If the Brewers miss the playoffs....

[Fear The Chorizo]

Their long-term failure to develop front line pitching is what has held them back from taking that next step-- well of course it has. Does anyone honestly disagree with that?

 

Since Jopal keeps referencing the Cubs and their true tear-down / rebuild, all I'd want to know is where are their developed front line pitching is - both the year they won the WS and right now. There is zero, since they either bought it or paid hansomely for it via trade. Baez, Almora, Bryant, Schwarber, and Happ were drafted 9th, 6th, 2nd, 4th, and 9th overall in the 2011-2015 drafts - and Contreras was a former 16-yr old international signee during the Jim Hendry/Lou Pinella regime working his way through the minors at the same time. That's simply hitting on several high draft picks in succession (picks made by multiple GM's, Baez was a Hendry pick) while having a mix of high school, collegiate, and international picks in and around the same age to come up together. When you think about it, the Brewers did much the same thing with the likes of Fielder, Weeks, Hardy, Braun, Hart, etc. To me the Cubs' rebuild mirrors what Milwaukee did in the early-mid 2000's, only that once they were ready they had vastly more financial and prospect resources to buy the veteran pitching needed to win it all.

 

Further the team has already called up their top pitching prospects, Burnes, Peralta, Taylor Williams, so there is no pitching help on the way from the farm system

 

Um, wrong, unless you expect normal farm systems to somehow have 2-3 ace-caliber prospects sitting at all minor league levels. That notion is fantasyland, particularly after considering the Brewers' system has just graduated Hader, Williams, Peralta, and Burnes into what appear to be permanent MLB staff spots within roughly the last calendar year. That fails to mention the fact that Nelson emerging as a true drafted and home-grown upper rotation anchor until that fateful injury (awful timing for a team ahead of schedule in contending). Even after this year's deadline deals and recent callups, I'd argue the strength of the Brewers' system is the depth they have in pitching prospects starting at AA and working all the way into rookie levels.

 

Back on topic - if the Brewers miss the playoffs this season it will be a disappointment due to them essentially holding a spot all season long - last year the wild card race sort of backed down towards the NL Central division standings, while this year the Brewers have had the NL's best record most of the year and now the wild card standings are creeping up since there really isn't a dominating NL squad. It's crazy looking at the Red Sox being upwards of 50 games over 0.500 and the other AL playoff team records compared to the NL. It's like the NL has taken a page from the NFL in having a huge blob of middling/decent teams who could all make a run if things break their way, but the league forgot to keep 1-2 juggernaut teams around that are the prohibitive favorites. I would expect the Brewers to make similar moves this coming offseason whether they make the playoffs this year or not - find a way to upgrade the catcher position via trade or free agency, sort out the rotation logjam by trying to deal Davies, Woodruff, Peralta, or another arm, perhaps go after a starter hard via trade but I think that would be better served for 2019 trade deadline, get Burnes primed for a 2019 rotation spot (perhaps Hader, also), and set the stage for Hiura at 2B while keeping Schoop as the opening day 2B starter and eventual utility option between 2B and SS.

[bill hAll Star]

Of course it's real.

 

They should have started a rebuild when they collapsed down the stretch in 2014. Their rebuild started in 2015 when the players proved the 2014 collapse wasn't a fluke. In 2016 they had a top 5 draft pick and lost nearly 90 games. Last season, they got career years out of Jimmy Nelson and Chase Anderson and won 86 games. This past winter they jettisoned most of their bullpen from 2017 but for Hader, Jeffress and Knebel. They signed Boone Logan, Matt Albers, JJ Hoover, and Dan Jennings as free agent relievers. They signed free agents Jhoulys Chacin and Wade Miley in an attempt to cover the innings Nelson would have pitched had he not got hurt. They signed Lorenzo Cain (a fantastic player) to a long-term big dollar contract, and they traded for Yelich. The facts are after the 2017 season, they filled a quarter of their 25 man roster with free agent players several of whom are on multi-year deals. Conduct typically not consistent with teams that are rebuilding.

