Are the Brewers going to make any significant moves?

They aren’t going to spend the money given concerns with pandemic

and now I have to hate Nolan Arenado

Winning the division was already a tall task before the Arenado move.  Clearly STL is going all in.  The Brewers?  They are going all in - on pinching pennies and picking guys up off the scrap heap.  More of the same only 5x worse with economic uncertainty given C19.  

The Brewers are hoping that Avisail Garcia reverts back to his one great year in 2017. They owe him 11 million this upcoming year. His OBP was 659 last year.

They are hoping that Yelich, Hiura, Garcia, and Cain are all-star level players.

Their pitching might be the best it's been in a decade and now they have huge deficiencies in their starting lineup.

Hoping they can land Jose Ramirez, would be a great get.

Do we really want to talk about giving up starting pitching for a 3rd baseman?   I’d love Ramirez too, I just don’t think we have the farm to pull it off

Hader is the guy they would need to move to get a decent player or two back in return.   The Padres and Yankees seem to be the most logical suitors, but there could be other teams out there.

I would think Cain is also a guy that could be on the move simply by virtue of his 16MM salary this year and next.

If the Brewers do not intend to add salary then they have to deal Hader and probably Cain as well because that’s the only way they can fill the holes.

Fansided had an article discussing what players the Brewers might trade for Ramirez, none of which were current starting pitchers.

So we trade to fill holes only to make new holes. Makes perfect sense to me.

So Huira?  Cleveland would have plenty of suitors for Ramirez, I can't imagine the price is low

Farm system. Read the fansided article.

The simple fact is barring some disaster by the Cardinals the division is theirs to lose.  Yes, I think the Cubs should still be competitive but Cincy has improved and I worry about the Brewers and their ability to score runs.  1B and 3B in particular are a mess, but that could be addressed via trade as I doubt they are going to spend money in FA.

@tsr86free posted:

Farm system. Read the fansided article.

the fanside article you never linked?  Super

iPhone won’t let me link it. Search Jose Ramirez Brewers and you’d be likely to find it. Doesn’t seem like they’re going to do anything, anyway.

Why not! I rocked in Birmingham pic.twitter.com/CGtxlOm0Cf

— JAE (@flhpi04) February 3, 2021

Well at least defense at second base is likely to be exponentially better. Kolten Wong signed with Milwaukee today and is coming off consecutive Gold Glove wins.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story...ree-deal-source-says

You can’t go Wong!

What about Hiura?

@Blair Kiel posted:

You can’t go Wong!

What about Hiura?

Maybe 1B or just let him DH?

If Cain is back, the defense up the middle with Arcia, Wong, and Cain might be the best in the league.

With the move you would think that Hiura goes to another position (maybe 1B) because Wong is an exceptional defensive player.   Unless there is some plan to trade Hiura?  

Hope not.

Guy could hit .340 someday.

I doubt they would because he’s cheap and can hit - and he’s under team control for a while.   Yes, he’s pretty much horrible defensively but he should be a .280-.300 hitter every year and in a band box like Milwaukee 20-25 HRs as well.  The Brewers would never get back equal return for him.

@Blair Kiel posted:

Hope not.

Guy could hit .340 someday.

I'm split on Hiura. Whether he's an offensive superstar or just a good hitter long term will probably come down to learning plate discipline at the major league level. In terms of a position, I think you either have to DH him or hide him at 1B. He can't be any worse than Prince Fielder was there, but his lack of height does hurt.

He's played 142 MLB games and has an offensive WAR of 3.0 even with an off-year last year. In that same timeframe, he has a defensive WAR of -1.1. He's still a net positive, but you'd still have to replace him for late-inning defense in any relevant situation at any place outside of 1B. 

The plate discipline thing may come as he's still young, and he didn't strike out an inordinately high amount in the minors. His last full year in the minors was 2018 and he had 535 plate appearances and struck out 103 times with 36 walks. In his major league career, he's had 594 plate appearances and struck out 192 times against only 41 walks. Those stats suggest he chases a lot of ball outside the strike zone. Compare him to a power hitter like Gorman Thomas was. Gorman would be thought of more highly in the Moneyball era because while he did strike out 175 times in one of the years he led the majors in HRs (45 in 1979) he did it while also walking 98 times.

