Christian Yelich

[tmwiese55]

I think they can do that but I also don't think the team would want to. I'd assume they'd prefer to backload due to the high payroll this year already. Combine that with Braun coming off after next year and they free up some wiggle room then. Thames/Anderson also coming off soon along with every year gets close to the end of Cain's deal. But yea, if that's what you need to do to incentivize him to a discount well so be it.

[Ennder]

 

My brother still argues with me to death that the Sabathia trade was bad because we mortgaged the farm. In his words it doesn't matter that LaPorta flamed out because we didn't know that at the time and therefore it was bad since we only got half a season of CC. It gives me a headache every time.

 

Michael Brantley would have been a big help at a very low price for several years. Same goes for Cain departing in the Greinke trade. I personally think the Brewers lost more chances to make the playoffs than they gained by making those two trades, and I think what they're doing now reflects the fact that Mark A learned his lesson (he has even said this, in so many words). If it's a last-gasp effort to win a title, by all means pull out all the stops, but they were doing this stuff when they had a great young core and a chance to have sustainable success. They weren't terrible trades or anything, but I think they were kind of short-sighted.

 

Now we don't see them giving up much value for short-term patches. Moustakas, Schoop, Claudio? Fine. But they aren't giving away excessive surplus value for short-term rentals anymore, and I'm very glad for that. The Yelich deal is exactly the type of opportunity you hold out for.

 

 

From 2011-2014 the Brewers got 16.9 WAR out of Carlos Gomez. Brantley was 12.4 WAR over that time frame. Cain was 14 WAR over that time frame. We got better production by trading these guys and getting Gomez.

[adambr2]

Looking at Braun's career, the Brewers have paid him about $2 million per 1 offensive WAR so I think they've gotten a pretty good deal overall.

 

I mean if that is what helps you rationalize a bad contract extension. I hear people say this all the time. They were separate transactions. You don't get to lump them together.

 

I'm pretty emotionally detached from these sorts of things and I still don't view Braun's deal as all that bad. Would you like to have the money free right now? Sure, but you could do a whole lot worse than what Braun is giving you. Braun also provides a lot of intangible value to the club. I think the players in MKE like him, he is a good veteran presence and last year you could almost always count on a good at bat. Aside from that, he is still beloved by fans and just simply known around the state. I couldn't explain why, but my 5 year-old was not interested in any jersey tee other than his. He barely knows the game and still demands we always see Braun bat.

 

Anybody would have signed Braun to the deal he got at the time he got it. There's always risk in any deal that size but I guess I don't see the deal as really impeding anything the team has done and still view him as a + player, not to mention a legend of the franchise.

 

Anybody would not have signed Braun to that deal at that time because I was against it at the time and the extension has not been worth the investment in my opinion from a pure production standpoint. Braun is certainly not a $20M a year open market player right now.

 

That being said, it certainly hasn't been an Albert Pujols type disaster and as you say they could have definitely done worse. I'm not sure what the intangible and leadership value is -- I honestly don't know. My preference at the time of his scandal was to distance ourselves from him and trade him. They went the other way. I do get it. They had to either distance themselves from him or throw their support behind him. They supported him.

 

With that said I can't understand the mentality of that deal and as it relates to Yelich now of extending a guy so many years away from free agency. As we found out with Braun so much can happen in 4 years and then if something goes wrong you're entirely on the hook as an organization which can hamstring us for years. There is zero benefit to rushing, it's not like the extension price for Yelich is going to be much higher in 2 years than it is now. Yelich is undef contract for 4 more seasons and thus has no real leverage in an extension right now, the idea of committing 30M a season or more as others have suggested to seasons 5+ years out in his 30s is just silly.

[Fear The Chorizo]

 

My brother still argues with me to death that the Sabathia trade was bad because we mortgaged the farm. In his words it doesn't matter that LaPorta flamed out because we didn't know that at the time and therefore it was bad since we only got half a season of CC. It gives me a headache every time.

 

Michael Brantley would have been a big help at a very low price for several years. Same goes for Cain departing in the Greinke trade. I personally think the Brewers lost more chances to make the playoffs than they gained by making those two trades, and I think what they're doing now reflects the fact that Mark A learned his lesson (he has even said this, in so many words). If it's a last-gasp effort to win a title, by all means pull out all the stops, but they were doing this stuff when they had a great young core and a chance to have sustainable success. They weren't terrible trades or anything, but I think they were kind of short-sighted.

