Has anyone lost confidence in Stearns

[Lathund]

Changes to player evaluation and player development takes time. Seeing the impact of those changes takes even longer. Consider that Stearns comes in after 2015. Then it's a matter of getting to know and evaluating the setup for player evaluation and development already in place, to see how it works. He needs to get a feel for the people involved, who can help with what they're trying to do, who can be trained to help with it, and who needs to be replaced. Then the restructuring and changes start. Staff needs to be trained in the new methods and procedures, new staff needs to be hired, infrastructure investments need to be made, equipment bought etc. Once this all is done (And it takes some time) it needs to be evaluated and the inevitable growing pains need to be sorted. And evaluated again.

 

What I'm getting at is that this all takes a while. I guess it's hard to say when such a process is even "finished", it's probably always ongoing, but what I'm trying to say is that there's probably not yet a single player on the MLB roster or even just beyond it who has been fully scouted and drafted and developed with the current setup in place. When it comes to the previously somewhat neglected Latin American operations, the prospects there who Stearns & his team should be judged on probably aren't of legal drinking age in Europe yet, let alone in the US.

 

People around the game say it all the time, that the Brewers are one of the most advanced and progressive teams out there when it comes to development. We'll of course have to see what kind of results it gets us, if it starts producing hitters at some point and not just pitchers. It might or it might not. We simply haven't seen enough yet to know which way it leans.

 

And while all this is going on with drafting and development the team has done very well over these four years, coming back from a rebuild almost instantly and almost reaching the WS. I have a lot of faith in Stearns. If the offseason acquisitions played even remotely near to their career or 3-year averages, this team would be in a good spot now. For whatever reason, they aren't. But that's the beauty of these 1-year deals with team options. You can cut ties after 1 year if it doesn't work out, no long-term harm done. If it does work out, you get another year.

 

Some people use "Trust the process" as a meme, but it's one of the things I like about the way this FO is doing things, as frustrating as it can be at times. So I will.

 

Zach Davies is now 5-2 with a 2.61 ERA and a Whip under .9. Grisham might not be a budding star, but he's a solid middle of the order bat and would have been cheap for several more years. That trade looks awful especially if you add in what they had to pay to sign Garcia to replace Grisham. The Lindblom experiment looks like a complete bust. He's the same pitcher he was in his previous major league stints.

 

I'm afraid the Brewers have become the Angels.

 

Stearns has fallen into the same trap Melvin did over and over again. Create a bunch of holes elsewhere to correct one. Oh yeah and the spot that needed fixing, offense at SS seems to have fixed itself with improvement from Arcia.

 

It's been 30-something games. Even less than that for Urias and Lauer who, it's worth pointing out, both missed spring training with injuries and summer camp with COVID. Chill.

 

We all know who Zach Davies is. Command artist who makes the most out of limited stuff, but upside limited by said stuff. He's had a really good first 7 games. After 7 games in 2019 he had a 1.56 ERA. After 7 games in 2017 he had a 5.60 ERA. He's the same guy now as he was then. We've all seen how dominant he has been in stretches, and we've all seen stretches where he can't get anyone out. His ERA relies a lot on the low (.220) BABIP and on runs being unearned, and probably on the new home ballpark. It's perfectly fine to miss the Zach Davies we've seen over the last several years; I do too, always liked watching him pitch and he was a solid mid-rotation starter. But let's not make him into something he isn't.

[MrTPlush]

Surprised I haven't seen this mentioned, but Didi Gregorius is repping a .829 OPS with the Phillies. He took a 1 year deal with the Phillies. While Arcia hasn't been bad the .280 average or microscopic K rate for Gregorius would look nice on our squad.

 

I can't recall the specific details of him going to the Phillies or if he would have even signed with us, but as much as Stearns loves 1 year deals he seemingly missed the boat on that one.

[brewers888]

Surprised I haven't seen this mentioned, but Didi Gregorius is repping a .829 OPS with the Phillies. He took a 1 year deal with the Phillies. While Arcia hasn't been bad the .280 average or microscopic K rate for Gregorius would look nice on our squad.

 

I can't recall the specific details of him going to the Phillies or if he would have even signed with us, but as much as Stearns loves 1 year deals he seemingly missed the boat on that one.

 

I think we showed interest but his relationship with Girardi probably sealed the deal. That plus they most likely offered a bigger one year deal.

[sveumrules]

Surprised I haven't seen this mentioned, but Didi Gregorius is repping a .829 OPS with the Phillies. He took a 1 year deal with the Phillies. While Arcia hasn't been bad the .280 average or microscopic K rate for Gregorius would look nice on our squad.

 

I can't recall the specific details of him going to the Phillies or if he would have even signed with us, but as much as Stearns loves 1 year deals he seemingly missed the boat on that one.

