MNBrew

Gotta think Albers will be joining him on the DL soon (and hopefully that means Woodruff and not Wilkerson coming up).

Like most here, I generally like this trade, although there's still an element of head-scratching to it. I think Schoop will come around and hopefully it will happen soon. Villar was super good for one year at a level probably beyond most projections for him -- in other words, it seems his 2016 may well be the outlier. Then he regressed pretty significantly and has been pretty ordinary at best, and obviously not good enough to command the everyday 2B position over everyone else on the roster. I like Villar for what his 2016 showed he's capable of. But the Brewers hoped & needed him to be somewhere -- anywhere -- in the same galaxy as his 2016 self and for ~1.6 years he hasn't been. At this point, to me that translates into him being off-season trade bait or, I think more likely, non-tendered.

It isn't like they can send Albers down, though. If he's gone, he's gone for good, as they'd have to DFA him. That would seem like a waste, at least to me. Albers was pretty great up until recently. Honestly, I think he would take Peralta's spot. The team won't really have a need for a fifth starter soon, and with the heavy pen usage, it would make sense to have another guy out there. Albers was good for 2 months. Now he's bad. That's been his career pattern. Brewers can't afford to keep hoping good Albers up. Since June 1st, Albers has allowed 16 earned runs in 5 innings over 7 appearances, just one of which he managed to not allow a run. Here's a summary of failures: June 1st: He enters a game in the 6th inning with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd and the game tied 3-3. He promptly gives up a triple and a single, allowing both inherited runners to score and he's charged with one run. Brewers lose game 8-3. June 3rd: He enters a 1-1 game with one out in the 6th and a runner on first. He promptly allows back to back HR before getting the final two outs. Brewers lose 6-1 June 8th: Manages not to be charged with a run but does allow an inherited runner to score on a sac fly in a 12-4 Brewer win. June 11th: Comes into a game against Cubs in the 11th inning with score tied 2-2. Allows a tape measure HR to Anthony Rizzo, the first batter he faced, followed by 4 more runs on 3 hits, 2 walks and a hit batter. Brewers lose 7-2. Then goes on DL Jul 29th. Comes into game to start the 5th with the Brewers trailing 5-3. Faces 4 batters allowing a single, a walk and a triple scoring two runs. Leaves game with Brewers now down 8-3. Gets charged with 3rd run, when Jennings allows sac fly. Brewers lose game 8-5. Aug 1st. Comes in for 10th inning of tie game and promptly allows a single and home run. Game over. Aug 2nd: Brewers down 7-2 with two runners on in the 5th. Once again the first batter he faced takes him deep. After a walk, he gets out of the inning with 2 strikeouts, and starts the 6th with another, before allowing a line drive single and yet another HR. Leaves game with Brewers now trailing 12-2. To summarize, he's allowed 6 HR in his last 5 innings. His failures directly or strongly contribute to 4 losses in those 7 appearances and he does not contribute in any way to a win. How is he still on the roster? Kind of in line with what Never Outhustled said... It seems pretty obvious that he was good until the injury crept into the equation in early June, thus the DL stint. And it seems equally obvious that he didn't forget how to pitch, rather that he's still simply not fully right since he came off the DL, and if he doesn't start getting more typical results quickly, I'd guess we'll hear about the injury again and he'll be back on the DL.

Isn't the deal that if a player actually makes it to arbitration, they consider his past TWO years and also the salaries of players who performed similarly (amount of experience/service time) who provide viable comps? If that's the case, his 35 HRs & 102 RBIs from 2017 would very much be "in play" in that process.

- From what I remember in the "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Facts of Life" days, Charlotte Rae's full name was Charlotte Rae Lubotsky, as in the Lubotsky Tires franchise that was well-known at that time (late '70s). - Ybor City is the old Cuban part of Tampa. Cool area, very happening, lots of restaurants & clubs. - More importantly, they NEED the Rays to be playing in Tampa, NOT St. Petersburg. Tampa is a very active, happening place. St. Pete's very quiet. I'd still prefer to see the ballpark hold 35k-40k-plus rather than 30k. That's a bit concerning.

Surely they're scouting Broxton, Villar, & Kratz. Maybe Barnes, too. Maybe they thought Santana was still on the roster.