The worry is that sometimes these types of guys get to the majors and get scouted in detail and they find out that they can't hit a specific type of pitch and they regress to being average or below very quickly.

Hiura will always be valued more with a team like the Brewers because of his contract situation.  Even if he regresses.

The problem I see is if they find a real 1B his options are limited with no DH.  I’m not sure if he could play some OF but infield positions are not good given his deficiencies.

I’d like to think it was just a down year for him because he’s got top notch hitting skills and has done so at every level.  Other players (like Yelich) were down in 2020 also so I’m hopeful it’s an outlier.  If he can replicate 2019 it will go a long way - along with Yelich.

Keston has to be the 1st basemen, but Kolton will be hurt for 40 games, so there will be plenty of opportunity for Keston to Ryan Braun 2nd. 

Apparently the Wong deal is a 2 year deal for $18 million with a $8 million club option for 2023.

Kolton is better than David Wright and Clyde Wright (old guys, remember him for the Crew?)

Ergo, two Wrights don't make a Wong.

Sorry.

Or his cousin Sum Ting, who was a pilot involved in that tragic Asiana Airlines flight crash a few years back...

Brewers made a run at Justin Turner?  Damn

Don't know where tt was reported, but if so, I like their (potential) aggressiveness. With this pitching staff, scoring 4 runs a game will win a lot of games.

Another move. This one for an outfielder with a 194 career average

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story...blue-jays-cash-ptbnl

https://www.baseball-reference...rs/f/fishede01.shtml

Spring ball tickets went on sale today, I Duck Ducked  cheapest seats,  pack of 4 outfield lawn seats  $ 12 bucks.

Jackie Bradley now on the list... if they do, that means Cain might be on the move. I’m sure the Brewers brass isn’t happy he opted out last season- could have used him in the playoffs.

Josh Hader to San Diego rumors are also heating up.  

The Padres are one of the rare teams that has both MLB ready players now and several top tier minor league prospects to deal.  If Slam Diego wants to officially close the gap with the Dodgers that move could do it.   Milwaukee could also use the opportunity to dump Cain’s remaining 2 years.

With the emergence of Devin Williams there’s never been a better time to trade Hader than now.   I don’t see his value increasing over time and the Padres are set to win now.  Hader could also fetch them back at least one starting player and one dominant minor league prospect if not more.

@Tschmack posted:

I don’t see his value increasing over time and the Padres are set to win now.

Well, the Brewers are, too. They have a young and dangerous pitching staff, a former (should be 2-time) MVP, and a number of strong complimentary players. With their staff, they need to be looking at a win now kinda mentality too...

Go all in?  🤔

The Brewers are not in the same situation as San Diego.  Or LA.  They throw a lot of shit (usually cheap or discounted) against the wall and hope it sticks.

The Dodgers are the new age Yankees.  Out spend everyone.  The Padres tore it all down and struck gold on several young prospects are adding a lot of salary for a 3-4 year run.

As a reference, the Padres payroll is 2x that of Milwaukee.  They will never spent 160MM.

That’s a lot of millimeters

@Pikes Peak posted:

Go all in?  🤔

So they are signing JJ Watt?

@Tschmack posted:

The Brewers are not in the same situation as San Diego.  Or LA.  They throw a lot of shit (usually cheap or discounted) against the wall and hope it sticks.

The Dodgers are the new age Yankees.  Out spend everyone.  The Padres tore it all down and struck gold on several young prospects are adding a lot of salary for a 3-4 year run.

As a reference, the Padres payroll is 2x that of Milwaukee.  They will never spent 160MM.

The Dodgers have 3 starting pitchers making 31 million a year and a closer making 20 million. 111 million for 4 pitchers.

The Brewers entire staff makes about 20 million.