 

I'd imagine Stearns checked in on Didi, but I'm pretty sure two reasons he mentioned liking Philly were the proximity to NY & his old manager Girardi was there.

 

Tweet mentioning Brewers as runner up & Girardi playing a factor...

 

[JohnBriggs12]

Surprised I haven't seen this mentioned, but Didi Gregorius is repping a .829 OPS with the Phillies. He took a 1 year deal with the Phillies. While Arcia hasn't been bad the .280 average or microscopic K rate for Gregorius would look nice on our squad.

 

I can't recall the specific details of him going to the Phillies or if he would have even signed with us, but as much as Stearns loves 1 year deals he seemingly missed the boat on that one.

 

I'd imagine Stearns checked in on Didi, but I'm pretty sure two reasons he mentioned liking Philly were the proximity to NY & his old manager Girardi was there.

 

Tweet mentioning Brewers as runner up & Girardi playing a factor...

 

 

Brewers must have given up on Didi. They dealt for Urias two weeks before Gregorius signed. This would be a much better team with Didi, Davies and Grisham than it is with Urias, Lauer and Garcia. You can argue well they would only have Didi for 60 games, but there was no way they knew that in December.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Surprised I haven't seen this mentioned, but Didi Gregorius is repping a .829 OPS with the Phillies. He took a 1 year deal with the Phillies. While Arcia hasn't been bad the .280 average or microscopic K rate for Gregorius would look nice on our squad.

 

I can't recall the specific details of him going to the Phillies or if he would have even signed with us, but as much as Stearns loves 1 year deals he seemingly missed the boat on that one.

 

I'd imagine Stearns checked in on Didi, but I'm pretty sure two reasons he mentioned liking Philly were the proximity to NY & his old manager Girardi was there.

 

Tweet mentioning Brewers as runner up & Girardi playing a factor...

 

 

Brewers must have given up on Didi. They dealt for Urias two weeks before Gregorius signed. This would be a much better team with Didi, Davies and Grisham than it is with Urias, Lauer and Garcia. You can argue well they would only have Didi for 60 games, but there was no way they knew that in December.

 

It's a good thing that player acquisition isn't a year-to-year proposition then, isn't it? Urias was the key to that deal, and likely has a substantially higher upside than the other pieces of that deal. And he's Brewer property for 6 years.

[Boomer5]

The elephant in the room is the dynamics of the season makings judging the performance of the team moot.

 

Clearly the team is focused on non baseball issues much like the Bucks.

 

This season is a mulligan and we can figure this out next year.

[homer]

They're a better than 50/50 shot at the playoffs with the MVP of the league hitting below .200.

[adambr2]

They're a better than 50/50 shot at the playoffs with the MVP of the league hitting below .200.

 

While this is good, the goalposts for the playoffs have been moved drastically this year, after already being moved closer twice previously in the last 25 years. That's my only issue comparing Stearns to previous regimes using playoffs as a bar.

[adambr2]

I'd like to point out that it's important to judge a GM not just by what they did but what they didn't do. It would have been justifiable to sign Alex Cobb a couple years ago for this rotation, but it would obviously have been a big and expensive mistake. Most of Stearns' "mistakes" have been relatively harmless and inexpensive. It's hard for me to go back and find a deal that Stearns made and think "Wow, that really hurt us."

 

Think of how easy it would have been to trade Corbin Burnes for a Manny Machado rental at the '18 deadline like the Orioles wanted. Now Corbin is emerging into an ace and Manny would have been lost in free agency anyway.

 

Of course, I can't predict what would have happened the other way. It's not impossible that acquiring Machado at the '18 deadline for Burnes puts us into the World Series instead of the Dodgers.

[homer]

They're a better than 50/50 shot at the playoffs with the MVP of the league hitting below .200.

 

While this is good, the goalposts for the playoffs have been moved drastically this year, after already being moved closer twice previously in the last 25 years. That's my only issue comparing Stearns to previous regimes using playoffs as a bar.

 

OK that's fair. They're still a game below .500 with their two best hitters producing way, way, under expectations.

[adambr2]

They're a better than 50/50 shot at the playoffs with the MVP of the league hitting below .200.

 

While this is good, the goalposts for the playoffs have been moved drastically this year, after already being moved closer twice previously in the last 25 years. That's my only issue comparing Stearns to previous regimes using playoffs as a bar.

 

OK that's fair. They're still a game below .500 with their two best hitters producing way, way, under expectations.

 

For sure. I don't know how they've done it. You look down that entire lineup, you can't find a guy other than maybe Gyorko who is hitting expectations. Even Arcia is back down to hovering right around his career averages.

 

I don't know where they'd be without Corbin Burnes, because it isn't like any other starter has been all that great. Shows how much an elite bullpen can be worth. Having Williams and Hader locking down games has been enormous.

