adambr2

Big strikeout. Gotta get through Votto.

Oh good, that's how you want to start the 9th protecting a 1 run lead.

I don't know how hard he works on his preparation, but I know he didn't work very hard on that grounder to Iglesias.

Tough not to be tempted to send him back out there at 100 for a CG shot, but you can't. He was starting to catch too much of the plate and you have no margin.

Really nobody gives up big value based on a good postseason anymore. GMs are smarter than that these days I don't know what Arcia's value is these days but I know it's not close to when he was a top 10 prospect in baseball.

Wonder if they were trying to get Peralta out of the game by walking Arcia.

You would have think that getting demoted to AAA would have gotten the message through to him. It's mind-boggling to me that a 24 year old who had a .576 OPS last year and is rosterable on an MLB team only because of his defense would risk his entire way of life by not hustling. Someday he might get sent down to AAA and never make it back up. What he has could be taken away at any time and he doesn't seem to get it.

That was just dumb.

Bench Arcia right now. Unacceptable. You aren't nearly good enough to be dogging it down the line Orlando. Unbelievable.

Gameday showed that pitch to Votto as perfectly placed at the bottom of the zone.

Lefties are really having a hard time laying off Castillo's change in the dirt.

I like Pina.

Usually a good sign for Freddy if he can avoid an ugly 1st. Hopefully that holds true today.

They really have to start laying off that pitch.

No, umpire. It was not a strike.

Yikes. Castillo just made Yelich look bad.

I don't see this discount that Braun gave us. When you're signing away a contract 4 years away from free agency from a team perspective, you need a big discount because your offer reflects how far away that player is from free agency. The further away they are, the less leverage they have and the more risk you're taking on. In addition, you're paying that player for what you expect them to be at that time, not what they are now. So an extension offer to Yelich this far out certainly wouldn't and shouldn't reflect what his current value would be if he was a FA. What is that number? I really don't know, but I highly doubt they would give him 5/125 on an extension this early. That's basically what Goldschmidt just got from the Cardinals at the same age Yelich would be, except he was less than a year from free agency with far more leverage, and he has a longer established track record of being an elite hitter, whereas Christian was more of the 'very good' variety his entire career until his breakout last season. The "face of the franchise" argument to extend Braun at that time and keep him there his entire career probably has merit. I would argue that I think the Brewer brand is a little stronger now than it was at the time to where it's not as important for them to make sure Yelich never leaves. I think Stearns will be more focused on whether or not an extension makes good baseball sense, and I don't see him taking that big of a risk this early.

I mean if that is what helps you rationalize a bad contract extension. I hear people say this all the time. They were separate transactions. You don't get to lump them together. I'm pretty emotionally detached from these sorts of things and I still don't view Braun's deal as all that bad. Would you like to have the money free right now? Sure, but you could do a whole lot worse than what Braun is giving you. Braun also provides a lot of intangible value to the club. I think the players in MKE like him, he is a good veteran presence and last year you could almost always count on a good at bat. Aside from that, he is still beloved by fans and just simply known around the state. I couldn't explain why, but my 5 year-old was not interested in any jersey tee other than his. He barely knows the game and still demands we always see Braun bat. Anybody would have signed Braun to the deal he got at the time he got it. There's always risk in any deal that size but I guess I don't see the deal as really impeding anything the team has done and still view him as a + player, not to mention a legend of the franchise. Anybody would not have signed Braun to that deal at that time because I was against it at the time and the extension has not been worth the investment in my opinion from a pure production standpoint. Braun is certainly not a $20M a year open market player right now. That being said, it certainly hasn't been an Albert Pujols type disaster and as you say they could have definitely done worse. I'm not sure what the intangible and leadership value is -- I honestly don't know. My preference at the time of his scandal was to distance ourselves from him and trade him. They went the other way. I do get it. They had to either distance themselves from him or throw their support behind him. They supported him. With that said I can't understand the mentality of that deal and as it relates to Yelich now of extending a guy so many years away from free agency. As we found out with Braun so much can happen in 4 years and then if something goes wrong you're entirely on the hook as an organization which can hamstring us for years. There is zero benefit to rushing, it's not like the extension price for Yelich is going to be much higher in 2 years than it is now. Yelich is undef contract for 4 more seasons and thus has no real leverage in an extension right now, the idea of committing 30M a season or more as others have suggested to seasons 5+ years out in his 30s is just silly.

Why are we comparing our fanbase to that of the 90s? Yes, our fanbase sucked at one time. It doesn't anymore.

You lose again, Reds. Maybe you could actually get more than 10,000 people to show up for your games if you banned the incessant woooers.

(Sigh).

I think it's just been circumstantial. Lot of close games.

He may not make it through the season without a DFA if he keeps it up. He's got no value if he doesn't hit.

Laz Diaz is really pissing me off today.

For sure. I guess instinct probably takes over in the moment, though.