Cain DFA'd.... Jonathan Davis contract selected

[Axman59]

3 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

And what do you know about his young family's personal health situation? A lot of major leaguers opted out during the 2020 season...Buster Posey, David Price, etc. 

 

If there was an exceptional circumstance he wouldn't have started the season to begin with. Or he would have explained it when he opted out after 5 games. Like Buster Posey did, who adopted twins that were born two months premature just before the season was to restart.

And David Price felt so bad about opting out that he told the Dodgers not give him a World Series ring. Andrew Friedman insisted that he get one anyway and Price auctioned it off for charity because he didn't think he deserved it. I respect that.

Also, "a lot" of major leaguers did not opt out. The total list was 25 out of over 1,000 players. Hardly "a lot."

It totally boggles my mind that people on this board don't understand that team leaders don't quit during the season.*

 

*without a really good ****** reason

[Brewcrew82]

5 minutes ago, Axman59 said:

If there was an exceptional circumstance he wouldn't have started the season to begin with. Or he would have explained it when he opted out after 5 games. Like Buster Posey did, who adopted twins that were born two months premature just before the season was to restart.

And David Price felt so bad about opting out that he told the Dodgers not give him a World Series ring. Andrew Friedman insisted that he get one anyway and Price auctioned it off for charity because he didn't think he deserved it. I respect that.

Also, "a lot" of major leaguers did not opt out. The total list was 25 out of over 1,000 players. Hardly "a lot."

It totally boggles my mind that people on this board don't understand that team leaders don't quit during the season.*

 

*without a really good ****** reason

And yet his teammates were perfectly understanding of his decision when he made it....The fact that you think you can judge a guy with a young family and when you don't know anything about their personal health situation says a lot imo. He's a human and a father more than he is a baseball player. He doesn't owe you an explanation. 

[Brewcrew82]

Just now, Axman59 said:

What is with this "a guy with a young family" garbage? How many guys with a young family in MLB did NOT opt out? It's like bots just vomit out these politically correct talking points.

"Garbage"? You should think about what you're posting. Baseball is just a game man. 

[torts]

30 minutes ago, Axman59 said:

If there was an exceptional circumstance he wouldn't have started the season to begin with. Or he would have explained it when he opted out after 5 games. Like Buster Posey did, who adopted twins that were born two months premature just before the season was to restart.

And David Price felt so bad about opting out that he told the Dodgers not give him a World Series ring. Andrew Friedman insisted that he get one anyway and Price auctioned it off for charity because he didn't think he deserved it. I respect that.

Also, "a lot" of major leaguers did not opt out. The total list was 25 out of over 1,000 players. Hardly "a lot."

It totally boggles my mind that people on this board don't understand that team leaders don't quit during the season.*

 

*without a really good ****** reason

I'm with you on this.  He waited until the last second to opt out.  That was his right and choice, and just like the management team to make the choice to not invest time or resources in his leadership.  

[Brewcrew82]

4 minutes ago, torts said:

I'm with you on this.  He waited until the last second to opt out.  That was his right and choice, and just like the management team to make the choice to not invest time or resources in his leadership.  

Why does he owe us any explanation when his teammates and the front office were all perfectly okay with his decision? 

[torts]

10 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Why does he owe us any explanation when his teammates and the front office were all perfectly okay with his decision? 

I don't care why he opted out, he doesn't have to explain it.  He just shouldn't be shocked that the team just didn't invest in him when everyone else kept showing up.  Doesn't mean they disagreed with his choice, they just focused on who was showing up.  

[Brewcrew82]

1 minute ago, torts said:

I don't care why he opted out, he doesn't have to explain it.  He just shouldn't be shocked that the team just didn't invest in him when everyone else kept showing up.  Doesn't mean they disagreed with his choice, they just focused on who was showing up.  

Yeah. Criticism of his latest comments is definitely justified. However, I strongly disagree that he's a "chump" because he opted out in 2020 in the middle of a pandemic. 

