Point Beer Is Best

Another wrinkle in the Brown drama is his $2.5M Roster Bonus. The bonus is due to Brown if he's on a roster as of the 5th day of the new league year (March 17th). The Steelers have asked that Brown delay this date to allow them more time to evaluate trade offers. Brown has refused. Per the contract, the roster bonus won't actually be paid out on March 17th. It will be paid out in 17 weekly installments during the 2019 season. What this means is that whoever has Brown's rights as of those in-season weeks will be obligated to pay the bonus to Brown from a CASH accounting standpoint, but if Brown is still with the Steelers as of March 17th that bonus will still count against their salary cap for 2019 despite not having any cash obligation towards Brown if they trade him subsequent to that date. So Brown is basically exerting this as leverage to paint the Steelers into a corner since it will cost them an additional $2.5M in salary cap space if they don't trade him by March 17th.

I think the Jets are looking at what the Colts did to them last year and are saying, "Oh yeah - that was way smarter than what we did." Prior to the 2018 draft, the Jets sent picks #6, #37, #49 plus a 2019 2nd rounder (#34 this year) to the Colts to leap two teams to move up to #3. That's an expensive price tag. It may all be worth it if the Jets found a franchise QB in Darnold, but the Colts had one heck of a draft in 2018 and have an extra 2nd to play with this year as well. Bottom line - I wouldn't trade 12 & 30 to move up to #3. Maybe if your guy is there around #8 and you want to send pick 44 to move up from 12... I can at least understand it. I think there are too many holes on the roster to be trading up unless they determine that there are really only 8 or so blue-chip players in the draft.

We've had this discussion before a few times, and it's hotly debated. My opinion - you have people that absolutely love the Ball-in-Glove and others who prefer the Barley (either because they think the old logo is living in the past or its just personal preference). So from a marketing perspective, why on earth would they ever declare one over the other? The confusion over which is the preferred logo works so well in terms of merchandise sales. What they're doing now is the best of both worlds.

And if the Giants sign Harper, we'll likely have to credit Smash Mouth with breaking the news.

We did the same thing - it was basically free. But we also have YouTubeTV so it's pretty redundant. I don't really use it other than to watch Teen Titans Go on demand with my kids.

With Moose being signed to play 2B and Shaw covering 3B, has Lowrie requested a position change yet?

Can't wait to hear back reports on the facility from fans when games start. It sounds phenomenal from the players perspective, so hopefully the fan experience will be top-notch as well. I know a major concern some fans had going into the renovation was that the access to players at Maryvale was unmatched and many were hoping that would be maintained.

First we had the "Brewers signing Grandal is everything that is wrong with free agency" article, so naturally there is a follow up with the same argument after Moose agreed to terms: https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2019/2/17/18228655/mike-moustakass-brewers-royals-free-agency-middle-tier-revenue-offseason

I'm still a believer that they have a finite amount of resources in terms of payroll that is not strongly correlated to the increase in franchise value over the past 10 years. That being said:

That's where I'm at. I think they are still eyeing someone like Dallas Keuchel as being worth an investment to improve the group, but signing someone like Miley at the expense of having one of Burnes/Woodruff/Peralta in the rotation wasn't seen as worthwhile.

That is what I thought too. Except based on 2018 that would mean only one team is paying the lux tax. If that were the case I would have guess that he would have said something like "29 teams have room under the lux tax to add payroll." I singled out the most eggregious But yeah 28 teams are under. 20 are wayyyyyyy the hell under. Why arent fans mad? Josh, you can't claim collusion without solid evidence in the same way you can't claim a small market MLB club could afford to spend up to the luxury tax threshold without evidence. The Luxury tax is a mechanism to prevent large market teams from using their resources to create super teams. Ironically it's the MLBPA's fault for allowing that to happen in the last CBA. They allowed the owners to put harsher tax penalties in, foolishly thinking that the large market teams would pay the tax (which would be redistributed to small market teams to then further spend on player salaries), but the large market teams are treating the luxury tax threshold as a hard salary cap. From their perspective, why go over the tax threshold to make their teams marginally better while then paying smaller market teams to be competitive? If anything, claim that large market teams are "colluding" against small market teams by limiting their share of revenues. Plus, it's just factual that these large multi-year contracts to superstars fail considerably more than they pan out. So why would they keep doing that? That's the definition of insanity. Mark A. has never given me the impression he wants to make huge profits off the team - he definitely wants to be competitive on an annual basis. But as several people have pointed out in other threads, just because an asset appreciates significantly over a span of 10 years does not mean that revenues/cash flows increase accordingly. A much better indicator of what a team has available to spend on payroll is their individual TV contracts. You will find a much stronger correlation there between TV revenue and player payroll. For that reason, I've always felt that whatever the payroll ends up being, that's right where Mark is comfortable with with some wiggle room to make a step-change acquisition - but not something like a $3-400M contract. That's not something this market could sustain.

