adambr2

Yes, odds are very good thay they'll lose the B10 title game if they get there. Still, if you don't want to challenge yourself against the big boys, what's the point? Might as well be a Group of 5 mid-major team then.

Well, gotta have Iowa win next week now or the West belongs to the Gophers. They're not going to lose before the axe game otherwise.

Nice win, but guys...stay in bounds when you're trying to bleed clock for heaven's sake. That could have become unnecessarily dramatic.

Collin Larsh sucks. The end of that drive pretty well sums up the last 3 weeks.

I mean does it really matter for anything now other than just a talking point? We won't be in the CFP. The only way we're playing in a New Years 6 bowl is if we run it, Minnesota takes another loss and we win the B10 Championship. If we hadn't lost to Illinois I could definitely see us wanting to face a highly ranked Minnesota opponent but now it just doesn't really affect anything. It gives a shot to play in a top bowl game. I guess if you don’t care about that now, then you didn’t care if Minnesota won or lost. But them winning and us still having a chance to run the table is still a shot that I want even if I don’t think this Badgers team could pull it off. But it really didn't make a difference for that either way. If we win out and beat whoever in the B10 Championship, we're playing a New Year's 6 Bowl, regardless of what Minnesota did today. If we don't, we won't. If Minnesots beats Iowa, we likely won't even get into the B10 Championship, so that was the most important thing to me today. Unless you are saying you think we could get in to a New Years 6 as an at-large if we beat a previously unbeaten and highly ranked Minnesota team for the axe without playing for the B10 title, which I suppose is possible if dominoes fall our way.

I mean does it really matter for anything now other than just a talking point? We won't be in the CFP. The only way we're playing in a New Years 6 bowl is if we run it, Minnesota takes another loss and we win the B10 Championship. If we hadn't lost to Illinois I could definitely see us wanting to face a highly ranked Minnesota opponent but now it just doesn't really affect anything.

PSU really got hosed.

I think PSU will get pummeled against OSU, too. And there is still plenty of game for minnesota to lose this one at home. I'm not saying Minnesota will win for sure, but they at least look like they belong on the field with a top 5 national team.

No, I prefer Minnesota experience great disappointment. Plus we need a Minnesota loss to even have hope of being in the B10 Championship.

We were chuckling at Minnesota a few weeks ago and since then we've been exposed and they look like the pretty legit ones.

Let's maybe stop getting Middleton the ball on the last play to win. That's the second time he's done that.

I love Bogaerts and the idea of having him controlled through 2025 is highly appealing, reminds me of the Yelich deal. Unfortunately, Boegarts actually has an opt out after 2022, and on his current trajectory he will almost certainly exercise it. If he doesn't, it will be a situation where we wish he would. Either way, it changes the outlook of a potential deal. He's still highly attractive and controlled for 3, but I'm not sure that I want to give up 12 controlled years of Hiura and Burnes plus our top prospect for 3 years.

Agreed - I'd love to trade for Lindor, but Hiura is not part of that deal. Grisham sure, throw in Arcia if the Indians are at all interested in a SS filler at the mlb level, then add pitching or one of the catcher prospects in the low to mid minors until the Indians say yes. Hiura has the potential to be a more valuable player than Lindor in 2020, plus he will be making league minimum while Lindor is pushing arbitration raises in a big way. Unless the pitching you're adding is Brandon Woodruff, there is no point in this scenario where the Indians are saying yes. We simply don't have the prospects. You're not getting Francisco Lindor for Grisham+Arcia plus some throw ins.

It's just hard putting together a trade for a marquee talent for the Brewers, even a rental, because they have 4 guys with substantial trade value (Yelich, Hiura, Hader and Woodruff). After that there is a substantial dropoff. Trouble is, all these are existing important pieces to the MLB team so you're losing some from the start. Lesser pieces like Burnes, Grisham, Turang, etc just aren't going to get it done for Betts.

Maybe if Betts was controlled for 2 years instead of 1 I could get on board but as good as he is I couldn't stomach giving up 6 years of Hiura to rent Betts for 1 season. Chavis is controlled but I just don't think he's going to be good enough to justify the deal.

I believe the Mlbtraderumors.com projection for Wheeler was 5 years, 100M. I think it would be insane to even kick the tires if that is his market.

