adambr2

It's a punter. Being sick sucks but barring being so sick you should be laid up in a hospital, you should be able to suck it up, trot out on the field to hold and punt a few times. You've still got 30 hours to sleep and get fluids.

Appears that they may be attempting to play blindfolded tonight. If they're not, maybe they should try it.

I hope he can. He was a big part of the Brewers teams in the early part of the last decade.

I always believed (and even said at the time) after the Rodgers to Janis Hail Mary that they needed to go for 2 and either win or lose it now. I know not everyone agrees. We'll never know.

Boston and Philly are the two teams that kind of scare me in the East. I hope they either end up as the 2 and 3 or one is 2/3 and the other the 6 so we don't have to see either until the conference finals. None of Miami, Toronto or Indiana really concern me all that much. Not that I don't think we couldn't beat either of Boston or Philly but I think either could make it into a competitive series and make us sweat it out.

Well, SF/SG. More SF these days so I guess you're right although a lot of traditional position definitions are kind of obsolete these days.

Also, I do think Middleton played well tonight. He usually does against Boston.

Yeah that's not what Middleton criticism is at all. Thinking Middleton is not necessarily the 2nd best player on the team and somewhat overpayed at 35M per is a defense mechanism in case they don't win an NBA title? Okay.

FWIW I said as soon as they signed Middelton that it was worth it if it keeps Giannis around. He's okay. I hope he is the key to keeping Giannis.

Middleton had 2 turnovers tonight, and averages 2.5 to's per 36 minutes. I know, he's fine. It's a personal bias, I'm sure. You can't judge a SG on turnovers the way you would judge a PG or even Giannis, though, he just doesn't handle the ball nearly as much.

That was not a particularly impressive game at home against a Celtics team playing their second game of a back to back. Blew a huge lead with tons of missed free throws and a lot of poor defense. An insane performance from 3 in the first half is the only reason we walked out with a win. 80% from 3 is not going to happen again. A win is a win but it's definitely a moral victory for Boston. They're feeling pretty good right now about their ability to compete with us in a 7 game series.

Feels like Middleton is a turnover waiting to happen every time he touches the ball.

Seem to have survived the C's big rally. Hopefully they won't be threatened much in the 4th.

It would be good if they did, since they've had a 27 point lead now whittled down to single digits.

Disagreeing on methods and strategies is fine. Your condensation and sarcasm is really over the top and not needed. I've been on record many times defending DS against attacks from people who say he doesn't do enough, and I've said we need to pick and choose our spots, you saying I'll just ask to spend more money again in 2021 is projecting a posting style onto me that isn't mine. You portraying me as a "just throw money at the problem" poster shows you haven't really payed any attention to the things I've posted this offseason at all. Also, you have zero evidence that Donaldson becomes a negative value player in 2021, it is nothing more than your opinion and should not be stated as anything more than that. If I improperly characterized you then I am mistaken. That is the stance you are taking on this one. They just need to spend more. You refuse to offset the extra spending. You just want 15.5 more on the cap. Don't act like it's just my opinion. I'm quoting ZIPS. I'll take their system over your opinion. There is no "cap," which is why I didn't really understand the need to offset what we spent. The spending limit is whatever Mark Attanasio is comfortable investing. No, I'm not saying in general to get better they just need to spend more. I just said in this case, in this example, I would have found Donaldson to be worth the investment. I also think given the current payroll it's also not an unrealistic investment. I can understand why some would disagree, I just don't like the implication that anyone who thinks Donaldson would have been worth it is just flat out wrong. Just curious, do you have a link to ZIPS projecting Donaldson becoming negative value in 2021?

Disagreeing on methods and strategies is fine. Your condensation and sarcasm is really over the top and not needed. I've been on record many times defending DS against attacks from people who say he doesn't do enough, and I've said we need to pick and choose our spots, you saying I'll just ask to spend more money again in 2021 is projecting a posting style onto me that isn't mine. You portraying me as a "just throw money at the problem" poster shows you haven't really payed any attention to the things I've posted this offseason at all. Also, you have zero evidence that Donaldson becomes a negative value player in 2021, it is nothing more than your opinion and should not be stated as anything more than that.

