Point Beer Is Best

If the Browns actually do covet Barkley (I’m not convinced), this is a big win for them. They can take their preferred QB at 1 and Barkley will almost assuredly still be there at 4. NYG will get a kings ransom from a team like the Bills to move into #2 for a QB. The Bills would likely have to give picks 12, 22 and next year’s first to move up to #2.

Tramon Williams is also very familiar with Pettine’s scheme from their time in Cleveland. And he’s better than Revis at this point in their careers. But I wouldn’t be opposed if they signed both. I think they took a shot with Fuller, but they were never going to extremely overpay him in order for the Bears to let him walk. I think they were just taking the chance that maybe the Bears weren’t all in on him and forced them to commit. Had they been able to steal Fuller, that would have probably removed CB from consideration while simultaneously creating a CB need for Chicago which would have increased the chance the Bears took a CB and pushed another position down to #14. I don’t think Mathieu or EJ Gaines were/are in consideration since Gutekunst has said they will stick to the Ron Wolf DB threshold of 5’10”. I get that line of thinking with the draft, but I think you have to bend that rule on NFL vets who have proven they can play. Especially when you have a severe lack of talent at the position. Ultimately I think they sign Tramon Williams (still a good player who also knows the defense), maybe another vet and then 2 fairly high picks on DBs. Ugh, especially if they let Burnett walk too. Who knows, maybe Gutey will shock us all with a Patrick Peterson trade.

I agree. Packers offer was for two years, but only around $9 million. Easy to see why he took the Raiders' deal. Betting on himself, though. This sounds just like a Ted Thompson offer to me........if they don't get Matthieu this is quickly becoming a debacle. Honey Badger just signed a one year deal with the Texans. For just $7M.

Packers draft class will cost around $8M in "cash" to sign, but only half of that will likely impact the salary cap. Only the top 51 salaries are considered for cap purposes, so those guys signing after the 3rd round are basically making the same dollars as your lowest-salaried guys currently on the top 51. Not sure what they'll do with Cobb, but I'd rather see them extend Matthews than cut him. Hasn't been much activity in FA on EDGE players, and LB salaries are down compared to CB (right now would be a really bad time to have a good young CB you'd want to extend, with these 8-figure per year deals being handed out to that position group). Could free up some cap space with a 2-3 year extension and see what he can do in this defense. No, it's not the cash signing bonus. That $8MM+ is the cap hit. That's according to Sportrac at least, that's the only source I know. Lowest salaried guys will be the undrafted FA, they won't count on the cap. But yea, that sounded like a high number to me but that's what Sportrac is estimating. You misunderstand me. I'm not talking about the signing bonus, I was talking about what their cap number CALCULATED vs what ACTUALLY hits the salary cap. I can assure you that $9.3M estimated by Spotrac isn't going to be the cap hit. The cap calculation only takes the top 51 cap numbers into consideration. Based on the numbers on Spotrac (haven't checked Over The Cap but I prefer OTC), only their first 6 draft picks would count towards the cap since final 6 picks would not make enough money to crack the top 51 salaries, and the 6 draft picks that do count would replace players currently in the calculation. The first 6 draft picks are estimated to count $6,264,226 towards the cap, and would replace 6 players currently making $480,000 against the cap calc ($2,880,000) meaning the project ACTUAL salary cap impact of signing their draft class is estimated to be $3,384,226 - much less than $9.3M.

Packers draft class will cost around $8M in "cash" to sign, but only half of that will likely impact the salary cap. Only the top 51 salaries are considered for cap purposes, so those guys signing after the 3rd round are basically making the same dollars as your lowest-salaried guys currently on the top 51. Not sure what they'll do with Cobb, but I'd rather see them extend Matthews than cut him. Hasn't been much activity in FA on EDGE players, and LB salaries are down compared to CB (right now would be a really bad time to have a good young CB you'd want to extend, with these 8-figure per year deals being handed out to that position group). Could free up some cap space with a 2-3 year extension and see what he can do in this defense.

One more season. They almost certainly would have declined his 5th year option. In exchange they move up modestly in two of the mid rounds (including the 1st pick of Day 3), for 3 years of DeShone Kizer. The only thing I don't like about this trade is that it makes a weakness even weaker (which hasn't yet been addressed), but they were going to have to do something anyways considering this was going to be Randall's last year in GB regardless.

From what I can tell, here's the contract saga for Greg Holland over the past 15 months: - January 2017: Signs a 2 year deal (1 year with either a mutual or player option) with the Rockies, which had a maximum value of $35M. He was guaranteed $6M in 2017 base salary, with an additional $8M in incentives possible. By my calculations, since he made 61 appearances and finished 58 games, he reached all of them for a total of $14M for 2017. - Holland had reached the milestones to trigger his player option on the 2018 contract (would have been $15M), but he declined, and collected the $1M buyout. - Rockies extended the Qualifying Offer, which Holland also declined. - Rockies (reportedly) offer Holland a 3 year, $52M ($17.3M AAV) contract which Holland declined. - Rockies offer the same deal to Wade Davis, who accepts it during the time period when relievers are getting really good money. - March 2018: Holland is still unemployed.

3 years, $75M.

This from Al Bethke’s blog. Good grief.

The only surprise for me is that he actually admitted he was a charlatan. Like others have said, it just didn’t fit the pattern of someone with actual inside info. It was *too much* info, while also being vague and/or throwing out lots of names. The biggest tip offs for me were that he was incredibly thin-skinned (yet he kept coming back), and then would take a victory lap if he ended up being correct.

