MNBrew

That's ridiculous how close that is. Not really: Moustakas gains so much of his value from his HRs. He's not exactly a well-rounded hitter.

The financials of non-tendering Thames cloud the potential salary that would go with signing him at a reasonable/realistic price -- and what would he actually sign for? -- but I sure do like him as a 1B for our present roster mix. Then we'd only have a 3B question in terms of position players, plus another pitcher or two. Of course we could've just picked up Thames' option in the first place, but that's water over the dam long ago. I'm curious what additional potential trades Stearns might have on his plate that he's considering.

Fake account. There's only one tweet on his whole page. Real page:

12/5/1990 Teddy Higuera .... And while Higuera was a proven ace, one of their best SPs ever, re-signing him to that 4-yr/$16M contract was seen as albatross soon after when he missed much of the duration of that contract with injuries. On the front end of his career, Teddy Higuera was NOT a big-league FA. Where did the Brewers sign him from? The Mexican League. That move was a footnote in the papers, never worthy of mention on ESPN, and the farthest thing from a needle-mover.

Simplifying some of the prior discussion, if Gregorius were to sign in MIL and he, Urias, and Hiura were all starting on the IF, inevitably someone wouldn't be playing their most-natural position. The Brewers could do worse than landing Happ from NY with a prospect or two of value attached.

Not the most glitzy name out there, but with enough late-game experience that he wouldn't be the worst guy to target either. In other words, very much a potential Stearns FA signing.

Can we get Rymer Liriano again, too? That was one idiotic pair of OF acquisitions I don't look back on fondly... I'm sure you meant Wilmer Flores, but I couldn't resist responding.

I'll admit I'm not completely opposed to signing Bumgarner. At minimum I'm intrigued. IF the Brewers were to sign him, it would be the first major SP acquisition since Greinke 8 years ago. It could flop. It could work out great. It could end up somewhere in between. None of us has a crystal ball. There are some reasons to doubt that Bumgarner's a pure ToR starter anymore. But he's at least been that in his career -- legitimately on an MLB-wide level -- and that pedigree counts for something. Over multiple segments/interviews/discussions, the MLB Network Radio guys were going on for 45 minutes this afternoon about the value of someone of that pedigree & experience within a clubhouse (talking about the impact of having a Greinke as a teammate for a few years might have on a Robbie Ray and others, for one example). Alone that's not a reason to overpay ridiculously, but it is a legit "intangibles" factor that cannot be brushed off. We seem to face the same plight every year, needing some influx of proven starting pitching -- with the moves most years seeming underwhelming at best when they happen. We've heard the annual choruses of how all our in-house guys are likely #3's at best, can't be counted on to pitch to any level above that, are inconsistent, flashes in the pan, etc., etc., etc. Our MiLB pipeline isn't offering us any pending aces for 2020 that we're aware of. . . . I don't know where it would come from, at least on an immediate sort of basis, but I think we'd all agree that a meaningful/significant SP upgrade isn't coming out of thin air. Since we can't afford Cole/Strasburg money, we need to look at next-tier options (or lower). That means Ryu, Keuchel, Bumgarner, etc. If there weren't more obvious risks inherent in each of them, they'd be more likely getting something closer to Cole/Strasburg/Kershaw/Greinke money. Throwing significant dollars at Bumgarner could prove completely foolish. Ditto for others in that tier of FA SPs. It could also provide us an ace.

This might be the exact sort of guy they outright/waive/release later due to another move. I'm not sure what value he has if he's not good enough to be kept on the absolute worst teams in MLB. Of course I wouldn't complain if he plays well above his previous level and proves my skepticism wrong.

One of Stearns' driving principles of roster construction is having good depth. Trading Nottingham would seem to go against that idea. I'm not in love with the player Nottingham is right now, but I'm not inclined to rule out the possibility that he could grow into a more productive/useful player over time. . . . Heck, Manny Pina had only 17 plate appearances over 5 games in the majors before the Brewers got him and brought him up when he was 29. As other already noted, Nottingham's only 24.

Surprisingly, all the name-/number-less authentic jerseys in the Miller Park team store are $280 vs. the $295 (cream & pinstripe) or $335 (gray & navy) prices at shop.mlb.com. Torts, there were lots more hoodies in the store than you'll find on the website right now.

The late-'90s teams with lots of solid hitters were doomed by their so-so pitching, but I don't remember the offense being so all-or-nothing and thus so frequently runs-starved. Some of these guys had more pop than others but none were major power hitters: Cirillo Vina Loretta Hamilton Nilsson There was Burnitz in there, eventually Sexson, Vaughn & Jaha at different times -- mainly corner 1B & corner OFs. But those guys above were generally very solid hitters and all made the team/lineup better -- NONE made it worse.

Not every player who's a good player hits loads of HRs. Too often the Brewers are hurt by their HR-or-nothing offensive tendencies. I think having more guys who can just plain HIT is really important.

Yea that's garbage. The Brewers recalled Shaw in June when Hiura was raking and Shaw was hovering around .200 in his AAA rehab assignment. I'll be interested to see what Shaw eventually signs for. I see why that reads like a potential slam on the Brewers, but I see it more as a sales pitch by Shaw's agent, endorsing his player and realizing what his player may need to be successful. There's just no way the agent is blind to how lousy Shaw's 2019 was, but he needs to find his player a team who has enough faith in him for 2020. I'm still a bit bummed Shaw didn't work out last year and that he's now gone. He's a solid player if he's not completely out of whack. Clearly the Brewers feel $4.5M is too much of a gamble to find out if the 2017-18 Shaw still is in there somewhere. I would've liked to see Nelson tendered, too, but again it's the cost-benefit (or value) factor like Shaw. I'm also a little wary of the cost of replacing Claudio's & Guerra's roles & production, whether in terms of dollars, player assets in return, or a combination of the two. On the other hand, I'm relieved that it didn't take a whole offseason for Saladino's teflon coating to wear off.

