Brewers' Offense

[brewers888]

Say what you want but this team is boring.

[brewers888]

As for Arenado I think we could have worked it out. Instead of wasting over 20 million on Bradley and Garcia it would be nice to see that money spent on someone that can actually help this offense.

 

Arenado was acquired for essentially nothing and if he did in fact opt out after this season it likely meant that he had a big season so that wouldn't be a bad outcome at all for the Brewers.

[Jopal78]

As for Arenado I think we could have worked it out. Instead of wasting over 20 million on Bradley and Garcia it would be nice to see that money spent on someone that can actually help this offense.

 

Arenado was acquired for essentially nothing and if he did in fact opt out after this season it likely meant that he had a big season so that wouldn't be a bad outcome at all for the Brewers.

 

I wouldn’t say nothing. The Cardinals gave up a major league swing man type pitcher and their #8, #19 and #22 plus another minor league pitcher. They increased the overall guarantee to Arenado, he can still opt out twice and block any trade.

 

By comparison that would be similar to the Brewers giving up: Suter, Freddy Zamora, Payton Henry, Zach Brown and another player in addition to making the largest guarantee to Arenado in team history. Not to mention the Cardinals system is regarded as superior to Milwaukee’s

[JohnBriggs12]

Free Zach Green

[MrTPlush]

Aren’t the Rockies paying all of his 2021 salary? So if he opted out after a year the Cardinals would have essentially gotten Arenado to play for free and lose some meh prospects. Doesn’t sound like a bad thing.

 

I admit though, I wasn’t really a huge fan of the deal for Arenado anyway. 30+ year old for entire contract, still a lot of money, and would be moving away from Coors. Would have been an interesting hypothetical trade for us had we not extended Yelich. Could have instead traded for Arenado and had a Arenado/Yelich combo for two years. Then Arenado long term, not Yelich. Now that would have been a feasible thing for the Brewers.

 

Of course I believe he had a NTC so that may have been problematic.

[Jopal78]

Aren’t the Rockies paying all of his 2021 salary? So if he opted out after a year the Cardinals would have essentially gotten Arenado to play for free and lose some meh prospects. Doesn’t sound like a bad thing.

 

I admit though, I wasn’t really a huge fan of the deal for Arenado anyway. 30+ year old for entire contract, still a lot of money, and would be moving away from Coors. Would have been an interesting hypothetical trade for us had we not extended Yelich. Could have instead traded for Arenado and had a Arenado/Yelich combo for two years. Then Arenado long term, not Yelich. Now that would have been a feasible thing for the Brewers.

 

Of course I believe he had a NTC so that may have been problematic.

 

Arenado has a 35 million dollar guarantee for 2021, he is deferring 20 million of that and Colorado has agreed to pay $14,000,000 this year so yes in essence the Cardinals aren’t paying him anything in 2021.

 

However due to the structure of the trade, the Rockies are only kicking in 5 million dollars next year so the Cardinals will see a 30 million dollar jump in payroll if he doesn’t opt out after this year.

[Eye Black]

I’ll admit this is absolutely cherry-picking, but Urias’ stats over the past month (since April 12) aren’t terrible:

 

.262 BA / .337 OBP / .464 SLG / .801 OPS

 

That includes 5 doubles, 4 home runs, 10 walks, 17 RBI. His BABIP since then has been .327 (he had a .111 BABIP over his first 9 games of the season).

[trwi7]

By comparison that would be similar to the Brewers giving up: Suter, Freddy Zamora, Payton Henry, Zach Brown and another player in addition to making the largest guarantee to Arenado in team history. Not to mention the Cardinals system is regarded as superior to Milwaukee’s

 

You're not making a good argument against a trade here.

[JohnBriggs12]

Tristen Lutz has had a nice start to his AA season. The system's not loaded with offensive talent but if Lutz takes a big step forward, he may be someone who can breakthrough to elite prospect status.

[Warning Track Power]

This team has the epitome of warning track power. Every game it seems we have about 6 deep drives that get to the fence.

Are you suggesting I can play on the Brewers?! I think I can OPS around .100 which is almost good enough to be a regular!

[PeaveyFury]

If that's really the case than we really shouldn't be given out such contracts whatsoever and instead following more of a Tampa Rays model.

 

I mean, yes, that's absolutely correct.

[roadcrew3]

Does anybody know more about Zach Green’s story? Seems like he has hit really well the past few years in AAA but never given much of a shot at the MLB level. Was a high draft pick and still somewhat young but the Phillies and Giants both let him walk as a free agent. What am I missing?

[adambr2]

If that's really the case than we really shouldn't be given out such contracts whatsoever and instead following more of a Tampa Rays model.

 

I mean, yes, that's absolutely correct.

 

And I'm fine with that approach. I'm ok with our franchise not committing to the 35+ years of players. I mentioned when Yelich was still under his previous deal that I would have been fine with trading him for a haul with 2 years left on his deal. But it has to be a consistent philosophy to say "yes we can afford to do that" or "no we cannot".

 

You can't give Yelich 7/190 with 3 years left before his previous deal even expires and then say "no we just can't afford 7/150 for Nolan".

[RollieTime]

By comparison that would be similar to the Brewers giving up: Suter, Freddy Zamora, Payton Henry, Zach Brown and another player in addition to making the largest guarantee to Arenado in team history. Not to mention the Cardinals system is regarded as superior to Milwaukee’s

 

You're not making a good argument against a trade here.