 

Rebuilding doesn't always have to be 100% tanking. The Cubs signed Lester before their window truly opened and signed Edwin Jackson well before it. The Astros signed several short-term players as their window was opening. The Padres (yes, it was stupid) signed Eric Hosmer while they wait. The Braves made moves for veterans before Albies, Acuna, and their pitching arrived. One of them (Markakis) is a huge piece in their current run.

 

Also, the majority of the "jettisoned bullpen" has done nothing elsewhere and therefore was just a smart move. Will Smith is doing well but he is not included because you stated that this is all about letting most of the bullpen go from 2017.

 

So if this is the core of the team they intend to make the playoffs with and win in the playoffs with, it doesn't appear to be good enough. The Cubs are clearly the best team in the NL Central, the Brewers by contrast have a losing record in their division 20-26 which doesn't bode well for September when division games dominate (take out their 7-3 record against the Reds and their record against the non-patsies in their division is really ugly 13-23). Further the team has already called up their top pitching prospects, Burnes, Peralta, Taylor Williams, so there is no pitching help on the way from the farm system (Clearly, for whatever reason, Brandon Woodruff is not among their 7 most preferred starters).

 

That division record from this season means nothing to me. We had some choke jobs against the Cubs who are equal/slightly superior and I think we match up well against the rest of them. The Reds don't have Winker, Schebler, Duvall, and several other pieces right now so they are not the hard-charging team that is coming of age that they were a month or two ago. The Pirates are not going to always beat us by 1 run.

The most successful hitting prospects are all at AA or lower. I don't know enough about the Southern League to say it is a pitcher's league or hitter's league. However, Keston Hiura has a .764 OPS at Biloxi and Corey Ray is at .845. For comparison, Javy Baez had a .983 OPS while playing in the Southern League in 2013. Kris Bryant put up a 1.160 OPS in 2014, Wilson Contreras had an .891 and Schwarber had a 1.017 for the Smokies in 2015.

 

Its possible that Hiura and Ray develop into more superior players than Baez, Bryant, Contreras or Schwarber but right now it doesn't look like they are going to be the pieces that push the Brewers past the Cubs into perennial contenders.

 

Those are all pretty small samples. Bryant is obviously a generational talent and his numbers were legit but Schwarber only played abuot 60 games there, Hiura has only been there for about 60, etc.

 

I don't think they need a ton of position players in the next few years. Catcher, yes, shortstop, maybe. They've got 2-3 more years before I worry about them not having many bats ready in the minors.

 

Of course the Brewers wouldn't be in the Kenny Williams like situation (having committed to being a contender without having the horses to actually get it done) had they not failed to draft and develop their own starting pitching. The facts are over the last 25 years the Brewers have developed only 9 pitchers who have started 100 or more games in the major leagues (with extremely varying levels of success): Cal Eldred, Scott Karl, Steve Sparks, Jeff D'Amico, Ben Sheets, Yovanni Gallardo, Mike Fiers, Wily Peralta and Jimmy Nelson. Doug Melvin had his own Bryant and Rizzo with Fielder and Braun yet during their time as teammates they lost more games than they won because of no quality starting pitching. They emptied out the farm system trading for quality starting pitching, and were only able to ship one of their own starters off for prospects before losing him to free agency (Gallardo). Stearns has some pitchers that could work out, but they are all 2 or more years away when most of their key players now will be 30 or older.

 

Maybe the owner, behind closed doors, demands his front office people put a winner on the field, so they can sell 2.8 million+ tickets. Who knows? But I get the feeling 2018 is another 2nd half collapse as the pitching isn't good enough to hang with the big boys, and the hot start to the year distorted that they were out manned in the rotation from the get go.

 

This is a somewhat fair point that the organization values hitting prospects and prefers to rely on pitching depth. That said, they still may deal for more ace caliber pitchers or maybe they have a big Attanasio checkbook move left.

 

And again, they have pitching depth that any team in the Melvin era couldn't even dream of. Whether that is enough remains to be seen.

[Brewever]

I love our owner.

 

I am not as high on Stearns as most are..someone said it the other day, he is always digging in the trash can for players. What does that say about our team if you need to do that. Stearns has made nice moves, but they need to amount to WINS, success, not just a good personal season.

