Has anyone lost confidence in Stearns

[PeaveyFury]

I think there are people who get caught up in the 'name free agents' and such who have been very disappointed that the Brewers haven't used their recent success to bring more of them in. This, of course, ignores the acquisitions of Grandall, Cain, Yelich, etc. from the past, but I think there were expectations for more 'names' this past off season.

 

From a financial and future-looking standpoint, though, signing most of the guys they did bring in to short-term contracts may have been a huge benefit to the team since this is a wonky, lost season anyway, as they basically have the opportunity to move on from any of them and build the team anew this winter.

[brewers888]

The thing that I don't get is why fans think our farm system is anything other than terrible. The rest of the baseball universe has been saying that our system is the worst or close to it in the game yet homer fans are saying that it is good. I would like to believe that we have some impact talent in the system but I just don't see it.

[monty57]

This offseason the team cut payroll, and Stearns built a team for NL baseball, with a lot of utility guys and platoon-split players for a league where the pitcher bats. I personally like the DH in the NL, but Stearns built this team before the DH was instituted. He may have made some different decisions if he knew we'd have a DH.

 

I'd love to have a better farm, but at least we have a lot of young talent on the MLB roster. Stearns seems to like stocking the roster with young, team-controlled players, and "filling in the holes" with vets on 1-year deals. Outside of Anderson, our rotation in under control for years to come, and on offense we have guys like Urias, Hiura, Yelich, and Narvaez under control for a long time. We have a lot of talent in our "core," even if some of them haven't fully "clicked" yet.

 

I've always liked the concept of building a core of young, controlled talent, while using free agency to fill in the gaps around this core. Small markets don't have the resources to sign big money free agents to be your "core" players, so I like the way Stearns is building things. Like most things this year, COVID has disrupted baseball, so this year can't really be used as a barometer for anything. Let's enjoy having baseball back in our lives and hope that things are back to normal as soon as possible.

[brewers888]

I think there are people who get caught up in the 'name free agents' and such who have been very disappointed that the Brewers haven't used their recent success to bring more of them in. This, of course, ignores the acquisitions of Grandall, Cain, Yelich, etc. from the past, but I think there were expectations for more 'names' this past off season.

 

From a financial and future-looking standpoint, though, signing most of the guys they did bring in to short-term contracts may have been a huge benefit to the team since this is a wonky, lost season anyway, as they basically have the opportunity to move on from any of them and build the team anew this winter.

 

Most every move they made last offseason was made to save money. Not that Thames is a star but they let him go to save a few million. I believe that Mark Attanasio forced Stearns to cut payroll everywhere possible and Stearns did what he could and the end result was signing a bunch of scrubs.

[brewers888]

We are going to be forced to trade Hader because we have just not drafted and developed well enough to fill the many holes that we have. If our scouts had done a better job we wouldn't have had to fill two offensive positions like first and third base with Sogard and Smoak who are both terrible players.

[PeaveyFury]

The thing that I don't get is why fans think our farm system is anything other than terrible. The rest of the baseball universe has been saying that our system is the worst or close to it in the game yet homer fans are saying that it is good. I would like to believe that we have some impact talent in the system but I just don't see it.

 

What I don't get is a continued lack of acknowledgement that the reason for this is that a lot of the talent that WAS there has been used to acquire pieces that provide the success we've had as a franchise for the past few years.[

 

We are going to be forced to trade Hader because we have just not drafted and developed well enough to fill the many holes that we have.

 

Far more likely that they're going to fill one of those holes in some way via free agency. Didn't work thus far this year, so they'll likely take another swing at it in the winter.

[PeaveyFury]

I believe that Mark Attanasio forced Stearns to cut payroll everywhere possible and Stearns did what he could and the end result was signing a bunch of scrubs.

 

You've made that viewpoint very apparent in multiple threads this week. Doesn't change what I said, whether your viewpoint is accurate or not.

 

And, I'm also not convinced that this season is over for the Brewers 17 games into their 60(57?) game schedule. I'm at least willing to see where they are at the end of August before completely writing them off.

[brewers888]

I just don't see much upside on this roster. Sure Yelich and Hiura are way better than they have shown so far this season and Narvaez should be a good hitting catcher but the majority of this lineup is so bleak. Sogard and Smoak are probably not going to improve much and Garcia is incredibly overrated.

