adambr2

You can disagree with the announcers, but you'd be incorrect. He was getting both of those innings. The only reason others had been closing was primarily due to days where Hader was off. Also, you know Lyles was indeed warming in the bullpen, right? So how do we know he (Hader) was getting both of those innings if someone was indeed warming in the pen in the 8th?

Not really at the time. Most people realized that 20M or so on a multi year deal for Villar was not going to make or break us. When he stunk it up for 6 months afterward, of course. That's why I said a year after Reading comprehension not my strong point.

I personally can't imagine that 1B coach is a really tough position to replace.

Not really at the time. Most people realized that 20M or so on a multi year deal for Villar was not going to make or break us. When he stunk it up for 6 months afterward, of course.

https://www.brewcrewball.com/2019/10/4/20899187/david-stearns-addresses-pending-free-agents-possible-non-tenders-during-end-of-year-press-conference Some summaries: - Non-commital on arbitration decisions coming up on Shaw, Arcia, and Nelson. Basically will have to evaluate and decide. Said they need to get better SS production in the future both offensively and defensively. - Coaching staff will be evaluated to determine if changes are needed but Counsell (probably not surprisingly) is on solid ground and Stearns is pleased to have stability there. - Will be in contact with Lyles and Pomeranz. - Wants to bring back both Grandal and Moose, but acknowledged it could be tough depending on their market. - Optimistic on a bounceback 2020 for Burnes and Peralta. Not sure where they'll fit. Suter's role for 2020 still TBA as well. - Plan is for Grisham to be on the MLB team next year, but unsure if it will be as a starter or in another role. Wouldn't answer if Braun will be considered at 1B. - Roster rule changes for 2020 will have a big impact on offseason and roster strategy.

Unfortunately I'd guess the Villar ship has sailed now. Too bad. You're right, he would be a massive upgrade at SS for us.

Actually, I think I can bring something up and not have it be my opinion. I do it all the time for future reference. Do I think Shaw would have preferred to be released versus staying here all year in the minors? Yes, I do. Once again, why would he not want that? He would have got paid the same and a team likely would have scooped him up and given him playing time for league minimum. By staying in the minors all year he had no way to prove himself. With another team he could have latched on with someone and proven he was worth offering arbitration to or to secure a starting job going into 2020 with. Now he very well could not get offered arbitration and never got another chance to prove himself. Do I think he was demanding the Brewers release him? Probably not, doesn’t mean he didn’t wish it had happened. This actually makes no more assumptions than someone saying he was fine being here and was fine sitting around in the minors all year. So maybe give yourself a break too? There may be ‘no evidence to back it up’, but you guys also have zippo evidence he didn’t want to be released. I already gave you multiple reasons why he might not want that -- possible opening at 3rd next year if Moose doesn't return, comfort level with Milwaukee, not losing any pay to try to fix things in the minors, no guarantee of any starting position anywhere else if he gets released. Your last sentence is just weird. So we are going to start speculating that guys want to be traded or released if they struggle just because we can't prove otherwise? Why? Should I start whispering around here that I would guess Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta want out of Milwaukee if they don't crack the 2020 rotation so they can go prove themselves elsewhere? Maybe David Stearns wants to get out of Milwaukee and head to a bigger market as soon as possible. There's no evidence to back it up, but you have no evidence that he doesn't want to.

The journey is definitely part of the joy, and I still enjoyed this season. I am just saying you have to know that there is at least some chance of winning a championship to even enjoy the journey. What good is the journey if not in pursuit of the ultimate goal? That doesn't mean you can't enjoy anything less, but you at least need to go in knowing there's more than zero chance. A gambler wouldn't go into a casino if he knew he couldn't win, he's not going to get that rush if there's no hope of a payoff. That chance, however minuscule, keeps him coming back. It doesn't matter how good the chance is, you just need to know it exists. It's the same here. Would you really have enjoyed the NLCS last year if you knew with 100% certainty that we weren't going to win? I wouldn't have.

Right ... believing the latter is making a lot of assumptions while jumping to some pretty drastic conclusions. I mean we had an All-Star closer in Corey Knebel who had such a bad stretch last year that he as well actually got sent down to AAA for awhile in 2018. He lost his role, then lost his spot, went down, figured things out, came back up and was a big part of the success of the pen late last year. It happens. It does not mean he was down in Colorado Springs privately fuming for a trade. For most of these guys, they recognize that their career is a marathon, not a sprint, and aren't going to be seeking a trade or release every time things go south.

There's a big, big difference between a player being upset because he was a solid regular MLB player and his performance declined so sharply that he was sent to the minor leagues (basically any competitive player), and a player being upset with his organization and wanting to leave because of his performance decline and subsequent demotion. There's no evidence that suggests Shaw was the latter.

Because being released would have been zero financial and career gain for him. I'm sure he didn't like being optioned, but it cost him nothing. How do you know he gets a guaranteed starting opportunity elsewhere if released? How do you know he didn't prefer to stay where he's comfortable, hope to put it together in AAA and maybe get tendered in 2020 and be the presumably starting 3B next year it Moose signs elsewhere? Moose is going to be a FA. Maybe he's back, maybe he isn't. It's not like we signed him to a 5 year deal. We have no idea beyond blind speculation what Travis Shaw thought was best for him and his career this summer, and it has nothing to do with common sense. I'm sure Travis Shaw is able to look bigger picture than neccesarily wanting to start his whole career over just because he wasn't going to be a starter this year for the last few months.

Is there any credibility whatsoever to this rumor other than a Cardinals' announcer just spewing it out on air?

Nope. My guess is I would probably lose interest in baseball entirely. What would be the point if you knew they were never going to win a championship? It would be like watching 162 spring training games every year.