 

I don't like are manager, he reminds me so much of Jason Kidd for any fellow bucks fans, as far as how lackadaisical he is sometimes. Seems like he isn't in the game. Seems like we got these umps every game screwing us on call and Craig just stands there. Not to mention his BP management.

 

Is there really not better options at manager then CC? I mean seriously. It's almost laughable to think there isn't.

 

Kinda get sick and tired of hearing how great Counsel is from people, he hasn't done anything. Why does it seem like he is gonna have a extra long leash just because he is a Wisconsin guy.

 

If McCarthy don't get to the SB, fired. Counsel doesn't get past a 1 game playoff by '19, fired.

[sveumrules]

I am not as high on Stearns as most are..someone said it the other day, he is always digging in the trash can for players. What does that say about our team if you need to do that.

 

Some of our best players have come from the so called trash can.

 

What it says about our team is that we don't have the necessary payroll to consistently play in the deep end of the Free Agency pool.

 

What it says about Stearns is that so far he has shown an ability to extract value from players who other organizations believed would provide none.

 

That is an important & much needed ability for a GM, especially soin a market as small as Milwaukee.

[Brewever]

I am not as high on Stearns as most are..someone said it the other day, he is always digging in the trash can for players. What does that say about our team if you need to do that.

 

Some of our best players have come from the so called trash can.

 

What it says about our team is that we don't have the necessary payroll to consistently play in the deep end of the Free Agency pool.

 

What it says about Stearns is that so far he has shown an ability to extract value from players who other organizations believed would provide none.

 

That is an important & much needed ability for a GM, especially soin a market as small as Milwaukee.

 

We have gotten value...but Have any of the scrubs we picked up cost us any games this year? Thay would negate some of that value.

 

I just don't remember us doing this in the past as much. It reeks of desperation.

[bill hAll Star]

I love our owner.

 

I am not as high on Stearns as most are..someone said it the other day, he is always digging in the trash can for players. What does that say about our team if you need to do that. Stearns has made nice moves, but they need to amount to WINS, success, not just a good personal season.

 

I don't like are manager, he reminds me so much of Jason Kidd for any fellow bucks fans, as far as how lackadaisical he is sometimes. Seems like he isn't in the game. Seems like we got these umps every game screwing us on call and Craig just stands there. Not to mention his BP management.

 

Is there really not better options at manager then CC? I mean seriously. It's almost laughable to think there isn't.

 

Kinda get sick and tired of hearing how great Counsel is from people, he hasn't done anything. Why does it seem like he is gonna have a extra long leash just because he is a Wisconsin guy.

 

If McCarthy don't get to the SB, fired. Counsel doesn't get past a 1 game playoff by '19, fired.

 

I've thought that for most of the year, Counsell has had good bullpen management. He is managing for 2018 baseball (mostly) and that does leave you with tough decisions at times. He manages leverage correctly. I was mad yesterday that he didn't go for it and yank Guerra after 3 with the rested bullpen. Kapler (full-blown new age manager) did exactly that yesterday but some critics earlier in the year thought he had gone too far.

 

I am equally as tired of people implying that Counsell stinks as a manager because of certain pitching changes he has made that are supported by numbers/probabilities happening not to work out that day.

 

I'm not tied to the hip with him...if they want to fire him and go with even a more new-age manager, fine. But I think Counsell is at least passable and more on the good range.

 

I am not as high on Stearns as most are..someone said it the other day, he is always digging in the trash can for players. What does that say about our team if you need to do that. Stearns has made nice moves, but they need to amount to WINS, success, not just a good personal season.

 

I think a lot of this is a phenomenon of everyone having access to every move a team makes.

 

In the past, maybe 300 people would've read the "Brewers trade cash for Jake Thompson" news on page 7 of the newspaper or maybe 500 would've refreshed the Brewers daily transactions page on ESPN in 2004.

 

Now it's 2018 and 50,000 people following the Brewers Twitter account have seen this and have a take (even more than that have actually seen the news).

 

Here's the thing: Every other team is dumpster diving as well and most former GMs/teams did this throughout baseball's history. I'll bet you ask most other teams' fans and they'll believe that their GM is a dumpster diver because everyone is now privy to deep 40 man moves that have been made since a much earlier era of baseball.

