adambr2

Didn't really answer the question- what would you have done this offseason to 'fix' the offense? I mean I was replying to others as I didn't know you were addressing me but I've stated what I would have done in numerous threads. I would have gotten involved in the trade market for Arenado or at least attempted to. I also liked Brad Miller as a guy that could have been a cheap improvement over what we usually trot out from the bench.

Wong has a 98 OPS + this year and his career OPS + is 95. He is performing exactly as expected, no more and no less. People aren't saying that Wong's bat is bad or saying that Wong was a bad signing. It is an average bat and will likely continue to be an exactly average bat. Therein lies the problem -- an exactly average bat is one of the best bats in our regular lineup. Bradley on the other hand is nowhere near the "average" bat that we need him to be.

My oldest turned 12 May 4, and he's said from the beginning that he wants to get vaccinated as soon as he is able to. He goes in for his first shot at 7:30 a.m. next Tuesday. My 16 year old is totally against it. Sucks, but I'm not going to force him. At that age, their opinions are solely based on the input of their friend base, I'm afraid.

Expecting these guys to all just deviate to their career norms probably isn't realistic. You are talking 3 out of 4 guys in their 30s and no longer in the primes of their careers. Cain might genuinely be washed up. It was 2 calendar years for him. Bradley isn't this bad and won't finish this bad offensively, but he still looks like a poor signing. I would guess he'll finish closer to his career norms than what he is right now but probably still comfortably below. He's dug himself a pretty big hole. Vogelbach is whatever. He's a far below average bat for the 1B position. He could finish at his current OPS of .678 and it shouldn't be that surprising if he did to anyone. Or he'll finish around his career mark of .735. It doesn't make much difference. He's just not very good. Shaw was an awesome player in '17 and '18. It is now '21 and he looks pretty washed up relative to what he was then. He hasn't approached his career averages since '18 and isn't going to this year. If he could maintain his current. 722 OPS/98 OPS+, that is probably about the best we can hope for from him. He simply isn't a .770 OPS player anymore. Shaw was signed to a minors deal, and was expected to be a platoon player. I don't think anyone was expecting an .OPS of near .800. If he can keep his .OPS above .700, and continue to play his solid defense, I have no problem with him. I figured his ceiling was probably a .750 OPS, so he's perhaps a tad below expectations, but has also had a mess of clutch moments so far that help his overall narrative. Bradley Jr. has scuffled. But writing him off as a poor signing based on 120 ABs seems premature too. If he is still struggling once we get into June, then we can talk. Bradley Jr. could get on base 35 of his next 100 PAs and he would still have an OBP under. 285. He's been that bad. We're just over 2 weeks away from June. If it looks like a bad signing now I wouldn't find it likely to look like a good one in 2 and a half weeks.

Expecting these guys to all just deviate to their career norms probably isn't realistic. You are talking 3 out of 4 guys in their 30s and no longer in the primes of their careers. Cain might genuinely be washed up. It was 2 calendar years for him. Bradley isn't this bad and won't finish this bad offensively, but he still looks like a poor signing. I would guess he'll finish closer to his career norms than what he is right now but probably still comfortably below. He's dug himself a pretty big hole. Vogelbach is whatever. He's a far below average bat for the 1B position. He could finish at his current OPS of .678 and it shouldn't be that surprising if he did to anyone. Or he'll finish around his career mark of .735. It doesn't make much difference. He's just not very good. Shaw was an awesome player in '17 and '18. It is now '21 and he looks pretty washed up relative to what he was then. He hasn't approached his career averages since '18 and isn't going to this year. If he could maintain his current. 722 OPS/98 OPS+, that is probably about the best we can hope for from him. He simply isn't a .770 OPS player anymore.

Heck, Hiura for Urias/Lauer would have sounded pretty bad at the time but not so bad now.

The "no space for him" argument is maddening. We literally went out and gave up 4 prospects for Christian Yelich and 70M for Lorenzo Cain at a time when we only had room for 1 starting outfielder, and then turned around and paid Avi and Bradley Jr. both 8 figure a year contracts. I'm quite confident that the 2020 and 2021 Brewers would have found a way to get Grisham a few ABs and innings in the field.

One team has a Brice Turang future SS with 2years of Orlando Arcia the other has Fernando Tatis Jr, waiting to play SS. Milw had Cain, Yelich for 4more seasons and like I mentioned Tristan Lutz a 1st rd selection about to play AA for 2020. Reminder that in getting Lauer at that time, Burnes had just pitched one of the worst SP seasons ever, as well as Milw's MiLB pitcher of the yr 2018 Zack Brown. Lauer was coming off near 150IP, the kind of cheap controlled SP who could pitch a near full season's workload. The youth on the SP staff could not be counted for that. Davies was about to get 5-6mil a year for what he'd done but he just seemed to be a guy when he lost it it was going to bebig drop in performance. I think he out-priced himself and being able to move him for value before Arb made him needing to continue pitching as well as he'd been just to be of salary value. Lauer saved 5mil to use elsewhere. The trade made sense, still does. Brewers have 2 ML starting players to show for it,1 with upside to extend in the future. Just because the trade made sense at the time does not mean that it was not a bad trade. I think every trade executed in MLB history made sense at the time to the GM that made it, other than in Major League. Also, why should we care less that the Padres had Tatis so it made sense for them? That means we had to give them Grisham? I don't care what makes sense for the Padres. Having 2 MLB starting players means absolutely nothing when both have been replacement level. Daniel Vogelbach is currently a starting MLB player as well. I can live with the argument that the trade made sense at the time but anyone sitting here trying to say "nope, still was a good trade" is clearly doing their best Pinocchio impression.