 

Now we don't see them giving up much value for short-term patches. Moustakas, Schoop, Claudio? Fine. But they aren't giving away excessive surplus value for short-term rentals anymore, and I'm very glad for that. The Yelich deal is exactly the type of opportunity you hold out for.

 

If C.C., Greinke, and Marcum weren't acquired at those points, the Brewers aren't playoff teams in 2008 or 2011. I disagree that the Brewers would have somehow made the playoffs more frequently during that stretch by retaining Brantley, LaPorta, Zach Jackson, Rob Bryson, Brett Lawrie, Escobar, Cain, Jeffress, and Odorizzi instead of giving their core of young MLB talent the one thing it desperately needed at the time to give them a shot at the postseason - quality to ace-caliber starting pitching. The fact is, those teams weren't nearly as deep and talented as what Stearns has put together currently - and the prospects they gave up for getting those two postseason berths were well worth giving up. Had they not acquired those starters, 2018 could have easily been the sole postseason berth in this entire stretch.

[Jenkins5]

CC gave us the most exciting half season the franchise may have ever seen except maybe until Yelich last season. As a Brewer fan, I have never witnessed such a brilliant stretch of pure dominance from a pitcher. He electrified the team & fanbase while carry us to post season.

 

Greinke was an Ace we hadn’t had for a full season since Sheets & played major role in playoff run. Marcum was a great Robin to him until playoff time.

 

Those moves were huge for this team & did more for use than what keeping those guys would have. Brantley has been solid OF but he wasn’t going to carry us to playoffs. Odorizzi has been solid middle rotation guy but has never carried a staff or sniffed an all star level season. Lawrie has his moments but didn’t pan out to be star we thought he could be when younger. Escobar never grew at plate outside of one season. Laporta flamed out quick. Jeffress was not good any time he has been outside of Milwaukee. Cain I think became only one that may have hurt but Gomez starred for us & we had Braun & Hart at time... he was expandable.

 

None of guys we lost didn’t hurt us. All they did was cost us possible trades later. Juice worth the squeeze

[HiAndTight]

 

Yelich is a very rare talent... and an extension turns the trade into a win for the Brewers.

 

Um ... what? You don't consider it a win already?

 

It's a probable win, but if Brinson, Diaz, Harrison, and Yamamoto become good assets for the Marlins, the deal gets closer to a draw.

 

Getting Yelich for another four years tips the balance more clearly in the Crew's favor, IMO.

 

 

Just the suggestion that this could POSSIBLY not be considered a MASSIVE win for the Brewers at any point is almost infuriating to me.

 

People are literally talking about if this is one of the greatest trades of all time and you're worried that Ymamamota may become a good asset for the Marlins making this deal a draw?P

 

 

My god people.....just enough. Enjoy watching one of the greatest runs you'll ever see a Brewer player put together, understand it's going to come to an end and this man is GOING to struggle again at some point, but that it's absolutely a win and that won't change if the 4th guy we traded to the Marlins becomes a back of the rotation starter!

 

 

We fleeced them! I still believe Brinson will become a good player. We still fleeced them. I like Diaz and Harrison. Fleeced them still.

 

MVP player-prime years-extremely team friendly deal.

 

 

It's the type of trade people on here suggest and then it gets dismissed because it never happens. We just happened to get Yelich one year before people would have started to suggest it.

 

 

I cannot think of one single good reason to spend 7 years and 210 million on a player who is 27 and who we control for 4 years yet. You're basically paying him what he'd likely get as a FA in AAV.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

 

Anybody would not have signed Braun to that deal at that time because I was against it at the time and the extension has not been worth the investment in my opinion from a pure production standpoint. Braun is certainly not a $20M a year open market player right now.

 

That being said, it certainly hasn't been an Albert Pujols type disaster and as you say they could have definitely done worse. I'm not sure what the intangible and leadership value is -- I honestly don't know. My preference at the time of his scandal was to distance ourselves from him and trade him. They went the other way. I do get it. They had to either distance themselves from him or throw their support behind him. They supported him.