 

Yeah, if that’s all it takes to get a perennial All-Star in his prime for $25 million per season and only through his age 35 season, that’s not bad at all. It’s not like the contract runs through his late 30’s or into his 40’s.

 

I do think we will see Stearns target a big time bat whether it’s one at the trade deadline with multiple years of control or this offseason in free agency. It’s a loaded SS class and we could explore that avenue and moving Urias to 2nd. There’s some nice bats at 1st and 3rd as well.

[mtrebs]

By comparison that would be similar to the Brewers giving up: Suter, Freddy Zamora, Payton Henry, Zach Brown and another player in addition to making the largest guarantee to Arenado in team history. Not to mention the Cardinals system is regarded as superior to Milwaukee’s

 

You're not making a good argument against a trade here.

 

Yeah, if that’s all it takes to get a perennial All-Star in his prime for $25 million per season and only through his age 35 season, that’s not bad at all. It’s not like the contract runs through his late 30’s or into his 40’s.

 

I do think we will see Stearns target a big time bat whether it’s one at the trade deadline with multiple years of control or this offseason in free agency. It’s a loaded SS class and we could explore that avenue and moving Urias to 2nd. There’s some nice bats at 1st and 3rd as well.

 

Where’d Wong go in this scenario? I can’t imagine them signing the best defensive 2B just to move him out of position.

[RollieTime]

Yeah, if that’s all it takes to get a perennial All-Star in his prime for $25 million per season and only through his age 35 season, that’s not bad at all. It’s not like the contract runs through his late 30’s or into his 40’s.

 

I do think we will see Stearns target a big time bat whether it’s one at the trade deadline with multiple years of control or this offseason in free agency. It’s a loaded SS class and we could explore that avenue and moving Urias to 2nd. There’s some nice bats at 1st and 3rd as well.

 

Where’d Wong go in this scenario? I can’t imagine them signing the best defensive 2B just to move him out of position.

 

Whoops my bad. Wong would stay at second. Urias can become the utility guy that plays all over then between second, short, and third. Maybe he could even take over as the everyday guy at third if a big bat is brought in for SS. If not, Urias stays at short and target a bat at first or third.

[PeaveyFury]

You can't give Yelich 7/190 with 3 years left before his previous deal even expires and then say "no we just can't afford 7/150 for Nolan".

 

Again, that's absolutely correct though. They have a finite number of dollars they can commit. When they committed to Yelich, they gave up their ability to concurrently commit to a contract like Arenado's.

[adambr2]

You can't give Yelich 7/190 with 3 years left before his previous deal even expires and then say "no we just can't afford 7/150 for Nolan".

 

Again, that's absolutely correct though. They have a finite number of dollars they can commit. When they committed to Yelich, they gave up their ability to concurrently commit to a contract like Arenado's.

 

They could have had both here concurrently without extending Yelich.

 

But I'm not totally sure they couldn't afford both. Braun is off the books. Cain coming off soon. They could have avoided the Bradley deal. It's all about what Mark A. is comfortable committing to. They could afford both with a better system where they could count more on their 0-3 year players.

[PeaveyFury]

You can't give Yelich 7/190 with 3 years left before his previous deal even expires and then say "no we just can't afford 7/150 for Nolan".

 

Again, that's absolutely correct though. They have a finite number of dollars they can commit. When they committed to Yelich, they gave up their ability to concurrently commit to a contract like Arenado's.

 

They could have had both here concurrently without extending Yelich.

 

But I'm not totally sure they couldn't afford both. Braun is off the books. Cain coming off soon. They could have avoided the Bradley deal. It's all about what Mark A. is comfortable committing to. They could afford both with a better system where they could count more on their 0-3 year players.

 

....but under no circumstances are the Brewers committing hundreds of millions of dollars over 7 years to two players. It's not just the yearly salary, it's the contract length. And the expected value during the end of the contracts. There's literally no way they'd have taken on Arenado.

 

In summary, when posed the question 'what would you have done?' the response has basically been that the Brewers should have taken on a contract that they would never have, and little else. Perhaps that's why the offseason played out the way it did? There wasn't much value in bats, unfortunately for the Brewers, so they upgraded via defense where there was a chance to.

[brewers888]

Maybe we should all be lamenting years and years of awful drafts and international signings that have left this organization with no internal options all over the diamond. Hiura is the only home grown talent that had a chance of playing everyday. Maybe we wouldn’t be talking about Arenado if we were competent in drafting and developing everyday talent.

[pacopete4]

I’ll throw my thought of the lack of development into the ring here. Lots of guys drafted, have good talent. Development matters. The Brewers right now suck at it.

[adambr2]

Absolutely. Braun is our last great hitter development. That's been 16 years since he was drafted. Got to do better than that.

 

It makes it hard to have confidence that guys like Turang, Lutz, and Mitchell are ever actually going to pan out.

[brewers888]

Turang looks like the latest in a long line of slap hitting shortstop prospects that were badly overrated by the fanbase. I would be more than willing to deal him for a rental like Story.

[pacopete4]

When Hiura was breaking through, his bat had that sound. The sound when Braun smokes it off the right field wall. Mitchell is the next guy I’ve heard that same sound. Time will tell I guess.

[MrTPlush]

Turang looks like the latest in a long line of slap hitting shortstop prospects that were badly overrated by the fanbase. I would be more than willing to deal him for a rental like Story.

 

Jeez man...harsh analysis for a guy with only one full season of pro ball at 18-19. How does one even overrate the guy at this point?

 

He has power, more line drive gap power...but he can certainly smoke the ball. He doesn’t need power with his on base skills and speed.