 

We have one really good starter in Woodruff and hopefully a second decent one in Houser but the rest of the rotation is lucky to give us 5 decent innings. The bullpen is mostly solid but that is really the only strength this team has. I really hope they sell at the deadline if teams are willing to trade top prospects.

[KeithStone53151]

I can understand the point of this thread considering this year, but I'm still way way on the Stearns bandwagon. His record with trades is pretty incredible. He's found some fantastic value in free agency. This year has been a bit of a miss, but we were also a bit more strapped financially this year than prior years in large part due to Braun's contract. Add in this year being so weird, we are certainly better built for a long season than a short sprint...where injuries/fatigue play a greater factor. I personally give him a complete pass on the year. Next year, Braun's contract will be gone and we'll likely have added tv money. We should be much better positioned to make some moves and improve the roster for 2021. Also, the farm is a bit barren as we've made some buy moves the last few years during playoff runs. That's just kinda what it is, it will bounce back and get better in time.

[monty57]

We are going to be forced to trade Hader because we have just not drafted and developed well enough to fill the many holes that we have. If our scouts had done a better job we wouldn't have had to fill two offensive positions like first and third base with Sogard and Smoak who are both terrible players.

 

Nothing is forcing us to trade Hader. However, if his arby numbers are so big that Stearns thinks that what he could get in trade is greater value to the team than paying Hader, then he will be dealt. It is highly unlikely that he stays with the Brewers through free agency, but that's because of the economics of baseball, not because we didn't draft a third baseman. Don't let emotions cloud your judgement. Everyone knew this season was going to be "weird," and any team that had a hot stretch would probably make the playoffs. That the Brewers are under .500 after two weeks may look bad for this season, but it shouldn't be a reason to to throw away the long-term plan.

 

I'd love to see the team go on a run here, but I have no problem with them selling if they don't start playing better soon. I don't think Hader will be traded this season unless they're blown away with an offer. However, we have a number of guys with short-term contracts who could draw interest in Braun, Knebel, Holt, Gyorko, Anderson, Sogard, and Phelps. They're all veterans who could help a playoff team. That keeps our core intact, adds something (even if it's not a "stud" prospect) to the farm, and we should have plenty of money to add a couple of pieces to the MLB roster next year.

 

As to the "if our scouts had done a better job..." part, no team drafts well enough to fill the entire roster with good players. Every roster has guys obtained through free agency and trades, and every team has some players that are better than others. We have a lot of talent on our roster, and most of the talented players are controlled for a long time. Sogard and Smoak are one-year fliers to fill in around our more talented players.

[Jopal78]

I can understand the point of this thread considering this year, but I'm still way way on the Stearns bandwagon. His record with trades is pretty incredible. He's found some fantastic value in free agency. This year has been a bit of a miss, but we were also a bit more strapped financially this year than prior years in large part due to Braun's contract. Add in this year being so weird, we are certainly better built for a long season than a short sprint...where injuries/fatigue play a greater factor. I personally give him a complete pass on the year. Next year, Braun's contract will be gone and we'll likely have added tv money. We should be much better positioned to make some moves and improve the roster for 2021. Also, the farm is a bit barren as we've made some buy moves the last few years during playoff runs. That's just kinda what it is, it will bounce back and get better in time.

 

I would tend to agree and say the GM isn't a problem. What other GMs have traded for a player who developed into an MVP? (Anthopoulos in Toronto). He thinks outside the box: signing Thames out of Korea, signing Grandal and Moustakas to large single year deals when their anticipated market didn't develop. As I've previously mentioned, I thought it was an interesting idea to infuse talent into the roster not by signing one big marquee free agent, but to bring on a collection of established veteran players and eliminate the large number of at bats given to players with fringe major league talent (It hasn't worked out, but even in a 60 game season its still early).

 

If a fan is upset the Brewers didn't go commit 64 million dollars to Castellanos, or 54 million dollars to Grandal, I would say they do not know their Milwaukee Brewers history. All time, the organization has signed exactly one free agent to a multi-year contract in excess of 50 million dollars. Moreover, the franchise has a terrible track record with the free agents they have signed to multi-year contracts: Matt Garza (26-39, 4.65 era, 1.41 whip), Suppan (29-36, 5.08 era, 1.59 whip), Randy Wolf (29-32, 4.37 era, 1.41 whip), Jeffrey Hammonds (.248/.321/.398). The two best multi-year free agent signings the team has had this decade were players who were pretty much average to slightly above average with Milwaukee: Kyle Lohse (29-32, 4.11 era, 1.24 whip) and Aramis Ramirez (.284/.342/.473). For a team that is never going to have a huge payroll with this experience with free agents, the GM has been smart in mostly avoiding paying gobs of money for anticipated performance from aging players based on prior performance.