 

With that said I can't understand the mentality of that deal and as it relates to Yelich now of extending a guy so many years away from free agency. As we found out with Braun so much can happen in 4 years and then if something goes wrong you're entirely on the hook as an organization which can hamstring us for years. There is zero benefit to rushing, it's not like the extension price for Yelich is going to be much higher in 2 years than it is now. Yelich is undef contract for 4 more seasons and thus has no real leverage in an extension right now, the idea of committing 30M a season or more as others have suggested to seasons 5+ years out in his 30s is just silly.

 

You can't have it both ways. He's not a $20mm open market player now, but he was probably more than that when they bought out years of his youth. I agree that it was excessive and generally it's not a good practice. But the fact is the majority of people and prognosticators thought Braun gave the team a discount. I guess you saw the light, but I'm just stating a fact that at the time the consensus was that they "got a deal." I'll repeat with specifics: Any baseball executive would have signed him to that deal. His first or second year in the league, Doug Melvin said every big market called to trade for him. Those teams would have happily forked over $200mm for him.

 

Also, I think the team has tried to trade him numerous times and just hasn't been able to close the deal. Ship has probably sailed now, but I think DS salivated as the thought of getting that budget flexibility back.

[HiAndTight]

We don't have the 2018 we did without Yelich, so it is already a great trade for us. I don't really care if all those guys become stars, that was an amazing, fun year.

 

My brother still argues with me to death that the Sabathia trade was bad because we mortgaged the farm. In his words it doesn't matter that LaPorta flamed out because we didn't know that at the time and therefore it was bad since we only got half a season of CC. It gives me a headache every time.

 

 

I wouldn't agree with your brother, but I did think we should have been trying to acquire Grienke at that time rather than CC.

 

He was on the block and could have been traded and given that our AA team was so stacked with prospects that we now kinda forget about because they flamed out, we easily could have gotten Greinke for IIRC 4 years and kept out window for competing open longer. And it wouldn't have cost Brantley....who nobody foresaw becoming an all-star anyway. I think it was Gammons or Tim Kurk-not gonna try to spell it-who said that some rival executives said that AA team was one of the most prospect laden teams they'd ever seen. Angel Salome was hitting like .360 that year and looked like a future Pudge for instance.

 

 

I'd never agree with your brother. The CC trade was a awesome trade. But I did think at the time that I'd rather get guy who could become a fixture rather than a rental. And I fell in love with Greinke after he became a reliever and pitched against the Brewers. It was the first time I'd ever seen him pitch and his fastball, a mid 90's fastball had such ridiculous movement to it.

 

 

 

Anyway, it clearly wasn't a bad move. That's the bottom line.

[HiAndTight]

 

My brother still argues with me to death that the Sabathia trade was bad because we mortgaged the farm. In his words it doesn't matter that LaPorta flamed out because we didn't know that at the time and therefore it was bad since we only got half a season of CC. It gives me a headache every time.

 

Michael Brantley would have been a big help at a very low price for several years. Same goes for Cain departing in the Greinke trade. I personally think the Brewers lost more chances to make the playoffs than they gained by making those two trades, and I think what they're doing now reflects the fact that Mark A learned his lesson (he has even said this, in so many words). If it's a last-gasp effort to win a title, by all means pull out all the stops, but they were doing this stuff when they had a great young core and a chance to have sustainable success. They weren't terrible trades or anything, but I think they were kind of short-sighted.

 

Now we don't see them giving up much value for short-term patches. Moustakas, Schoop, Claudio? Fine. But they aren't giving away excessive surplus value for short-term rentals anymore, and I'm very glad for that. The Yelich deal is exactly the type of opportunity you hold out for.

 

 

From 2011-2014 the Brewers got 16.9 WAR out of Carlos Gomez. Brantley was 12.4 WAR over that time frame. Cain was 14 WAR over that time frame. We got better production by trading these guys and getting Gomez.

 

I don't agree that we cost ourselves anything by making these trades in terms of future playoff performances. I think we likely would have just cost ourselves the two we did make(though I hated the Marcum trade because of who we got back, just never a fan).