I agree completely. Forget Rendon. If Stearns is looking to spend big money, spend it on Moose (3/$33M) - Wheeler (4/$80 with a 5th year including buyout) - Bentances (2/$12M). Could have all three for the money mentioned for one year of Rendon. Until Moose signs for 4-50, Wheeler 4-96, and Betances for 3-21. I think after Pomerance's deal, Grandal's etc, the cost is higher than what is believed until we reach the new year. Somewhere between prophet & underestimation, BCD80.... referring to Moose' 4/64 deal today w/ the Reds. So much for $12M/year being a number he'd consider viable.

The Brewers' Opening Day payroll this year was their largest ever by a respectable chunk. Dropping a bit isn't the same as what "cutting payroll" implies. I'm not thrilled with all the non-tenders (except Saladino) -- I would've thought that retaining a couple of those guys would result in the Brewers having at least a few more possible trade chips to play -- but Stearns has proven to have a pretty darn good idea what he's doing since he got here, and that includes some mostly strong cost-to-value/production decisions. I'm sure Stearns has a solid game plan. . . . By no means does it guarantee anything, but a) we're hardly 5 weeks into the off-season, and b) Stearns' overall track record encourages at least some faith & patience (Cain-Yelich Day was January 25th, after all, & the Moose and Grandal signings were appreciably later than that).

Damn, I got a free look at the article before but it's behind a paywall now. I could've sworn there were more quotes from Stearns in that article, including one in which Stearns used Hader's name. If not, I'm mistaken and I'd lower the odds of a Hader trade into the territory of a coin toss. If forced to wager, I think he gets moved. The italicized above affirms that Stearns, as usual, wouldn't mention any player's name specifically in any discussions with the media. With how widely reported the past few off-seasons it's been that the Brewers are allegedly interested in a host of names on the FA market or that the Brewers "are listening on [insert any possible Brewer player's name here]...," it's pretty obvious that Stearns isn't unwilling to listen or to explore, but it's also been noted a zillion times that most of the time the Brewers are 1) just doing their due diligence on potentially available players, and 2) listening when other teams call, which is not to say a single thing about their actual willingness/eagerness to deal any player they're called about.

I'd rather not have Saladino around again regardless of the rest of the roster maneuverings pan out. Spangenberg had some plus to his game every once in a while. Saladino usually cannot hit a baseball.

An obvious error. The closest Grisham ever came to that list was talking to someone on it. . . . unless they must've meant the Brewers' top 50 list.

This was a interesting surprise this morning. Hat tip to mattyo last night on his comment that he had a feeling we had something brewing with the Padres (post #10: viewtopic.php?f=66&t=39270). Seems like a very Stearns-type move. Biggest thing I see: For the first time, real competition for Arcia at SS. I don't think he's really ever had that in his time in MIL. The Brewers only have 5 IFs on the 40-man before this move, and one of those is Saladino, who, like Wilkerson all last winter, seems to keep hanging in there on the 40-man for no apparent reason. It's interesting to note that this makes 3 acquisitions by Stearns who are solid hitters (Yelich, Cain, potentially Urias), not just 3TO bats. Along with Hiura, that makes for a pretty significant influx and therefore change to the team's overall hitting profile. And Braun already was that type of hitter -- one of their main/only ones for a while. Grisham ratcheted up his game this year, although no one really saw that emergence coming as it did. Maybe that was his one burst. Maybe he'll be a Padres fixture for a while. Who knows? Regardless, the Brewers still have Taylor & Ray at the top of the OF pipeline (in that order, I'd think). I think it's also noteworthy that Lauer was a 1st round pick in '16 who's already got 2 full seasons in the bigs. Seems like there's potentially more up-side there. Nothing fancy yet, but an interesting move and also necessary (not to mention cheaper) with Anderson and now Davies traded -- both of them also "nothing fancy" starters but generally more productive than not. I don't think this guarantees something else big happening, but it's a change in the landscape for sure.

Is this truly a hunch or is "I have the feeling" code for "I know someone who knows something?"

Ditto this list. Not that steroids are okay or right. Rather, the HOF is full of guys that took things to help their performance or recovery time -- uppers (including cocaine), greenies, amphetamines, etc. -- or knowingly cheated (G. Perry) or risked harm to other players (LaRussa ordering his pitchers to throw at Braun, which he admitted to 2 months after they won the WS and he retired). Standards players are held to, and public sentiment about them, are to some degree products of their time and, in the long view, at best, not consistent. The steroid thing has been overblown since Day One esp. because the media kept fanning flames because it was a story, and I think they managed to convince much of America it was a sacrilegious scandal when the majority of folks weren't overly compelled by the story in the first place. Had today's media and its nature been present during the cocaine/etc. scandals breaking in the early '80s (K. Hernandez, W. Stargell, etc. at the time, Molitor among others noted after-the-fact), or in any other era, many seemingly sure-fire HOF players wouldn't have had a prayer of making it any more than the "steroid era" poster boys of today.

^^ Turn that "Brewers" white and outline it in the new yellow, plus ditch the buttons/collar piping and you might be onto something. At least Bernie has decent enough taste not to wear that horrible "Milwaukee" quasi-cursive font.

Interesting take. Brewers have had a ball logo and a state logo as part of the mix for a heck of a long time. To me it looks like they largely just Brewers-ized the template for the Astros' redesign of a few years ago.

I'm almost with you: 1. Cream 2. Grey 3. Pinstripe 100. Navy