I was surprised looking at Hader's numbers, he was almost identical to his 2018 other than his HR/9 jumped from 1 to 1.8. He struck out slightly more and walked less. There wasn't a big difference at all between 2018 and 2019 Hader.

Yes actually, the 2018 Brewers did it numerous times to all 3 of their "closers". You're still comparing apples to oranges here. Hader isn't an elite closer. He was a very good reliever in 2019 and an elite reliever in 2018, but he's never been an elite closer in the traditional sense. If you're comparing him to historical guys like Kimbrel, Rivera, etc, that just doesn't hold up. Even as a closer, Hader has never been a traditional one. He's consistently asked to protect for 2 innings, even more, depending on the situation. It doesn't have anything to do with believing in your star players or not, it has to do with your options. Hader, Jeffress, and Knebel were used late in games almost interchangeably last season in various orders depending on the game situation. Does that mean we didn't believe in them? Of course not. Was Hader just better and more trustworthy this year? No, definitely not. We simply had various high end options at our disposal to finish the job if we ran into trouble.

That's a stretch. A big one. Removing a clearly struggling pitcher has never been the same as pinch hitting for the MVP. You know that's a stretch. Yeah, that's not even close to the same thing. But that was kind of the problem with Hader this year and his role. He was always the last line of defense. If he struggled, that was that and we were going to lose. Last year we could turn to Knebel, turn to Jeffress if it wasn't Hader's night. This year if Josh Hader was going to come into a game it was going to be his game to win or lose.

I think you have to at least double the AAV here. Is Lyles really going to go from a 1-yr 2M deal to a 2 yr 12M deal this offseason? You might be right, but I guess that feels awfully steep for a guy that doesn't have a long track record of success. He seems to have been talking about Pomeranz and I would agree. I was thinking more like 2/13.

Hader really has to learn to throw a more consistent slider. I don't think comparing him to Turnbow or Axford is fair, but Andrew Miller went from elite to mediocre reliever fairly quickly the last couple years. For starters, Hader needs to not be locked into a closing role in 2020, it is just not a good role fit for him.

It occured to me tonight that I can't with extreme confidence name a single member of the Brewers' 2020 rotation besides Brandon Woodruff. Davies seems like the surest bet after, but I wouldn't be shocked to see him traded. I have no idea if Houser will be back in the rotation or pen. I have no idea if Lyles or Gonzales will be back and I have no idea if they will exercise the option on Anderson. Peralta is presumably headed back to the pen. There's just absolutely no way you can roll out Corbin Burnes in Milwaukee to start 2020, no matter what he looks like in the spring. He's got to be headed to San Antonio.

I agree Grandal is probably long gone. He will get his 4/60 on the market this offseason. Best we can hope for is retaining Moose, Lyles, and Pomeranz.

I'm with you about Peralta but why do you assume Lyles couldn't replicate what Strasburg did? I'm with you. I'm not saying I would have went with Lyles but I don't get this assumption that starters just can't be brought into these situations that they're not used to. Maybe there are a certain few that this is true for but for the most part this seems like an old wives tale. Scherzer struggled starting the game in his familiar role, Strasburg was dominant in his unfamiliar role. These guys are professionals that have been doing this for years and the vast majority of them have both started and relieved at different levels before and are not going to freak out when brought in to start the 8th instead of the 1st. We made our living last September and October by plugging pitchers into unfamiliar roles.

I'm not rejoicing, by any means. At the same time, there are varying levels of success. We were more successful than 20 teams, including quite a few who spent way more money only to fail at being more successful than us. We were less successful than 9 teams. Over the last three years we've won the 8th most games in MLB, more than the A's or the Rays or even the Cardinals. Considering where the organization was at when Stearns took over, its kinda hard for me to be upset with being only the 2nd best small market team besides Cleveland in such a short amount of time. We've only just begun...we'll start out walking & we'll learn to run...etc...etc He's done a great job. We'll get Yelich back next year, get Knebel back, hopefully keep a few of the guys that were instrumental to our success this year, and hopefully win the division and go from there. Just hard to feel much besides bitter disappointment right now.

Gotta say, that was exactly what I said after the first pitch from Hader. And after his second pitch, I said “he doesn’t have it tonight”. Truly a disappointing finish, but glad to have the opportunity to play in the Wild Card Game instead of not being in the playoffs at all. And that to me again is the difference between this year and last. When Hader didn't have it last year, we had Knebel and Jeffress in our back pocket. This year, if Hader didn't have it, we didn't have it.

I mean to me you're not *really* a playoff team if you don't at least make the Divisional series. I understand that the WC game *technically* IS a playoff game and therefore you are a playoff team but it really just felt more like Game 163 last year than anything that came after that. I don't mean that to take anything away from what they accomplished this year. It was a fun ride in September. I just have a hard time mentally putting the play-in game losers on the same level as the teams that are going to be grinding it out in 5 to 7 game series' for the next few weeks. It just feels a little unsatisfying to rejoice about being the league's 10th best team.

Different sports. Access to the postseason is easier in both. Baseball is still the hardest postseason to qualify for. I have no problem with a little flag out there for the 2019 Wild Card. They’re not ostentatious anyway. A little, but making the playoffs in baseball is not what it used to be. It's a 33.3% qualification rate in MLB, compared with 37.5% in the NFL. It's a very insignificant difference. I guess, maybe it does come off as a little pretentious, but I would like us to get to a point in this organization where this is expected, and the gold standard is a little higher than that. I can't speak for every Packer fan here, but if they won the WC2 this year and were bounced in the Wild Card round, I'd feel it was a bit silly if I walked into Lambeau Field and a "Packers 2019 Wild Card" banner was hanging. And again, the playoff qualification rate for MLB and NFL is very close to the same.