[sveumrules]

The only premium players I can recall us acquiring that were in high demand over the last 10 years or so are CC, Greinke, Yelich & Cain.

 

Almost every other player on the team over that time frame was either drafted & developed by the team or acquired from the so called trash can.

[FVBrewerFan]

I am not as high on Stearns as most are..someone said it the other day, he is always digging in the trash can for players. What does that say about our team if you need to do that.

 

Some of our best players have come from the so called trash can.

 

What it says about our team is that we don't have the necessary payroll to consistently play in the deep end of the Free Agency pool.

 

What it says about Stearns is that so far he has shown an ability to extract value from players who other organizations believed would provide none.

 

That is an important & much needed ability for a GM, especially soin a market as small as Milwaukee.

 

We have gotten value...but Have any of the scrubs we picked up cost us any games this year? Thay would negate some of that value.

 

I just don't remember us doing this in the past as much. It reeks of desperation.

 

You entirely dismissed Sveum's response. Not sure why you keep asking questions, since you have clearly made up your mind. Bordering on trolling actually. Stearns and Counsel are horrible, no matter what anyone says. Kato would be proud.

[shanedog19]

Nothing in baseball is guaranteed. A rebuild, high payroll, good attendance, none of these things guarantee playoff berths either short term or long term. That's the beauty of baseball, unlike the NBA where you can more or less "buy" a winning team. If they don't make the playoffs this year, you move on to next year and try again.

[buckybrewer232]

I would say I agree with the original post that all the "we're still ahead of schedule in the rebuild" excuse is used as a scapegoat. We are no longer in rebuild, it's over, we are in a competitive window right now.

 

The rebuilding phase ended this offseason when Stearns traded 3 top 100 prospects for Yelich, and signed a guy in his 30's to a 5 year deal. It was taken even further at the deadline when he traded a number of the team's top 10 prospects for guys with a max of 1.5 years of control.

 

Stearn's goal is to be a consistent competitive team from season to season. This year is one of those competitive seasons. Which is fine, if you actually make the playoffs. If they miss the playoffs again this year, there is going to be a ton of pressure going into next year. I wouldn't be surprised to see significant moves.

 

I also don't believe CC is as safe as everyone thinks he is. Let's remember he was already in place before Stearns, so no one really knows Stearn's true opinion of him. Brewers miss the playoffs again this year and Stearns can dump him if he wants.

 

If people really believe we're still rebuilding, I'm concerned. The organizational talent in the minors is pretty average with few elite prospects. The depth is pretty good, but that obviously took at hit at the deadline.

[Brewever]

 

You entirely dismissed Sveum's response. Not sure why you keep asking questions, since you have clearly made up your mind. Bordering on trolling actually. Stearns and Counsel are horrible, no matter what anyone says. Kato would be proud.

 

 

Yes!!!!!! Finally, I get that condescending know it all.

 

Trolling? Lol, how do you know my mind is made up? If it is why do I keep asking questions..hmmmmmm. Does that make any sense? Are you reverse trolling?

 

Also, When did I say Stearns was horrible? Oh, i didnt. I said i wasnt as high on him as others are. You shouldnt put words in peoples mouths or pretend you can read minds.

 

My questions didn't seem to bother Sveum(Mod), the guy who initially i had the back and forth with, yet it triggered you?

 

Oh ya, thanks for the Kato joke bud.

 

Maybe ya seen my opening sentence to this topic and you got a problem with that, seems like alot of angst coming outta nowhere, wouldn't shock me if you got those issues

[bill hAll Star]

I would say I agree with the original post that all the "we're still ahead of schedule in the rebuild" excuse is used as a scapegoat. We are no longer in rebuild, it's over, we are in a competitive window right now.

 

The rebuilding phase ended this offseason when Stearns traded 3 top 100 prospects for Yelich, and signed a guy in his 30's to a 5 year deal. It was taken even further at the deadline when he traded a number of the team's top 10 prospects for guys with a max of 1.5 years of control.

 

...

 

If people really believe we're still rebuilding, I'm concerned. The organizational talent in the minors is pretty average with few elite prospects. The depth is pretty good, but that obviously took at hit at the deadline.

 

Well, how about saying that 2018 is a split "last part of rebuild/beginning of contention" year?