 

If a fan is upset that according to the pundits the Brewers farm system ranks at the bottom of the pile, it is a rather myopic view. For about the last 15 years the major league team has mostly been good to average without any real long-term futility. As a result they've picked in the top 10 in the draft just twice in the last 15 years. By comparison, the Padres have had 8 top ten picks in the last 15 years. Closer to home, the Cubs have had 6 top ten draft picks in the last 15 years, the Reds have 6 top ten picks and the Pirates have 9 top ten picks in the last 15 years. Statistically speaking, it is easier to find blue chippers picking in the first ten picks of the draft than it is in the teens and even twenties.

 

Further, there are plenty of former Brewer farmhands scattered around MLB right now who were pedaled to acquire the players who have delivered three consecutive winning seasons and back to back playoff appearances. If all of these players were still in the organization, undoubtedly the systems prestige amongst the pundits who rate these things would be improved: Yamamoto, Isan Diaz, Monte Harrison, Brinson, Phillips, Jorge Lopez, Dubon et al.

 

In summation, for being on the job five years I think the GM has done a tremendous job considering he inherited a system devoid of blue chip prospects, and short on long term building blocks at the major league level. It took Epstein four years to get to the playoffs with his Cubs and 200 million dollars in cash. Stearns did it in three with half the resources.

[homer]

First of all let me say that he has done a great job before this last offseason but I disliked nearly every move that was made and this lineup is terrible. The minor league system is not close to providing any position player talent so I think we are at a crossroads.

 

What can Stearns do to improve the fortunes of this team. I would start by moving Hader if the right offer presents itself and after that I would restructure the scouting department. Fact is we haven't produced anything of note out of Latin America in many years which has been a problem way before we hired Stearns as our GM.

 

Stearns has stated that his goal is to be competitive and contend every year but I just don't see us being in that position with our lack of position player talent and a barren farm system. I would like to hear what others think of the state of this organization and what we need to see from ownership on down to improve our future outlook.

 

Deja Vu

[brewmann04]

This team is not built for a short run and losing Lo Cain and not a healthy Braun ha set this team behind the 8 ball.Guys like Gamel,Holt,Smoak,Sogard are just fill in guys not meant to be full time starters.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I'm sorta whatever on the season. If Corbin Burnes can bounce back from last year, and we have Woodruff, Houser and Yelich, we'll be fine.

 

A lot of the flyers from the past offseason don't look so great, though.

[WV Brew]

To me, Stearns looks very similar to Melvin but with analytics thrown in. Trading away prospects, signing older players to long term deals, marginal free agents, all similar to Melvin. These are the same things Melvin was criticised endlessly for on this site. Melvin also had short term success with the early Fielder, Braun teams but it eventually caught up with them. Seems to be catching up with Stearns now. Hope I'm wrong.

[MrTPlush]

I haven’t lost confidence in him, but I never thought he was the almighty great young GM that most fans were propping him up to be. It’s simply too soon in his career to know how well he will fare in the end. He did a great job for 2018, but a lot of that was thanks to what he started with. 2019 was a good step back and then this year looks like falling of a cliff decline (so far).

 

That being said I’m not giving him a mulligan just because it is 60 games. He constructed this roster...60 games or 162 games a garbage roster is garbage. The roster is lame and a funky way to build a team. So far it has been pathetic.

[brewers888]

I haven’t lost confidence in him, but I never thought he was the almighty great young GM that most fans were propping him up to be. It’s simply too soon in his career to know how well he will fare in the end. He did a great job for 2018, but a lot of that was thanks to what he started with. 2019 was a good step back and then this year looks like falling of a cliff decline (so far).

 

That being said I’m not giving him a mulligan just because it is 60 games. He constructed this roster...60 games or 162 games a garbage roster is garbage. The roster is lame and a funky way to build a team. So far it has been pathetic.

 

The one thing that I really don't get is this idea that this roster is better suited for a 162 game season. This depth that we keep hearing about is just not there. This is a bad roster whether the season has 60 or 600 games.

