trwi7

To hopefully put it to bed once and for all here is a Phil Wittliff interview about Milwaukee's expansion bid. The expansion talk is about 15 minutes in but the whole interview is interesting. If you don't want to watch it here are the highlights. The Bradley Center opened the same year the Admirals became the affiliate of the Canucks. It was built to keep the Bucks in Milwaukee. Milwaukee had a very good chance of getting an NHL team. Wittliff went on a trip with the Canucks to Buffalo and Quebec. The two reasons he went were to meet with the Canucks as the Admirals were the farm club but also meet with the owners of the Sabres and Nordiques because they were both on the expansion committee (he watched the game in Quebec from the owner's office.) Wittliff and the Pettits thought the expansion fee was going to be $30 million and the Quebec owner told him it was going to be $50 million. After he told the Pettits and Joe Tierney the expansion fee was going to be $50 million they looked at the expansion draft procedures and realized they were going to have a bad team. They never got as far as a negotiation with Chicago. They assumed Chicago would ask for some compensation but it never got far enough where Chicago said they wanted it because the Pettits withdrew their application. After Milwaukee withdrew their application there were only two cities left, Ottawa and Tampa. Sidenote: Tampa made the playoffs in their 4th season but missed in 9 of their first 10 seasons. They won their first playoff series in their 11th season and won the Stanley Cup in their 12th season. Ottawa made the playoffs in their 5th season (after a combined record of 51-260-38 in their first 4 seasons) and made the playoffs 11 straight seasons after their first 4 seasons.

They wouldn't have had to rely on 4th down, they take the 3 points there and then give the ball to the Bears with 3 minutes left, all 3 of their timeouts and the 2 minute warning. Rodgers has been unnecessarily conservative this year but when the time came to lean more to the conservative side he decided to try to force a throw and got burned.

The ball didn't go through his hands. The ball was so far behind him that Smith was able to get his hands between Graham's hands and tip it.

I took it to mean that his pitch arsenal wasn't working anymore and he wasn't going to be anything more than random minor league roster filler if he didn't change it hence he worked really hard in the offseason to come up with a cutter to help neutralize right handed hitters.

Some random women's team that nobody is going to care about.

The typo in the title is really bothering me.

I loved the Rogers for Broxton/Supak deal. I was one of the few defending the Lind trade. I thought I've been pretty clear about this. I felt we had a window where ownership and the fan base was willing to be bad for a couple years and we had the opportunity to stack our farm system and really set ourselves up for close to a decade. I feel we should've taken advantage of that window. Right now I see a team that's fairly close to hitting its payroll ceiling, it has two outfielders that are in their mid 30s and it doesn't have a good farm system to either get cheap talent from within or use to improve in trades. It's mostly worked out fine but it's frustrating to me because it's not what I would've done with the opportunity that I felt ownership was willing to give.

"It's so disappointing to have posters have a different opinion than me."

We went almost $400,000 over slot to sign Turang.

What the hell does this have to do with anything?

In order to generate "extra bonus pool money", they have to draft a player that isn't worth that slot. They have to draft a player that is more like #60 in order to sign him for below-slot value to generate extra money to sign other picks. What's the track record for the #60 overall selection in the draft? Micah Bello was the #73 pick in the draft. In order to generate the $275K in "extra bonus pool money", they had to pick a guy who signed for $550K which is the #102 slot value. They got a late 3rd round value player, not a late 2nd round value player. Baseball America had Bello ranked #121 overall. They don't get the #39 player in the draft and extra bonus pool money. They get either the #39 player, or a lower-rated player and extra bonus pool money. Uhh no. They could have a guy ranked like 15th on their board that falls to around 27 or wherever we're picking and use the bonus slot from 40 to draft him and pay him extra. You would have to go cheaper later in the draft but you could potentially get a player much higher on your board than you would otherwise be able to without that draft slot.

So you're dismissing the possibility that they might see an adjustment that can make him effective against RHB? Did you complain about the Miley signing as well? Until he makes whatever adjustment you think he can make, he is still just a LOOGY. A LOOGY is a guy that should not be used against RHB unless he's the only one left or it's a blowout. That's what his numbers suggest to me. I don't want him facing batters who turn into George Springer or Michael Conforto against him which is what a .340 wOBA would be. He's going to be like the 5th best option at best to face a RHB in our bullpen at any given time. Xavier Cedeno has almost the exact same line as Claudio does against RHB and nobody would call him anything but a LOOGY.

