jake faria released

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

I don’t think I know a single person that believes he makes all the right moves or that everything he touches turns to gold. But what a lot of fans won’t do is pile on the guy if a move or two doesn’t work in our favor. He’s built some of the best teams we’ve had in our history and with a win tomorrow, that’s 3-straight playoff appearances. I don’t care that the goal line was moved with how many make it. It’s hard to do. There’s way more negative reactions towards Stearns/Counsell than their should ever be right now. That’s just my two cents.

 

After living through the late 80s, the 90s and the early 2000s, this prolonged string of competitive, for the most part successful teams is a huge breath of fresh air. No, I don't think Stearns is some sort of all-knowing messiah, but he is an intelligent, data-driven personnel man who is adept and putting competitive teams on the field despite limited financial resources. When you are forced to operate with those parameters, there are going to misses. If he were operating with the kind of funds available to the Cubs or Dodgers, it would be different. But he isn't, so the fact that we can put a team on the field that can compete with those clubs is a phenomenal accomplishment.

[areacodes]

Well sure, he's human and he makes mistakes just like any other GM. Your statement was that he "makes a lot of bad trades", not that he makes a couple of mistakes. What is your criteria for "a lot"? Are you comparing him against himself, other GMs? I agree with your Sogard evaluation but that wasn't a trade. I think it's very telling that the mistakes that are being pointed out are for marginal players like Aguilar and Santana.

 

Well the Aguilar trade is brought up because that's how we got Faria. Santana was an example of a good trade at a bad time. The Villar trade made us worse short term and long, as did the Davis trade. The Grisham/Davies trade was a short term disaster, well see how it shakes out long term. My initial statement wasn't just what you quoted by the way, you left off a few words so you could have an easier argument. I'm not going to rehash every trade and every guy he's cut loose for nothing (even though they had value the previous year, or immediately provided value to someone else, but it's pretty clear he's made a lot of what turned out to be bad moves. He's made lots of good ones as well, and we're still technically in the race this year, but it's silly to pretend everything he touches turns to gold.

 

Regarding the bolded. Really? You are going to make definitive statements about how “it’s pretty clear he’s made a lot of what turned out to be bad moves” but refuse to actually go into detail about those moves? If there are so many as you say, it should be pretty easy to come up with something to back up your statement.

[timpep]

Well sure, he's human and he makes mistakes just like any other GM. Your statement was that he "makes a lot of bad trades", not that he makes a couple of mistakes. What is your criteria for "a lot"? Are you comparing him against himself, other GMs? I agree with your Sogard evaluation but that wasn't a trade. I think it's very telling that the mistakes that are being pointed out are for marginal players like Aguilar and Santana.

 

Well the Aguilar trade is brought up because that's how we got Faria. Santana was an example of a good trade at a bad time. The Villar trade made us worse short term and long, as did the Davis trade. The Grisham/Davies trade was a short term disaster, well see how it shakes out long term. My initial statement wasn't just what you quoted by the way, you left off a few words so you could have an easier argument. I'm not going to rehash every trade and every guy he's cut loose for nothing (even though they had value the previous year, or immediately provided value to someone else, but it's pretty clear he's made a lot of what turned out to be bad moves. He's made lots of good ones as well, and we're still technically in the race this year, but it's silly to pretend everything he touches turns to gold.

 

Regarding the bolded. Really? You are going to make definitive statements about how “it’s pretty clear he’s made a lot of what turned out to be bad moves” but refuse to actually go into detail about those moves? If there are so many as you say, it should be pretty easy to come up with something to back up your statement.

 

If you think I'm refusing to list any bad moves he's made you should re-read what you quoted. It's not worth my time to argue, if you can't objectively look back and analyze things without emotion it's really not worth my time. Peace.

[TURBO]

All evaluations are done with hindsight. This is like saying Stearns didn't deserve credit for trading for an MVP because nobody thought he would be an MVP at the time. He deserves credit when it works and blame when it doesn't. I don't see anyone making the claim he's a bad GM but he makes mistakes like anyone and I think it's fair to recognize them as well.

 

This.

 

This is a fair statement.

 

Relating to this, but not totally, same can be said about Counsell. It's great when he makes good decisions that help us win, but it is 100% justifiable to criticize him when he makes bad decisions. This season, there have been a lot of bad decisions. There was a time when if he was called out, half the board would jump down your throat in defense. This year I have noticed more people being ok with criticizing his decision making, which is fair.

[StearnsFTW]

As of today, Jesus Aguilar has a 120 wRC+ on the season. The Brewers composite 1B have a 93 wRC+ and their DHs have a 115 wRC+.