MKE has spent over 21 million this year. You want to remove Gyorko Sogard Gacia Smoak and Lindblom for Donaldson? You can't point towards the gain the team makes because you spent more. What credit does the team get for not spending that 8.75mil. That they can still use at any time? We good with 1 war. If so read above. No, I'm not removing anyone except probably Sogard and Gyorko because of position redundancy. Did Mark A speak with Stearns this offseason and tell him that his offseason budget was $21M for 2020? If so, I agree with you that the guys they spent it on make more sense than spending it all on Donaldson would have, since they do have to fill out a roster. If not, I'll have to assume that they could have afforded all of the above if they had wanted to since they still would have spent far less than last season. Beyond that, I'm not sure why in the world you are insisting that we have to fit every move into our current payroll. We can't point toward a gain the team makes if we spend more? Why not? We're not trading pogs here, we have money to spend. If you think Donaldson simply isn't worth it because of age/regression risk or whatever than that's one thing but saying we have to nullify an equal amount of payroll just to make a case for him doesn't make any sense at all.

If the team is struggling at the All-Star break, and there is no hope in sight, and the additions haven't been good, then I think there would be some reason to be mad that they didn't do more this offseason. Getting mad now, though, as akin to yelling at a cloud. I've said several times that the Reds suck until they prove they don't suck. Likewise, the Brewers are a contender until they prove they aren't. Stearns has at least earned that. I don't think most people are yelling at clouds. I think Stearns has done a fantastic job and I'll certainly wait and see on what happens with the guys he got and am excited to see what guys like Urias do. I think it's ok to feel some disappointment. There's a difference between that and thinking Stearns sucks.

Normally this is a fair argument however in Donaldson's case his representatives notified teams that they were simply waiting for a team to hit "X" dollars and they were going to sign with whatever team did. Given that and the fact that this is going to be his last big contract I think it's fair to assume he was just looking for the most money. It's fair to question whether it would have taken 4/92 or 4/98 but if you're all-in on Donaldson I don't think that makes much difference.

You can't "cut" money that we haven't spent. What do you expect him to say? Anyone already here prior to that is already guaranteed their contract, it's not like we can cut Braun and save his money. People weren't advocating to sign Donaldson just to spend money, they were advocating for it because he was a 6+ WAR player at a position we had a gaping hole at and could have been realistically afforded, with or without saving $8.75M elsewhere.

Yeah Garcia was not signed to be a late game sub. Never say never, because we've been unconventional about roster construction before, but I doubt Castellanos is in play for us.

Why does he have to cut 8.75M? I don't understand the rationale here. It's not like 96M or whatever we're at is our cap and we can't go into the season with a $ 105M payroll and still have some flexibility. Braun is likely coming off the books after 2020 as well.

I agree that they don't seem interested in that. I think the thought from some is that maybe they should. A lot can happen in 3 years but right now it's hard to see them contending in a post-Yelich era without going through a full rebuild first. They just don't have much on the farm to present a very good outlook 4 years from now.

Ryu or Donaldson doesn't stop us from making those moves too. I don't buy that. Isn't that....also kind of what we've been the last few years? Stars and scrubs?

I tend to agree. I loved the start of our offseason with the Urias and Narvaez acquisitions. had no illusions that we were going to be involved at all for Cole, Strasburg, or Rendon, and was talking people off the ledge here in November when they went off the board, assuming more moves were coming. But guys like Donaldson and Ryu were feasible deals that could have been real needle movers for a franchise that has been competitive the last few years but is still lacking a World Series in our history. I think we have a real chance to maximize the time we have left in the Yelich era and we missed an opportunity to do that. I understand that Donaldson does not come without risk at his age, no one needs to have that explained to them. If he were 29 instead of 34 he'd be getting Rendon money instead. The point of saying that is that there will never be a feasible deal for us that does not come without risk, so I would say this is the time to take those risks when you have a chance to win it all. I would have seen it as a silly move in 2016, but times have changed. I also understand the reality that sometimes you just get outbid, but it's disappointing to me that we didn't even appear to be seriously involved for either Donaldson or Ryu or any potential needle mover on that tier. At the end of the day I certainly do have faith in Stearns to guide the ship and he's earned the benefit of the doubt, but realistically I don't think this is an improved roster from 2019 and as such I think we really missed an opportunity to put us at the front of the division favorites rather than the 85 or so win team that could win 90 with the right breaks that I think we probably are.