The Princess Bride came out in 1987. When I saw you didn't get the reference, I had assumed to you too young for that movie to have entered your pop culture repertoire.

If you're using wifi instead of a hard-wired ethernet line, you'll never top out at the speed listed. But it shouldn't be THAT much below.

Did anyone confirm that they actually did this? The 2/$20M offer was mentioned by KCBrewerfan34 here viewtopic.php?p=1087912#p1087912 viewtopic.php?p=1088041#p1088041 You're just quoting another poster who appeared to be repeating something he had heard and couldn't confirm it. I have yet to see anybody report that this offer ever existed.

The most attractive thing (for us) with DirecTV is frankly the DVR. Being able to watch whatever we want when we want. Also the ability to pause and rewind live TV. We currently pay about $75 a month. Any of the options mentioned above provide DVR capability? Or is it mainly using Hulu or other services that provide most shows with an on-demand streaming function?

He just tweeted that he's going to delete his account and no longer provide information anywhere now that (allegedly) the Brewers front office is aware of the information being leaked and must protect his source...

How much do you think that he regrets turning down the Brewers' final contract extension offer before the trade? I’m pretty sure he approached the team the offseason or two prior to the trade about wanting an extension and he was turned down since there was no interest from the team.

Older vets get the huge deals because they were underpaid during their prime. They were underpaid in their prime because teams have control over them for their first 6 years and can suppress their value. Their value is suppressed in order for teams with limited financial means to be able to afford a star player or two, albeit briefly. Those teams have limited financial means (when comparing to the other major sports leagues) because there is not a true revenue sharing agreement. There is not a true revenue sharing agreement because each team negotiates their own TV contracts, as opposed to the NFL where it is very easily done at the league level. That last sentence, in my opinion, is the root of the issue. We can talk about early arbitration, salary floors and anything else to help even out the pay for the players, but that doesn't address the root cause. How will teams in smaller markets survive? Their whole business model depends on acquiring young, cost-controlled players for a reason. They are not on an even playing field economically. If the NY Giants offered a huge contract to a star free agent, the Green Bay Packers could easily match it (as well as any other team in the league for that matter). There is pretty much zero chance the Brewers could match an offer to a star player if the NY Yankees were in pursuit. The deals the teams have with the regional sports networks are their #1 source of revenue and cause of the disparity between the haves and have-nots. The Luxury Tax was the first attempt at curbing the spending by the high-revenue teams, but with no penalties for tanking and no salary floor (which you cannot have without equal revenue sharing), you end up with this exact predicament. If the high-revenue clubs weren't going to spend like drunken sailors on free agents... who will? The small/mid-market franchises had to learn a long time ago that those types of deals were foolish. Looking back, it's almost hilarious how predictable this outcome should have been.

Ken Rosenthal mentioned Cotton as a target for the Brewers just a couple of days ago, but the speculation was that it would cost Santana. Broxton seems way too low of an offer for Cotton.

From what I understand, players can only generate one qualifying offer and hence draft pick for their entire career. So the Brewers couldn't do a QO and get a draft pick for Arrieta, since he would have already been through that. BUT if he would agree to 2/$49.5M, with say 30 upfront and an opt-out after, then the Brewers would get the draft pick. Doesn't sound like that's very likely, though. CORRECT (part in bold). This was a huge change with the QO system and the current CBA that was agreed to. Since teams were valuing higher draft picks (& the slotted bonus money), the MLBPA did not want to see the same players get impacted multiple times while other players never had a cost association. Since Jake got a QO from the Cubs this off season, he never has to worry about a QO again... And since he was traded mid season, if Darvish opts out after two years, that means the Cubs could offer the QO and receive a draft pick.

This type of thinking is why fans of small market teams hate fans/media from large markets. "They have to get rid of him and they want to shed payroll so they will just take our leftovers." How is it do you suppose that the Rays acquired Odorizzi in the first place? Their whole business model depends on acquiring high value mlb ready prospects with plenty of team control remaining to replace the established players they are dealing away. They're not dealing guys like Archer or Odorizzi without getting multiple players who project to be MLB starters. I think they would probably ask for Santana & Woodruff as a starting point for Odorizzi. Which is way too much. If they were just going to give him away for Diplan & Dubon, that deal would have been done in December.

I would expect Kepler and Santana to have close to similar values, as 25-year-old corner outfielders. Kepler's offensive numbers didn't come close to what Santana did last season, but he is considered an above-average defender in the corner outfield, which does make up for that to a point. Perhaps Santana profiles as a little bit better run producer and power hitter. This article speculates that Kepler for Archer straight-up is a fair trade. http://twinstrivia.com/2018/02/08/should-max-kepler-be-traded-for-pitching/ Heck, if that's the case, the Brewers should be able to get Fulmer straight up for Santana. I would imagine the Rays are asking for Burnes from the Brewers and Royce Lewis from the Twins, otherwise a trade would have occurred by now.

Didn’t Al used to be a fixture of this site, posting under the username “Dad of Andrew” or something like that? This is going back probably 15 years.

At least if we acquired him now, we could still offer him a QO after the season and recover a draft pick if he leaves. But yeah, one year of Corbin is not nearly enough for Santana.

I’m still holding out hope for the DH Rule to become universal, in which case we’d be sitting pretty.

Rosenthal is reporting that Boras has met with the DBacks owner this week, trying to get them to sign JDM. We’re officially in the stage of the offseason where Boras goes right around the GMs.