David Stearns comments on upcoming offseason

[homer]

Plenty of people on this site breathed a sigh of relief a year after Villar turned down the multi year extension.

 

Not really at the time. Most people realized that 20M or so on a multi year deal for Villar was not going to make or break us.

 

When he stunk it up for 6 months afterward, of course.

 

That's why I said a year after

[adambr2]

Plenty of people on this site breathed a sigh of relief a year after Villar turned down the multi year extension.

 

Not really at the time. Most people realized that 20M or so on a multi year deal for Villar was not going to make or break us.

 

When he stunk it up for 6 months afterward, of course.

 

That's why I said a year after

 

Reading comprehension not my strong point.

[3and2Fastball]

I personally can't imagine that 1B coach is a really tough position to replace.

 

Ed Sedar would be perfect as a 1B coach. Or maybe as the AAA manager.

[645]

Don't question the Villar move.

 

He's nothing more then I guy who steals Bases and hits a few Home Runs if you overlook the bonehead mistakes he makes and just him play to do his thing.

 

Baltimore has a bad team and he can play there because they don't have anything better. So don't think the brewers could give him enough playing time to do what he has been doing.

[MrTPlush]

Don't question the Villar move.

 

He's nothing more then I guy who steals Bases and hits a few Home Runs if you overlook the bonehead mistakes he makes and just him play to do his thing.

 

Baltimore has a bad team and he can play there because they don't have anything better. So don't think the brewers could give him enough playing time to do what he has been doing.

 

-5 Triples

-33 Doubles

-.340 OBP (not too shabby these days)

 

And of course downplay HRs and SBs likes they don’t have incredible value. A guy stealing 40 bases with a near .800 OPS is pretty darn good. The boneheaded plays thing...so overblown.

 

Gotta be honest man really odd take. If you don’t like him, fine, but he was a 4 WAR player...he was really good last year. He would start on A LOT of teams. Villar at SS > Arcia at SS....and I don’t think it is remotely close. That being said with an atrocity (defensively) at 2B already I wouldn’t really care to have Villar next to him.

[JohnBriggs12]

I don't recall Villar playing a passable SS, and we have a better 2B in Hiura. Villar was moved to 2B for a reason.

 

If Villar can't play SS, then what are we hand-wringing about?

 

He plays half his time at SS right now. He did play a passable SS. Most scouts thought he could stick at SS if his bat played. He got moved the 2B because we had no 2B and a great young SS.

 

Villar wasn't passable at SS and just marginally passable at 2B. He puts up decent numbers but his K rate is much higher than Arcia's. I've always felt that Arcia's issue is that his concentration wavers from AB to AB. His career BA with runners on is .267. It's .225 with the bases empty. That's a significant difference.

[MrTPlush]

I don't recall Villar playing a passable SS, and we have a better 2B in Hiura. Villar was moved to 2B for a reason.

 

If Villar can't play SS, then what are we hand-wringing about?

 

He plays half his time at SS right now. He did play a passable SS. Most scouts thought he could stick at SS if his bat played. He got moved the 2B because we had no 2B and a great young SS.

 

Villar wasn't passable at SS and just marginally passable at 2B. He puts up decent numbers but his K rate is much higher than Arcia's. I've always felt that Arcia's issue is that his concentration wavers from AB to AB. His career BA with runners on is .267. It's .225 with the bases empty. That's a significant difference.

 

He has never had a negative dWAR according to BRef. Fangraphs has him at -11 in 2016 at SS, -5.5 in 2017 at 2B, and -1.4 after 162 games of 2B/SS split almost 50/50 in 2019.

 

 

The eye test didn’t say he was a disaster out there nor do the stats. He just is not that bad defensively. Not great, not good, maybe not average...but 100% passable.

[OldHeidelberg]

At the time I was more upset about giving up Ortiz and the other SS prospect for a guy we really didn't need, Villar was in the doghouse here and needed to be moved.

 

Maybe Arcia just needs a fresh start somewhere as well but I do think he still has a ceiling he hasn't hit. I would keep him.

[DuWayne Steurer]

If people just don't like Villar, that's one thing, but 2 of the last 4 years, he's had a 4 WAR season. Almost a 3 WAR player in 2018. He sucked in 2017. He's perfectly serviceable at SS. Dude is a good ball player.

[Ennder]

I don't recall Villar playing a passable SS, and we have a better 2B in Hiura. Villar was moved to 2B for a reason.

 

If Villar can't play SS, then what are we hand-wringing about?

 

 

Villar is an awful defensive SS, he was never an option there. So if Shaw doesn't stink it up there was never any reason to keep Villar and even given the results f I'd rather have Hiura. Villar would have gotten like 200 PA for this team and been worth less than 1 WAR most likely. You can't always just translate what happens on one team into what would have happened on another.

[TURBO]

Villar was even worse on the base paths than Gomez, and that is saying something...

 

Hindsight being 20/20, yeah, it would be nice to have him, however, he was NEVER going to make it out of CC's doghouse, so a trade was pretty much inevitable. Too bad we got completely hosed on the deal we ended up making. A deal, which to this day made zero since from the beginning.

[Pugger]

I personally can't imagine that 1B coach is a really tough position to replace.

 

Subero did more than just coach 1st base. Having an assistant fluent in Spanish is a plus too.

[Pugger]

Personally I don't miss Villar.

[long ball]

The Villar/Schoop trade was weird from the start. Schoop was presumably brought in to play mostly at 2b/ss as a right handed side of a platoon or take every day ABs at SS. Well the problem was he didn't actually hit LHP that well and Villar was hitting LHP will in 2018. Like others had said, Villar was basically benched for a few weeks leading up to the trade so it seemed clear that he was just dumped. The Brewers didn't give him a single start at SS in 2018 even though Arcia was horrible. The Brewers didn't view him as a viable defensive option at SS.