 

The Cubs had to play in the Wild Card game (and advanced pretty far into the playoffs) before they went on their division title/World Series run that they're on.

 

Now, I will agree with many doubts about the Brewers given that we've got an older core than the Cubs and some rising teams did, but if they aren't in the playoffs next year or have some sort of reason for optimism given new faces in the rotation/depth, I will start to really worry.

[owbc]

This thread shows that many people like the Doug Melvin approach to running a small market baseball team. It made us feel like one of the 'big boys' because we made splashy free agent signings and traded for big names. The national media loves big names too and we repeatedly had high expectations. Planning for the future isn't any fun, gotta trade those prospects and go 'all in'. If something doesn't go right, it's definitely the fault of the coaching staff. Gotta keep that revolving door moving.

 

What do we have to show for that?

 

On the other hand, we have the Stearns approach where a roster of complete garbage was quickly turned into a winning team mostly by picking gems off of the garbage pile. Two rebuilding years turned into two of the most fun years of watching the Brewers in my lifetime. If you really think about it, it's incredible that this team continually puts pressure on the Cubs. They shouldn't be doing this.

[liveforoctober]

I am not as high on Stearns as most are..someone said it the other day, he is always digging in the trash can for players. What does that say about our team if you need to do that.

 

Some of our best players have come from the so called trash can.

 

What it says about our team is that we don't have the necessary payroll to consistently play in the deep end of the Free Agency pool.

 

What it says about Stearns is that so far he has shown an ability to extract value from players who other organizations believed would provide none.

 

That is an important & much needed ability for a GM, especially soin a market as small as Milwaukee.

 

We have gotten value...but Have any of the scrubs we picked up cost us any games this year? Thay would negate some of that value.

 

I just don't remember us doing this in the past as much. It reeks of desperation.

 

The contributions of Aguilar, Jeffress, Miley, Pina's handling of the staff and to a lesser extent Saladino/Jennings have vastly outweighed the deficit brought about by Sogard, Zagurski, Miller, Kratz, etc and I don't know that it is really close.

[Brewer Fever]

This thread serves to expose those who in no way expected the Brewers to contend this soon, (who in the event the Brewers now miss the playoffs) will turn around and blame the man responsible for contending this soon.

 

There are many not so kind names for people like that. I'll use a safe one - illogical. But oh, the temptation is definitely there to use much harsher terms.

[buckybrewer232]

This thread serves to expose those who in no way expected the Brewers to contend this soon, (who in the event the Brewers now miss the playoffs) will turn around and blame the man responsible for contending this soon.

 

There are many not so kind names for people like that. I'll use a safe one - illogical. But oh, the temptation is definitely there to use much harsher terms.

 

This would've been a good post last season, but I'm not sure it fits right now.

 

You don't think Stearns expected the Brewers to contend this season? Why would he trade 3 top 100 prospects and sign a guy in his 30's to a 5 year deal this offseason if he didn't expect to contend this season? Why would he trade Meideros, Phillips, Lopez, Ortiz, and Carmona for 3 guys with limited control if he didn't expect to win this season?

 

Sure last season was unexpected, but it certainly wasn't this year. Stearns will be just as upset as us "illogical" fans if they miss the playoffs this season.

 

It's way too early for this, though. Let's see how the season ends. If they miss the playoffs it will be disappointing and will put a ton of pressure on next season. They are absolutely are in contending mode this season though, a majority of the key players are in their prime or near the end of their prime, and it's not like there's a wave of elite talent in the minors knocking on the door. I don't understand why people act like that's the case.

[tmwiese55]

If folks don't think the Brewers have been pulling trash heap players and no names players until Stearns they've been watching an entirely different team than me the last 25 years.

 

Of course Stearns hasn't been perfect and missed on some moves, but for the most part his eye has been very sharp as evidenced by a team of nobodies massively overachieving this year. Add in that he was smart enough to know that was fluky so he added two legit top tier players in Cain/Yelich I just don't see how we do not trust this guy at this point to keep this team competing for the next 5 years at least

 

Again, I think this is exactly their plan. A consistently above .500 team for several years and hope to get lucky and or pick their spots to 'go for it'. Some years you're going to come up a bit short which might happen this year.