[timpep]

1 hour ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Why does he owe us any explanation when his teammates and the front office were all perfectly okay with his decision? 

Do we know they were? Cain said it's been something like 3 years of issues. I took that to mean the last 3 seasons the first of which would be the one he opted out of. 

[SomewhereInTime]

9 hours ago, Axman59 said:

If there was an exceptional circumstance he wouldn't have started the season to begin with. Or he would have explained it when he opted out after 5 games. Like Buster Posey did, who adopted twins that were born two months premature just before the season was to restart.

And David Price felt so bad about opting out that he told the Dodgers not give him a World Series ring. Andrew Friedman insisted that he get one anyway and Price auctioned it off for charity because he didn't think he deserved it. I respect that.

Also, "a lot" of major leaguers did not opt out. The total list was 25 out of over 1,000 players. Hardly "a lot."

It totally boggles my mind that people on this board don't understand that team leaders don't quit during the season.*

 

*without a really good ****** reason

Yeah I'm with you on this one too.  Sure he has a right to opt out, but it's tough to really be a team leader the next year after that.  I think just about every restriction put out there was ridiculous and forcing healthy people to "quarantine" was completely asinine, so I mean I get it, if you've made your money it's maybe best to step away from all that, but on the other hand, he was the only one on the team that did that.

[monty57]

16 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

I wouldn't take McCalvy's article at face value, fwiw, as I find it incredibly hard to believe that a professional baseball player did absolutely nothing in the off-season to stay in shape other than "chase his kids around". I'm sure he worked out in some form behind the scenes, and the "chasing the kids around" was more of a comment in jest. 

Also, he was not "subpar" at the plate in 2021. He was around league average to slightly above average with a 103 OPS+ and a 3.2 fWAR. Combined with his typically stellar defense and baserunning, that was more than enough production from him when healthy. The problem really started this year, when his power completely vanished and he turned into a below replacement-level player. 

You have a point on his 2021. The big problem there was he couldn't stay on the field, with only 286 PAs, or roughly a half season's production. When healthy, he played good defense and posted a wRC+ of 98. His BA/OBP dropped, but it looks like he had some of that "put some lift in your swing to hit more HRs" that permeates the Brewer dugout, so he hit a few extra HR and his SLG went up. That would be why his OPS+ is a bit above average while his wRC+ is a bit below average.

If I recall correctly, his injuries started with his hamstring, and that hit in one of his first few games of spring training. That could happen to anyone, but it makes it a lot more likely when you're an older player who took a year off and didn't really do much to stay in shape.

Regardless, while I like the style of baseball he played throughout his career, I am glad he's gone, I wish the Brewers would never sign a 30-something to a guaranteed multi-year deal, and I look forward to seeing what our young CFs can do going forward.

[Fear The Chorizo]

13 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Why does he owe us any explanation when his teammates and the front office were all perfectly okay with his decision? 

If anyone in the front office or his teammates weren't perfectly okay with his decision, do you honestly think they would say so publicly given how anyone questioning the cost/benefit of ANY Covid-related restrictions on society, the workplace, public places, etc. was universally demonized by 99% of the press?  Particularly in spring/early summer of 2020 when not quite enough time had passed to prove many of those policies ineffective/pointless at best??

I'm not going to villify or praise Cain for making the decision he did to opt out during that Covid-shortened season, no matter what his reasoning may have been - to each their own,  I will give Cain a hard time if he is trying to argue that his decision to opt out in 2020 was the start of the front office not respecting him enough as a "team leader".  To me it seems like he's looking for a way to pile on to the current negative sentiment towards the front office for making the Hader trade, without looking at onfield production and contract status of himself and the other veteran players he hints at being disrespected (Hader included tbh) as the primary reason these personnel decisions were made.

Players reaching free agency love saying, "It's a business" when they are about to play wherever they get the biggest contract from.  Well, how Cain's career ended is also part of the same business - and he should be perfectly okay with that side of it, too.

 

[CheezWizHed]

We can all agree that 2020 was not a great year and that it was two years ago.

Moving on.