 

The Brewers were done with Villar. It was a bad trade. The process around the trade was bad. Only taking into consideration on field production, the Brewers blew this one.

[Pugger]

The Villar/Schoop trade was weird from the start. Schoop was presumably brought in to play mostly at 2b/ss as a right handed side of a platoon or take every day ABs at SS. Well the problem was he didn't actually hit LHP that well and Villar was hitting LHP will in 2018. Like others had said, Villar was basically benched for a few weeks leading up to the trade so it seemed clear that he was just dumped. The Brewers didn't give him a single start at SS in 2018 even though Arcia was horrible. The Brewers didn't view him as a viable defensive option at SS.

 

The Brewers were done with Villar. It was a bad trade. The process around the trade was bad. Only taking into consideration on field production, the Brewers blew this one.

 

Only because Schoop was a bust for us.

[Oxy]

I personally can't imagine that 1B coach is a really tough position to replace.

 

Subero did more than just coach 1st base. Having an assistant fluent in Spanish is a plus too.

 

I didn't know that Subero was Venezuelan too...So all of our tenured latino players (Arcia, Pina, Guerra, Perez, and Aguilar, anyway) and a coach were Venezuelan. Aguilar is already gone, Perez has been DFA'd once, Guerra is turning 35 and Arcia may be non-tendered.

 

I'd feel bad for Pina if they were all close and he is the only one retained, but that's pro-sports.

[TURBO]

Arcia non-tendered?

 

Highly doubtful.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Arcia non-tendered?

 

Highly doubtful.

 

Yeah ... not gonna happen.

[reillymcshane]

Villar was a talented, frustrating and inconsistent player. That's the kind of person that drives managers crazy. He was an erratic fielder, and his base running was often a source of frustration. Reliability is a huge part of being a professional ballplayer (or in any field). Teams pay big dollars to players to take care of business. Villar had obvious skills, and had had one great season. But had followed with several bad-mediocre ones. As a playoff contender, the club was at a point where 'bad' Villar was more common than 'good' Villar. You just can't live with that kind of production.

 

This is why Arcia is going to be heavily scrutinized. The club needs better and more consistent production from the position. If this was a sub-.500 team, you can live with his inconsistencies and hope he matures. But if you want to be a contender, the club might put more value on a different type of player.

[Lathund]

Arcia non-tendered?

 

Highly doubtful.

 

Yeah ... not gonna happen.

 

Yeah. "Moving on" from Arcia would not be non-tendering him. It'd be him as the utility IF or getting platooned or starting the year in AAA or (unlikely as his trade value must be rock bottom) being traded. He is not getting non-tendered.

[RollieTime]

I wonder if moving on from Anderson is the start of a busy offseason. Stearns mentioned that the roster could look drastically different in the spring and I think this is only the beginning. I truly do think we are going to see a very different roster next season than what we saw this year.

 

Anderson $6.5 million

Moose $7 million

Grandal $16.25 million

Thames $6 million

Shaw $4.7 million

Chacin $6.75 million

Jeffress $ 3.2 million

Guerra $2.25 million

Albers $2.5 million

Nelson $3.7 million

Perez $2.5 million

Gonzalez $1.7 million

 

$63.05 million

 

That is a TON of financial flexibility that the Brewers could realistically have this offseason. Most likely they will bring back a couple guys like Guerra and someone like Moose, but the ability to have a ton of money to spend is there. It’s nice not being tied into a bunch of long term contracts and to have the flexibility to address issues in the offseason. And to think of how much of that money could fall off from guys that really didn’t contribute much at all for us during the season (Jeffress, Chacin, Nelson, Shaw, Perez, Albers). There isn’t anybody on the free agent market we couldn’t afford. Is it realistic to get Cole and put that much money into one guy? Probably not. But if you let Grandal, Jeffress, Chacin, and Anderson leave (which has pretty much already happened), you can get Cole. Bring Moose back for $10-$12 million, maybe decide to bring back Thames at a lower amount, and still have roughly $15 million or so left over to get a SS upgrade, bring back Pomeranz, and someone like Lyles to fill out the rotation.

 

And now I just see Thames’ option isn’t being picked up. This is going to be a busy offseason. Stearns absolutely wants a ton of flexibility.

[Oxy]

This is all a bit odd. Pretty much everybody wanted Anderson and Thames traded last offseason and they were retained...then both went on to have good years that seemingly re-couped their value and looked to be decent veteran depth pieces heading into next year. Now both are gone, the roster is very thin and we have a lot of cash...

 

I like the confidence Stearns has to shake things up and make the most of the cash...we'll see. I think/hope we are going after Grandal.

[RollieTime]

To add to this, I just saw something that is interesting. The Brewers have a grand total of 4 players signed for 2020– Ryan Braun, Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, and Manny Pina for a grand total of $46.35 million.

[Oxy]

To add to this, I just saw something that is interesting. The Brewers have a grand total of 4 players signed for 2020– Ryan Braun, Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, and Manny Pina for a grand total of $46.35 million.

 

Well- "veterans signed", anyway. It's a bit misleading, as everybody with less than 6 years of MLB time aren't technically "signed," but they aren't going anywhere unless traded.

[True Blue Brew Crew]

To add to this, I just saw something that is interesting. The Brewers have a grand total of 4 players signed for 2020– Ryan Braun, Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, and Manny Pina for a grand total of $46.35 million.

 

Well- "veterans signed", anyway. It's a bit misleading, as everybody with less than 6 years of MLB time aren't technically "signed," but they aren't going anywhere unless traded.

 

True, but the non tender decisions are yet to come.