He's also never been this hitter until just this year. It's still early and I'm still very inclined to believe it's just a bad slump rather than the end of good-hitting Ryan Braun.

Man, good thing Alex Cobb held out so long in order to end up on a winning team & organization. At least he's getting something close to the paycheck (and years) he wanted, and of course there was never a guarantee (nor as much of a chance as we thought, it turns out) he would've come to MIL anyway. On topic, and in all seriousness, I can't imagine they stay that bad all season, but nearly a month in, that's pretty poor.

3 blown saves tonight. 7 walks by relievers. Hoover has 2 outs in the 10th w/ no one on, then walk, hit, hit, out, hit, 2-run HR. Yet Houser needed to be in AAA so Hoover the kerosene guy w/ a match could pitch for us? I'd take Jorge Lopez back in a heartbeat, too! My buddy who can watch the games says Hoover's just floating junk up there all night. My computer screen shows he sure as heck couldn't find the strike zone, esp. on the 1st pitch. He must not like to get people out.... Our enigmatic offense somehow managed go-ahead runs in the 9th & 10th innings, yet we still give the game away. I don't understand why Taylor Williams was pulled for Barnes in the first place. Back in the late '80s & early '90s, Tom Kelly & his Twins were masters of the "formula" save, meaning inevitably you'd go to the closer if "x, y, & z" were the game circumstances, no matter how well the previous reliever was pitching. It often worked but sometimes was a needless move if not occasionally foolish. . . . Tonight it seemed like a "gotta use a closer-type because this is a save situation" decision when sticking with Williams seemed like the smarter move (which I thought before Barnes even threw a pitch). For that matter, I don't understand why inconsistent Barnes doesn't pitch the 6th/7th inning spots Jeffress is getting, and Jeffress isn't closing. Jeffress knows what he's doing in those situations and Barnes can't pull off a save or manage a clutch out except for the season's 1st game.

This is a great questions. I loved Yount as a player, but his era is far enough in the past that his performance isn't looked on with the highest degree of critical thought. Yount wasn't much above a replacement player his last 4 years, and watching him got painful in the last year or two when he maybe pulled a dozen balls foul to left each year. It was that bad. But the scrutiny over deep stats was 15 years away when he retired, so he's still thought of as a hero. Yount was also paid awfully highly for his era for his production. Had he ended his career in this era, I can't imagine how his Brewer-legendary career would be dissected & criticized. Braun's 2017 easily bests Yount's 1993 contributions significantly including nearly 120 OPS points in 20 fewer games played. That Yount was rated as a 2 bWAR guy compared to Braun at 1.2 bWAR last year also points to how grossly overweighted OF defense is in bWAR calculations b/c Yount was pretty lousy at the plate in 1993. fWAR has them about equal. Yount's defense was still good. I watched enough of Braun last year to know he wasn't as good in the field as he's been in the past, but he also wasn't lousy as people seem to make him out to be, and it's obvious he's also had to alter his approach to playing in the OF depending on the nature of the injuries he's been fighting -- a viable explanation whereas I don't recall Robin fighting so many injuries in 1993. In 1993 Yount's last good year was 4 years behind him. Braun's last good year was last year. Now this year's only 10 games old with most of the team mostly playing mediocre-to-poor, but Braun himself has provided 2 dramatic GW hits in spite of his rough start.