Yep. And I wouldn't expect businesses to have more stringent guidelines than the CDC. Most would prefer not to require masks anyway, and now they have the CDC guidelines to easily lean on and wash their hands of it. You might see some lingering business mandates for awhile as they transition away from it, but for the most part, that's it. And IMO, it's the appropriate time. I personally am a fully vaccinated individual and have no discomfort around unmasked individuals with or without knowing their vaccination status. Unfortunately most of the unvacinnated won't be apparent because the vast majority won't follow mask policy anyway, but I have no control over that and believe in my protection from the vaccine.

The 2011 Brewers with 5th in the NL in runs allowed and 6th in runs scored. They were balanced, not just hitters. I would take that over this pitching with an offense that is among baseball's worst.

To me, the entire concept of having to wait years to judge a trade is not much more than a defense mechanism fans use to defend it if the trade is looking really bad. Are there really Marlin fans out there saying they need to wait and see if the Yelich trade looks horrible because Monte Harrison is only 25 and has only had 57 big league PAs, and Yelich is following up a lost season with an injury-riddled one? The Grisham trade looks horrible right now, and it's ok to say that. You just do so with the caveat that things can change over time, but that doesn't prevent you from evaluating to this point. We're 18 months removed from the trade. It didn't happen last week. And even IF, even IF Urias becomes AS good as Grisham (highly unlikely), Grisham is still the better value, because his production to this date helped his new team. That's something that seems to be missed looked at these. Grisham and Davies producing for the Padres mattered. Davies being really good last year helped convince the Cubs to take him on in a Darvish deal. That mattered. Do we not consider the Travis Shaw trade to be a homerun just because he completely flamed out in '19? No, it was still a homerun. We got two 4 WAR seasons at 3B out of Travis Shaw, and that mattered. I think to a degree, some Brewer fans have so much respect and admiration for what Stearns did his first 3 years here (understandably), that they still can't quite believe that Stearns would make some big mistakes. I think there's some "Stearns-magic" mentality, and some believe that, if David thought enough of Urias and Lauer to make this deal, we just have to wait, it's going to work out. It might just not. The guy makes mistakes too. It happens. I'm not saying it's over, but I think our own optimistic expectations are a bit unrealistic. Yes, there is a greater than zero chance that Eric Lauer develops into a left handed ace. There is a greater than zero chance that Urias becomes a perrenial all-star caliber SS. There is a greater than zero chance that Leo Crawford becomes a stud MLB pitcher and makes me look silly for calling him a non-prospect. But when you look at the overall field of possible outcomes, the mean of all the likely scenarios are closer to this trade not looking much or any better 2-3 years from now, than they are to anything I listed above happening.

I like Taylor but he is 5 for his last 38, he had a hot start and has cooled off significantly. They pissed away 14M and now likely 22M to get JBJ here so they are going to try their damndest to get their money's worth. Terrible signing.

Your starting pitchers averaged more than 6 innings and less than 1 run allowed, your pen pitched well and you still managed to lose the series. Great job, Brewers.

JBJ could fall and land in a pile of nuts and he still wouldn't find one.

That was a gift Ball 4 call to Manny, but we deserved it.

GameDay shows two strikes to Goldie called balls and one ball called a strike. Was it really that bad?

Perdomo has a nice live arm, but he's not going to make it at this level if he can't harness the command.

That's where I am too. Buck obviously stops with the players who are underperforming, but if someone needs to fall on the sword to get them to wake up, then whatever. Sucks for Haines, but when you are a hitting coach, you are going to eventually be fired. Its low-hanging fruit when it comes to appeasing fans. Yep. Unfortunately you have to start somewhere. Replacing the entire lineup in May isn't going to happen.

I'm glad I can come here and not hear about the hitting coach for once. Why does the casual fan always think its the hitting coaches fault when guys don't hit? I don't think it's Haines' fault, but I am fine with it if they let him go. Really it's hard to imagine that many hitting coaches are going to get much out of a lineup with Vogelbach and Shaw as the meat of your order.

I feel like you could say this about a lot of pitchers.

I don't think firing Haines will do anything but I am fine with it from a standpoint of demonstrating that there needs to be accountability for this constantly poor offensive performance. It's not like they are going to get worse without him.

Pitching and defense has done everything possible to get us a win. At the end of the day, you have to be able to do something offensively.

Thanks Tyler...now how about a double play ball

Suter is not someone who can afford to walk batters and get away with it.

Kolten Wong's offensive numbers are quietly floating back down to the range of most of the rest of his offensive teammates.