Mike Smith (no, not that one) is the new OLB coach and Alvis Whitted (coached at CSU) is the new WR coach. I've recently began listening to Andy Herman's (@SconnieSports) Pack-a-Day podcast, and they had on a guy who writes for a Chiefs blog (Arrowhead Pride, I think). He said that although Bob Sutton's defense was terrible, the pass rush was the lone bright spot (the group that Smith was responsible for) and he had been hoping Smith would have been retained and promoted to DC. Smith and Dee Ford (a pending FA, but likely to be franchise tagged) are extremely close. If Ford is allowed to test the market, I could see him ending up here at EDGE. A guy can dream. The last major hire that remains is Special Teams coordinator. They had Darren Rizzi (well respected coach) in for an interview. Based on what Tom Silverstein wrote, Rizzi had a number in mind for a contract and the Packers didn't meet it initially. A few days later, they made him an offer for what he was looking for, but Rizzi withdrew from consideration at that time. I don't like the optics of that. As of now, the leading contender for the position seems to be Vanderbilt's Shawn Mennenga for the position. Mennenga had spent 7 years in Cleveland working as an assistant under Chris Tabor (Tabor was an assistant to legendary ST coach Dave Toub in Chicago), so if you connect the dots there it's likely that LaFleur got the recommendation to interview Mennenga from Kyle Shanahan (LaFleur's mentor) who was the OC in Cleveland while Mennenga was on that staff.

I was on the fence with Keuchel, but after seeing his stats stay pretty consistent through the first three times through a batting order I'm sold. If he could be had on a 3 year deal, then go for it.

Agree with the notion that if you just plucked these guys as-is and placed them into present day competition, they would be overwhelmed. They got by on natural talent. Weight-training was taboo or misunderstood, and nutrition science was in its infancy. That being said, I'm not sure that some of those guys would have been willing to put in the work to better themselves. Training is what makes naturally good athletes great, and what makes even better athletes elite. Don Hutson was the best WR the NFL ever saw until Jerry Rice. Given that he was so far above his peers athletically (albeit in an NFL that consisted mostly of white players), given the proper training and nutrition regimen I think he could play in today's NFL. Same for a guy like Jim Thorpe. Now, Babe Ruth? I don't know, man. He doesn't strike me as the type of guy who would suddenly become a gym rat, but maybe he had the elite bat speed that could still play. Honestly he could just as easily be Brooks Kieschnick as he could David Ortiz.

"Gruber Lawffices Field." So if a Brewer hits a home run, will they refer to is as an *AmFam Slam? *Trademark pending

I didn't want to start a new thread since at this point it's just a rumor that I can't find substantiation for online yet. A coworker said he just got a text from his friend who works at Miller. Apparently they are NOT going to renew the stadium naming rights after the current deal ends after 2020. It will instead be "American Family Insurance" Park/Stadium. Again - totally a rumor, and haven't seen anything substantiating it, but thought I'd throw it out there. It seems CRAZY so I'm not even putting too much belief in it.

It's really hard to predict what will happen with Crosby, other than I don't see them carrying his cap number for 2019 ($4.85M) which is also the last year of his deal. I could just as easily see them extend his contract by 2 years (lowering his cap number) rather than cutting him loose. You at least need to have camp competition. And the best way to extend a FG kicker's life is to find a punter who is capable of handling kickoffs.

They must have been busy watching the Brewers when they got eliminated. They also saw firsthand what Tampa Bay was doing (even more extreme with their "opener" strategy), and while the Rays failed to make the playoffs, they exceeded predictions by a sizable margin with their bullpen strategy.

And now the Jags have just hired DeFillipo as their new OC.

I believe we basically offered the same thing as the Bears. Raiders thought their draft picks would be better.....they chose poorly. Funny thing is that when the Cowboys traded for Cooper, they were currently sitting at the 10th overall draft pick before they went on their run to win the division. That draft pick ended up falling all the way to #27.

I wouldn't discount him as coming in as a QB coach. Getting fired as an first-year OC probably won't land him another OC gig this year.. Just pointing out that a mid-season firing didn’t stop Hackett from landing another OC job. Jaguars offense was significantly worse after they fired Hackett, whereas the Vikings improved after DeFillipo was fired.

He's making far more this season than he would have in any of the seasons under the Met's contract by a considerable amount. 3.25mil is a considerable amount? He gambled $41.75mil for a 7% raise this year....that sounds, less than ideal. Grandal probably breaks even next offseason if he takes the highest offer (probably 3/$40mil). Any issues this year and it was a hefty mistake. He also cited winning and ST location, but I am guessing that was a decision long after the Mets offer when the multi year deals were more like $40mil total where $18mil over one year made more sense. The rumored deal with the Mets was that the deal was more like 4/$50M ($12.5M AAV) but could be worth up to $60M if incentives were achieved ($15M AAV). If you consider this deal with MKE to effectively be 1/$18.25... then yes, that was considerably more money. It's at least 20% higher in terms of AAV, although with less security. But, from a labor perspective, they measure contract values from an AAV perspective and for the best free agent catcher to hit the open market in years to take a deal in the $12.5-15M AAV range when McCann ($17M AAV) and Martin ($16.4M AAV) signed superior deals 5 years ago sets the position WAY back in terms of value. He's making a sacrifice while also gambling on having a huge year to get a better deal next year.

I wouldn't discount him as coming in as a QB coach. Getting fired as an first-year OC probably won't land him another OC gig this year. Also of note that the Vikings brought in Gary Kubiak (and his son) as a coaching assistant (they had already kept on their OC who succeeded DeFillipo).

Exactly. Never say never, but mutual options are almost never exercised by both sides. Grandal still gets his $18+ M, while the Brewers maintain a bit more payroll flexibility this year for additional moves.

maybe middle infielders is the new market inefficiency. [sarcasm]I figured it out. Cashman asked for Hiura in exchange for Sonny Gray, and Stearns told them he was off limits and that he was planning on signing a stop-gab 2B to bridge the gap in between outbursts of laughter. Cashman hung up the phone and said, "I'll show him... I'll show them all!" and proceeded to sign ALL the free agent 2B out of pure spite.[/sarcasm]