 

But the example you're using doesn't make sense to me. We could have played both Brantley and Gomez and had a really good OF. It's not like Gomez was traded for someone we acquired for some we got in one of these trades. We got lucky and Gomez was good for us. There's no direct correlation to those actual trades though.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I think you have to be a curmudgeon to try to say the CC trade wasn't great. It rejuvenated a franchise that had been a laughing stock for almost three decades. I wouldn't care if every guy we dealt wound up an all-star. That run to the playoffs was badly needed. If watching Sabathia isn't one of the best moments as a Brewers fan I think you're someone who won't ever be satisfied - the kind of person who'd complain after winning the WS that we didn't win more. Those types exhaust me.

[HiAndTight]

 

My brother still argues with me to death that the Sabathia trade was bad because we mortgaged the farm. In his words it doesn't matter that LaPorta flamed out because we didn't know that at the time and therefore it was bad since we only got half a season of CC. It gives me a headache every time.

 

Michael Brantley would have been a big help at a very low price for several years. Same goes for Cain departing in the Greinke trade. I personally think the Brewers lost more chances to make the playoffs than they gained by making those two trades, and I think what they're doing now reflects the fact that Mark A learned his lesson (he has even said this, in so many words). If it's a last-gasp effort to win a title, by all means pull out all the stops, but they were doing this stuff when they had a great young core and a chance to have sustainable success. They weren't terrible trades or anything, but I think they were kind of short-sighted.

 

Now we don't see them giving up much value for short-term patches. Moustakas, Schoop, Claudio? Fine. But they aren't giving away excessive surplus value for short-term rentals anymore, and I'm very glad for that. The Yelich deal is exactly the type of opportunity you hold out for.

 

 

I've never seen Mark A say anything negative about any of those three trades. Perhaps you could jog my memory and show me where he has said that or even hinted at it?

 

Every time I've heard Mark talk about the trades, namely for CC and Greinke, he's spoken glowingly about them. I'd be interested to hear him say he learned a lesson and it was to not make those types of trades again.

[tmwiese55]

 

My brother still argues with me to death that the Sabathia trade was bad because we mortgaged the farm. In his words it doesn't matter that LaPorta flamed out because we didn't know that at the time and therefore it was bad since we only got half a season of CC. It gives me a headache every time.

 

Michael Brantley would have been a big help at a very low price for several years. Same goes for Cain departing in the Greinke trade. I personally think the Brewers lost more chances to make the playoffs than they gained by making those two trades, and I think what they're doing now reflects the fact that Mark A learned his lesson (he has even said this, in so many words). If it's a last-gasp effort to win a title, by all means pull out all the stops, but they were doing this stuff when they had a great young core and a chance to have sustainable success. They weren't terrible trades or anything, but I think they were kind of short-sighted.

 

Now we don't see them giving up much value for short-term patches. Moustakas, Schoop, Claudio? Fine. But they aren't giving away excessive surplus value for short-term rentals anymore, and I'm very glad for that. The Yelich deal is exactly the type of opportunity you hold out for.

 

 

From 2011-2014 the Brewers got 16.9 WAR out of Carlos Gomez. Brantley was 12.4 WAR over that time frame. Cain was 14 WAR over that time frame. We got better production by trading these guys and getting Gomez.

 

That's pretty much what I've said in these talks over the years with folks who act like we mortgaged the future for those trades. The only really great players we gave up were Cain and Brantley but we were stacked in OF anyway so really it didn't kill us at all. Remember you had two spot filled with Braun/Hart too. Oh and Odarazzi was a solid P. Basically I don't think having Odarazzi and another good OF during the 13-16ish bad run would've made a difference really at all.

 

In 08 who knows what happens if Sheets doesn't get hurt and you have those two aces for the playoffs. '11 you had a 1-0 lead in the NLCS with home field in NLCS and WS. I think they were the right moves.

 

Braun extension at the time was definitely a discount price that made sense to lock in so you have your star player for years. Keep in mind they were sitting there knowing Prince was gone and obviously didn't want the PR of losing both guys. Like I think I said though, if yelich doesn't give a big discount like Braun did then it's pointless to worry about it now with so many years of control. If he wants to tack on 3-4 more years at 15-20 well yea I guess so but if you're giving him 25+ mil then what's the rush.