[Jopal78]

On the other hand, we have the Stearns approach where a roster of complete garbage was quickly turned into a winning team mostly by picking gems off of the garbage pile. Two rebuilding years turned into two of the most fun years of watching the Brewers in my lifetime. If you really think about it, it's incredible that this team continually puts pressure on the Cubs. They shouldn't be doing this.

Quote

 

This is the same distortion we've talked about earlier. If the Stearns approach is quickly turning a pile of garbage into a winning team, you'd also have to admit the Stearns approach includes trading away major league talent for little or no return. Stearns did jettison, Khris Davis, Will Smith, Scooter Gennett, Martin Maldonado for little or no return. He sold low on Jean Segura. Adam Lind could also be included if we've already seen the best of Freddy Peralta. He also spun off the prospects he acquired in the Lucroy trade for a handful of veteran rentals. The preceding shouldn't be construed as a slam on David Stearns in any way. I think he's done an ok job with the hand he was dealt and lwhatever edicts come from ownership. However, I don't think he's a personnel genius either.

 

Nelson and Anderson having career seasons in 2017 is more likely than not the main reason the team jumped into being competitive, as opposed to any sort of master plan implemented by the GM.

[owbc]

On the other hand, we have the Stearns approach where a roster of complete garbage was quickly turned into a winning team mostly by picking gems off of the garbage pile. Two rebuilding years turned into two of the most fun years of watching the Brewers in my lifetime. If you really think about it, it's incredible that this team continually puts pressure on the Cubs. They shouldn't be doing this.

Quote

 

This is the same distortion we've talked about earlier. If the Stearns approach is quickly turning a pile of garbage into a winning team, you'd also have to admit the Stearns approach includes trading away major league talent for little or no return. Stearns did jettison, Khris Davis, Will Smith, Scooter Gennett, Martin Maldonado for little or no return. He sold low on Jean Segura. Adam Lind could also be included if we've already seen the best of Freddy Peralta. He also spun off the prospects he acquired in the Lucroy trade for a handful of veteran rentals. The preceding shouldn't be construed as a slam on David Stearns in any way. I think he's done an ok job with the hand he was dealt and lwhatever edicts come from ownership. However, I don't think he's a personnel genius either.

 

Nelson and Anderson having career seasons in 2017 is more likely than not the main reason the team jumped into being competitive, as opposed to any sort of master plan implemented by the GM.

 

There's plenty of truth to your statement...one characteristic of Stearns seems to be the high volume of moves, for better or worse. And yes, the "master plan" to 2017 was to throw a bunch of darts at a board and see what stuck. Two of the top 3 offensive players from 2017 were some of those darts--Shaw and Thames. This year the top 5 offensive producers are all Stearns guys.

 

It's not clear what will come out of the farm system from the Stearns era yet. Will it cost us that we traded all these guys away? Or was it a smart way of getting value while solving the 40-man roster crunch? I don't know, but we clearly made moves to try and get a leg up on the wild card chase. So far only 1 of the 3 major moves has worked out. Making the playoffs or not doesn't change the bigger picture. Even if we make the playoffs, we have a 50/50 chance of being eliminated in one game (unless we somehow miraculously top the Cubs which was never part of the plan).

[OldSchoolSnapper]

On the other hand, we have the Stearns approach where a roster of complete garbage was quickly turned into a winning team mostly by picking gems off of the garbage pile. Two rebuilding years turned into two of the most fun years of watching the Brewers in my lifetime. If you really think about it, it's incredible that this team continually puts pressure on the Cubs. They shouldn't be doing this.

Quote

 

This is the same distortion we've talked about earlier. If the Stearns approach is quickly turning a pile of garbage into a winning team, you'd also have to admit the Stearns approach includes trading away major league talent for little or no return. Stearns did jettison, Khris Davis, Will Smith, Scooter Gennett, Martin Maldonado for little or no return. He sold low on Jean Segura. Adam Lind could also be included if we've already seen the best of Freddy Peralta. He also spun off the prospects he acquired in the Lucroy trade for a handful of veteran rentals. The preceding shouldn't be construed as a slam on David Stearns in any way. I think he's done an ok job with the hand he was dealt and lwhatever edicts come from ownership. However, I don't think he's a personnel genius either.

