playoff race. Prince walked it off with a HR in I want to say the 11th or 12th inning. That was a great moment.

The Brewers are rebuilding, the Bucks aren't nearly as good as expected, the Badgers basketball team are no longer contenders, and even our steady as can be Packers no longer appear to be among the elite. Cheer me up. Any light at the end of this tunnel?

Though most of us were happy to see the Brewer organization finally head in this direction, I'd like to acknowledge what we accomplished as an organization in the first era of contention for a very long time; for the purposes of this I'll call that era 2007-2014. Some of my favorite moments from this era. - Watching the confetti fly at home as the Brewers clinched a playoff berth in 2008 on the final day of the season. Winning the division was a greater accomplishment, but clinching a playoff berth, after years of futility, was a special moment. - Trading for CC Sabathia. I'd put this one a cut above the Greinke trade because of how it put us on the maps as contenders. - Clinching the division, obviously. Best accomplishment since '82. - Gallardo returns late in the season from May ACL tear. This IMO is a very underrated one. I don't think most people fully appreciate how miraculous of a recovery this was by Yo to somehow come back later on in the season in time for the playoffs. - Beating Arizona in the NLDS. Uek's call on the clinching walkoff single by Nyjer to score Gomez was probably the most epic call of the last era for this team. Sure, there have been some dark moments, some blown opportunities and more accomplished teams that would turn their noses up at this list. But for our fanbase who had come to know no excitement from watching Brewer baseball as we sat through the 90s and early 00's, this was an important time in making Brewer baseball popular in Milwaukee once again and bringing the culture forward from the Selig years. Honorable mentions: Prince hits 50, Braun debut, Braun MVP, Bush wins first playoff game for Brewers since '82, Hoffman saves 600

As the organization has been upfront about, this is a process that is going to take time. I don't think they are waiting for 2017 and I don't think they are waiting for 2021. Mark A specifically said there, I believe, that there is no time frame for this. There are going to be so many moving parts in the organization the next few years and they can't and shouldn't rush the process for the sake of their top prospects now. That goes against everything we've been trying to change here. Also, if they are contenders again in 2019 and Arcia and Phillips are their best guys and both have 3 years before they hit free agency, I fail to see how that's a bad thing. One thing this approach will help with now is being able to keep those top guys. If you want to enjoy the Brewers in 2016, avoid looking at the W/L record all year completely. It has nothing to do with whether or not they lose 100 games. Right now, it's all about talent accumulation. Nothing else. Goal is to find those guys who are going to be part of the next winning team in Milwailee.

Yes we will I think most of us were anticipating, even hoping for this.

Frankly, these guys are all dart throws, and there's a fair chance that none will ever contribute at the MLB level. With that said, I like the approach, I'm glad we're sacrificing MLB ready for upside and focusing more on the long-term than looking at the next 2-3 year 'window.' Assuming we're no longer on the hook for any of Lind's 8M this year, I'm satisfied with the return for Lind who I never expected to bring a substantial haul anyway.

When was he offered this extension? To my knowledge the Brewers haven't and aren't planning on extending him at market value despite Lucroy's rumored interests last spring.

In a rebuild, what Veteran A does right now is irrelevant. You have to try to predict what they'll be doing at the end of the rebuild, and when that will be. In Lind's case, I would guess that will be about 3 years and not much better than most of the recent fill in 1B that we've had here. Rebuilding isn't about making sure holes are filled today. If you're extending your most pricey vets out of fear of having a hole at that position, not only will you likely end up with a hole as the player ages, but an unnecessarily expensive one.

Despite cracking the top 100 at one time, Sardinas always projected a lot more like Cesar Izturis than any good MLB shortstop. I wasn't crazy about it when we acquired him, and I'm not sorry to see him go.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/russell-branyan-arrested-for-alleged-burglary-of-ex-wife-s-home-054321576.html It's bad enough to steal, but I had no idea he was enough of a monster to crank down the thermostat.

I don't know. K Rod was looking great around the deadline, and it made all the sense in the world to move him. I have to think that that was at least part of the reason that we didn't get any acceptable offers.

It doesn't make a difference if the fans know. It matters if the GMs know, and there are 30 of them that do.

Because people realize that Ray Rice and KRod are two completely different situations and I highly doubt any MLB GM has reservations over acquiring him because of it. K-Rod beat up his ex's old man enough to put him in the hospital. Then his girlfriend d said he hit her in the head, grabbed her by the hair and threw her, kicked her several times, and then dragged her out to their car. How is that a completely different situation? Also, I would say that the fact that we were unable to get a good enough return for K-Rod by the deadline despite a very good statistical season is a pretty good indication that there are indeed MLB GMs with reservations about acquiring him because of it.

Totally agree with the last 2 posters. Sorry, no, it doesn't matter who catches for us in a rebuild. Lucroy will be somewhere in the 32-35 range with a ton of wear on him by the time we are contending again. It's not worth paying market value to buy out those years now on the hopes that he will defy father time, simply to have a familiar catcher for our new pitchers to grow with (who will be gone by the time they hit their prime anyway). The key virtue in a rebuild is patience, extending Lucroy now seems more like a panic move based on fear of the unknown. We've got years to figure out who the future is behind the plate. Just because we don't have the answer right now shouldn't cause us to deviate from the actions we need to take to put us back in position to build a long term winner. Not only that, but we also give up our most valuable trade chip for young pieces we desperately need. We should be looking to get younger, not looking to build around existing vets. We're already committed to Braun through 2020, that's done and there's nothing we can do about that now. If nothing else, we already have a veteran for the rebuild with him. Let's not compound it by adding another big contract to it. Starting out our rebuild by building up our commitment to a pair of vets in their mid 30s in a few years to 30-40M a year just between the two of them seems like a really bad way to start a rebuild.

http://www.brewcrewball.com/2015/10/26/9614402/report-brewers-willing-to-listen-to-offers-on-anybody I don't see any indication that a Lucroy extension is being considered at all. I think he's far more likely to be traded than extended. Also I think the Cubs and Astros deserve more than an aside mention. Many would agree that these teams probably top the list of all MLB for teams set up to win the next 5+ years. It would not be unwise for us to follow their model.

Given that we are in the very early stages of a rebuild, I really will be disappointed if our new GMs #1 priority is a market extension for a 29 year old catcher who still has 2 years left on his contact. We have no idea what our farm system will look like in 3 years as far as catching prospects. We need to do what the Cubs did and worry about getting younger and stockpiling talent for the future. We do that, and everything else will take care of itself. We shouldn't be making our first priority in the new regime handing out big money to an existing vet just out of fear in 2015 of what the catching position will look like in 2018. And no, assuming Lucroy won't get an extension now since he didn't get one last year isn't silly at all, given 1) He inquired to the Brewers about an extension after 2014 2) They weren't interested 3) He was coming off a much better year 4) They weren't rebuilding either

I don't think an extension for Lucroy is in the cards or in the best interests of the club. If it was, they likely would have done it after 2014 when he inquired about it. Most likely he'll be moving on. Maybe not this winter, but eventually. I'm not sure that any of the guys you described as trade assets are worth what you believe they may be. Garza is not a trade asset, Garza is a liability. He's not going anywhere barring eating a substantial amount of future salary or a bad contract for bad contract deal. You'd think K Rod would be, but the fact that we didn't unload him in July is a pretty likely indicator that teams just aren't really buying into him or are too scared off by his domestic history. Davis,...maybe. He's cost controlled and fairly productive. But I don't know that he brings back more than a top 75-100. Lind is another interesting one, and another that you have to somewhat think we would have traded in July if teams were offering anything close to what we hoped.