[MrTPlush]

I am convinced that the only reason the Braun extension ever happened is because the Brewers were in dire need of a "Face of the Franchise" for their history. I mean the franchise was still living on the back of Robin Yount (and to some extent Molitor). The younger generations needed someone to cling to for life, insert Braun. I think the Brewers thought he would be decent during the extension period, but I also think they didn't care if he wasn't because the extension was to almost assure him a Brewer for life. That is what the goal was.

 

I don't think we are desperate for that kind of figure even if Braun self imploded his status in Brewer lore. I don't think they are going to get the post-career Braun they were banking on, but he will still go down as a major guy in history. He probably still gets his number retired etc. The only reason to do such a extension years before FA is to do exactly that, put a guy in your franchises shrine forever. I don't think we are desperate to make Yelich that.

 

I am guessing Yelich's comparable deal to what Braun did would be about 5/$125mil.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I think that was definitely a factor at play, Tplush. And I don't think they are wrong for it. Guys like that are still putting people in the seats when the team is so-so. Despite the PED thing he is still a revered figure in MKE. I also agree that they're not getting a post-career Yount guy, Braun just isn't that guy. He's a SoCal guy and he'll be there when he's done playing.

 

The blowback from Fielder and Braun walking away would have been catastrophic from a branding perspective. Remember that around the time, they also (expectedly) offered Sabathia a deal that he and his agent basically laughed at. There was definitely a prevailing thought that we could not do anything but trade our best players away.

[MrTPlush]

Oh I don't blame them for giving Braun that deal. I liked it at the time and still would even if he was doing his current production had the PED thing not happened. Having him as a career Brewer would have been worth it.

 

I think they knew that $20mil wouldn't be all that much by the time it kicked in too. Back in 2011 $20mil actually would have been elite status salary...now not so much. Offer Yelich $25mil and that may seem like a lot in 2019 terms, but by the time it kicks in that won't be near market rate. $20mil was about 20% of the payroll in 2011 terms and $25mil would be about 20% of the payroll in 2019 terms. So, yah, somewhere in the $125mil-$140mil range would be Yelich's comparable to the Braun deal over 5 years.

[coolhandluke121]

 

If C.C., Greinke, and Marcum weren't acquired at those points, the Brewers aren't playoff teams in 2008 or 2011. I disagree that the Brewers would have somehow made the playoffs more frequently during that stretch by retaining Brantley, LaPorta, Zach Jackson, Rob Bryson, Brett Lawrie, Escobar, Cain, Jeffress, and Odorizzi instead of giving their core of young MLB talent the one thing it desperately needed at the time to give them a shot at the postseason - quality to ace-caliber starting pitching. The fact is, those teams weren't nearly as deep and talented as what Stearns has put together currently - and the prospects they gave up for getting those two postseason berths were well worth giving up. Had they not acquired those starters, 2018 could have easily been the sole postseason berth in this entire stretch.

 

But the reason they weren't as deep and talented is precisely because of the mortgage-the-future philosophy they implemented almost the moment Mark A bought the team. My trump card is his own comments acknowledging the flaws in that approach. I'm having trouble finding those comments, but I distinctly remember him openly admitting that he had to re-evaluate his philosophy and stop depleting the young talent pipeline. He admitted that his moves were consistently short-sighted for years. It's also the draft picks they gave up to sign free agents and all the times they turned up their nose at a chance to trade an aging player for something of value when they weren't a contender anyway, choosing instead to keep him until he was just dead weight on the payroll.

 

He himself all but explicitly said those kind of moves just make the franchise worse in the long run. I respected those comments and I'm glad he openly learned his lesson instead of excusing his failures, but that doesn't mean he made good decisions in his first 10 years. I once did an analysis of the talent he inherited when he bought the team, both in the minors and in the majors, and I found it impossible to conclude that they did anything but underachieve in the Fielder--->Braun era.

 

As for Gomez being better than Brantley or Cain, which someone else mentioned, that's reductionism because they could play other positions or be traded for someone who's not just a rental. The point is not that you can't trade any young players; just don't trade them in short-sighted moves. It could have been a logjam for a little while, but look at the so-called logjam at OF/1B last year. We all know how that played out. Good asset management carried the day. It's fitting that the Royals made the playoffs several times and won a title after trading Greinke away, and that's the type of thing the Brewers should have been doing - not the exact opposite.