 

Nelson and Anderson having career seasons in 2017 is more likely than not the main reason the team jumped into being competitive, as opposed to any sort of master plan implemented by the GM.

 

 

This is disingenuous. Davis and Gennett were not good players on fairly large sample sizes. He jettisoned them for little or no return because that was the market for those guys at the time. It isn't as if he could've traded them for what they'd command now. The only criticism would've been expecting him to "see" something in them and know they'd become stars. Which isn't realistic to me.

 

Segura is the worst of those moves IMO. He had already shown he could be a star in MKE and went through personal tragedy and lost himself. It wasn't really surprising that he caught on again and I thought they gave up too early, even at the time.

[Patrick425]

Sure last season was unexpected, but it certainly wasn't this year. Stearns will be just as upset as us "illogical" fans if they miss the playoffs this season.

 

 

Even with the off season moves, I don't think I saw one pre-season prediction this year that had the Brewers making the playoffs.

[tmwiese55]

He did get a quality mid rotation pitcher back from Segura at least.

 

Of course, he's not perfect. Every mistake as listed above can be countered by good moves he clearly came out ahead on. That's the nature of the job, no one is going to shoot 100%. Simple way to look at it though is that him shooting a higher percent than expected or normal led to a quicker rebuild than expected which led to Cain/Yelich.

 

Does that mean he'll nail everything from here out, who knows. But I think the plan is somewhat clear to me. His main core controlled here for a while is .500 to a bit better. Try to hit moves around them to win it while not giving up the elite or at least higher end prospects, especially pitchers, he truly believes in that will continue to keep the team competitive for years. Of course he could end up wrong on prospects he has traded, but it's my take that those are guys he had little confidence in feels like he sold high on them. I guess I'm skewed a bit as I was one very low on Brinson. I know this comes off as super supportive of Stearns, but I'll not the Schoop trade I'm skeptical on what they gave up and the fit. I think the guys he traded away were the ones he planned to trade at this deadline the whole time, other better stuff all didn't work out so he took what he could get. hopefully Schoop rebounds to help this year or at least next year.

[Brewer Fever]

You don't think Stearns expected the Brewers to contend this season?

 

Ummm, the Brewers ARE contending this season. As a matter of fact, as of today, they would be in the playoffs. AHEAD OF SCHEDULE.

 

No amount of words can change the fact that no one expected the Brewers to be a contender in 2018 when the rebuild began. No level of impatience or immaturity can now justify whining and complaining if the Brewers do ultimately miss the playoffs in 2018 when no one set the bar as such when the process began. Especially directed at the person who put the Brewers in this position ahead of schedule. If the Brewers do ultimately fall short, it will be a let-down no doubt. But those of you who would blame the guy who exceeded everyone's expectations to get the Brewers in this position need to grow the heck up. It's a repeat of the same childish behavior a handful expressed here when their favored free agent targets weren't signed this past offseason. And those people were proven very wrong. Need we re-visit the Cobb, Darvish, Chacin, Miley transaction threads, etc?

 

If all these know-it-alls were in charge, the Brewers would not only NOT be contenders in 2018, the Brewers chances going forward would be greatly diminished.

[Jopal78]

It is not disingenuous. There was neither a monetary reason nor a production reason for trading Davis off. He was not even arbitration eligible when traded. He had hit 60 homeruns in 321 games with Milwaukee, coming off an an .828 OPS season with a career Slugging of .494 (Yelich's OPS is .813 btw).

 

GM's have the ability to bring in their own type of players. It is fairly obvious that Stearns prefers the Cain, Broxton, Yelich type outfielders who are defensively versatile, over an outfielder with one elite tool. It's his prerogative as GM to make that trade, but it doesn't mean he didn't get absolutely hosed.

 

Also with Gennett, when the Reds claimed him they would have been either #1 or #2 in waiver priority, so it's not as though he was floating around without a job before being picked up by Cincinnati.

[trwi7]

He did get a quality mid rotation pitcher back from Segura at least.

 

He got a fluky 140 innings and then a #5 starter and he guaranteed the #5 starter's contract for no reason.

 

*ducks*