 

We can celebrate the acquisitions of Gyorko and Vogelbach, but let's not forget the ABs given to Smoak and Morrison, too.

 

I was mostly being facetious, but I absolutely believe that Stearns thought they could do better. And I believe that was why they dealt Aguilar for whatever they could get. As I said, he was wrong so far purely on the numbers, but the scenario hasn't completely played out yet.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

All evaluations are done with hindsight. This is like saying Stearns didn't deserve credit for trading for an MVP because nobody thought he would be an MVP at the time. He deserves credit when it works and blame when it doesn't. I don't see anyone making the claim he's a bad GM but he makes mistakes like anyone and I think it's fair to recognize them as well.

 

This.

 

This is a fair statement.

 

Relating to this, but not totally, same can be said about Counsell. It's great when he makes good decisions that help us win, but it is 100% justifiable to criticize him when he makes bad decisions. This season, there have been a lot of bad decisions. There was a time when if he was called out, half the board would jump down your throat in defense. This year I have noticed more people being ok with criticizing his decision making, which is fair.

 

Because this season he is managing like the second coming of Ken Macha. I get that the roster is more boring than in past years, but Counsell's constant vanilla, cookie-cutter managerial decisions aren't helping the cause, either.

[areacodes]

Well the Aguilar trade is brought up because that's how we got Faria. Santana was an example of a good trade at a bad time. The Villar trade made us worse short term and long, as did the Davis trade. The Grisham/Davies trade was a short term disaster, well see how it shakes out long term. My initial statement wasn't just what you quoted by the way, you left off a few words so you could have an easier argument. I'm not going to rehash every trade and every guy he's cut loose for nothing (even though they had value the previous year, or immediately provided value to someone else, but it's pretty clear he's made a lot of what turned out to be bad moves. He's made lots of good ones as well, and we're still technically in the race this year, but it's silly to pretend everything he touches turns to gold.

 

Regarding the bolded. Really? You are going to make definitive statements about how “it’s pretty clear he’s made a lot of what turned out to be bad moves” but refuse to actually go into detail about those moves? If there are so many as you say, it should be pretty easy to come up with something to back up your statement.

 

If you think I'm refusing to list any bad moves he's made you should re-read what you quoted. It's not worth my time to argue, if you can't objectively look back and analyze things without emotion it's really not worth my time. Peace.

 

Where did I say you refused to list “any” bad moves. You listed a couple and then essentially said you didn’t want to discuss all of the bad moves/players he got nothing for after claiming he’s made lots of bad moves. If it is so pervasive, it should have been pretty easy for you to show us these bad moves he made to expand on your point to further discussion as somebody else even listed his trades.

 

Having a dissenting opinion about Stearns or saying he has “a lot” of bad moves doesn’t make you more objective than somebody or that you’ve taken your emotions out of your analysis of the trades/moves.

[StearnsFTW]

I don't have an issue with Aguilar being gone, he would've helped us this year but whatever. My issue is Stearns seems to do a lot of buy high/sell low. That won't work for a small market like us.

 

Yeah, I don't really agree here.

 

He bought Yelich pretty low as well as lots of others. Including Aguilar.

[82brewcrew82]

Well sure, he's human and he makes mistakes just like any other GM. Your statement was that he "makes a lot of bad trades", not that he makes a couple of mistakes. What is your criteria for "a lot"? Are you comparing him against himself, other GMs? I agree with your Sogard evaluation but that wasn't a trade. I think it's very telling that the mistakes that are being pointed out are for marginal players like Aguilar and Santana.

 

Well the Aguilar trade is brought up because that's how we got Faria. Santana was an example of a good trade at a bad time. The Villar trade made us worse short term and long, as did the Davis trade. The Grisham/Davies trade was a short term disaster, well see how it shakes out long term. My initial statement wasn't just what you quoted by the way, you left off a few words so you could have an easier argument. I'm not going to rehash every trade and every guy he's cut loose for nothing (even though they had value the previous year, or immediately provided value to someone else, but it's pretty clear he's made a lot of what turned out to be bad moves. He's made lots of good ones as well, and we're still technically in the race this year, but it's silly to pretend everything he touches turns to gold.

Not one single person on this board has ever stated that everything DS touches turns to gold. Maybe you ought to check yourself before you start calling out people for misquoting. I'm not making an argument, I am asking you to quantify your statement that DS makes a lot of bad trades. No one forced you to make that statement. You have opinions, I get that but you don't really know what players had what value or when they had that value. It just seems weird to claim that players that were not helping this team make the playoffs made team worse when the team started making the playoffs (or at least competing for playoff spots) when those players were gone.