[pacopete4]

Deja Vu

 

Thank you! I knew I remembered it. On top of that it’s by the same poster? Incredible.

[DuWayne Steurer]

It's like a time loop

[monty57]

I haven’t lost confidence in him, but I never thought he was the almighty great young GM that most fans were propping him up to be. It’s simply too soon in his career to know how well he will fare in the end. He did a great job for 2018, but a lot of that was thanks to what he started with. 2019 was a good step back and then this year looks like falling of a cliff decline (so far).

 

That being said I’m not giving him a mulligan just because it is 60 games. He constructed this roster...60 games or 162 games a garbage roster is garbage. The roster is lame and a funky way to build a team. So far it has been pathetic.

 

The one thing that I really don't get is this idea that this roster is better suited for a 162 game season. This depth that we keep hearing about is just not there. This is a bad roster whether the season has 60 or 600 games.

 

Over an entire season, every team has stretches where they are hot and stretches where they are cold. The Brewers are 7-10, which isn't that bad. Meanwhile, the Cubs have started out hot. In a normal season, there is plenty of time for that all to even out. In a 60-game season, any team that has a big hot streak has a good shot at the playoffs, especially with the expanded playoffs. Meanwhile a team like Boston, even with the talent they have, has put themselves behind the eight ball with their 6-13 start.

 

To call this a "garbage" roster after two weeks seems a little early, akin to my 9-year old who was ready to write off Yelich after his cold start. I get that from a 9-year old, but not from someone who has spent a lifetime watching baseball. Baseball is a streaky sport, and a 60-game season is going to have some "favorites" out of the playoffs, and some "bad" teams making the playoffs, depending on who happens to get hot.

 

The mighty Miami Marlins are 8-4 and the Baltimore Orioles are 10-7. Does that make their rosters and their GMs great? Of course not, just like a 7-10 start for the Brewers doesn't make their roster "garbage."

[FVBrewerFan]

Kicking myself. I knew this thread was yahoo style clickbait, and I took the bait. I'll spare you the suspense.

"Has anyone lost confidence in CC???" thread is soon to follow,

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I don't see Melvin and Stearns as similar at all. Melvin would have thrown everything at renting Manny Machado and then offered him 4 years and $100 million in FA. Who are these old players getting long term deals under Stearns though? Lorenzo Cain is the only one I can think of, it has mostly worked out to this point, and he was 31.

 

Stearns has done a much better job of getting solid production from scrap heap guys that are only here for a short while but make a big contribution for not a lot of money. When DM tried that we got guys like Yuniesky Betancourt.

 

I think DM gets criticized a bit harshly but I'm a bit taken aback by how someone could think they're similar.

[RollieTime]

I certainly have not lost any confidence in Stearns. The Brewers reportedly were in on Rendon at the Winter Meetings this past offseason. After Rendon decided to go a different route, Stearns pivoted to a bunch of one year guys. Not only did they try to avoid black holes from multiple spots in the order, but it kept financial flexibility going forward. The one year guys would hopefully help keep us in contention. If we were out of it in late July, most if not all of the rentals would have been flipped for some low end prospects.

 

Regardless of how the season went, financial flexibility was kept for the 2020 offseason. Stearns is certainly willing to spend big on big time guys (Yelich, Cain) along with the Rendon rumor. Not to mention the Moose and Grandal signings. I imagine we will be in the mix for a nice bat or two this offseason as well. Take a look at the list of free agents. It’s a pretty strong group of bats this year. And the Brewers will once again have the room to make a big splash if the opportunity presents itself.

 

Possibly heading into the 2021 season knowing in advance that the DH will be in the NL will also play a large impact on the guys Stearns will look to bring in and how he will construct the roster this offseason. Hopefully that is something that gets set in stone soon.

[homer]

It's like a time loop

 

Wenn ist Mikkel??

 

(inside joke with anyone that's watched Dark on Netflix)

[wildcat2237]

I have not lost confidence in Stearns, but I am losing confidence.

 

I'm not a fan of many moves he made this offseason:

 

1. I don't think I can take another Sogard AB.

 

2. Holt stinks.

 

3. Smoak stinks.

 

4. I'm not a Garcia fan.

 

5. Narvaez stinks.

 

6. Gyorko stinks.

 

I think in the end a Hader trade is inevitable.

 

Might also have to trade Woodruff to bring in the influx of talent needed to avoiding signing more journey bums like Sogard and Holt.