No arguments from me on that, Joey. For now, they got who they got and I agree in the short-term Lazard needs more opportunities.

I have to agree with Brew on this. How many "diamond in the rough" receivers ho were late round/undrafted have we seen impress in the short-term only to disappear without a trace soon enough because they were never really a starting caliber receiver to begin with? Jarrett Boykin, Jeff Janis, Geronimo Allison are a few of the ones in recent history, but Allen Lazard and Jake Kumerow are just the latest and greatest. These guys are great stories, easy to root for, and yes, in the short-term, for lack of better options, they can be used to help us win, but the odds of them being a building block for the future WR corps is very, very slim. These guys went undrafted or got picked very late for a reason. Yes, there are ones that buck the trend and become productive NFL players, but the reality is that those ones are very few and very far between, and the odds of Lazard being the next one are pretty unlikely. I'll put it in the form of a question. Can you name a single Packer drafted receiver in the Rodgers' era drafted later than the 3rd round who has had any sustained run of success? The time has come to add another true weapon to pair with Adams for this offense, whether it's by a high pick or free agency. I'm guessing they thought they were doing that with Jimmy Graham, but unfortunately his time has clearly passed. In the long run, scheme and trust are going to take care of themselves. If the receiver is talented enough, he's going to fit into this offense. It doesn't take a unique breed of receiver, it just takes a talented one. And if he's doing his job and getting open, Rodgers is going to trust him.

To me the case for selling Hader is actually getting pretty strong. He's going to get pricey, he's a reliever which by his very nature makes him potentially volatile going forward, and he's still got a ton of value.

Spanberger really isn't much of a prospect. He's one of 50 guys that every organization has that maybe could possibly figure it out one year and turn into a legitimate MLB prospect but has a greater shot of just being organizational filler. With that said, we were just going to let Chase walk anyway, so something is better than nothing, plus we avoid paying the buyout. Solid deal for the Jays also, they at the very worst reasonably fill a rotation spot with a guy who will be a #4-#5 at worst and have an extra option year on him if he turns into more. Good deal for Chase too. He just guaranteed himself another 8.5M and most likely will just be left alone in the Jays rotation. No one who should really be unhappy with this.

Someone help me figure out what happened to this guy. Looks like a budding star the first 3 years of his career. Improving steadily every year. Still only 24. Entering a contract year. Then all of the sudden -- extreme regression? At age 24? There's no doubt he's been one of the biggest disappointments on the team and a main culprit for the tremendous run defense struggles but it's pretty puzzling.

Really? That's a pretty big deal to me. I'd like to improve the areas of weakness on the club and shortstop has been the biggest weakness on the team for the better part of 4 years now. If he was 29 like Travis Shaw then I would definitely care that he sucked. I agree about wanting to improve SS, I just don't think the external options are more likely to succeed than just going with Arcia again and hoping he gets better. Which I will admit is a less-than-ideal solution. And having some cheap alternatives around is a good idea. I can't totally disagree on what the available alternatives might be. I'd guess they are probably kicking around some trade ideas but unless they are really going to go all-in on a big fish like Seager I don't know what will really be out there. I'd go all-in if Lindor became available to the extent of centerpiecing a deal around Hader, but if the Indians do make Lindor available I doubt that is the direction they will want to go. Jean Segura is a guy who might be relatively inexpensive as far as trade capital goes, but I don't know if the Phillies will really be looking to move him unless they have other big plans for their middle infield in 2020. It's not like they can't afford Segura's contract.

Really? That's a pretty big deal to me. I'd like to improve the areas of weakness on the club and shortstop has been the biggest weakness on the team for the better part of 4 years now.

Today would have been a really good football day if the Packers didn't show up drunk to their game.

The offensive line was awful. Rodgers was bad. Jones and Williams were fine but they can only do so much. I was afraid of a game like this when Adams returned. I do wonder if being without Adams made Rodgers a better quarterback when he was forced into trusting his guys and throwing into tighter windows. It looked like he was back into the old habits today of just staring down Adams. Not good. I'm obviously not saying we don't need Adams back but he needs to be fit into the scheme of this offense, not become the focal point of it.