I 100% agree with some of your points, both here and in some of your other posts. I also feel like there's something not so completely black-and-white floating in this post that points to a bigger philosophical point to consider. The moral compass point is a good one. I agree big-time. However, there's a line somewhere in here and I'm not clear exactly where. Should we be hating/scorning every cheater. . . .or just those whose fallible ways have been publicly reported? How do we know someone's not a cheater vs. someone who just hasn't yet been exposed as one? Should we hate/scorn Gaylord Perry? He cheated endlessly, denied it endlessly, finally got caught, and yet he's in the HOF. Greenies & amphetamines are earlier generations' steroid equivalent because they're "uppers" that helped players recover sooner to be ready for the next game. Plenty of HOFers took those. Should they be expelled for essentially compromising the game's competitive balance/integrity and numbers like any of these "steroid era" guys? Paul Molitor & Willie Stargell did cocaine & that's also an upper. Molitor's same-year HOF inductee, Dennis Eckersley, essentially stole teammate Rick Manning's wife out from under him. A-Rod was nothing short of vilified -- and by many reports, seemingly rightly so -- for the type of person he was before, during, & after his suspension until he retired. And I could be wrong, but I don't recall him issuing the public apology that Braun did. Since he was re-busted in the Biogenesis investigation, Braun admitted his wrong and apologized publicly, was admittedly publicly humbled to a degree I think any of us hope we'd never be, served his time, and has been nothing short of a model teammate and team ambassador. What more is he supposed to do? I'm not going to my grave thinking Braun is the best human being ever, but there's something to be said for people deserving a second chance, which he's rightly been given. . . . I still want him to end up the best-performing Brewers player ever because I believe his ability might just put him in that position -- not because I'm a Braun fanatic (which I'm not, though yes, I do like him a lot as a player) but because the Brewers would be a better team as a result. . . . One could also argue that whatever he took didn't necessarily impact his performance, as his 2012 was arguably better than his MVP 2011, yet in 2012 he was reported to be the most-tested guy in MLB. The moral compass is certainly something that's eroded significantly in our society compared to past generations. But media-influenced knee-jerk reactions and holier-than-thou morality have gained a much bigger place, and I don't think we're better off for that.

Well, the dots I connected made all the sense in the world -- and that may well be why Tunnell switched to #58 -- then Jennings ends up wearing #38. Funny.

Funny that earlier this evening, when they published the Opening Day roster on their Twitter feed, bullpen coach Lee Tunnell was listed as #58 when he's been #43 for a while. I'm a dork about following Brewers uniform numbers, so that caught my attention (no idea why I actually looked at the coaches list). Copying-and-pasting from the coaches roster right now still on Brewers.com: 43 Lee Tunnell Bullpen Coach I looked up Dan Jennings on baseball-reference.com and, sure enough, he's only ever worn #43 in his MLB career. The Brewers obviously knew this was going to happen sooner than anyone let on, not that that should be a surprise.

Not trying to be the jerk here, but I think you might've missed the shortstop !! Yup. I was on the phone w/ my brother by the time I was typing the last 2 lines of the post. I knew something didn't look quite right there. Infielders (7): Cooper, Gantner, Howell, Molitor, Money, Romero, Yount

I would choose a different word for my description. Stearns managed to take an already odd roster construction and make it worse. I know the roster is likely to change within the next week, but it seems we have the only GM in the majors who still values corner outfielders and first basemen. He's collecting them like baseball cards. When baseball cards were a bigger deal, 10- and 11-man pitching staffs were the norm. We're going with an early '90s-style roster! For references' sake, here's the Brewers' 1982 World Series Roster: Pitchers (10): Bernard, Caldwell, Easterly, Haas, Ladd, McClure, Medich, Slaton, Sutton, Vuckovich Catchers (2): Simmons, Yost Infielders (7): Cooper, Gantner, Howell, Molitor, Money, Romero, Yount Outfielders (5): Brouhard, Edwards, Moore, Oglivie, Thomas EDIT: Fixed the dumb mistake caused by multi-tasking (typing while talking w/ my brother) -- Picciolo on the roster, Yount not. Duh. Got stuck on the backups when I mistakenly hadn't finished off the starters.

Where did you see Hoover didn't make it? On the Brewers' official Twitter feed:

Keeping Drake and having Hoover at AAA leaves them deeper and with more options that if Hoover is in MIL and and Drake is cut loose. I'm not advocating for Drake, but this is obviously about preserving depth. If Hoover keeps pitching lights-out in CS, then he'll inevitably earn his way back to MIL. In the meantime, Ariel Pena made the Opening Day roster 2 years ago and was gone by the season's 3rd day. None of this is permanent.

"Traction" can also be with respect to contract talks with a free agent.

Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Cardinals, and Dodgers prospects all seem to start at a higher point in terms of widespread public opinion -- or media hype. It's like Braves prospects in the '90s. Remember how Jose Capellan (R.I.P.) was supposed to have this super high ceiling?