He is not good at getting right handed batters out. He is therefore a LOOGY.

vs RHP .313/.357/.440 You can try to sugarcoat it all you want but with those numbers, he is 100% a LOOGY.

This is such a tiny upgrade over Xavier Cedeno that the cost certainly has to be factored in. I'll take a slightly worse LOOGY and keep the pick. The value of a LOOGY is fairly small anyways.

I think at minimum Hiura or Burnes would need to be in there, maybe both. The D'Backs would be far better off piecing them out separately and then paying down Greinke's contract to the point where they get a good return.

That is terrible for the D'Backs. They trade probably their 3 best remaining assets, give $20 million, take on money for players we don't want and the best prospect/player they get in return is either Peralta or Santana?

Same goes for you following me around in every thread telling me I hated every Stearns move (I haven't.) It's pretty darn close. Between this board and the other one you hated Cain, Yelich, Chacin, Schoop [good job], Moustakas, and probably several other non-moves off the top of my head. The track record isn't great, so maybe temper the hyperbole on how bad these trades are and maybe people won't keep following you around? Are we really putting Cain in the win column in year 1 of a 5 year deal for a soon to be 33 year old that relies on speed? And are we really counting Moustakas as a win? He was fairly average for like 3 months. Now I don't think we're going to regret giving up Phillips but I think Lopez can still be decent.

Same goes for you following me around in every thread telling me I hated every Stearns move (I haven't.)

Why does it have to be worst case scenario? We found out he was hurt immediately which torpedoed his value and it took him much longer to come back from the injury than it normally does. What if we had spent that 40th pick on Triston McKenzie who went two picks later instead? Would you trade one of the top prospects in baseball for three years of a cost-controlled relief specialist?

I said what that player could potentially get in a trade as well as long as he doesn't tank in the first few years. Go back a few years so the players drafted around that range had a chance to establish themselves. 2015 saw Triston McKenzie drafted 42nd overall. 2014 saw A.J. Reed go in the same spot and as a college bat he moved pretty quickly and got into the top 100 on some lists (this is where the prospect has more value than the reliever). Knebel was the 39th pick in 2013 ironically enough. Mitch Haniger, Joey Gallo and Lance McCullers were all drafted between 38 and 41 in 2012. Jackie Bradley Jr., Michael Fulmer and Trevor Story were between 40 and 45 in 2011. Noah Syndergaard was 38th in 2010, Taijuan Walker and Nick Castellanos were 43 and 44. Or, what if a player expected to go in the top 10 or 15 drops to the Brewers first pick. Since they have that extra money from the competitive balance pick, they can take that money and sign that player that they never thought would get to them. There are a lot of ways that pick could be better used than what we used it on.

You never know if any reliever is going to have a good season. That's the nature of relievers which is why I hate trading for them. Knebel went from one of the best relievers in baseball in 2017 to a pumpkin for most of 2018. Blake Treinen was banished from the Nats in 2017 and was the best reliever in baseball in 2018. Adam Ottavino went from negative fWAR in 2017 to one of the best relievers in baseball in 2018. Yes, but they're still 10x more reliable than draft picks Draft picks, especially ones that high that can get a team that much extra bonus pool money are a lot more valuable than relievers. And if you keep the pick chances are that pick is going to have higher value than the reliever as long as they don't burn out in the minors within the first couple of years. Piss off.

You never know if any reliever is going to have a good season. That's the nature of relievers which is why I hate trading for them. Knebel went from one of the best relievers in baseball in 2017 to a pumpkin for most of 2018. Blake Treinen was banished from the Nats in 2017 and was the best reliever in baseball in 2018. Adam Ottavino went from negative fWAR in 2017 to one of the best relievers in baseball in 2018. Don't pay for relievers as free agents (unless they're cheap/available on short term deals) or in trades.

Luis Avilan had a higher fWAR than Claudio last year and is available for only money. I CAN PLAY THIS GAME TOO!

We've been selling off prospects for two years and not replacing them with anyone except in the draft where we lose picks due to free agent signings and have low bonus pools but you think he's going to come in and get us a pick?