[brewers888]

I wouldn't look at being in playoff contention as some great accomplishment when nearly every team in the sport is in the race.

[brewers888]

One thing in Stearns favor is that we have never had so many promising young arms on the major league roster. The lineup is a completely different story but we have two big arms in the rotation and maybe the best two relievers on any team in baseball.

[Boomer5]

They're a better than 50/50 shot at the playoffs with the MVP of the league hitting below .200.

 

I’m assuming this in blue with the current format

[sveumrules]

They're a better than 50/50 shot at the playoffs with the MVP of the league hitting below .200.

 

While this is good, the goalposts for the playoffs have been moved drastically this year, after already being moved closer twice previously in the last 25 years. That's my only issue comparing Stearns to previous regimes using playoffs as a bar.

 

How about regular season wins as a bar?

 

From 2017-19 the Brewers won 271 games, 2nd most in franchise history behind the 274 they won from 1978-80.

[HiAndTight]

I wouldn't look at being in playoff contention as some great accomplishment when nearly every team in the sport is in the race.

 

Oh...ok. Would you look at them losing in 7 in the NLDS(when you'd also lost confidence in him) or making another run last year(when, again you'd lost confidence in him) as nice accomplishments...or no?

[HiAndTight]

I wouldn't look at being in playoff contention as some great accomplishment when nearly every team in the sport is in the race.

 

Oh...ok. Would you look at them losing in 7 in the NLDS(when you'd also lost confidence in him) or making another run last year(when, again you'd lost confidence in him) as nice accomplishments...or no?

[adambr2]

They're a better than 50/50 shot at the playoffs with the MVP of the league hitting below .200.

 

While this is good, the goalposts for the playoffs have been moved drastically this year, after already being moved closer twice previously in the last 25 years. That's my only issue comparing Stearns to previous regimes using playoffs as a bar.

 

How about regular season wins as a bar?

 

From 2017-19 the Brewers won 271 games, 2nd most in franchise history behind the 274 they won from 1978-80.

 

Any comparison to our franchises history is a low bar as we have not been a historically successful franchise. I think a more relevant comparison would be how we have fared in comparison to comparable small markets. Which I would still think Stearns is at least on par with, if not better than most. If you're saying Stearns is a solid, above average GM I would agree. If you're saying the organization has better direction and leadership than it did from the early 90s to the mid 2000s, I would of course absolutely agree.

 

I think some criticism of this past offseason is warranted. I think the current arrow direction of the franchise given the state of the farm system is in question.

[adambr2]

They're a better than 50/50 shot at the playoffs with the MVP of the league hitting below .200.

 

While this is good, the goalposts for the playoffs have been moved drastically this year, after already being moved closer twice previously in the last 25 years. That's my only issue comparing Stearns to previous regimes using playoffs as a bar.

 

How about regular season wins as a bar?

 

From 2017-19 the Brewers won 271 games, 2nd most in franchise history behind the 274 they won from 1978-80.

 

Any comparison to our franchises history is a low bar as we have not been a historically successful franchise. I think a more relevant comparison would be how we have fared in comparison to comparable small markets. Which I would still think Stearns is at least on par with, if not better than most. If you're saying Stearns is a solid, above average GM I would agree. If you're saying the organization has better direction and leadership than it did from the early 90s to the mid 2000s, I would of course absolutely agree.

 

I think some criticism of this past offseason is warranted. I think the current arrow direction of the franchise given the state of the farm system is in question.

[Eye Black]

From 2017-19 the Brewers won 271 games, 2nd most in franchise history behind the 274 they won from 1978-80.

By comparison during that same period (2017-2019), the Cubs also had 271 regular season wins with a core that was supposed to be a potential dynasty coming off of their 2016 WS title.

[Eye Black]

From 2017-19 the Brewers won 271 games, 2nd most in franchise history behind the 274 they won from 1978-80.

By comparison during that same period (2017-2019), the Cubs also had 271 regular season wins with a core that was supposed to be a potential dynasty coming off of their 2016 WS title.

[pacopete4]

From 2017-19 the Brewers won 271 games, 2nd most in franchise history behind the 274 they won from 1978-80.

By comparison during that same period (2017-2019), the Cubs also had 271 regular season wins with a core that was supposed to be a potential dynasty coming off of their 2016 WS title.

 

And they probably have spent twice as much as the Brewers did.

[pacopete4]

From 2017-19 the Brewers won 271 games, 2nd most in franchise history behind the 274 they won from 1978-80.

By comparison during that same period (2017-2019), the Cubs also had 271 regular season wins with a core that was supposed to be a potential dynasty coming off of their 2016 WS title.

 

And they probably have spent twice as much as the Brewers did.