[82brewcrew82]

I don’t think I know a single person that believes he makes all the right moves or that everything he touches turns to gold. But what a lot of fans won’t do is pile on the guy if a move or two doesn’t work in our favor. He’s built some of the best teams we’ve had in our history and with a win tomorrow, that’s 3-straight playoff appearances. I don’t care that the goal line was moved with how many make it. It’s hard to do. There’s way more negative reactions towards Stearns/Counsell than their should ever be right now. That’s just my two cents.

That is a pretty strong counter argument for a guy that being accused of making "a lot of bad moves".

[RollieTime]

I do find it mildly frustrating seeing guys like Aguilar traded, but then we go out and sign a guy like Smoak for $5 million to hit .220 with some pop. Aguilar could do that at a much cheaper price. Also, Garrett Cooper was a pretty awful trade that I was against at the time as well. Sure would be nice to have a first baseman of the future in him instead of the revolving door we’ve had since 2012. Mauricio Dubon might be one we regret as well as he had a solid 2020. Granted we received Pomeranz in that trade, but it still sucked seeing Dubon moved. It would be nice to see what some of the young hitters can do who have had success up and through AAA instead of being moved.

 

This past offseason of signing Sogard and Smoak was extremely underwhelming and played out basically how I thought it would with those two.

 

Stearns certainly isn’t perfect and he does seem to win more trades than he loses. But I do have an issue with him moving MLB ready hitters instead of guys further away. If anything, Stearns should be looking to add guys who have had success in the minors and are on the cusp of MLB and getting that cheap control of a guy instead of moving them.

[JimH5]

"Look, a lot didn't go right for us this year. A lot of the moves I made last offseason didn't pan out the way I thought they were going to pan out. But our team, really, hung together, overcame that and now we get to play in our third postseason in a row on a national stage.

 

"And that's something to be really proud of."

 

 

That's a quote from David Stearns in a JSOnline story from Todd Rosiak, posted last night.

 

I'm glad that Stearns admits it when he gets things wrong. I think that's his most admirable trait. He recognizes organizational failures and he cuts bait when appropriate. I think Jake Faria and Justin Smoak are good examples of that.

[StearnsFTW]

"Look, a lot didn't go right for us this year. A lot of the moves I made last offseason didn't pan out the way I thought they were going to pan out. But our team, really, hung together, overcame that and now we get to play in our third postseason in a row on a national stage.

 

"And that's something to be really proud of."

 

 

That's a quote from David Stearns in a JSOnline story from Todd Rosiak, posted last night.

 

I'm glad that Stearns admits it when he gets things wrong. I think that's his most admirable trait. He recognizes organizational failures and he cuts bait when appropriate. I think Jake Faria and Justin Smoak are good examples of that.

 

Agree on that.

 

There were definitely a couple head scratchers last offseason. I personally didn't hate the Smoak signing as much as Healy, Sogard and Gyorko. Gyorko has been quite good, but the other 2......yikes.

[Jopal78]

"Look, a lot didn't go right for us this year. A lot of the moves I made last offseason didn't pan out the way I thought they were going to pan out. But our team, really, hung together, overcame that and now we get to play in our third postseason in a row on a national stage.

 

"And that's something to be really proud of."

 

 

That's a quote from David Stearns in a JSOnline story from Todd Rosiak, posted last night.

 

I'm glad that Stearns admits it when he gets things wrong. I think that's his most admirable trait. He recognizes organizational failures and he cuts bait when appropriate. I think Jake Faria and Justin Smoak are good examples of that.

 

Agree on that.

 

There were definitely a couple head scratchers last offseason. I personally didn't hate the Smoak signing as much as Healy, Sogard and Gyorko. Gyorko has been quite good, but the other 2......yikes.

 

I think signing Healy was a good move. Career .750 OPS hitter plays both corner infield spots, has 3 years of team control and minor league options. There's no way Stearns would know the player would end up contributing next to nothing in 2020, and he'll probably be back to compete for a roster spot next year.

 

Gyorko might be the best move of the offseason, another player who was a .735 OPS hitter, competent at all the infield spots. He went out and put up a career year for the Brewrs. I don't see a reason why they wouldn't exercise his option so ultimately he was signed to a 2 year/5.5 million dollar contract.

 

With Sogard, sometimes there are just players an organization likes. Doug Melvin like Craig Counsell as a player and acquired him multiple times and kept him around for years. Hopefully, the GM and front office have seen enough of Sogard and can finally quit him.