 

Sorry, this is the Yelich thread, but the underlying point is still that you should save your best assets for opportunities like that, not for rentals like Sabathia. They are doing that now and never buckling to temptation, and for this reason the success they are having now should be sustainable (with some luck), unlike the fleeting success of 2008 and 2011. And this method has worked with much less blue-chip talent to start with (this team has some roots in great minor league depth, but Weeks, Hart, Braun, Fielder, Hardy, and Gallardo were all big-time prospects).

[adambr2]

I don't see this discount that Braun gave us. When you're signing away a contract 4 years away from free agency from a team perspective, you need a big discount because your offer reflects how far away that player is from free agency. The further away they are, the less leverage they have and the more risk you're taking on. In addition, you're paying that player for what you expect them to be at that time, not what they are now. So an extension offer to Yelich this far out certainly wouldn't and shouldn't reflect what his current value would be if he was a FA.

 

What is that number? I really don't know, but I highly doubt they would give him 5/125 on an extension this early. That's basically what Goldschmidt just got from the Cardinals at the same age Yelich would be, except he was less than a year from free agency with far more leverage, and he has a longer established track record of being an elite hitter, whereas Christian was more of the 'very good' variety his entire career until his breakout last season.

 

The "face of the franchise" argument to extend Braun at that time and keep him there his entire career probably has merit. I would argue that I think the Brewer brand is a little stronger now than it was at the time to where it's not as important for them to make sure Yelich never leaves. I think Stearns will be more focused on whether or not an extension makes good baseball sense, and I don't see him taking that big of a risk this early.

[tmwiese55]

I would agree overall it's not the ideal long term strategy for a team to do it for 1-2 year players. I just think at the time their hand was forced by the previous regime and state of the team/farm in that they knew they had this loaded offensive lineup but basically no pitching. So they knew if they didn't add pitching they'd waste all those hitters primes, including having two MVP level hitters at the same time. Having not made the playoffs in 25 years and being a punching bag for small markets to just lose their players they didn't want to trade all those hitters just to perpetually rebuild. So I get it and agree with them doing it. I feel like it also rejuvenated the fans a bit to come out and support the team pretty much ever since, would that have happened if they didn't actually get good for a few years? IDK. But yes, I'm also happy they see that as not the overall long term plan here going forward.

[tmwiese55]

I don't see this discount that Braun gave us. When you're signing away a contract 4 years away from free agency from a team perspective, you need a big discount because your offer reflects how far away that player is from free agency. The further away they are, the less leverage they have and the more risk you're taking on. In addition, you're paying that player for what you expect them to be at that time, not what they are now. So an extension offer to Yelich this far out certainly wouldn't and shouldn't reflect what his current value would be if he was a FA.

 

What is that number? I really don't know, but I highly doubt they would give him 5/125 on an extension this early. That's basically what Goldschmidt just got from the Cardinals at the same age Yelich would be, except he was less than a year from free agency with far more leverage, and he has a longer established track record of being an elite hitter, whereas Christian was more of the 'very good' variety his entire career until his breakout last season.

 

The "face of the franchise" argument to extend Braun at that time and keep him there his entire career probably has merit. I would argue that I think the Brewer brand is a little stronger now than it was at the time to where it's not as important for them to make sure Yelich never leaves. I think Stearns will be more focused on whether or not an extension makes good baseball sense, and I don't see him taking that big of a risk this early.

 

That is the discount. That's exactly what we're saying. Braun did it so that it made sense and Yelich would have to as well or else what's the point. Pretty much as you said in the later paragraph. I actually think you're in agreeance with what I and a couple others just said but just some semantics on the word 'discount'.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I don't see this discount that Braun gave us. When you're signing away a contract 4 years away from free agency from a team perspective, you need a big discount because your offer reflects how far away that player is from free agency. The further away they are, the less leverage they have and the more risk you're taking on. In addition, you're paying that player for what you expect them to be at that time, not what they are now. So an extension offer to Yelich this far out certainly wouldn't and shouldn't reflect what his current value would be if he was a FA.