There are 14 position players still around, so at the moment it seems Choi is the odd man out since he's only on a minor-league deal. There are 13 pitchers still around and, as mentioned a few posts up, it seems to be down to Hoover, Williams, and Drake for the last 2 spots.

That's not evidence. No dogma in the world would ever be challenged under this logic. That would be an awful world to live in. I'm sure there are literally hundreds of examples just in my lifetime of where a player should have been traded in the season after they signed a big free agent contract, but wasn't because teams were either too stubborn to admit or a mistake or too slow to recognize changing circumstances. Now that is data you can actually use to guide you. You wanna take a guess as to why wheels are still round? Sometimes something is the way it is because that's the way it works best. There are reasons teams don't do what the Marlins did. It's not like your suggesting some novel line of thought that hasn't been tried. No, poorly run organizations do what you are suggesting. Go ahead and sign a bunch of players to LTCs and then turn around and trade them based on team performance, see how many free agents are willing to sign with you in the future. There are reasons on one wants to play in Miami. This notion that every GM in the history of the game has either been too stubborn or too stupid to see it your way is very convincing and all but your opinion isn't data upon which to make a good decision. To further the point, MJS articles today/tonight again talk about the reason the Brewers went for Cain & Yelich -- not just Yelich -- is that they view both as transformational players . . . meaning they're the whole deal on lots of levels, not to mention major upgrades to the roster. No GM with any brain (or without Jeffrey Loria as their owner forcing them to do so) turns right back around and trades that kind of player if the team stumbles out of the gate because those are likely the guys you rely on a) to turn their own game around more quickly if they're not up to their usual levels, and b) to help lead the team out of its stumbling ways. . . . Phillips (maybe) and Broxton (seemingly less likely) may someday be transformational players, but they're not right now and they both strike out a ton, which is very clearly a problem with last year's offense that Stearns has been trying to move away from.

Coolhandluke wasn't saying 2019, he was saying 2018: I share your desire to see Phillips get an opportunity and do well, but I acknowledge that I am biased in favor of his defense. My heart wants him to be good, but brain keeps telling me he's just a slightly better Kirk. If they stumble out of the gate and Cain waives his no-trade clause, I wouldn't mind dealing him this summer and letting Phillips/Broxton platoon in center.

They've only recently released Lind, and someone noted earlier that may have come after Bird was injured. Anything can happen, but I'd think other scenarios would be more likely than re-signing Lind.

It's not typical of most teams' newspaper beat writers to simply blab any trade/transaction rumors they hear -- at least not in MIL or here in MN, maybe even in the Midwest altogether. If/when a reporter has a scoop, it's possible they may have been asked to keep it quiet or the information may have been shared in an "off the record" conversation. Betraying that confidentiality would seem, at minimum, to jeopardize future scoops and, at worst, make a reporter's working relationship with the team's FO folks extremely difficult, which in turn stands to make it that much more difficult for the beat writer to effectively do their job. In other words, the short term gain may well be grossly outweighed by the long-term consequences. Tom H. calls 'em as he sees 'em, whether based on inside info or not, and he tends to be right a lot more often than he is wrong. He also seems very inclined to report responsibly rather than "pollyanna"-ing every rumor that makes the rounds. If something's gaining enough steam, he's not afraid to allude to it. That sort of slow-moving approach doesn't make us rumor-mongers too happy, but it does make a strong statement about his professional integrity, which in the end is far more worthy of respect. Putting the "definitely considering" tweet together with yesterday's "no 'serious' trade discussions going on" quote of Stearns makes it sound like a significant trade is quite unlikely and if any outside move happens, it's very possible that it'd be underwhelming.

It's pretty easy. Yo's velocity was up last year. And players his age frequently have a couple solid-to-good years left in them. Moyer was pretty crappy until age 30, and didn't start consistently throwing well until age 33. John Lackey? It sounded like Yo was willing to work on things, and I would hope he'd consider signing with the Brewers for some AAA depth on a minor league contract. I'd love to have Yo at CS as a sort of "veteran lottery ticket" if his being there doesn't hinder a viable prospect's chances to develop. I'm not sure his MLB results the past 2 years or even this spring are going to gain him a spot at this point on anyone's MLB 25-man roster.