 

What is that number? I really don't know, but I highly doubt they would give him 5/125 on an extension this early. That's basically what Goldschmidt just got from the Cardinals at the same age Yelich would be, except he was less than a year from free agency with far more leverage, and he has a longer established track record of being an elite hitter, whereas Christian was more of the 'very good' variety his entire career until his breakout last season.

 

The "face of the franchise" argument to extend Braun at that time and keep him there his entire career probably has merit. I would argue that I think the Brewer brand is a little stronger now than it was at the time to where it's not as important for them to make sure Yelich never leaves. I think Stearns will be more focused on whether or not an extension makes good baseball sense, and I don't see him taking that big of a risk this early.

 

Braun signed an 8-year deal for like $50mm the same year that Sabathia signed for 7/$160mm I believe. I know these are very imperfect comparisons but Braun signed a very reasonable extension.

 

I think people are very revisionist about this. When Braun signed the 5-year extension for $100mm or whatever it was, he would go on to win MVP and was regarded as one of the best hitters in baseball. PEDs were not even on the radar, he was Mr. Golden Boy. He was absolutely going to be the modern Yount. When he signed that lifetime deal it was a celebratory moment.

 

I am in agreement with holding off on Yelich. But I don't think, given the context and inability to predict Braun's scandal, that they deserve criticism for it. The PED situation was not just hard to predict, but Braun was a brand's fantasy come to life. Everybody in WI loved him at the time. He was BFF with the Packer's QB for Pete's sake.

[wntrtxn21]

How is Larry Walker not in the HOF?

 

I think voters look at where he played the vast majority of his career; Colorado.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Hard to get in without 3k hits or 500 bombs. You essentially have to be Ozzie with the leather. Walker is a decent comp with Cecil Cooper, who isn't in for the same reason.

[wntrtxn21]

We have him locked up until he hits 30. Why not just let it play out and let him sign a humongous deal elsewhere when he's headed back down the hill?

 

Yelich strikes me at the kind of hitter who, barring injury, would age well.

If the Crew could get him to defer money - and sign a relatively team-friendly deal as Braun did - I think it would be good.

 

Yah, so was Braun when we extended him. Now he is made of glass and I think he uses his bat as a cane walking to the plate.

 

In all seriousness did we seriously not learn anything from the Braun extension? We extended a guy waaay before he would even hit free egency and it turned into a bad idea before that extension even kicked in. He had his little PED fiasco and then after that died down he had the thumb problem (among other constant injuries). All this before that extension even kicked in.

 

I don't think that contract will be an albatross, where his play doesn't even warrant a roster spot, but man we likely would have been way better off without the extension happening. If we didn't have him extended Khris Davis would still be here or Domingo Santana would still be roaming our OF. If you don't like either of those guys I am sure we could find someone to put up average offense for a lot less than $20mil a year.

 

I don't mind having Braun on the team and since he at least hits somewhat decently it isn't a painful extension...but pretty hard to argue we would probably get better production for half the cost or less elsewhere. Whether a different addition or someone we had, but traded away because we didn't have room. Lorenzo Cain for example had a similar cost through FA.

 

I want nothing to do with a Yelich extension this year, next year, and probably never. It just probably isn't a good idea.

 

Braun's contract had nothing to do with the Brewers letting K. Davis walk. Davis was the absolute worst defensive LF in all of baseball. He is a DH, period. The Brewers couldn't afford to sign him to be strictly a PH.

[Oxy]

Hard to get in without 3k hits or 500 bombs. You essentially have to be Ozzie with the leather. Walker is a decent comp with Cecil Cooper, who isn't in for the same reason.

 

Meh... Cooper was a 1st basemen. Walker was an EXCELLENT right fielder with a cannon for an arm who swiped bags at a pretty good clip too. And he won an MVP. He was a complete ballplayer by any measure of the term who should be and will be in the HOF.

[xisxisxis]

Can we keep a thread about the reigning NL MVP and our player for 4 more years about that player and not about all the other pissing matches on brewerfan?

 

who gives a crap about Larry Walker in a Christian Yelich thread.... Sheeessshhhh